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  • Kyle Busch Four for Four Wins in Truck Series with Monster Mile Victory

    Kyle Busch Four for Four Wins in Truck Series with Monster Mile Victory

    Kyle Busch, in his No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award Toyota, scored yet another ‘W’ in the Camping World Truck Series Lucas Oil 200, making it four wins in four races this season.

    This was Busch’s fourth victory, fourth top-10 finish for the 2014 season, and his fourth victory at Dover International Speedway. Busch achieved his eighth perfect driver rating in the Truck Series as well.

    “We had a really good truck,” Busch said. “Eric (Phillips, crew chief) and these guys have done a really good job this year. Last year and maybe a little bit more the year before, we’ve been working on our stuff to make it a little bit faster. All that work’s paying off this year.”

    “I think these guys here and everyone back at the shop prepared some good trucks,” Busch continued. “It’s been fun to be up front and lead laps in the Series. A couple of our lead competition guys, the 88 had trouble today and the 29 just came on a little too late. Excited to see Toyota in Victory Lane and the NASCAR Foundation too.”

    Busch credits his four for four victory spree on “being focused and in good stuff, believing in it and believing in these guys.” The team that bears his name is first in the Owner Points and Busch is excited to continue to run for that honor.

    Busch advised that he was handing the wheel back to Erik Jones for the next few races until he steps back into the race truck at Kentucky.

    “I’m really excited now to see Erik Jones get in the car and run some races,” Busch said. “I told him that just because they change the name on the roof, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t end up in Victory Lane. The pressures is on these guys to keep going and keep the Owner’s Championship up in the points.”

    While Busch dominated the Monster Mile for most of the race, he was getting some heavy competition from Matt Crafton, that is until Crafton’s tire went down and he hit the wall on Lap 156. The driver of the No. 88 Rip It Energy Fuel/Menards Toyota finished 23rd and fell out of the points lead as a result.

    With Crafton out of the race, Ryan Blaney, behind the wheel of the No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford came on strong to finish in the runner up position. This was Blaney’s second top-10 finish in two races at Dover and is his third top-10 finish of the season.

    Blaney now sits in the seventh spot in the points standings.

    “We didn’t start in the best spot, in 14th, but got into the top five fairly quickly,” Blaney said. “We had to work our way to the front from there. They did a great job on pit road all day and had good stops. We gained some spots there a few times.”

    “With about 50 or 60 to go, we had a pit stop and had a loose left front wheel,” Blaney continued. “Luckily we caught it before we went back green. We were able to come back and change it and then we had a caution maybe 20 laps after that. I was able to line up sixth and finally got a break. But I don’t think it mattered as nobody was going to catch the 51. He was something else.”

    Truck Series veteran Johnny Sauter, driver of the No. 96 Nextant/Curb Records Toyota, finished third. This was Sauter’s third top-10 finish in six races at the Monster Mile.

    “For whatever reason, we were a long run truck,” Sauter said. “I didn’t run my fastest lap until Lap 18. Having said that, we knew that we needed to get some speed. We started the race too tight and made some adjustments.”

    “I’m just proud of my guys, especially the over the wall guys,” Sauter continued. “They made gains by leaps and bounds on pit stops today. We had a solid day. We weren’t the fastest truck by any means but we were comparable to the leaders on the long run. Solid points day for us and the truck is in one piece, which is easier said than done at a place like Dover.”

    Ben Kennedy, behind the wheel of the No. 31 Click It or Ticket Chevrolet, was the highest finishing Rookie of the race. And as such, he readily admitted that he had plenty of lessons learned from the Monster Mile track experience.

    “It was pretty good,” Kennedy said. “It was a day of ups and downs for us I guess. We were crazy free in a couple of runs and then got really tight. I’m proud of the whole team because coming from practice we weren’t that great. It was a good day for us and a good day for the Delaware Highway Safety team.”

    “Changing track conditions is something I really learned today,” Kennedy continued. “It was pretty drastic with the setup we had. We went from the first half of the run being pretty awesome to the second half of the run being wrecking loose.”

    “The shade coming up from the casino as the sun sets over there was a big thing for me. Every time I get behind the wheel I learn and gain confidence. Hopefully, we will be up there in the top five running consistently soon.”

    Brandon Jones, driver of the NO. 33 Exide Chevrolet, and Joey Coulter, in the No. 21 Allegiant Chevrolet rounded out the top five in the finishing order.

