Tag: Daytona International Speedway

Stewart comes from the back to win fourth Coke Zero 400 at Daytona

[media-credit name=”David Yeazell” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Tony Stewart hasn’t lost his Daytona magic and Saturday night he needed all of it to earn his fourth win in the last eight Coke Zero 400s.

Having qualified second then failing inspection because of an open cooling hose in his No. 14 Mobile 1 Chevrolet, Stewart came from 42nd on the grid. He passed Matt Kenseth coming to the white flag and then had clear sailing the checkered flag as a wreck broke out behind him.

An exciting finish to a race that started off atypical for Daytona. Kenseth, the Daytona 500 winner who was looking to become the first driver in 30 years to win both races, led the field to the green flag then dominated the first half of the event. He and teammate Greg Biffle stuck together and never left the yellow line.

As they lead, many tried to get the outside lane to work. It never did. Kenseth and Biffle were simply untouchable. The first caution of the event didn’t fly until after halfway when Sam Hornish, subbing for the suspended AJ Allmendinger, spun down the backstretch after cutting down a tire.

During the caution the action got scary on pit road. Jeff Gordon was exiting his pit stall when he and Ryan Newman made contact. Newman ended up across the nose of Kasey Kahne and spun into the pit stall of Brad Keselowski. Lucky the No. 2 crew members and officials were able to escape without injury.

When the race restarted it looked like Kenseth was easily cruising toward another win. That was until the next caution when he had to restart at the rear of the field after losing his track position. Kenseth had been on pit road when the caution came out but had to continue through without service or be penalized.

His misfortune opened the door for Stewart. Quickly asserting himself the leader but he would have to deal again with Kenseth on a late restart after The Big One with eight laps to go took out 14 cars, setting up a two-lap dash to the finish.

On the restart Stewart and Kahne paired together and flew past Kenseth and Biffle. It would end up being the wining pass. Stewart headed for the finish line as 15 more cars wrecked off turn four. Jeff Burton came through for a second place finish while Kenseth, who led a race high 89 of 160 laps, finished third.

“I don’t even remember what happened that last lap,” Stewart said in Victory Lane. “I was in that second lane and just tried to get that 17 and 16 pulled apart and once we had them pulled apart that gave us a run on the outside.

“Just shows what Mobile 1 lubricants and oils can do for you. So good on restarts and just a weird day. I’m still hoping for a figure eight race here.”

Stewart then acknowledged, “Anytime you win at Daytona it’s special but this Chevy was awesome. Had great Hendrick horsepower. Everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing did a great job this weekend. I’m really, really proud of our organization.”

The win was the third of 2012 for Stewart and the 47th of his career. It’s also the 18th time that he’s won at Daytona, second only to Dale Earnhardt. And with his three wins he moves into a tie with Brad Keselowski for most on the season.

Kenseth retained the point lead, increasing to 25 over Dale Earnhardt Jr. Greg Biffle moved back to third and Jimmie Johnson fell to fourth after suffering another DNF at Daytona.

The 2012 Coke Zero 400 saw 12 lead changes among nine drivers and six cautions for 23 laps. The series heads to New Hampshire next weekend for the 19th of 36 races.

Unofficial Race Results
Coke Zero 400, Daytona International Speedway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Cup/race.php?race=18
=========================================
Pos.	St.	No.	Driver	Make	Points
=========================================
1	–	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	47
2	–	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	42
3	1	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	43
4	–	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	40
5	2	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	39
6	–	2	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	38
7	–	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	37
8	–	55	Michael Waltrip	Toyota	36
9	–	47	Bobby Labonte	Toyota	35
10	–	10	David Reutimann	Chevrolet	34
11	3	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	33
12	5	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	32
13	–	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	31
14	–	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	30
15	–	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	29
16	–	93	Travis Kvapil	Toyota	28
17	–	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	28
18	–	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	26
19	–	32	Terry Labonte	Ford	25
20	7	13	Casey Mears	Ford	25
21	4	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	24
22	–	36	Dave Blaney	Chevrolet	22
23	–	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	21
24	–	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	21
25	–	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	20
26	–	34	David Ragan	Ford	19
27	–	21	Trevor Bayne	Ford	0
28	–	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	16
29	–	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	15
30	–	9	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	14
31	–	38	David Gilliland	Ford	14
32	–	83	Landon Cassill	Toyota	12
33	–	22	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	0
34	–	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	10
35	–	51	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	9
36	–	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	8
37	6	50	Bill Elliott	Chevrolet	7
38	–	26	Josh Wise *	Ford	7
39	–	30	David Stremme	Toyota	5
40	–	249	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	4
41	–	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	0
42	–	33	Stephen Leicht *	Chevrolet	2
43	–	98	Mike Bliss	Ford	0

July 7, 2012

Austin Dillon’s weekend again marred by failed inspection

[media-credit name=”Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Austin Dillon’s weekend at the Daytona International Speedway started with him defending his Kentucky win after his car failed post race inspection. It ended with him again having to defend his team after another failed inspection.

On Thursday Dillon stated the loose bolt on his winning No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet was not an advantage, nor intentional. It was something that happened during the course of the event and while some might take away from his win, he was confident that the true racers knew what happened.

Then on Friday he went out and laid down the fastest lap in qualifying. The pole would have been the third of his career and second straight. That was until Dillon’s car went through post qualifying inspection and was found to have an open cooling hose in the cockpit.

The car failed under section 20A-2.1J, the rule that stipulates what teams can do with the ductwork. It’s a no-no because it can be an aerodynamic advantage. Dillon’s time was disallowed, the pole award given to Ricky Stenhouse Jr., with Dillon moving to the rear of the field. He would however, get to keep his selection of pit stall since those had already been taken care of.

