Category: Race Central

Race Central Stories

Lap by Lap: Subway Firecracker 200 won by Matt Kenseth

Matt Kenseth would take the lead late in the Subway Firecracker 200 at Daytona International Speedway and hold the field off on a late-race restart to take the victory.

Lap 1 Brian Scott pushes Travis Pastrana to the lead

Lap 3 Scott switches with Pastrana to lead……Austin Dillon blows by with a couple others in toe. Dillon is being pushed by Elliott Sadler

Lap 4 ColeTrickle….I mean Kurt Busch to the lead with a shove from Hornish

Lap 5 Dillon to the lead with a shove from Logano

Lap 11 Hornish leads with help from Logano

Lap 25 Vickers-Smith trying to get by the Penske duo for the lead. Penske duo Hornish-Logano holds on to the lead.

Lap 38 leaders cycle through stops with Vickers grabbing the lead with help from Smith

Lap 40 Hornish-Logano go back to the lead ahead of Vickers-Smith

Lap 44 Vickers-Smith trying to go by Hornish-Logano for the lead. Penske duo pull ahead again.

Lap 49 caution for debris. Leaders hit pit road for tires and fuel. Hornish leads Logano Vickers Sadler Smith KuBusch Kenseth Larson Allgaier and Buescher off pit road.

Restart 48 laps to go Hornish-Logano lead early, though Sadler-Cole Trickle (Kurt Busch) grab the lead down the backstretch

47 to go Hornish-Logano outside, Sadler-Trickle inside

46 to go Hornish-Logano pull ahead with Kenseth-Allgaier in toe

44 to go Hornish-Logano ahead of Vickers-Smith

36 to go Buescher Larson KuBusch Hornish Logano KyBusch Whitt ADillon TDillon Nemechek Scott

35 to go Cole Trickle (Kurt Busch)-Rowdy Busch lead

34 to go Hornish-Keselowski lead

30 to go Sorenson blows up. Leaders pit, Logano leads Hornish Smith Vickers Sadler Kenseth Dillon Larson KuBusch

Restart 23 to go Vickers-Kenseth leads the field

22 to go Vickers-Kenseth Logano-Smith………….Kenseth gives Vickers a shot, Vickers goes for the ride through the grass. No further contact, no caution

21 to go Larson-Allgaier leads Dillon-Trickle

19 to go Kenseth-Buescher leading Hornish-Logano

18 to go Hornish-Logano pull ahead of Kenseth-Buescher

13 to go Kenseth-Buescher leads ahead of the field

12 to go Kenseth-Buescher leads Dillon-Kligerman / Hornish-Keselowski

11 to go Kenseth-Buescher side-by-side with Hornish-Keselowski as Mike Wallace is slow. Caution flies as he stops in turns three and four.

Restart 7 to go Hornish-Logano get slightly separated as Kenseth-Buescher pull ahead of the field

6 to go Hornish-Logano to the outside of Kenseth-Buescher for the lead. Kenseth-Buescher keep the lead….Dillon goes for the lead to the outside of Kenseth……..Pastana thinks he can fit in hole but ends up crossing Whitt’s bumper. Jeffery Earnhardt, Dick, Pastrana, Richardson Jr., Jason White, McClure, Stacey collected

Red flag to clean up the mess.

When restart Kenseth ADillon Buescher Kligerman Sadler KyBusch Smith Hornish Logano KuBusch Larson Allgaier TDillon.

Restart 2 to go Kenseth-Buescher pull ahead of the field ahead of Sadler

Final lap. Kenseth-Buescher lead ahead of the field.

Kenseth Buescher Sadler KuBusch ADillon Larson Hornish Smith Logano Bayne KyBusch Allgaier Vickers

July 5, 2013

Kenseth Wins Delayed Quaker State 400

Matt Kenseth’s crew chief, Jason Ratcliff gambled late in the Quaker State 400 at the Kentucky Speedway and took no tires and only fuel when the caution came out on lap 240 of 267. Jimmie Johnson, the dominant car of the day, had taken two tires and was lined up behind Kenseth. After the restart on lap 247 Johnson uncharacteristically spun out in front of the entire field bringing out the caution for the last time.