    Peters emerged as the points standings leader by one point over Matt Crafton. The unofficial results from the Lucas Oil 200 are as follows:

    POS Car # Driver Make

    1 51 Kyle Busch Toyota

    2 29 Ryan Blaney Ford

    3 98 Johnny Sauter Toyota

    4 33 Brandon Jones Chevrolet

    5 21 Joey Coulter Chevrolet

    6 8 John Hunter Nemechek Toyota

    7 31 Ben Kennedy Chevrolet

    8 19 Tyler Reddick Ford

    9 77 German Quiroga Jr Toyota

    10 17 Timothy Peters Toyota

    11 30 Ron Hornaday Jr Chevrolet

    12 5 John Wes Townley Toyota

    13 92 Scott Riggs Ford

    14 0 Cole Custer Chevrolet

    15 50 T.J. Bell Chevrolet

    16 54 Darrell Wallace Jr Toyota

    17 2 Tyler Young Chevrolet

    18 13 Jeb Burton Toyota

    19 63 Justin Jennings Chevrolet

    20 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb RAM

    21 20 Gray Gaulding Chevrolet

    22 32 Ben Rhodes Chevrolet

    23 88 Matt Crafton Toyota

    24 39 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet

    25 99 Bryan Silas Chevrolet

    26 35 Mason Mingus Toyota

    27 9 Brennan Newberry Chevrolet

    28 57 Norm Benning Chevrolet

    29 7 Jake Crum Chevrolet

    30 8 Jimmy Weller III Chevrolet

    31 56 Raymond Terczak Jr Chevrolet

    32 42 Charles Lewandoski Chevrolet

    33 40 Todd Peck Chevrolet

    34 0 Ryan Ellis Chevrolet

    35 36 Blake Koch RAM

  • Kyle Busch Dominates Lucas Oil 200 at Dover International Speedway

    Kyle Busch Dominates Lucas Oil 200 at Dover International Speedway

    On Friday afternoon at Dover International Speedway, it was all Kyle Busch as he dominated, leading 150 of the 200 laps on his way to winning the Lucas Oil 200. It marks Busch’s fourth victory this year in four starts.

    “I can’t say enough about everyone on this Kyle Busch Motorsports team, everyone at Kyle Busch Motorsports chassis — they are building us some awesome chassis — they’re fast,” Busch commented. “I just want to say thanks to Toyota and Toyota Care that we had the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award with us this week. I know the submissions are over, but it’s a great award at the end of the year that goes to the people that help the kids in their community the most. We appreciate people being able to do that and reminds us a lot of the Kyle Busch Foundation.”

    Busch would lead from the pole all the way till lap 74 when he’d head down pit road under green just as the caution flew for Brennan Newberry wrecking on the frontstretch. Eric Phillips made the heads-up call to send Busch down pit road without stopping, keeping Busch on the lead lap. Busch would lose his track position, restarting seventh. He would then work his way through the field, passing Matt Crafton at lap 121 for the lead and never looking back.

    “I’ve been loose in traffic even by leading just coming up on lapped trucks and everything,” Busch commented. “I basically came down pit road there when we were coming in for our stop and I said, ‘Hey, now that I’m going to be further back in traffic make sure you tighten me up some just to put some extra wedge in and put some extra track bar to it.’ Sometime to help secure the back of the truck just to make sure that I didn’t make a mistake back in traffic. It certainly took me a little bit to get back up to the front. I got to third real quick and then I just kind of stalled out there.

    “The 88 (Matt Crafton) was really good. I hate to see Matt have trouble like that especially hits like that. I mean, man, I hope he’s alright. The 29 (Ryan Blaney) was fast. So, the 88 and the 29 we knew were in our league and those were the guys that we were going to race and those are the guys that I had the hardest time passing. But, overall, I just kind of bided my time. Knew I had a long ways to go.”

    Ryan Blaney would run in the top-five all day, finishing second. It marks a good rebound for the second-generation driver following the bad luck that he has suffered the past two races. Johnny Sauter kept his consistency going, finishing third.

    “It was an eventful day,” Sauter noted. “Just proud of everybody at ThorSport. Proud of my guys in the pits today. They were phenomenal. They’ve done a lot of work making that matter and I think that this finish has probably a lot to do with that. Our Nextant Aerospace/Curb Records Toyota was really good on the long run, I just lacked short run speed and kind of did all day like we talked about on the pre-race show. I just didn’t run my fastest lap in practice until lap 18.”

    Brandon Jones and Joey Coulter rounded out the top five, followed by John Hunter Nemechek, Ben Kennedy, Tyler Reddick, German Quiroga and Timothy Peters. Notably, due to Busch’s speed, only seven trucks finished on the lead lap.

    Gray Gaulding and Ben Rhodes were both running in the top 10 today, though wrecked out with 29 laps to go due to Quiroga getting loose and making contact with Gaulding.

    “They gave me a great truck, but without practice, we were in a bad predicament,” Rhodes commented. “I was really loose at the beginning, fell back a bunch of spots. We were climbing our way back up through there. The 77 was passing the 20 – I was trying to go high and the 77 got aero loose, into the 20 and I was in the bad spot at the wrong time.”

    Matt Crafton came in as the points leader, though had a tire go down while running in second spot, resulting in heavy contact with the wall with 45 laps to go.

    “Just the right front went down. Just didn’t give me a lot of warning,” Crafton commented. “All of the sudden it went boom and it was good. First run we were good, second run we were a little off and we were trying to get it back to where it needed to be. We free’d it up a little too much, and I thought that we’d be in good shape for the end of the race.”

