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Tag: Bristol

  • Kyle Busch wins thriller in the last great colosseum

    Kyle Busch wins thriller in the last great colosseum

    In the closing laps of the UNOH 200, Kyle Busch was on the verge of being lapped. A late race caution, however, led to a chaotic restart where several lead trucks experienced fuel pickup problems.

    After another yellow, Busch found himself with fresh tires and sitting in second place! Busch then battled leader Ryan Blaney for the top spot. Blaney slipped high, and Busch took the lead. Busch would then receive a late race challenge from Timothy Peters who had ran strong all night but had been shuffled back in the late race cautions.

    Peters caught Busch with one to go, drove hard to the inside and took a shot but ended up in the inside retaining wall giving the victory to Busch.

    The victory was Busch’s 33rd in the Camping World Truck Series in 111 starts.

    Timothy Peters led the most laps (125) and has an impressive record in recent events at the Worlds Fastest Half-Mile. He now has four top-10s in his last four starts, including a win here last year where he led every lap.

    Peters at one point was challenged by Ryan Blaney. With Blaney charging hard on the outside, got a run on Peters and pulled alongside. Peters moved up the track and forced Blaney into the marbles. Blaney made slight contact with the outside wall and vowed over the radio that if he made back to Peters’ bumper he would get revenge.

    Blaney had the opportunity in the closing laps but didn’t take it. He would end up third.

    ThorSport Racing’s Johnny Sauter, who has had a recent run of bad luck, performed well and stayed out of trouble to achieve a much needed top-5 finish coming home in the fourth spot.

    Pole sitter, Chase Elliott, looked strong early leading 63 laps, but faded with handling issues. The team rallied, however, and Chase fought his way back to a very respectable fifth place finish. Elliott, who tonight became the youngest pole winner in series history, has stats that any seasoned veteran would love to have – 5 starts, with 4 top-5’s and 5 top-10’s and one pole.

    Series points leader, Matt Crafton, kept his string of top-10 finishes alive with a tenth place finish. Crafton has scored a top-10 in every race this season. He now has a 49 point lead over defending series champion, James Buescher.

    The series now heads to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park for the Chevy Silverado 250 Sept 1st.

  • Problems and Solutions – NASCAR’s Bad Start

    Problems and Solutions – NASCAR’s Bad Start

    Never let it be said that I don’t have an opinion. The events of the past week have been monumental for NASCAR. I think a lot of folks don’t realize that what has happened will change the way things are done inside the sanctioning body in Daytona Beach for a long time. Can you imagine that the day would come where a track owner would poll the fans to see what they wanted? Can you imagine the day when the sanctioning body would be embarrassed by its own hand-picked appellate officer? Lots of questions and more surprise and confusion.

    NASCAR, though they are a dictatorship, has always prided itself as being fair. It doesn’t always appear that way, but that is the intention. Early on, they appointed an appeals committee made up of respected industry insiders. Teams also had the right to appeal to a one-man judge who could overturn any penalties somewhat like the United States Supreme Court of Appeals, except in this case, it’s not seven judges, but only one. NASCAR has always appointed former industry officials for this office. I can remember it was once Bunky Knudson, the former Pontiac and Ford CEO, and since it didn’t seem to matter over the years, I didn’t pay much attention after that. It seems that no matter how fair CAO John Middleton was in his decision in the Hendrick Motorsports/Chad Knaus vs. NASCAR case, some things were not well thought out.

    Fans will immediately take sides because that is their nature, but NASCAR left some holes in their thinking. Why in the world would you name an executive from a manufacturer as your CAO? Further, why would you name an officer who had a personal relationship with some of the principals? Apparently Rick Hendrick spoke at Middlebrook’s retirement dinner. I’m not saying that this had anything to do with the decision, but it opens up a lot of questions in the minds of fans, other teams, and the media. What were they thinking? The fallout will be huge. Every penalty will be appealed to the CAO and the minute that someone, anyone, doesn’t get a “get out of jail free card” like the Hendrick team did, it will inevitably be because they weren’t John Middlebrook’s friend.

