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Author: Tucker White

  • Enfinger’s Season After 13 Races

    Enfinger’s Season After 13 Races

    BRISTOL, Tenn. — Grant Enfinger’s first full season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series has him just on the outside, vying for a playoff spot, with three races remaining in the 2017 regular season.

    Ask him how he’d rate his season, he’d say, “it depends on where in the season you ask me.”

    “If you’re asking me right now, probably a C,” he said. “We’ve been an A at certain parts of the season, and we’ve been an F at certain parts of the season.”

    His season started with him pushing teammate Ben Rhodes with two laps to go in the NextEra Energy Resource 250 at Daytona International Speedway. Exiting Turn 2, Rhodes got loose, turned down into teammate Matt Crafton and triggered a 12-truck wreck. Enfinger wound up 16th.

    He rebounded the following week with an eighth-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway but was a non-factor in a 17th-place finish at Martinsville Speedway.

    After an 11th  place at Kansas Speedway, Enfinger went on a run of five top-10 finishes and four top-fives. That run consisted of a seventh at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a bottom-step podium finish at Dover International Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, a fifth at Gateway Motorsports Park and a fourth at Iowa Speedway.

    “We got through the first three or four races and weren’t where we really wanted to be, and then we started to gain a lot of momentum, and had some really good finishes and had some really good trucks,” he continued.

    This five-race hot streak came to an end when he collided with teammate Rhodes, only half a lap into the second stage of the Buckle Up In Your Truck 225 at Kentucky Speedway.

    Enfinger bounced back with a fourth-place finish at Eldora Speedway, bringing him to his highest points position of the season to date.

    After finishes of 13th at Pocono Raceway and eighth at Michigan International Speedway, he now sits seventh in points, 14 back of teammate Rhodes, who currently occupies the final playoff spot.

    Doing so won’t be easy, given that, as he notes, his team is without the consistency that carried them for the aforementioned five-race stretch.

    “In the last couple of races, we’ve struggled,” Enfinger added. “We just haven’t had the finishes we’ve needed, but we’re looking to get back on track here at Bristol.”

  • Kahne and Suarez taken out in late wreck at Michigan

    Kahne and Suarez taken out in late wreck at Michigan

    Kasey Kahne and Daniel Suarez’s day ended on Lap 140 of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pure Michigan 400 when the two collided in Turn 2 at Michigan International Speedway.

    Kahne was making a pass underneath Suarez in Turn 1 when he drifted up into Suarez’s path. Because he hadn’t cleared Suarez, he came across his nose, slid up the track and slammed the outside wall in Turn 2. Suarez, who was pushed up the track from the contact, partially submarined underneath the left-rear side of Kahne’s car, dealing terminal damage to his car.

    His car about spun out, before stabilizing and drifted down towards the apron. Kahne’s car, meanwhile, clung near the wall for a few more seconds, before the back-end came out from underneath him and sent him down onto the apron, where he came to rest.

    “We had to fight from the back and had a good Liftmaster Chevrolet. We kept working to get up there. Daniel (Suarez) was going backwards and I was going by and I ran the bottom,” Kahne said. “I expected we could be close off the corner, and I was just coming off and then we hit. So, I don’t know. I expected to run side-by-side down the backstretch, but not give a lot of room, because you don’t. Nobody does. But I was making the pass and I don’t know how we hit. Ruined it. It’s over.”

    “I was very, very tight. I was trying to hold my line. I think the 5 was passing me (and) went up a little bit too soon for me. I was trying to leave him some room. I (got) out of the throttle at that point, but I don’t know if he was told it was already time to go up. I don’t know. It’s just unfortunate because we came from a streak of top-fives and now this is going to be the end of it. We’re going to regroup and come back stronger next week.”

    While the wreck doesn’t affect Kahne’s playoff chances, as he has a win at Indianapolis to fallback on, it doesn’t help Suarez, who’s now 17th in points and 139 behind Matt Kenseth in the cutoff spot.

  • Dominant Keselowski drive ends in disappointing finish

    Dominant Keselowski drive ends in disappointing finish

    Brad Keselowski led a race-high of 105 laps, but got shuffled back on the final restart and wound up with a mediocre finish in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

    Starting from pole position, Keselowski led all but three laps that fell during a cycle of green flag stops, and won the first stage.

    He continued his dominant run through the second stage, only ceding the race lead on Lap 111 to hit pit road. This time, however, Martin Truex Jr., who pitted a few laps earlier, cycled ahead of him in the running order. This lead to Truex taking over the race lead when the pit cycle concluded and winning the second stage, with Keselowski finishing second.