When the field went back to green Kenseth held off a hard charging Jamie McMurray who finished second. Clint Bowyer finished third, Joey Logano fourth and Kyle Busch fifth. Brother Kurt Busch finished sixth.

The fireworks started early when Kurt Busch made a dive bomb move under last year’s winner, Brad Keselowski, slid up the track and sent Keselowski up the track and in front of traffic. Keselowski’s car pin-balled across the track and into multiple cars bringing out the red flag for crews to clean up the mess. Greg Biffle was collected as was Dave Blaney and others. Keselowski said, “I know he didn’t intentionally wreck me, but it’s just one of those things. A chain of events with the way the cars drive, and the track has that really bad bump down there, and we all know it. There’s no reason to go down there, but he still did.” With the wreck happening only 47 laps into the race he said, “We were trying to get patient, because it looks like we’ll get the whole race in before rain, and there’s no reason to drive like an animal. Apparently, I’m the only one that got that memo.”\

Kenseth said about the gamble and his part in that gamble, “I didn’t roll the dice, Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) did. I thought he was slightly crazy when that happened. First of all, I just have to thank the Lord for putting me here… this is such a great team and great opportunity for me. It’s just been an unbelievable season and year of my life honestly. Jason did a great job — I didn’t think there was any way that we were going to hold on for that win. He made the right call at the right time and those guys got it done.”

Ratcliff said, “I kind of knew that if we could get Matt (Kenseth) position that he would make a good fight out of it and he obviously did. We got a couple good restarts there.”

1	Matt Kenseth
2	Jamie McMurray
3	Clint Bowyer
4	Joey Logano
5	Kyle Busch
6	Kurt Busch
7	Martin Truex Jr
8	Jeff Gordon
9	Jimmie Johnson
10	Kevin Harvick
11	Kasey Kahne
12	Dale Earnhardt Jr
13	Marcos Ambrose
14	Ryan Newman
15	Aric Almirola
16	Juan Pablo Montoya
17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr
18	Casey Mears
19	Jeff Burton
20	Tony Stewart
21	Carl Edwards
22	AJ Allmendinger
23	Danica Patrick
24	Austin Dillon
25	David Stremme
26	David Ragan
27	David Reutimann
28	David Gilliland
29	Ken Schrader
30	Paul Menard
31	Brian Vickers
32	J.J. Yeley
33	Brad Keselowski
34	Greg Biffle
35	Denny Hamlin
36	Landon Cassill
37	Joe Nemechek
38	Michael McDowell
39	Josh Wise
40	Dave Blaney
41	Mike Bliss
42	Travis Kvapil
43	Scott Riggs

June 30, 2013

Gutsy Late Pit Stop Fuels Kenseth’s NSCS Quaker State 400 Kentucky Speedway Victory

SPARTA, Ky. – Matt Kenseth corralled his first Kentucky Speedway NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) victory by gaining the race lead on a fuel-only pit stop with 23 laps remaining and raced away to a 0.699 of a second victory in the Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts.

Kenseth registers his first top-five Kentucky Speedway NSCS finish and is one of four drivers to own three top-10 finishes at the speedway through three series starts. The first-year Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s previous best Kentucky Speedway NSCS finish was sixth on July 9, 2011 and he placed seventh on June 30, 2012.

“I didn’t roll the dice, (crew chief) Jason (Ratcliff) did. I thought he was a slightly crazy when it happened.

“This is such a great team and a great opportunity for me. It’s been just an unbelievable season and year of my life, honestly. Jason did a great job. I didn’t think there was any way we were going to hold on for that win. He made the right call at the right time and these guys got it done on pit road,” Kenseth said.

After ending a 15-year tenure with Roush Fenway Racing at the end of 2012, he said he’s a bit surprised to be holding the lead in NSCS victories near the midpoint of the season.

“I dreamed about it, but I didn’t imagine it would be realistic. It’s been incredible. We’ve had some moments that have tested us already this season, but it’s great to have the four wins. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep it rolling. It’s been fun,” he added.

The oldest NSCS race winner in track history at age 41, Kenseth qualified 16th and posted the greatest improvement from a starting position by a Kentucky Speedway NSCS race winner. He raced second on Lap 60, led for the first time from Laps 95-108 and improved from the fourth spot on a gutsy late pit stop. He led the closing 23 circuits of the 267-lap event and paced 38 laps on the day.

