Category: RC NASCAR Cup

Kasey Kahne won the pole for Sunday’s AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a lap of 29.775 seconds (186.196 mph). It was Kahne’s 22nd career pole and third at the speedway.

[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”238″][/media-credit]“It was a good lap. I was a little on the tight side so I had to slow down more than I would have liked getting into the corner, but once it did turn I had tons of grip and was able to get off turn two really well and down the backstretch turns three and four was pretty good too. Just worked out and worked out well for us. Definitely wasn’t a perfect lap, but it must have just been a little better than anyone else’s.” Kahne said.

Clint Bowyer will start outside the front row after turning a lap in 29.819 seconds.

“That is a good start. Our Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet has been speed-wise all weekend long. We worried a little bit about our long runs today in practice. You can’t put too much emphasis on that, it was so hot today.” Bowyer said.

Kyle Busch will start third with a lap of 29.832 seconds (185.841 mph).

“Can’t say enough about all these guys on this Pedigree Camry. They did a great job this weekend. Done a real nice job. Hoping this is a little bit of an omen maybe for tomorrow night and we can go win one million bucks for some race fans with us.” Busch said.

Brian Vickers will start fourth with a lap of 29.832 seconds (185.772 mph).

“I thought we were better than that. It was a good run. The guys on the Red Bull Toyota did a good job — probably one of the best cars we’ve had in a while. Really proud of that. Think we’re going to be really good in the race tomorrow too. I guess I’m satisfied – pleased, but not satisfied.” Vickers said.

Four time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon will start fifth.

“For when we went and the conditions, I thought that was a good lap time. It was a big pickup from yesterday. I think with all these clouds, guys will beat us. Just happy with the improvements we’ve been able to make and the performance we’ve been having lately. I feel like we have a really good race car.” Gordon said.

David Starr will represent race sponsor AdvoCare in the 43rd starting position.

Brad Keselowski held off Martin Truex Jr. on Saturday night to win the Sprint Cup Series Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”244″][/media-credit]“An awesome car, an awesome team! Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt won this race. It’s a race of champions. There are races that pay more, that are races that might have a little more prestige, but this is the coolest damn one of them all.” Keselowski said.

This was Keselowski’s third win of the season and now sits in the 11th position, the no. 1 wild card spot, in the series standings. His three wins should be enough to secure him a spot in the “Chase”.

Keselowski also closes out the list of qualified finalists who can earn a $3 million payout in the Sprint Summer Showdown presented by HTC EVO™ 3D.   If Keselowski can also win the AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he will win $1 million for himself, $1 million for his designated charity and $1 million dollars for two lucky race fans.

Jeff Gordon finished third, Jimmie Johnson fourth and Jamie McMurray finished fifth.

Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards now have clinched spots in the “Chase”.

Edwards finished ninth, but more importantly, he is in the chase.

“That was a lot of work. Lots of work for a ninth place. That is a tough race right there.” Edwards said. “We had good pit stops and good strategy and we locked into the Chase, which is huge. That’s the first mission of the season and we accomplished that and we are looking forward to Atlanta.”

Kenseth led 110 laps en route to a sixth-place finish and clinched his chase berth.

“That is great. My guys have been doing a great job this year and it feels good to clinch that spot. I wish we were running just a hair better but they did a great job.” Kenseth said.

Gordon dominated most of the race and led 206 laps but got behind during the final pit stop.  He had to battle back from the fifth spot. Gordon got back to third place but was unable to make the pass on Truex Jr. for second.

“Oh, it was an incredible battle. I know that there wasn’t much of a race up there for first when Brad (Keselowski) got out there with those four tires and got clear of us, but me and Martin and Matt Kenseth and Jimmie (Johnson); we were having a heck of a battle back there. But I’m really, really proud of this race team tonight. What an awesome race car this Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet was. I think we made some huge improvements from the last time we were here. It felt like we had the car to beat; but you know what, we just didn’t get the position that we needed to on that last pit stop.” Gordon said.

Mark Martin’s had a strong car early on, but his night went bad on lap 360. Martin got into Brian Vickers and spun into the wall. Heavy damage sent him to the pits for extended repairs. Martin finished 38th.

On lap 413, Kyle Busch tried to make it 3-wide and came out the looser. Busch and Terry Labonte get together, causing right side damage on Busch’s car. Busch also got into the outside wall. Busch finished 14th and was not a factor in the race.

Kyle Busch and Johnson are now tied for the lead in the standings by 32 over Kenseth.