Speaking after the race was over Dillon acknowledged that his team made a mistake. But said that while crew chief Danny Stockman is already on probation because of trouble back in April with front bumper covers, and last weekend in Kentucky, he doesn’t see any serious penalties coming from NASCAR this week.

“I’m not concerned,” he said. “I think there was another car that went through tech and had the same problem we did and they caught it before they went through inspection. I wish they would have caught ours because it was a mistake that we made.

“The guys are from the Truck Series and you don’t have to tape up the duct inside. The hosed that was untapped was right beside to my AC hose and my AC hose wasn’t hooked either. It was a bummer because it was another mistake; it’s two in a row. It’s not fun and I know my grandfather [owner Richard Childress] was upset with the guys.

“It sucks because the guys work so hard, making these mistakes it’s just like, man we’ve go to stop doing that, we’ve got to be on our game. We were able to recover tonight; I think this was a good one for the guys. Have a torn up car, they’re not going to be fun fixing that but I’m sure they’ll be happy to after the last two weeks and things that have gone on after tech and stuff.”

When the green flag flew in Friday night’s Subway Jalapeno 250 Dillon had to come from the back of the field, 42nd. It never worried him though, knowing he had a fast enough car to eventually get to the front. It was all about making the right moves and finding the right drafting partners. Just as the team had done all season, it was about staying focused and being there at the end.

By halfway he was 16th and charging. The Big One at lap 65 took out 16 cars, but not Dillon. Having positioned himself just right that he was able to work his way through the mess and into contention. He was sitting third by lap 75.

Finally Dillon found the lead, on four different occasions for eight laps.

“It was a wild race, I think everybody going into it knew it was going to be like that,” Dillon said. “We were three wide for quite a while in that pack and the big one happened and my spotter Andy Houston did a great job. He did a good job of just ensuring me where to go and that kept our car clean and let us finish the race.”

A debris caution would set up the race’s conclusion, a green-white-checkered finish. Suddenly Dillon went from pushing eventual winner Kurt Busch and looking to make a move on the last lap, to being pushed by Michael Annett as the two tried to overtake Busch and Stenhouse.

“Coming down to the end it was great working with Kurt Busch, didn’t want to see that caution we had broken away from the pack a little bit there and it had us out front,” recalled Dillon. “And when it all happened there I got to thank Michael he did a great job of pushing me and sticking with me and when it comes to that you’re fighting for everything to get someone to go with you and somebody to trust and Michael did a good job of that. I wanted to thank him.”

It was only fitting for Dillon that with the way his week and weekend had gone it ended just as crazy. Just yards from the finish line, being pushed by Annett to a third place finish, Dillon spun through the grass. He ended up finishing fourth.

No harm, no foul though. The two laughed and talked about it afterwards. Both saying how happy they were to come away with top five finishes. As well as being two of the four drivers qualified for next weekend’s Dash4Cash $100,000 bonus at New Hampshire.

Even better for Dillon, he remains second in the NNS point standings. But has moved to within two points of leader and teammate Elliott Sadler. That’s barring any further penalties this coming week.

“It’s cool to be qualified for the Dash4Cash,” Dillon said. “It’s not fun coming across the checkered spinning out but we did it in the best fashion you can. And I told [ESPN] there’s not better feeling then coming to Daytona and coming to the checkered and having a run on the two leaders there at the end.

“We had a heck of a run going and Ricky blocked and I tried to cross him up and got hooked a little bit. I probably should have wedged it in there and crashed everybody. I got hooked back left. It was a fun race, that was a awesome feeling coming to it. I was smiling that whole last lap.”

July 7, 2012
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. grabs top five finish after rough night in Daytona

[media-credit name=”Dan Sanger” align=”alignright” width=”215″][/media-credit]After suffering one of the worst slumps in his career since his rookie year back in 2010, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. continued his upward swing on Friday night at Daytona.

Stenhouse finished second in the Subway Jalapeno 250 in his No. 6 NOS Energy Drink Ford Mustang. It was his third straight top 11 finish after finishing no better than 25th in the three races before that. Finally having a night where everything went right and the team looked like the defending champions they are.

“It’s pretty cool,” Stenhouse said afterwards. “A couple years ago, I think our rookie season, we were third coming to the line when [Dale Earnhardt] Junior won. That was really exciting.”

Stenhouse’s night wasn’t exactly smooth though even though it started off with an inherited pole when Austin Dillon failed inspection. When the green flag flew Stenhouse would run up front and find drafting partners in Danica Patrick and Joe Nemechek.

But on lap 76 he spun Brad Sweet off turn four. The two had been tandem drafting when it became a case of bump drafting gone bad, Stenhouse anticipating Sweet making different move and getting him loose. Sweet would be done for the night, Stenhouse continued on but found more trouble on lap 82. This time it was contact with Jeffery Earnhardt going down the backstretch.

Earnhardt was not pleased and gave Stenhouse the one finger salute the next lap around. According to Earnhardt the shot that Stenhouse gave him in turns one and two was too aggressive and then going down the backstretch he hit him even harder. The contact sent Earnhardt around and collected Patrick.

“We ran up on him pretty quick,” said Stenhouse about the accident. “The 31 [Justin Allgaier] we were working together there, and the 15 [Earnhardt] was in front of us. I tried to get to the inside of him there going in one and he chopped us.

“I kind of pushed him out, trying to get him in front so I could hook back up with the 33 [Kevin Harvick] and then just caught him a little hard there. I hit him a couple of times in one and two, and then kind of thought he would drag the brake a little bit, but, then again, I probably should have known a little better.

“He didn’t practice that in practice – two car drafting – and he’s not out here with us every week, so I probably should have thought a little bit better before I did that.”

