Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Author: Tucker White

  • Johnson Wins on Late Restart at the Monster Mile

    Johnson Wins on Late Restart at the Monster Mile

    Jimmie Johnson got the better of Kyle Larson on the final restart of the AAA Drive for Autism 400 to win for the 11th time in his career at Dover International Speedway.

    Larson got a lousy restart on the outside lane, allowing Johnson to pull ahead. Ty Dillon got loose exiting Turn 2 and came down in front of Ryan Newman. His car turned back up the track and was t-boned by Erik Jones, triggering a multi-car pileup on the backstretch and ending the race under caution as Johnson had crossed the overtime line and the caution flew when he was rounding Turn 4.

    The win ties him with Cale Yarborough for fifth on NASCAR’s all-time wins list.

    “I never thought I would end up here in NASCAR as a kid racing in the dirt out in Southern California,” Johnson said. “I was a big Cale Yarborough fan and I remember going to a race in Oklahoma with my parents and my brother. We were driving across the country and we pulled up to a Hardee’s. I had no idea it was a burger stand and I really thought when I walked in the door I was going to Cale Yarborough’s race shop (laughs). It was very disappointing. I had a burger and left and then understood the world of sponsorship.

    “To be here and tie him at 83 wins is amazing. We just got the tribute helmet. I wasn’t sure how quickly we’d be, or if we’d be able to go there, and get it done. But, Cale, you’re the man. Thank you for all you have done for our sport.

    “To be a part of one team and one sponsor, Lowe’s, Chevrolet, Valvoline, Gatorade, and with the support of the fans, this is an amazing day.”

    Larson came home second after leading a race-high of 241 laps.

    “Jimmie did a good job. A lot better job than I did,” Larson said. “I spun my tires. I just spun my tires pretty bad. I tried taking off not using a lot of throttle and still spun my tires pretty bad. I knew we were both probably going to spin pretty bad, but I wasn’t getting great launches all day. I was always having to fight people off into Turn 1 when I was the leader. But, you know, my team gave me a great Target Chevy again. I thought we were the best car today, me and the No. 78 (Martin Truex, Jr.) I thought we were really good. I definitely, obviously, didn’t need that last caution there. I was just cruising trying to log some laps, get to the end. I saw the lapper in front of me blow a right-front and wasn’t too worried. I thought maybe the outside lane would take off good. I just didn’t do a great job.”

    Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the podium.

    Ryan Newman and Chase Elliott rounded out the top-five.

    Daniel Suarez, Jamie McMurray, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Danica Patrick rounded out the top-10.

    Kyle Busch led the field to the green flag at 1:19 p.m. When he left pit road under the first caution, his left-rear wheel came off completely. This was caused by the air gun used to fasten the lug nuts into place being set to reverse. This handed the lead to Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    On the ensuing restart, Martin Truex Jr. took the race lead and only lost it under the fourth caution when Larson opted not to pit.

    Going down the backstretch on lap 79, Truex gave a tap to Larson to loosen him entering Turn 3, took the lead and won the first stage. Larson, as well as 11 others, opted not to pit under the stage break caution and assumed the race lead.

    Aside a few laps under the seventh caution that were lead by Michael McDowell, Larson led most of the second stage. It was on the lap 211 when Truex passed under Larson in Turn 1 to take the lead and drove on to win the second stage.

    Larson took back the lead from Truex prior to the restart of the final stage and controlled the race until a cycle of green flag stops occurred with 65 laps to go and caution flew, in the middle of green flag stops, with 62 to go when Regan Smith suffered a tire failure and slammed the wall in Turn 2.

    The caution cycled Ty Dillon to the race lead, who held it for 23 laps. Meanwhile, Larson powered by Johnson’s outside to take second with 42 to go and drove by Dillon’s outside in Turn 4 with 39 to go to retake the lead.

    In the closing laps, Larson was pulling away from Johnson and had the race in check. But with four to go, David Ragan suffered a right-front tire failure and slammed the wall in Turn 2, sending the race into overtime and setting up the run to the finish.