    The boys in Daytona Beach have a lot of thinking to do over the next few months. What did they do wrong? Why did a panel of many decide the penalty should stand while the appellate officer decided that the penalty should be reduced? Why was the fine allowed and the points penalties and suspensions be waived, given the reputation of the principals involved? Complicating all of this is the fact that we’ll never know. If one appeals to the US Supreme Court (in the example I used earlier), there is a paper trail that reveals the thinking of the court. In this case, I don’t imagine anything else will come to light as to the thinking of the CAO. Game over and maybe game on.

    This brings us to the whole Bristol Motor Speedway situation. The half full racetrack over the weekend, which I have commented on earlier, apparently struck a nerve with Speedway Motorsports owner Bruton Smith. After earlier statements that the low crowd, about half capacity regardless of what the “official” estimates were, was caused by bad weather (it rained in the morning, but cleared up for the race), the attendance at Saturday’s Nationwide race should have given the brain trust a clue. The near empty campgrounds should have been another clue. Smith has his underlings conduct a Twitter and email poll on what the fans wanted. The result was over 70% of fans not only didn’t like what they saw, but demanded that the track be put back in the configuration it was before the 2007 reconfiguration of the track. Always wanting to give the fans what they want, Smith declared last night that it would be done. How refreshing was that? But the media and some drivers protested. Smith was firm. “The fans are always right,” Smith said. We’ll see if it really happens, but I applaud Smith for listening to fans and not the competitors. Fans pay the bills, and over the weekend, not many were there. Yes, a crowd of 80,000 is pretty good, but in a place built for twice that, it had to hurt.

    So for a year that started with a rain out, a big Monday night prime time race that had great ratings, and finally a great facility that appears to be decline. Lots of problems everywhere.

    In my opinion, it’s a cop-out to blame everything on the economy as has been done for so long over these last four years. It’s time for the sanctioning body to take the bull by the horns. Bruton Smith reacted swiftly and decidedly, as he always does. It’s time for NASCAR to do the same I hope they do. I think they will, but all is not rosy.

  • Excuses Aside, It’s Not the Economy

    Excuses Aside, It’s Not the Economy

    It started on I-64 shortly after leaving Beckley, West Virginia. The trip to Bristol Motor speedway is only 180 miles, the second closest track (to Martinsville) from my home in rural West Virginia. Stopping at a restaurant in Princeton was all talk about the race coming up in two days. It was Friday and many were traveling to the race. Cars with plates as far away at New York were there, and on a quick trip to the restroom, I got my first feedback.

    “This is my last trip to Bristol. I’ve given up my season tickets,” said John from Pennsylvania. “They ruined the track. Used to be the survival of the fittest and now it’s more like the half-miles we see all the time. I may go back to the night race after this year, but they can have the spring race.”

    From Scott from Ohio, I heard, “this whole coliseum thing and all the hype is just so sad. When they changed the track, it took away Bristol. Sure there were wrecks and cautions, but it was exciting and it’s not exciting today.” Scott is also giving up his tickets. He plans to go to Charlotte instead. “At least it’s easier to get in and out of that track.”

    Finally, I talked to my campground neighbors. One of them, Barry from Georgia, was distraught about how boring both races were. “I love racing,” he said. “The problem with this race is that it’s only 250 miles and used to be lots of action. In the Busch race, it was follow the leader and in the big race, it was the same. The drivers love it, but I don’t. I’m going back to Atlanta. I heard so much about this place and started coming in 2006. I can only afford a couple of these a year and this is not a good value.”

    And so it goes. The most discussed topic on NASCAR radio today was “Old Bristol” vs. “New Bristol.” The reason was the lack of fannies in the seats at both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races. Last year, it was appalling, but this year was worse. No matter what the projections of attendance was, the place looked empty. I know there are 160,000 seats there, but it looked like only a few were there on Saturday and only a few more on Sunday. In fact, friends told me that they had their pick of seats both days. The concourses, once full of people, were sparse and traffic resembled a minor league baseball game. Why has Bristol fallen so far?

    Apparently, the track knew what was going to happen. Articles in local papers proclaimed that the economy was the culprit, according to those stories. Yes, the local economy, though bad, is no worse than anyplace else. According to those that know, many suites that corporate sponsors had taken for years were cancelled. Add to that the total dissatisfaction with product among the core fans and you get this reaction. The night race will always be fascinating, but the other races? Not so much. Locals stayed away, but many others did too.

    One of the basic principles of entertainment is you have to give the people what they want. You can’t run hundreds of commercials talking about how this is the toughest place to run and then watch two and three wide racing. You cannot let the NASCAR media people, many who depend on the sport for a living, to keep telling fans that this is racing as it was meant to me, and not a demolition derby like we had. Folks, the people paying the bills, liked it the way it was and no matter how much the people at Speedway Motorsports and the talking heads want to spin how wonderful Bristol was since 2009, the fans disagree and they are the ones who pay the bills. If they aren’t happy, nobody’s happy. Brad Keselowski’s proclamation that things change is a typical response from someone who hasn’t studied history. You might say if it isn’t broke don’t fix it. They fixed it and thousands of fans decided it wasn’t worth it. The track won’t change and the crowds will probably be the same as we saw this weekend. What could have been…

    So Bristol is over and we head to another track that no one cares about, seemingly even the people of Southern California. We’ll see three-wide racing and a lot of racing like we saw this weekend at Bristol. My heart aches. Once upon a time it was different. We had the bullrings and the speedways and for one moment, someone thought we had to make Bristol like the speedways. And it was a mistake. At least in these old eyes. But there is a silver lining to all of this. I wrote a column last year that said that Martinsville is the new Bristol. I stand by that. It’s a shame that we couldn’t have had two of those, but then again, it’s been the way things have been going for some time.

  • The Southern 500: A Lesson Not Learned

    The Southern 500: A Lesson Not Learned

    [media-credit name=”David Yeazell” align=”alignright” width=”261″][/media-credit]For those who think that the races at places like California, Chicago, Kansas, and any number of what has been called the “cookie cutter” tracks, I give you Darlington. For every boring finish at one of those clones, we get one Darlington (and luckily, thank God) two Martinsville’s. It’s not fair that we only see one race at the track “too tough to tame,” but that’s all we have. It’s money that matters.

    Instead of two cars piggy-backing on each other to create speed, as we saw at Daytona and Talladega (and it seems is the favorite of the fans), we saw real racing and lots of action. We saw a Ford Fusion open up a Toyota like a can of tuna. We saw the usual suspects run in the back while others ran up front. We saw beating and banging, temper flaring, and even extracurricular action. We saw a race that can’t happen when everyone has four lanes to run in and it’s an easy place to run.

    It seems that after NASCAR became “the thing” back in the early 90’s that the sport went out of its way to make things easier for the drivers. No longer was it a challenge for the drivers because it didn’t matter so much. The important thing was that the stars of the sport were there and were successful. It wasn’t about the racing. It was more about the money. All of a sudden, International Speedway Corporation and Speedway Motorsports began to either take over or build new tracks. Bruton Smith did it two ways. As the CEO of Speedway Motorsports, every track he built was a clone of Charlotte Motor Speedway. You know the drill. Moderately banked tracks with a tri-oval approximately 1.5 miles in length. To give Smith credit, he did change it up a bit at Las Vegas by reconfiguring the track when it didn’t race like the fans wanted and changed Atlanta also. But he changed Bristol to “offer more room to race,” which has been a disaster for fans and the attendance at the races there show it. Fans didn’t want more room to race. They wanted to see the action. I really am sad to report this, but the last two races at Bristol nearly bored me to sleep.

    International Speedway Corporation seemed to create tracks in the image of Michigan International Speedway. When they bought Roger Penske’s tracks, that seemed to be the formula. California, Chicago, and others seemed to fit that mold. Easy on the drivers and less action were the key. They didn’t have to worry about the fans, they were going to come anyway.

