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Author: Tucker White

  • Edwards Grabs the Pole for Sunday’s Race at Bristol

    Edwards Grabs the Pole for Sunday’s Race at Bristol

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Carl Edwards will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday at Thunder Valley.

    The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota scored the pole for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway with a time of 14.991 and a speed of 127.997 mph. This is his 18th career pole in 417 starts in the Sprint Cup Series.

    He described taking the pole position as, “Just awesome, what Comcast Business does is they find solutions for complex problems and this place is really complicated and my guys did a really good job making the car drive well on all different segments. When you’re driving in the corner and these things take off and slide and Dave (Rogers, crew chief) and everybody did a really great job. It’s really cool to get this pole.”

    Defending race winner Matt Kenseth will start second in his No. 20 JGR Toyota after posting a time of 15.059 and a speed of 127.419 mph.

    “We were just a little off,” Kenseth said. “These guys did a great job with our Dollar General Camry today. Obviously, all of the JGR cars were fast again so thanks to everyone who’s building these things and TRD (Toyota Racing Development) with the engines. In the first round we were pretty good we thought and then the second round we tried something and we were too tight and then the third round we were a little too loose really. We were just that much off, but overall it was a great day and we’ll still get a good pit stop and a good place to start and hopefully we’ll get it driving good tomorrow and we can race them on Sunday.”

    Joey Logano will start third in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford after posting a time of 15.086 and a speed of 127.191 mph.

    “It’s always exciting qualifying here at Bristol,” Logano said. “I’m not sure I’m holding my breath, but I’m breathing really hard when I’m done, so I’m thinking I probably do hold my breath. Things happen so quick around this race track and we’ve got a really good AutoTrader Fusion. We were close. We won the first session. We were second in the second session and in the third session we were third, so we just kept losing a little bit. Overall, I’m proud of the effort and it’s obviously a decent starting spot for a 500-lap race.”

    Denny Hamlin will start fourth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota after posting a time of 15.132 and a speed of 126.804 mph.

    “The car has good speed and that’s one good thing about it,” Hamlin said. “The FedEx Freight car has really had good speed all day. Those last two rounds definitely didn’t go the way we had hoped – the track changed a little bit there and we didn’t quite keep up with it. Overall, pretty happy with the effort. That will get us a good pit stall hopefully and we can have a smooth 500 laps around here Sunday.”

    Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five starters in his No. 18 JGR Toyota after posting a time of 15.162 and a speed of 126.553 mph.

    “We’re alright, the second round was really good and not sure what happened in the third round,” Busch said. “Just missed the speed we were looking for and got real loose on entry. Didn’t make up a whole lot of time from the loose on entry on the exit.”

    Jimmie Johnson will start sixth in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

    “I’m excited about how comfortable the car has been, the speed that we have had in it,” Johnson said. “Practice sessions can be quite frustrating for us here and qualifying sessions. To be off to a good, calm, smooth, fast start is really good for us.”

    Kevin Harvick will start seventh in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

    “I’m really happy with where we qualified as bad as it drove on entry,” Harvick said. “We just had a loose into the corner that we hadn’t really expected. They made some good adjustments and we were able to salvage a decent position and get a good spot. Hopefully, we will make it better than it was in race trim in practice tomorrow.”

    Martin Truex Jr. will start eighth in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. AJ Allmendinger will start ninth in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet.

    “Overall, just getting better in all of qualifying,” Allmendinger said. “We have made the second round every race so far, which heck, we weren’t even close to that last year. I think we have made the third round at least close to half. It’s a big deal. We are just getting more speed in the cars, trying to learn how to get through these three rounds of qualifying. The guys that do it every weekend they know what tire pressure, what to do to keep up with the race track as the tires go off. There are definitely a couple of cars that are way quick, but to be top 10 at Bristol in qualifying is a huge deal. Everybody gets lapped pretty quickly here, so hopefully we can stay up front and keep working on the car. We have some room to improve for sure. It’s getting good.”

    Trevor Bayne rounded out the top-10 qualifiers in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

    “That’s a pleasant surprise for our race team,” Bayne said. “Coming to a short track we know that’s not our strongest suit, especially in qualifying when you’re asking the most out of the race car. Normally, we can make the long run speed, but to have short run speed and get a good qualifying spot here at Bristol is a big deal. Track position is always huge. Starting 10th, we’re on the outside lane. As the race progresses you definitely want to be on the outside on restarts. I’m just really proud of this team. Last year, I would have been throwing a party right now if we were top 10 in qualifying here. The fact that I’m not jumping around and acting crazy is that we’re getting immune to running well and that’s a good thing. We keep pushing that needle every week. Last week was one of our strongest runs that we’ve had all season, and I thought we had a top-5 car, so to come to Bristol and keep building on that and have consistency to be able to do it every week and not be so hit or miss, it’s come a long way for this AdvoCare team and I can’t be more proud of my guys.”

    Kasey Kahne will start 11th in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet. Brad Keselowski rounded out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying in his No. 2 Penske Ford.

    During round 1, Ty Dillon got loose exiting turn 2, slid down the track and slammed into the rear of Landon Cassill’s car.

    When asked if he could’ve avoided being hit, Cassill said he “wasn’t looking in my mirror. If I would have seen a car sideways at the right time, I probably would have tried to speed up. I don’t know how much that could have helped me, but it’s bad timing on my part, I guess.”

    Neither will go to a backup car.

    “It’s quite a bit of damage to the right-rear,” Cassill said. “It’s gonna be a lot of work for the guys to fix it, but it’s pretty much just cosmetic, so we’ll get it fixed, I think.”

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  • Koch Fastest in Final XFINITY Practice at Bristol

    Koch Fastest in Final XFINITY Practice at Bristol

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Blake Koch topped the chart in final XFINITY Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway.  The driver of the No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 15.516 and a speed of 123.666 mph.

    Kyle Busch was second in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 123.364 mph. Austin Dillon was third in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 15.555 and a speed of 123.356 mph. Jeb Burton was fourth in his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford with a time of 15.579 and a speed of 123.166 mph. Erik Jones rounded out the top-five in his No. 20 JGR Toyota with a time of 15.612 and a speed of 122.905 mph.

    Kyle Larson was sixth in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Ty Dillon was seventh in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet. Daniel Suárez was eighth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota. Elliott Sadler was ninth in his No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Joey Logano rounded out the top-10 in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

    Busch posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 122.007 mph. Jones was second at an average speed of 121.940 mph. Larson was third at an average speed of 121.761 mph.

    The XFINITY Series will be back on track tomorrow morning at 9:30 for pole qualifying.

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  • Austin Dillon Fastest in First XFINITY Practice at Bristol

    Austin Dillon Fastest in First XFINITY Practice at Bristol

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Austin Dillon topped the chart in first XFINITY Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway.  The driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 15.570 123.237 mph.

    Kyle Larson was second in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 15.588 and a speed of 123.095 mph. Brandon Jones was third in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet with a time of 15.598 and a speed of 123.016 mph. Brendan Gaughan was fourth in his No. 62 RCR Chevrolet with a time of 15.617 and a speed of  122.866 mph. Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 15.647 and a speed of 122.819 mph.

    Kevin Harvick was sixth in his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Justin Allgaier was seventh in his No. 7 JRM Chevrolet. Joey Logano was eighth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Erik Jones was ninth in his No. 20 JGR Toyota. Ty Dillon rounded out the top-10 in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet.

    Allgaier posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 121.341 mph. Busch was second at an average speed of 121.314 mph. Gaughan was third at an average speed of 120.934 mph.

    The XFINITY Series will be back on track this afternoon at 3:00 for final practice.

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  • Hamlin fastest in first practice at Bristol

    Hamlin fastest in first practice at Bristol

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Denny Hamlin topped the chart in first Sprint Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 14.913 and a speed of 128.666 mph.

    Martin Truex Jr. was second in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 14.944 and a speed of 128.399 mph. Brad Keselowski was third in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a time of 14.947 and a speed of 128.374 mph. Jimmie Johnson was fourth in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 14.970 and a speed of 128.176 mph. Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-five in his No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 15.018 and a speed of 127.767 mph.

