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Tag: Aric Almirola

  • The Final Word – Rains delayed and shortened the race, but there were still fireworks at Daytona

    The Final Word – Rains delayed and shortened the race, but there were still fireworks at Daytona

    Holy crap, what was that? If nothing else, the Firecracker 400 in Daytona sure was not predictable. A few yards short of a competition caution, many of the favorites were removed or seriously hampered when all hell broke loose. Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart got involved in a non-romantic triangle that involved some of the circuit’s best. Just past the half-way mark, they took care of a bunch of others with an even bigger demo derby. Greg Biffle caught up to Kasey Kahne, who in turn kissed Joey Logano, which commenced a wrecking orgy. In the end, half of the field was gone and those running up front were folks we usually expect to see running near the back.

    Aric Almirola was not favored to return the iconic 43 that Richard Petty won his 200th win the Independence Day weekend thirty years ago, but he did. The rains that delayed the action for a day, and delayed it again early on Sunday, returned to finally put a wash to the proceedings prior to the three-quarter mark. The man in front was the 30-year old Tampa, Florida native, recording his first Cup victory in 125 starts. That goes with his single Nationwide win from 2007 and his two truck series triumphs back in 2010. Better yet, that car is all but entered into the Chase, with eight races to run before they settle on the 16 championship contenders.

    Brian Vickers is not in a Chase place, yet finished second. Ditto for Casey Mears, in fourth. Danica Patrick and Marcos Ambrose had Top Ten days. Michael McDowell , who is not even in the Top 30 in points, was seventh on Sunday with Alex Bowman finishing 13th. Even part-timer Terry Labonte, the former two-time champ, was 11th. For some, it was worth the wait to run this thing.

    For others, not so much, as barely half the field managed a hundred laps. Our list of likely Chasers who wound up in scrap metal included Jimmie Johnson (42nd), Kevin Harvick (39th), Carl Edwards (37th), Kyle Busch (28th), and Ryan Newman (24th). It is too early yet to get all tight ended about the chances of Kahne, Biffle, and Kyle Larson after they all finished outside the Top 25, but they could have done without this Daytona experience. On the other hand, Stewart and Jamie McMurray might be puckering up a little as both dropped points they could ill afford to lose. It has become even more likely than ever that without a win they will be running the final ten just for fun.

    Almirola is the 11th driver to win this season, so as long as no more than five more drivers win their first of the season over the course of the next eight, he and the others will be in the Chase. Matt Kenseth is 90 points to the good in the Top 16, so he is secure as they sit right now. Newman also is strong, but things start to get tight after that. Still, anyone in the Top 20 can still dream of making it in on points, but the next dozen will need a win to even hope of making it.

    Next Sunday it is New Hampshire. Sadly, that marks the final race broadcast on TNT before the ESPN gong show returns to test our love of the televised version of the sport. Adam, Wally, and Kyle, thanks for showing us how the job should be done.

    Loudon could be the place where some winless drivers can show us how it should be done. Newman and Stewart each have three wins there. Clint Bowyer has a couple, and Biffle, Kenseth, Vickers, and Kahne also know where to find Victory Lane. Now, as long as other former New Hampshire winners, such as Johnson, Gordon, Harvick,  Logano, Denny Hamlin, or one of the Busch brothers do not get greedy…

    SWEET SIXTEEN
    1 – Jimmie Johnson – 3 WINS – 596 POINTS
    2 – Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 2 – 624
    3 – Brad Keselowski – 2 – 586
    4 – Joey Logano – 2 – 546
    5 – Carl Edwards – 2 – 543
    6 – Kevin Harvick – 2 – 514
    7 – Jeff Gordon – 1 – 651
    8 – Kyle Busch – 1 – 524
    9 – Denny Hamlin – 1 – 493
    10 – Aric Almirola – 1 – 452
    11 – Kurt Busch – 1 – 422
    12 – Matt Kenseth – 0 – 580
    13 – Ryan Newman – 0 – 534
    14 – Paul Menard – 0 – 516
    15 – Clint Bowyer – 0 – 509
    16 – Austin Dillon – 0 – 494

    CONTENDERS & PRETENDERS
    17 – Greg Biffle – 0 – 490
    18 – Brian Vickers – 0 – 484
    19 – Kyle Larson – 0 – 482
    20 – Kasey Kahne – 0 – 482
    21 – Marcos Ambrose – 0 – 472
    22 – Tony Stewart – 0 – 465
    23 – Jamie McMurray – 0 – 447
    24 – Casey Mears – 0 – 438
    25 – A.J. Allmendinger – 0 – 414
    26 – Martin Truex, Jr. – 0 – 414
    27 – Danica Patrick – 0 – 358
    28 – Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 0 – 342
    29 – Justin Allgaier – 0 – 319
    30 – Michael Annett – 0 – 299
    31 – David Gilliland – 0 – 256
    32 – Cole Whitt – 0 – 254

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Kentucky Quaker State 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Kentucky Quaker State 400

    From the jaw-jarring bumps of the old pavement in which Kentucky Speedway takes such pride, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 4th Annual Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts.

    Surprising: Dominance and redemption surprisingly co-existed in the Bluegrass state. Penske dominated, from qualifying to Victory Lane for Brad Keselowski, yet there was also redemption for several drivers, including Tony Stewart, who rebounded from an engine change to finish 11th, as well as Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick, who both had struggles in the pits and went on to finish sixth and seventh respectively.

    “Yeah, what a really fast car,” Keselowski said after his second win of the season and his second win at Kentucky in the No. 2 car. “It feels really good, obviously, to get that second win.”

    “We have got a really good stretch run going here over the summer, so it’s very exciting for me personally, very rewarding, and I feel like we’re in such a strong spot,” Keselowski continued. “A lot of momentum, and this was really a big night for us in so many ways.”

    Stewart, Gordon and Harvick may not have been in Victory Lane, but all three felt redeemed nonetheless.

    “I would’ve liked to have been a little better than what we were there at the end, but I think we definitely had to fight our way up there through the day,” Stewart said. “We never did anything tricky to get track position. We pitted every time the pits were open. We didn’t do any less than anybody else did on any stop.”

    “All in all, I thought we had a pretty honest day there and I can’t complain about that.”

    Not Surprising: Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota, played it fast and loose, right into the runner up position. This was Busch’s fourth top-10 finish in four races at Kentucky Speedway and his seventh top-10 finish of the season.

    “I got to traffic, man, I just got too loose,” Busch said. “I was kind of loose the whole run, but I kept getting looser and looser throughout the run, where normally the rest of the runs prior to that throughout the race I was getting tighter throughout the run.”

    “I was loose the whole race,” Busch continued. “I was loose, but it was a drivable loose, it wasn’t just a wrecking loose, until the end, and then I was wrecking.”

    “For as loose as I was I had good grip and I was moving forward,” Busch said. “It looked like a lot of guys were struggling with the same issues I was but worse, so I was able to go by them, so I felt pretty good about it.”

    Surprising: As a past champion, Brad Keselowski most certainly knows how to celebrate, but this time it resulted in some surprising bodily harm. Thanks to a broken bottle of champagne in Victory Lane, the victor ended up with four stitches to boot.

    “We were playing around with some champagne bottles and as I told my good friend, ‘We should have stuck with beer,’” Keselowski said. “We were having too much fun with champagne and one of the bottles broke and I cut my hand open. It’s no big deal.”

    “It’s all fixed now, so we’re good,” Keselowski continued. “Yeah, welcome to the party. It’s all good. I’m just glad we won. It’s a lot better story when you win and get hurt.”

    Not Surprising: Usually race car drivers emerge after the race being mad at other drivers, but there was one driver who was just mad at himself after the Quaker State 400.

    “The first wreck one of those lapped cars spun in front of us and when he spun he lit up his rear tires and made a huge smoke cloud,” Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 43 Eckrich Ford, said. “My spotter, Tyler, was telling me to go high and I was kind of in the middle of the race track to see what he was gonna do and at the last minute he was like, ‘Go high, go high,’ so I veered high and McMurray was out there.”

    “I honestly had no idea he was out there and I ran into him, so I feel horrible,” Almirola continued. “I’m just mad at myself. I realize circumstances weren’t in our favor, but I should have done a better job of getting slowed down and not running into the 1 car.”

    Surprising: Kentucky race weekend was certainly a good one for Ryan Newman, with Caterpillar Inc. renewing their sponsorship on his car, and with a third place finish, just his second top-10 at Kentucky Speedway.

    “Just a good, solid night for the Caterpillar Chevrolet,” Newman said. “All the guys did a really good job strategy wise. Kept our track position all night.”

    “Good job for everybody at RCR and ECR, and we’ll keep digging.”

    Not Surprising: Clint Bowyer took to Twitter and told it like it was for his No. 15 5-Hour Energy race team after finishing 23rd.

    “Got our natural asses kicked tonight,” Bowyer tweeted after the race. “Testing this week to get to the bottom of a few things. We WILL get it fixed!!!”

    Surprising: After a tire issue sent rookie Kyle Larson hard into the wall and out of the race, Austin Dillon became the highest finishing rookie. The driver of the No. 3 Cheerios Protein Chevrolet took the checkered flag in the 16th position.

    Larson does, however, still lead in the Sunoco Rookie of the Year battle and has scored Rookie of the Race honors eleven times to Dillon’s five.

    “Blew a right front (tire),” Larson said dejectedly. “This is the first time that’s ever happened to me in stock car racing.”

    “So, big hits,” Larson continued. “But it sucks. We were hoping for a good points day to pad our points were we are before we go to Daytona where it’s a real crapshoot. It’s disappointing to have two weekends that didn’t end up very well the last couple of races.”

    “Oh, well. That’s how it goes,” Larson said. “We’ll try and go to Daytona and rebound and gain some more points.”

    Not Surprising:   Joey Logano proved that not only was his teammate powerful, but he had Penske power to boot, finishing ninth place in spite of being down a cylinder.

    “I think Team Penske dominated Kentucky this weekend, it’s just unfortunate we dropped a cylinder there, but it’s still a top-10 out of being down one cylinder,” Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, said. “We’ll take that.”

    Surprising: Matt Kenseth, in his No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, proved his worth to his sponsor, who announced prior to the race that they would increase their primary sponsorship from 27 to 30 races. Kenseth finished fourth and felt that “Overall, it was a positive weekend.”

    “I feel like we’re gaining on it,” Kenseth continued. “I thought we had a pretty good car. They had a great stop and got me good track position and I was able to get up two or three spots for the restart and hang onto fourth.”

    Not Surprising: Dale Jr. was fired up and ready to go after struggling mightily in practice, qualifying 29th, yet racing back to finish fifth, scoring his ninth top-five in 2014. And with that, Junior became the only driver so far with that many top-fives for the season to date.

    “So Steve (Letarte, crew chief) and the guys did a good job in having to deal with me and trying to put a good car under me this weekend,” Junior said. “It was a lot of fun in the race.”

    “It just fired me up … (and) they put a good setup under the car,” Earnhardt continued. “It wasn’t the best car out there, but we finished where we should have tonight with the speed the car the showed.”

    The Cup Series next heads to Daytona International Speedway for the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca Cola on Saturday, July 5th. Happy Independence Day!

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Michigan Quicken Loans 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Michigan Quicken Loans 400

    While the luck of the Irish hills was bestowed on the driver who made his way to Victory Lane for the first time ever in Michigan, here is what was surprising and not so surprising in the 46th annual Quicken Loans 400.

    Surprising: While Kevin Harvick was certainly fast, coming in second in the race after a blistering pole run, he was even more than freakishly fast in the media center after the event.

    Harvick, who was clearly unhappy with his race finish, had just one comment and was asked just one question during his media availability, which went like this:

    “I mean, the car was fast, just wound up on the wrong side of all the strategy,” Harvick said. “We finished second, and that’s it.”

    QUESTION. “Kevin, six of the top eight were Hendrick engines. This is a pretty big track in terms of horsepower. How well positioned are the Hendricks right now?”

    “I think it’s pretty obvious. Self-explanatory. Good question,” Harvick answered and then exited the media center.

    Not Surprising: Race winner Jimmie Johnson scored a first, second, third, fifth and eighth all at once with his trip to Victory Lane at Michigan International Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Kobalt Tools Chevrolet checked MIS off his win list for the first time, moved up to second in the point standings thanks to his victory, scored his third win of the season solidifying his run for his seventh championship, and handed the fifth win in a row to boss Mr. Hendrick.

    Johnson is also now eighth on the all-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins list.

    “Well, this is a great win for a lot of reasons,” Rick Hendrick, team owner, said. “One for here in Michigan for Chevrolet, and being a Chevrolet dealer and racing Chevrolets, this means a lot to win this race. It’s good to see Jimmie win after leading so many laps here and close the deal because we’ve run out of gas, broke motors, blown tires. I think I remember a couple times coming off of 4 and losing it. For him to be able to finish it off today, it was really good.”

    “And again, to keep the streak going, get five, that’s great,” Hendrick continued. “This was a good race, and it just played out the way we needed it to play out. Everybody is really putting out a lot of effort right now, and it’s paying off.”

    Surprising: Although Kyle Larson, behind the wheel of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet, spun early in the race, damaging the back end of his car, he was the envy of the field as that very damage gave him a bit of down force advantage that propelled him into an eighth place finish.

    “You know, the rear bumper, yeah, I’ve never had that happen before, and it happened so early in the race that I don’t know how it would have handled had I had a rear bumper,” Larson said. “Either way I think we would have had a really good car because we were good in practice, but it probably did help a little bit.”

    Larson was the highest finishing Rookie of the Year candidate yet again.

    Not Surprising: Paul Menard proved that Michigan was a track on which he could run well, winning the Nationwide race on Saturday and finishing fourth in the Cup race on Sunday.

    “Yeah, we had a really solid Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Chevy all weekend, from the time we unloaded,” Menard said. “I actually got to go to Victory Lane yesterday with my daughter and my dad was here today, so it was a good Father’s Day weekend for sure.”

    “The car, like I said, was fast all weekend. We needed some clean air at the end and the guys got me out front with some pit strategy and good pit stops and we came home with a top 5,” Menard continued. “So it was pretty good.”

