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  • Roush Fenway and Greg Biffle Announce New Sponsor

    Roush Fenway and Greg Biffle Announce New Sponsor

    Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
    Irwin Tools Night Race Advance – Bristol Motor Speedway
    Friday, August 22, 2014

    Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 Ford Fusion in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, along with Roush Fenway Racing announced a deal this morning with Ortho as a primary sponsor, beginning next week at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  Biffle spoke about that news, in addition to his current battle of trying to qualify for the Chase.

    GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Ortho Ford Fusion – THOUGHTS ON ORTHO COMING ON BOARD.  “I can’t tell you how excited I am to have Ortho on the car for 2015 and these upcoming races.  It’s gonna be really exciting at Atlanta.  I got to go by the shop and see the car the other day and they wouldn’t let me take a picture of it, so they said I can’t unveil it yet, but that was a lot of fun to see what the car is gonna look like in Atlanta.  I’m just really excited to be aligned.  I’ve been very lucky throughout my career to be aligned with great companies and not a lot of them, and I’m really excited to be going forward with Ortho on the car and to see some of the fun things we’re gonna be doing together in promoting the brand and, obviously, promoting the fire ant in Atlanta is really exciting too.”

    MIKE SUTTERER, Vice President, Ortho, Regional Marketing – THOUGHTS ON COMING BACK TO ROUSH FENWAY RACING.  “We have a great history and have had a lot of success with Roush Fenway Racing.  We’ve been to victory lane a dozen times and had a championship and we’re really excited about our new partnership with the Ortho brand and Greg and the outstanding No. 16 team.  The Ortho brand and the Roush Fenway Racing brand is really a natural fit together.  There are a lot of synergies.  We both try to be number one every day in everything we do, whether it’s the No. 16 race team working hard at the track every weekend to win, or whether it’s the Ortho brand working hard in fans homes and yards to keep insects away every day.  So we know NASCAR fans are incredibly passionate and loyal to drivers and teams and their business partners and we’re just excited to be part of that.  We know the Ortho brand is already in millions of fans’ homes and we’re looking to keep those fans, but with our partnership with Greg and the No. 16 team, we’re looking to add some new Ortho fans as well in 2015.”

    STEVE NEWMARK, President, Roush Fenway Racing – HOW EXCITING IS IT TO HAVE ORTHO ON BOARD?  “I do want to express our sincere appreciation to Mike and the entire Scotts Miracle Gro and Ortho organizations for putting their faith in us to come back into this sport in a very, very big way.  I think everyone in here is familiar with some of the iconic brands that are under their umbrella and we’re extremely excited about a lot of the fun and creative stuff that we can do with this partnership.  I think probably example one is how often do you get to carry and eight-foot ant around and not have people throw you out of places, and I think you’ll see more creativity when we go out and unveil the paint scheme.  But from our perspective, I think we’ve been talking over the last few months at Roush Fenway a lot about our strategic vision and about getting back to our roots and being true to our DNA, which is truly rooted in driver development and Greg is obviously a product of that and now really the leader and mentor of our driver stable.  We’ve reunited with Mark Martin and this is kind of the next in a litany of those actions that are helping fulfill that vision, which is getting back together with Scotts and Ortho.  They have been an integral part of our history and obviously have had a lot of success and I think everyone in here is familiar that NASCAR is a superstitious lot and I think we were looking at the stats and 12 percent of the time that Scotts/Ortho has been on the car we’ve been in victory lane, so we’re hoping to continue that trend and start it off well at Atlanta.  We do appreciate and we’re really excited about some of the fun stuff we’ll do with this marketing platform.”

    QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

    STEVE NEWMARK CONTINUED – WERE YOU IN ANY KIND OF SCRAMBLE MODE WHEN 3M SAID THEY WEREN’T COMING BACK?  “In this sport, I think everybody is familiar with this, but you’re always looking for more partners and to try to build that program.  We had engaged in discussions with Scotts because of that history even before some of those things unfolded, so this, like a lot of other things, was in process and it stood alone based on the marketing potential I think both partners see.”

    GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED – YOU DECIDED TO STAY AT ROUSH FENWAY.  WHAT WENT INTO THAT PROCESS?  “Jack gave me my first opportunity to come into this sport like he’s done with a  lot of drivers and that doesn’t always mean that you stay at one organization forever, but I’ve had a lot of success there.  I did have other opportunities and I felt like the opportunity presented in front of me was to get Roush Fenway back to number one like Steve and Mike talked about.  We’ve been there and we certainly feel like we can get back there.  I’ve been in this sport a while and I’ve been up and down, and I can clearly remember some of these guys that are at the top of the list right now lapping them nearly every week.  ‘There goes that guy’ as we go on to finish in a top five position.  The cycles changed and it’s easy to jump ship when the cycle is not in your favor, and I knew everybody is working hard.  We have the resources and with a lot of people behind the organization I knew that we could get back to winning races.  I think Michigan was proof of that.  We certainly didn’t win Michigan, but it was a win for us and our organization.  Ricky Stenhouse had a fast race car.  We had a fast race car.  We’re making improvement and we’re on our way to get back to winning races and it’s gonna take another five or six races.  We have a great test coming up on Monday at Chicago and I’m really excited about that.  I’m more excited for the test in Chicago than I am anything else right now because that gives us two days to work on finding that last bit of speed in our cars for Atlanta and moving forward for the rest of the year.”

    WILL YOU HAVE ORTHO AT TALLADEGA, WHICH IS SURROUNDED BY FIRE ANTS?  “Definitely surrounded by fire ants and we’re gonna have to get them to bring a little bit for us.  It’s funny, I keep the product on my bus because when we park in the motorhome lots you just can’t choose your spot, so sometimes it’s like you’re parking there and by the way right outside your front door is a fire ant pile, so it’s kind of funny.  I do have it on my bus currently and have for several years, so I don’t know all the races yet that they’ll be on the car this year.  I know Atlanta obviously and going forward I’ll defer to these guys on which other races we’re on.”

    STEVE NEWMARK CONTINUED – HOW MANY RACES WILL THEY BE ON THE CAR NEXT YEAR?  “Obviously, we don’t get into all the different details, but they’ll be on roughly half of the races in 2015.”

    GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED – HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE A NEW SPONSOR LIKE THIS?  “I can say I’m really excited about all the things.  There’s been a lot of brainstorming behind the scenes and I’m really, really excited about some of the things we’re talking about doing to promote the brand and I can’t wait to hit the ground running, so to speak, on all the neat things we’re gonna be able to do and promotions to have.  I’m looking forward to it.  It’s a change in direction.  I’ve been very fortunate to build great relationships over a long period of time.  I can count my sponsors on basically one hand I’ve had in the last 16 years in the sport, so it’s fun to create relationships and I think more than anything I’ve created a lot of friendships in those companies over those years more than a business relationship or sponsor relationship and I think that also means a lot.”

    STEVE NEWMARK – WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE ORTHO BACK?  “As far as the organization it’s absolutely huge to bring on a partner of Scotts’ caliber.  I think everybody recognizes that we’re able to race because of the relationships you have with your sponsor based on the way this sport operates, but even more so for us when we have a partner like Scotts and Ortho we find that we learn a lot from them and just have an interaction with a group that has such a professional and high-caliber marketing organization that our interaction with them makes us a better organization off the track as well.  So we’re really looking forward to collaborating with them and working hard, particularly when they’re gonna have such a significant role in the program next year, that we’ll have that consistency and constant interaction throughout the whole year.”

    GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS BEING ON THE CHASE BUBBLE GOING INTO THIS WEEKEND’S RACE?  “Certainly all Bristol races are rough, so to speak, and this is a tough place – a really, really tough place – and I think we come in here, you’ve got to really be on offense and defense.  You come in here and run as hard as you can.  We’re here to win and we feel like we run in the top 10 about every time we’re at Bristol and that’s the position you need to be in in order to put yourself in a position to win.  That’s what the 99 team did in the spring.  We ran in that position and they got track position and were able to pull out a win, so that’s important and that’s what we’re gonna be trying to do.  At the same time, everybody wants to finish the race.  You take chances and passes and all the things you can do, but at the same time we know we’re on that bubble in points.  I feel it’s gonna take a win still to get in this thing and that’s what we’re going for.”

    CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE LEVEL OF PRESSURE AROUND YOUR TEAM RIGHT NOW?  “We’ve felt the pressure all year because we haven’t performed to our standards at Roush Fenway – none of the teams have.  We have gotten much, much better in the last six weeks and I think our results show a ninth, a fifth, an eighth, a tenth, we’ve turned the corner so, believe it or not, that’s a lot of pressure off of the team versus on the team, so we go into these next three races with a lot of confidence and actually less pressure than we’ve had all season because our performance hasn’t been where we needed to be.  Now that our performance is better and we’re seeing that light at the end of the tunnel, it’s so much easier to show up to the race track and compete.  We enjoy coming and racing in the top 10 and that’s what we want to do.  We have a lot of confidence going into these last three races that we have the speed we need and also we have a test at Chicago lined up Monday and Tuesday, right in the middle of this, so that gives us a lot of continuity going into these last three.  I think we feel pretty good.”

  • The Final Word – All the World’s a Stage, as we Close the Curtain on Michigan

    The Final Word – All the World’s a Stage, as we Close the Curtain on Michigan

    A curmudgeon. An old fart who sits in the wings like a Muppet and mocks those upon the stage. In this case, for me that includes the three in the booth and the three on the desk offered up by ESPN. I am sure even a certain green talking frog would not have been safe from my sarcasm. My use of the mute button had nothing to do with escaping the droning that passes for professional race description and analysis. No, I am merely previewing what the future might be should NASCAR turn to electric cars.

    Jeff Gordon was electric at Michigan on Sunday. Only one driver led more laps, and on that final restart Gordon managed to do what he often fails to do. Four Time came out strong, took the lead from Joey Logano, then stretched it out in the end to claim his 91st career victory. The win even moved him ahead by three points over Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the standings, as the pair are joined by Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski with three wins apiece.

    That latter pair had their adventures, yet finished well enough. Keselowski lost a right front and put the wall grinder to the fender, but managed to finish eighth. Six Time did not text while driving, but trying to apply a set of vice grips to replace his shifter lever as he left the pits probably was not the best idea either. It also proved unsuccessful, but his boys eventually provided a better fix, and an eventual ninth place result.

    Even Danica Patrick had a Top Twenty, though her spin early ensured that the collected Martin Truex Jr. and Matt Kenseth did not. Kyle Busch lost a tire five laps in, pounded the wall, and he was all but done for the day. Kyle Larson thought he found trouble when he and Junior locked fenders on pit road. That was nothing compared to when he hit the wall and went up in flames to finish dead last. Oh, and after the race 11th place finisher Ryan Newman was seen jawing with Johnson over some on-track bone of contention. Maybe Ryan is becoming an old curmudgeon, too.

    If he was upset at Michigan, the odds are good he will not be happy Saturday night at Bristol. Everybody but the winner seems to get a bit torqued after spending time on the half-mile and change oval in Tennessee. With just three to go before the Chase cutoff, just about every full-timer who has ever won there already has a win this year. Matt Kenseth has not, but he remains nearly sixty points to the good. Kasey Kahne has not, and sits nine points behind Greg Biffle for the final berth. The only other former Bristol winner still seeking a win for 2014 is locked in the Top 30, but would need a victory in one of the three upcoming events to make the Chase.

    We await word if, when the curtain rises at Bristol, Tony Stewart is yet ready to take to the stage.
    SWEET SIXTEEN
    1 – Jeff Gordon – 3 Wins – 815 Points
    2 – Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 3 – 813
    3 – Brad Keselowski – 3 – 733
    4 – Jimmie Johnson – 3 – 686
    5 – Joey Logano – 2 – 714
    6 – Carl Edwards – 2 – 679
    7 – Kevin Harvick – 2 – -128
    8 – Kyle Busch – 1 – 620
    9 – Denny Hamlin – 1 – 589
    10 – Aric Almirola – 1 – 556
    11 – A.J. