“The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading…” and I want to unload on the races I considered “disappointing” this season.
I welcome you to this special edition of The White Zone. For the next five days, I’ll be counting down my picks for the five most disappointing races of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
This list is not a collaborative effort among the Speedway Media staff. It’s all my opinion. Also, this is not – I repeat, not – a list of the worst races of 2015. Without giving anything away, there may or may not be races on this list that I personally considered good. My definition of a “disappointing race” is one that leaves a bad taste in my mouth when it’s over.
This list will take place over the course of the next five days. Today will be pick number five, tomorrow is four, Wednesday is three, Thursday is two and Friday will have the dishonorable mentions and my pick for the most disappointing race of 2015. There’s a good chance that opinions will differ on the placement of races in this list. As such, if you feel that one race should be in a different place or one race should have made this list, please feel free to leave a comment below.
Without further ado, let’s get this countdown on the track.
#5 Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway
Photo Credit: Sean Gardner/NASCAR via Getty Images
Kicking off the list in the fifth spot is the Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
This was NASCAR’s second attempt at using the high-downforce package. The first attempt at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a big disappointment. Now to be fair, Indy is far too flat to run that much downforce. So logically, the higher banked turns at Michigan would seem to be a better fit for this package.
The result of the second test was a big fat fail. The racing was single-file for most of the 200 laps and the only exciting parts during the race were the restarts. But even the restart excitement died out after half a lap. While cars could pull up to another car, the wake produced by the leading car created a wall that made it next to impossible to pass the car ahead. In fact, the only time the lead changed on the track was during pit cycles.
In all fairness, though, I set my expectations low for this event. It played out largely the way I expected it to play out. It was almost to the point that I considered just putting this race in the dishonorable mentions. What made me put this race on this list was the number 3,886. That was the total number of green flag passes in the race. That number is significant because it was one less than the total green flag passes in the race at Michigan in June. That’s right, the race that went the entire 200 lap distance had one fewer green-flag pass than the race that was cut short by torrential rain.
All of the above is why I’m giving the number five spot on my list to the Pure Michigan 400.
Do you agree with the placement of this race? Leave your thoughts below. I’ll be back tomorrow with my number four pick in my countdown of the most disappointing races of 2015.
Stop me if y’all have heard this one before; Dale Earnhardt Jr. is NASCAR’s most popular driver.
Friday, the driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was given the NMPA Sprint Most Popular Driver Award for the 13th consecutive year. He’s the only active driver to have won it. The two other drivers to have won it on this side of the millennium are the retired Bill Elliott and the deceased Dale Earnhardt. Elliott has won the coveted award a record 16 times. The award is the only one that is based entirely on NASCAR fan voting.
Over 410,000 ballots were cast by fans on NASCAR.com over an 11-week span that concluded with the Ford Championship Week at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
When all this started, I never dreamed I would win 13 of these,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Our fans, they just continue to support what we do and I’m thankful for that. We won three more races this year, which is good and gives me a lot of hope for 2016, and the fans are staying with us year in and year out. We’ve been able to reward that loyalty with victories, which is how it should be.”
Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that the man has a legion of followers wherever he goes. In fact, the only person surprised at the results was the winner of the award himself.
“I thought Jeff (Gordon) was going to win it, to be honest with you — his last year,” Earnhardt said. “You just never know. You never take it for granted. I’ve got a rabid fan base and a lot of great support. They work tirelessly to support our team.”
That last part of his quote is an understatement. You just need to visit Talladega Superspeedway to really see Junior Nation in full force.
With that said, he might have competition for this award next season with Chase Elliott coming into the Sprint Cup Series. Elliott won the Most Popular driver in the XFINITY Series for the second consecutive year in 2015.
“The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading…” and I want to know why we don’t do other activities on All-Star weekend.
Every year on the weekend before the Coca-Cola 600, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series gathers at Charlotte Motor Speedway to run the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. It’s composed of winners from the previous season and the races preceding it in the current season, past winners of the event, past Sprint Cup Series champions, the winners of the two Sprint Showdown races and the recipient of the fan vote. It’s your old school Saturday night shootout where the winner gets a million dollars.