    Surprising: There was more spinning in the Quicken Loans 400 than at the Olympic men’s figure skating championship. Spinners in the event included Brian Vickers, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, David Ragan, Alex Bowman, Brett Moffit, Aric Almirola, and Denny Hamlin just to name a few.

    “It’s frustrating. I wish I knew — the car just came around going into (turn) three,” Brian Vickers said after spinning early in his No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota. “I was trying to back the corner up and was taking it easy and just got loose and it just came around from me.”

    “I saved it all the way up to the wall and I thought I had it saved and ultimately it just came around and I lost it,” Vickers continued. “I didn’t have that experience all weekend. The car was just really loose getting into (turn) three and that was it.”

    Not Surprising: Well, it was Michigan after all, so not surprisingly at least one driver deemed his day a ‘blue collar’ kind of day.

    “Yeah, we just didn’t have the speed really all weekend to be a front runner in the sense of contending to win based on speed,” Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford for Team Penske, said after finishing third. “But the guys did a great job with execution. I thought we executed really well.”

    “We had a lot of good restarts, pretty decent on pit road today,” Keselowski continued. “Solid strategy, just — I told somebody before, Joey Logano told us, we were talking before the race started, we needed a good blue collar day today, and that’s of what today was for us.”

    “We kind of trudged through it and came away with another top three effort, which is good but not great.”

    Surprising: Unlike most of his races recently, Kasey Kahne was actually able to battle back from adversity to finish top-five in his No. 5 Farmer’s Insurance Chevrolet.

    ‘Yeah, it was tough,” Kahne said. “I was struggling for a while and then we got it and then we were on a good strategy there at the end. We were pretty competitive with the guys in front of us.”

    “Yes, we really needed that, especially where we started getting in Larson’s wreck there at the start of the race,” Kahne continued. “We kind of got going from there. We made a lot of adjustments. It took about an hour and a half to get our car right with different adjustments and things.”

    “It was a battle, it wasn’t easy today.”

    Not Surprising:   Two former Indy Car racers were just feeling ‘lucky’ in this week’s NASCAR race. Juan Pablo Montoya, making his NASCAR return, and Danica Patrick both partook in the ‘lucky dog’ experience, leading to a 17th place finish for Patrick and an 18th place finish for JPM.

    “We started the race really, really loose and we were not really expecting that based on practice,” Montoya, behind the wheel of the No. 12 SKF Ford for Team Penske, said. “It’s hard because we went from practice to the race without really changing that much and it was awful. We were kind of catching up and we did a good job.”

    “I got the lucky dog and we were getting better and then I think we went a little too far with the car at the end, but we’re learning and understanding a little more.”

    “We were pretty good,” Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet, said. “The guys did a good job on the adjustments, and it was fun to drive. The race seemed to go by quick.”

    “We needed a little bit of track position, but it was a good day for us,” Patrick continued. “Thanks to GoDaddy and everyone on my team, we continue to get better.”

    Surprising: At a track that they have owned in the past, Roush Fenway Racing had an incredibly bad day. RFR drivers Greg Biffle finished 20th, Carl Edwards 23rd and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. 27th.

    “That was a big struggle,” Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford, said. “It was pretty tough but we worked hard and didn’t quit.”

    “Fortunately we have a win to get us into the Chase, but we’ve just got to get better as a group,” Edwards continued. “That’s the way it is.”

    Not Surprising: After another run of bad luck, suffering damage from a Lap 8 accident that led to a 37th place finish, there is no other driver that is looking forward to Sonoma more than Martin Truex Jr.

    “When luck is not on your side, there’s not much you can do,” Truex, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet, said. “I don’t know what to say right now.”

    “We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s disheartening because we felt that we had a potential top-10 car but didn’t get a chance to show it. When you have an accident that early it sure makes for a long day.”

    “I mean a very long day.”

    Truex is, however, the defending champ of the California road course where the Sprint Cup Series will battle next. The Toyota – Save Mart 350 race will be run on Sunday, June 22nd at 3:00 PM ET.

     

     

  • Staff Sergeant Randy Gray Speechless After RPM Race Experience

    Staff Sergeant Randy Gray Speechless After RPM Race Experience

    This past race weekend, thanks to Richard Petty Motorsports, driver Aric Almirola and team, sponsor Eckrich, Weis Markets, and Operation Homefront, wounded warrior Staff Sergeant Randy Gray was given a VIP NASCAR experience that literally left him speechless.

    The weekend started out with the Gray family’s shopping trip to their local Weis Markets in Tannersville, PA. There, the family was greeted by members of the No. 43 team who surprised them with free groceries for one year at any Weis Markets location.

    The team then invited Staff Sergeant Gray and his family outside where the No. 43 Eckrich Ford race car drove up to the store front. A member of the RPM team invited the Gray family to not only join them at the track, but also informed them they would be guests of “The King” Richard Petty.

    “That was an amazing night,” Gray said. “I wasn’t expecting it. It was like come on in and boom, I met all the crew. They came out of an aisle. We didn’t see anybody until we rounded the corner and there was like a hundred people around us.”

    “I was speechless,” Gray continued. “I was blown away. It was an amazing thrill that they took the time to just do that.”

    Staff Sergeant Gray, who lives about an hour from the track in Hunlock Creek, PA, recently returned from a nine month deployment in Kuwait. He was enlisted as active duty in the Air Force from 1991 to 1993 before joining the National Guard and deploying to Kuwait.

    But it was an act of kindness from this wounded warrior caring for another service brother in need at a most critical time that got him nominated for the NASCAR VIP honor.

    “Well, we just got back from the deployment from Kuwait,” Gray said. “My wife seen a Facebook message from a soldier that was concerning and I intervened. They kind of said I saved his life. There’s a lot to it because of the privacy rules. The military is very hip on no suicide for soldiers. And I just reacted in a way that impressed my upper echelons.”

    “It was a very late night but he’s doing great now.”

    “I’m still in active duty, waiting on shoulder surgery. I’m actually injured and on June 12th I go for surgery,” Gray continued. “What caught their attention was that I put my stuff aside to help somebody else.”

    For that act of heroism, Gray headed to the track for Pocono race weekend. And while Gray enjoys watching races now and again, he admitted he is not a hard core fan. But his son, who follows Jeff Gordon, certainly considers himself a true NASCAR aficionado and was thrilled to tag along.

    “I’m a NASCAR fan but I don’t follow it, follow it,” Gray said “When they told me that I was coming to the track, I was like ‘whoa’ but my son is on cloud nine.”

    “It’s beyond anything I have ever felt before,” Randy Gray Jr. said. “Usually when I get the opportunity to do things like this, something stupid happens like I get hurt and I can’t do it. But I’m here. And I’ve been pinching myself and slapping myself all weekend.”

    “I wasn’t at the visit at the grocery store in Tannersville but when my parents came home and told me, I mentally passed out and don’t remember a lot of the conversation,” Gray Jr. continued. “I heard ‘Richard Petty, car, hot dog’ and that’s about it. It has been beyond belief.”