    Ryan Sieg brought out the first caution for a solo spin in Turn 1 on lap 17. Stenhouse suffered a right-front tire failure and slammed the wall in Turn 2 on lap 47. He slammed the wall a second time in Turn 4 and brought out the third caution on lap 62. On the lap 65 restart, Kurt Busch got loose rounding Turn 1, overcorrected and turned up track into Brad Keselowski, taking both of them out. On lap 96, his left-rear tire came apart, his car spun out and slammed the wall in Turn 1. Danica Patrick spun out in Turn 4 on lap 144. Joey Logano suffered a right-front tire failure and slammed the wall in Turn 3. Paul Menard and Chris Buescher were collected in a two-car wreck on the backstretch with 58 to go.

    The race lasted three hours, 52 minutes and six seconds at an average speed of 104.955 mph. There were 17 lead changes among nine different drivers and 15 cautions for 72 laps.

    Truex leaves Dover with a nine-point lead over Larson.

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  • Bubba Wallace Wins SLM Short Track Nationals Feature at Thunder Valley

    Bubba Wallace Wins SLM Short Track Nationals Feature at Thunder Valley

    BRISTOL, Tenn. — Darrell Wallace Jr. took the lead prior to the end of the first segment and didn’t relinquish it again on his way to winning the RustyWallace.com 100 Super Late Model feature of the Short Track U.S. Nationals at Bristol Motor Speedway.

    Travis Braden led the field to the green flag at 7:27 p.m. The lead went from him, to Chandler Smith and then to Darrell Wallace Jr., who took it from Smith exiting Turn 2 on lap 32 and held it through the end of the first segment on lap 51.

    Nobody had anything for him in the final 49-lap segment as he drove into victory lane at Thunder Valley.

    “I should start running these more often,” Wallace said. “This is a cool event put on by everyone at Bristol, Jerry (Caldwell) and his whole staff here. Just a really fun couple of weeks. Got to come up here and test last week and I think I was still catching my breath coming into this weekend. So these things are just so fast around here. We were just on a rail tonight. So that’s just hats off to everyone at Fathead Racing and JBL Racing.”

    Jake Crum finishes second and Smith rounds out the podium.

    Stephen Nasse and Stephen Wallace round out the top-five.

    Garrett Jones, Cole Rouse, Tyler Ankrum, Chase Purdy and Kyle Plott round out the top-10.

    In the Pro Late Model 100, Cole Williams outlasted a wreck-fest of a race to win.

    “Man this is freaking awesome,” Williams exclaimed with joy. “This is definitely our biggest win for our career. These boys worked their butts off all weekend long and I knew that if we kept this nose clean, we’d have a shot at it. Of course we had to have flawless restarts, and we ended up having them.”

    The most significant wreck was a nine-car wreck on just the second lap of the race in Turns 1 and 2.

    The second major incident occurred on lap 46 when Eddie Fatscher dumped race leader Dillon Oliver going into Turn 1, who’s car got loose, then veered up into the outside wall and then hit inside pit road wall head-on. Oliver walked over to Fatscher’s pit stall, where a member of Fatscher’s team punched him in the face.

    Myatt Snider closed out the evening winning the Late Model Stock 100 feature.

    “It’s awesome,” Snider said of his victory. “I feel like we’ve been close to a CARS Tours win for the longest time now. Ever since we’ve started running this, we’ve been competitive. It’s been a tough road. We’ve had a lot problems, freak accidents. Stuff that just gets in the way. What better place for it to come at than Bristol.”

  • The White Zone: All-Star weekend embodied everything wrong with NASCAR

    The White Zone: All-Star weekend embodied everything wrong with NASCAR

    BRISTOL, Tenn. — One term I’ve heard used by those attending the Short Track Nationals at Bristol Motor Speedway this past weekend has been “Corporate NASCAR,” meaning NASCAR’s desires to grow the sport has made it lose touch with the interests and desires of its core fans. After watching yet another lackluster All-Star Race that was overhyped by both NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway, I believe there’s truth to that “Corporate NASCAR” label.

    I’ve spent the entire weekend at Thunder Valley milling about the garage “tents” of the late model and street stock classes as they prepared to race on the high banks of the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.” The differences between the atmosphere of these lower level short track racing series and a typical NASCAR weekend are astronomical, even on a typical Bristol weekend.

