TALLADEGA, Ala.– When asked about the current Dash 4 Cash format in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, Darrell Wallace Jr. said he was “on the fence about it.”
During his media availability early this morning at Talladega Superspeedway, the driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford was asked his thoughts on the Dash 4 Cash format that grants drivers an extra way to make their way into the XFINITY Chase.
“I think one of the factors is we haven’t had the speed enough to put ourselves in position, but I was at Bristol and I was still standing outside my car when they said it was time to roll and start the engines for the feature,” Wallace said. “There is no schedule after that. You run your heats and get back to it. We are just kind of bouncing back and forth not knowing what we are doing. Richmond was a little more organized but still I think it comes down to the speed factor. We have to get a little better to focus on putting ourselves in position to with the $100,000.”
In the two Dash 4 Cash races this season, he’s finished 25th and 16th.
His bad runs, however, didn’t stop him from saying that the program “is a cool concept and it will be interesting to see what the fans say about it. I know there are some of us that are for it and some against it. It is different for us.”
He was also asked if he could apply what he did to earn his sixth-place finish at Daytona to start the season at Talladega and said he wanted “to say yes, but these places are so much about luck. You have to be in the right spot at the right time. We have pretty much the same game plan and hopefully we can get a decent starting spot and get up toward the front and just ride. We have to really plan out the pit stops and not make any mistakes on pit road to get us out there and keep that game plan in order.”
He was then asked about whether his team’s struggles this season was a result of Roush downsizing its XFINITY program from four to two cars and said he didn’t think it was “because of backing off on teams. I think it is just that we are trying new things and trying different things and figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Now it is getting to that point in the season where we have to see what worked and kind of put that together. We are still missing on a lot of other factors as well. Like I said earlier, we are dedicated and 100-percent focused on getting where we need to be. We have some really great tracks coming up for us. Dover, Charlotte has been really good to us. That will be a test to see how we are. Hopefully, we can get some turn through the center. That is the first thing I say on the radio. Hopefully, I won’t be saying that this weekend. We have an off weekend coming up and we can really get in depth more to see what we need to do. I don’t really know what the exact thing is that we are missing. I think it would be really easy and everyone could do it if it was like that.”
TALLADEGA, Ala.– Matt Tifft topped the chart in final XFINITY Series practice at Talladega Superspeedway.
The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 52.639 and a speed of 181.918 mph. Ty Dillon was second in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 52.756 and a speed of 181.515 mph. Brandon Jones was third in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet with a time of 53.098 and a speed of 180.346 mph. Daniel Suárez was fourth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota with a time of 53.110 and a speed of 180.305 mph. Jeremy Clements rounded out the top-five in his No. 51 Jeremy Clements Racing Chevrolet with a time of 53.259 and a speed of 179.801 mph.
Ray Black Jr. was sixth in his No. 07 SS-Green Light Racing Chevrolet. Austin Dillon was seventh in his No. 2 RCR Chevrolet. Erik Jones was eighth in his No. 20 JGR Toyota. Jeb Burton was ninth in his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford. Elliott Sadler rounded out the top-10 in his No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.
No driver posted a 10 consecutive lap average during the session.
The next time the XFINITY Series is back on track is tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. ET for qualifying for the Sparks Energy 300.
TALLADEGA, Ala.– Darrell Wallace Jr. topped the chart in the first XFINITY Series practice at Talladega Superspeedway.
The driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 49.768 and a speed of 192.413 mph. Ryan Reed was second in his No. 16 RFR Ford with a time of 49.783 and a speed of 192.355 mph. Ty Dillon was third in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 49.920 and a speed of 191.827 mph. Matt Tifft was fourth in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 49.961 and a speed of 191.670 mph. Austin Dillon rounded out the top-five in his No. 2 RCR Chevrolet with a time of 50.241 and a speed of 190.601 mph.
Brandon Jones was sixth in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet. Blake Koch was seventh in his No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet. Chase Elliott was eighth in his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Erik Jones was ninth in his No. 20 JGR Toyota. Daniel Suárez rounded out the top-10 in his No. 19 JGR Toyota.
John Wes Townley, who finished 12th in his No. 05 Athenian Motorsports Chevrolet, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 184.942 mph. The XFINITY Series is back on track this afternoon at 1:25 for final practice.
TALLADEGA, Ala.– “Sweet home Alabama, where the skies are so blue. Sweet home Alabama, Lord, NASCAR’s coming home to you.”