    As a result, Peters moves into the points lead, one point ahead of Crafton and Sauter.

  • Johnson Reclaims Charlotte Glory with Superb Coca-Cola 600 Performance

    Johnson Reclaims Charlotte Glory with Superb Coca-Cola 600 Performance

    From lap one to lap 400, Sunday Night at Charlotte belonged solely to Jimmie Johnson. Johnson and his No. 48 team dominated as they perfectly executed a game plan en route to their first victory of the year.

    The victory was Johnson’s 67th career series win which places him eighth on the all-time wins list. It was his seventh points win at Charlotte Motor Speedway, breaking a tie with Bobby Allison for most wins at the track and his fourth Coca-Cola 600 victory. Only Darrell Waltrip has won more 600s, with a total of five wins.

    Rarely does this team go too far into the season without scoring a victory. However, the team wasn’t fazed by the somewhat slow start. This was demonstrated in the race as Johnson once again proved why he’s a six-time champion.

    After the race, Johnson was asked about the significance of the win.

    “It means a lot,” he said. “Through the years a lot of references (have been made) to this race as one of our majors. I certainly agree with that. 600 miles around here is no easy task. To deal with all the things that are thrown at a race team through the evening with the track changing, the mechanical obstacles that you have to overcome, keeping an engine alive, tires alive, all of it; it’s a serious team effort to finish 600 miles. And then win here, especially as hard as we had to run throughout the night, the pace we had to keep up, certainly proud of that.”

    Throughout the race, it was typically one of three drivers leading the field. Johnson, Kevin Harvick, and Matt Kenseth all had fast cars and found themselves leading for large portions of the event.

    Harvick was first to take the top spot away from Johnson on lap 76. He maintained the lead until the ensuing restart after the second caution when Johnson soared back by.

    Brad Keselowski was another driver who stuck his nose out front at different points in the race as he and Paul Wolfe worked out a different pit strategy. The strategy was successful in getting the No. 2 car out front; however it did not work out in their favor at the end as they placed tenth at the end of the night.

    Unlike last year’s Coca-Cola 600, only one multi-car incident occurred throughout the race. On Lap 235, Marcos Ambrose spun off turn four. As drivers attempted to slow and avoid the accident, Josh Wise came in hot and hit the back of Landon Cassill which started a chain reaction. Brian Scott and Danica Patrick were also involved.

    Kenseth made his way to the top spot on Lap 271. He was able to hold the position for a majority of the race’s second half.

    Kurt Busch’s attempt at the Indianapolis-Charlotte double was going fine until Lap 273. Busch had placed sixth in the Indianapolis 500 earlier, but would finish 40th in Charlotte after blowing his engine 906 miles into his attempt at completing 1,100 throughout the day.

    Despite the disappointing end, Busch was upbeat and satisfied about the day as a whole. “A day I’ll never forget,” was how Busch described his attempt at the double to FOX.

    The eighth and final caution of the night came with 22 laps remaining. Jeff Gordon was the leader on the ensuing restart; however Kenseth would quickly regain the spot.

    Johnson made the winning move with eight laps to go when he passed Kenseth. He then cruised to victory as he frequently did prior to the repave of the track in 2006.

    Harvick came home second after being a threat early on and cited issues on pit road that thwarted their efforts.

    “We had a fast car all night,” he said, “just kind of fumbled again on pit road, got behind, got a lap down.  We needed a 700-mile race to get back to where we needed to be. All in all, they’re doing a great job of putting cars up on the track; we just have to clean up on pit road.”

    Kenseth couldn’t get the job done and ended up third. He still has yet to score a victory in 2014. He was generally satisfied with the team’s efforts but said the car lacked the necessary speed.

    “Overall for the weekend, I thought it was a step in the right direction,” he said. “I thought we were more competitive tonight. I didn’t think we were quick enough to win unless everything fell exactly our way. Even then I couldn’t quite hang on. Overall I thought it was a step in the right direction. I thought we had a top-five car all night. Great pit stops, great adjustments, just couldn’t hang on to it at the end.”

    Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top five, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively. Brian Vickers, Jeff Gordon, Paul Menard, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski complete the top 10.

    Jeff Gordon, who finished seventh, retains the series points lead followed by Matt Kenseth who is 11 points behind in second place. Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards are tied at 24 points behind the leader for third and fourth in the standings and Dale Earnhardt Jr. fell one spot to fifth place.

    NASCAR’s two home weeks concluded with the waving of the checkered flag. Now, all three series head to Delaware for a battle with the Monster Mile at Dover next weekend.

     

     

  • The History 300 is History, Larson Comes Out on Top

    The History 300 is History, Larson Comes Out on Top

    Kyle Larson ran the entire 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series season without a win but he now has two in 2014. Larson scored his first career win at California in March and he backed that up Saturday with an impressive win at Charlotte in the History 300.

