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Author: Tucker White

  • Bad luck puts Harvick and Logano in early Chase hole

    Bad luck puts Harvick and Logano in early Chase hole

    CONCORD, N.C. — Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano found themselves in a hole early in the Round of 12 after trouble struck both of them in the Queen City.

    The weekend for the driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet got off to a fast start by scoring his first pole of the season on Thursday. He led the first 12 laps and remained close to the front for most of the first half of the race.

    He was running third on lap 156 when his car started fading. He brought the car down pit road, they eventually took it behind the garage and retired from the race.

    He was asked if he had any idea what caused the engine to shut off.

    “No, it just suddenly shut off and the things that it points to are no oil pressure,” Harvick said. “It’s definitely not a power issue with the battery or anything like that. They are trying to diagnosis it. I hate it for everybody on our Busch team they made some great adjustments today and got our car back where we needed to be to run up front and everything was going fine. Lots of things can go wrong and today they did.”

    Harvick was credited with a 38th-place finish.

    He leaves Charlotte 12th in points 41 back of Jimmie Johnson and eight back of Denny Hamlin for the eighth-place Round of 8 cutoff.

    Logano also had a day that started out solid and turned south quickly.

    He assumed the lead under the first round of green flag stops on lap 115 from Chase Elliott, suffered a tire blowout two laps later and slammed the wall in turn 1. He managed to sustain only minor damage and remained on the lead lap in eighth.

    On the same lap Harvick had his engine issue, however, Logano suffered another tire blowout and slammed the wall in turn 1 a second time.

    He was asked what the major issue in the race.

    “I don’t know,” Logano said. “Tires are popping. We’re not the only car that had the issue, but we’re the ones that hit the wall when it happen, so that’s not the best place to have them go down. We had a fast car. Our car was capable of winning the race. We drove up from 10th and were up to third and running down the leaders, so I felt really good about what we had. I don’t know. Things happen. It’s part of racing, I guess.”

    The damage, while more severe on this hit, didn’t stop him from continuing on in the race. He was running at the finish in 36th 80 laps down.

    Logano leaves Charlotte 11th in points 39 back of Johnson and six back of Hamlin for the eighth-place Round of 8 cutoff.

  • Multi-Car Wreck Ruins Day of Dillon and Eilliott

    Multi-Car Wreck Ruins Day of Dillon and Eilliott

    CONCORD, N.C. — What had been a great day in the Queen City for both Austin Dillon and Chase Elliott turned south in a flash in a multi-car wreck in a late-race restart.

    The driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was running second when the Bank of America 500 restarted with 76 laps to go. Martin Truex Jr. got into his rear to shove him ahead of race leader Jimmie Johnson, but got him loose and sent him spinning through the grass.

    He slammed hard into the inside retaining wall just past the exit of pit road.

    “I am fine, it just sucks,” Dillon said after being released from the care center. “We will have to work hard the next two weeks to get the points back.

    “I felt like I got to third gear pretty clean and then the next thing – I feel contact and I am spinning through the grass. It’s part of it and we took two tires there and you know the risk when you get into it. You just hope that doesn’t happen obviously. I got to third without spinning the tires, and I felt like we got contacted.”

    Elliott swerved down initially to avoid the wreck but turned back up to avoid Dillon who was coming down the track. This caused him to be hooked by Kyle Busch and turned into the outside wall. He hit driver-side first and was rammed by Ryan Blaney and Paul Menard.

    “I think the No. 3 they stayed out on tires and tried to get some track position,” Elliott said. “The No. 78 ended up getting him out of shape and then after that I tried to check up. I don’t think the No. 18 saw it, got into us and got us turned the wrong way. It happens we just got to go and try to have more runs like that next week.”

    Dillon and Elliott both leave Charlotte tied for ninth in points 36 points behind Johnson and three points behind Denny Hamlin for the eighth-place Round of 8 cut off.