This week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series makes its first of two trips to the Alabama roulette wheel in Lincoln, Alabama known as Talladega Superspeedway. The 188 lap race on the 2.66-mile (4.28 km) superspeedway will be the 10th race of the 2016 season.
In 1959, Daytona International Speedway opened its doors. Bill France Sr. built the speedway to be NASCAR’s cathedral of speed. Over the years, it’s grown into one of the great cathedrals of auto racing.
But only a year later, France wanted to build a speedway that would be bigger and faster than Daytona. He first attempted to do so with Occoneechee Speedway just outside Hillsborough, North Carolina but gave up after stiff resistance from the local religious authorities. After failing to find land in Raleigh, he then turned to the stretch of land along Interstate 20 between Atlanta and Birmingham, Alabama. He eventually acquired what used to be Anniston Air Force Base in Lincoln, Alabama and broke ground on May 23, 1968, on what would become the “Alabama International Motor Speedway.” In 1989, the name of the track was changed to the present-day Talladega Superspeedway.
On paper, Talladega is essentially a larger version of Daytona. It’s 6.4 percent bigger than the “World Center of Racing.” Talladega’s turns are banked at 33 degrees versus 31 degrees at Daytona. The tri-oval at Talladega, however, has a 16.5-degree bank, which is 1.5 degrees lower than the tri-oval at Daytona. The biggest difference is that, while the start/finish line is in the center of the tri-oval at Daytona, the start/finish line at Talladega is actually just past the exit of pit road toward turn 1. After the first Daytona 500, France noticed that while seats in the tri-oval were an easy sell, the seats down toward turn 1 at Daytona were a harder sell. To make selling the seats toward turn 1 at Talladega easier, he decided to put the start/finish line past pit road toward turn 1.
At the end of the day, though, Daytona and Talladega race largely the same. Mastering the draft is key to winning at both tracks.
Now let’s talk about drafting. Drafting is the act of two or more vehicles or moving objects lining up to reduce the effect of drag and to exploit a leading car’s slipstream. This also reduces the energy expenditure which translates into using up less fuel.
Handling, especially in the turns, is affected by cars drafting. The lead car has less rear downforce while the trailing car has less front downforce. A car(s) in between the lead and trailing cars will have less downforce on both ends.
The practice of drafting was first used in the 1960 Daytona 500 by Junior Johnson who discovered that drafting in the wake of others cars helped him overcome the lack of horsepower in his Chevrolet to win the race.
Over the years, more and more drivers began picking up the practice and began exploiting it to their advantage.
No drivers mastered plate racing better than Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon. Photo: ISC Archives via Getty Images
Drafting in its modern form took hold after the implementation of restrictor plates. At first, it was typically more single-file trains with drivers using slingshot moves to pass the car in front. Since Talladega in October of 2000, the norm started becoming more of the three, four and sometimes five-wide racing we love.
There are three drivers who I consider the masters of restrictor plate racing.
Nobody drove Talladega better than Dale Earnhardt who won 10 races at the Alabama Roulette Wheel (eight of them being during the restrictor plate era). Combined with his three wins at Daytona, he sits second on NASCAR’s all-time list of restrictor plate points-paying race winners. When you take non-points races into account, that number jumps well into the 40s.
Next is the son of the seven-time Sprint Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. In his career, he’s amassed 10 restrictor plate wins with six at Talladega and four at Daytona. He once won four consecutive races at Talladega from 2001 to 2003. Ironically, in spite of his prowess on the plate tracks, he went 10 years without winning a plate race. In the last two years, he’s begun to reestablish his place as the pied-piper of Daytona and Talladega. Last year alone, he finished third, first, first and second in the plate races. Given that he’s the odds-on favorite at 6/1 this weekend (Vegas Insider), I’m not the only one who sees his ability in restrictor plate races.
The last driver I consider a master of restrictor-plate racing was Jeff Gordon. With six wins at Talladega and six at Daytona, Gordon retired as the winningest restrictor plate driver in the history of NASCAR. Ironically, with all his wins, Daytona and Talladega were among his bottom-four tracks in terms of average finish. In terms of laps led, it was also middle of the pack among the tracks he raced at. But in terms of running at the finish and lead lap finishes, the plate tracks were among his best.
These three drivers wrote the book on drafting and have raced through the evolution of the draft from slingshot moves to packs of cars running three, four and even five-wide. They’ve also experienced their share of being caught in “The Big One.”