There wasn’t too much time for Stenhouse to dwell, he still had a shot to win the race. On the green-white-checkered finish Stenhouse pushed eventual winner Kurt Busch to the lead. Except, that was all he could do because the tandem of Austin Dillon and Michael Annett quickly closed from behind and ruined any chance Stenhouse had of making a move on Busch.

“Restarting 11th with a green-white-checkered and I got a really good restart, shot up the middle and it just kind of seemed like they parted,” recalled Stenhouse. “The 1 [Busch] was coming back and I knew he was fast and we were able to push all night. I felt like we had one of the best cars that could push, so getting hooked up with him I knew he would make the right decisions to get to the front, so I just pushed as hard as I could and there at the end I never even looked out the windshield.

“I was just making sure I was pushing him and looked in the mirror to see where the 3 [Dillon] and the 43 [Annett] were coming, and tried to block them. I was hoping they weren’t going to have as big of a run on us so that I could try to make a pass for the lead.”

It was Stenhouse’s first top five since he won at Iowa in May. After stumbling out of the point lead and into third, the finish will go a long way towards fighting back. Maybe Daytona will again end up being the turning point for Stenhouse’s season, just as it did in 2010, which saved is career.

Now with 16 races down and 17 to go in the season, Stenhouse still sits third in points. But he’s closed to within 18 points of the leaders heading into New Hampshire next weekend.

“For our first time with NOS Energy on the car, I think they’re happy,” Stenhouse said. “We got a very good run out of it and we’re gonna get back to winning here pretty soon.”

July 7, 2012
Matty’s Picks 2012 – Vol. 18 Daytona International Speedway – Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola – July 7, 2012

The 2012 Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola marks the traditional halfway point in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, and this season is shaping up to be nothing less than exciting. Thirteen different drivers have visited Victory Lane in the first 17 points races (Tony Stewart, Brad Kesolowski, Jimmie Johnson, and Denny Hamlin being the repeat winners thus far) making this season a complete craps shoot in picking winners. I’ve had a blast watching the drama each week, and am looking forward to what the second half of this 2012 season will bring. It will be a mad dash to The Chase, and an even bigger fiasco to claim the Champion’s trophy.

The site for Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola needs no introduction. It’s the same 2.5 mile superspeedway we’ve grown so accustomed to, but it’s the racing style which has changed the face of Daytona International Speedway (or Juan Montoya if you remember February’s Daytona 500). Sorry but I had to throw a jet-dryer comment in here. The thing that shocks me still about the whole jet-dryer incident in February is Tide received 2-3 hours of free advertising from the jet fuel cleanup, and still they do not show up as a primary sponsor in the Sprint Cup Series. Come on Tide! Get back into NASCAR!

That’s my rant for this week, on to Kentucky’s Recap…

Kentucky Recap

It was another so so weekend in the Bluegrass State last week, as has been the story of my season here with Matty’s Picks. I guess the only thing to do is keep on trucking towards the top, and eventually I will end up with the 1-2 punch I’ve been searching for all season.

My Winner Pick was the defending champion of the Quaker State 400, and Kyle Busch looked like he would make it back-to-back wins in Sparta early on. Rowdy wasted no time in showing he was the guy to beat in the No. 18 M&M’s Red, White & Blue Toyota by taking the point position on the opening lap. He was the alpha male for 116 laps in the first half of the race, but minor contact with the wall on lap 130 would cause the No. 18 to slip out of the top 5. The contact was the first of a slew of issues that fell upon the M&M’s camp throughout the remaining 80 laps. During the final third of the Quaker State 400, Kyle Busch would experience a broken rear shock, an empty fuel tank, and a flat tire, but still managed to climb from 18th on the final green flag run to finish 10th.

A tough night it was for my Dark Horse last week in Kentucky… From the start of the race, Kurt Bush fought a car that was at its worse for the entire weekend. Making the connection from practice to race conditions has been a struggle for the No. 51 Chevrolet all season and this disconnect was violently apparent last week in Kentucky. Busch’s car was so bad in the early stages of the Quaker State 400, he slipped from his 14th-place starting spot to 22nd in just the first 15 laps. The crew continued to throw adjustments to the Phoenix Racing Chevy all night, until the straw that broke the camel’s back fell on lap 206 when Ryan Newman lost an engine and covered the racing surface in oil. Busch fell victim to the oil and slapped the outside wall, successfully ending my hopes of a 1-2 punch by the Busch Brothers. Kurt Busch managed to limp his damaged chariot home in 19th.

Daytona Picks

As I glance over practice speeds for the 54th Annual Coke Zero 400, I see one thing… I HAVE NO IDEA WHO TO PICK THIS WEEK! The cars look to be so evenly matched this week, it’s tough to pinpoint two guys who appear to be on the road to victory.

Winner Pick

It’s Jamie McMurray that I am rolling the dice with this week. He’s got some history behind him this week in the No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/NRA Museum Chevrolet, and some solid practice speeds to boot. In the first of two practice sessions at Daytona yesterday, McMurray had the best 10 Consecutive Lap Average at a speed of 196.909mph. He’s also claimed victory 4-times in his career at Daytona or Talladega, but has had a rather ‘lumpy’ start to his 2012 campaign.

McMurray hasn’t finished better than 7th this year, and you’ve got to look all the way back to March’s Food City 500 to pick up that stat. McMurray sits just inside the top 20 in points and desperately needs a win to have an shot at one of the two ‘Wild Card’ bids for the 2012 Chase for the Sprint Cup. Being fastest in final practice will certainly turn some heads around the garage area this weekend.