  • Johnson Ends Winless Drought with Victory at Charlotte

    Johnson Ends Winless Drought with Victory at Charlotte

    CONCORD, N.C. — The longest winless drought of Jimmie Johnson’s career came to an end today with a dominant victory in the Queen City. The victory secures Johnson’s spot in the Round of 8 in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

    The Bank of America 500 was scheduled to run on Saturday night of October 8, 2016. Torrential rain from Hurricane Matthew, however, postponed the race to Sunday.

    Under clear blue skies, Kevin Harvick led the field to green at 12:05 p.m. He led the first 12 laps before ceding the lead to Chase Elliott on the 13th circuit. The first caution flew on lap 25. It was a scheduled competition caution. Five cars – 20, 27, 32 and 43 for crew over the wall too soon, and 46 for speeding – were sent to the tail end on the restart.

    The race went back to green on lap 31. A two-car wreck brought out the next caution on lap 62. Alex Bowman was running second when he suffered a right-front tire blowout and slammed into Casey Mears in Turn 3.

    Twenty laps after the lap 71 restart, Kyle Busch made an unscheduled stop from third for a right-front tire issue. Kyle Larson also made an unscheduled stop a few laps later for the exact same issue. A cycle of green flag stops started on lap 111, the lead changed from Elliott to Joey Logano and Logano brought out the third caution on lap 117 after suffering a right-front tire blowout and slamming the wall in Turn 2. This handed the lead to Johnson.

    Denny Hamlin beat Johnson on the ensuing restart on lap 125 and assumed the lead. Harvick was in third when his car started sputtering and losing power on lap 156. On the same lap, Logano suffered another right-front tire blowout and slammed the wall in Turn 2 again the same lap to bring out the fourth caution.

    After the restart on lap 162, Johnson worked on Hamlin and took the lead back on lap 177. He held the lead until the next round of green flag pit stops started on lap 213. The lead went as follows: Johnson, Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer and back to Johnson.

    Debris on the frontstretch brought out the fifth caution on lap 228.

    The race went back green with 98 laps to go. The sixth caution flew with 81 to go for AJ Allmendinger suffering a right-front tire blowout and slamming the wall in Turn 2.

    On the ensuing restart with 76 to go, a multi-car wreck brought out the seventh caution and the red flag. Chase drivers Austin Dillon and Elliott were among those collected.

    The penultimate green flag stretch went for 43 laps before the eighth caution flew for Hamlin’s engine letting go on the frontstretch. Matt Kenseth exited pit road ahead of Johnson.

    On the final restart with 18 to go, however, Johnson edged out Kenseth to take the lead and drove on to score the victory.

    “We knew we would be back; it was just slower than we thought it would be,” Johnson said in the media center after the race. “We feel like the day conditions helped us and the Sun definitely helped. This has opened up some opportunities for us now. It’s just fantastic, we can race hard now. We take (the Chase) day at a time and one race at a time. I still feel like we can bring better race cars to the track. We can’t sit back and celebrate too much. Tomorrow, we’ll be back at work.”

    It’s his 78th career victory in 537 Sprint Cup Series starts, his third of the season, eighth in 19th starts at Charlotte Motor Speedway and 19th top-10 finish in 31 races in 2016.

    It also ends a 24-race winless drought, the longest of his NASCAR career.

    When asked if he was starting to think if he would ever win again, he said he “didn’t wonder, I just knew it was taking way too long. When you drive for Rick Hendrick and have all the great people at Hendrick Motorsports working for you, the great support from Lowe’s and everyone in their stores and Chevrolet…..there are just so many great people behind us and that support us to make this happen. We knew we would get back. Yes, it was slower than we wanted it to be but to be here today and have this victory is great.

    “This is something very special to our team.”

    Kenseth led five laps and overcame being sent to the rear on the initial start for unapproved adjustments and an early penalty for his crew being over the wall too soon to finish runner-up in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

    On his team fighting back to a second-place finish, he said that his crew “did a great job. Honestly, last two years in a row pretty much Charlotte has kind of taken us out of the Chase – mostly my doing, different things happening the last couple years here – so had a lot of problems last year, this year we had a lot of problems again, but we were able to kind of rebound from them and just kind of take our time. We knew it was a long day and they had good pit stops, good strategy and got us back where we needed to be there at the end.”