    “Jeff Gordon is my driver so I felt kind of bad,” Gray Jr. said. “I rooted for Aric but I mentally had to root for Jeff too.”

    “I can now die happy,” Gray Jr. continued. “I can go into a coma, I can get hit by a truck, whatever. I can die happy after this.”

    Staff Sergeant Gray and his family were impressed not only with opportunity to be at the race track, but also with being able to spend time with the team, from pushing the race car through inspection with them to sitting atop the pit box and watching them work during the race.

    “The fact that the team had to fit every piece of the car through the different inspection bays and they knew the tolerances, it’s just amazing,” Gray said. “We watched qualifying, hung out with the pit crew and took it all in.”

    “The team was so busy, doing their thing,” Gray continued. “I tried to stay out of their way. I’m a mechanic in the Army so I can appreciate the need to stay out of the way and let them do their job.”

    When the race was finished, Staff Sergeant Gray and his family were still pinching themselves, still speechless as they reflected on their VIP weekend.

    “I was really taken back by everything,” Gray said. “It’s awesome to have Eckrich, Weiss and Richard Petty Motorsports do something like this for us. It’s humbling to see people recognize what we go through and it meant a lot to me.”

    “It was an overwhelming and amazing experience.”

    “We are proud to honor our military families,” Charles Gitkin, vice president, marketing, innovation and R&D for the John Morrell Food Group, said. “Our partnerships with Richard Petty Motorsports, Operation Homefront and Weis Markets allowed us to give back in a very special and unique way this weekend.”

    “It’s something that we’re very proud to do for the Gray family after all of their sacrifices for us.”

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Aaron’s 499 at Talladega

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Aaron’s 499 at Talladega

    From the wild knock out qualifying that netted Brian Scott the pole position to the crazy green-white-checkered race finish, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 45th annual Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway.

    Surprising: It is not often when two champions wreak such havoc in one race, even if it is on an unpredictable superspeedway. But both Brad Keselowski as well as Jimmie Johnson did just that, having uncharacteristically bad days that negatively impacted so many others in the field.

    In fact Keselowski negatively impacted the field twice, once early on in the race while battling Danica Patrick for the lead and then later in the race causing a twelve car pileup that involved several other drivers, including the likes of past champions Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.

    “I just spun out in front of the whole field,” the driver of the white Miller Lite Deuce said. “I don’t know why, if I just busted my butt on my own or lost a tire, but I feel bad for everyone that got torn up.”

    Johnson, after suffering his own damage from the first Keselowski incident, had almost the identical problem as Keselowski, spinning out at almost the same exact spot on the race track and catching others in his wake.

    “I got caught up in the first wreck and that did some damage; and I don’t know what happened when I spun out,” the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s/Valspar Chevrolet said. “I just went out in front of everybody. The car just got real loose going into Turn 3 and turned around and collected a bunch of guys, unfortunately.”

    Keselowski finished the race in the 38th position while Johnson finished 23rd and remains winless.

    Not Surprising: In his 300th start and at a superspeedway not a short track, Denny Hamlin made a statement and won his first race of the season, his first race at Talladega, and his first point’s race at a restrictor plate track. Hamlin also all but sealed up a Chase berth, after missing the Chase completely last season for the first time in his career.

    “It feels good to be back in Victory Lane in a points-paying event,” the driver of the No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota said. “We’ve come a long way. We couldn’t finish 22nd in superspeedway races for the longest time and now it seems like when we go, we know we have the knowledge and car that can win.”

    “It feels good to come to these types of tracks and win.”

    Surprising: Jeff Gordon surprisingly kept his point leads in spite of finishing 39th, as well as breaking his streak of 11 consecutive top-15 finishes. Gordon still leads by three points over Matt Kenseth, who came in just ahead of Gordon in the race, finishing 37th.

    “Oh man, we had a great car,” the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet said. “I could see where the 2 came from the outside lane and came back down to the inside lane, or middle lane, then wiggled and got turned.”

    “It was unfortunate what happened to him early, but more unfortunate what happened to many of us in that incident.”

    Not Surprising: Whether they had a game plan in their heads or not, both Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer scored their best ever finishes of the 2014 season.

    Biffle, behind the wheel of the No. 16 3M Window Film Ford, finished runner up after leading the most laps at 58. Bowyer, driving the No. 15 PEAK Antifreeze/Motor Oil Toyota, finished third, scoring his first top-5 finish of the season.

    “I had a game plan in my head,” Biffle said. “On our speedway program, they did a great job getting the car ready. This was our Daytona 500 car and we wanted to get up there and run with the guys.”

    “I don’t think you ever really have a game plan,” Bowyer said. “But I like the situation I saw with Biffle. You know he was going to pull out and make a move. I had my teammate right behind me and I was looking forward to that opportunity.”

    “After last weekend, we blew three tires and burned the car to the ground,” Bowyer continued. “To get things turned around on a positive note, we finished Talladega without a crash.”

    Biffle posted his sixth top-10 finish in 23 races and Bowyer posted his ninth top-10 finish at Talladega Superspeedway.

    Surprising: Risk was not worth the reward for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who elected to ride in the rear in the waning laps to avoid the craziness of the finish. Although Junior led the second-most laps in the race, he finished 26th in his National Guard Chevrolet.

    “We already got a win and like I said, I’ve been in too many late-race wrecks,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I didn’t want to be no part of it. And there were three or four there we dodged pretty good.”

    “So, we’ve got a car in one piece,” Junior continued. “You have to have that track position at the end and we didn’t have it. We didn’t tear up our car and we will go to Daytona and try to manage the strategy.”

    Not Surprising: Talladega makes for friendships formed on the fly and that is exactly what happened between AJ Allmendinger and Paul Menard, who finished fifth and sixth respectively.

    “I really thought I had messed us up there and that last restart I’ve got to thank Paul Menard,” the driver of the No. 47 Bush’s Beans Chevrolet said. “He just kept shoving me all the way up through the inside of guys.”

    “We had a really fast Richmond/Menards/Jack Link’s Beef Jerky Chevrolet all weekend,” Menard said. “It was really good at the end. On the last restart just pushed the hell out of AJ (Allmendinger) and wound up being okay.”

    Surprising: Both David’s, Ragan (defending race winner) and Gilliland, who are traditionally good at plate racing, had a pretty rough day at the race track.

    Gilliland’s engine gave way on his No. 38 Love’s Travel Stops Ford, while Ragan was involved in a very hard hit during one of the race’s many wrecks.

    “I thought my car was good,” Gilliland said. “We got in that accident and I don’t know if the motor got a little warm when we opened up the duct work, but it just wasn’t our day.”

    “It looked like someone got turned in the middle or the bottom lane and we were just kind of minding our own business up top and all I saw was some cars coming up toward us,” Ragan, behind the wheel of the No. 34 KFC Ford, said. “There was nothing you could do.”

    “It’s just a shame that when somebody makes a mistake it takes out a bunch of race cars.”

    Not Surprising:   Young Kyle Larson was the highest finishing rookie…again, this time bringing his car home not only in one piece but in the ninth position. This was the fifth top-10 finish for the driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet and he sits in the 13th position in the point standings.

