Category: RC NASCAR Cup

FORT WORTH, Texas—Jimmie Johnson continued his recent domination of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Texas Motor Speedway Saturday night, rallying after a late pit stop for a victory in the 19th annual Duck Commander 500.

Johnson, the six-time NSCS champion, took the lead on Lap 321 of the scheduled 334 when he drove under and past Jamie McMurray and Kevin Harvick exiting the dogleg of TMS’ high-banked, 1.5-mile quad-oval. The final 14 laps featured a battle between Johnson and Harvick, the reigning NSCS champion, who finished second despite scraping the Turn 4 wall on Lap 331.

Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Pro Services Chevrolet SS, finished 1.107 seconds ahead of Harvick and his No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS. Johnson, of Hendrick Motorsports, posted his 72nd career victory in 478 NSCS starts and seventh for team-owner Rick Hendrick.

“The end of the race was nutty,” said Johnson, who said he woke up sick Saturday morning and addressed the media post-race through a scratchy voice. “Those last three pit stops with the varied tire strategies, our car wasn’t handling like it did when we were leading. The third one (on Lap 310), our car was really, really good and I was able to work our way forward. The No. 4 was having trouble with the No. 1 (of McMurray) and slid up…and I thought I had it under control. Just a lot of great racing; the (worn-out) surface of this racetrack allows that to happen.”

Johnson scored his fifth win at TMS and third in his last six starts, but his first victory in the spring event. Johnson earned his first win of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a sister 1.5-mile layout to TMS, in the second race on the schedule.

“I think the tracks with high-wear and bumps…I think the surface fits my style and Chad’s style and what we do together,” Johnson said in reference to crew chief Chad Knaus.

“This is a racetrack that falls into Jimmie’s liking,” said Knaus, still sporting his Victory Circle Stetson. “Do we always race at night (here) in the spring? We’ve run very, very well here in the spring race so I think it was just circumstances that we hadn’t been able to pull it off previously. Nothing specific.”

Johnson pitted with most of the lead pack during the race’s eighth and final caution period on Lap 310, when Knaus played it safe with a call for four Goodyear tires. Four drivers—McMurray, Kyle Larson, four-time series champion Jeff Gordon and Martin Truex Jr.—opted for right side tires only. Johnson exited pit road in seventh after Larson was penalized for driving through too many pit boxes.

Johnson moved into third on Lap 317, behind leader McMurray and Harvick. Johnson completed his charge to the front on Lap 321, with Harvick taking second and Dale Earnhardt Jr. also passing McMurray. Earnhardt moved around Harvick on Lap 326 for second before Harvick returned the favor on Lap 329. Harvick then lost momentum on Lap 331 when he slid and scraped the wall in Turn 4 but still managed to maintain second. By then, Johnson was headed to the white flag.

Earnhardt, Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, finished third in his No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS. Joey Logano, last year’s Texas spring race winner and the reigning Daytona 500 champion, finished fourth in the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion. Brad Keselowski, the 2012 NSCS champion and Logano’s Team Penske shopmate, finished fifth in the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford.

“I had the car I anticipated I would have,” said Earnhardt, who scored his 15th top-10 finish in 26 races at TMS. “We made some good adjustments. We seemed to have a good pattern of what was working for us and I think by the end of the race we had our car as good as we had it all night.

“I like racing here. I think it was a good show. It was raining debris out there for a while and we needed some green-flag runs to get some of the track position back that we were having trouble keeping. Finally the rain shower of debris ended and we were able to finish the race.”

Johnson led on nine occasions for a race-high 128 laps to become the third driver to record wins in the spring and fall races at Texas, joining Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards, both of Joe Gibbs Racing. Harvick, a two-time winner this season for Stewart-Haas Racing, led nine times for 96 laps.

Harvick’s bid to end a winless streak at TMS that now stands at 0-for-25 was evident on Lap 314 after the last restart, when he nudged the rear bumper of Logano’s car and moved him out of the way while battling for third.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” said Harvick, who interpreted Logano’s tactic as blocking. “Like the No. 22 (Logano), you knock them out of the way and that’s the chance you take when you block.” Harvick setted for his 13th top-10 finish in those 25 TMS starts and his seventh top 10 in 2015.