He captured today’s Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts title by the series’ second-closest margin of victory at the track ahead of Earnhardt Ganassi driver Jamie McMurray.

Michael Waltrip Racing driver Clint Bowyer, Penske Racing’s Joey Logano and Kenseth’s JGR teammate, Kyle Busch, the inaugural Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts winner, rounded out the race top five.

McMurray snared his first NSCS top-five finish at Kentucky Speedway.

“It was a really good day for us. I wasn’t sure after Happy Hour what we had. We’ve had really quick cars for the last two months, and have not been able to capitalize on it. We’ve had really unfortunate luck. But it’s cool to have a really good run. I was quite a bit quicker than him (Clint Bowyer), and I guess the No. 20 (Matt Kenseth) wasn’t on tires, so you are just fighting to get by as quick as you can because you never know when a caution is going to come out, or how it is going to play out,” McMurray said.

Hendrick Motorsports driver and current NSCS championship leader Jimmie Johnson had a solid day ruined on the Lap 247 restart that followed Kenseth’s winning pit move. Johnson’s No. 48 spun in Turn 2, but he rebounded with a ninth-place showing that marks his second career top-10 Kentucky Speedway NSCS finish. He led a series single-race track record 182 laps. Busch held the previous record after leading 125 laps during his victorious inaugural event effort.

Today’s race concludes a tripleheader NASCAR weekend at the speedway. Action returns to the 1.5-mile Bluegrass State tri-oval September 20 with the ARCA Racing Series ZLOOP 150 and September 21 NASCAR Nationwide Series Kentucky 300.

Tickets, infield Fan Zone passes and campsites can be purchased at http://www.kentuckyspeedway.com , (859) 578-2300 and the Kentucky Speedway ticket office at 1 Speedway Drive in Sparta, Ky., just off Interstate 71 Exit 57 and Ky. Hwy. 35 north beginning at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

-Story by Mike Schmaltz

– KYS –

June 30, 2013
Brad Keselowski wins rain shortened Feed The Children 300

Brad Keselowski led 59 laps en-route to victory in a rain shortened Feed The Children 300 at Kentucky Motor Speedway. The light rains came on lap 170, just 30 laps shy of the end. Within thirty minutes of NASCAR calling the race, the skies opened up, and heavy rains with wind and lightning began. NASCAR definitely made the right call ending the race when they did.

Keselowski who started 19^th in his Discount Tire Ford Mustang methodically worked his way through the field and waged a fantastic battle with Kyle Busch near the mid-point of the race. The win gave the 29 year old defending Sprint Cup Series champion his second victory and fourth top-5 of the season. It was also his second victory at the Kentucky Motor Speedway. Keselowski pointed out after the race, “I don’t see any difference in the track tomorrow. I think you will see the same – very similar racing whether it is Nationwide or Cup.”

Busch has dominated the Nationwide Series this season scoring six wins, ten top-5’s in eleven starts. Busch looked to be on cruise control early on the event, pulling out over a three second lead. When asked about how his car handled today, Busch replied, “A couple of runs ago we started getting tight, but the guys here have done a stellar job today being able to give me a race car capable of running up front the way we have.” Busch ended up fifth at the end of the day.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Elliott Sadler, who has had an up and down season, scored a much needed second place finish. Sadler was also the first driver to become eligible for the Dash 4 Cash promotion announced at the speedway earlier in the day. Today’s finish was Sadler’s ninth top-10 finish of the season.

Sadler’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Brian Vickers was not talked about much during the race, but managed a fourth place finish which made him eligible for the Dash 4 Cash as well. It also gave JGR three cars in the top five.

Camping World Truck Series driver, Matt Crafton, made an impressive debut in his first Nationwide Series start. Crafton, driving the Richard Childress Racing Menards Chevrolet, ran near the front for the whole race and led eight laps. A 25 second green flag stop due to running out of gas as he entered pit road put him behind, but he managed to work his way back to the front and scored a very respectable third place finish. Crafton will drive the No. 33 two more times this season, again at Kentucky and at Chicago

Austin Dillon who was heavily favored coming into this weekend, started on the pole with a fast lap of 175.758 mph over two full mph over Travis Pastrana who started second. Dillon jumped out to an early lead was tracked down by Busch. Dillon wound up sixth at the end of the day.