Ryan Newman captured the pole for Saturday night’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway with a lap of 122.811MPH (15.624 secs).

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”230″][/media-credit]This was Newman’s 48^th career pole in the Sprint Cup Series.

“I just was telling the guys, they did a good job. The car drove the same as it did in practice. When I ran in 95’ I did the exact same things but I guess I ran a little bit quicker. It’s a good run, gotta thank Bass Pro Shops, and Realtree. Hunting season is coming up so were raising more awareness about that. I don’t know if we will win the pole but it is a good team effort for us.” Newman said.

Carl Edwards qualified second, Matt Kenseth third, Jeff Gordon fourth and Mark Martin qualified fifth.

Edwards is glad to roll off second.

“At least I will be on the front row. I won’t get anything in my teeth up there on the Aflac Dental car on the first lap at least. Ryan did a good job and we did everything right today.” Edwards said.

“Not bad, but I thought it was a solid lap, we just missed the balance a little bit in the Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet.  I think we still have a decent starting position which is always a good thing here in Bristol.” Gordon said.

“Car’s just feeling really good today. I am excited; this is two weeks in a row. Last weekend the car was good all weekend too. I think we will have a strong car tomorrow night. Looking forward to a good run, I am starting to feel blessed to have this ride.” Martin said.

Kyle Busch held off Jimmie Johnson in a green-white-checkered finish at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday.

[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”246″][/media-credit]With 12 laps to go, Busch took the lead from Johnson and pulled away by .568 seconds in the final laps for his fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win of the season and the 23rd of his career.

Busch also became the first driver to clinch a berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Busch is also qualified to be a finalist for a chance to earn a $3 million payout in the Sprint Summer Showdown presented by HTC EVO™ 3D. If Busch can also win the AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he will claim the Sprint Summer Showdown presented by HTC EVO 3D title and win $1 million for himself, $1 million for his designated charity, Kyle Busch Foundation, and $1 million dollars for a lucky race fan. Paul Menard, Brad Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose are the drivers currently eligible.

“I can’t say enough about Sprint. Being in the Sprint Summer Showdown, I hope we get a chance at Atlanta to run up front and win the thing, and bring home some extra money for charity, for a fan and for all of us here at Joe Gibbs Racing.” Busch said.

Last weeks winner at Watkins Glen International, Marcos Ambrose finished 27th.

“That was frustrating. We had a good car and we were top-10 a lot of the day. We just kept getting tighter and tighter. We had a hole in the grill. That really hurt us and we ended up turned around in the pit there at the end, so that hurt us too. It was just a very frustrating day.” Ambrose said.

Brad Keselowski finished third, Mark Martin fourth and Ryan Newman finished fifth.

Marcos Ambrose held off Brad Keselowski and won Monday’s rain delayed Sprint Cup Series Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen at Watkins Glen International.

[media-credit name=”CIA Photo Inc” align=”alignright” width=”219″][/media-credit]“I’ve sacrificed so much to get here and to finally win and be here in Victory Lane in the Cup Series is a dream come true. I flew the kids home yesterday. It was the little one’s first day at school. I was desperate to be there for her and this kind of makes up for it. I’ve just got to thank the Richard Petty Motorsports team, Stanley, DeWalt, everybody involved.” Ambrose said.

Kyle Busch was leading on the final green-white-checkers restart, but teammate dove under Busch entering the first turn for the lead. Ambrose bumped Keselowski in the chicane and took the lead.

This was his first victory in 105 starts in NASCAR’s top series and Ford’s first victory on a road course since Geoff Bodine in 1996.

“It was just a really good Dodge Charger today. I’m really proud of my guys for giving me a fast Miller Lite Dodge Charger. I wanted to win, but if I’m going to lose on a road course to someone, Marcos Ambrose is the man.” Keselowski said.

Busch finished third, Martin Truex Jr. fourth and Joey Logano finished fifth.

The race ended under caution when David Reutimann and David Ragan crashed entering the second turn. Reutimann’s bounced hard off of the guardrail and slid upside down across the track.

Polesitter and Sonoma winner, Kurt Busch went for a spin in the inner loop on lap four. He finished 38th.

“I had a big problem getting into the braking zones today, the rear brakes locking up. I had to crank eight rounds of front brake in our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge just to survive. All that does is generate brake heat and I blew out the left-front tire. It was just a bummer of a day and not anything that we expected. It must have been something with the brake package. Whatever (Brad) Keselowski found at Road Atlanta, I had a problem with today.” Busch said.

