Category: RC NASCAR Cup

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”258″][/media-credit]Mark Martin qualified late and captured the pole for Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series Capital City 400 at Richmond International Raceway with a lap of 128.327 MPH (21.04 secs).

“I tried to get it on the first lap. I really didn’t want to run the second lap. I knew I was going to be close to wrecking and I didn’t want to wreck the car and when he (Rodney Childers, crew chief) didn’t call me off on the first lap, I knew that we hadn’t got it.” Martin said. “I had to buckle down and try to get a little bit more that second lap. It’s just a tribute to everybody that supports us at MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing).”

This was Martin’s second pole of the season and the 53rd of his career.

Martin captured his first pole at Richmond 31 years ago.  He also breaks the previous record of the oldest pole winner at Richmond (53 years, 3 months, 19 days).

“I think a lot of guys like to see an old dude like me pull one off every once in a while. It’s pretty cool. Carl’s (Edwards) a good dude. It’ll be there other way around next time probably.” Martin said.

Carl Edwards qualified second, Kevin Harvick third, A.J. Allmendinger fourth and Kyle Busch qualified 5th.

“That is a good lap and we have Ford EcoBoost on the car which is a great product and hopefully this is a top-five or six starting spot. We have a better race trim package than we do a qualifying trim package so I am excited about that.” Edwards said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the final practice session and qualified 10th. Teammates Jeff Gordon 6th, Kasey Kahne 9th, and Jimmie Johnson qualified 27th.

Series points leader Greg Biffle qualified 28th.

“I don’t know what happened there. I just guess we didn’t have the grip we needed. I was probably just a little bit tight in the center I guess and that was all the grip I had. It was all that I could do.” Biffle said.

[media-credit name=”Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]The STP 400 was an entertaining race. There was passing, 14 recorded lead changes. There was side by side racing, at times 3-wide going into one and coming out of four. There were stages of the race when there were different dominate cars. But in the end the dominate car would be the no.11 Fed Ex Toyota of Denny Hamlin. With the win the no.11 passed the no.43 for number of wins the number has achieved with 199.

“I just can’t thank everyone at FedEx enough for putting this together and putting me in the driver’s seat. Great day for our race team — the pit crew did amazing there on that green flag pit stop. Darian (Grubb, crew chief) made a great call to bring me in one lap early and just a great team effort today. This has been a great weekend and we just had a solid car all week,” said Hamlin.

Martin Truex Jr. was the dominate car and basically walked the dog on the field. MWR’s Napa Toyota, was pulling the dominate horses of the HMS camp down the straight-aways by 7-8 car lengths. But in the end he would finish a disappointing second. “ What can I say about this team? All the NAPA guys have done a nice job — MWR, Toyota — everybody’s put a lot into this and it’s fun to drive these race cars. Just disappointed right now. We had them. I don’t know what happened with that last set of tires, they were terrible. I couldn’t go at all — was just dead sideways, wrecking. At the end of the run, I was back to being okay again, but by then he (Denny Hamlin) had already passed me and clean air is everything.” said Truex Jr with noticeable disappointment in his voice.

The no.48 of Jimmie Johnson was coming. He was coming all day. He would get there and have to pit. He would come back and have to pit. His timing just appeared to be slightly off and left him with a third place finish. “This week it doesn’t register. To me last week at Texas, the week before Martinsville or to lead a lot of laps at Martinsville and have our cars lead one, two, three and not get the victory, to get the most laps and today to get near the end and not close the deal does sting. Today we ran well but we weren’t a dominant car and kind of finished where we should have. Today doesn’t bother me. Sure, I’d love to wise. If things would’ve played out different at the end, maybe we could’ve put two on while the other guys were putting four, something, just trying to give us some options. I don’t think it affected our finish. We got basically back to where we were. I think I was ahead of the 11 but the 11 was real strong that last run and went up there and got the win.”

It was another disappointing day for the 5 car of Kasey Kahne. As a matter of fact, it is beginning to look like Kasey Kahne couldn’t cut a break with a knife. That poor man has done everything but stand on his head and if it can go wrong it has gone wrong. But for once it turned around late in the race and Kasey logged a top ten finish. Finishing 8th.

The no.88 of Dale Earnhardt Jr gave another inspiring performance with a very very strong run. Finishing 7th. Earnhardt Jr is showing consistency this year that we haven’t seen from him in his career. Earnhardt is 4th in the points just 21 points out of first.

A couple of observations that I would like to make about this weeks race. The first, the National anthem is played at every race to pay tribute to our country and our heritage. The number of drivers and crew members that were flatly disrespectful to both was a disgrace. If you can’t show respect for the flag of the country that gives you the freedom to do what you do, then perhaps you should find somewhere else to do what you do perhaps Bahrain.

Second, the STP 400 was a cool windy day. It was a really nice day compared to what it could have been in Kansas in April. The early year date was made necessary due to the repaving project that will begin at the conclusion of this race. Frankly there has been snow in Kansas in April in the past. It was discussed whether this would be one of those years. But the very warm winter prevented that from happening. The weather goddess smiled down on the Kansas Speedway. It was overcast. It was windy. It was a little chilly. But it was dry and it was race worthy. The constant complaints of it was cold were so annoying. Frankly, the dirt track racers in the area raced with temperatures much lower than the what the cup cars had and they were just happy and glad to be racing.

Darrell Waltrip needs to quit. He has no idea what is going on in those cars. Anymore than the announcers of his day knew what was going on his car. To claim that a driver just made an evasive move like going to the apron of the track because he was bored is ludicrous and an insult to his audience. As a matter of fact I am pretty sure that everyone knows what the world disabled means. I didn’t need nor did anyone else an explanation of what a disabled cylinder means.

The taking up of the race surface began just one short hour after the checkered flag waved. When the teams return here in October it will be to a sleek slick black new asphalt surface with progressive banking and an infield road course. Many of the drivers weren’t happy until the surface in the first turn started chunking. At that point it was obvious that there was no choice and the track officials knew exactly what they were doing and were doing the right thing. It’s a changing of era’s. A new phase of growth to begin. Kansas is growing up. She is laying claim to her champions and picking her favorites. It will be exciting to see if her new surface likes the same style of driver as her old one. Or will it prefer a more aggressive driver? Will it take a strong hand and a stronger will to conquer her in the future.

Congratulations to Denny Hamlin on his win in the STP 400. Congratulations to James Beuscher on his win in the NCWTS race at Kansas. Congratulations to Sammy Swindell on his victory in the WoO on Friday and Craig Dollansky on his win on Saturday. Congratulations to Tony Stewart on his victory on Saturday night at Eagle Raceway in Nebraska. Congratulations to Tracey Hines on his USAC Sprint Car win at Eldora Speedway.

To all the competitors in all the series thanks for giving us everything you have to give, you are our heroes. Most importantly, thanks to all the families who shared their loved ones with us so we could cheer our favorite driver and favorite teams. You are the true heroes of the sport and we are forever in your debt.

[media-credit name=”Jamie Squire/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”231″][/media-credit]Denny Hamlin made the pass on Martin Truex Jr. for the lead with 31 to go and never looked back.

Joey Logano drops to the rear despite qualifying second due to an engine change

Green flag as A.J Allmendinger pulls out to the early lead as Kevin Harvick spins the tires on the start.

Lap 7 Allmendinger leads Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski and Sam Hornish Jr.

Lap 20 Allmendinger leads Harvick, Truex Jr., Hamlin, Bowyer, Kahne, Keselowski, Earnhardt Jr., Martin, Jimmie Johnson

Lap 23 Johnson passes Martin for ninth

Lap 36 Allmendinger leads Harvick, Truex, Hamlin, Bowyer, Kahne, Keselowski, Earnhardt Jr., Johnson and Martin

Lap 37 Harvick and Truex battle side-by-side for second and Truex is able to complete the pass.

Lap 45 Truex was about to pass Allmendinger for the lead as he heads down pit road. Earnhardt Jr. misses pit road. Joey Logano pits.

Lap 46 Allmendinger, Harvick, Biffle, Johnson, Matt Kenseth pit as Allmendinger is out of gas. That handed the lead to Hamlin, who also pits.

Lap 47 Carl Edwards leads a lap and then pits. He is joined on pit road by Regan Smith as Truex goes to the lead.

Lap 48 Bowyer is having an engine problem

Caution Lap 53 as Clint Bowyer spins; he takes the car to the garage. Some drivers choose to pit while the leaders stay out. David Reuitmann gets the lucky dog to make it 27 cars on the lead lap.

