Category: RC NASCAR Cup

Jeff Gordon, driver of the No.24 Axalta Chevrolet owned by Rick Hendrick, made history at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by becoming the first 5-time winner on the oval and ties Michael Schumacher for most wins overall.  It was Gordon’s first win at the track since since 2004. His other wins include the inaugural race in 1994, as well as wins in 1998 and 2001.

Gordon started second and lead three times for 40 laps in the 160 lap event. “I don’t think there’s a greater feeling as a race car driver, and a race team. I finally made the restart of my life when it mattered most. I was trying so hard with 10 to go not to focus on the crowd, I was trying not to let it get to me. You can’t help it, it’s such a big race, such an important victory. This one is for all those fans throughout the years and all weekend long who said, ‘go get number five.’” said Gordon in Victory Lane. The win was Gordon’s 90th career win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. He now has 17 top ten finishes in 21 starts in this race. Bobby Labonte is the only other driver to run in each of the 21 Sprint Cup races at Indianapolis.

Kyle Busch drove his Joe Gibbs owned, No.18 Snickers Toyota to a second place finish after starting the race in the 12th position. After the race Busch said, “Today wasn’t bad. Our Snickers Camry was pretty good. We had a good race car today, probably a top four race car and we come home second. We’re proud of the effort there and the guys did a good job. We look forward to the next few weeks.”

All three Gibbs owned cars finished in the top four. Denny Hamlin, in the No.11 FedEx Express Toyota started 27th and drove his way to a third place finish. “We were awful for two days.” said Hamlin, adding, “The things I require out of a car just doesn’t work until the track gets hot and slick. We knew as soon as the pace started up our car was going to come in. That was a good run for us.” After the post-race inspection, it was determined that there may be some issues with the 11 car for “several rear firewall block off plates.” The parts and pieces will be taken back to the NASCAR R & D Center for further evaluation.

Matt Kenseth in the No.20 Dollar General Toyota, also owned by Gibbs started 13th and finished in 4th. “It was a good day for JGR. All our Toyotas were pretty quick today. We were all top 10 cars. Kept guys out and got good finishes. Wish it was a one-two-three. Another good day for us.” said Kenseth following the race.

Joey Logano, in the No.22 Penske owned, Shell Pennzoil Ford, was the highest finishing Ford driver finishing 5th and leading one time for 10 laps. Joey said, “We ran about where we thought we would. We had nothing compared to the 24 car. We stayed out one time and led a bunch of laps and got some track position that way. It was a good call. Fortunately we were able to hang on to where we were. If you ever make one mistake in this race, your day is over. You never get those spots back. You just gotta be perfect all day.”

Kasey Kahne who has yet to secure a spot in the Chase, dominated the race and looked like he was well on his way to getting locked into the Chase by leading 70 laps before being passed by Gordon on a late race restart. Kahne was not happy with the restart and thought that NASCAR let Gordon control the restart even though Kahne was leading at the time, “I didn’t spin a tire and Jeff was driving by me before we were even at the second red, so they just let him control it. But either way, he was gonna pass me in 1 and 2, so looking back, I probably should have chose the top.” said Kahne following his 6th place finish. Kahne is now 15th in the point standings.

Jeff Gordon leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings by 24 over teammate, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who finished the race in the 9th position.

The race had 4 caution flags for 16 laps and had 15 lead changes among 9 different drivers. Gordon’s margin of victory over Kyle Busch was 2.325 seconds.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader Jeff Gordon, who won the inaugural race back in 1994, scored his fifth Brickyard 400 victory at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, tying Michael Schumacher for the most wins at the track. Schumacher, a seven-time Formula One champion, won five out of six United States Grand Prix events on the 2.5 mile layout.

Gordon certainly displayed the best way to celebrate “Jeff Gordon Day” at Indianapolis. On Friday, the mayor of Indianapolis declared July 27 “Jeff Gordon Day.” It was Gordon’s first win at Indianapolis since 2004.

“I’m not very good on restarts and wasn’t very good today,” Gordon said. “And, I finally made the restart of my life when it counted the most.”

