Category: RC NASCAR Cup

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.

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.”

On Friday afternoon, it’d be Austin Dillon laying down a lap of 27.747 seconds at Charlotte Motor Speedway to win the pole for the 29th Annual Sprint Showdown.

The race is set up for drivers who have not locked themselves into the Sprint All-Star Race to run. The top two finishers in the 40 lap race tonight will get to run the All-Star race tomorrow.

Dillon, a rookie this year, went out mid-way through the single-car qualifying session and laid down the quickest lap despite being mid-pack in practice.

“These guys did a great job,” the driver of the No. 3 Dow Chevrolet said. “The car was hard to drive during practice and we changed a lot as best as we could and used our teammates to try and get better. I came to the green pretty hard and we were a little free off of two – but it paid off. Hopefully we can do well tonight and get into the all-star race. We’re going to give it all we got. It was a huge improvement from practice. It’s like a win for us.”

AJ Allmendinger qualified second in his No. 47 Freightliner/Miller Welders Chevrolet, eight-hundreths off of Dillon’s time. For Richard Childress Racing, it gives them a sweep of the front row. Allmendinger is running for JTG Daughtry Racing, but JTG entered a technical alliance with RCR this year.

“To go out that early and put a lap down like that, it’s good,” he said. “We’re just digging away. We have a fast Chevy. I was just hoping to be in the top five and to be on the front row, it’s great. We’re going to head out there and run hard in the 40 lap showdown.”

Kyle Larson qualified third, followed by Clint Bowyer and Marcos Ambrose.

Paul Menard qualified sixth, followed by Danica Patrick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Casey Mears and Aric Almirola.

“Who would have thought that? Wow.”

Going into qualifying, Richard Childress Racing and their Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engine affiliates had a plan to draft together and catch a ‘toe’ at the optimal time to therefore lay down the quickest speed of the session. The plan worked perfectly as ECR cars swept the top six spots in qualifying.

Catching the run at the right time through the apron in the third round of qualifying, 26-year-old Brian Scott would come across the line with a lap of 48.293 seconds to score his first career Coors Light Pole Award in his fifth Sprint Cup Series start. Scott’s previous best qualifying attempt was a 12th in the season opening Daytona 500.

“It was a team effort,” Scott commented. “Big thanks to everyone. It’s always a team effort to get these superspeedway poles. We had a team plan and Ryan Newman was elected the point player. I know how that feels as I was the point man yesterday and you don’t feel you have a pole shot but you feel special being a team player.

“We were able to get the right suck there at the last second to get the pole and I couldn’t be more happier for everybody.”

While the format may have been different with three rounds of qualifying and drafting, this is a continuing trend on the restrictor plate tracks as ECR was strong at Daytona 500 with Austin Dillon and Martin Truex Jr. on the front row.

This time around, it’ll be Paul Menard on the front row with Scott as Menard qualified second for his third top-10 start of the season. A.J. Allmendinger qualified third, followed by Casey Mears and Austin Dillon. Allmendinger and Dillon had a mix-up earlier this season at Darlington and with their qualifying effort, found themselves in the media center together. The ill-feelings look to be gone as both joked about their insults to each other.

Ryan Newman will start sixth, followed by Danica Patrick, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards.

Jeff Gordon will start 11th, followed by Tony Stewart, Brad Keselowski, Michael McDowell, Aric Almirola, Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano, Michael Annett, Brian Vickers, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Reed Sorenson and Trevor Bayne.

Notably missing from the top 24 were Clint Bowyer (29th), Kyle Larson (30th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (31st), Jamie McMurray (33rd) and Denny Hamlin (35th).

“Wasn’t that much fun. That was pretty boring,” Earnhardt Jr. commented. “I’m pretty sure we can think of something as that. I’d like to do some heat races or something. That’d be a little funner than this.”

“Well, for us, we got out there in a group and I guess the officials made us come down pit road for something and we lost our group and plan,” Larson said. “Just couldn’t tag on to the right group and get a toe. Qualifying really doesn’t matter here and we have a quick Target Chevy so we’ll be fine tomorrow.”

The session didn’t go without incident, either, as contact between Kyle Busch and Michael Waltrip resulted in minor damage to both Toyotas.

Eric McClure, Dave Blaney, .J. J Yeley and Joe Nemechek were the four drivers that did not qualify.

Following qualifying, two cars failed post-inspection as Truex’s No. 78 did not meet height requirements while Kahne’s No. 5 was too light. Both times disallowed, will start at rear

Rain throughout the day would result in a soaked track and therefore resulting in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Qualifying being rained out. As a result, the starting line-up for the Toyota Owners 400 was set based on first practice speeds.