    On the ensuing restart on Lap 128, Keselowski raced side-by-side with Truex for 75 percent of the lap, before edging ahead of Truex exiting Turn 4 to take the race lead. But Truex powered by him to retake the lead the next lap, and Keselowski didn’t return to the lead again.

    He took just right-side tires on, what was originally, the final round of stops with 39 laps to go to regain lost track position. Truex still cycled ahead of him, but he found himself in position to end the day with a solid finish. A flurry of late cautions, however, pushed him down the running order.

    Keselowski restarted 11th on the overtime restart, but was swallowed up on the bottom lane and wound up finishing 17th.

    “It just didn’t come together there at the end, but it was nice to lead a bunch of laps,” Keselowski said. “That was good and something I was really proud of, but I just didn’t have enough to really run with the 77 and the 78. We tried a little strategy to kind of get something out of it, but the way it all played out I ended up getting the bottom lane on the restarts and getting absolutely swallowed. We tried. We put in as much effort as we could. We knew we didn’t have as much as those two, but we gave it 100 percent effort and I was really proud of my team for that.”

    Keselowski leaves Michigan fifth in points, 213 back of Truex.

  • Larson splits Furniture Row duo in overtime to win at Michigan

    Larson splits Furniture Row duo in overtime to win at Michigan

    Kyle Larson extended his Michigan International Speedway win streak to three by passing the Furniture Row Racing drivers in overtime of the Pure Michigan 400.

    Restarting fourth, Larson gave a shove to race leader Martin Truex Jr., then dove under him, splitting him from teammate Erik Jones in second, and took the lead heading into Turn 1. The race was all Larson’s from there, as he drove on to his fourth career victory in 134 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts.

    “I was running a few options through my head of what to do if I got a good jump, and that was one of them and it worked out perfect. I can’t believe that happened. We were struggling all day. We were definitely not as good as the last two times we won here, but we preserved and had a great restart at the end.”

    Truex and Jones round out the podium.

    Ryan Newman and Trevor Bayne round out the top-five.

    “Oh, it was just a good run for the Velveeta Shells & Cheese Chevrolet,” Newman said. “Luke (Lambert, crew chief) did a great job making the call for us to stay out and caught the break there with the No. 22’s (Joey Logano) tire. We got a couple of good restarts and make it a little bit out of nothing. We were challenged all day and struggled a little bit, but it seems like whenever we’ve got this Velveeta name on the car we end up in the top 5.”

    “It’s refreshing. We’ve had a tough couple of months not getting the results we thought that we deserved. Today, to get a result feels really good,” Bayne said. “We had fast car early on. We had fuel strategy at the end. Probably gonna have a shot to beat the 78 if it stayed green. Got a caution and I was like, ‘Oh man, here goes Indy again.’ We had a good first restart. The second restart was even better. We were able to push the 42 up to the lead and getting into (Turn) 3 I tried to go for it from the top and hit the Speedy Dry, got loose, and came home fifth. Cost us a couple spots. Man, when you’re in that position you have to go for it. I wouldn’t have slept good at night if I didn’t stuff it in there and try something. It just didn’t stick. It feels really good for our team.”

    Chris Buescher, Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Busch round out the top-10.

    RACE SUMMARY

    Brad Keselowski led the field to the green flag at 3:19 p.m. He led all but three laps (Erik Jones led those three during a cycle of green flag stops) on his way to winning the first stage.

    It was the mostly the same story through the second stage. Only this time, Truex, who pitted a few laps earlier than Keselowski, cycled ahead of him in the running order, took over the race lead when Kyle Busch pitted on Lap 114 and drove on to win the second stage.

    Keselowski regained the lead for a lap on the Lap 129 restart, edging out Truex exiting Turn 4, but Truex took it back going into Turn 1.

    Everyone started hitting pit road for the final cycle of green flag stops with 41 laps to go, with Truex doing so a lap later. Jones pitted from the lead with 39 to go, as did Keselowski, handing the lead to Denny Hamlin. He hit pit road with 23 to go, giving the lead to Busch.

    Joey Logano suffered a right-front flat running down the backstretch with 15 to go, and debris from said flat brought out a caution with 14 to go. Busch pitted under the caution, handing the lead back to Truex.

    He got an excellent restart with nine to go, diving down in front of Jones heading into Turn 1. But as he was pulling away from the field, caution flew for a two-car wreck in Turn 2, setting up the overtime finish.