Restart Lap 57

Lap 60 Truex leads Harvick, Hamlin, Kahne, Keselowski, Johnson, Allmendinger, Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Kenseth

Lap 77 Allmendinger is now having motor problems as he drops out of the top 20

Lap 89 Harvick heads down pit road as he is out of fuel

Lap 92 A bunch of drivers hit pit road as Kahne is out of gas.

Lap 93 Truex pits, handing the lead to Johnson

Lap 94 Kahne makes it to pit road while Edwards, Gordon, Newman also pit; Johnson pits from the lead, handing it over to Kenseth.

Lap 95 Stewart, Kenseth and Greg Biffle hit pit road, handing the lead over to Juan Pablo Montoya. Almirola misses his pit stall

Lap 97 Montoya pits, handing the lead back over to Martin Truex Jr.

Lap 107 Truex leads Hamlin, Kenseth, Earnhardt Jr., Johnson, Keselowski, Biffle, Kurt Busch, Martin and Harvick

Lap 116 Truex leads Hamlin, Kenseth, Earnhardt Jr., Johnson, Biffle, Keselowski, Busch, Harvick and Martin

Lap 118 Kenseth passes Hamlin for second

Lap 121 Johnson passes Earnhardt Jr. for fourth

Lap 123 Busch passes Keselowski for seventh

Lap 131 Truex leads Kenseth, Hamlin, Johnson, Earnhardt Jr., Biffle, Busch, Harvick, Martin, Keselowski as Jamie McMurray pits.

Caution Lap 132 for debris

Lap 133 Leaders come down pit road…..Truex leads Kenseth, Hamlin and Johnson off pit road.

Lap 134 Bobby Labonte has motor problems

Restart Lap 142

Lap 145 Truex leads Hamlin, Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Kenseth, Johnson, Biffle, Martin, Harvick and Kyle Busch

Lap 150 Kyle Busch passes Harvick for ninth

Lap 151 Truex leads Hamlin, Earnhardt Jr., Johnson, Kurt Busch, Kenseth, Biffle, Martin, Kyle Busch and Harvick

Lap 153 Johnson passes Earnhardt Jr. for third

107 to go Truex leads Johnson, Hamlin and Earnhardt Jr.

104 to go Truex leads Johnson, Hamlin, Earnhardt Jr., Kenseth, Biffle, Kurt Busch, Martin, Kyle Busch, Harvick

93 to go Leaders begin making pit stops.

89 to go Truex and Johnson make their pit stops from first and second.

88 to go Kenseth leads a lap and then pits handing the lead to Keselowski

87 to go Keselowski misses pit road.

86 to go Keselowski pits, handing the lead back to Truex

Caution 80 to go for Montoya getting into the wall as some of the leaders pit while others stay out including Truex

Restart 75 to go as Truex gets a good restart on the field

73 to go Truex leads Hamlin, Kenseth, Earnhardt Jr., Biffle, Kurt Busch, Harvick, Johnson, Kyle Busch and Keselowski

71 to go Newman pits as he has a possible flat tire

70 to go Johnson passes Kurt Busch and Harvick as Martin passes Kyle Busch for ninth

67 to go Martin passes Harvick for eighth

66 to go Truex leads Hamlin, Kenseth, Earnhardt Jr., Biffle, Johnson, Kurt Busch, Martin, Harvick, Kyle Busch

65 to go Johnson passes Biffle for fifth

64 to go Johnson passes Earnhardt Jr. for fourth

61 to go Gordon passes Kyle Busch for 10^th

60 to go Martin passes Kurt Busch for seventh

58 to go Kyle Busch and Harvick battle side-by-side for 10^th

57 to go Harvick completes the pass as Biffle passes Earnhardt Jr. for fifth

56 to go Truex lead Hamlin, Johnson, Kenseth, Biffle, Earnhardt Jr., Martin, Kurt Busch, Gordon, Harvick

53 to go Stewart got into the wall

46 to go Kahne, Keselowski, Earnhardt Jr., Johnson, Hamlin pit

45 to go Kyle Busch, Menard, Kenseth, Biffle, Edwards, Gordon, Mears, Burton and Truex pit, handing the lead to Stewart

43 to go Stewart, Almirola, Smith pits, handing the lead to Montoya

42 to go Montoya pits, handing the lead back to Sam Hornish Jr.

35 to go Hornish Jr. pits to hand the lead to Truex.