    “I spent most of the day just — well, pretty much all day just trying not to make any spectacular moves to put myself in a bad spot to get in a wreck,” Larson said. “Just wanted to stay out of trouble. We’ve been making up a lot of points throughout the year after Daytona, and to come back to another superspeedway, I was really nervous.”

    “Glad to get a good finish and stay up there in points.”

    Surprising: Danica Patrick had one major complaint about her race at Talladega. The driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet was, well, just plain hot.

    “It was a hot day here in Talladega,” Patrick said after finishing 22nd. “I dropped back to get some clean air. Heating was definitely an issue. It really limited me to the bottom lane.”

    “I was getting hot a lot,” Patrick continued. “I think you saw that from a lot of cars.”

    Not Surprising: There were many drivers that were not only happy to have ‘Dega in the rear view mirror but were also glad for a good, safe finish to the race.

    “It was crazy, but everybody did a really good job,” Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford said. “The racing was pretty good. It was really intense, but safe I thought relative to what we’ve seen in the past.”

    “I expected a few of the big wrecks and tried to avoid those and did exactly that,” Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 43 Gwaltney Ford said. “We didn’t end up on our roof, so it was a solid day and we’ll go on.”

    NASCAR next visits Kansas Speedway for some Saturday night racing under the lights in the 5-Hour Energy 400 Benefiting Special Operations Warrior Foundation.

     

  • Aric Almirola Destined For Richmond Victory; Richard Petty Returns to Racetrack

    Aric Almirola Destined For Richmond Victory; Richard Petty Returns to Racetrack

    Aric Almirola and Trent Owens are determined and destined to win at Richmond International Raceway (RIR) this weekend; especially after it was announced that Richard Petty, team owner of Richard Petty Motorsports, will be returning to the racetrack for the first time since the tragic and unforeseen passing of his wife, Lynda Petty.

    “It’s going to be great to have our leader back at the race track,” Almirola expressed on Wednesday. “He is the name and the face of our company, and all the guys on the race team and myself included look up to him and enjoy having him around at the race track and having him inside hauler and talking to us after practice and getting his perspective on what he sees with other race cars and with our race cars throughout practice.”

    Almirola attended an appearance with Petty in Nashville, Tennessee on Tuesday and he found ‘The Kings’ attitude to be repaired and prepared for Richmond this weekend.

    “I know (Petty is) itching to get back,” Almirola further explained. “You can’t take the racer out of that guy. He’s not going to sit at home and just sit around and do nothing.”

    Owens, who is the nephew of Petty, also is confident that Petty returning will allow everyone at the organization to take a deep breath and refocus on the task at hand, winning.

    “I think it will be good medicine,” Owens said Wednesday. “When something like that happens, you kind of want to hide for a little bit and just get your feelings straight. But he’s been by the shop and been in good spirits, and I think he’s doing very well considering.”

    “We look forward to definitely getting him back to the race track and getting him back into race mode.”

    Now, with the relief of having the boss back, Almirola and crew chief Owens turn their undivided attention to Richmond, where they’ll hope to deliver their first victory of the season, which would undoubtedly be an emotional one – for multiple reasons

    “I always get excited about going to Richmond,” Almirola commented during a press conference held on Wednesday morning. “I like the racetrack a lot, and then besides the racetrack, it’s a big weekend for us with Smithfield Foods headquarters being right there nearby in Richmond, and we get a lot of people come out from Smithfield headquarters, and it’s just a big weekend, and it’s a lot of fun.”

    “The racetrack is where I made my first (NASCAR) Nationwide (Series) start, and I just got a lot of good memories from there, and I’ve always run well it seems like, so I’m excited about going to Richmond this weekend.”

    Almirola, 30, finished eighth last season at Richmond after starting a dismal 34th position- his first top-10 at the difficult speedway.

    “I think I have a really good understanding of what it takes to run good at Richmond, and I’ve had good runs there,” Almirola expressed about his wisdom within Richmond. “You know, last spring we ran pretty good there.  I think we finished in the top 5 or maybe top 10, I’m not sure, and then in the fall race I thought we had an even better car than we had in the spring race, and we had an incident on pit road on a green flag stop that ended up getting a couple laps down and hurt our day.”

    He’s completed in five Nationwide Series races at Richmond finishing a track-best seventh during the 2011 season with JR Motorsports. This weekend, he’s hoping to utilize that running his previous experience at RIR to help drive him into victory lane.

    “Richmond is a place that I actually have a lot of laps at,” Almirola further commented. “The very first time I ever got to drive a truck, it was a two-day test at Richmond back in 2004 and I’ve done a lot of testing there in trucks and Nationwide cars and even Cup cars back when we were allowed to go test, and I made my first Nationwide start there.  I think I’ve run quite a few Nationwide races there, and I’ve made quite a few Cup starts there.”

    Owens, who joined his Uncle Petty’s operation at the beginning of this season, is also expecting a good placing this weekend, despite the demands being a crew chief calls upon throughout the course of this weekend.

    “Really looking forward to (the) race (at Richmond),” Owens commented during the press conference. “Our short track program seems to be in a decent direction this year.  We’ve got some work to do on our mile-and-a-halfs, but really looking forward to getting in front of the Smithfield folks and putting on a good show.”

    “Practice is so tough here, the tires wear out at Richmond but that does provide for good racing.  You really want to be good off the hauler and just kind of work on a few things, maybe mock up some practice changes that duplicate your race stuff.  But practicing during the day, racing at night at a place like Richmond is just so much different.”

    Almirola and Owens are hoping for success in just their ninth race together, however, they also both understand the ultimate achievement isn’t to win, but it’s to help re-boost Petty’s confidence and moral, even in the toughest of moments.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington

    As the blinding sun faded into darkness, drivers danced with the lady in black at one of the toughest tracks on the circuit. Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 65th annual Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

    Surprising:  Perhaps it was the full moon or the sheer intensity of the competition, but there was a surprising amount of testiness, more so than at another of the other tracks to date, between drivers and even between drivers and crew chiefs.

    At one point, Aric Almirola and Danica Patrick were trading paint, as well as Austin Dillon and A.J. Allmendinger, the latter calling the young Dillon rookie a ‘punk’. There was also some testiness between the normally solid duo of six-time champ Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus during some of their radio chatter.

    Probably the biggest incident of the race occurred in the last few laps between Kurt Busch, who was running ninth in the first attempt at the green-white-checkered, and Clint Bowyer, who made contact with him when the green flag flew.

    The contact was so severe that Busch was unable to complete the race, finishing 31st in his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet. Bowyer, on the other hand, finished 12th in his No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota.

    “That was a terrible way to end what could have been a decent night,” Busch said. “We struggled at times to get the balance of the Haas Automation Chevrolet right, but we kind of found our spot just past the halfway point and made slight adjustments the rest of the way.”

    “I tried to hold them off the best I could, but someone moved me out of their way and it ruined our night,” Busch said of the restart. “I hate it for the team, but we keep learning each week and we will get better.”

    Although Busch has a win, he lost one position in the point standings, falling to 26th, 164 points behind the leader. Bowyer, who is winless, climbed one spot up in the point standings to 16th, 78 points behind the leader.