    Race action during a Super Late Model feature race for the Short Track U.S. Nationals at Bristol Motor Speedway. Photo: Tucker White/SpeedwayMedia.com

    The atmosphere at Bristol this weekend has been far more relaxed and fan-friendly, allowing fans to be up close and mingle with drivers who actually were inside the track more often than not. On a typical NASCAR weekend, you’re lucky if your driver spends more than a few minutes outside of his/her motor coach prior to a practice/qualifying session or race. All the late model and street stock teams worked out of a tent where fans could walk by and chat with team members as they please. In the NASCAR world, I see teams rope off their war wagons, telling the public to piss off. Fans were able to stand near the wall inside the track, provided they didn’t do anything reckless. On a NASCAR weekend, you need to be a photographer or hard-carded to be near the walls when cars are on track.

    Finally, the drivers meeting this weekend at the Short Track Nationals was actually a meeting where they went over race procedure and emphasized the different layout for Bristol (the turns were on the opposite sides of a NASCAR race and the front and backstretch were flipped). It was also open to anyone who purchased a pit pass for the day or weekend and was held out in the open.

    The drivers meeting’s in NASCAR are a joke. It’s an overblown spectacle, and I’m using that term incredibly loosely, held in a secluded location that’s not open to the public, usually inside the track where a hot pass at minimum is needed to even get near, much less attend. And even a hot pass won’t always get you into the meeting, even if you’re media. What goes on when the meeting actually starts? It’s about eight to 10 minutes of naming off dignitaries and then two to three minutes at most dedicated to actually talking about race procedure.

    That 24-word sentence that ended the previous paragraph is every drivers meeting ever. Once in a while, you’ll get a driver or crew chief to actually raise their hands when a series director asks everyone if there are any questions, but that’s usually a result of a fustercluck XFINITY/Truck Series race the day prior and/or NASCAR making a bizarre penalty call in a race the day prior.

    But I’m not here to dwell on the atmosphere of the Short Track Nationals. I presented it to show the dichotomy between local level short track racing and NASCAR.

    Now let’s discuss last night’s snoozer of a race that was the Monster Energy All-Star Race.

    First off, take a look at the “over the top” infield logo for this year’s race. It’s so bland and generic for a race that’s emphasizes “no points, just old fashioned, run for the money,” high energy racing. This looks like a freaking teaser logo that’s used to keep people in the dark about what’s really coming.

    But if you think the race logo is phoned in, feast your eyes on the infield logo, via this Tweet from Jim Utter of Motorsport.com.

     

    Charlotte Motor Speedway couldn’t even take the time to paint that generic race logo on the grass? They just painted Monster Energy on the grass.

    I know I’m nitpicking here, but I must if this is not to be repeated.

    CONCORD, N.C. – MAY 20: Monster Energy performers entertain the crowd prior to the start of the Monster Energy NASCAR All Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 20, 2017 in Concord, North Carolina. Photo: Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images

    Let’s now turn to the new sponsor of the Cup Series, Monster Energy.

    Their idea of brining people to the track is MMA fights and motorcycle shows in a giant steel hamster ball that I’ve seen done with more at stake at a state carnival.

    Now I understand perfectly that entertainment is not experienced in a vacuum and everyone has different tastes. But how is anything Monster Energy is doing leading to attracting a new crowd? Attendance at most tracks is still shaky and ratings are still plummeting, so it’s not working right now.

    To make a long story short, everything Monster Energy is doing is all flash with no substance.

    And now we come to the race itself.

    It was yet another snooze-fest of a mile and a half race that had nothing of substance to it. Kyle Larson led from start to finish in the first two segments and Jimmie Johnson led all but two laps in the third segment before winning it.

    On the final restart, Kyle Busch dove under Brad Keselowski only a few hundred yards past the start/finish line to take the lead and drove on to victory.

    Clean air was key to victory.

    We’ve seen this year after year where the driver who gets out front in the final segment is the driver who wins the race more often than not, last year being the exception where Joey Logano passed Larson in the closing laps of the final stage.

    Yet for whatever reason, NASCAR continues to run this race at Charlotte, rather than moving it to a short track where aerodynamics aren’t so critical.