Logano classified Harvick’s move as “hard racing,” then admitted he was blocking. “It’s the end of the race. I blocked him and he got into me,” Logano said. “I get it. Early in the race that’s not acceptable. End of the race, we’re racing for the win. I’d do the same thing.”

Harvick exited Texas with a 25-point (306-280) lead over Logano in the points standings, with Truex, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet SS, third and 40 points out of the lead after a ninth-place result.

March 22, 2015
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

FONTANA, Calif.—After Sunday’s Auto Club 400, there may be a warrant issued for Brad Keselowski.

After all, the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford committed his own version of “Grand Theft Auto” at Auto Club Speedway—he stole an entire race.

Benefiting from a four-tire call on the last lap of regulation and two opportune cautions that extended the event nine laps beyond its scheduled distance, Keselowski passed polesitter Kurt Busch on the final lap (209) and pulled away to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season.

Trying to make one last desperation run at Keselowski, Busch scraped the wall in the final corner at the two-mile track, allowing Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick to pass him for the runner-up spot.

Keselowski arrived at the finish line .711 seconds ahead of Harvick, simultaneously taking the checkered flag and leading his first lap of the day. The 2012 champion, who led the series with six victories last year, recorded his first victory at Fontana—and his first finish higher than 18th—and the 17th of his career.

“At the end, we caught some breaks, made the most of the breaks we caught,” Keselowski said. “That was kind of the story of our race. It looked like we were probably going to finish sixth or seventh.  That yellow came out (on Lap 185 for debris).  We came in and pitted and drove up a little bit, then caught another yellow. Now what do we do?

“So (crew chief) Paul (Wolfe) made the call to come down pit road and put four tires on. When he said that, I said, ‘This can either go really good or really bad.’ Didn’t know which one it was going to be.  Some guys stayed out, some guys took two tires, all different types of strategies on the restart.

“We were able to find our way through the lanes and get to the front there, somehow end up in Victory Lane leading the last lap. Kind of a race car driver’s dream.  This is one we’re going to sit back and go ‘Wow!’ for a while.”

Keselowski can call it a break, but it was theft, pure and simple. Aside from a stretch before the halfway point where Denny Hamlin got out front in clean air and led 56 laps, the cars of Busch and Harvick dominated the race, leading 65 and 43 laps, respectively.

But Keselowski’s Wolfe made what turned out to be the winning call on Lap 200, after NASCAR called the sixth caution of the race because of debris in Turn 4. Opting for four new tires, where the vast majority of the field took right sides only for track position, Keselowski restarted 18th on the first attempt at a green-white-checkered-flag finish on Lap 203.

The No. 2 Fusion quickly moved forward. When Kyle Larson lost his bumper cover during a melee on the restart, NASCAR threw caution No. 7, and by then, Keselowski was already up to seventh place.

Using the new tires to full advantage, Keselowski shot into second place like a lightning bolt after a green-white-checkered restart on Lap 208. As Greg Biffle crashed on the frontstretch on the white-flag lap, Keselowski rocketed past Busch off Turn 2 and pulled away for the win.

Busch came home third, followed by Richard Childress Racing teammates Paul Menard and Ryan Newman. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon completed the top 10.

Having won at Las Vegas and Phoenix in the previous two races, Harvick fell one position shy of completing a sweep of NASCAR’s three-race West Coast Swing, but he could commiserate with Busch, who was trying to win for the first time this season after serving a three-race suspension.

“I hate that the 41 (Busch) wasn’t able to hold on for the win there,” said Harvick, who posted his eighth straight top-two finish, dating to last year, and extended his series lead over Logano to 28 points. “I would have loved to see those guys get their first win.

“But you never know how the strategy is going to play out here. There’s so many cars on the lead lap, you didn’t want to get buried in there (by taking four tires). One little bad move for Brad, he would have been stuck in the middle of that traffic. But it all worked out for him. The second restart, he was in prime position up on the outside with fresh tires.”

Busch was disappointed but philosophical about the result.

“It was a solid day,” Busch said. “I don’t know what we could have done different. We just got pinned in by the yellows and the sequence at the end on which tires we needed to have to optimize how many laps were left.

“We had two tires; Keselowski had four.  We didn’t need that extra yellow at the end. That last restart, I just didn’t get the job done, and I just got out muscled by Keselowski.”

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race – Auto Club 400
Auto Club Speedway
Fontana, California
Sunday, March 22, 2015

1. (8) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 209, $357781.
2. (2) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 209, $260130.
3. (1) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 209, $205055.
4. (11) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 209, $158505.
5. (9) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 209, $156305.
6. (17) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 209, $132045.
7. (13) Joey Logano, Ford, 209, $155803.
8. (12) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 209, $136240.
9. (14) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 209, $150831.
10. (7) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 209, $149406.
11. (23) Aric Almirola, Ford, 209, $141546.
12. (31) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 209, $135168.
13. (15) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 209, $98110.
14. (20) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 209, $128474.
15. (27) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 209, $109560.
16. (21) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 209, $136696.
17. (19) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 209, $113160.
18. (4) David Ragan, Toyota, 209, $145051.
19. (22) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 209, $105760.
20. (33) Chris Buescher(i), Ford, 209, $93860.
21. (26) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 209, $126451.
22. (30) Brett Moffitt #, Toyota, 209, $122974.
23. (37) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 209, $119218.
24. (32) Cole Whitt, Ford, 209, $108493.
25. (40) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 209, $93610.
26. (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 209, $120793.
27. (25) Brian Scott(i), Chevrolet, 209, $103843.
28. (6) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 209, $106485.
29. (36) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 209, $132835.
30. (10) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 209, $125668.
31. (3) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 209, $128746.
32. (29) Greg Biffle, Ford, 209, $121143.
33. (28) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 208, $96932.
34. (18) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 208, $105185.
35. (43) David Gilliland, Ford, 208, $94960.
36. (35) Josh Wise, Ford, 207, $86820.
37. (41) JJ Yeley(i), Toyota, 206, $86549.
38. (24) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 206, $80803.
39. (34) Jeb Burton #, Toyota, 205, $78240.
40. (39) Mike Bliss(i), Ford, 205, $72740.
41. (38) Brendan Gaughan(i), Chevrolet, 205, $68740.
42. (42) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 203, $64740.
43. (16) Sam Hornish Jr., Ford, 155, $87585.

Average Speed of Race Winner:  140.662 mph.
Time of Race:  2 Hrs, 58 Mins, 18 Secs. Margin of Victory:  0.710 Seconds.
Caution Flags:  7 for 31 laps.
Lead Changes:  19 among 9 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   K. Busch 1-5; K. Harvick 6-24; A. Bowman 25; M. Kenseth 26-31; D. Hamlin 32-61; J. Gordon 62; D. Hamlin 63-88; M. Kenseth 89-94; K. Busch 95-99; M. Truex Jr. 100-104; K. Busch 105-137; C. Edwards 138; K. Busch 139-143; K. Harvick 144-154; M. Kenseth 155-185; K. Harvick 186-189; K. Busch 190-200; J. Gordon 201-202; K. Busch 203-208; B. Keselowski 209;.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  K. Busch 6 times for 65 laps; D. Hamlin 2 times for 56 laps; M. Kenseth 3 times for 43 laps; K. Harvick 3 times for 34 laps; M. Truex Jr. 1 time for 5 laps; J. Gordon 2 times for 3 laps; C. Edwards 1 time for 1 lap; B. Keselowski 1 time for 1 lap; A. Bowman 1 time for 1 lap.

Top 16 in Points: K. Harvick – 225; J. Logano – 197; M. Truex Jr. – 192; D. Earnhardt Jr. – 164; B. Keselowski – 163; R. Newman – 162; J. Johnson – 159; K. Kahne – 159; P. Menard – 152; A. Almirola – 138; A. Allmendinger – 137; C. Mears – 132; M. Kenseth – 127; D. Hamlin – 125; D. Ragan – 124; J. McMurray – 120.