“Once we got down into (turns) 1 and 2, I could hear him (Kahne) get loose,” Gordon said. “I was kinda glad he took the inside because I really wanted the outside.”

With his second win of the 2014 season, Gordon clinches his spot in the 16-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup field. The win marked Gordon’s 90th win in the premier series, which makes him the third driver with 90 plus victories, joining David Pearson (105) and Richard Petty (200).

On a lap 144 restart, Gordon was lined up on the outside of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne. It was Gordon who had the better restart, as Kahne got loose in the center of the corner, nearly spinning Gordon in the process. However, nothing was going to deter Gordon’s drive for history.

The entire entourage of Joe Gibbs Racing drivers finished inside the top five. Kyle Busch finished second, Denny Hamlin finished third, and Matt Kenseth finished fourth. Joey Logano rounded out the top five as the highest finisher for Team Penske.

“There was no catching him (Gordon),” Kyle Busch said. “He was really fast obviously. I think this was a really big day for JGR and Toyota, and I am proud of the effort of bringing all three home in the top five.”

Kahne, who slipped to sixth after running out of fuel on the final circuit, admitted he let Gordon control the restart. “Looking back, I probably should have chosen the top (line) on the restart,” Kahne said. “Either way, he was going to pass me in 1 and 2.”

Kyle Larson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Austin Dillon rounded out the top 10.

Kevin Harvick was viewed by many to be the car to beat, clinching his first Brickyard 400 pole since his win in 2003. Harvick led the opening circuit, but yielded the lead to Jeff Gordon, who passed Harvick on the inside in turn one.

There were no major incidents, minus a couple of cases of misfortune. Trevor Bayne got loose and struck the outside wall, which caused a flat right-rear tire. Bayne appeared to have it saved, but he spun back to the inside and slammed the guardrail. Danica Patrick was the other, breaking a rear-gear exiting the pit lane. Patrick, 2005 Indianapolis 500 rookie of the year, did a mini-burnout during the duration of the incident. Due to the unknown about what was going on, NASCAR threw a caution.

Next weekend, the Sprint Cup Series will visit Pocono Raceway for the final time in 2014 for the GoBowling.com 400. (Aug. 3, 1 p.m. ET, ESPN)

Kevin Harvick won the pole for Sunday’s Brickyard 400, winning all three of the qualifying sessions that including a track record run in the first session.  It was Harvick’s fourth pole of the 2014 season and his second at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The new track record is now 47.801 seconds for the speed of 188.281 mph.  Afterwards Harvick said, “After the first lap I was probably more nervous than I have been in a while for qualifying.  Just wasn’t really expecting to have the car run that fast, and then from there, they’re all looking at you, all right, if you screw this up, it’s on you, buddy.  It’s great to have fast cars.  They do a great job preparing the cars and just being able to come to the racetrack and know that the car is going to be fast just takes a huge burden off of everybody’s shoulders just to get the balance right.”

Harvick, not usually known as a great qualifier gave credit to his team for the year he’s had so far. “I think all of that comes down to the car,” he said. “ Obviously my confidence is a lot higher knowing that you don’t have to over‑drive the car or hit a perfect lap to qualify well.  The engine department and the effort that these guys put into the car is different than what I had in the past.”

Jeff Gordon qualified second during the final session and was strong in all three of the sessions.  Gordon said, “I feel extremely good, excited about it. I was in here yesterday and talking about how good our race team is and how good I thought our race car was going to be, and today kind of proves that.  I mean, Kevin (Harvick) was certainly very, very quick, and it was nice to close that gap a little bit on him that third session, but I feel very confident about this weekend.  Starting on the front row is an excellent place to start.  Track position is extremely important, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the efforts that we had today and in that qualifying session to get us that front row start.”

When qualifying started there was a flurry of activity as the cars and teams tried to get on the track first for the first of three timed qualifying sessions.  As Jimmie Johnson waited for his car to get through inspection his team mate Gordon set the pace with a lap of 187.301 miles per hour. It was not long after Gordon set the pace that  Harvick broke the track record with a blistering lap of 188.889 miles per hour taking over the top spot.  As the drivers took their laps the crew chiefs and crews had to stand by and wait to see how everyone else was doing.