    Kasey Kahne rounded out the podium in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

    Ryan Newman led one lap on his way to a fourth-place finish in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Larson overcame his tire issue to round out the top-five in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.

    Busch, who led one lap, also overcame his tire issue to finish sixth in his No. 18 JGR Toyota. Brad Keselowski finished seventh in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford. Kurt Busch finished eighth in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Tony Stewart finished ninth in his No. 14 SHR Chevrolet. Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-10 in his No. 1 CGR Chevrolet.

    Carl Edwards finished 12th, Martin Truex Jr. finished 13th, Hamlin finished 30th, Dillon finished 32nd, Elliott finished 33rd, Logano finished 36th and Harvick was the lowest-finishing Chase driver in 38th.

    The race lasted three hours, 42 minutes and 47 seconds at an average speed of 134.929 mph. There were 17 lead changes among nine different drivers and eight cautions for 51 laps.

    Johnson leaves with a five-point lead over Kenseth in the points standings.

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  • Cup race at Charlotte postponed to Sunday

    Cup race at Charlotte postponed to Sunday

    CONCORD, N.C. — NASCAR has postponed tonight’s Sprint Cup Series race in the Queen City.

    The Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway will be run tomorrow at noon. The XFINITY race that was postponed from Friday to Sunday will run immediately following the conclusion of the Cup race.

    The Cup race will be carried on NBC while the XFINITY race will be shown on NBCSN. Both will be carried by the Performance Racing Network.

    A ticket for the Cup race will be honored for both events. A ticket for the XFINITY race will be honored for just the XFINITY race.

    The race weekend in Charlotte has been plagued with weather issues stemming from Hurricane Matthew as it batters the Eastern United States coastline.

    NASCAR Executive Vice-President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell stated via Twitter that the reason for calling the race was, “Forecast changed late night/early morning w/rain lingering-tough call but made it early to avoid fans on road today-come out tomorrow!”

    In addition to moving the XFINITY race from last night as was originally scheduled, it also wiped out two Cup practice sessions that were scheduled.

    This is the second straight year that the Sprint Cup Chase race at Charlotte has been moved to Sunday afternoon because of rain.

    The weather tomorrow is expected to be sunny, clear blue skies, temperatures in the low 70’s and zero percent chance of rain (Weather.com).

  • Daytona International Speedway Sustains Moderate Damage from Hurricane Matthew, but No Flooding

    Daytona International Speedway Sustains Moderate Damage from Hurricane Matthew, but No Flooding

    CONCORD, N.C. — The World Center of Racing has received some damage from Hurricane Matthew.

    As reported by the Associated Press and the track itself, Daytona International Speedway sustained “moderate damage” from the then Category 4 storm as it continues to ravage the eastern seaboard of the United States. Among the damage, according to the track, were lights, speakers, signage, fences, gates, awnings and palm trees.

    The track has not sustained any flooding despite earlier reports, which included a May 2009 photo of a flooded Daytona backstretch circulating on Twitter.

    “Pictures of a past weather event at Daytona International Speedway have been circulating on social media during the storm. Those pictures are from a weather event in 2009,” the track said in a statement. “There was no flood damage to the facility from Hurricane Matthew.”

    The ticket office and the Richard Petty Driving Experience will be closed for the weekend to allow cleanup.

    In the meantime, the speedway is working with local, regional and state officials to aid in recovery efforts and is serving as a staging area for Florida Power & Light crews.

  • Friday Track Activity at Charlotte Canceled

    Friday Track Activity at Charlotte Canceled

    CONCORD, N.C. — Weather stemming from Hurricane Matthew has forced NASCAR to cancel all on-track activity for Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    Constant rain showers around the greater Charlotte area has led to the Drive for the Cure 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race, which was originally scheduled for tonight, being postponed to Sunday at 11:00 a.m. It will remain on NBCSN and PRN.

    Two Sprint Cup practice sessions and XFINITY qualifying that were also scheduled for today have been cancelled as well.

    The lineup for the XFINITY Series race will be set by practice speeds, per the rules.

    The Bank of America 500 for the Sprint Cup Series remains on schedule for Saturday night at 7:00 on NBC and PRN.