    Fast forward to 2008. The economy was in the dumpster. Ticket prices were through the roof and fans for the first time had to wonder if spending $1,000 dollars for a weekend was worth it . Attendance suffered and TV ratings went way down. Smith closed Rockingham and NASCAR took away one of its iconic races at Darlington to get other races at his newer clone tracks. Attendance was listed as the problem, but when attendance at California and other tracks didn’t improve the situation, excuses were there in spades. Excuses cannot change what has happened over the last ten years. History be damned. While baseball loves Fenway Park and Wrigley Field, NASCAR put its history in the trash can in favor of more modern facilities and the revenue that could be generated. It’s sad.

    Tonight, we saw why fans rushed to NASCAR. Action. We saw it at Martinsville in March, and we’ll see it again in the fall when we go back there. We sacrificed the iconic tracks that made the sport what it was for luxury suites and bling, even if the racing was less than good. And so it goes.

    Maybe there’s a lesson here, but I doubt it. A friend who has gone to Charlotte for eons told me this week that he got his Charlotte tickets for the 600. The tickets had raised by nearly $20. He was trying to sell the tickets and could not find any takers. Maybe the economy will improve and people will have more disposable income in the future and NASCAR will rise again, but if that magic doesn’t happen, it won’t change the fact that places like Darlington need to be put in place as what NASCAR is and should be. Taking a race from Darlington was wrong. Taking away the Labor Day weekend from Darlington was criminal. When will they learn?

  • Martinsville May Be the New Bristol

    Martinsville May Be the New Bristol

    [media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignright” width=”263″][/media-credit]Martinsville is the new Bristol. Why? I could see it on the fans’ faces. Two weeks ago, a very low crowd came to Bristol to see some short track racing and what did they get? Racing that just wasn’t Bristol. Apparently, the word has gotten around that Bristol no longer offers the short track “rubbing is racing” experience that fans crave. So the fans stayed away. The 160,000+ seat stadium crowd was about half that. Enter Martinsville Speedway.

    Martinsville Speedway doesn’t offer the high speeds of Richmond and Bristol, but “the paper clip” offers lots of action and some of that “rubbing” that the fans seem to love. And boy did they get that on Sunday. The intimate venue gave us the best racing of 2011 complete with an exciting finish. The stands were nearly full (the official estimate was 60,000) and the fans were enthusiastic, especially when Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took the lead late in the race. Old Junior even moved Kyle Busch out of the way with his bumper to make the pass. The crowd loved it. And they could clearly see it because there isn’t a bad seat in the house.

    At nearly the halfway mark, the bad crash that involved Martin Truex, Jr. and Kasey Kahne caused the race to be red-flagged. It was such a beautiful day that I ventured outside the friendly confines of the press box and into the concourse and the grassy area on the backstretch. My son, attending his first race at Martinsville, something my father and I did long ago, was sitting there and he made the most prolific statement of the day. “Dad,” he said, “this is a lot better than Charlotte.” Indeed.

    The race had it all. We saw close racing, a most popular driver finally lead a race, and action on every lap. Where else could you see this? Well, earlier you might have seen it at places like Bristol, but the popular thing to do is to configure tracks so that the drivers can race without touching. I’m here to tell you that the fans do not want that. They want what they saw on Sunday.

    For whatever reason, Goodyear brought a tire that didn’t last very long and didn’t rubber up the track, leaving one groove for the drivers to go fast. That’s pretty much always been the case at Martinsville, but it was really extreme on Sunday. Double-file restarts were an exercise in futility. If you were on the outside, you were toast. So, if you wanted to go low, you had to do something to get there and that meant contact. The fans loved it. And for all the hand-wringing about the tires, they were hardly a concern during the race. It was as if the multitudes came to the mecca of short track racing to see just that since they can’t find it anywhere else.

    Martinsville Speedway may very well become the favorite of short track fans in the future. Tickets prices are reasonable, the venue takes you back in time when racing came down to who could make the moves to get a win in a small space. And while the high dollar speculators built palaces for these gladiators of speed to perform in, Martinsville has stayed essentially the same. The new improvements were noticeable, but they didn’t take away from the charm of the track built in 1947—the oldest track on the Sprint Cup circuit. From the exhilaration on the talk shows to the comments of the people on the street, it seems this is what the fans want. I hope everyone in the NASCAR world is listening.

  • Hot 20 over the past 10, as even a winless Jimmie Johnson remains the class of the field

    Hot 20 over the past 10, as even a winless Jimmie Johnson remains the class of the field

    The most exciting driver in NASCAR today chalked up his fourth win at Bristol in his last five races, not counting the five straight Nationwide and Craftsman truck wins to his credit in Thunder Valley. Kyle Busch was our biggest mover, jumping ten spots when you replace his ten point performance from last fall at Fontana with the 47 he pulled in last Sunday. On the downside, he needs to be in the top five the next two events to prevent rolling back.

    Jimmie Johnson, on the other hand, has won four of his last seven at Fontana, which is next on the dance card. In fact, over the past ten events held there his worst finish is 11th. Good thing, as he also needs Top Five finishes to maintain his pace. He might be in the midst of a 12 race winless streak, but ten of those were Top Tens and half in the Top Three.

    Yet, the big story isn’t who is on the list this week, but rather who is not. Jeff Gordon comes in 14 points shy, Clint Bowyer is 20 off, while David Reutimann is 27 points on the outside. All are in better shape than Jeff Burton, who finds himself buried a whopping 62 off in the distance. At least here, some bad results can come off to be replaced, hopefully, with something better. When it comes to hot, that quartet are most certainly not.

    As they head of to sunny California, if you don’t count this week, here is a look at the hot 20 over the past 10 Cup races.

    1 (1) Jimmie Johnson – 366 pts – Hottest dude hasn’t won in twelve.

    2 (5) Carl Edwards – 364 pts – Should have used the bumper horn

    3 (3) Kevin Harvick – 350 pts – Screw engine gunk, give him a beer.

    4 (2) Denny Hamlin – 339 pts – Got packaged early at Bristol.

    5 (4) Mark Martin – 336 pts – Harvick is Happy, at least until Mark punted him.

    6 (7) Matt Kenseth – 331 pts – Where did he come from?

    7 (17) Kyle Busch – 293 pts – Okay, I get it. He likes Bristol.

    8 (12) Paul Menard – 293 pts – Menard’s; more than a hardware chain.

    9 (6) Tony Stewart – 292 pts – Needed less smoke and more fire.

    10 (13) Kurt Busch – 289 pts – Kyle is his little brother, or is he a big bother?

    11 (9) Ryan Newman – 285 pts – A top ten, yet loses two spots?

    12 (8) Juan Pablo Montoya – 280 pts – Loose wheel, looser fenders

    13 (10) Joey Logano – 277 pts – Forget Bristol, he’s now California dreaming.

    14 (20) Greg Biffle – 276 pts – Now THAT is how you gas and go.

    15 (14) Martin Truex Jr – 275 pts – Looked good for a while, but the while left.

    16 (11) A.J. Allmendinger – 266 pts – Best Buy was the sponsor, bargain basement was the result.

    17 (15) Kasey Kahne – 261 pts – Showed some Kahne-do spirit.

    18 (23) David Ragan – 252 pts – They love logistics, but found Bristol just okay.

    19 (19) Dale Earnhardt Jr – 250 pts – Not hot yet, but I feel it getting warmer.

    20 (18) Jamie McMurray – 249 pts – Driver started with dimples, the car finished with some.

  • The Last Word on Bristol, as Kyle W(inner) Busch again sweeps Tennessee

    The Last Word on Bristol, as Kyle W(inner) Busch again sweeps Tennessee

    [media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]So, what did we learn at Bristol?

    Well, we learned that Kyle Busch is one hell of a driver. Okay, if we had been in a coma the past couple of years, that might have been a revelation. He wins on Saturday, wins on Sunday, and his Bristol tally includes four Cup wins in his last five attempts there, two straight Nationwide wins, and don’t forget the three in a row he has rung up in the trucks. I’m guessing ole Rowdy kind of likes Bristol.

    We learned that if Carl Edwards knew his final shot at getting by Busch was with about thirty laps to go, he would not have been so clean in making the attempt. It is not that Edwards doesn’t mind using some muscle to make a pass, just ask Brad Keselowski. However, if you move a guy you got to leave the guy to avoid payback, but Busch was the one who rode off into the sunset. Edwards had to settle for second, which gives him three runner-up tallies to go with a couple of wins in his last six starts.

    We learned that Jimmie Johnson has not won a race in a dozen tries. However, before we start resizing the crown worn by Bristol’s third place finisher, Five Time hasn’t exactly been slumming it out there. Of those 12, he has been a Top Three guy six times, with eight Top Fives and 10 Top Tens. If that is a slump, there are a bunch of drivers who would love to be so mired.

    We learned that Jeff Burton’s problems continue. 20th at Bristol was the best he has done since he was 19th at Phoenix last fall. The Virginian sits 30th in the standings, almost fifty positions out of Chase contention. If all the gold is in California, he better find himself the mother lode next weekend.

    We learned that bad things happen to good people at Bristol. Burton’s problems made him a pylon out there with a loose wheel, which resulted in Trevor Bayne, David Reutimann, and Denny Hamlin beat up and scrambling for crumbs for the rest of the day.

    We learned that Juan Pablo Montoya’s loose wheel at the mid-point of the race was the beginning of the end for him. Later, when Kasey Kahne got loose and log-jammed the field, the resulting mess made sure Montoya, Bayne, and Jamie McMurray finished outside the Top 20. When Clint Bowyer’s engine blew up, he went from crippled to dead to 35th.

    We learned that when the smoke had cleared, it was that other Busch who was our points leader as Kurt heads west up by one over Edwards. They have a sizable gap over Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, and Paul Menard, who has a pair of Top Tens in four starts. Kyle, Jimmie, and Juan are right behind, with Dale Earnhardt Jr and Mark Martin rounding out the top ten. Jeff Gordon’s win at Phoenix would give him a invite to the party, while Kasey Kahne would get his only because Bayne isn’t turning his Daytona gold into a glass slipper.

    We have learned that the track at Fontana might be sunny but, Lord help me, it more often provides a cure for insomnia than it does excitement. However, there is one guy who just loves the Auto Club Speedway in California. Tony Stewart may have won there last October. Bristol’s fourth place finisher, Matt Kenseth, may have three out there. Even Edwards was the man at Fontana three years ago. However, the guy to watch is Jimmie Johnson, who has claimed four of the last seven they have run there. Maybe that poor, luckless fellow can finally end the heartbreak and break out of his slump. His worst finish in his last ten Fontana starts? Eleventh. Oh, the humanity. Enjoy your week.

  • Kyle Busch Sweeps Bristol Again!

    Kyle Busch Sweeps Bristol Again!

    [media-credit id=5 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]
    Kyle Busch celebrates 5th straight win at BMS
    For the second time in as many visits to Bristol Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch managed to win every race. Last August it was a triple with the NASCAR Camping World Truck, the Nationwide and the Sprint Cup, returning this weekend he captured the checkered flag for both the Nationwide and the Sprint Cup races.

    The win for Busch was his 20th in 226 NASCAR Sprint Cup starts, and his first win and his third top 10 in 4 Cup starts in 2011. This win is Kyle’s fifth at Bristol and ties him with his brother Kurt and Jeff Gordon for wins among active drivers. Carl Edwards finished second, followed by Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Paul Menard in fifth.
    After the race Edwards commented, “ It was exciting. I thought I could get to him (Busch) at the end and rough him up a little bit, and maybe get by him, but his car took off. I should have hit him harder when I got to his bumper the first time, but we were really racing hard. His car was better there at the end. Kyle did a good job, our team did a good job and we’ve just got to thank all the fans and let them know we appreciate them coming out and supporting us.”
    In a post race interview Johnson talked about his car being really good and his team working hard, but at the end it was all about track position. “On the pit stop, the rear tire changer slipped and that lost us valuable track position. We just could never get that back.” Kenseth was also happy with his fourth place finish, “We had a lot of fun out there racing today and got lucky and got the right lane on the restarts a few times. We were able to make up some positions. It took all day, but we finally were able to make some adjustments that had the Crown Royal Black Fusion pretty decent.” Rounding out the top 10 for the Jeff Byrd 500 was Kevin Harvick 6th, followed by Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman in 10th.