    CAUTION SUMMARY

    The first caution flew on Lap 61 for the end of the first stage. The second caution flew on Lap 121 for the end of the second stage. The third caution flew when Kasey Kahne came across the nose of Daniel Suarez, sending them both into the outside wall in Turn 2 on Lap 139. The fourth caution flew with 14 laps to go for debris on the backstretch. The fifth and final caution flew for a wreck involving Michael McDowell and Paul Menard.

    NUTS & BOLTS

    The race lasted two hours, 40 minutes and 38 seconds, at an average speed of 150.903 mph. There were 14 lead changes among seven different drivers and five cautions for 28 laps.

    Truex leaves with a 129-point lead over Larson. Elliott, McMurray and Matt Kenseth leave maintaining the final three playoff spots.

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  • Byron taking over No. 5 Hendrick ride next season

    Byron taking over No. 5 Hendrick ride next season

    One more silly season question was settled today with the announcement that William Byron will drive the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in 2018, the team officially announced today.

    First reported by Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal, a number of outlets broke the story before the team officially announced it today.

    “It hasn’t sunk in yet,” said Byron. “Mr. (Rick) Hendrick has built such a great team. The people at Hendrick Motorsports have dedicated their lives to giving their drivers the best chance to win every weekend. I have a responsibility to them to work hard and put everything I have into this opportunity. They need to know I’m always giving 100 percent because that’s what they do.”

    Speculation had swirled for months regarding whether Byron would race another year in the XFINITY Series or jump up to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series after the conclusion of this season. When HMS announced on Monday that Kasey Kahne wouldn’t return to the seat of the No. 5 car next season, it added to the possibility that Byron would replace him.

    His hot-commodity status makes sense, coming off a rookie season in which he took the Camping World Truck Series by storm with a record-setting seven wins, on his way to a fifth-place finish in points. He’s also running hot in the XFINITY Series this season with three wins and sits second in points.

    “At every step, William has proven how quickly he can adapt,” said Rick Hendrick. “Some drivers have raw talent and some have a strong work ethic. William has both. It’s impressive to see a young guy who never gets rattled and instinctively knows how to communicate with his team. That level of commitment, poise and pure ability is rare at any age. I think he’s just scratching the surface.”

  • Kenseth finishes runner-up at The Glen

    Kenseth finishes runner-up at The Glen

    Matt Kenseth maintained his thin lead for the cutoff spot in the playoffs with a season-best second-place finish in the I Love New York 355 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International.

    Kenseth started the day from 15th and worked his way up to ninth. He short-pitted the end of the first stage and finished 24th when the stage concluded.

    He moved up the running order when those who didn’t short-pit the stage hit pit road under the stage break and drove to a third-place finish in the second stage.

    Kenseth didn’t pit under this caution, but did so when Landon Cassill’s car left a tire carcass on the race track on Lap 51. While pitting when he did left him possibly two to three laps short of making it to the end on fuel, the veteran Kenseth conserved just enough to not only make it to the end, but be in position to win.

    With two laps remaining, Martin Truex Jr. took over the race lead on a questionable fuel load, and Kenseth was in hot pursuit. Truex almost fumbled the lead twice on the final lap, with a botched entry of the inner-loop and locking up the brakes entering Turn 10. It allowed Kenseth to inch closer and closer, but he couldn’t get to Truex and settled for second.

    “Well, that last run after we pitted, we knew we were a little bit short, a few laps short,” Kenseth said. “You know, Martin had a really fast car and deserved to win the race. You know, and we started saving early in that run, just tried to manage the gap. I felt pretty good about our fuel savings and how much we saved. Of course I never really know, I just go by what Jason (Ratcliff) and them tell me. But I felt pretty good about where we were on fuel, but I think Martin had such a big lead, he was able to just kind of slow up as much as I did and make sure he had enough speed just to stay in front of me. It was kind of funny, them last three laps we were both saving pretty hard, and then Jason told me we were good with one to go, and so I stood on it and he stood on it, too. He even missed Turn 6 and tried to give it to me, but I couldn’t get close enough to take advantage.”

    Kenseth leaves with a 28-point lead over Clint Bowyer for the final playoff spot.

  • Truex stretches fuel to win at The Glen

    Truex stretches fuel to win at The Glen

    Martin Truex Jr. played the fuel game correctly in the closing laps of the I Love New York 355 at The Glen to win at Watkins Glen International.

    When caution flew for the final time on Lap 51, Truex opted to pit under the caution, while Brad Keselowski, who had last pitted on Lap 43, stayed out and inherited the lead.

    Truex reeled him in and applied pressure for a few laps, before Keselowski pulled aside and let Truex pass him going into Turn 11 on Lap 64.

    Truex and others who pitted under the Lap 51 caution were told they were two to three laps short of making the finish, while Keselowski was told he’d be short six laps.

    While Truex was saving fuel, Keselowski ran him down and powered by his outside on the approach to the inner-loop with 14 laps to go to retake the lead. Unfortunately for Keselowski, he didn’t conserve enough and pitted with three to go, handing the lead to Ryan Blaney for a brief period, before he ran out on the backstretch and was passed by Truex.

    He botched his entry of the inner-loop on the final lap and locked up going into Turn 10, costing him some of his lead to Matt Kenseth. But all that, and running dry coming to the line, wasn’t enough to stop Truex from crossing the line to claim his 11th career victory in his 427th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start.

    “I can’t believe that,” Truex said. “Man, that’s so stressful, to just let guys go by for the lead. I’ve never had to do that before. But I guess I was trusting Cole (Pearn). He was telling me what to do. He knew, based on our lap times, how fast we were going and what we needed to do. So hats off to him (and) this whole team.

    “I’ve wanted to win here a long, long time. This is a special place. I think, back in the 90’s, watching my dad run here. Coming here as a kid and spending time in the garage, just walking around and wishing someday, I’ll race here, let alone win.

    “This is a big one for our team. This is a big one for Cole. He had a tough week. He lost his best friend. We’re really think about his family. Just proud of Cole and his perseverance and everything he does for this team. Barney (Visser) and everybody at home, thank you guys so much for letting me drive this thing.”

    Kenseth finished second and Daniel Suarez rounded out the podium.

    Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top-five.

    “Yeah, that’s that hard thing. When you have them there at arm’s reach you want to go for it. That’s the win that will put you into the Chase right there in front of you. But if you run out of gas that’s the dagger that will knock you out for good,” Bowyer said on the difficulty of saving fuel. “It’s the right thing. We just have to keep knocking on the door. Another top-five with our Five Star Urgent Care car. It’s a new sponsor on the car. Hopefully we can get them on board for another shot.”

    Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, A.J. Allmendinger and Erik Jones rounded out the top-10.

    “I stumbled down the back coming to two to go, so we wouldn’t have made it,” Blaney said. “It stinks. I wish I would have saved earlier like the 78 did. I pushed hard and thought we were better to go on gas than they were. They did a good job saving. I could have done better. If I would have started saving sooner I think we would have made it. you never know. I am pretty proud of the effort. We got up front at the beginning of the day and stayed there pretty much all day. I thought our strategy was right and we had a good race car. Things just didn’t work out for us. That is just the way it goes sometimes.”

    “Of course you always want more when you come here, at least I do. We had a tough weekend, and we fought hard,” Allmendinger said. “The car wasn’t very good on the first run, and we made some better changes. Got it better. Got it pretty competitive there. I just really struggled in traffic. I got behind Jimmie, and tore up the tires. Once I got by him it was actually not too bad. From there it was just fuel saving. Don’t really know how much you have. I tried to save, I felt like I saved a lot. Maybe a little too much. Overall it was a solid day for the Kroger Clicklist Chevy. Always want more here, but it was a tough weekend and we got everything we could.”

    RACE SUMMARY

    Even before the race started, Trevor Payne didn’t take the start after pitting twice during the pace laps. He joined the race 10 laps down.

    Kyle Busch led the field to the green flag at 3:21 p.m. He led all 20 laps of the first stage on his way to winning it. Chase Elliott, who was among a number of drivers who short-pitted the stage with three laps remaining in the stage, took over the race lead when Busch pitted. Busch came back down pit road for a lug nut that was stuck between the caliber and wheel.

    Elliott pitted from the lead on Lap 32. This handed the lead to Suarez, who drove on to win the second stage.

    Truex took the lead from Suarez exiting Turn 1 on the Lap 45 restart. On the same lap, Busch and Keselowski made contact in the inner-loop and went spinning, though the race stayed green.

    A tire carcass that came from Landon Cassill’s car brought out the third caution and set up the run to the finish.

    NUTS & BOLTS

    The race lasted two hours, seven minutes and three seconds, at an average speed of 104.132 mph. There were nine lead changes among six different drivers and three cautions for eight laps.

    Truex leaves with a 116-point lead over Busch.

    Elliott, McMurray and Kenseth leave as the bubble drivers who are above the playoff cutline.

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  • Winning at all active tracks easier said than done

    Winning at all active tracks easier said than done

    A grand total of 2,519 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races have been run since June 19, 1949, and only 189 individual drivers can say they’ve won a race. Not one of those drivers, however, can say he’s won at every active race track on the NASCAR schedule.

    Every driver, even the winningest one’s, has a track or more missing from his résumé that would complete the “cycle.” Richard Petty, the winningest driver in the history of NASCAR, failed to win at 30 of the 80 tracks he raced at in his career. “The Silver Fox” David Pearson, second with 105 wins, didn’t record a victory at 26 of 63 race tracks he ran.

    In the cases of Petty and Pearson, the goose eggs came at tracks they both ran few times in their respective careers. But in the case of Bobby Allison, who sits fourth on NASCAR’s all-time wins list at 84, he went his entire racing career, 44 starts, without ever winning a single race at Martinsville Speedway. Rusty Wallace went his entire career without winning at Darlington Raceway, Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

    The amount of drivers lacking wins at certain tracks in the early days of the sport isn’t surprising, given how fluid the Cup Series schedule was for years. When the new millennium arrived, the schedule became less fluid. And, thus, should increase the chances of a driver pulling off a career “cycle” of winning at every active track, right?

    In theory, yes. In practice, no.

    Even with three new track arrivals and one departure, and the addition of five-year sanctioning agreements that keep tracks on the schedule for at least a five-year period, only five drivers are within five or fewer tracks needed to complete a career “cycle.” Kevin Harvick is missing wins at Kentucky Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway, Matt Kenseth needs wins at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Martinsville, Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International, Kyle Busch just lacks a win at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Jimmie Johnson needs victories at Chicagoland Speedway, Kentucky and Watkins Glen. The other two are the retired drivers of Tony Stewart, who ended his career without wins at Kentucky and Darlington, and Jeff Gordon, failing only to win at Kentucky.

    Busch could accomplish this feat by this season if he wins the October 8 Bank of America 500 at Charlotte. Even Johnson says it’s “safe to say that Kyle is going to be the first” to do so, given his performance at Charlotte.

    “I’m so out of touch with stats that I felt like Jeff and Tony (Stewart) were the only guys kind of in that conversation and then last weekend I learned that Kyle is now down to one,” Johnson said. “And I’m like ‘Well, dang, there’s somebody else in the party here (laughter). And Kyle will get it.’ I can’t believe he hasn’t won at Charlotte already in a Cup car. It’s safe to say that Kyle is going to be the first one to close out all the tracks, I think, with the way he runs and how good he runs at that track. I still have here, Kentucky has been a disaster for me, Chicago I should have closed a long time ago. I think Kyle, if you’re a betting man, I’d put Kyle as closing out all the tracks first.”

  • Keselowski fastest in final practice

    Keselowski fastest in final practice

    Brad Keselowski topped the chart in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Watkins Glen International.

    The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford was the fastest with a time of 1:10.067 and a speed of 125.880 mph. Kurt Busch was second in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford with a time of 1″10.077 and a speed of 125.862 mph. Martin Truex Jr. was third in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 1:10.224 and a speed of 125.598 mph. Clint Bowyer was fourth in his No. 14 SHR Ford with a time of 1:10.342 and a speed of 125.387 mph. Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 1:10.402 and a speed of 125.281 mph.

    Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray, Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-10.

    Hamlin posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 123.825 mph.

    Boris Said damaged his car when he drove his car through the grass in the interloop and the splitter dug into the ground.

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  • Kyle Busch fastest in first practice

    Kyle Busch fastest in first practice

    Kyle Busch topped the chart in first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Watkins Glen International.

    The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 1:10.270 and a speed of 125.516 mph. Martin Truex Jr. was second in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 1:10.675 and a speed of 124.797 mph. Denny Hamlin was third in his No. 11 Gibbs Toyota with a time of 1:10.817 and a speed of 124.546 mph. Jamie McMurray was fourth in his No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 1:10.829 and a speed of 124.525 mph. Erik Jones rounded out the top-five in his No. 77 Furniture Row Toyota with a time of 1:10.862 and a speed of 124.467 mph.

    Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Kasey Kahne and Michael McDowell rounded out the top-10.

    Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Danica Patrick spun out during the session. Kurt Busch and Corey LaJoie both did so and sustained damage to their cars.

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