Kyle Larson  will start first after setting the quick time in first practice with a lap of 21.280 seconds, 126.880 mph. Due to qualifying not taking place in an official qualifying session, Larson will not be credited with an entry into the Sprint Unlimited as a result of his pole.

“We were debating before practice started to start in qualifying trim or go to race trim and do that,” Larson said. “I wanted to start out in qualifying trim and was able to kind of talk Shine (crew chief Chris Heroy) into doing it.  I wasn’t sure what to expect on my lap, but we came here and tested last year for Goodyear and had a good baseline.  I was pretty confident with going out in qualifying trim without getting used to the car yet.  Was able to lay down a fast lap and then we switched over to race trim and we were good in that too.

“Excited about the AXE Peace Chevy, I think it should be a good race tomorrow.  It’s nice starting off from the pole.  I don’t know if I will count it as my first career pole, but it’s still pretty cool to start on the front row.”

2012 Sprint Cup Series Champion Brad Keselowski will start second, followed by Clint Bowyer. Bowyer enters the weekend looking for redemption at Richmond International Raceway after last year’s Chase scandal. Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five.

Brian Vickers will start sixth, followed by Jamie McMurray,  Ryan Truex, Paul Menard, and Jimmie Johnson.

Prior to the weekend, an online betting review site, TopBettingReviews.com, sent us the odds for this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Below are the odds:

Kevin Harvick –   6/1
Kyle Busch –   13/2
Jimmie Johnson –  7/1
Denny Hamlin –  15/2
Brad Keselowski –   8/1
Jeff Gordon –  9/1
Clint Bowyer –  10/1
Matt Kenseth –  12/1
Dale Earnhardt Jr. –  14/1
Joey Logano –  14/1
Kasey Kahne –  14/1
Carl Edwards –  16/1
Tony Stewart –  18/1
Kurt Busch – 20/1
Kyle Larson –  22/1
Ryan Newman –  28/1
Greg Biffle –  33/1
Brian Vickers –   50/1
Jamie McMurray –   66/1
Paul Menard –   66/1
Austin Dillon –  75/1
Marcos Ambrose –  75/1
Martin Truex Jr. –  75/1
Aric Almirola –  100/1
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.   –  100/1
A.J. Allmendinger –  150/1
Casey Mears  –  300/1
Danica Patrick  –   300/1
Justin Allgaier –   300/1
David Ragan –   500/1
Landon Cassill –  500/1
Dave Blaney –    750/1
David Gilliland  –     750/1
David Reutimann –    750/1
Parker Kligerman –    750/1
Alex Bowman –    1000/1
Cole Whitt –    1000/1
David Stremme –    1000/1
J.J. Yeley –    1000/1
Joe Nemechek –    1000/1
Josh Wise –    1000/1
Michael Annett  –   1000/1
Michael McDowell – 1000/1
Reed Sorenson –    1000/1
Ryan Truex  –   1000/1
Travis Kvapil  –  1000/1

When Kevin Harvick is not running well, he really suffers and has a terrible finish. However, when he is running well and able to dominate, it produces magical results. Tonight was a product of magical results as Kevin Harvick dominated the Bojangles Southern 500 in route to picking up his second victory of the season. Harvick is the only driver this year with multiple wins, guaranteeing himself a spot in the Chase without question.

“I want to thank everyone on this Budweiser Chevrolet – everyone who is part of this car,” Harvick commented. “We had to overcome a lot over the last few weeks, but we’ve had some real fast cars. We kept our heads down and working hard.”

It marks Harvick’s 25th career victory and his first at Darlington Raceway. Harvick also becomes the first driver to win from the pole at Darlington Raceway since Dale Jarrett in 1997.

Starting on the pole, Kevin Harvick dominated throughout the entire night (leading 238 laps) and looked to have the win in the bag when the caution flew with 10 laps to go for Joey Logano smoking. The leaders headed down pit road with Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon taking right-side tires to lead the group off. Harvick would come off fifth with four new tires on his No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet.

The restart would come with five to go with Jimmie Johnson pulling ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. with the lead while Harvick slipped by both Kenseth and Gordon to move into third. As the field came around for two laps to go, the caution flew once again for Travis Kvapil and Denny Hamlin having an incident down the backstretch. This set up a green-white-checkered finish.

When the green flew for the restart, Johnson spun his tires on the bottom, which allowed Earnhardt Jr. to get away and pull ahead as the leader. Harvick would get by Johnson and begin to set his sights on Earnhardt  when the caution flew to set-up a second green-white-checkered. Kurt Busch brought out the caution when he got loos and contact from Clint Bowyer sent him into the inside retaining wall.