But that’s not what I’m here to talk. I’m here to talk about the lack of miscellaneous events that you find at All-Star events of the stick and ball sports.
Now you could argue that the city of Charlotte and the NASCAR shops are in and of themselves miscellaneous events. However, when I look at the All-Star weekends in other sports, they tend to have a common denominator. They all have skills events that precede the main event. These events include the home run derby in Major League Baseball, the SuperSkills competition in the NHL and the shooting stars competition, the skills challenge, the three-point contest and the slam dunk contest in the NBA.
Now not all of them have miscellaneous events with their All-Star game. The NFL Pro Bowl doesn’t have any skills competitions preceding it. Although you could argue that the Pro Bowl itself is a miscellaneous event that leads up to the Super Bowl.
Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Some of you might remember that we used to have skills events leading up to the All-Star Race. The first one was always the pit crew challenge which gave the winning team of the event the first pit stall choice on race night. They did away with it in 2013 due to a lack of sponsorship.
Another, for a few years, was the burnout contest where the track brought in some celebrities to score the burnouts. For some reason, that too went away.
So I’ve been giving this some thought and I’d like to throw out some suggestions for skills events. One would be a celebrity race event. The basic premise is that you put some famous people in cars – probably something from the Richard Petty Racing Experience or the Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure – and let them run a mini race. Before you say, “they don’t know how to drive a race car,” they’ll let anyone drive a car if they let me drive 10 laps around Talladega. The presence of these celebrities might bring some added exposure to the All-Star Race itself.
Personally, I’d rather see something like having drivers from other forms of racing do this event instead of pop culture stars, but this time of May is when the big boys are preparing for Memorial Day Sunday. Which is what I, and others in the racing world, consider the single biggest day of racing on the planet.
Another thing I’d like to see is an obstacle course race where you put down cones and the drivers have to navigate the makeshift road course in the fastest time.
This next one is not so much a car-related challenge, but it still requires skill nonetheless. We take the four drivers with the most Twitter followers, give them a minute and see who can sign the most memorabilia.
And, since this is a fantasy, let’s bring back the Pit Crew Challenge.
If you guys have ideas for other skills events, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section.
My plane is about to take off, so I must wrap this up. Until next time, I’ll leave you with this fact. Nylon is made from coal and petroleum.
A new face is joining the NASCAR executive hierarchy.
NASCAR announced today that Scott Miller will take over as the Senior Vice President of Competition. He takes over the position from Robin Pemberton, who announced yesterday that he was leaving the post at the end of the 2015 calendar year. The Senior Vice President of Competition is responsible for managing all competition efforts related to technology, inspection, rule development and officiating across all NASCAR racing series.
Miller will be subservient to NASCAR Executive Vice-President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell and will be based at the Research & Development Center in Concord, N.C.
Prior to accepting the position, he spent the last four years as the head of competition at Michael Waltrip Racing. Under his leadership, the organization put at least one car in the Chase in 2012 (two), 2013 and 2015.
“I’m looking forward to using the experience I’ve gained working within teams in an entirely new way at NASCAR,” Miller said. “Our sport has evolved quickly over the last several seasons through advanced technology and its creative application in the garage area. We will strive to continue this forward momentum while assuring a level playing field and competitive racing. It’s a challenging opportunity and a logical next step for me. I can’t wait to get started.”
His résumé includes motorcycle racing in AMA Motocross, being an owner/driver in the NASCAR Winston West Series from 1983 to 1990, five seasons as a chief mechanic in the Verizon IndyCar Series and TriStar Motorsports in 1995.
It appears Kyle Busch isn’t the only one at Joe Gibbs Racing going under the knife this offseason.
Denny Hamlin underwent successful surgery today to repair the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in his right knee. This was previously scheduled and was done by Dr. Patrick Connor of OrthoCarolina. The knee is expected to recover by the time Speedweeks starts up in February at Daytona International Speedway.
The driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota tore it while playing basketball September 8. This is his second ACL tear in a span of six seasons and the second that resulted from playing basketball.