    Kevin Harvick was sixth in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was seventh in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet. Kyle Busch was eighth in his No. 18 JGR Toyota. AJ Allmendinger was ninth in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet. Carl Edwards rounded out the top-10 in his No. 19 JGR Toyota.

    Casey Mears, who finished 17th in his No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 121.472 mph.

    The Sprint Cup Series will be back on track this afternoon at 4:15 for pole qualifying.

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  • Blaney Says ‘There’s Really Been No Rivalry’ with Elliott

    Blaney Says ‘There’s Really Been No Rivalry’ with Elliott

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Despite being neck and neck in the Rookie of the Year battle, Ryan Blaney says there’s no rivalry going on with Chase Elliott.

    Speaking before the media during his press conference this morning, the driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford was asked if there’s a rivalry in the making with the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with the two of them controlling the rookie battle after seven races of the 2016 Sprint Cup Series season.

    “There’s really been no rivalry between us,” Blaney said. “It’s been pretty fun to race with Chase every single weekend. I haven’t really had the opportunity to do that, ever. We never really raced together every single weekend. Even growing up in late models, we were never around each other that much. So it’s nice to do that and have fun with your friends on the race track.

    “They do a great job over there (Hendrick Motorsports), so it’s been fun and we’re just trying to get our cars better. But you notice where they’re running. I like to know where my teammates are running and where some friends of mine are running on the race track. But at the same time, you have to go back and worry about your own deal and try to make your car better. It’s great that they’re running good, but we have to make sure our car is better and just worry about our program.”

    Elliott currently leads the rookie battle with 87 points. Blaney sits in second place, 13 points back.

    During the availability, he also addressed working on his conditioning with the longer races in the Sprint Cup Series.

    “I feel like I haven’t really changed that much, to be honest with you, as far as preparation or anything like that,” Blaney added. “I got a small taste of it last year running half the schedule and we were able to do a handful of 500-mile races. We did the (Coca-Cola) 600 in Charlotte, so not a lot of that has changed. I feel like the biggest thing is it’s not really physical for me, it’s more mental and trying to keep mentally focused for 500 miles. I think that’s what most of the drivers fight and that’s something I’ve been trying to work on and make better. That’s helped out a lot. I had a great opportunity to kind of train with DeAngelo Williams, who plays for the (Pittsburgh) Steelers now, but he was in Charlotte and I was hanging out with him a little bit and he kind of told me his preparation and what he does mentally.”

  • Colossus Comes to the ‘Last Great Coliseum’

    Colossus Comes to the ‘Last Great Coliseum’

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Just as Colossus of Rhodes stood tall over the ancient world, Colossus of Bristol hangs tall over Thunder Valley.

    First conceived in October of 2015 by Bruton and Marcus Smith, the new four-screen center-hung jumbotron makes its debut during this weekend’s NASCAR festivities at Bristol Motor Speedway. It will also be in place for this September’s Pilot Flying J Battle at Bristol.

    “Colossus was first imagined by Bruton and Marcus Smith, so we knew it would be big,” said Bristol Motor Speedway Executive Vice-President and General Manager Jerry Caldwell. “Every time I walk into the stadium, I’m blown away by their vision and by what our crew has accomplished. Basically, our build team put together a high-tech building three-stories tall and hung it in the sky.”

    “To go from the original designs and models to seeing and hearing the real deal – this has been a larger than life process, every step of the way,” said Marcus Smith, chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc. and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway. “The unveiling of this system at Bristol Motor Speedway means a whole new level of entertainment and interactivity for fans of NASCAR, for football fans and for guests of events we haven’t even imagined yet. Colossus has transformed Bristol, and the state of Tennessee, into one of the most versatile and amazing entertainment destinations on the planet.”

    Colossus hangs 104 to 110 feet off the ground depending on the temperature, according to Bristol Motor Speedway, and weighs nearly 700 tons. It’s held up in the air by a supporting ring that weighs 127 tons, 117 tons of cabling and four supporting towers, eating weighing 437 tons, placed outside turns 1, 2, 3 and 4.