    Not Surprising:  In spite of the challenges, several personal bests were achieved by race winner Kevin Harvick, who by far had the stoutest car, leading 239 laps of the 374 total. This was Harvick’s first ever Southern 500 win, adding to his other crown jewel race wins, from the Daytona 500 to the Coca Cola 600 and the Brickyard.

    This was Harvick’s 25th victory in the Sprint Cup Series and he also became the first two-time winner of the season, virtually guaranteeing him a spot in the Chase for the championship.

    The driver of the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing also became the first driver to win from pole position since Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett did so in 1997.

    “This is one race I told Rodney (Childers, crew chief) that I wanted to win,” Harvick said. “We were able to put it all together, but this is the Southern 500, this is as big as it gets in NASCAR racing.”

    Surprising:  There were several surprising bounces that occurred at the ‘Track Too Tough to Tame.’ Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had a surprising bounce back to score his career best, runner up finish at Darlington after finishing dead last at Texas last weekend with the mistake in the grass.

    “A great run, good job by my team,” the driver of the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet said. “This isn’t one of my best tracks so my team gave me a great car.”

    This was Junior’s ninth top-10 finish at Darlington and his fifth top-10 finish of the season.

    On the flip side, Paul Menard took a surprisingly hard bounce backwards, dropping eight positions in the points, from 10th to 18th, after finishing 41st in his No. 27 CertainTeed/Menards Chevrolet.

    “When the sun went down, I think it freed up,” Menard said after hitting the wall on Lap 201. “I hit the wall like ten laps before and I guess the right-front tire just went down.”

    “I guess I was in denial,” Menard continued. “There was a lot of damage.”

    Not Surprising:  Rookie of the Year contender Kyle Larson continued to impress with his eighth place finish in a backup car to become the highest finishing rookie of the race.

    “Yeah, just really proud of my Target Chip Ganassi team for how hard they had to work after I got into the wall and pulled the backup car out,” Larson said. “I started the race off so loose and just had to hang on for a couple runs and Shine got the car tightened up the car for me and we were able to run I thought top‑10 or ‑12 speeds.”

    “Finally got up there and then I got in the wall a couple times and had to pull the fenders back out and drive back up there,” Larson continued. “Still ended up 8th, but all in all it was a good Saturday for us.”

    Surprising: Six-time champion Jimmie Johnson surprisingly called on the old school racing gods to round out the podium finish for Team Chevy.

    “Yeah, just very happy to finish there in the top three,” the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Kobalt Tools Chevrolet said. “We struggled the first run or two of the race, but we got the car turning for me and came to life and really did it the old‑fashioned way and kind of drove up through the field before the last pit stop, so proud of the hard work.”

    Although he remains winless to date, this was Johnson’s fifth top 10 finish of the season and his 12th top-10 finish in 16 races at Darlington Raceway.

    Not Surprising:  Even champions make mistake as demonstrated by the difficulties in restarting by four-time champion Jeff Gordon pretty much throughout the race.

    “We had a really strong car and everything was going really well,” the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet said. “There towards the end, we just kind of started fading and got ate up on those restarts.”

    Gordon finished seventh and is still in the points lead, albeit by one point over Matt Kenseth.

    “I feel like it is a missed opportunity,” Gordon said. “But another great race car and I’m happy about that.”

    Surprising:  Team Penske had a surprisingly tough time under the watchful eye of the ‘Lady in Black’, with Keselowski finishing 17th and Logano finishing 35th.

    “It was a long night,” the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford said. “We didn’t get the finish we wanted, that is for sure.”

    “The track was slick so that is part of the unique challenge of Darlington that we all love.”

    While Keselowski admitted to getting pushed back by those struggling on restarts, teammate Logano instead had a mechanical failure with just ten laps to go.

    “We had an issue with the right front hub which broke,” the driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford said. “It is unfortunate that the right front hub broke and then that messed with the rotor and into the caliper and everything got hot and broke after that.”

    “It sucks because you run the whole race and get nothing to show for it at the end.”

    Not Surprising:   With the third best driver rating of 107.5 coming into Darlington Raceway, it was not surprising the Greg Biffle, behind the wheel of the No. 16 3M/Red Cross Ford, was the highest finishing Ford when the checkered flag waved.

    “We worked really hard all night and probably didn’t have a fifth place car but we worked really hard on it and we had good pit stops and track position was everything tonight,” Biffle said. “Those last restarts we were on the outside, the inside and then the outside and we picked up one or two spots there at the end.”

    “Everybody worked hard and we will keep working on our car. We have to get better here but we will keep working at it.”

    Surprising:  NASCAR actually made a surprising move, granting an extra set of Goodyear tires for the Bojangles’ Southern 500. The sanctioning body apparently made that move after many teams voiced concerns about running out of tires, given the fall-off and wear.

    Not Surprising:  No doubt all of the Cup drivers are looking forward to an off-weekend of rest but Richard Petty Motorsports driver Marcos Ambrose summed it up best.

    “From the first lap, the track was as slick as anything,” the driver of the No. 9 DeWalt Ford said after finishing 14th. “This is the most worn out I have been in my NASCAR career.”

    After the Easter break, the NASCAR elite return to action in two weeks under the lights for some short-track racing at Richmond International Raceway.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Texas Duck Commander 500

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Texas Duck Commander 500

    In a rain-filled race day fit only for the ducks, so much so that the race was postponed from Sunday to Monday, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 18th Annual Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

    Surprising:  He may have finished second in the race, but Jeff Gordon achieved the top spot in the point standings, a position that he surprisingly has not held since 2009.

    And with his runner up status, the consistent driver of the No. 24 No. 24 Axalta/Texas A&M School of Engineering Chevrolet scored his 12th top-10 finish at Texas and his fifth top-10 finish for the season.

    “It was a great second‑place finish for me,” Gordon said. “I knew it was going to be hard to hold those guys off.”

    “Looked out my mirror, those guys were racing hard behind me,” Gordon continued. “At that point I was thinking, I just want to finish.”

    “I feel very fortunate to have finished second.”

    Not Surprising:  It was after all the Duck Commander 500 race, so it was not at all surprising for the seventh winner in seven races to capitalize on that duck theme.

    “Obviously these wins are so important this year to get into the Chase and to have both Team Penske cars with a win already is big, so we feel good about that,” Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford, said after celebrating his first victory of the season. “You kind of start getting your ducks in a row for Chase time and making sure you get everything ready for then.”

    “You feel a little bit more comfortable now that we have won than what we would have been.”

    This was Logano’s first ever win at Texas Motor Speedway and he also became the youngest winner in TMS history at the tender age of 23 years, 10 months and 14 days.

    Surprising:  Brian Vickers had a surprisingly good run, in fact the best of his season in fourth place. The driver of the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota also climbed four places in the point standings to crack the top-10 in points, currently sitting in the ninth position, 54 points behind leader Jeff Gordon.

    “Really proud of everyone on this Aaron’s Dream Machine team,” Vickers said. “Just really proud of the effort.  We probably didn’t have a car to win, but we made the most of it.”