A perfect example of The Big One is this wreck from the 2012 Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500.
As you saw in the video, these guys were getting bunched up in rows of four-wide lines of cars as they raced to the finish. One miscalculation as we saw with Tony Stewart sent him spinning and caused the huge wreck. If you should survive The Big One, you’re that much closer to winning at Talladega.
Talladega isn’t just known for wrecks. It’s also known for amazing finishes. Here’s one of my personal favorites from the 2001 Talladega 500.
The late Bobby Hamilton used the draft to move by race leader Tony Stewart coming to the white flag and drove on to score the victory. If you ever get the chance, look up the race on YouTube and watch it from start to finish. You won’t be disappointed.
Tune into the GEICO 500 Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern on FOX or at noon on MRN Radio and SiriusXM (subscription required for the latter). I’m on assignment this weekend, so I’ll be bringing you all the happenings on location in the media center at the Alabama roulette wheel.
When asked what stood out about today’s race, Tony Stewart said, “How much fun I had in it.”
The driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet brought his car home 19th in his first Sprint Cup Series race since Homestead of last season.
“This place is so cool anyway,” Stewart said of Richmond International Raceway. “It’s always been my favorite race track. Like we predicted, a day race we’d be all over the race track. That’s what made it fun. The drivers got to dictate it today as far as…. You weren’t just stuck in one line. You had the ability to move around and change lines. We got in a spot there with a group of five cars racing for position once and it was fun because the five of us totally ran the track totally different. So, it made it a lot of fun. We got the lap down there. I got a lap down and almost drove back by and got my lap back.”
“But Carl (Edwards) was strong. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hang on long, but I was going to hold on as long as I could and hope we got a caution. It just seemed like we would get really close to being able to get that Lucky Dog spot back, and something would happen and we’d miss it by one. So, magic cautions coming out at wrong times for us. But it was fun. I had a good time and I’m looking forward to running the rest of this year with these guys.”
His day wasn’t without mishaps as he made contact with Joey Logano shortly after the lap 258 restart and this cut down his left-front tire. Other than that, it was a typical day for Stewart as had been the case the last two years. He ran in the 20s for much of the race and made it as high as 14th before falling back to 19th.
Even still, he loves to race at Richmond.
“That is Richmond,” he added about racing at Richmond. “That is part of racing at your favorite race track and running a day race here where it gets slippery and you have to use all of the track. That is what made it fun and that’s what I miss, that is the stuff I dearly miss with this series is having days like today where you get on track and you are sliding around and the drivers get to make the difference.”
Next week, he heads to Talladega where he plans to start the race before giving way to a replacement driver.
Carl Edwards used the chrome bumper on the final lap to score the victory at Richmond.
The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 151 of the 400 laps and bumped teammate Kyle Busch out of the way exiting turn 4 to win the Toyota Owners 400. It’s his 27th career victory in the Sprint Cup Series and second at Richmond International Raceway.
“Kyle’s an amazing teammate and it’s like he got really slow there at the end,” Edwards said. “Something happened that last lap. It was like his rear tires went off or something. He went down into (turn) one and I drove it in and I got to him and I thought, ‘Man, I’ve got something.’ And he went to get down to the bottom and park it in three and four and I had already decided to go down there so I thought, ‘Man, I’m going to give him a little nudge,’ and we both have got wins and we’re racing for fun getting these trophies and just an awesome day.
“Man, I didn’t think we had anything. Kyle was so good there for that run. I was doing everything I could. He never spun his tires and if Dave (Rogers, crew chief) hadn’t screamed at me to just go get him that last lap I don’t know if I would’ve drove it in there that well. Just a team effort.
“It’s an afternoon race which made it a lot of fun to drive and a bunch of families here. Just very cool…it’s a big win for us.”
Busch wound up in the runner-up spot after leading 78 laps in his No. 18 JGR Toyota.
“It was just racing I guess,” Busch said of being bumped by Edwards. “We had a great car.
“We were fast. Maybe not as good as Carl was on the long run but we did everything right. We did everything we were supposed to do and put ourselves in the right position. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) made some awesome adjustments to this car. We lost it there the second to last run and were fading a little bit but the guys gave me an awesome pit stop, got me track position and got us out front and we had a shot to win so that’s all that matters.”