Series points leader Regan Smith ran in the top-10 all day, but a broken suspension part sent him behind the wall. He came back out on the track 17 laps down. Smith ended up a disappointing 30^th after a 32^nd place finish after last week at Road America. Smith’s points lead dropped from a series record (under the new points system) 58 to a mere eight points over Sam Hornish Jr who finished ninth, and just a mere three more points back to Justin Allgaier who finished 13^th.

The series’ next stop will be the Subway Firecracker 250 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday July 5.

June 28, 2013
Ty Dillon passes Kyle Busch late to win UNOH 225 at Kentucky Speedway

“This could be the start of something good…” Ty Dillon said on the radio as he crossed the finish line.

With 26 laps to go, Ty Dillon would pass Kyle Busch to take the lead and never looked back, taking the victory in the UNOH 225 at Kentucky Speedway.

“First things first, I got to thank the Lord,” the driver of the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet said in victory lane. “I was praying on the last restart. Got to thank him first. This couldn’t be a better day. So proud of Marcus Richmond and all of these guys.”

It marks second victory of Dillon’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career, the first of this season.

“We got a strong team,” the 21-year-old added. “We won’t give up. We’re going to put our superman cape from here on out.”

After battling hard with a really loose truck mid-race, Brad Keselowski would come back to finish second.

Busch would finish third after struggling with a loose truck late in the race.

“I was loose before the stop,” he commented. “We tried to tighten it up but it was loose. It seemed like clock work in the test – 9 o’ clock comes and it gets loose. Can’t believe we messed it up that bad.”

James Buescher would finish fourth while Ryan Blaney had to settle for fifth.

With 32 laps to go, Blaney was side-by-side with Busch for the lead, though would make contact with the outside wall.

“I was really excited about the run we were having – everybody did a good job at getting this truck better as the race went on,” he said. “I was running the bottom really good and I knew it was only a matter of time before I caught Busch. I went to the outside, he got loose, got up into me and put me in the wall. It just damaged the outside of the truck too much.”

“I got out of the throttle, turned it all the way to the left, but it kept taking the air off my spoiler and sliding up,” Busch commented on the contact.

Timothy Peters would finish sixth, followed by Miguel Paludo, German Quiroga, Jeb Burton and Matt Crafton. Crafton leads the points, still, 22 points ahead of Burton.

Joey Coulter was battling for eighth on the last lap when his truck got loose, causing him to make contact with the outside wall. As a result, Coulter finished 16th.

Darrell Wallace Jr. dominated the first half of the race, though would get loose on lap 86 while underneath Blaney and spin around, making contact with the outside wall.

“Just came around,” he said. “Just barely had room there. I mean, I’m not pissed off of Ryan. We’re good friends. Just frustrated. Haven’t been able to figure out these trucks yet. It seems everytime I get behind someone, I get really loose.”

June 27, 2013
Lap by Lap: UNOH 225 won by Ty Dillon

Ty Dillon would pass Kyle Busch late in the race to pick up his first victory of the season at Kentucky Speedway.

Lap 1 Blaney and Wallace are side-by-side in turns one and two, Blaney takes the lead into turn three

Lap 3 Blaney leads Wallace Townley KyBusch Gaughan Crafton Coulter Peters Quiroga Paludo…..Townley passes Wallace off of turn four

Lap 4 Busch passes Wallace for third off of turn two

Lap 6 Peters by Coulter for seventh

Lap 16 Blaney leads Townley Busch Wallace Peters Gaughan Crafton Keselowski Quiroga Coulter

Lap 25 Busch passes Townley for second

Caution lap 26 Brendan Gaughan with smoke pouring out the back. Leaders head down pit road for tires and fuel. Wallace leads Keselowski Crafton Blaney Busch off pit road

Restart lap 31 three-wide between Wallace, Keselowski and Crafton for the lead. Crafton takes the lead off of turn two. Brennan Newberry has a breakage on the restart to bring the caution back out.