On the second green-white-checkered, Earnhardt would pull ahead of Harvick in turns one and two, though Harvick got to the outside of Earnhardt in turn four and took the lead.  Harvick then led the rest of the way on his way to victory.

“We needed those green-white-checkereds for the fact that I was able to get good restart and they were spinning the tires,” Harvick noted. “I knew if I got a run off two that I’d be on the outside down in turn four. It’s a good night. It’s the southern 500!”

Earnhardt Jr. would finish second for his third runner-up finish since winning the Daytona 500 in February. It also marks his career-best at Darlington, beating the fourth place runs that he got in 2002 and 2008.

“He had the best car and the best tires,” Earnhardt Jr. commented. “I maybe should’ve ran the top in three and four to make him race me harder for it. These guys did a great job on this car and it’s great to have this run as I normally don’t run that well here. it was a good night.”

Jimmie Johnson overcame his 26th starting spot to finish third despite struggling early in the race and requiring multiple pit stops under a lap 40 caution to work on the car.

“So thankful that my guys keep working and keep trying,” Johnson commented. “The first quarter of the race the car was far off. Chad took some swings at it and got this car where it needs to be. I hadn’t been upfront but everyone said to take the outside. Dale said afterwards that it was a bad call and certainly that push from the 4 (Harvick) helped. It probably would’ve been better for us if it stayed green there.”

Matt Kenseth, who started 25th, cracked the top 10 mid-race and was able to keep himself up there to finish fourth.

“It seemed like the inside row was better but Kevin started on the top and he was just able to get right out there and away with having more tires,” Kenseth said. “Overall, it was a good night.”

Greg Biffle rounded out the top five, followed by Kyle Busch. Busch got into the wall multiple times throughout the night, requiring extended service on pit road to adjust the toe on his Toyota. Gordon would finish seventh to keep the points lead, now one point ahead of Kenseth.

“We had a really strong racecar,” Gordon commented. “Everything was going really well. Kevin having that number one pit stall heped and he was fast – but I thought we were better at times. That last run, we started fading and I got into the wall a little bit. From there, we made some mistakes and fell back a couple times.”

Rookie Kyle Larson was eighth, followed by Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman and Austin Dillon.

While Larson and Dillon fared well, their fellow rookies did not as Ryan Truex, Michael Annett and Cole Whitt brought out cautions throughout the night for incidents. However, Darlington didn’t just bite the rookies as Travis Kvapil and Paul Menard also suffered some issues tonight, as well.

With short track racing at Richmond International Raceway around the corner in a couple of weeks, there will be some drivers to watch.

Aric Almirola and Danica Patrick bumped off each other multiple times, with Patrick spinning Almirola on lap 221. On the flip side, A.J. Allmendinger and Dillon bumped off each other causing a tire rub for Allmendinger. Luckily, a cuation came out shortly after so he could pit for repairs. Allmendinger expressed frustration on the radio, saying that he was going to wreck Dillon.

It was a great day for qualifying as several drivers broke the existing track record with Kevin Harvick taking home the bragging rights for beating them all as he picked up the Coors Light Pole Award for the Bojangles Southern 500. It marks Harvick’s seventh career pole and his first at the egg-shaped oval. Harvick lapped the field with a lap of 26.802 seconds in the third round of knock-out qualifying.

Joey Logano qualified second, followed by Aric Almirola. Almirola set a new track record during round two of qualifying with a lap of 26.705 seconds. It is the sixth track record in eight races this year.

Qualifying today for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 was done in three rounds. In the first round, the top 24 cars would move on to round 2, where the top 12 will then move on to round 3, and round 3 will determine your top 12 starting position and most importantly, the pole position.

Here is the round by round by round recap.

ROUND #1

Round #1 was a very fast round with several drivers breaking the current track record. Few drivers that were on the bubble for that last spot to get to the next round but for the most part the lineup stayed the same, your 24 drivers that moved on to round #2 are 1) 27 Menard 2) 11 Hamlin 3) 1 McMurray, 4) 43 Almirolan 5)41 Kurt Busch 6) Newman 7) 24 Gordon 8) 9 Ambrose 9) 99 Edwards 10)22 Logano 11) 18 Kyle Busch 12) 16 Biffle 13) 3 Dillon 14) 5 Kahne 15) 2 Keselowski 16) 4 Harvick 17) 47 Allmendinger 18) 55 Vickers 19) 14 Stewart 20)51 Allgaier 21) 78 Truex Jr 22) 88 Earnhardt Jr 23) 15) Bowyer 24) Larson

Of note, last year’s race winner Matt Kenseth qualified 25th with six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson in 26th. Johnson commented after his run that the car was too tight.