    Year after year, the aero push effect has gotten worse at the intermediate tracks, especially at Charlotte, but NASCAR, International Speedway Corporation and Speedway Motorsports Inc. aren’t moving away from these types of tracks. Instead, they’ve gone to more of them. Hell, next season, we’re taking a race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and moving it to the intermediate track of Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

    To put it simply, the biggest problem with NASCAR today is the disconnect between those in charge of the sport and those who sit in the seats, and it was on display at Charlotte more than any race this season. The disconnect encompasses everything I’ve mentioned in this piece and explains why people who take part in local level racing have such a negative opinion of NASCAR today.

    Now I understand that a sport the size of NASCAR has many masters to serve. They have to please the drivers, teams, tracks, media and fans at the same time, and the interests of one entity listed isn’t always shared with another. In that respect, I understand NASCAR can’t please everybody. The best they can do is do what pleases the largest number of people and apologize to those it shafts in doing so.

    But the most important entity of the bunch is the fans. If people aren’t buying tickets and/or watching the race on TV, the sport grinds to a halt.

    Bottom line, take care of your customers and they’ll take care of you. And last night’s All-Star Race shows NASCAR still has work to do.

  • Blaney Falls Short of Maiden Victory with Fourth at Kansas

    Blaney Falls Short of Maiden Victory with Fourth at Kansas

    Ryan Blaney is still searching for his first victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series after another dominant performance ends with just a top-five finish in the Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway.

    The weekend for Blaney started with taking pole position on Friday, the first of his career and first for Wood Brothers Racing since Ricky Rudd at Talladega Superspeedway in April of 2004.

    He led the first 10 laps before Martin Truex Jr. powered by his outside exiting Turn 2 on lap 11.

    Blaney was near the front the entire race with a 2.1 average running position, the best of anyone. He never ran lower than fifth at any point in the race.

    It should come as no surprise then that he finished third in the first stage and won the second stage.

    He and Truex traded battled for the lead in the final stage, with Truex taking it with 87 laps to go and Blaney with 46 to go.

    But the winning move belonged to Truex, who made it exiting Turn 2 with 24 to go and held of Blaney on subsequent restarts to win the race.

    Blaney restarted second in the outside lane on the final restart with two laps to go. But while the outside was the lane of choice early in the race when the Sun was still out, it proved inferior under the cover of darkness.

    He was unable to hold the advance of Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski and settled for a fourth-place finish.

    “Yeah, it happens I guess. We weren’t very good on the long run,” he said on pit road after the race. “I felt that we had a great short run car tonight and I thought that was going to play right into our hands at the end. The 78 got us on that restart somehow. I don’t know. I was super loose there on the last restarts and the 78 got me spinning my tires a little bit. It kind of stinks. I think that it says a lot about this team to go out and lead some laps and go have a shot and win races.”

    Blaney leaves Kansas 11th in points, 184 behind points leader Kyle Larson.

  • Keselowski Ends Up and Down Kansas Race with Runner-Up Finish

    Keselowski Ends Up and Down Kansas Race with Runner-Up Finish

    Brad Keselowski’s adventurous day up and down the running order ended with a second-place finish in the Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway.

    Starting the day 17th, Keselowski demonstrated the strength of his car early, going from 14th to eighth in one lap on the lap 55 restart and worked his way into a fifth-place finish at the end of the first stage.

    He dropped back through the field after electing to pit under the fifth caution of the race on lap 97, but drove from 24th to fifth in just 10 laps on the ensuing restart.

    On lap 120, however, he made an unscheduled stop for a loose left-rear wheel. Adding insult to injury, he was handed a pass through penalty for driving through too many pit boxes. He rejoined the race in 35th, two laps down.

    He elected to take a wave around under the following two cautions to put himself back on the lead lap. He slowly worked his way back into the top-10.

    Keselowski was fourth on the final restart. He was still fourth coming to the white flag. But going into Turn 1, he drove to the outside of Ryan Blaney and Kevin Harvick and drove on to finish second.