Restart lap 36 Wallace grabs the lead as Blaney uses a three-wide move to move up to second

Lap 39 Wallace leads Blaney Busch Keselowski Dillon Crafton Buescher Peters Townley Paludo…..Dllion passes Keselowski for fourth

Lap 40 Crafton and Buescher pass Keselowski…….Peters and Townley also pass Keselowski

Caution lap 41 Max Gresham goes around and hits the outside turn two wall.

Restart lap 46 Wallace grabs the lead as Blaney gets sideways, drops back some spots but saves it

Lap 55 Wallace leads Busch Dillon Buescher Crafton Blaney Peters Townley Burton Coulter

Lap 67 Wallace leads Busch Dillon Buescher Crafton Blaney Peters Townley Burton Coulter

Lap 69 Keselowski passes Coulter for 10^th

Lap 70 Wallace and Busch battle side-by-side through lap traffic

Lap 71 Keselowski passes Burton for ninth

Caution Lap 80 Townley gets sideways, makes a great save – but still there was a caution. Leaders head down pit road. Busch leads Keselowski

Restart lap 85 as Busch grabs the lead

Caution lap 86 Darrell Wallace Jr. gets loose well underneath Blaney and goes around and backs into the wall

Restart lap 90 Busch pulls ahead of the field once again

43 to go Busch leads Blaney Peters Buescher Dillon Crafton Paludo Buton Gale Townley……caution as Bryan Silas spins. Busch leads the race off of pit road.

Restart 38 to go Busch and Blaney side-by-side into turn one. Busch grabs the lead off of turn four

37 to go Busch leads Blaney Dillon Keselowski…….Keselowski slid up as Dillon tried to take a little extra room

35 to go Busch leads Blaney Dillon Keselowski Buescher Peters Paludo Quiroga Burton Coulter

32 to go Blaney gets into the outside wall as Busch slides up, defending the lead. Dillon moves into second behind Busch

29 to go Busch leads Dillon Keselowski Buescher Blaney Peters Paludo Quiroga Burton Coulter

26 to go Dillon passes Busch for the lead off of turn four

18 to go Dillon leads Busch Keselowski Buescher Blaney

17 to go Keselowski drives in the corner hard, gets loose, saves it and keeps it out of the wall. Dillon leads Busch and Keselowski

13 to go Keselowski passes Busch for second

12 to go Dillon leads Keselowski Busch Buescher Blaney Peters Paludo Quiroga Coulter Burton

Final lap. Joey Coulter spins and hits the outside turn four wall, no caution. Coulter was inside of Quiroga, got loose and up into the wall. Dillon wins ahead of Keselowski, Ky Busch, Buescher, Blaney, Peters, Paludo, Quiroga

June 27, 2013
Dinger Dominates at Road America!

AJ Alimendinger “Dinger” won the fourth Annual NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Johnsonville Sausage 200 Presented by Menards at Road America. This is Alimendinger’s first career win in NASCAR.

Justin Allgaier, Parker Kligerman, Owen Kelly and Sam Hornish Jr rounded out the top 5.

Alimendinger won the pole early Saturday morning for his first career pole in the NNS in nine starts. Dinger lead the first lap and pit strategy already was in the works. Alex Bowman, Trevor Bayne and some others came in on lap-1 to top off the fuel.

The first caution waved when the No.18 of Michael McDowell stopped on the racetrack in turn-5. He was one of the favorites in this race. Only three of the front runners came in to pit as everybody has a different strategy.

They went back to green on lap 6 with Dinger still leading and McDowell headed to the garage. Dinger got his tires locked up and went into the grass and Billy Johnson took advantage and got the lead from him. Kelly took second while Dinger went back to the third spot.

The top-3 all came in on lap 15 and got four tires and fuel and when all of them were leaving pit road, the caution came out for the No.53 of Andrew Ranger. Ranger stopped on the racetrack and had to get towed in which resulted in the caution to be waved. This is a good break for Johnson and Austin Dillon since they both had speeding penalty and have to come back to pit road. Sadler and others that have not pitted, went in and got their pit stops completed. During the caution, Brian Vickers is called back to pit road for a missing lug nut.

We went back to green on lap 19 after a long caution flag due to drivers figuring out where they should be starting for the restart. Nelson Piquet Jr wheel hopped into the corner and ran into the back of Brian Scott and just smashed the front of his car.