33 to go Truex leads Hamlin, Johnson, Kenseth, Biffle, Earnhardt Jr., Martin, Harvick, Gordon and Kyle Busch

31 to go Hamlin passes Truex for the lead

30 to go Martin passes Earnhardt Jr. while Kasey Kahne passes Kyle Busch for 10^th while Gordon is off the pace with a motor issue

29 to go Both Kahne and Kyle Busch pass Gordon for position. Kurt Busch is also down a cylinder.

27 to go Hamlin leads Truex, Johnson, Kenseth, Biffle, Martin, Earnhardt Jr., Harvick, Kahne, Kyle Busch

17 to go Harvick passes Earnhardt Jr. for position

14 to go Harvick and Earnhardt Jr. pass Martin; Martin is off the pace

11 to go Kahne, Kyle Busch and Edwards all pass Martin

Hamlin wins, over Truex, Johnson, Kenseth, Biffle, Harvick, Earnhardt Jr., Kahne, Edwards, Kyle Busch

[media-credit name=”Credit: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”228″][/media-credit]Ryan Newman holds off AJ Allmendinger on the final green-white-checkered restart on Sunday to win the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

The win was Newman’s first of the season, first at Martinsville and the 16th of his Sprint Cup career.

“We were not a dominate race car. Clint kind of cleared out turn one for us and we were fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time.” Newman said.

“It was just circumstances with the No. 10 there doing what he did. I’m not sure what happened or if he ran out of fuel or had a problem whatever happened.” Newman added.

A late caution flag came out for the stopped No. 10 car driven by David Reutimann. Trying to keep the team in the top-35 in the standings, Reutimann stayed out on the track until the car just quit. NASCAR had already black flagged him he was planning on pitting the next time around, but it was too little to late.

“The thing quit going down the back straightaway, and it shut off. I just didn’t stop there intentionally.” Reutimann said.

Teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson were in a door-to-door battle for the race lead with 4 laps remaining when the caution flag came out. It appeared to be a sure bet that one of them was going to bring team owner Rick Hendrick his 200th Cup Series win, but circumstances did not allow it.

Gordon and Johnson did not pit under the final caution. On the first green-white-checkered restart both Gordon and Johnson were on old tires while the other lead lap cars behind them had new tires due to pitting for fuel and tires. Going into turn-1, Clint Bowyer dive bombed underneath Gordon as a result of a hard hit from the then fifth place Ryan Newman. The two cars bumped and moved up the track into Johnson who was on the outside. All three drivers spun and Newman dived low and took over the race lead. Newman then held off AJ Allmendinger for the win during green-white-checkered flag.

Johnson finished 12th and Gordon finished 14th.

“Clint is a friend of mine. He is a great race car driver. It was not like him to do that. He said he got a hit from behind from the No. 39. I didn’t get the best restart. The tires are really old. I spun the tires a slight bit. When I saw him go down to the inside of me I knew we were all in trouble. All I could do was just hold on tight.” Gordon said.

“We just restarted and got going. That inside lane is awfully inviting at times to dive-bomb on people. The No. 15 (Clint Bowyer) threw a dive-bomb in there. I’m sure once he got in there and realized it wasn’t the best idea. It turned me around. It turned the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) around. But it is what it is. It’s short track racing.” Johnson said.

“My frustration and certainly Jeff’s (Gordon) is to be the class of the field all day long and be up front and have something stupid like this take us out is frustrating and we want to get this 200th win for Rick real bad and we could have been 1-2 today easily.” Johnson added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third, Matt Kenseth fourth and Martin Truex Jr. finished fifth.

“The No. 15 dove to the bottom and it’s his right. He was doing what he wanted to do to try and win the race. It’s a green-white-checkered and that’s what you’re going to get here. So I think Clint did what he had to do. It just caused a little bit of trouble on the outside down there and we ran into the No. 24. But I just don’t know what the No.10 was thinking with a broken sway bar and driving around there at 15 mph for two or three laps. Come on pit road; hell, how many laps down are you? Get on pit road. Get out of the race. It shouldn’t have ended like that. It was unfortunate.” Earnhardt Jr. said.

“Those two guys were on 100-and-some-lap tires, so I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty honestly. I just tried to watch what was going on and I slowed way up for the wreck and I think that’s maybe how AJ got there, but I didn’t want to get caught up in a wreck at the end. I knew they were going to restart it.” Kenseth said.

Greg Biffle finished 13th and holds a six point lead over Earnhardt Jr. in the series standings.