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Tag: California

  • Denny Hamlin Seeking Auto Club Revenge; Starts 13th On Sunday

    Denny Hamlin Seeking Auto Club Revenge; Starts 13th On Sunday

    Denny Hamlin had an eventful final corner at Auto Club Speedway last season, to say the least. Hamlin and Joey Logano – who had a dispute the week before at Bristol – battled the entire white flag lap for the win, but eventually touched, putting Hamlin into the inside wall, Logano into the outside wall, and sending Kyle Busch to victory lane.

    However, not snatching his first career Auto Club victory wasn’t the major setback for Hamlin. It was the fact the wreck caused him to suffer a back injury, forcing him to sit out of the car for around a month.

    Now, a year later, Hamlin is looking for revenge in Fontana, California. And after qualifying 13th it seems he has the capability to convert.

    “There’s more drive, there’s extra motivation (to win this weekend)” Hamlin explained about getting redemption at Auto Club.

    Despite Hamlin wanting to score the victory this weekend, he doesn’t intend on holding a grudge with Logano, even though his season was destroyed by him last year.

    “Really worrying about retaliating and holding grudges and things like that takes away from the time you need to be preparing for the upcoming event,” Hamlin explained in the media center on Friday. “When you’re on the track, it’s hard enough to pass in these cars, so you have to concentrate in these cars at all times and not (on), Hey I need to get to this guy or that guy to retaliate.”

    With retaliation off his mind, Hamlin has his complete focus on winning this weekend, and he’s confident he can.

    “We (Joe Gibbs Racing) look forward to coming here and running extremely well. We had a pretty good first practice, so we’re starting off on the right foot,” Hamlin expressed. “I’ve taken this race and circled it as one where you really would like to get a win and obviously be competitive when it comes Sunday. It’s nice to, instead of retaliating, to end in victory lane.”

    Setting all redemption and retaliation aside, Hamlin is still trying to secure a spot in the Chase with a victory. He finished second in the Daytona 500, 19th at Phoenix International Raceway, 12th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and sixth last weekend in Bristol, Tennessee. Therefore, after an average start to 2014, he’s hoping to solidify himself as a championship contender this weekend.

  • Hot 20 – Harvick hoping for some California heat

    Hot 20 – Harvick hoping for some California heat

    Four winners, three of whom sit atop our leader board. As important as victories are this season in determining the Chase contenders, it would be hard to include Kevin Harvick among the best under normal circumstances.

    Harvick may have won at Phoenix, and his 13th at Daytona may have been acceptable. Even his runs at Las Vegas and Bristol were impressive for as long as they lasted, but when you are listed as 41st and 39th in the final results it does take the bloom off the rose. Turns it into stinkweed, to be honest.

    Still, in determining our top performer over the course of a 36-race season, that win does keep Harvick six slots better than the official standings, with the 22 bonus points we hand out to winners. As we are not interested in a Chase or even the television ratings for Homestead, we can dwell on just who has been the best performer. Even with a string of three Top Threes broken up by a 14th at Bristol, that would still be Brad Keselowski to this point.

    If you were wondering, as the action heads west to California this weekend, Regan Smith and Trevor Bayne remain our hot duo in the Nationwide series. I wonder if ESPN will have time to interview them after they are done gushing over Kyle Busch once again at Fontana?  The big boy visiting the little sandbox has won six of the past eight junior circuit events at this track.

    Kyle won the Cup race at Fontana a year ago. Other recent winners include Tony Stewart, Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, and Carl Edwards. No one who isn’t already a someone will visit Victory Lane on Sunday.

     

    Driver

    Win

    Points

    1

      Brad Keselowski

    1

    185

    2

      Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

    1

    175

    3

      Carl Edwards

    1

    174

    4

      Jeff Gordon

    0

    152

    5

      Jimmie Johnson

    0

    143

    6

      Joey Logano

    0

    141

    7

      Denny Hamlin

    0

    140

    8

      Matt Kenseth

    0

    138

    9

      Ryan Newman

    0

    125

    10

      Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.

    0

    122

    11

      Kasey Kahne

    0

    120

    12

      Greg Biffle

    0

    118

    13

      Austin Dillon

    0

    117

    14

      Kevin Harvick

    1

    111

    15

      Kyle Busch

    0

    111

    16

      Marcos Ambrose

    0

    108

    17

      Jamie McMurray

    0

    100

    18

      Paul Menard

    0

    99

    19

      Brian Vickers

    0

    99

    20

      Casey Mears

    0

    97
  • Hardly Boring, the 2013 Season Has Been Entertaining So Far

    Hardly Boring, the 2013 Season Has Been Entertaining So Far

    All last year, folks commented that the racing in NASCAR’s top series was boring. Most of them pointed to the late-race action at Martinsville Speedway last April. On Sunday, at near 200 mph, they saw more of the same. This time it was Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin, fresh off a dustup at Bristol Motor Speedway where both drivers pointed fingers. Who would have thought that a race at Auto Club Speedway could bring that kind of excitement? Certainly not me or most anyone else would think that. Was it the Gen 6 car or the track or the drivers? I can’t answer that question, but the bigger question is why Safer Barriers were not on the wall where Hamlin hit head on?

    The accident that put Hamlin into that wall was just that—a racing accident. Fighting for a win on the last lap, neither driver did anything wrong. I doubt wither one of them even thought about the spin of Logano caused by Hamlin. They were just going for the checkered flag. That’s racin’. The result was something else. Hamlin might miss seat time with a broken back and Logano will always be seen as a vindictive guy who deliberately wrecked Hamlin. I don’t believe that for a second. While we all know that Jeff Gordon did do that to Clint Bowyer, I don’t think that is the case here. Regardless, if there had been a Safer Barrier on that inside wall, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. The track is owned by International Speedway Corporation, not a part of NASCAR, but the same people are involved. To continue to ask why is not enough. They have some explaining to do. When Pocono’s guardrail nearly cut Elliott Sadler’s car in half, nothing short of a removal was accepted. When Kyle Larson nearly tore down the catchfence at Daytona, the conversation was all about safety and changing things. I certainly hope this unfortunate incident gets the same reaction.

    As for Tony Stewart’s quarterly outburst against some other driver, I take it with a grain of salt. Blocking was the sin committed by Logano, but if we look back long enough, we might notice that Stewart is the king of blockers. Plus, you cannot tell me that Stewart wouldn’t have done the same thing if it had been him in front of Logano. The cheap shots at Logano’s upbringing and personality were un-called for, but that’s Tony. We can all remember the helmet throwing incident at Bristol, can’t we? If Kurt Busch was called on the carpet for his language at Homestead a few years ago, what about Tony on Sunday? Sure, his expletives were beeped, but is there really any difference. Every 10-year old knew what he said. If Tony isn’t fined, they owe Busch an apology, in my opinion.

    So boring it has not been in 2013. Television ratings are up and attendance, save Bristol, is better than last year. Or so it seems. Since NASCAR doesn’t give out attendance estimations, only the tracks know and they’re not talking, but it looks better. Still, I’ll be the first to say that so far the product is better. That goes a long way from what we’ve seen in the recent past.