It didn’t slow down his performance as he scored the victory in the opening Chase race at Chicagoland Speedway. When he arrived in the media center afterwards, he asked, “how many of you had me getting bounced this round?” Most of the crowd raised their hands.
His status for the Champion’s Week’s festivities is unknown at this time.
Nico Rosberg ends the year on a high note with a hat trick over Lewis Hamilton.
The driver of the No. 6 Mercedes AMG Petronas car scored the victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit. It was his sixth win of the season and 14th of his career. He led all but two of the 55 circuits. The reigning world champion, Lewis Hamilton, finished runner-up in his No. 44 Mercedes car. He finishes the season with 10 wins (one less than the year before) and 17 podium finishes (tying Sebastian Vettel’s Formula 1 record for most podium finishes in a season).
Kimi Räikkönen rounded out the podium in his No. 7 Scuderia Ferrari. The 2007 world champion ends the season with just three podium finishes. Vettel came home fourth in his No. 5 Ferrari after a blunder in qualifying relegated him to a 15th-place starting position. The four-time world champion finishes his maiden season with the men of Maranello with three wins and 13 podium finishes. Sergio Pérez rounded out the top-five in his No. 11 Sahara Force India Mercedes. He finishes the season with one podium finish.
Daniel Ricciardo finished in sixth in his No. 3 Infiniti Red Bull Renault. After winning three races in his maiden season with Red Bull in 2014, he finishes the season with a less than stellar two podium finishes. Nico Hülkenberg finished seventh in his No. 27 Force India Mercedes. While his F1 season was uninspired at best, his 2015 motorsports season included scoring the overall victory in the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans. Felipe Massa finished eighth in his No. 19 Williams Martini Racing Mercedes. He ends the season with two podium finishes. Romain Grosjean finished ninth in his No. 8 Lotus F1 Team Mercedes. He finished on the podium once in his last season with the team. He moves over to the Haas-F1 Team based in Kannapolis, N.C. along with Esteban Gutiérrez. Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top-10 in his No. 26 Red Bull. He finishes the season with one podium finish.
Hamilton locked up the world championship at Circuit of the Americas back on Oct. 25. His final total for the season is 381 points (three points short of his 2014 total). Rosberg locked up second in the points with his win at Brazil two weeks ago. His final points total is 322 (besting his 2014 total by five points). Vettel ends up third in the points with 266 (besting his 2014 total). Räikkönen finishes in fourth with 150. Bottas finishes in fifth with 136.
Massa, Kvyat, Ricciardo Peréz and Hülkenberg round out the top-10 in points.
Mercedes locked up the constructors’ title in Sochi. They finish with a grand total of 703 points. According to NBC, they set a new record for the largest percentage of total points possible to accumulate at 86.47 percent. The most points a constructor can amass in a single race is 43. Multiply that by 19 and the most points a team can amass in a season is 813. Take 703, divide it by 813 and you get your result.
That’s all for 2015, but preparations for 2016 begin tomorrow. Some teams will stay at the track to test Pirelli’s new ultrasoft tires. During the winter, late January and early February, the teams will begin preseason testing at the Circuito de Jerez and the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Formula 1 starts up its 67th season at Albert Park Lake in Melbourne on March 20 for the Australian Grand Prix. As of the publishing of this piece, the 2016 season will include 21 races, including the return of the European Grand Prix at the new Baku City Circuit in the capital city of Azerbaijan on June 19 and the return of the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring on July 31. The United States Grand Prix remains in its position on the calendar on Oct. 23 at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
In case you missed it, Kyle Busch will be having surgery in the offseason.
The reigning Sprint Cup Series champion and driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will have surgery in mid-Dec. to remove the plate and screws out of his left foot. He’ll also have a second separate surgical procedure to remove a rod from his right leg. If the rod isn’t removed and Busch gets caught up in another high-speed wreck, he could have complications if the rod were to break. The plan is to perform both procedures at the same time.