Jimmie Johnson led 44 laps on his way to rounding out the podium in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
“I think this tire was perfect for what we’ve been asking for,” Johnson said. “We had multiple lanes that laid the rubber in the race track and we didn’t have all those marbles build-up on the outside, where it really limited your opportunities up high. It was fun. The cars were slipping and sliding; there was a ton of fall off. I enjoyed the long runs. I really like sizing up guys that I’m racing with and seeing how that works out. And then, at the end, we had a bunch of short runs.
“We kind of lost our way in the middle part of the race, but we had good pit stops and some great adjustments at the end got us into the top-three.”
Kasey Kahne posted his first top-five finish of the season with a fourth-place finish in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet.
“The Mountain Dew Chevrolet was great the whole race,” Kahne said. “The pit stops were awesome and just the communication with Keith (Rodden, crew chief) and the team all weekend long; same as last week and same as the weekend before in Texas. It’s been solid and we’re heading in the right direction. It’s been really nice. We got a good restart there at the end. I had pretty good starts all day. I screwed one up and other than that, we had good restarts. It feels good.”
Kevin Harvick led 63 laps on his way to rounding out the top-five in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.
“We started really loose to start the race and got into the wall there and we had to make some more adjustments after I self-adjusted it (laughs),” Harvick said. “And then, we had a couple of really good runs there in the middle of the race. As we started adjusting on it, we never could get the rear drive to go along with the turns. It’s kind of a balance of where the turn is good enough and you can still manage the drive, but everybody tried everything we could. We threw a lot at it and just never could find that magic balance for the car that we had there in the middle of the race.”
Denny Hamlin led one lap on his way to a sixth-place finish in his No. 11 JGR Toyota. Matt Kenseth led two laps on his way to a seventh-place finish in his No. 20 JGR Toyota.
“I thought the track was okay,” Kenseth said of the multiple grooves. “There was a little bit more room than there typically was. I never really went for it real far. I got back to about seventh, where we are, and that’s about what I was at the beginning when we had our problems so I could never quite get up there with the best cars. But, it was nice it widened out a little bit.”
Joey Logano finished eighth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.
“I needed to find a different lane,” Logano said. “Every lane I found didn’t work. At the end, it started to and I felt like maybe a couple of more restarts and good pit-stops we could have track positioned ourselves to be closer to the front and maybe squeak out a top-five at the end. Taking a car from being the 35th-place car to a top-five car throughout a race is quite impressive for what my team was able to do today. It was great teamwork. Everyone kept working hard and those are great opportunities to implode internally as a race team and completely throw away a whole race and start yelling and screaming at each other but there was not one moment of that today from my team. Everyone was very methodical about the changes and we tried things that didn’t work so we went the other way and it started to work for us. I am proud of the effort from my team today. We need to make the cars a little faster, but I am proud of the effort.”
Martin Truex Jr. finished ninth in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. Kurt Busch led 55 laps on his way to rounding out the top-10 in his No. 41 SHR Chevrolet.
The race lasted three hours, five minutes and 26 seconds at an average speed of 97.070 mph. There were 23 lead changes among eight different drivers and eight cautions for 49 laps.
Edwards leaves Richmond with a seven-point lead over Harvick.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. dominated and survived a late race wreck to score the victory in the XFINITY race at Richmond.
The driver of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet led 128 of the 149 laps on his way to winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond International Raceway.
“I didn’t even realize I hadn’t won before,” Earnhardt said of his first win with JRM. “It was a great run for us. Ty (Dillon) was pretty good at the end. He drove into (Turn) 3 pretty deep and I followed him in there.”
It’s his 24th series win, first since 2010, fourth at Richmond and first at the track since 2002.
Ty Dillon finished second in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet while Elliott Sadler rounded out the podium in his No. 1 JRM Chevrolet. Daniel Suárez finished fourth in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
“I think the day was decent,” Suárez said. “All of these guys work super hard. I felt like having just one practice, 55 minutes, it was the same for everyone but I just felt like it didn’t help us a lot. Our car was good but we needed to work a little bit more on the car to make it better. It was just a little bit difficult in the heat race. Man, it was maybe 35 laps more difficult today but all of the guys never give up on me and I never give up on them and we finished with a decent top-five.”
Austin Dillon rounded out the top-five in his No. 2 RCR Chevrolet.
Cole Custer finished sixth in his XFINITY Series debut in his No. 5 JRM Chevrolet as Brendan Gaughan finished seventh in his No. 62 RCR Chevrolet. Blake Koch finished eighth in his No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet followed by Brad Keselowski who finished ninth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.