  • Harvicks Gets the Pole in the Queen City

    Harvicks Gets the Pole in the Queen City

    Kevin Harvick will lead the field to the green flag on Saturday night in the Queen City.

    The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet scored the pole for the Bank of America 500 after posting a time of 27.547 and a speed of 196.029 mph.

    It’s his 16th career pole in 568 Sprint Cup Series starts, first of 2016 and first at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    Alex Bowman will start second in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet after posting a time of 27.551 and a speed of 196.000 mph. Chase Elliott will start third in his No. 24 HMS Chevrolet after posting a time of 27.585 and a speed of 195.759 mph. Kyle Busch will start fourth in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after posting a time of 27.660 and a speed of 195.228 mph. Tony Stewart will round out the top-five starters in his No. 14 SHR Chevrolet after posting a time of 27. 660 and a speed of 195.228 mph.

    AJ Allmendinger will start sixth in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet. Martin Truex Jr. will start seventh in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. Carl Edwards will start eighth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota. Denny Hamlin will start ninth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota. Joey Logano will round out the top-10 in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

    Jimmie Johnson will start 11th and Kasey Kahne will round out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying.

    Matt Kenseth will start 17th, Austin Dillon will start 19th, Brad Keselowski will start 20th and Kurt Busch will round out the Chase drivers in 23rd.

    Twenty-two Chevrolet’s, 11 Ford’s and seven Toyota’s will comprise the 40-car field for Saturday night’s 500-mile race.

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  • Austin Dillon: ‘I think you can still have a really good finish at Talladega’

    Austin Dillon: ‘I think you can still have a really good finish at Talladega’

    When asked the importance of winning one of the first two races so as to not need to rely on a decent finish at the wild card race of Talladega, Austin Dillon said that it’s important, but “you can still have a really good finish at Talladega.”

    Speaking to the media this afternoon, the driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet addressed the importance of winning either at Charlotte Motor Speedway or Kansas Speedway so as to not need to depend on a miracle run at the restrictor plate race of Talladega Superspeedway.

    “I think it’s important, but I think you can still have a really good finish at Talladega,” Dillon said. “There is obviously a lot that goes into it with luck and what have you. But there are ways to be smart at Superspeedways and try if you are in a good point’s position when you get there. I mean a win obviously takes the pressure off, but you saw what we were able to do in the last round. I mean it’s got to be a tighter finishing average than what it took last round, but I still feel like with no points buffer from the guys that have won races you still got to be smart the next three races, the next two really.”

    Since the introduction of the playoff format to the Chase in 2014, Talladega has served as the final race of the second round (Contender Round or Round of 12). In the last two years, the mantra amongst the drivers and teams in the Chase has been to get a win at either Charlotte or Kansas so you don’t have to sweat it out in the plate race.

    Brad Keselowski came into Talladega in 2014 mathematically out of racing his way into the next round. The only way he could advance was with a win, and he did just that. This came at the expense of Kyle Busch, who was caught up in a late-race wreck, and three of the Hendrick drivers.

    Last year, a wreck at the start/finish line on the restart with two laps to go prevented drivers like Matt Kenseth from advancing into the next round of the Chase.

    Despite the risks, Dillon went on to say having the chance to win is a great feeling.

    “Risking it for a win or just having a solid point’s day can make or break it,” he added. “It’s still a little bit of a risk if you have to go… if you’ve got the opportunity to win obviously it’s going to make you feel great. You can sit and relax when you get to Talladega. A good point’s day the next two weeks will also make you feel good going into Talladega.”

  • Late race chaos allows Ricciardo to win in Malaysia

    Late race chaos allows Ricciardo to win in Malaysia

    Daniel Ricciardo was content to settle for second or third, but a late race reliability issue for one of the Mercedes drivers allowed him to take the lead and score the victory.

    Sebastian Vettel suffered race-ending damage after contact with Nico Rosberg in turn 1 on the first lap of the Malaysian Grand Prix. Photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images
    Sebastian Vettel suffered race-ending damage after contact with Nico Rosberg in turn 1 on the first lap of the Malaysian Grand Prix. Photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images

    Typically, most Formula 1 races see the game-changing moments in the dash towards turn 1 on the first lap, and there was also that in this race.