Busch suffered a compound fracture – when the bone breaks the skin and sticks out of the body – in his right leg and broke his left foot on Feb. 21 in the season-opening XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
Busch returned after missing 11 races and following his first win of the season at Sonoma Raceway, he went on a tear and drove his way to the championship.
Busch spoke about the surgery and the recovery period during a teleconference Tuesday.
“When I get the foot surgery done, I haven’t heard exactly how long I’m supposed to be off of that, but the doctor made it seem as if once the plates and screws come out, I’ll be able to walk on it right away. It’ll be to rehab to make sure that all the joints that have been immobilized for the last nine months, we get them kind of woken back up in a smooth fashion and break it in, let’s say.”
“I’m going to be down for probably, they said, about four weeks with the leg,” Busch continued. “Just having to re-go through the knee and to cut the knee open again in order to pull the rod out, that’s going to be the most traumatic part — and just having that have to heal and go back together and let the muscle get back together, and of course the tendon as well.”
For those of you who don’t remember the wreck, please see the video below.
As you can see in the video, Busch was bumping Erik Jones through the tri-oval when he got Jones sideways. He was then bumped by Brian Scott, bounced off Kyle Larson, slid down the track and slammed the unprotected inside wall down towards Turn 1.
It’s time to put a nice little bow on everything that went down yesterday in Homestead.
Kyle Busch found himself standing atop the sport as the winner of the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway and as the 2015 champion of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. He was either running in the lead or in second for most of the evening. He led 41 total circuits of the 267 lap race and finished with a 136.0 driver rating.
When asked about the euphoria of winning the title, he said, “it feels amazing. You know, I don’t know that anybody could have ever dreamt of this year especially, but to have dreamt of my career path the way it’s kind of gone, it’s certainly amazing to have the opportunity right now to be in this position with Joe Gibbs and M&M’s and Toyota and Adam Stevens. For them all to prepare such a great race car for me tonight, to be able to go out there and perform in this format and to do what we did to end up in victory lane and to win this championship by winning the race was something special.”
I’d be remiss not to remind everyone that his season started with breaking his leg and his foot in a crash in the season-opening XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway in February.
What amazed me even more was the speed of his recovery. By Easter, he posted this picture on Twitter of himself standing like it was nothing again.
Up until that time, the most reasonable timetable for his return was believed to be Daytona in July. When I brought this up to ESPN’s Bob Pockrass at the rainy tweetup prior to the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in April, he told me and the other five people there that Busch was aiming to return at the All-Star Race the following month.
On May 12, Busch made it official with a 24-second video on Twitter saying #RowdyReturns May 16. In his first ride since the accident at Daytona, he came home sixth.
The next week, Busch made his first Sprint Cup start since the season finale Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead in 2014. He finished the Coca-Cola 600 in 11th. Erik Jones was on standby if he couldn’t run the entire race, but he completed all 400 laps and all 600 miles.
The next three races were not too kind to him, however. Despite a strong showing at the Monster Mile, he was collected in a late-race wreck with Brian Scott. He had a solid ninth-place finish the next week at Pocono Raceway. At Michigan, Kyle Busch was running in the top-10 when his car snapped loose exiting Turn 2 and slammed the wall.
After that, Busch was ready to throw in the towel and look ahead to 2016. Adam Stevens talked him off the ledge and focused him onwards.
Kyle Busch celebrates his return to victory lane at Sonoma Raceway. Photo: Missvain Wikimedia Commons
When the Sprint Cup Series headed out west to Sonoma Raceway, the driver of the No. 18 car beat the dominant car of the race, driven by Jimmie Johnson, and took the checkered flag.
He said afterwards that the win was “awesome” and that he couldn’t “say enough about my team, everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. I can’t say enough about my medical team that got me back in shape and ready to go behind the wheel. We have our work cut out for us, we knew we did in the beginning and I knew we put us in the hole in points. It’s unfortunate that we’ve had a couple crashes. I hate it for my guys, they don’t deserve to be in that spot. They have certainly worked hard all year long.”
Kyle Busch found his way to victory lane again in dominant fashion at Kentucky. Photo: Daniel Shirey/Getty Images
In the debut race for the low-downforce aero package, Busch led 163 of the 267 laps to win the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway.