“We just didn’t have the speed that we wanted,” Keselowski said. “We tried a little strategy play there at the end but then everybody wrecked and I lost the track position. I tried to get it back but just couldn’t do it.”
Brennan Poole led three laps on his way to rounding out the top-10 in his No. 48 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.
The race lasted one hour, 11 minutes and 37 seconds at an average speed of 93.623 mph. There were four lead changes among four different drivers and two cautions for 20 laps. The last of which involved a 10-car wreck in Turn 2.
Suárez leaves Richmond as the points leader with a nine-point lead over Sadler.
Jimmie Johnson topped the chart in final Sprint Cup Series practice at Richmond International Raceway.
The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 22.342 and a speed of 120.849 mph. Kasey Kahne was second in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet with a time of 22.384 and a speed of 120.622 mph while Kyle Busch was third in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 22.408 and a speed of 120.493 mph. Kevin Harvick was fourth in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet with a time of 22.430 and a speed of 120.374 mph and Carl Edwards rounded out the top-five in his No. 19 JGR Toyota with a time of 22.504 and a speed of 119.979 mph.
Matt Kenseth was sixth in his No. 20 JGR Toyota as Martin Truex Jr. finished seventh in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. AJ Allmendinger was eighth in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet. Paul Menard was ninth in his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet followed by Joey Logano who rounded out the top-10 in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.
Johnson posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 119.667 mph. Harvick was second at an average speed of 119.001 mph.
All that remains for the Sprint Cup Series is Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400.
Kevin Harvick topped the chart in the abbreviated for rain first Sprint Cup Series practice at Richmond International Raceway.
The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 20.919 and a speed of 129.069 mph. Joey Logano was second in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford with a time of 20.980 and a speed of 128.694 mph while Jimmie Johnson was third in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 21.063 and a speed of 128.187 mph. Carl Edwards was fourth in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 21.064 and a speed of 128.181 mph as Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five in his No. 11 JGR Toyota with a time of 21.068 and a speed of 128.156 mph.
Brad Keselowski was sixth in his No. 2 Penske Ford and Kurt Busch was seventh in his No. 41 SHR Chevrolet. Kasey Kahne was eighth in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet followed by Kyle Busch who was ninth in his No. 18 JGR Toyota. AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top-10 in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet.
Tony Stewart, who was 18th in his No. 14 SHR Chevrolet, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 120.327 mph. Casey Mears, who was 25th in his No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet, posted the second best average at a speed of 120.298 mph.
“The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading…” and I need to make it clear that the NASCAR garage is not a place for lolly-gagging.
After Kyle Busch wrecked out of the race and brought his car behind the wall, his car ran into a woman taking pictures. The woman, Erin Vandyke, was treated at the infield care center and later taken to a local hospital. As of the publishing of this piece, it’s unknown if she’s been released.
I decided to talk about this because I’ve seen people tweet that Busch should be suspended for this. Well here’s the thing, the garage area is not a playground where you can just do whatever as a fan.
Before I could start working in the media center, I was told there are two standing rules in the NASCAR garage area: be aware of your surroundings and DO NOT interfere with pit crew operations. Ignoring one or both of those rules are the fastest ways to get your hot pass pulled. In order to work in the media center, I have to keep my head on a swivel and make sure my photography isn’t preventing a crew member from getting to where he/she needs to go.
Yet in the three races I’ve been on assignment this season, I’ve seen constant cases of fans not paying attention to their surroundings and being in the way of crew members trying to get to their destination. This is especially apparent when the track is hot and the cars are rolling in and out of the garage. I can’t count how many times that I’ve about gotten hit by cars because I can barely get out of their way with some fan behind me who won’t move. Just yesterday, because far too many people had hot passes at Bristol, I couldn’t move out of the way of a member of Casey Mears’s team who was taking gas cans back to the stall. If a security person had been near, I probably would’ve had my hot pass pulled because of fans who just had to be looking at their damn phones.
The point I’m driving at here is that the race track is a dangerous place and you must have constant awareness of your surroundings. If you don’t, you’re going to get yourself injured or killed. If fans continue to not pay attention, NASCAR will start coming down harder on you and make hot passes harder to get.
My plane is about to take off, so I must get going. Until next time, I’ll leave you with this fact. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies room during a dance.
The opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the writer. They may or may not represent the views of SpeedwayMedia.com.