    Going into turn 1, Sebastian Vettel got in too hot and made contact with Nico Rosberg. He sent Rosberg spinning while he bent the left-front wheel of his car and retired from the race. This required a virtual safety car period.

    After the race went back to green, it settled into the typical follow the leader routine, only interrupted by Romain Grosjean locking up the brakes, going off track at the final turn, retiring from the race and prompting another virtual safety car period.

    Rosberg spent the whole race working his way from the rear of the field back up to the front. During his run to a third place finish, he was handed a 10-second time penalty by the stewards for contact with Kimi Raikkonen just past halfway.

    Lewis Hamilton's championship hopes took a hit when he retired with a blown engine with just over 20 laps to go in the Malaysian Grand Prix. Photo: Charles Coates/Getty Images
    Lewis Hamilton’s championship hopes took a hit when he retired with a blown engine with just over 20 laps to go in the Malaysian Grand Prix. Photo: Charles Coates/Getty Images

    It was on lap 40, however, when it became anyone’s race because pole sitter Lewis Hamilton, who had the field in check from the start, suffered an engine failure on the pit straight and retired from the race.

    This prompted another virtual safety car period. Red Bull Racing brought both cars onto pit road to change onto soft tires. Ricciardo, who overtook his teammate for second on lap 39, assumed the lead and got first dibs on tire service.

    The race went back to green a few laps later and Ricciardo drove on to win the Malaysian Grand Prix.

    As has become his custom of late, Ricciardo celebrated with a “shoey” (chugging champagne from his shoe). Teammate Verstappen, team principle Christian Horner and even Rosberg also took a shot of champagne from Ricciardo’s shoe.

    Verstappen took the second step on the podium and Rosberg, who had a 10-second penalty, finished 13 seconds ahead of Raikkonen and retained his podium finish.

    Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top-five.

    Sergio Perez finished sixth, Fernando Alonso finished seventh, Nico Hulkenburg finished eighth, Jenson Button finished ninth and Jolyon Palmer finished in the points for the first time in his career with a 10th place finish.

    Rosberg leaves with a 23-point lead over Hamilton with five races remaining in the 2016 season.

  • Buescher says being in the Chase has ‘been a good experience’

    Buescher says being in the Chase has ‘been a good experience’

    Asked how the experience of being in the Chase has been, Chris Buescher said it has “been a good experience.”

    Speaking to the media this morning at Dover International Speedway, the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford spoke about the experience of being in the Chase.

    “It’s been a good experience,” Buescher said. “We’ve learned a lot through it. We look at Dover as the last race of this round and we really don’t have anything to lose. Chicago and Loudon weren’t the races that we wanted to have and we come into Dover, one of my favorite race tracks.

    “This should be a place where we can really have a good run and see if we can advance to that next round. It’s gonna be tough at this point, but this is probably our best race track out of this round, so I’m excited to get going.”

    Buescher earned his way into the Chase with a win in the rain-shortened Pennsylvania 400 during the summer at Pocono Raceway. He also earned a fifth-place finish in the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway in August.

    During that same stretch of races, however, he’s finished 30th, 35th, 17th, 24th, 28th and 30th. He currently sits 16th in the Chase standings and 30 points out of the 12th place cutoff with this weekend being the first elimination race.

    In his first Cup start at the Monster Mile, he finished 18th four laps down. This time around, he’ll need to finish 11th or better to have a chance of advancing to the Round of 12.

    Despite the odds, Buescher said it’s a little nice to go into a race just worrying about getting the best finish possible.

    “It’s the racing that you’re able to do at the beginning of the year before you’re too worried about the points leading up to the Chase,” he added. “We’ve been in a lot of points racing situations over the last two years and to be able to have a handful where we can go out and like we said, we don’t really have anything to lose here today. All we have to do is gain, so, to me, it’s gonna make it to where we’re able to go out here and not worry about it, take some chances, try and utilize some risk and see if we can pull something off.”