On lap 67, Denny Hamlin brought out the third caution flag of the race when he slammed head-on into the tire barrier after loosing his brakes.

“I had no brakes,” Hamlin said. “I was trying to do everything I could. Just nothing you can do.”

Brad Keselwoski gingerly climbed from his car as he celebrated his win at the Pocono Raceway late Sunday evening. Kesleowski held off a hard charging Kyle Busch for his second win of the 2011 season making him the first wild card in the chase. Keselowski had injured himself earlier in the week while testing at the road course in Atlanta. During the red flag Keselowski admitted to being sore but he toughed it out.

[media-credit name=”Kirk Schroll” align=”alignright” width=”218″][/media-credit]“It’s not me its good people,” Keselowski said in victory lane. “There’s so many people to thank.” But Keselowski also quickly said, “I’m no hero; the heroes are the guys that died in Afghanistan this week. I just drive race cars for a living.”

When asked about winning the possibility of winning a million dollars he said, “I would throw away the money (for the Sprint challenge) if I could get in the chase”, as Kurt Busch came in to congratulate him.

All the action occurred after a red flag delay that exceeded an hour and a half that saw Joey Logano leading the race.

“The 48 was coming,” Joey Logano said in the television booth during the red flag for rain at the Pocono Raceway. Logano had taken the lead from his team mate Denny Hamlin during a pit stop by taking 2 tires.

Sunday was a busy day at the Pocono Raceway as the Camping World Truck Series completed their race that was postponed due to weather on Saturday. Then the ARCA Series ran their delayed race before the Sprint Cup cars took to the track under the threat of rain.

Joey Logano led the field to the green after winning the pole award. Kasey Kahne started second but by the time the red flag was displayed on lap 124 Kahne was a lap down in 29^th place.

Up to the red flag it was Joe Gibbs Racing who dominated the race leading 110 of the 124 laps run, 65 of those by Logano’s team mate Denny Hamlin. During the red flag when asked if he wanted the race to be called Logano said, “What do you think?”

The June Pocono race winner, Jeff Gordon struggled early on from his starting position of 31^st hanging in the top 25 but his crew went to work and the car was getting better on each stop. By the time the red flag came out Gordon was in 6^th and he said, “I’m kind of hoping we go back racing because I think we can get our car good enough to win”

Jimmie Johnson was the only fly in the ointment for the Joe Gibbs trio chasing down and passing Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin as he was bearing down on Logano for the lead when the rains came. Johnson wanted to get back to racing as did Dale Earnhardt Jr. who was in 5^th.

When the race restarted the leaders all went to the pits and Jeff Burton only took two tires coming out first. Kurt and Kyle Busch led them to the green flag and took off. Earnhardt Jr. had slipped to 15^th but was working his way forward.

It went green flag and with 50 laps left pit stops started. Those went without issue and after Landon Cassill made his pit stop Kurt Busch remained in the lead as rain was close by but was forecasted to miss the track. Jimmie Johnson started having issues with his transmission shifter and had to keep it in high gear.

When Kyle Busch passed his brother Kurt with 38 laps to go for the lead Kurt  said, “Well, at least we won the Pocono 400.” At the same time Jeff Gordon was working on sixth place Joey Logano.

Things stayed green and they started another round of green flag stops with about 28 laps remaining.

Then with 21 laps to go Juan Pablo Montoya and the No. 4 of Kasey Kahne got together coming off turn 1 sending Montoya spinning and Kahne to the pits with damage. Kahen lost a lap and was angry with his crew yelling, “It’s like you guys have never been to a race before!” That erased a sizable lead by Kyle Busch over Brad Keselowski.

Under the caution many cars on the lead lap stopped for tires and fuel as the top 5 stayed out along with a few others who tried to gain track position.

On the restart Jimmie Johnson made a move for the lead going 3-4 wide into turn 1 and Keselowski ended up with the lead as Busch seemed to focus on Johnson who never made the pass. As the laps wound down Busch was tracking Keselowski down and closing in as Kurt Busch was in third and Jimmie Johnson was in fourth.

With 12 laps to go Joey Logano was losing a tire and almost crashed as he was in heavy traffic.

Coming to the checkered flag Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson had some high speed antics going on as they slammed doors. Johnson and Busch clearly disagreed as to what happened.

Kyle Busch said that if he to do it over again he would have done that restart the same way on the bottom even though he got bogged down with Johnson.