Dark Horse Pick

There aren’t too many dark horses when it comes to racing on Superspeedways because quite honestly, anything can happen. I like the way Chevy’s engines have performed thus far this year, and with temperatures expected to hover around 90 degrees around race time Saturday night, performing well under the heat is pivotal to claiming victory. Having help from teammates is also an important part of taking the checkered at Daytona.

A guy that has both of these this weekend in Florida is Paul Menard. Looking at his last 3 races at Daytona, he’s finished 6th, 9th, and 8th respectively. Last year’s racing at Daytona and Talladega gave fans the two-car tango, and Menard rode the coat tails of teammate Kevin Harvick to his solid top-10 finishes. This February’s Daytona 500 was a hybrid of the two-car tango and pack racing, and Menard managed to work his way from 37th to finish in the top-10 following ‘the fire heard round the world’. Keep an eye on Menard on Saturday night as he might just have a shot at taking home is second career victory.

That’s all for this week, so until we hit New England… You Stay Classy NASCAR NATION!

July 6, 2012
Kenseth aiming for Daytona sweep; Wants more wins with Roush by seasons end

[media-credit name=”David Yeazell” align=”alignright” width=”232″][/media-credit]With every Daytona or Talladega event there are list of drivers who consistently are considered the favorites. In years past the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart or even Kyle Busch were at the top of that list.

Recently though, a Roush Fenway Racing driver has found himself the leader of the pack. Earlier this season Matt Kenseth won the Daytona 500 for a second time and comes into this weekend’s Coke Zero 400 looking to become the first driver in 30 years to sweep the events at Daytona International Speedway.

“Like anywhere else, you’ve got to have fast race cars and here the race cars obviously have more to do with your success or failure than some of the other race tracks, so you’ve got to have that and we’ve had that so far this year at the plate races,” said Kenseth on Thursday.

“Hopefully our car will run like it did the last two races and we’ll be fast enough to work our way toward the front and hopefully stay there.”

When Kenseth won the Daytona 500 back in February it was his second Daytona win in three years. Then he went to Talladega and backed it up by running up front and leading a race high 73 laps. He was in contention for the win on the green-white-checkered finish but finished third.

Afterwards he said he felt stupid, having not stayed connected with teammate Greg Biffle. Had he done so, Kenseth might be heading into Daytona undefeated on the plate tracks. But what he has accomplished isn’t bad and according to Biffle and fellow teammate Carl Edwards, the reason RFR as a whole have been so successful lately has been their cars and engineering.

“A decade ago was a lot different than now with the rules on the cars,” Kenseth when asked about RFR finding the same success Dale Earnhardt Inc. used to have at plate tracks. “I think the cars are just incredibly close to being the same at these plate races. In my opinion, it’s probably mostly engine.

“There are two things that make you go fast here for qualifying especially, you kind of see the speed of the cars, and the race has a little bit more to do with maybe strategy or some moves you make or don’t make and things like that in the draft. But I think horsepower and aerodynamic drag are two things that make your cars go fast or slow down when you come to Daytona and Talladega.

“For whatever reason all of our stuff runs good and Dough Yates does a great job with all that stuff. Certainly the plate stuff has been really good and it’s a different year with fuel injection. It’s the first year we’ve done that, so it seems they’ve done a really exceptional job on hitting that just right on the plate stuff.”

Things have been going right for Kenseth too. Second last year at this race, a win earlier this year. Then last week he announced he was leaving RFR at season’s end for destination unknown. Or at least, unconfirmed. The following Sunday he became the winningest driver at the Miller Lite Slinger Nationals in Wisconsin.

At Daytona on Friday Kenseth shared a story about Slinger and what his favorite moment was. It wasn’t winning. After giving Kyle Busch a ride up to the track, in which he picked on Kenseth the whole time, he got the best of Busch in the race. To which he says Busch drove off the track wide-open and blew off media for the top three finishers.

Kenseth chuckled when telling the story and how he didn’t have to give Busch a ride home. Had he, Kenseth might have reminded Busch that he and his No. 17 Zest team would be receiving their Daytona 500 rings a few days later.

Kenseth has been a busy boy in a big spotlight. Yet it doesn’t bother him, saying he’s not going to be anymore high or low profile than before. He’s called it a super year, from with winning Daytona and having success at RFR. Going forward he doesn’t expect himself or anything else to change.

Right now though, it sure is nice to be back behind the wheel. Saturday before the race he’ll be inducted into the Daytona 500 Champion’s Walk of Fame. Then it’s onto trying to win at Daytona again, then next week at New Hampshire and the week after that. A mindset that even though a busy last few weeks, Kenseth hasn’t lost sight of.

“There are certain things that are a little awkward at Rough because you know that you’re not gonna be there next year and they know that,” said Kenseth. “So maybe it’s a little bit different walking in and talking to Jack or doing some of that stuff but I think you just work through that.”

“All those decisions were based on what I felt was best for next year and beyond, not what was best for this year. I think this is best for this year and we’re not gonna change any strategies or anything that we do or don’t do. We’re gonna go out and try to race as hard as we can to the end of the year and try to hopefully win some more races and have a shot at winning a championship.

“So, that’s what it has always been about and that’s what it is still about.”

July 5, 2012
Disappointing ending but Patrick made presence known in Road America

[media-credit name=”Dan Sanger” align=”alignright” width=”251″][/media-credit]It was right there for the taking for Danica Patrick. Her first top five finish of the season and career tying best finish.

And it was taken – away by someone else. Patrick was running fourth on the last lap of the Sargento 200 at Road America, having passed Max Papis, when Jacques Villeneuve hit her No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet square on the rear bumper. It was enough contact to send her off into the gravel pit and out of contention.