He said that the way he won was ” what we’ve got to do. Just to score as many points as we possibly can. To score those wins, that’s what’s going to get us to where we need to be. We led the most laps and we won the race, so that’s all you can score. We’ll just continue to push on and thrive.”
Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
At Loudon, he led 96 of 301 laps on his way to winning the 5-hour Energy 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
He completed the trifecta at Indianapolis by winning the Brickyard 400. He was the first driver to win three consecutive races since Jimmie Johnson won four consecutive races in 2007.
Photo: Robert Laberge/Getty Images
I’ll get off Busch by addressing the elephant in the room. That elephant, of course, is the fact that Kyle Busch won the title despite missing the first 11 races.
A lot of people, fans and members of the NASCAR media core, questioned NASCAR’s decision to grant him a waiver from the rule that requires a driver to at least attempt to qualify for every Sprint Cup Series race in order to be eligible for the Chase.
Rowdy gives his signature bow to the Sprint Cup trophy. Photo: Jared C. Tilton/NASCAR via Getty Images
If you feel that it cheapens his and every other driver that has won the title, I understand and sympathize with your judgement. With that being said, I have absolutely no problem with him being champion. NASCAR still required him to finish the 26 race regular season in the top-30 in points and win a race.
Given that he had only won two races combined in the previous two seasons, I thought it would be impossible for him to work his way into the Chase. I thought that it might’ve been better had he opted not to race the rest of the 2015 season and make his return in 2016. It’s good to see he didn’t take my advice because he clawed his way back and now reigns over the NASCAR world.
Kevin Harvick failed in his quest for back-to-back titles. Photo: Chris Trotman/NASCAR via Getty Images
“Second — it seems like that was the theme of our season.” That’s how Kevin Harvick summed up his record-setting 13th runner-up finish of the 2015 season. It broke a tie with Bobby Allison who had 12 in 1972.
A statistically superior season to his championship season in 2014 wasn’t enough to net the driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet back-to-back titles. While he finishes the season with half the wins he amassed in 2014, he finishes with 23 top-fives (63.89 percent), 28 top-10s (77.78 percent) and over two-thousand laps (2,294) led.
I can only imagine that this near miss will only increase his desire to win it all in 2016. I can’t imagine him not being a factor when the green flag flies on the new season in February.
Martin Truex Jr.’s career season didn’t end with a title. Photo: Jonathan Ferrey/NASCAR via Getty Images
The “underdog” was unable to prove a match for Busch and Harvick.
Martin Truex Jr. struggled most of the second half of the race and came home a disappointing 12th. It was enough to give the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet a fourth-place finish in the final drivers point standings.
“Obviously, it’s a little disappointing where we ended up,” Truex said. “We definitely didn’t come in here saying we’d be OK with fourth. We tried our best, but it just wasn’t in the cards for us tonight. It’s frustrating to have a day like this because everything was on the line.”
With the 2015 season in the books, FRR will head back to Denver and begin their move to the Toyota camp. I hope this year wasn’t a one-time fluke and that Truex will be back to compete in Daytona.
Jeff Gordon ends his NASCAR career with a sixth-place finish. Photo: Chris Trotman/NASCAR via Getty Images
After 23 years and 797 races, the curtain has fallen on the career of Jeffrey Michael Gordon.
Now I normally would go in finishing order, but I felt this would be a better way to finish this piece.
When the sun was shining, Gordon had a very good car. When the moon rose, his car became undriveable. He could only climb up to a sixth-place finish in his final race. It was enough to vault to a third-place points finish for the final time.
Being the final race for the legend, Homestead sent him off with one of the coolest card stunts I’ve seen in any sporting event. If you didn’t catch it when NBC showed it, here is a screenshot of it.
The now retired driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet finishes his career with 93 wins, 325 top-fives (40.78 percent), 475 top-10s (59.60 percent), 81 poles, 24,929 laps led, over 150-million dollars in earnings, an average start of 10.4, an average finish of 12.5, 581 lead lap finishes (72.90 percent), 698 races in which he was running at the finish (87.58 percent) and – according to Brock Beard at Lastcar.info – only four career last place finishes (less than one percent).