Caution came out on lap 30 when the driver in second place, Kelly, stopped in turn-5. He was another front runner who had a great shot at winning. He ran out of fuel and he got fuel before the pace car got back to the pit lane so he did not lose a lap. Most everybody came in except for Hornish Jr. which stayed out due to getting a bonus point for the point race.

They went back to green with 17 laps to go and Dinger took back the lead with Smith right behind him. Hornish Jr. went in right as the green flag waved but then got a speeding penalty so it did not work out for Hornish.

The caution waved when the No.32 of Kyle Larson was involved in two incidents. He went hot into the turn and got into the No.5 of Johnny O’ Connell and then spun trying to avoid the No.21 of Brendan Gaughan.

The caution waved again when the 75 of Kenny Habul got loose and got into the grass and put debris on the racetrack. Back to green and Dinger got into the No.16 of Johnson and Johnson got loose, Dinger got around him. Dinger had a pretty big lead but the No.51 of Jeremy Clements smacked the tire barriers and the caution waved with five laps to go.

Green flag waved with four laps to go and Dinger leading. They restarted cleanly but in turn 5, Kligerman got loose and smacked into Kelly which smacked the No.7 car of Smith who bumped the No.16 of Johnson. That was not the caution though. The caution was for the No.26 of John Young who stopped between turns 5 and 6.

Green flag waved with two to go with this being the first GWC. Dinger had a good lead and was pulling away but Kelly spun out Annett and Larson got into Kelly. Papis also spun in turns 7 and 8. This will be the No.2 green-white-checkers now.

Dinger led the field to the second and he pulled away and had enough fuel to win his first career race in NASCAR. Max Papis slaps Johnson, who still had his helmet on to receive the slap.

Start position in parentheses)

1. (1) A J Allmendinger, Ford, 55 laps, 150 rating, 0 points, $59,325.

2. (4) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 55, 103.2, 43, $43,225.

3. (3) Parker Kligerman, Toyota, 55, 89.1, 42, $33,925.

4. (2) Owen Kelly, Toyota, 55, 126.8, 41, $28,275.

5. (8) Sam Hornish Jr., Ford, 55, 108.4, 40, $23,775.

6. (9) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 55, 94.4, 38, $23,425.

7. (13) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 55, 101, 37, $21,825.

8. (17) Cole Whitt, Toyota, 55, 90.4, 36, $20,100.

9. (22) Elliott Sadler, Toyota, 55, 87.9, 35, $20,825.

10. (14) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 55, 80, 34, $20,775.

11. (26) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 55, 73.8, 0, $13,475.

12. (12) Johnny O’Connell, Chevrolet, 55, 92.2, 32, $19,400.

13. (31) Mike Wallace, Chevrolet, 55, 68.7, 31, $19,300.

14. (29) James Buescher, Chevrolet, 55, 58.9, 0, $13,175.

15. (7) Billy Johnson, Ford, 55, 113.3, 30, $18,575.

16. (19) Travis Pastrana, Ford, 55, 71.1, 28, $19,025.

17. (10) Max Papis, Chevrolet, 55, 88.3, 27, $18,925.

18. (28) Kenny Habul, Toyota, 55, 52.8, 26, $12,825.

19. (25) Stanton Barrett, Ford, 55, 54.3, 25, $18,750.

20. (18) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, 55, 71.3, 24, $19,375.

21. (6) Nelson Piquet Jr., Chevrolet, 55, 80.5, 23, $18,625.

22. (37) Kevin O’Connell, Chevrolet, 55, 38.3, 22, $18,585.

23. (24) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 55, 61, 21, $18,550.

24. (15) Alex Bowman, Toyota, 55, 49.2, 20, $18,490.

25. (40) Dexter Stacey, Ford, 55, 37.2, 19, $12,895.

26. (32) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Ford, 55, 44.4, 18, $18,385.

27. (35) Eric McClure, Toyota, 55, 40.5, 17, $18,350.

28. (34) John Young, Dodge, 55, 51.7, 16, $12,320.

29. (21) Andrew Ranger, Dodge, 55, 60.2, 15, $12,285.

30. (11) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 55, 63.7, 14, $18,540.

31. (27) Kyle Kelley, Chevrolet, 54, 54.4, 13, $18,195.