    The screens measure 63 feet wide by three stories tall and are 4.5 times larger and 20 feet closer to the stands than the previous scoring pylon. With 18-million pixels and nearly 54-million LED’s, the screens display 281-trillion different color combinations. According to Bristol Motor Speedway, Colossus has the “highest viewing quality of any permanent outdoor stadium display in the world” as it features 2880 x 1350 lines of resolution, compared to the average home HDTV screen at 1920 x 1080.

    The track claims that Colossus “has a mighty roar” with 485 speakers powered by half a million watts. It provides a listening distance of “no more than 90 feet from speakers to ears.

    Construction of Colossus took 155 days with the help of 200 workers.

    “Last December, the towers were up, the cables were here and we were trying to figure out the process of raising the halo,” said Vice-President of Operations and Development for SMI Steve Swift. “All the connections had to be made at the same time while the structure was in the air. That was a very complex and challenging process with a very tight timeline. Someone suggested keeping the old infield scoring pylon in place just in case we couldn’t get it done in time. I jumped in and said ‘No, not an option.’ So the pylon came down and our safety net was gone.

    “Watching everything come together was amazing,” Swift said. “There were some late nights with the Musco lights burning and freezing cold days when we were hanging steel, but the team made it look easy. All of us can look back now, laugh and appreciate everything we went through together.”

  • Rusty Wallace to Give Command on Sunday

    Rusty Wallace to Give Command on Sunday

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Rusty Wallace will deliver “the most famous words in motorsports” for Sunday’s race at Thunder Valley.

    Speaking at the corporate headquarters in Abingdon, Virginia, Steven C. Smith, president and CEO of Food City, announced that the NASCAR Hall of Famer will give the command to fire engines for this Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

    “Over the years, Rusty has always been one of the greatest supporters of Food City and our racing program,” Smith said. “As the driver who boasts the most Food City 500 wins (six), we thought it appropriate to recognize his tremendous contributions to our company and the sport by naming him Grand Marshal for the 25th running of the Food City 500.”

    In 44 career starts at Bristol, the 1989 Sprint Cup Series champion amassed nine wins (including four season sweeps), 22 top fives (50 percent) and 29 top-10s (65.91 percent),a 9.6 finishing average and 3723 total laps led. In 14 of those 44 starts, he led more than 100 laps and he also led at least one lap in 29 starts at Bristol.

    Wallace’s last two wins at Thunder Valley came in a season sweep of the races in 2000. He started sixth and led 86 laps on his way to winning in the spring. In the summer, he started on the pole and led 279 laps on his way to winning.

    He finished his career tied with Dale Earnhardt and Cale Yarborough for second on the all-time wins list at Bristol behind Darrell Waltrip and his 12 wins.

     

  • 2016 Food City 500 Preview

    2016 Food City 500 Preview

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– “In my Tennessee mountain home, life’s as peaceful as a baby’s sigh. In my Tennessee mountain home, the sound of roaring thunder sings in fields nearby.”

    This week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to my part of the country – Bristol, Tennessee – to run the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The 500-lap race on the .533 mile (.858 km) concrete short track will be the eighth race of the 2016 season.

    I have no problem saying that Bristol is my single favorite track on the entire schedule. What’s not to love about it? It’s got the bumping and banging that we all love about short track racing and it’s got actual racing. It’s also my home track being just a 90-minute drive from where I live in Knoxville.

    Inevitably, there will be someone out there moaning about how it’s not like it used to be. Those people are right. Bristol is not like it used to be. It’s better! I will argue the point until the day I die that Bristol today is far superior to the Bristol of yesteryear, but that’s an argument for another day.

    There are two ways to approach Bristol; the classic against the wall on the straights and dive to the bottom in the turns and the current ride against the wall all the way around. The latter became more prevalent back in August of 2012 and is now the main way to get around the concrete short track.