    “Well, so much happened, I’m not sure I even know,” Keselowski said of the final restart in his post-race media availability. “But we were really good all day and just never had a chance to show it. Every time we started to pass cars and cycle up to the front, we had some kind of issue, which was a real bummer to not be able to showcase the strength that we had. Towards the end we were able to get some runs and make the most of it, and I think we went from probably 20th with 100 to go to second, which was a pretty big climb in the sport. That’s something to be proud of, but I kind of feel like I would have liked to have seen if it would have just played out normal, and I think we might have had a shot at him (Martin Truex Jr.).”

    Keselowski leaves Kansas third in points, 67 behind points leader Kyle Larson.

  • Almirola Released from Hospital after Violent Wreck

    Almirola Released from Hospital after Violent Wreck

    Aric Almirola has been released from the University of Kansas Medical Center after suffering a compression fracture to his T5 Vertebra in a vicious three-car wreck late in the Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway.

    Richard Petty Motorsports issued the following statement this morning.

    “Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford, has been released from a local Kansas hospital and will fly back to his home in Mooresville, N.C. today.

    Almirola suffered a compression fracture to his T5 Vertebra after a multi-car accident at Kansas Speedway Saturday night. Almirola is mobile and will follow-up with his doctors in Charlotte.

    Richard Petty Motorsports will provide further updates when available.”

    The wreck started with 68 laps to go when Joey Logano was going to the outside of Danica Patrick for position. Going into Turn 1, Logano suffered a right-front tire blowout, causing his car to veer down and hook the right-rear corner of Patrick’s car. This sent her car head-on into the outside wall.

    Logano’s car spun backwards up into the wall just a few feet ahead of Patrick’s. They made contact a second time a few seconds later.

    Almirola was running seven car lengths back of the wreck, at the time Logano first hit the wall, and running near the top groove when his car got loose, clipped the left-rear corner of Patrick’s car and slammed head-on into the left-front of Logano’s car.

    Almirola’s car continued down the track before coming to a halt against the outside wall on the exit of Turn 2 with the window net down, while the destroyed cars of Logano and Patrick stopped on the apron in Turn 2. Patrick quickly exited from her car, which NASCAR says to do if it’s on fire, while Logano sat in his until instructed to exit by the safety team.

    While Almirola put the window net down, signaling the safety team that he’s okay, the safety team elected to extract him from the car rather than have him exit under his own power. After cutting open the driver cockpit, Almirola was placed onto a stretcher, loaded into an awaiting ambulance and taken to the University of Kansas Medical Center.

    Logano and Patrick were taken to and released from the infield care center.

    Logano, with unease in his vocal patterns, told Jamie Little of FOX Sports that he was “okay” and he was “saying a lot of prayers for Aric (Almirola) right now.”

    “A lot of us took a hard hit,” he said. “Something broke on my car, I don’t know what it was. I noticed it as I was trying to go in. I tried to back it off but you’re going 215 (mph) and it’s hard to check up. The car just took a bit step sideways into the corner and I hooked Danica (Patrick). I haven’t seen a replay yet, I don’t know what happened. You can see the right-front popped (right there) and it popped. I just hope everyone is okay. I hope Aric is alright. That’s the last thing you want to see, a big hit like that for anyone. It’s unfortunate for everyone. Let’s hope that Aric is alright.”

    Asked if there was any indication leading to what happened, he said it was “out of nowhere. Just out of nowhere. Everything was fine and then it just took a hard right. Everyone pray for Aric right now.”

    He also added that he told Patrick that “something broke” in the ambulance ride to the care center.

    “We were back in the ambulance together and I just told here something broke,” Logano added. “There’s nothing I could have done. I don’t know what happened. Like I said, something broke and tore up a bunch of really good cars.”

    Not long after, Patrick spoke to the media.

    “We were having a really good race and having fun out there and had a lot of speed. I kinda felt like Wonder Woman for a little while. All I know is that I all of a sudden crashed,” she said of what happened.” I definitely had a feeling it was the 22 and I am sure that the doctors in the medical center checking my neurological abilities are glad to know I was right that it was Joey. When he said he had a failure I can’t say it made me feel that much better in the moment. I am just frustrated for the lack of breaks I get. It seems like every time things are going better and something happens I get crashed or am in a crash. Especially a place like this, a brake rotor, when we are using 200-300 pounds of pressure seems odd. Unfortunately there were two of us that got collected and while I am okay, one of these times one if these really big accidents someone is not going to be okay. Aric (Almirola) is not okay and his car looked the best of everybody. You never know when it is going to be the wrong hit. I have a team that works hard and put another car on the track and I hope we are saving up for a really good run of good luck.”