With about seven minutes left in that first session Aric Almirola hit the wall and took his car to the garage with left side damage. He plummeted to 42^nd on the grid. With only 2 minutes remaining Greg Biffle was on the bubble. As time was expiring Biffle breathed a sigh of relief as Paul Menard did not beat his time.

The three teams that did not qualify in that first session were the N o. 29 of Matt Crafton, the No. 33 of David Stremme and No. 66 of Brett Moffitt. Bobby Labonte qualified via the past champions provisional in the No. 37 car.

Paul Menard said, “We did not do any qualifying runs during practice and I got inpatient and thought we needed to get out there early and ran up on a slow car.” Denny Hamlin noted that his car, “was off over second all weekend long.”  Hamlin will start 27^th tomorrow.

Rookies Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson qualified in the 17 and 18 positions respectively in the first round.  Brad Keselowski was third, Kurt Bush fourth with Matt Kenseth rounding out the top five.

During the second session, which only lasts ten minutes,  Gordon was out first and ran a lap 186.990 mph. Harvick responded with another great lap of 47.801 seconds for a speed of 188.281 mph. Brad Keselowski, one of the series best qualifiers and hottest teams came through in third with a speed of  186.575 mph.  Juan Pablo Montoya, driving the No. 12 for Roger Penske, his Indy car owner, qualified for the final five minute session by running in the ninth position.

With under 3 minutes remaining Kenseth, Danica Patrick and Larson were 13 to 15^th on the grid. But then, with time expiring, Roush Racing drivers of Greg Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse took to the track.  They ran 21^st and 19^th respectively and did not make the final session.

Matt Kenseth , who will start 13^th said, “ I thought we got through a lot of stuff yesterday (Friday).  Thought it was a real productive day.  Today, we just did a couple qualifying runs. Like I said, the same for everybody.  You always wish you had more practice time in a way, in another way I felt like we were pretty close yesterday.  So, I was okay with it being shorter today. Second time (session) the balance and grip was a lot different. It’s been tough going from round to round. I never thought I’d say I missed single car qualifying but I do, we did better that way.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will line up said, “This morning we went out the track was perfect and when we went out this afternoon it was real tight. It’s been really frustrating. We’re in a bit of a situation where its gonna hurt us balance wise. The guys have been working hard. “

In the final session Harvick set the pace with a 47.753 second lap that meant it was a 188.470 mph. With under a minute left the track got busy and Jeff Gordon came in second and his speed clocked in at  187.770 mph. Harvick swept all three sessions with laps of over 188 mph.  Keselowski was third and Ryan Newman and Brian Vickers rounded out the top five.

Vickers said after the final session was over, “We would have loved to sit on the pole, but I think I’m pleased from the standpoint that I feel like everyone on this Aaron’s Dream Machine Camry team … we maximized our opportunity in qualifying today and that’s always a good feeling.  I feel like we got the most out of our potential of what we showed up with in the car and the speed and everything.  The guys did a great job.  They made the car better each run, and the fact we ran our fastest on our third run on tires is good.  That’s what we really need to keep building on as a team and these qualifying sessions, is being able to get better each run and we haven’t always been doing that, so be able to accomplish that regardless of where we qualify is something I really liked.”

“They work hard to put these cars together. I was happy with car in race trim and we made a lot of adjustments for qualifying. Hopefully we can put together a whole day tomorrow. “

For Aric Almirola the rain tastes pretty sweet as he captured his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race.

In probably one of the soggiest race weekends NASCAR has had this season, the racing was still exciting. There was a little bit of everything including rain, crashes and bad pit stops. But one driver stood above the rest to claim his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win. Not only was it his first win, but he did it on the anniversary of “The King” Richard Petty’s 200th win, in the No. 43 car made famous by Petty. Petty’s 200th win also came at Daytona.

Almirola captured the first win for the No.43 car since Martinsville in April of 1999 with John Andretti behind the wheel.  To just add some icing onto the cake, birthday cake that is, Petty also just celebrated a birthday. With all this you have to see the magic of it all and there is no denying that it was just meant to be.