Instead of the finish she was looking for, and certainly deserved, she was credited with 12th place. On the cool down lap headed back to pit road, Patrick expressed her displeasure not only with Villeneuve but with the day’s racing in general. Things like dive-bombing, the unnecessary roughness and contact from Villeneuve.

Then she told her team on the course of events that took her out, “I could have [chickened] out and finished fifth or tried to pass him. I tried to pass him.”

When she finally saw the replay of what had happened, she was a little more subdued. But not less disappointed in the result.

“I’m going to start off with a positive, I ran top five all day,” she told ESPN. “I took the lead for a brief moment until I learned my lesson down into turn five when you try to get a little bit more out of the brake zone.

“So, that’s the bummer, that we weren’t able to finish that off and finish off with a top five like I feel like we all deserved. The guys in the pits did a great job, they were awesome and Tony Jr. [crew chief] gave me a good car and it just would have been good to get a good result.”

Everyone knew she was there though. According to ESPN statistics, she ran in the top five for 35 of 50 laps, 70 percent of the race. While road racing has never been her greatest strength, it’s not something that she’s terrible at either. In her first NASCAR road race at Montreal last season she ran top 10 before having brake and mechanical failures end her day.

When she ran in the IndyCar Series she was a contender too. She earned a second place finish at Belle Isle near Detroit back in 2007. Saturday was more of the same, when most thought she’d never be in the picture, she hardly left it.

That was until she was moved out of the way. Patrick held back when it came to what happened with Villeneuve, knowing her racing spoke louder than words.

“People sort of say I don’t get good results but today I ran well and I feel like lately we’ve been running much better we just haven’t finished the deal and gotten the results,” said Patrick.

“I don’t know, y’all can make a decision for yourself what you think happened there.”

Villeneuve is no stranger to controversy. He’s made a lot of contact with fellow drivers over the years, including last season at Road America. It’s left a sour taste in many mouths of those in the sport, last year Sprint Cup driver Kevin Harvick tweeted that he hoped Max Papis, who was then driving a KHI car, “punches his dumbass in the mouth.”

Saturday afternoon it was more of the same from around the garage. Even those who are normally critical of Patrick were hoping she and her team were fired up after the race. Eury Jr. was at least, stopping Villeneuve on pit road to give him his two cents. But whatever Eury said, fell on Villeneuve’s deaf ears and different point of view.

“Well we have nothing to do together. When I was behind Danica and [Max] Papis was on the outside, maybe he didn’t know I was there but down the straight he pushed me in the grass just where we hit the brakes,” was Villeneuve’s explanation.

“So when I jumped on the brakes I was in the grass because of that, I wasn’t right next to him. I couldn’t slow down because of that.”

And on what Eury said, “It’s just about that there was contact and I was involved. But it has nothing to do with me so I really don’t care.”

The good news for Patrick is that Villeneuve is not entered in next weekend’s event in Kentucky. The NNS returns to the ovals and Daytona is just around the corner, where Patrick made huge strides last season. She and the No. 7 GoDaddy team continue to make gains, her knowledge expanding and results starting to show.

And even though she didn’t finish where she was looking to on Saturday, she moved back into the top 10 in points. Not bad for a driver who said she didn’t care about the points when she entered the weekend.

June 24, 2012
Matt Kenseth ‘I was just too stupid’ at the end of Talladega

[media-credit name=”Simon Scoggins” align=”alignright” width=”223″][/media-credit]Matt Kenseth was highly critical of himself following his third place finish Sunday in the Aaron’s 499 at the Talladega Superspeedway. After leading the most laps, 78 of 194, and leading with just two laps to go in a green-white-checkered finish, it was he and he alone the reason his team wasn’t in Victory Lane.

“I think we had the wining car, really just didn’t have the winning driver,” Kenseth explained afterwards. “On the last restart, Greg [Biffle] and I got hooked together like Daytona, of all the cars I raced around today, Greg was really pushing me fast.

“Got clear in front of the 2 [Brad Keselowski] and Kyle [Busch], as soon as we became clear, wasn’t long after that I looked forward for a second, when I looked back Greg and I were separated, those guys were already outside him.

“With nobody behind him, lost his speed. With me not paying attention, keeping us hooked up, just cost us a shot at the win; cost Greg a shot at the win. Just didn’t do a very good job of managing where he was on that last restart.”

Kenseth and Biffle had gotten a clean start and shot away from the field as they looked to settle the race amongst themselves. It was the plan they carried over from Daytona when the two ran first and second for much of the Daytona 500.

That’s how most of Sunday played out as well. The Roush Fenway teammates ganging up on the field and showing their plate power. Had Kenseth been able to pull off the win he would have gone 2-0 on the season in restrictor plate races.

And he would have ended his 0-24 Talladega streak, but it wasn’t meant to be. The two-car tandem of Keselowski pushed by Busch flew past the unhooked Kenseth and Biffle as they headed for the white flag. Keselowski went on to score the win, Busch finished second.

It’s what Kenseth feared would end up happening. After dominating the event he knew a victory wasn’t in the bag, not a restrictor plate track. Anything can happen, things can change quickly and a late race restart didn’t help his cause.

“I worry about it all the time because I can only see the first couple cars behind me,” said Kenseth. “Bunch of people bail out of that lane, you don’t get in front of that lane, even if you have one of the fastest cars like I though we did, you can get beat easily.

“You could see that at the end. I think if I would have done a better job of managing, stayed on his front bumper, I think we would have run first and second. You’re always worried at these places because you only have so much control.”

But enough control for Kenseth to take the blame. Having added a second Daytona 500 win earlier this season and another strong performance on Sunday, the Wisconsin native has shown he’s quite the plate racer and a driver who should be watched.