    She was also asked about the ambulance conversation Logano mentioned.

    “I think I said everything I needed to say before I got in. I said something else in there and I just – really if he had a failure there is really nothing you can do about that,” Patrick added. “That is unfortunate and me and Aric are unfortunate recipients of that problem. It isn’t that I haven’t had issues with Joey in the past so to think it was something else was imaginable.”

  • Truex Wins Caution-Fest Kansas Cup Race

    Truex Wins Caution-Fest Kansas Cup Race

    A pass for the lead with just over 20 laps remaining in the Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway proved crucial to Martin Truex Jr. on his drive to winning in his team’s backyard.

    Truex passed Ryan Blaney exiting Turn 2 to take the lead with 24 laps to go and held off Blaney on three restarts to win for the ninth time in his career and seventh time since 2015.

    “It feels great,” Truex said. “It’s definitely been a thorn in our side. That’s for sure. You know for years and years even, before I was with this (Furniture Row) team, for whatever reason we always ran good here and never could close the deal.

    “Proud to get these guys back in victory lane. This is our home race track — the guys from Colorado. Appreciate all the fans. We got a lot of fans from Colorado here today. I met a bunch of them before the race and hopefully they’re all psyched.”

    Brad Keselowski finished second and Kevin Harvick rounded out the podium.

    Blaney and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five.

    Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez, Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer and Trevor Bayne rounded out the top-10.

    Blaney led the field to the green flag at 7:53 p.m. Truex shot past Blaney’s outside exiting Turn 2 to take the lead on the 11th lap. Landon Cassill brought out the first caution on lap 29 when a flat right-front tire led to slamming the wall in Turn 1. He slammed the wall a second time on lap 50.

    On pit road, Chase Elliott was exiting pit road when he made contact with Michael McDowell, who was coming into his pit box.

    Kevin Harvick took the lead opting not to pit under the second caution, but spun the tires on the lap 62 restart and lost the lead to Kyle Busch, who drove on to win the first stage.

    Truex led the field to the restart on lap 88 and held it, through teammate Erik Jones spinning in Turn 2 on lap 97, through lap 100, then lost it to Busch.

    Blaney took back the lead on lap 143 and won the second stage.

    He and Truex battled back and forth for the lead in the final stage.

    Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson made contact on the restart with five laps to go, sending Johnson spinning through the grass in Turn 1 and setting up the final two-lap run to the finish.

    Ty Dillon brought out a caution on lap 62 for a solo spin in Turn 2. Erik Jones spun out the first of three times on lap 97 in Turn 2. LaJoie slammed the wall in Turn 3 after suffering cuts in both right-side tires. Gray Gaulding slammed the wall in Turn 4 and shredded his right-rear tire in Turn 2 on lap 146. Paul Menard and AJ Allmendinger crashed together in Turn 1 with 74 laps to go. Jones got loose in speedy dry in Turn 2 and spun out with 52 to go. LaJoie slammed the wall in Turn 1 with 24 to go. Jones got turned by Ty Dillon and spun through the infield grass with nine to go.

    With 68 to go, a violent three-car wreck in Turn 1 involving Joey Logano, Danica Patrick and Aric Almirola sent Almirola to the University of Kansas Medical Center. As of the publishing of this piece, no further update was available on his condition.

    The race lasted three hours, 24 minutes and 16 seconds at an average speed of 117.640 mph. There were 21 lead changes among nine different drivers and 15 cautions for 61 laps.

    Larson leaves with a 44-point lead over Truex.

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  • Kyle Busch Fastest in Final Cup Practice at Kansas

    Kyle Busch Fastest in Final Cup Practice at Kansas

    Kyle Busch topped the chart in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Kansas Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 28.279 and a speed of 187.963 mph. Kyle Larson was second in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.749 and a speed of 187.833 mph. Martin Truex Jr. was third in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 28.830 and a speed of 187.305 mph.