The race was scheduled for 160 laps on the 2.5-mile superspeedway on Saturday night, however was moved to Sunday due to rain. Rain fell once again on Sunday, resulting in the race being called after 112 laps. Almirola, who entered with four top-five finishes in his seven-year career, led 14 laps.  Almirola, a Florida native made some history of his own, winning at what he considers his home track and putting him in one of the coveted “Chase” spots.

“This is so awesome. The amount of effort that has gone into this team and building it to be better and a winning team as it should be has been great to watch.” Almirola shared his thoughts on winning his first race saying, “To get this car in victory lane is really special. The good Lord was looking out for us today. We had a good fast car and we’ll take them anyway we can get them. We’re going to be in the Chase.”

A happy Almirola also talked about the team stating, “I went last week down to Tampa to do a lot of media to promote this race and I’ve said time and time again how bad I want to win here. I grew up sitting in those grandstands right there and dreamed about winning here and man; I just took the 43 car to victory lane here at Daytona.  This race team is deservingly so. We’ve had cars where we’ve ran in the top 10, just haven’t got the finishes. This is so cool to get these guys who have been on this race team for so long to be able to get to victory lane.”

The race was iffy for rain from the start of the race on Sunday. It looked as if it could rain and it did only nine laps into the race resulting in a half hour delay.

Then after the race was restarted, it had barely started back again when “The Big One” would happen when  Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got squirrelly, in which Jeff Gordon reacted to move down, getting into Tony Stewart, causing Stewart to spin Stenhouse. When the smoke had cleared there were 16 cars involved in the wreck.

“We’re a quarter lap away from the caution and Stenhouse wanted to be a hero. I think it’s a pretty dumb excuse for a caution.” Stewart said.

“We had a good run going for the lead. The 33 pulled down, I got loose off the corner and then the 24 thought I’d spin and came down, and the 24 hit the 14 there.” Stenhouse replied.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Marcos Ambrose, Danica Patrick, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Larson also got a piece of the wreck.

“I was running three-wide and I just saw cars flying everywhere. Just real disappointing for the guys that have been working down here for four days in the heat, not to mention shop hours to only run 19 laps.” Johnson said.

There were a pair of cautions due to debris and Earnhardt Jr. was the lucky dog more than once trying to get back in contention after the wreck, though would end up finishing 14th.

While most races feature only one big wreck, this race would be different as a second wreck happened at lap 99. The wreck started when Greg Biffle got into the back of Kasey Kahne, while running in the top-five.

“I was just getting hit from behind and next thing I was spinning,” Kahne explained. “Everybody was trying to get going and I just got hit and it was going left and right.”

“Just so unhappy and close quarters racing,” Biffle commented. “David Ragan gave me a big push and the 5 moved down to the middle, hit the 13 and then I hit the 5. You don’t know when the shove happens and its hard to time it all.”

Kyle Busch thought he had it cleared with a slight slip through the grass, however contact from Cole Whitt with Busch sitting on the apron resulted in Busch going over on his roof. Clint Bowyer and Jamie McMurray also caught air as a total of 26 cars caught a piece of the wreck.

“It was a carnival ride, but I guess that’s fitting for the Fourth of July weekend,” Busch summarized. “I think someone got the 5 turned across the field there and it went through the grass and went across, t-boned there and it toppled over.”

“From my seat, I didn’t see anything,” McMurray commented. “Kasey came over and said that Greg got him squirrley and he couldn’t catch it. When you have a car spin at the directly in the front of the field, its hard to avoid them. The car was completely off the ground there and let me say – that is a helpless feeling – so glad that it set back down.”

“She did the hostile hop there but luckily, she went back down,” Bowyer said. “But man, look at all the cars torn up and all these guys work so hard on them. Now they’re just scrap.”

Other drivers involved include Brad Keselowski, Michael Annett, Marcos Ambrose, Danica Patrick, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Alex Bowman, Paul Menard, Ryan Newman, Terry Labonte, Bobby Labonte, David Ragan, Reed Sorenson, David Gilliland, Landon Cassill, Justin Allgaier, Ryan Truex, Michael McDowell and Josh Wise.

“That happens right towards the front and it looks like the 16 got into the 5,” pole sitter Gilliland said. “Just a disappointing day. Hope to get fixed and get some points.”