    Passing becomes a challenge at Bristol as it is at most short tracks. In the past when the only way around Bristol was the bottom, you had to forcibly move a guy out of the way or wait for him to make a mistake. Now, you either move the guy in front out of the way and into the wall or you dive bomb under the car in front. This carries a lot of risks because you have to slow down the car a lot more so as to not slam the wall and it allows the car behind to get by you very easily. If you can keep the car you passed behind through the whole process, then you can move on and focus on the next car.

    We’ve seen on many occasions over the years at Thunder Valley that tempers do flare. Controlling the beast inside is key to doing well at Bristol.

    Now let’s get to the drivers to watch this weekend.

    We start off with the odds-on favorite to win this weekend at 6/1 (Vegas Insider), one Kyle Thomas Busch.

    In 21 career starts at Bristol, the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has amassed five wins, eight top fives (38.10 percent) and 13 top-10’s (61.91 percent) for an average finish of 12th.

    He’s also riding a hot streak of two straight wins at Martinsville and Texas coupled with two straight weekend sweeps.

    Now here’s where the numbers aren’t in his favor.

    Since the introduction of the Gen-6 car, he’s finished second, 11th, 29th, 36th and eighth for a 17.2 average finish. That’s 43.3 percent worse than his career average.

    He’s also not won at Bristol in Cup since 2011.

    He does, however, tend to be up front near the lead at Bristol. In his last five starts, he’s led 56, zero, 73, eight and 192 laps.

    So while I expect him to be in victory lane at Bristol in the XFINITY Series, Sunday will be more of a toss-up. Given the run he’s on as of late, I would be wrong to discount him on Sunday.

    The next driver on my list at 7/1 is Joseph Thomas Logano.

    In 14 career starts at Bristol, the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford has amassed two wins, three top fives (21.43 percent) and four top-10’s (28.57 percent) for an 18.6 finishing average. While that doesn’t sound all that great, all those top fives and three of those top-10s have come during his time with Penske. In his time with Penske, he’s finished 17th, fifth, 20th, first, 40th and first for an average finish of 14th. That’s 24.73 percent better than his career average.

    Interestingly, none of them have come in the spring race at Bristol.

    He’s no stranger to being in the lead at Thunder Valley with a career total of 408 laps led. The only other track where he’s led more is Martinsville. The last time we visited Bristol, he led 176 laps on his way to scoring the victory.

    I expect to see Logano fighting for the win on Sunday.

    The next driver to watch at 7/1 is Kevin Michael Harvick.

    In 30 career starts at Bristol, the driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet has amassed one win, 10 top fives (33.3 percent) and 13 top-10s (43.3 percent) for a 14.6 career finishing average.

    His stats are even less impressive when you use the sample size of the last six races. In the last six, he’s finished 14th, 38th, 39th, 11th, 38th and second for a 23.7 finishing average. That’s 62.33 percent worse than his career average.

    Why I bring him up is because even with the poor finishes, he still has a strong car that’s up front. In the last six races at Bristol, he’s led zero, seven, 28, 75, 184 and zero laps. That’s an average of 49 laps led per race. He was in control of this race a year ago before being caught up in a late-race wreck with David Ragan (who was subbing for Busch at the time).

    I expect Harvick to be a contender on Sunday.

    Next at 8/1 is Bradley Aaron Keselowski.

    In 12 career starts at Thunder Valley, the driver of the No. 2 Penske Ford has amassed two wins, four top fives (33.3 percent) and five top-10s (41.67 percent) for a 14.3 career average.

    For Keselowski, Bristol has been either hit or miss. That’s clear in his last six starts with finishes of third, 30th, 14th, second, 35th and sixth for a finishing average of 15th. That’s 4.90 percent worse than his career average.

    Unlike the others on this list, Keselowski is the one driver I’m iffy on. Granted, his record is comparable to Harvick’s. But Harvick has been bringing strong cars to Thunder Valley the last two years while Keselowski has been bringing cars that are just good at best.

    While I expect to see Keselowski get a top-10 finish, I don’t see him winning on Sunday.

    The final driver at 10/1 is Matthew Roy Kenseth.

    In 32 career starts at Thunder Valley, the driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota has amassed four wins, 13 top fives (40.63 percent) and 20 top-10’s (62.5 percent) for a 12.8 finishing average.