    Ryan Blaney was fourth in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford with a time of 28.849 and a speed of 187.182 mph. Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-five in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a time of 28.857 and a speed of 187.130 mph.

    Jimmie Johnson, who clocked in the seventh fastest single lap, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 181.513 mph.

    Five minutes into the session, Larson hit the outside wall in Turn 1. The damage to the right-rear corner panel forced the team to roll out their backup car.

    “I’ve been extremely loose all day,” Larson said. “I think a lot of people have. I don’t know why we are all fighting loose, but we made some big adjustments between the two practices there and I was still really loose. I felt like my (Turns) 1 and 2 was better this practice than the one before. (Turns) 3 and 4 is where I really thought I was going to crash if I was to crash today. Back there when I wrecked, I just tried to open my entry up a little bit so it would maybe help my corner out and I just got really loose before I ever even really got to the corner. I had to chase it up and smacked the wall pretty hard. So, backup car, but our backup car should be pretty good.”

    Related: Truex Fastest at Kansas in First Cup Practice

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  • Bowyer’s Season After 10 Races

    Bowyer’s Season After 10 Races

    Clint Bowyer last won a race nearly five years ago and his career slowly started to dip until he hit rock bottom last season. Now he’s back to posting competitive numbers and looks to end his long winless drought.

    Bowyer entered the 2017 season coming off the worst season of his career and as the driver taking over the car formerly occupied by Tony Stewart. Despite his lackluster 2016 campaign, expectations were much higher for the driver who hadn’t won a race since October 13, 2012, at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    His season started with a 32nd-place finish after being caught up in a wreck near the start of the final stage of the Daytona 500. He followed that performance up a week later with an 11th-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

    He earned his first top-10 finish of the season with a 10th-place run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the highlight of a rotten race for Stewart-Haas Racing. Bowyer earned his first top-five since Bristol in August of 2015 with a third at Auto Club Speedway.

    He matched his top-10 total from 2016 with a seventh at Martinsville Speedway, the sixth race of the season. His second-place effort at Bristol Motor Speedway was his first runner-up finish since Homestead of 2012.

    Finishes of 15th at Richmond International Raceway and 14th at Talladega Superspeedway, including 10 laps led (233.33 percent more than his 2016 total of three), puts him ninth in the points entering Kansas Speedway.

    Statistically, Bowyer has already bested his totals from 2016 and is on track to post season totals comparable to his career high of 2012 and 2013. But there’s still the 159-race winless drought that he admits does gnaw at him, but says he doesn’t think about it.

    “It is but, to be honest with you, you don’t even think about that,” Bowyer said. “You think about winning. I never think about how long it has been. I think about how you are going to get it done. You have that thought process through the week as you are going through competition meetings starting Monday and your conversations with the crew chief all week long. The biggest thing is you are lined back up with an organization that is capable of doing that. That is item number one. You are with a manufacturer that is capable of doing that and is winning races and competing at the highest level. Each and every week you go to the race track knowing you have a chance to win the race. All the past that has happened is the furthest thing from my mind because you are back to sitting in equipment capable of winning these races and competing at the highest level.”

  • Truex Fastest at Kansas in First Cup Practice

    Truex Fastest at Kansas in First Cup Practice

    Martin Truex Jr. topped the chart in first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Kansas Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 29.179 and a speed of 185.065 mph.

    Ryan Blaney was second in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford with a time of 29.200 and a speed of 184.932 mph. Erik Jones was third in his No. 77 Furniture Row Toyota with a time of 29.253 and a speed of 184.596 mph.

    Matt Kenseth was fourth in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 29.263 and a speed of 184.533 mph. Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford with a time of 29.275 and a speed of 184.458 mph.

    Dale Earnhardt Jr., who clocked in the sixth fastest single-lap, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 182.216 mph.

    Right after posting his fastest lap, Jones’s car got loose, spun out exiting Turn 4 and traveled through the infield grass. The only damage the team reported on Twitter were flat right-side tires.

    Related: Kyle Busch Fastest in Final Cup Practice at Kansas

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