Many teams were playing weatherman by staying out before and after the race hit the halfway mark, with hopes that if the rain did start, they would be where they needed to be.

Kurt Busch was one of those who did and led the most laps in the race.  Along with Busch, Biffle and Almirola were up front fighting for the lead spot.  On the restart on lap 105 Kurt Busch and Almirola were side-by-side and on lap 107 Almirola pulled ahead with help from Brian Vickers. The caution came out again on lap 109 and the race was called after 112 laps.

Brian Vickers would get second for his sixth top-10 of 2014, followed by Kurt Busch, Casey Mears and Austin Dillon. Denny Hamlin finished sixth, followed by Michael McDowell, Danica Patrick, Clint Bowyer and Marcos Ambrose.

Jeff Gordon remains the leader in the point standings; Earnhardt is in second, 27 points behind. Johnson (-55) is third followed by Keselowski (-65) and Kenseth (-71).

The next stop on the Sprint Cup Schedule is at New Hampshire on Sunday July 13 at 1 p.m. ET for the Camping World RV Sales 301.

Coke Zero 400 Finishing Order at Daytona International Raceway

1. Aric Almirola
2. Brian Vickers
3. Kurt Busch
4. Casey Mears
5. Austin Dillon
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Michael McDowell
8. Danica Patrick
9. Clint Bowyer
10. Marcos Ambrose
11. Terry Labonte
12. Jeff Gordon
13. Alex Bowman
14. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
15. Martin Truex Jr.
16. Paul Menard
17. Joey Logano
18. Brad Keselowski
19. Michael Waltrip
20. Matt Kenseth
21. Michael Annett
22. David Ragan
23. Josh Wise
24. Ryan Newman
25. Justin Allgaier
26. Bobby Labonte
27. Kasesy Kahne
28. Kyle Busch
29. Greg Biffle
30. Jamie McMurray
31. Landon Cassill
32. Ryan Truex
33. Reed Sorenson
34. Cole Whitt
35. David Gilliland
36. Kyle Larson
37. Carl Edwards
38. Trevor Bayne
39. Kevin Harvick
40. Tony Stewart
41. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
42. Jimmie Johnson
43. AJ Allmendinger

 

 

 

Everybody expects the likes of Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard Childress Racing or Roush Fenway Racing to be on the pole for the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway – however, Front Row Motorsports? Really? That’s exactly what happened on Friday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway as David Gilliland put the underfunded team on the pole with a lap of 45.153 seconds. It marks Gilliland’s first pole of 2014 and the third pole of his career.

“I cant wait to talk to Bob Jankins,” Gilliland commented, referring to Front Row Motorsports team owner. “We’re finally on the front row. We’re excited about that. Restrictor plates are the strong suit of this organization, obviously, and it’s great to get the pole. It was crazy out there so hopefully it was a good show for the fans at home.”

With this being the second time knock-out qualifying has been attempted on a superspeedway, the stars of the Sprint Cup Series are beginning to learn the games that are needed to be played. Drivers found themselves ‘lallygagging’ around the track to try and catch the right run on the group ahead of them when they did go. If they found themselves being caught without catching a group, they’d drop off. The games were played for the entire 25 minutes and at the end, a surprise was held as three small organizations will lead the field to green on Saturday night.

NASCAR only did the first round of the three-round knock-out system as a result of rounds two and three being rained out. NASCAR has it at their ability to call a session complete if all the cars have taken to the track in a round, or the round is officially complete.

Reed Sorenson would qualify his Chevrolet for Tommy Baldwin Racing in second, marking his first top-10 start of the season and second in 11 starts at Daytona.

“There was some type of plan. I just kind of did what my spotter did as they had it more worked out on the roof than we could,” Sorenson commented. “For awhile there, we were really slow there and I actually got separated from the people that I was with. But that allowed us to get with that group there and get a good run.

“It’s exciting for us to be on the front row and hopefully we can stay there all night and be there at the end. At least we can stay out of the trouble for the first straightaway, at least.”

Landon Cassill qualified third, followed by Bobby Labonte and defending race winner Jimmie Johnson.