32. (16) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 54, 90.9, 12, $18,150.

33. (23) Mike Bliss, Toyota, overheating, 53, 64.8, 11, $18,120.

34. (5) Michael McDowell, Toyota, 52, 58.3, 0, $18,100.

35. (20) Michael Annett, Ford, accident, 50, 66.7, 9, $18,068.

36. (38) Derek White, Toyota, oil leak, 37, 30.9, 8, $17,255.

37. (33) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 31, 37, 7, $17,235.

38. (39) Tony Raines, Toyota, rear gear, 20, 28.7, 6, $11,216.

39. (30) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, engine, 7, 30.3, 5, $11,075.

40. (36) Jeff Green, Toyota, brakes, 2, 29.2, 4, $10,975.

June 23, 2013
Threat of Rain a Recipe for Exciting Nationwide Finish at Michigan

As rain loomed over Michigan International Speedway, every driver scrambled for position, and every crew chief formulated a strategy in an effort to beat Mother Nature. Several teams elected not to pit in an effort to gain track position hoping to be at the front of the pack in case a red flag fell on the field. A timely caution gave No. 7 TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet driver, Regan Smith the track position he needed to grab his first victory at Michigan International Speedway.

Winning the 22^nd Annual Alliance Truck Parts 250 is Smith’s second victory this season after winning the Aaron’s 312 at Talladega Superspeedway, and is his third victory in 116 NASCAR Nationwide Series races. JR Racing driver, Smith, has finished in the top-10 in eleven consecutive races. He now leads Sam Hornish Jr. by 58 points in the Nationwide Series points standings.

No. 32 Cessna Chevrolet driver, Kyle Larson, posted his first top-10 finish and matched his career-best finish at Michigan International Speedway by finishing in second behind Smith. This marks his eighth top-10 finish in 2013.

Driver of the No. 33 Menards/Rheem Chevrolet, Paul Menard, posted his seventh top-10 finish in eight races at Michigan International Speedway by finishing third in Saturday’s race. Primarily competing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Saturday’s race marked Menard’s first NASCAR Nationwide Series start this season.

Another Sprint Cup Series regular, Kyle Busch, finished the race in fourth position. When crew chief of the Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Adam Stevens, was asked if it was a difficult race to call knowing that rain was in the area, he responded, “The radar showed the rain here pretty much all day. It wasn’t hitting the ground. I’m glad we got to run the full distance—it took a while to make some progress, but we did and we got the car better. We just weren’t going to make it any better on pit road. I really felt like if we could have had a good restart on the last restart that we were in the catbird seat, but the last two restarts just didn’t go our way. I felt like we had the balances good and we were going to get it, but we were just missing something with overall speed—kind of missing it in qualifying and missed it today in the race too. All in all, we finished and we don’t have a scratch on it so we’ll take it.” This marks Busch’s eleventh top-10 finish in fourteen NASCAR Nationwide Series starts this season.

The rain around the Michigan International Speedway did not cooperate with the No. 77 Bandit Chippers Toyota of Parker Kligerman. Kligerman’s crew chief, Eric Phillips, molded his team’s race strategy on the high possibility of rain causing the race to be red flagged. Kligerman did not pit when he had the opportunity gambling on the fact that the rain would come before they ran out of fuel. It was a gamble that did not pay off. The No. 77 team finished in 25^th when they were forced to pit under green. When asked if he was praying for rain while leading, Kligerman commented, “Yeah, we played it perfectly for that situation and I’m not down on Eric (Phillips, crew chief) or anyone about that. I was fully for it, but it sucks when you run top-five all day. This Bandit Chippers Camry right in front of a Bandit Chippers home crowd and a car that could win on speed alone and –we drove away from the field there—and it just didn’t go our way. There was debris everywhere the last 20 laps. Of course, no one threw a caution, so we ran out of fuel and finished wherever we finished. Disappointing day result-wise, but a lot of positives in terms of the speed we had in our Camry and we’ll get them next time.”

At a track where fuel strategy races are common, today’s chess match with Mother Nature put an interesting twist on things that left some teams frustrated as Regan Smith declared check mate at the end of the day.