It’s sad that yesterday was his last start in NASCAR. Big Daddy Jeff is the reason I fell in love with NASCAR many years ago. Nobody ever wants a good thing to end, but all things must end at some point. Next year is only the beginning for Gordon as a broadcaster as he joins Mike Joy and Darrell Waltrip in the booth at Fox. As a driver, to quote a famous George Strait song, “this is where the cowboy rides away.”
That about wraps everything up from yesterday in Homestead. It may be the offseason, but I’ll still be here all winter writing pieces for “The White Zone” whenever I have something that’s on my mind. Next week, I’ll do a week-long series where I’ll list what I considered the 10 best races of 2015 and the five most disappointing races of 2015.
Until next time, I’ll remind you we’re only 90 days away from the 58th running of the Daytona 500.
The curtain has fallen on the 2015 season and Kyle Busch is standing atop the NASCAR world. The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota scored both his 34th victory and first championship in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. He’s the fourth driver in NASCAR history to win a title in both the XFINITY Series and Sprint Cup Series. He and brother Kurt join the Labonte brothers (Terry and Bobby) as the only brothers to have won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.
While he was certainly a strong choice to win the title going into the 2015 season, nobody would have said that he would win it after sitting out the first 11 races of the season following a crash in the season-opening XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway. I remember thinking that it might have been best if he sat out the rest of the year and return to racing in 2016.
However, Rowdy made an incredible comeback with an 11th-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 back in May. He locked his way into the Chase by winning four of five races in the summer at Sonoma, Kentucky, Loudon and Indianapolis.
“I don’t know if I quite understand life yet, but there’s something to be said about this year,” an emotional Busch said on his team radio.
That comment deserves the understatement of the year award.
Kevin Harvick finished runner-up for the 13th time this season. That breaks a tie with Bobby Allison for the most second-place finishes in a single season.
“We were definitely a little bit off tonight, and we never really found anything that really helped the car,” Harvick said. “I thought at the end, we might do better than that. The 18 car just had us beat all night. I just couldn’t find anywhere that would make the car better.
“To come back from everything’s that he’s come back from, that’s a great comeback story from where he was after Daytona.”
Brad Keselowski led a race high 0f 86 laps on his way to rounding out the podium. Teammate Joey Logano finished fourth and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five.
Jeff Gordon came home sixth in his 797th and final Sprint Cup Series start. Matt Kenseth finished seventh in his return from a two-race suspension. Kurt Busch finished eighth followed by Jimmie Johnson in ninth while Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-10.
Martin Truex Jr. came home in 12th.
A 31st-place finish gives Brett Moffitt the 2015 Rookie of the Year honors.
Rowdy is the first driver to win a championship without running all the races since Richard Petty in 1972.
The race was slowed by seven caution flag periods for 30 laps. It lasted three hours, two minutes and 23 seconds at an average speed of 131.755 mph. There were 18 lead changes among eight different drivers.
That puts a wrap on the 2015 season. As of the publishing of this piece, we’re just 91 days from the 58th running of the Daytona 500.
A few cars had their nights ruined early in the going at Homestead.
On lap 47, Clint Bowyer bounced off Ty Dillon exiting Turn 2. He over corrected, slid up the track, clipped Dale Earnhardt Jr. and sent him into the inside wall. Both drivers took their cars to the garage with Bowyer unable to continue on.
“Just crashed. Just extremely disappointed to end this way,” he said. “I was optimistic about today, this is one of my best tracks. But I pitted and came off pit road and the car just went to complete hell. … I got squirrely and the car just came out from underneath me.”
Aric Almirola was unable to avoid Bowyer and slammed into his rear.
Casey Mears and David Ragan were also caught up in the wreck.
Under the caution, Jimmie Johnson was called down to pit road by race control to fix the right-rear side skirt that was inadvertently caved in by his jackman on his previous pit stop. Adding insult to injury, he was also forced to serve a drive-through penalty on the ensuing restart.