Whenever trouble broke out he was either in front of it or made his way through it. And when his car looked too damaged to be fast, he proved it to be otherwise. For as fast as his No. 17 Best Buy Ford Fusion was, it didn’t escape Talladega unscathed.

He ran the second half of the race with a crack and dent in the right front fender and a crack in the post behind the window net. They just weren’t enough to slow him down.

Kenseth was right there at the end, just as he has been from the start of the season. The 2003 Cup Series champion has been knocking on the door for another title, showing speed, patience and consistency every weekend.

Sending a silent message that he and his Roush team are going to be contenders. It was just unfortunate for Kenseth that on some Sunday’s the fastest car doesn’t always win.

“I wasn’t too fast, I was just too stupid I guess at the end to keep a win,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of things that happened there and at Daytona in the 150s and the 500. I didn’t worry about the guy attached behind me because if he had two or three guys in the lane, he could push me out far enough where and tandem couldn’t beat us.

“I kind of had that same strategy today. If I get pushed away, I think we’ll be okay. If they would have stayed behind them until we got to turn three, we still would have been okay. When they bailed out, it made Greg’s car go slower and he lost his momentum and he couldn’t stay sealed up to me. I should have watched the mirror and managed that a drug the brake a little better.

“Earlier when Greg was behind me, he could push me hard, almost spin me out. On the restart everybody kind of pushes each other, stays in line for a little bit. I was hoping that bottom, once we got in front of those two, I was hoping all four of us would be locked together, at least until we got to max speed but that just didn’t happen and I didn’t watch it close enough.”

May 6, 2012
Michael Annett Is Flying High Yet Under the Radar

[media-credit name=”Photo Credit: Phil Cavali” align=”alignright” width=”172″][/media-credit]At Texas Motor Speedway, Michael Annett scored his second top-10 and fifth top-15 finish in just six races with his new team, Richard Petty Motorsports. And with that good run, he officially moved up two spots to fifth in the Nationwide Series point standings.

Yet, as high as the young driver of the No. 43 Pilot Flying J Ford Mustang is flying early in the season, he still is very much under the radar in a series dominated by the likes of veteran Elliott Sadler, reigning champ Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., up and comer Austin Dillon, and Danica Patrick.

“To me, that’s how I’ve lived my whole life,” Annett said. “Even when I played hockey growing up, I never did anything outlandish.”

“I was just the guy that got the job done,” Annett continued. “That’s pretty much my M.O. and how it’s been for me in my racing career.”

Although flying under the radar so far this season, the new Richard Petty Motorsports driver has had some impressive initial success, especially with his recent run at Texas. Annett finished ninth, rebounding from running into a lapped car and taking advantage of the lights going out at the speedway.

“We probably could have won the race if I hadn’t run into a lapped car,” Annett said. “But I loved it when the lights went out because we were overheating and getting ready to pit.”

“So, I liked that the lights brought out the caution,” Annett continued. “The whole night was about overcoming adversity, so to come out ninth and to see the guys faces with a top ten finish, it was cool.”

Annett also contributes his early success at Richard Petty Motorsports with the team’s affiliation with Roush Fenway Racing, particularly in light of their driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. winning last year’s Nationwide championship.

“I think the success started with what Roush Fenway built last year with the championship and the relationship we have with them,” Annett said. “That partnership is huge.”

“At Texas, we unloaded and we were close but we were still missing a little bit,” Annett continued. “To be able to go and talk to the No. 6 team and use some things they found, it’s just a huge advantage to us.”

In spite of early success at Richard Petty Motorsports, the reality for Annett was that he had to make a difficult transition rather abruptly when his former team, Rusty Wallace Racing, shut down at the end of last year due to lack of sponsorship.

“It was definitely tough, very unfortunate and a testament to the economic times,” Annett said of the demise of his former team. “They couldn’t find a sponsor for Steven (Wallace) with 5-Hour Energy leaving.”

“Rusty said he didn’t want to do it out of his pocket,” Annett continued. “So, the month before Daytona, they announced they were shutting down and we had to go find a place to race.”

Fortunately for Annett his long-time sponsor, Pilot Flying J, stuck with him and gave him the opportunity to seek out another team. He was especially pleased when Richard Petty Motorsports ended up being one of the teams interested in him.

“I’m definitely blessed to have Pilot as a partner that I’ve had since I’ve started racing,” Annett said. “That enabled me to go to other teams and when I went to Richard Petty Motorsports, it just felt right.”

“It felt like a family, listening to Richard (Petty),” Annett continued. “He and I saw eye to eye on everything and it felt right.”

Annett said it hit him how fortunate he was to be with Richard Petty Motorsports when he and the team went out for their first race together at Daytona in the Drive4COPD 300.

“It’s funny,” Annett said. “It didn’t hit home to me until Daytona when Richard (Petty) was standing on one side and Dale Inman on the other side, both giving me pointers before I got into the car.”

“And all I could think was ‘this is crazy,’ Annett said. “I’ve ridden on the plane with Richard and talked to him and the best way to put it is that I’m blessed. It’s pretty cool.”

The other ‘cool’ discovery for this low-key driver was his new crew chief at Richard Petty Motorsports, Philippe Lopez.

“I had no idea about Philippe Lopez before this season started,” Annett said. “His name got brought up and I didn’t know a thing about him.”

“When I asked around, there is always somebody who doesn’t like somebody, but not one person had anything bad to say about Philippe,” Annett continued. “That’s pretty cool.”

“From Daytona to now, there hasn’t been one mechanical problem and his confidence on the radio is huge,” Annett said. “It’s been a really good relationship.”

After his strong run at Texas with his new crew chief and team, Annett will have another off-weekend before heading to Richmond International Raceway next weekend for the NASCAR Nationwide Series 250.