“The car is fast. We saw that yesterday with our single-car runs so very proud of everyone at Hendrick Motorsports,” Johnson commented. “It’s a fast racecar, it’s in the top-five so we’ll start there and hopefully put on a good show.

“Truthfully, I think it’s great to see names, teams and sponsors that you normally don’t see a lot up there. I think it’ll do a lot for them to have their names in the forefront.”

Matt Kenseth qualified sixth, followed by Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr., David Ragan, Jeff Gordon and Greg Biffle.

Notably, many of the top drivers failed to make the top 24 in qualifying, including Brian Vickers, Joey Logano and Kyle Larson.

“There’s cars going every which way – there’s cars going 200, cars going 130 – and it’s hard to believe that nobody has wrecked yet. I think once the green flag drops, they’ll be lots of options in whether to go to the front or to the back,” Vickers commented.

“That was pretty dumb,” Logano said. “You got to rely on everybody else and we only had a small group with only three of us so we’re trying to tag on to other groups but you don’t know what they’re doing. We were almost stopped there and I was like, ‘Um, what am I to do now’. Unfortunately, we qualified really bad – but you can start anywhere here at Daytona.”

“I guess that’s the way it goes with this qualifying, espically when you have a two-car organization in trying to form something; you’re really at the mercy of what group you get with or who tags along. We’ll start deep, but not a big deal,” Larson said, who adds that he’ll probably just race straight to the front.

Joe Nemechek was the only driver that failed to qualify as RAB Racing was trying to make their Sprint Cup Series debut.

Brad Keseloswki would not be denied tonight in the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. Keselowski muscled his way past Kyle Busch with just 19 laps to go to score his 12th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, his second victory at Kentucky Speedway and his second victory of the 2014 season. He had a strong performance all weekend racing his way to a fifth place finish Thursday night in the Camping World Truck Series race and dominating last night in the Nationwide Series race only to finish second to Kevin Harvick.

Keselowski, driving the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford, started from the pole and much like Saturday’s Nationwide race dominated, leading 199 of the race’s 267 laps. The only other leaders of the race were Joey Logano in the No. 22 Pennzoil Ford, who led 37 laps, and Kyle Busch in the M & M’s Toyota who led 31 laps.

“What a really fast car. It just kind of came together for us, really across the weekend from qualifying to race practice and then in the race,” said Keselowski after the race. “I knew it was gonna be a dogfight to get back to Kyle and race him, but we got there with a really fast car and got a perfect run on him with traffic and the next thing I knew we were there, so it feels really good, obviously, to get that second win.”

Keselowski becomes the sixth driver to score two or more wins in the 2014 season and is now fourth in the point standings, 58 points behind leader Jeff Gordon.

Keselowski had to make a trip to the infield care center for four stitches to his right hand after cutting himself on a bottle in the victory lane celebration. The injury is not expected to affect his racing.

Kyle Busch finished in second after starting the race in 18th position and did not find the lead until lap 217 before being passed by Keselowski on lap 248. After having a lead of over a second on Keselowski, Busch thought he had enough of a lead and clean air to hold him off at the end.

“I tried to stretch it as much as I could there early when I had the clean air,” Busch said, “and then when we got to traffic I just backed up too much and got way too loose, the loosest I’ve been all race long. We just had to come home second tonight to the best car.”

Ryan Newman scored his best finish of the year in the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet to come home in third place after starting in seventh.

“It’s a big gain for us and our Caterpillar Chevrolet. All the guys at RCR and ECR got us that first top 5 of the season,” Newman said after the race.

Matt Kenseth, in the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, overcame a speeding penalty to finish in fourth place. Dale Earnhardt Jr. started in 29th place and finished in fifth place. The rest of the top 10 at Kentucky were Jeff Gordon in sixth, Kevin Harvick in seventh, Kasey Kahne  in eighth, Joey Logano in ninth and Jimmie Johnson in 10th place.

Earnhardt is now tied for second in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings with Jimmie Johnson. Both drivers trail points leader Jeff Gordon by 24 points. Keselowski is fourth (-58) and Kenseth is fifth (-63).

The next NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race is Saturday night, July 5th at Daytona International Speedway.