    Though he now competes full-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, he also still competes in most of the Nationwide Series events. The 2014 season has been much better for Larson.

    Larson led 82 laps en route to victory. Larson only led 102 laps for the entire 2013 season. Saturday’s win also gave him nine top-10 finishes in just ten starts.

    “It was nice looking in the rear-view mirror and seeing them get smaller and smaller each lap. It’s not very often that you see the 22 and the 54 get smaller in your mirror. So it just shows how great of a car we had. The pit crew did an awesome job every stop we had. We had a great green-flag stop too, so hats off to everyone on the team for making this win possible,” Larson said.

    Kyle Busch, who often seems unbeatable in the Nationwide Series, dominated practices, qualifying and the early portion of the race leading the first 25 laps. After an early yellow for a spin in turn two, Busch’s car just was not the same. When the No. 54 was in dirty air, the handling just wasn’t the same.

    Busch was asked about the handling problem after the race, “Just been wrecking loose the whole race – just lucky to finish I guess. The Monster Energy Camry was okay – fell back to sixth or seventh at one point, but was able to rally back,” he said.

    After Busch faded, Matt Kenseth took his turn out front. Kenseth was the car to beat for the next 55 laps until Brad Keselowski challenged him for the top spot. Keselowski was at the helm for a 21 lap stint, then came Larson.

    Kenseth talked about how the handing of the car changed during the race, “I honestly have no idea. We were pretty comfortable and just got a little off. Then we just got real loose and not sure what happened or what we adjusted after that, but it seemed like we probably under-adjusted and the track got away from us.”

    Larson put his No. 42 ENEOS Chevrolet out front for the next 26 laps. A late race yellow gave veterans, Keselowski and Busch, a chance to catch Larson. Larson, however, was too strong. He held the lead and didn’t look back. Keselowski, when asked about Larson responded, “He had a fast car. That’s the reality of it. He had a fast car that was very versatile and could run the top and the bottom. That’s what you dream of as a driver.”

    Keselowski ended up second, with Busch in third place. Kevin Harvick and Brian Scott rounded out the top-five.

    Chase Elliott came into the History 300 with the series points lead. A broken right front suspension part sent him into the outside retaining wall and to the garage for repairs. Elliott ended the day 26 laps down in 37th position. He now sits third in the points, 28 points out of the lead.

    Regan Smith, who finished seventh, now leads the series points standings, followed by Elliott Sadler.

    The Nationwide series now heads to Dover International Speedway on Saturday May 31, for the Buckle Up 200 presented by Click It or Ticket.

  • Jimmie Johnson scores Coca Cola 600 pole at Charlotte Motor Speedway

    Jimmie Johnson scores Coca Cola 600 pole at Charlotte Motor Speedway

    While everybody is focused on when Jimmie Johnson will score his first victory of the season to attempt to lock himself in the 2014 Chase for the Championship, Johnson is showing speed on the track as he won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The lap of 27.705 seconds, 194.911 mph gives six-time his 33rd career pole award.

    “We’ve watched other cars get faster through qualifying sessions,’’ Johnson said. “That’s something the (Hendrick Motorsports) cars really haven’t had a lot. We did that tonight. We’re hitting on some things that should help us run faster longer.’’

    As the critics continue to express their comments about the zero in the win-column, Johnson’s confidence remains high in his race team.

    “We don’t care what anybody says about this race team, we know what we’re capable of,” Johnson said. “We knew we had a great race car today and wanted to take advantage of it. We executed and we did our jobs.

    “Qualifying days usually aren’t our best, but when we qualify well, we know we’re going to race well, so I’m real optimistic about Sunday. I look forward to giving it a good run Sunday night.”

    Brad Keselowski would qualify second for his seventh front row start of the season.

    “We’ve qualified second a lot this year,” Keselowski said. “Doggone it, it’s like kissing your sister. We’re running where we want to run up front, we just have to get a little better finishes.”

    Kasey Kahne qualified third for his fourth top-10 start of the season while Danica Patrick surprised everyone with a fourth place qualifying effort. Clint Bowyer would round out the top-five.

    “Great day, great starting spot … let’s hope we can do more of what we did at Kansas,’’ Patrick said.

    Denny Hamlin qualified sixth, followed by Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Marcos Ambrose and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

    Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top 12 after failing to post a time in the final five-minute session. Both drivers both failed to cross the start-finish line and start their lap before the clock ran out as they tried to wait it out as long as possible.

    “I’m surprised,’’ Kahne said of Harvick and Kenseth. “That would not go over well if we missed it.’’

    Harvick’s crew chief, Rodney Childers, apologized on Twitter for the mistake.

     

     

     

     

    All-Star Race winner Jamie McMurray will start 26th, with points leader Jeff Gordon starting 27th. Gordon spoke after that he was disappointed in his qualifying effort and the lack of speed that he had compared to his Hendrick Motorsports teammmates.

    Unfortunately, Dave Blaney and J.J. Yeley would both miss the show.