[media-credit name=”Adam Lovelace” align=”alignright” width=”233″][/media-credit]Paul Menard won his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in the 18th running of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway holding off a late race charge from Jeff Gordon. Menard started the race in 15th place and was penalized during the race for a pit road violation. After the penalty, crew chief Slugger Labbe got aggressive with fuel mileage and the gamble paid off.

“You know I’ve been coming here since I was a kid and my Daddy has been trying to win this race for 35 years,so this is for my Dad. A lot of emotions right now. Slugger Labbe (crew chief) and all of these guys just do a hell of a job. I can’t believe we won Indy.” Menard said.

With three laps to go, crew chief Slugger Labbe gave Menard the green-light to go and pass Jamie McMurray for the race lead.  Labbe gave constant updates on Jeff Gordon’s lap times, but Gordon ran out of time.  Menard held off Gordon to win in his 167th career start.

Menard’s win continued the trend of first-time winners this season in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events.  Trevor Bayne (Daytona 500), Regan Smith (Darlington) and David Ragan (Daytona).

Gordon overcame a 12-second deficit over the final 12 laps to finish .725 seconds behind.

“Oh my goodness what a day. What a day. I am so proud of this Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet team. I mean they were just flawless. What an awesome race car we have had all weekend long and we showed it, just how strong it was, throughout the whole day and I tell you Alan called a perfect race to get me out front of Harvick there……….it was huge.” Gordon said.

“Well I wanted it really bad you know leading up to that but on the last lap I knew I was too tight behind him and if he didn’t run out I wasn’t going to get him. I needed a few laps to work on him, well I guess I needed a few more laps for him to run out of fuel too.” Gordon added.

Menard, Regan Smith, in third, and Jamie McMurray in fourth all gambled on fuel mileage late in the race.

Regan Smith had another good day finishing 3rd after starting the race in the 27th position.

“This is not a great track for me, so I am happy and if I couldn’t win man the guy in victory lane is my best friend on the circuit and I can’t wait to get down there to congratulate him.” Regan said.

David Ragan in the No. 6 car started on the pole and was quickly over taken by the No. 4 car of Kasey Kahne. Kahne would dominate early on leading Gordon by over 8 seconds at one point. Kahne won the bonus point for leading the most laps on the day. Kahne would go on to finish the race in 18th after spinning through the grass late in the race while trying to avoid the No. 51 car of Landon Cassill who had hit the SAFER barrier in turn three.

Several of the top-10 in points suffered from problems during the day and finished outside the top 10 in the race. Points leader Carl Edwards finished the race in 14th. Jimmie Johnson finished 19th. Kevin Harvick finished in 11th. Kyle Busch rebounded from hitting the wall on the back straight away to finish in 10th. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was another victim of the fuel mileage game played at the Brickyard. Earnhardt led 7 laps during the event after starting 22nd and finished the race in 16th place.

The rest of the top 10 were Matt Kenseth, 5th, Tony Stewart, 6th, Greg Biffle, 7th, Mark Martin, 8th, Brad Keselowski, 9th, and Kyle Busch finished 10th.

“We were probably the second-best car most of the day,” Matt Kenseth said. “I think the 24 had the field covered, so I’m happy for Paul Menard being a first-time winner.  It’s kind of a shame that Jeff didn’t win.  I thought we had the fastest two cars and I was hoping we were gonna be able to duke it out on performance to the end and try to race for that thing, but that’s just the way the racing is these days.”

Carl Edwards remains the point leader followed by 5-time champion Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, and Matt Kenseth. Dale Earnhardt Jr. holds onto the 10th place spot in the point standings. Menard’s win moves him closer to a wild card spot in the Chase for 2011. Paul Menard is 14th in the point standings.

The series heads to Pocono Raceway next weekend for the Good Sam RV Insurance 500.

David Ragan won the pole for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a lap of 182.994 mph (49.182 seconds).

[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”231″][/media-credit]“We need to get that win for Ned (Jarrett). He’s been a great ambassador to this sport and we couldn’t be more proud to have his colors on our UPS Ford this weekend. I’m looking forward to a good race on Sunday. Our Ford has been fast. A lot changes between now and the race on Sunday, so we’ve got our work cut out for ourselves, but we look forward to the challenge.” Ragan said.

This was Ragan’s second career pole, the first came at Texas Motor Speedway in April.

Kasey Kahne qualified second, Jimmie Johnson third, Kurt Busch fourth and Brad Keselowski qualified fifth.

“I slipped, but I never had to come off the gas. I just drifted up through it. I don’t think it slowed me down much. If it slowed me down anything, it wasn’t enough to get the pole and it was that close.” Kahne said.