June 16, 2013
Dillon Makes Nationwide Series History at Michigan

Driver of the No. 3 AdvoCare Chevrolet, Austin Dillon, captured the Coors Light Pole Award for the 22^nd Annual Truck Parts 250 at Michigan International Speedway. With a qualifying lap of 37.523 seconds, 191.882 mph, Dillon broke the track qualifying record of 190.375 mph, which he set at Michigan last year. This is Dillon’s seventh pole in 57 NASCAR Nationwide Series races. Today’s pole award marks Dillon’s fourth consecutive pole, which sets a NASCAR Nationwide Series record. Dillon’s previous three poles came at Charlotte, Dover, and Iowa with top ten finishes in both Dover and Iowa.

Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing teammate, Paul Menard, will be starting in 2^nd position. The 22^nd Annual Alliance Truck Parts 250 marks Menard’s first NASCAR Nationwide Series start of 2013. This is the fourth top-10 start out of eight races at Michigan International Speedway.

RAB Racing driver, No. 99 Alex Bowman, was the fastest qualifying rookie for the 22^nd Annual Alliance Truck Parts 250. Bowman will be starting in fifth position driving his St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital Toyota.

Last week’s winner of Iowa’s Dupont Pioneer 250 and newlywed, Trevor Bayne, will be starting in fourth position in the Roush Clean Tech Ford. Bayne has six top-10 finishes this season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and is currently 9^th in points standings.

Nationwide Series points leader and driver of the Taxslayer.com Chevrolet, Regan Smith, didn’t fare as well in qualifying for the 22^nd Annual Truck Parts 250. He will be starting in 20^th position with ten top-10 finishes this season and one win at Talladega Superspeedway.

Sprint Cup Series regular, Kyle Busch, who has dominated the Nationwide Series this season will be starting in 14^th position in his Monster Energy Toyota. No. 54 Busch has won three Nationwide Series pole awards, and has had nine top-10 finishes with six wins in 2013. Busch has one win and four top-10 finishes at Michigan International Speedway.

The green flag will fall on the 22^nd Annual Alliance Truck Parts 250 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan on Saturday at 2:15 pm EST.

June 16, 2013
Edwards grab pole for Quicken Loans 400

Fords have been less than impressive this season. Several Ford drivers have recently commented on the lack of performance. If there is one track that Ford seems to always run well at, it is Michigan International Speedway. Today was no exception. Edwards posted a fast lap of 202.452 mph to grab the 12^th pole of his career. Edwards lap was a full tenth of a second over second place qualifier Kurt Busch. Edwards earned his first career victory at the two mile speedway, a race which was also Roush-Fenway Racing’s last victory at the track.

Joining Edwards in the top ten were fellow Ford drivers, Aric Almirola and Joey Logano who qualified fifth and sixth respectively. Running well at Michigan has always been a sense of pride for manufacturers, as MIS is in the backyard of their corporate headquarters.

Kurt Busch continues to impress with another solid qualifying effort. Busch will start second on Sunday in his Furniture Row Chevrolet. In the media center after qualifying, Busch said, “It was a great lap, it’s amazing how close it comes down to after a two mile run.” Busch also credited his team association with Richard Childress Racing as playing a big part of their recent success. He also pointed out that the 78 team gives a lot of valuable information back to RCR and that the association is a two way street. He also commented that RCR considers his team a fourth team car.

Kasey Kahne who led first practice posted a solid third place effort, the only Hendrick Motorsports driver in the top ten. Paul Menard, Kurt Busch’s “pseudo-teammate”, who is having the best season of his career will start fourth on Sunday. When asked if his lap was helped by cloud cover, Menard said, “It always helps when you have a little shade for sure. We had a really good car in practice; we just never could really get a clean lap to show it.” Rookie driver, Austin Dillon, also from the RCR camp, will start seventh. Dillon commented after qualifying, “I had to check up off of (turn) two, but really proud of that lap.”

Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch led the Toyota camp and will start eighth and ninth Sunday. TRD, who builds engines for Joe Gibb Racing, recently dialed back horsepower in an attempt to help durability. The lower horsepower seems to be evident, as Toyotas have been very dominant in qualifying this season, but have been a little off since the change in the engine department.

The Quicken Loans 400 will go green Sunday at 1:00 pm local time and will be televised on TNT.

June 14, 2013