     

    Starting Lineup
    Charlotte Motor Speedway
    55th Annual Coca-Cola 600

    Pos Driver Team Time Speed #
    1 Jimmie Johnson Lowe’s Patriotic Chevrolet 27.705 194.911 48
    2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Ford 27.754 194.567 2
    3 Kasey Kahne FrmrsInsrnce Chev 27.890 193.618 5
    4 Danica Patrick GoDaddy Chevrolet 27.931 193.334 10
    5 Clint Bowyer 5-Hour ENERGY Toyota 27.944 193.244 15
    6 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota 27.962 193.119 11
    7 Kyle Busch M&M’s Toyota 27.966 193.092 18
    8 Joey Logano Pennzoil Platinum Ford 28.056 192.472 22
    9 Marcos Ambrose Twisted Tea Ford 28.173 191.673 9
    10 Dale Earnhardt Jr. National Guard/Superman Chevrolet 28.232 191.272 88
    11 Kevin Harvick Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet 27.841 193.959 4
    12 Matt Kenseth Home Depot Husky Toyota 27.994 192.898 20
    13 Aric Almirola United States Air Force Ford 28.024 192.692 43
    14 Trevor Bayne(i) Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 28.054 192.486 21
    15 Martin Truex Furniture Row Chevrolet 28.061 192.438 78
    16 Brian Vickers Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota 28.121 192.027 55
    17 Justin Allgaier # Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet 28.133 191.945 51
    18 Tony Stewart Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet 28.136 191.925 14
    19 Brian Scott(i) Shore Lodge Chevrolet 28.142 191.884 33
    20 AJ Allmendinger Bush’s Beans Chevrolet 28.150 191.829 47
    21 Paul Menard Serta/Menards Chevrolet 28.168 191.707 27
    22 Carl Edwards Fastenal Ford 28.424 189.980 99
    23 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Fastenal Ford 28.540 189.208 17
    24 Greg Biffle Fastenal Ford 29.293 184.344 16
    25 Kyle Larson # Target Chevrolet 28.296 190.840 42
    26 Jamie McMurray Cessna Chevrolet 28.383 190.255 1
    27 Jeff Gordon Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet 28.470 189.673 24
    28 Kurt Busch Haas Automation Chevrolet 28.488 189.553 41
    29 Alex Bowman # Dr.Pepper Toyota 28.494 189.514 23
    30 Michael McDowell JPO Absorbents Ford 28.549 189.148 95
    31 Cole Whitt # Speed Stick Toyota 28.554 189.115 26
    32 Austin Dillon # Cheerios Chevrolet 28.562 189.062 3
    33 David Gilliland Love’s Travel Stops Ford 28.612 188.732 38
    34 Casey Mears GEICO Chevrolet 28.642 188.534 13
    35 David Ragan Taco Bell Ford 28.654 188.455 34
    36 Ryan Truex # Burger King Toyota 28.659 188.422 83
    37 Josh Wise Phil Parsons Racing Chevrolet OP 188.258 98
    38 Joe Nemechek(i) Testoril Toyota OP 187.963 66
    39 Michael Annett # Pilot Flying J Chevrolet OP 187.806 7
    40 Landon Cassill(i) Hillman Racing Chevrolet OP 187.559 40
    41 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet OP 187.207 36
    42 Ryan Newman Quicken Loans Chevrolet OP 186.890 31
    43 Blake Koch(i) Supportmilitary.org Ford OP 185.931 32
  • Sam Hornish Jr. Wins Decisive Victory at Iowa Speedway

    Sam Hornish Jr. Wins Decisive Victory at Iowa Speedway

    Sam Hornish Jr. claimed his third career Nationwide Series victory in 101 starts at Iowa Speedway. The turning point came on a restart with 21 laps to go when Hornish pulled ahead of Ryan Blaney to take the lead.

    Blaney, who won the pole, and Sam Hornish Jr. who started on the outside pole, had the two fastest cars heading into the Get to Know Newton 250 at Iowa. But in the end, Blaney was no match for Hornish Jr. who led 167 of 250 laps.

    Hornish, driving the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on a part-time schedule was elated with the result.

    “I’m so blessed and thankful that this opportunity came around,” he said. “I was really hoping and praying that I got something good to get into. It’s pretty darn awesome.” Hornish continued saying, I thank God that I got a great opportunity and I got really good people around me and really good people in my life.”

    Hornish will run five more races for JGR this season and in the meantime is taking advantage of his part-time schedule to spend quality time with his wife Crystal and their children.

    “She wanted two kids, I wanted more than that and we’re at three now,” Hornish said. “So I’ve got to be there to help out. I look at it as, each time I get in the race car is a blessing, but on the same hand, each day I get to be at home and do things with them — I think yesterday, my three-year-old cut a big hole in her mom’s shirt, so I was glad I wasn’t at home. But on the same thing, I know that those are moments that you don’t get back.”

    Blaney gave Hornish a run for his money, leading 80 laps in his Team Penske Ford, but his car was strongest on long runs and Blaney simply ran out of time.