“Richmond is one of those tracks that I’ve struggled at,” Annett said. “But each time, we go back, I get better.”

“I think I finished 11^th or 12^th last time so if I crack the top-10, I know that we’ll have had a good race,” Annett continued. “At Richmond, if you get the right car, you can come out of there with a top-5 or a win.”

Yet even with his impressive start to the season and in spite of having total upheaval in his team, the young driver is not one often mentioned in the Nationwide Series discourse.

“I don’t mind it, but I worry more about the guys on the team because I want them to get the credit they deserve,” Annett said. “I was hoping that at Daytona when Dale Jarrett started talking about me that would be the start of things.”

“But I’ve fallen back into my old ways of just getting my job done, under the radar,” Annett continued. “But where we finish and the results will show themselves.”

“And if they want to talk about us, they will,” Annett said. “My guys still know I’m driving my butt off for them and they’re doing the same back to me.”

April 19, 2012
Paulie Harraka Takes Martinsville Truck High Tech

[media-credit name=”Photo Credit: Scott Hunter” align=”alignright” width=”226″][/media-credit]Paulie Harraka is not only competing in the Camping World Truck Series and finishing his senior year at Duke but, this weekend, the Rookie of the Year candidate will be taking his Truck high tech at Martinsville.

The native New Jersey driver has a new sponsor partner for his No. 5 Wauters Motorsport Ford F-150, the high tech company MC10. This company reshapes electronics to create thin systems that stretch, bend and flex, including body-worn sensors for high quality data collection.

“We’re really excited,” Harraka said. “MC10 is certainly a company that is at the fore front of high tech development and has such wide reaching applications.”

“When you think about what you could do if you could take all these electronics that we use and make them flexible, you realize there are applications pretty much everywhere.”

MC10, a new company based in Boston, was looking for an innovative marketing platform for their products. After meeting Harraka, they decided that NASCAR would indeed match their company’s needs and agreed to go racing with him at Martinsville, including using him as a bit of a guinea pig for their products.

“MC10 sensors have huge capabilities, from measuring heart rate to anything that we have a way to measure,” Harraka said. “I’ll actually have a sample of their electronics on me during the race.”

“So, the possibilities are almost endless,” Harraka continued. “I know this is the beginning of a long partnership.”

The partnership between MC10 and Harraka actually began at a conference and flourished from there. Although the company was not familiar with NASCAR, it was not a ‘hard sell’ once they reviewed the statistics of the reach of the sport and the loyalty of the fan base.

“When I was up at the Sports Analytics Conference, I met with the CEO of MC10 and he expressed an interest,” Harraka continued. “We explored ways that MC10 technology is applicable to NASCAR.”

“When they began to see how their technology applied to the sport of racing, that’s how the discussion turned to how to promote this,” Harraka said. “And the sponsorship discussion began.”

“While the CEO was not generally a fan of the sport himself, people are generally familiar with the sport and how big the fan base is, how loyal the fan base is and what the reach is,” Harraka continued. “You can bring somebody in and they get it pretty quickly.”

Marrying his business savvy with his racing acumen has been just one of the elements that has made Harraka unique in the NASCAR racing world. And through his education and connections made at Duke, the young driver has been committed to exposing new corporations to the sport.

“One of the hallmarks of what we’ve done is to bring in a lot of business partners,” Harraka said. “And without a doubt, this is a unique way to approach motorsports.”

“On one hand, it’s a great way to raise capital initially,” Harraka continued. “But on the other hand, the big pro to it is to bring these different businesses, with all their accolades, from marketing to venture capitalists, in to learn about NASCAR.”

“They understand very quickly the opportunities and ways to bring their businesses into the sport,” Harraka said. “It’s unique and the payoff is just starting.”

With his new sponsor in hand and planning to attend the upcoming race at Martinsville, Harraka cannot wait to get back to racing after the month-long break since Daytona.

“Daytona was kind of a tease and then you have a lot of time off,” Harraka said. “I would much rather be racing every weekend.”

“But the guys have been hard at work building trucks and getting us ready,” Harraka continued. “After Martinsville, we have a week off but then we go to Rockingham and then, boom, we head to Kansas.”

“So, we go into a little stretch of racing, which is exciting,” Harraka said. “I’m excited to get into the meat of the racing season starting at Martinsville.”

Harraka acknowledged that nothing he learned on the high banks of the superspeedway of Daytona will apply to the paper-clip shaped track at Martinsville. Yet he also feels that he will be returning to his roots, racing on a short track.

“Daytona is most certainly a unique place,” Harraka said. “But all that we learn at Daytona really only applies there and Talladega, so Martinsville will be a completely different animal.”

“But it is definitely one that is more in my element and where I have my experience base,” Harraka continued. “So, I’m excited to get back to a nice little half mile.”

Harraka has no different expectations for his upcoming race weekend than he ever does when he gets behind the wheel. He expects to be in victory circle at the end of the race.

“I expect us to run well,” Harraka said. “I expect that we can run up front and lead laps and that we can bring home a good finish.”

“We’re going to the race track to win and I really do believe that we can come home with a great finish.”

While Harraka may be confident about his race expectations, he is reserving judgment on one Martinsville tradition. He is just not sure about having one of those infamous Martinsville hot dogs.

“We’ll see,” Harraka said. “I’m not sure how my stomach will do with those. So, I make no predictions there.”

Most of all, Harraka looks forward to returning to racing with his new sponsor MC10 on the race truck and cheering him on in the pits.

“I think everyone in this sport recognizes that the best thing for our sport is to bring in more companies that haven’t been involved in our sport,” Harraka said. “To expose them to the power of NASCAR is just exciting.”

“To go outside the reach of a normal motorsports sponsorship and bring in a company totally outside of that to show the value of the sport is great for them,” Harraka continued. “And it’s great for us and for the sport as a whole.”