ROUND #2

Round #2 proved to be even faster than round #1 with Almirola setting another new track record of 184,145.

The following 12 drivers would move on to the 3rd round to go for the pole Almirola, Logano, McMurray, Harvick, Ambrose, Menard, Keselowski, Newman, Gordon, Hamlin, Truex Jr, and Kyle Busch. Martinsville race winner Kurt Busch just missed the top 12 in 13th, followed by Brian Vickers and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

ROUND #3

This would be the round for the bragging rights, which ended up with Kevin Harvick taking home the pole and setting the top 12 starting positions. Logano qualified second, followed by Almirola, Ambrose, Keselowski, McMurray Newman, Kyle Busch, Gordon, Hamlin, Menard, and Truex Jr.

In the end only one driver would not make the race and that was Reutimann who was 39th fastest, 46th in owner points. 

For the seventh straight race in a row, NASCAR has their seventh different race winner as Joey Logano won the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. It marks Logano’s fourth career victory in his second season at Team Penske.

“I felt very confident coming into this race,” Logano commented. “Todd made good adjustment throughout the day. We were able to get some track position and clean air means everything. Heck yeah!”

Logano grabbed the lead at the completion of the final round of green flag pit stops with 33 laps to go and looked to have the win in hand as he was almost two seconds ahead of teammate Brad Keselowski. Then, everything changed as a caution flew with two laps to go for Kurt Busch blowing a tire and sending debris across the track surface.

Logano and the other leaders pitted with Jeff Gordon leading Brian Vickers off as they both took two tires. Logano came off third, followed by teammate Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch as they took four tires. Keselowski would be nabbed for speeding, and have to start tail end. Logano restarted third and cleared Vickers off of turn two before passing Gordon on the last lap in turns one and two for the lead. Logano then led the rest of the way to the checkered.

“There were a lot of emotions…..and then the caution comes out and you’re like, ‘you got to be kidding me’,” Logano said. “Team did a good job in the pits and we had enough there to pass Gordon at the end. It feels good to be in victory lane, and in the Chase.”

Gordon’s gamble paid off as he was able to hold on to second rather than finishing in the back half of the top 10. Gordon now leads the point standings, four point over Matt Kenseth.

“We were strong the first half of the race and then when the sun came out, we got real tight,” Gordon noted. “Great call by Alan to take two tires there at the end. I got a good restart there but he caught me. He got into the back of me and I thought I was going to week so second looked good.”

Kyle Busch finished third after starting outside of the top 25 following a poor qualifying effort on Saturday.

“The Interstate Batteries Camry was good,” Busch said. “Jeff was better than us the middle of a run, but man the Penske guys just surprised us there. I got up on the wheel there at the end. I was trying to hustle it, trying to get more but I was just too tight.”

Brian Vickers and rookie Kyle Larson rounded out the top five as Larson scores his second top five in the last three races. Greg Biffle finished sixth, followed by Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard and pole sitter Tony Stewart.

Kasey Kahne finished 11th after multiple issues on pit road, followed by Aric Almirola, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Keselowski. Keselowski was one of the drivers that got damage during the first 10 laps of the race.

NASCAR started the race under green/yellow conditions as they finished drying the track. Keselowski, among others, received damage to their hood, with hood flaps coming up. Keselowski’s damage was more severe as the hood buckled some. NASCAR allowed drivers to come down pit road and receive repairs before the race without penalty.

“We had a great car and an awesome day,” Keselowski commented. “Got some damage early, but were able to fix it under that green/yellow. We were solid throughout the day and then came down pit road and sped. Trying to get a little too much on pit road and tried a little too hard.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who came into the race as the points leader, finished 43rd after making contact with the turn one wall on lap 12. Earnhardt got down on the grass slightly, sending the car across the track into the wall, causing the car to catch fire.

“Just ran into the grass on the apron,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I saw the 43 and just didn’t see the grass. Didn’t know the grass was real close. With the way the a-post is in these cars, you can’t see how close you are. Just a mistake on my part. I just didn’t know that I was that close to the grass.”

In the process, Earnhardt kicked off a lot of dirt, causing front end damage to Jimmie Johnson’s car. The No. 48 Lowe’s team made repairs, though Johnson had to make an unscheduled pit stop for a flat tire. As a result, Johnson got trapped multiple laps down and ended up finishing 25th.

Kevin Harvick’s day wasn’t that much better as he finished 42nd after blowing an engine.

“I didn’t get any indication that anything was going wrong,” Harvick commented. “Hendrick engines are among the fastest & most reliable.”

Martinsville race winner and Harvick’s teammate Kurt Busch finished 39th after struggling throughout the day.