    “I felt like if we had maybe 15 more laps I might have been able to get to him, but it would be tough to get around him,” he explained. “But like I said, we just needed to have a little more short-run speed and we might have had something.”

    Regan Smith finished third followed by Chase Elliott in fourth and Elliott Sadler in fifth place. Chase Elliott retains the series points lead by two points over Elliott Sadler and Regan Smith.

    The next stop for the Nationwide Series is May 24 at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the History 300 race.

     

     

  • One Million Dollar Man; McMurray wins the Sprint All-Star Race

    One Million Dollar Man; McMurray wins the Sprint All-Star Race

    Jamie McMurray restarted second and used the outside line during the final 10-lap segment to pass race leader Carl Edwards to win Saturday nights NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. McMurray captured his first career All-Star race win and the first for team owner Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sebates.

    “This is an amazing race. I’ve been fortunate enough to win the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 but the All-Star race is different. When I woke up this morning, I was like ‘I’m just going to have fun. We were talking about the old days of the All-Star race when it was more laid back. It’s way more serious now. That’s what I told the pit crew – just have fun. It’s about having a good time today and doing your best and fortunately we were the best ones today,” McMurray said.

    Crew chief Keith Rodden made the call to take track position over tires and McMurray came off pit road second and in position to win the race.

    “Keith did an unbelievable job. He was a huge secret in the garage and I’m so glad that I get the opportunity to work with him. We’ve had good cars all year long. We had some bad luck but this is one of those races that make up for a lot of bad times,” McMurray said.

    2007 All-Star champion Kevin Harvick finished in second place. Harvick was unable to catch McMurray after moving into second with five laps remaining.

    “The guys did a great job putting a fast race car on the track. We recovered from the first one and the second one cost us the race. All in all, they put a car on the race track that was capable of winning and we just didn’t get it done,” Harvick said.

    Mat Kenseth has a strong car all night and finished third.

    “I don’t know what we were missing — most of the night I felt like we were very mid-pack and made some good adjustments and had a really good pit stop at the end,” Kenseth said. “Really happy for Jamie (McMurray). If we can’t win it’s always nice to see good guys win.”

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. was also looking for his second All-Star win, but came home fourth in the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS.

    “They made the car a little bit better there at the end. But we’ll think about it and look at everything we need to look at to make it better for the 600 and I’m happy for Jamie (McMurray, race winner). It’s a pretty cool deal for him. We need to work a little bit and get a little better and the guys will do it. I’m confident that when we come back here next week we’ll be good,” Earnhardt Jr. said.

    Carl Edwards captured his second straight Sprint All-Star race pole and lead 18 laps en route to a fifth place finish.

    “That’s frustrating. I just went back and watched the replays. Jamie just did a perfect job on the start. I had him cleared for a minute. If I would have pulled in front of him in turn one, if I would have gone high, I think we would have won that race, but I was just so reluctant to give up the bottom. Jamie just did a perfect job,” Edwards said.

    Kasey Kahne won the second and third segments but hit the wall off of turn four in the fourth segment. Teammate Jeff Gordon also had a good car but lost control of his car on lap 61 after something mechanical went wrong.

    “I’m not exactly sure what. Hopefully we didn’t damage it too bad so we can’t find out what it was. I was going down the backstretch going into turn three and I felt something in the front end give. All of a sudden I had more wheel and I wasn’t even in the corner. As I got in the corner, the car just went straight. It wasn’t like it was a right-front where it just shot there; it just slowly went there. We’ll have to do some investigating to find out. It was certainly one fast Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet up until that point,” Gordon said.

    Kyle Busch spun after making contact with Clint Bowyer while trying to get around both Bowyer and his brother Kurt Busch. In the second segment, Busch bumped Bowyer’s rear bumper and got loose and as Busch went around the front end of Bowyer he clipped Busch, sending him spinning into the outside wall. Joey Logano was unable to avoid Busch and was also collected in the crash.

    “Had a good run through (turns) one and two and off turn two. Kurt (Busch) got real bottled up on the outside and slowed down so I knew I was clear to go to the bottom and swoop down and try to get underneath (Clint) Bowyer and when I did he blocked me and I hit him and he got squirrely and then I was still under him and it hit me and turned me around the wrong way on the backstretch and got in the outside wall,” Busch said.

    “Just going for it with Kyle (Busch) back there. His brother (Kurt Busch) was really tight and I think he was fighting two tires or staying out or something and about got in the fence and kind of caused Kyle to make an evasive maneuver, which kind of moved me down. It’s just racing for a million bucks,” seventh place finisher Bowyer said of the accident.