    In his last six starts at Bristol, he’s finished 35th, first, 13th, third, first and 42nd for a 15.8 finishing average. That’s 23.44 percent worse than his career average.

    In his last six starts, he’s led 85, 149, 165, 62, 47 and zero laps for a combined total of 508 laps. That’s 35.53 percent of the nearly one-thousand 500 laps (1430) that he’s led overall at Bristol.

    It’s also worth noting that this season has been anything but kind to Kenseth after eight races with only one top-10 finish.

    If there’s one track that’s been kind to him over his career, it’s Bristol. After the monsoon of last April, Kenseth had enough fuel to end a 53-race winless drought and scored the victory.

    I expect Kenseth to get it together sooner rather than later and there’s a good chance that he does it this Sunday at Thunder Valley.

    You can catch the Food City 500 this Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on FOX and on the radio via the Performance Racing Network and Sirius XM (subscription required for the latter). Since this is my home track, I’ll be on location starting today bringing you all the happenings from the media center and press box at Thunder Valley.

  • Texas in the Rear-View

    Texas in the Rear-View

    It’s time to put a nice little bow on the events from this past weekend in Fort Worth, Texas.

    For those of you not familiar with the rear view, I just realized how wrong that could sound out of context. Every Monday after a Sprint Cup Series race, I give my take on the drivers who made headlines from the weekend’s events.

    Let’s start with one Kyle Thomas Busch.

    The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota didn’t have the best car on Sunday morning, but he showed why he’s the best re-starter in the business when he took control of the lead with 32 laps to go and won the race. Granted, he was also helped by the leader not stopping for tires and I’ll touch on that in a moment, but he found himself in the right place at the right time and scored his 36th career victory.

    Busch is on a roll with four straight combined wins in NASCAR’s top-three national touring series and I don’t expect that to slow down with the next stop on the schedule, Thunder Valley.

    Jimmie Johnson, who came into this past weekend with three straight wins at Texas, was a non-factor the whole night as he drove his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to a fourth-place finish. The highlight of his night was running into the rear-end of the eventual race winner on pit road under the first caution of the race.

    “We overcame a lot today,” Johnson said. “On that first pit stop, everyone was checking up and I hammered the back of the 18. We had to fix damage on the nose, and it wasn’t pretty. There’s a big hole up front and that couldn’t have been helping us at all. There’s a lot of fight in this Lowe’s team today. I’m thankful for the great equipment and the fight that these guys have because with all the damage and adversity we went through tonight, to come home fourth is really good for this Lowe’s Chevrolet.”

    After the race, he said the damage was “really bad. So I’m really glad we finished as well as we did.” The fact that he finished as great as he did was incredible indeed. Most drivers in that position would have given up.

    Speaking of drivers in a predicament, Chase Elliott dropped to the rear of the field for a transmission change and still fought his way to a fifth-place finish. In vintage Elliott fashion, despite it being his career best finish, he’s still not satisfied.

    “Yeah, it was a step in the right direction,” Elliott said. “We’re definitely not satisfied running fifth. I feel like we have a group of guys that are capable of doing that. We’ll keep digging at it. We have a long way to go with a lot of racing to go in the season. We’ll keep working to get where we can roll with those guys.”

    I really wish the guy wouldn’t be so hard on himself. The sky is the limit for the son of 1988 Sprint Cup Series champion Bill Elliott and he’s going to win at some point this season.

    Now we get to Martin Truex Jr. The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota led 142 of the 334 laps, but opting to stay out on the second to last caution of the race was what ultimately cost him the victory.

    “We just ran out of tires, you know,” Truex said of facing Busch on the final restart. “Made it through (turns) one and two side-by-side, got to three and just didn’t have the grip. Then we fell back because we were sliding around. Everybody had new tires, we ran under caution for a long time, they keep building air pressure and losing grip. Pretty big disadvantage, but can’t say enough about the guys for the race car they brought here and the weekend we had. It hurts. It’s happened a few times to me here. Hurts a little bit, but we’ll get over it and we’ll move on and we’ll take the positives out of it tonight.”