“I expect that the relationship will grow into a lot of partnerships moving forward,” Harraka said. “We already have some cool things cooking post-Martinsville.”

March 29, 2012
Matty’s Picks 2012 – Race No. 3 – March 4, 2012 Subway Fresh Fit 500 – Phoenix International Raceway

[media-credit name=”www.phoenixraceway.com” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Enter Clint Eastwood; I recon so…

After the fiasco in Florida last week, I am happy we’re heading to a place that averages just 12 days of rain the entire year. Not counting my chickens before they hatch here, March, historically has been the wettest out of any month. Between the historical rainfall data, and the absolutely perfect weather forecast for Phoenix this weekend, I am confident we’ll be seeing a race on Sunday afternoon.

This will be the second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on the freshly face-lifted Phoenix International Raceway, and I am hoping a bit of new rubber will have worked its way into the 1-mile tri-oval’ish track in the desert. With the track being re-paved in the summer of 2011, PIR worked its tail off to try and give the cup drivers the absolute best racing conditions possible for the 2011 Kobalt Tools 500. PIR made numerous attempts to foster passing on the new surface including “tons of laps” by driving schools on soft tires.

Before this weekend’s Subway Fresh Fit 500, PIR has taken strides again to foster passing and work in their new racing surface’s upper groove. Phoenix International Raceway hired Colorado-based Bandimere Speedway to have a tire rotator machine work additional rubber into PIR’s upper groove. The program was conducted Feb. 25-27, one week before this weekend’s big event.

“The goal was to present the best possible racing surface to NASCAR and the drivers for this weekend’s races,” said Phoenix International Raceway President, Bryan R. Sperber. “This is a very important race in the NASCAR season and we wanted to make sure that the track was ready to perform.”

I like the races at Phoenix, and am looking forward to what Sunday will bring…

Daytona 500 Recap

Where do I start? Despite Mother Nature not cooperating on my Quarter-Century Birthday last week, I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend. Between the hype of Danica’s debut in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the re-birth of “the pack”, and simply the fact that it was the Daytona 500, last weekend’s race had a lot of hoopla surrounding it. The fact that last week’s Daytona 500 would be run in primetime on Monday night, Danica’s crash on lap number two, Brad Keselowski picking up 100,000 followers on Twitter, and the “fire heard round the world” all took the place of FOX’s regularly scheduled dramas on Monday night.

By now, everyone has heard the stories of the fire, Danica’s troubles, Twitter followers and everything other than racing, so I will skip to the recap of my picks. As you may recall, because Daytona tends to be a craps-shoot to pick drivers, my picks last week were determined by the random draw of playing cards.

My Dark Horse pick last week was a rookie in the Great American Race, however he looked like a seasoned veteran as he dodged accidents and hung around the top 15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. remained patient in the pack for the majority of the laps on Monday night, but my quest to start the season off with a strong Dark Horse finish came to a halt with just four laps to go in the Daytona 500. Stenhouse was caught up in a multi-car accident with just four laps to go. The No. 6 EcoBoost Ford came home 20th.

Two NASCAR Series Champions got the start last week for Matty’s picks, and two series champions were caught up in the same racing accident.

Tony Stewart was picked via my random card draw last week, and was on pace for a strong finish just like Stenhouse, but couldn’t avoid the final incident of the marathon weekend. I was happy when the cards fell last Friday and I ended up with Smoke as a starter, but again Stewart will come out of Speedweeks without the Harley J. Earl trophy. Smoke found the front of the pack for laps 59 and 60 gaining confidence in his Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, and with a move of an experienced veteran, slipped back into safer waters for the remainder of the laps on Monday night.

It was just that move that may have caused Stewart his troubles at the end of the 500, as he was collected in the mid-pack accident with just three laps to go. Smoke brought his battered Chevy home 16th, and sent me home crying with no points last week.

Phoenix Picks

Winner Pick

Kasey Khane wanted nothing more than sending Red Bull Racing on its way with a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win last fall. When the Chase came down to the wire, Khane was in the hunt in a handful of the last 10 races, just lacked that last extra nudge to put him in Victory Lane. That extra nudge came at Phoenix International Raceway in November when he sent Red Bull Racing out of NASCAR with a victory.

Kasey Khane has this new racing surface at PIR figured out, and his speeds have been great all weekend. If it wasn’t for Khane pushing his Farmer’s Insurance Chevrolet just a bit too hard entering turn number 3 on his qualifying lap earlier today, he would be starting P1 tomorrow afternoon. He was 5th fastest in the first practice on Friday and followed up his mishap on his first qualifying lap with a time quick enough for 10th on the starting grid for tomorrow. 10th just happens to be where he started last fall when he claimed victory on the new configuration.

Khane has been under a microscope since his announcement that he would be moving to Hendrick Motorsports last season, and the time has come for him to shine. The No.5 car has to be the favorite for Sunday, so if you’re able to give him a start, DO IT!

Dark Horse Pick

I hate to call a guy with an average finish of 12.0 at PIR a Dark Horse, but with just 312 laps to do business on Sunday, starting positions are critical. He was my Dark Horse for the race in November and he did not let me down, finishing 4th after starting 14th.

Jeff Burton was one of 36 drivers that tested Goodyear tires on PIR’s new racing surface, and he was the fastest driver on the track over the two-day test. He laid down a lap good enough for the 11th spot on the grid earlier today in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Qualifying. Its been a while since Burton has visited Victory Lane at PIR (2001), but watch for the No.31 to be close to the front when the dust settles in the desert tomorrow afternoon.

That’s all for this week so until next time, you stay classy NASCAR NATION!

March 3, 2012