    Final All-Star Results
    ——————————————————–
    1 Jamie McMurray – Chevrolet
    2 Kevin Harvick – Chevrolet
    3 Matt Kenseth – Toyota
    4 Dale Earnhardt Jr – Chevrolet
    5 Carl Edwards – Ford
    6 Jimmie Johnson – Chevrolet
    7 Clint Bowyer – Toyota
    8 Brian Vickers – Toyota
    9 Denny Hamlin – Toyota
    10 Brad Keselowski – Ford
    11 Kurt Busch – Chevrolet
    12 Tony Stewart – Chevrolet
    13 David Ragan – Ford
    14 Kasey Kahne – Chevrolet
    15 Josh Wise – Chevrolet
    16 Ryan Newman – Chevrolet
    17 Jeff Gordon – Chevrolet
    18 Martin Truex Jr – Chevrolet
    19 Greg Biffle – Ford
    20 AJ Allmendinger – Chevrolet
    21 Kyle Busch – Toyota
    22 Joey Logano – Ford

    The Sprint Cup Series will return to Charlotte next weekend for the season’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600.

  • Ryan Blaney Wins His First NASCAR Nationwide Series Pole at Iowa Speedway

    Ryan Blaney Wins His First NASCAR Nationwide Series Pole at Iowa Speedway

    Ryan Blaney claimed the 21 Means 21 Pole Award, his first career Nationwide Series pole, for Sunday’s Get To Know Newton 250 presented by Sherwin Williams at Iowa Speedway. Each race of the 2014 Nationwide Series season has seen a new polesitter and Blaney continues the progression by becoming the 10th different pole winner in 10 races.

    In the final round of knockout qualifying Saturday evening, Blaney posted the fastest time with a lap speed of 23.148 seconds at 136.081 mph in his No. 22 Discount Tire Ford. He bested Sam Hornish Jr. who will start on the outside pole and Michael McDowell who qualified in third place.

    Blaney had little time to prepare for his qualifying run. He was in Charlotte Friday night for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race where he was involved in a wreck, resulting in a disheartening 22nd place finish.

    “It’s been a busy 24 hours,” Blaney said. He also thanked his team saying they “did a great job of getting everything ready for me to just come, to jump in the car, and have it close to where we need it to be.”

    After winning the pole, Blaney spoke with the media about how confident he feels at this track.

    “Being that I got my first NASCAR win in the Truck Series in 2012 here, it definitely makes it special. I actually got my first start for Penske in that 22 car here in 2012. So this place holds a lot of value to me and I really like it,” he said. He went on to say that he hopes to “get a Nationwide win to add to that truck win here.”

    Regan Smith will start the race in fourth place followed by Dylan Kwasniewski. Series points leader, Chase Elliott, will begin the race in the sixth position. Elliott has one K&N Pro Series East win at Iowa in 2012 and was quickest in two of the practice sessions on Friday.

    Brian Scott, Elliott Sadler, Landon Cassill and Brendan Gaughan will start in positions seventh through 10th, respectively.

    Coverage for the NASCAR Nationwide Series Get to Know Newton 250 presented by Sherwin Williams will begin at 2 p.m. ET Sunday on ESPN.

    Complete Starting Lineup:

    1. (22) Ryan Blaney

    2. (54) Sam Hornish Jr.

    3. (20) Michael McDowell

    4. (7) Regan Smith

    5. (42) Dylan Kwasniewski

    6. (9) Chase Elliott

    7. (2) Brian Scott

    8. (11) Elliott Sadler

    9. (01) Landon Cassill

    10. (62) Brendan Gaughan

    11. (60) Chris Buescher

    12. (31) Chase Pistone

    13. (3) Ty Dillon

    14. (99) James Buescher

    15. (16) Ryan Reed

    16. (6) Trevor Bayne

    17. (5) Austin Theriault

    18. (39) Ryan Sieg

    19. (19) Mike Bliss

    20. (84) Chad Boat

    21. (33) Cale Conley

    22. (43) Dakoda Armstrong

    23. (98) Ryan Gifford

    24. (28) J.J. Yeley

    25. (4) Jeffrey Earnhardt

    26. (10) Jeff Green

    27. (44) Hal Martin

    28. (51) Jeremy Clements

    29. (52) Joey Gase

    30. (40) Matt DiBenedetto

    31. (17) Tanner Berryhill

    32. (14) Eric McClure

    33. (70) Derrike Cope

    34. (76) Tommy Joe Martins

    35. (93) Carl Long

    36. (87) Tim Schendel

    37. (23) Carlos Contreras

    38. (55) Caleb Roark

    39. (46) Ryan Ellis

    40. (74) Mike Harmon

     

     

     

     

     

  • The Kyle Busch Show: Busch dominates North Carolina Education Lottery 200

    The Kyle Busch Show: Busch dominates North Carolina Education Lottery 200

    Kyle Busch would put on a clinic at Charlotte Motor Speedway as he dominated the North Carolina Education Lottery 200, leading all but four of the 134 laps. It marks Busch’s 38th career victory and his third victory in three starts this season. For Busch, it also marks his fourth victory in his last four starts dating back to Homestead-Miami Speedway in November of 2013.

    Busch started on pole and led there, only failing to lead four laps when Joe Nemechek stayed out under caution.