    Kyle Busch took a few minutes after celebrating in Victory Lane to talk about the race. “It was a lot harder today, that’s for sure. Carl Edwards kept me honest there. I was making a couple of mistakes, but nothing we couldn’t rebound from. This M&M’s Camry was awesome today. I can’t thank the guys at Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing, M&M’s, thanks for signing up for another infinite years.”

    As the series heads for Fontana next week for the fifth race of the season, there was little movement in the top 10 in points other than Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson moving IN and A J Allmendinger and Denny Hamlin moving OUT. The new leader after Bristol is Kurt Busch, with Carl Edwards on point behind in second, as Tony Stewart slips to third. Ryan Newman and Paul Menard round out the top five. Kyle Busch moved up to sixth, followed by Jimmie Johnson, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dale Earnhardt Jr and Martin Truex in tenth. The top ten are now separated by 27 points as a result of the new point system in place this year.

  • Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the Pole for Scott’s EZ Seed 300

    Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the Pole for Scott’s EZ Seed 300

    Carl Edward’s jumped to the provisional pole as he went out 22nd qualifying for Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race with a speed of 125.052 mph. But the idea of Edwards grabbing both poles was short lived.

    [media-credit name=”Joe Dunn” align=”alignright” width=”106″][/media-credit]Two cars later, Edwards’ teammate Trevor Bayne pushed Carl to the outside as he posted a lap of 125.461 mph, .050 seconds faster. A few spots later, it was Jason Leffler hitting the top spot with a speed of 125.939, but the very next car out would be Edwards’ and Bayne’s teammate Stenhouse Jr. who took the top spot for the day with a speed of 126.071 mph. This will be Stenhouse Jr’s second pole of his career, the first one coming at Iowa in 2009. This will be his third top 10 start in 2011 and his third race at Bristol.

    When the qualifying session was complete, Edwards was bumped back to 7th. Start on the outside of the front row will be Leffler, followed by last year’s winner Justin Allgaier, Bayne, and Kyle Busch starting 5th. Rounding out the top 10 will be Elliott Sadler, Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne and Joey Logano.

    Only one car will miss the race, Chris Lawson who crashed during his qualifying run. It should also be noted that these cars did qualify on the tires from yesterday as they had no practice on the new tires.

  • Bristol Tire Fiasco

    Bristol Tire Fiasco

    (BRISTOL, TN) Carl Edwards turned in the fastest lap of NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying to earn the Pole for the Jeff Byrd 500 (presented by Food City).Edwards’ teammate Greg Biffle secured the #2 spot for an all Ford all Roush Fenway Racing front row but that effort was overshadowed by the tire woes experienced Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

    [media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignright” width=”283″][/media-credit]From the beginning of the first NASCAR Nationwide Series practice Friday morning, it became obvious that there was a problem with tire wear. As NNS teams reported excess tire wear Goodyear was quick to acknowledge that something was amiss with the tires brought to the track.

    In addition to the excessive wear, another problem also became evident. The track surface did not ‘Rubber up”, a build up of rubber imbedding into the track surface. That was obvious to all as the normal blackening of the track was not at all occurring. That lack of build up effects the long term wear of the tires as, under normal conditions it cushions the tire wear and reduced the ability of the track surface to grind rubber off the tires.

    Goodyear was quick to notify NASCAR that it intended to bring an entire compliment of new tires to the track on Saturday. The scheduled practices continued with the current tires as did the NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying. The only major victim of the wear Kevin Lepage in the NNS #24 car who had a right front tire go down putting him into the wall. The damage to the car was extensive and the crew was working feverishly to read a back up car.

    With the new tires arriving Saturday morning, and the Nationwide Series not having any practice on the new tires, NASCAR decided that it would be best to conduct qualifying on the old tires. Both the Scotts EZ SEED 300 and the Jeff Byrd 500 will have a NSACR mandatory competition caution early in the race to check tire wear on the new tires.