    He said afterward that the original plan was to stay out, but Cole Pearn, Truex’s crew chief, called him in at the last second. Truex opted to stay out because he “didn’t want to hit the cone.”

    “It’s just the way it goes,” Truex added. “Had we went green that next restart, we did OK. We got the lead and we drove away. We just kept getting yellows and caution laps and the tires just kept getting more air in them and more air in them. By the time we finally got moving there, we just didn’t have the grip everybody else had. Just sliding around. It’s frustrating, but that’s racing. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”

    Growing up as a Jeff Gordon fan, I know what it’s like to see my driver dominate a race like Truex did and staying out cost him the win like at Martinsville in 2012. So I can feel his pain.

    I saw him dominate in this fashion for four straight races last season and he finally made it to victory lane in the fourth at Pocono Raceway. If he continues to have great cars like this, he’ll be back in victory lane in no time.

    The last driver I’ll touch on is Kasey Kahne. After a frustrating season to date, the driver of the No. 5 HMS Chevrolet finished eighth and gave Hendrick 40 percent of the top-10 finishers.

    “We just battled,” Kahne said. “We got behind, got a lap down early again and we just had to fight back. The team did an awesome job to do that. We had great calls to get the car tightened up; I was so loose that I couldn’t go fast enough for a little while there. There at the end we were actually pretty competitive the last probably 250 laps, like really competitive. We were down a lap a lot of it, but we were really competitive. Once we got back up there I think we were definitely a top 10 car and we finished eighth. It was the best we have done in a long time. It feels nice.”

    I’m not going to touch on what happened between Kahne and Greg Biffle right now because I’ll be doing a separate piece on that later today, but I will say he took full blame for what happened.

    That about sums up the events in Texas. This week, NASCAR heads to our Tennessee mountain home of Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City 500. This race is in my backyard being 90 minutes from Knoxville, so I’ll be on location this weekend bringing you all the happenings from Thunder Valley.

     

  • Loose Wheel Robs Edwards of Chance at Victory

    Loose Wheel Robs Edwards of Chance at Victory

    A missing lug nut cost Carl Edwards a chance at victory in the Lone Star State.

    After starting on the pole, the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led a good chunk of the front-half of the Duck Commander 500. After leading 124 laps and coming off a fast stop, he was in position for a duel to the finish with Martin Truex Jr.

    But prior to the restart, he felt a vibration and opted to ignore it. After the race restarted on lap 222, he started to slow down and made an unscheduled stop because of a loose wheel.

    “I felt a problem right away,” Edwards said. “My mistake was I should have pulled to pit immediately. I was still in denial, (thinking) ‘Maybe I’m imagining something…maybe something got stuck on the tire.’ Then I realized, ‘This was not good.”‘

    He rejoined the race in 19th one lap down.

    Thanks to the misfortunes of others, he was able to salvage his race and bring his car home to a seventh-place finish. But that was little, if any, consolation to him as teammate Kyle Busch stole the race from Truex in the closing laps and scored the victory. He jokingly said he was “about done being happy for Kyle.”

    “Nah. It’s awesome for JGR,” he said. “Our car is fast. That’s what it’s about. We run like that long enough and we’ll be fine. It was fun.

    “It’s just racing. Look, I’m as disappointed as anybody but there’s nothing we can do about what happened. If we race like that regularly, we’re going to be great.”

    For the most part, Texas Motor Speedway has been kind to Edwards over the years. In 23 career starts at the 1.5-mile circuit, he’s finished in the top-10 in over half his starts and in the top-five in just over a quarter of his starts. His 124 laps led were the first laps he’s led at Texas since 2013.

    Despite the respectable numbers he’s put up, he’s yet to win at Texas in eight years.

    “It’s been a good track for me,” Edwards added. “We’re doing great. We had the fastest qualifier, led the second-most laps. We were going for it tonight. It just didn’t work out.”

    Edwards leaves Texas sitting fourth in the points 18 back of teammate Busch.

    The next stop on the schedule is Bristol Motor Speedway, a track which he’s had some great runs at in the last two years.