    “With all that debris, you’re never sure if you’ll avoid running  over something,” Busch commented. “Can’t say enough for these guys in the effort that they put in. It was a fun race for us. We were really strong, especially on the long runs; it seems guys would fall off.”

    For Kyle Busch Motorsports, they have now won five of the last six races, with Toyota winning six consecutive races in a row.

    Matt Crafton ran second all night to claim his third top 10 finish of the year as he leads the point standings, 11 points ahead of Timothy Peters.

    “I’m going to have to whoop him,” Crafton said afterwards. “I’m getting tired of it but my guys did a great job tonight. We had enough fuel to get the track position back and I thought I could run with him but it got real tight. But like I said, it was a great race.”

    Brad Keselowski would finish third for his second top 10 in five starts at Charlotte. Keselowski got four tires late and weaved his way through traffic, running out of time at the end.

    “We tried to snooker Kyle but we need to find some more speed,” Keselowski commented. “We’re working on it and getting better.”

    John Wes Townley and Timothy Peters rounded out the top five, followed by Johnny Sauter, Austin Dillon, Ben Kennedy, German Quiroga and Justin Lofton.

    The race featured many incidents throughout as a bunch of drivers left the track upset and disappointed with their efforts. Justin Jennings was the first driver out of the event as he spun and hit the wall after a tire went flat at lap 19.

    On lap 28, Jake Crum and Ryan Ellis would get together. Crum didn’t take lightly to the incident, spinning Ellis into the wall with 48 laps to go.

    Ron Hornaday didn’t have a smooth night as he went spinning at lap 73, with the field luckily avoiding his No. 30 Rheem Chevrolet. Hornaday would start to work his way back up through the field, when he’d move down in front of Ben Kennedy, not being clear and result in another crash, this time collecting Mason Mingus and Crum.

    “I feel bad for these Turner-Scott guys as they keep giving me good trucks and I keep screwing it up,” Hornaday said. “Come back through there and had a good run on Ben, thought that I’d cleared him and hadn’t.”

    Restarts didn’t play nice tonight as Scott Riggs tried to move up and Tayler Malsam was there, resulting in Riggs sliding sideways and getting into Darrell Wallace Jr. Wallace would be a little shook up, but otherwise okay.

    “I’m good now. It’s unfortunate,” Wallace commented. “We had some troubles with our battery. It looks like Riggs didn’t know we were three-wide, came up and squeezed them. I made the call to pit to change the battery and now I got to live with that call. We had a rough night at Kansas and then a rough night here.”

    Blaney didn’t get a good draw either as Townley came down on him, resulting in Blaney going for a trip into the grass and then across the track and into Brian Ickler and the wall with 30 laps to go.

    “We had a run on the 5 (Townley) and I was inside the 5 and he just pushed me in the dirt,” Blaney said. “We were side-by-side for a long time and he just turned dead left so not sure what he was thinking there. Felt like I had a truck to catch the 51 and the 88 and shit happens.”

    Perhaps the worst luck of the night goes to Jeb Burton as he had a good run going inside the top-five when he’d wreck on the last lap after he and German Quiroga got together as they raced for position around the lap truck of Norm Benning.

  • Clint Bowyer wins The Sprint Showdown; Josh Wise wins Fan Vote

    Clint Bowyer wins The Sprint Showdown; Josh Wise wins Fan Vote

    He had to finish in the top two to make it into the Sprint All-Star Race and Clint Bowyer did just that as he dominated the second half of the 40 lap Sprint Showdown to grab the victory.

    “Our car was really strong,” Bowyer said on Fox. “We’ve been struggling. We’ve been fast in practice but can’t close the race.

    “I spent a lot of time in the shop this week and I think we got to the bottom of a lot of things. … Huge improvement tonight.”

    He will be joined in transferring by A.J. Allmendinger, who  led the middle portion of the race after qualifying second. It marks Allmendinger’s first All-Star race as he continues to show more improvement each weekend.

    The rest of the drivers will not transfer to the main event tomorrow night with Casey Mears leading the way with a third place finish, followed by Marcos Ambrose and Aric Almirola. Ambrose had to fight back after going for a spin at lap three due to contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    Kyle Larson finished sixth, followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, Paul Menard and Danica Patrick.

    Beyond the top two finishers, a driver chosen by the fans advances to the all-star race on Saturday night. The Reddit/Dodgecoin nation struck gold as they voted Josh Wise into the show. Wise finished 18th in the Showdown.

    “I am still trying to wrap my head around it,” Wise said. “This is huge for me and our team. Really this started with a 16-year-old kid posting something on Reddit.com about some good runs that we had and for whatever reason this huge, awesome community got behind us.”

    Well some people aren’t pleased that a backrunner is in the show, it could help popularity with the sport in attracting new fans.

    “This is kind of a big deal for our sport because it is a lot of young kids and people from around the world,” Wise said. “I’ve had the chance to interact with a lot of them. There’s a lot of people had never watched a NASCAR race who have now watched several.”