    “We’ll learn from this and we’ll move on to the next race and we gave it our best there at the end.”

    Not Surprising:  The ‘Kyle and Kyle’ show continued its run at Texas, with Kyle Busch battling young Rookie of the Year contender Kyle Larson yet again for a top-five finish.

    Busch, who scored third place in his No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, posted his eighth top-10 finish in 18 races at Texas while Larson, behind the wheel of his No. 42 Target Chevrolet, finished fifth as the highest finishing ROTY candidate.

    “It was a good afternoon for us,” Busch said. “Just drove the hell out of it there those last two laps and got all she could and come home third.  Good, deserving finish for us here today.”

    “We were really good today, pretty much good from the start,” Larson said. “Our Target Chevy was average on a short run, but long runs I thought we probably had the best car.”

    “Just kept sticking with it, got it better and better each run,” Larson continued. “Put ourselves in position there on that last restart to get a good finish.”

    Surprising:  Two drivers were surprisingly up in smoke early in the race, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. hitting the grass and exploding in flames on lap 13 while Kevin Harvick’s engine expired in a huge puff of smoke just 27 laps into the race.

    “Something happened with the engine right after that restart,” Harvick said. “The Jimmy John’s Chevrolet was really fast.”

    “It’s frustrating. I don’t know what else I can say,” Harvick continued. “I didn’t get any indication that anything was going wrong.”

    “We’ll take it back to the shop and figure out what happened. But that’s a disappointing end to the day.”

    Earnhardt Jr.’s day also ended up in flames and smoke but for a very different reason.

    “Just didn’t see the grass. Didn’t know the grass was down there,” Junior said. “With the way the A-post is on these cars you can’t really see that good to that angle. I just didn’t have a good visual of where the apron and the grass was and got down in there pretty good.”

    “You can’t run through there the way they have these cars on the ground like that,” the driver of the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet said. “Just a mistake on my part. I just didn’t know I was that close to the grass, and made a mistake.”

    Not Surprising:  With rain in the air and the track changing throughout the race day, it was not surprising that gremlins in the flaps and hoods reared their ugly heads. In fact, because of the force of air from the jet dryers, at least four cars had hood flaps popping up, including the cars of Brad Keselowski, Ryan Newman, Danica Patrick and Justin Allgaier.

    “I was definitely wondering what happened,” the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford said on seeing his hood flap pop up. “I knew it was the jet dryer that caused it, but it was one of those freak deals.”

    Surprising:  As much as the race fans wanted to see the sun, it was surprisingly not Tony Stewart’s friend as his car fared better in the gloomier conditions.

    “We had a really good racecar for what the track conditions were most of this weekend,” the driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet said. “I think we showed that with getting the pole on Saturday and then leading all those laps at the first part of the race.”

    “But the track changed a lot and the setup we had didn’t really change with it.”

    In spite of handling struggles late in the race, Smoke led 74 laps and did manage to finish top-10 for the day, advancing one position up in points to fourteenth.

    Not Surprising:   Along with his heavy heart on the untimely death of his brother-in-law due to a sky-diving accident, Jimmie Johnson had heavy damage to match, unfortunately being the recipient of the mud and debris from his teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s foray into the grass and wall.

    Johnson finished the race with a disappointing 25th place run in his No. 48 Lowe’s Spring is Calling Chevrolet.

    “It’s kind of surreal what happened,” the six-time champion said. “Junior hit the grass there and something off his car like a splitter or something just destroyed my windshield and then something hit the nose of the car too.”

    “We were in a good position and were running decent lap times when the right rear blew,” Johnson continued. “It was a day of bad luck. We had a fast race car, so there was a little silk lining in it, but it was a terrible finish.”

    Surprising:  The third time was not a charm for Kurt Busch, previous race winner at Martinsville, who suffered not one, not two, but three tire failures in the Duck Commander 500 and finished 39th.

    “That was a very disappointing day after having a fast Haas Automation Chevrolet all weekend,” Daniel Knost, Busch’s crew chief, said. “We brought out a backup car after a wreck early in the weekend due to a tire issue.”

    “We took a little too aggressive setup today, and it cost us,” Knost continued. “I hate that we had a day like this, but we’ll continue to learn and get better each week.”

    Not Surprising:  While Aric Almirola and his Eckrich sponsor granted wishes for a local veteran injured in Afghanistan, the driver of the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford, had his own wish for improvement in his point standings come true as well.

    “The car was loose all day,” Almirola said. “Our intermediate track program is still not where we want it to be, but this was a good improvement.”

    “We hung in the Top-15 all day, and hopefully, a 12th-place finish will help us in the points.”

    Almirola and his team indeed moved up four spots in the points standings to 22nd as he and his fellow Cup compatriots head into the night race this upcoming weekend at Darlington Raceway.

     

  • NASCAR BTS: Sgt. Harroff ‘Overwhelmed’ by NASCAR Experience

    NASCAR BTS: Sgt. Harroff ‘Overwhelmed’ by NASCAR Experience

    The weekend started off like any other for Sgt. Ralph Harroff and his family, that is until NASCAR driver Aric Almirola showed up at his local Kroger grocery store, revving his engine in the parking lot and inviting the Harroff family inside for shopping spree courtesy of Eckrich, in partnership with Operation Homefront and Richard Petty Motorsports.

    “Our contact from Operation Homefront asked us to meet him and we had no idea what was going on,” Harroff said. “We met in the Kroger parking lot and here comes Aric in his car and pulls up, gets out and picks up my two year old daughter, put her in a shopping buggy, and we went on a shopping spree.”

    “We got a lot of food, some diapers, and we loaded up on the Eckrich meats of course,” Harroff continued. “It was totally cool.”

    “It has all been surprising and a bit overwhelming to be honest with you.”

    Harroff was further surprised and overwhelmed, however, with the additional gift of being able to accompany Aric Almirola to the track at Texas Motor Speedway.

    “I didn’t know that we would go to the race and I didn’t know what to expect,” Harroff said. “We’ve got all access passes and we got to eat lunch with Aric’s crew.”

    “We were down in the garage area and all the drivers, the crews, everyone is really down to earth,” Harroff continued. “They are really nice people. Having all access and being able to do what these really die-hard fans would pay millions of dollars to do, the whole experience, I just can’t find the words to sum it up.”

    “Everything has been so awesome.”

    The VIP NASCAR treatment is especially meaningful to Sgt. Harroff as he has always been a big race fan.

    “I kind of lost touch with everything going on in NASCAR with all my deployments,” Harroff said. “I’m an Almirola fan but I would get kicked out of my family if I didn’t like Earnhardt, Jr.”

    “But I also follow Kasey Kahne and I kind of bounce around between drivers,” Harroff continued. “I’m older in age so a lot of the drivers that I used to follow are retired or gone now.”

    “But this is just breathtaking. Watching all the pieces come together, wow, it’s just overwhelming,” Harroff said. “I’ve always wanted an experience like this and never had anything like it.”

    Harroff served his country with the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade. He was injured in Afghanistan after losing his footing when getting off an Army helicopter.

    “We were coming off a mission and I was getting off of a Black Hawk,” Harroff said. “I lost my footing and fell and messed up my back and shoulder. When I got to Germany, they found other things wrong with me.”

    “I had a surgery that resulted in two cut nerves,” Harroff continued. “It was a very long healing process but now I’m back at the job before I had going into the Army.”

    “Trying to make the transition back into civilian life is when I met the people from Operation Homefront,” Harroff said. “They helped me out in a time of need and are extremely good people. I can’t say enough about them.”

    “This is a family that I can really relate with,” Almirola, driver of the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford, said after meeting Harroff.  “Growing up in a military family, and now being a father myself, I can understand the sacrifices the Harroff family has made.”

    “It makes me feel good that I can work with Eckrich to help honor and give back to military families.  I know we put a smile on their faces today and hopefully we helped them out with some of their needs.”

    “This is really what ‘Operation Inspiration’ is all about,” Charles Gitkin, vice president, marketing, innovation and R&D for the John Morrell Food Group, said. “We heard the story of Army Sgt. Ralph Harroff and his family and it is families like these that inspire us to honor and assist them, and give them an experience they will never forget.”

    While Harroff enjoyed every minute of his at-track experience, he unfortunately may not be able to return on Monday since the race was postponed by the rainy weather. But the precipitation did nothing to dampen the spirits of a very grateful service man.

    “Unfortunately, where I work, I have to plan all the production and I had only planned to miss Friday,” Harroff said. “So, I’m afraid that I’m going to have to go to work.”

    “But this has just been a totally awesome experience, starting Friday to being at the track,” Harroff continued. “Everyone has all been so good to us.”

    “It’s hard to find words because it is just totally overwhelming.”

     

     

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Martinsville STP 500

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Martinsville STP 500

    With no practice due to a rainy weekend, the Cup drivers unleashed their pent up aggression on the short track of Martinsville. Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 65th running of the STP 500.

    Surprising:  The closest that Hendrick Motorsports got to Victory Lane at Martinsville was the motor and chassis as Kurt Busch surprisingly took his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet to the checkered flag.

    The win also marked significant milestones for driver and crew chief as this was Busch’s 25th Cup win and his crew chief Daniel Knost’s first win as a crew chief.

    Busch’s 83 start winless drought finally came to a close, with his last victory prior to this at the Monster Mile in the fall race of 2011.

    “Every time you come to Martinsville you draw a line through it; like there’s no way I’ll be able to challenge those Hendrick guys,” Busch said. “The Stewart-Haas team gave me a team to do it.”

    “It’s an unbelievable feeling to deliver.”

    Not Surprising:  While Brad Keselowski had some harsh words to say about the race winner, sarcastically ‘thanking Kurt’ after tangling with him early in the race and finishing 38th, he kept his sense of humor when he took to Twitter after the race.

    “I’m here,” Keselowski tweeted when a follower said that he would probably not be on social media for a while. “Laughing at all the hate tweets. #freeEntertainment.”

    With that difficult finish, the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford dropped three spots to seventh in the point standings.

    Surprising:  Dale Earnhardt Jr. was surprisingly disappointed with not getting a clock, even though he finished third in his No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet and took the points lead away from Carl Edwards.

    “Well, it was up and down,” Junior said of his race. “We ran out of tire there just trying to get by those lap guys that were giving me the top in the corner and I don’t need to be up there running.”

    “That cost us a little bit.”

    Junior and girlfriend Amy Reimann did, however, console themselves with a Martinsville hot dog as his “reward” for finishing third, tweeting a picture of the celebration from the plane.

    This was Earnhardt Jr.’s 16th top-10 finish in 29 races at the track known as the ‘Paper Clip.’

    Not Surprising:  Martinsville made for some interesting milestones, including another new winner for the season and a record number of lead changes.

    Kurt Busch became the sixth different winner in six races to date and there were a record 33 lead changes among 12 drivers, the most ever at Martinsville. The previous record for lead changes was 31, set in April of 2011.

    Surprising:  They may have been driving with heavy hearts due to the death of Miss Lynda Petty, the King’s late wife, but the two Richard Petty Motorsports drivers pulled off great finishes, with Marcos Ambrose in fifth and Aric Almirola in eighth.

    In fact, this was only the fourth time that the two RPM teammates have finished in the top-10 together, but the second time in six races this season.

    ““We’ve had a really tough week. We lost Miss Lynda.” Ambrose, driver of the No. 9 DeWalt Ford said. “We really wanted to win for them bad out there, but we’ll take a top five.”

    “I’m really proud of all the guys at Richard Petty Motorsports,” Almirola, driver of the No. 43 STP Ford, said. “If we keep running like this, we’ll get to Victory Lane.”

    Not Surprising:  The highest finishing Ford was Joey Logano, who deemed his drive in the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford “a battle.”

    “This race is really hard, but we finished where we deserved to finish,” Logano said after finishing fourth. “That’s where we ran and that’s about all we had.”

    “I wish we had a little more.”

    Surprising:  “That’s all I had,” are words that are eerily similar to Logano’s but are not typically heard from six-time champion Jimmie Johnson. But that was his summary of the race as well at one of his strongest tracks.

    “I’d been loose in the final third of the race and was hanging on there,” Johnson, who finished runner up in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, said. “When (Kurt Busch) got back by me, I was hopefully that he’d wear his stuff out and I could get back by him. He did but I couldn’t hold him off.”

    “I started to get looser and looser,” Johnson continued. “I ran the rear tires off the car.”

    “That’s all I had.”

    This was Johnson’s 22nd top-10 finish in 25 races at Martinsville Speedway and his fourth top-10 finish in the 2014 season.

    Not Surprising:   While most drivers are focused on the wins, Jamie McMurray was thinking about points and shaking his head.

    McMurray, behind the wheel of the No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet, was involved in an on-track incident with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Lap 199 that caused him to finish 42nd and falling eleven spots in the point standings to 23rd.

    “I thought the No. 88 would be a little more patient with me. I had gotten by him in lap traffic. Then he got on my inside. When he got into me it was like it couldn’t get off and spun me around and just got into the wall there,” Jamie Mac said. “Really unfortunate had a good car, every race we’ve had good cars.”

    “You just wish you weren’t racing for points because that is the hardest part to swallow is the point’s loss,” McMurray continued. “It’s fun to run well but that is what you will think about for the next five days.”

    Surprising:  After missing the previous race week due to metal in his eye and after vowing to make a comeback and win at a track where he has the third-best driver rating, it was most surprising to see Denny Hamlin finish a disappointing 19th.

    The driver of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota had ignition issues and then was just plain slow during the race.

    “Just a frustrating day, especially when you know that this is a race track that I feel like I can make up a difference here and there,” Hamlin said. “We were a football field and then some away from the right set up today.”

    Not Surprising:  Austin Dillon, behind the wheel of the No. 3 Dow Chevrolet was the highest finishing rookie, finishing 15th at the very demanding short track.

    “I had some good runs there in my truck but it was totally different in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car,” Dillon said. “It’s one of those races where you have to fight to stay in it.”

    “Things were definitely wild there.”

    The Cup Series will move from the short track of Martinsville to the track in Texas where everything is big for the Duck Commander 500.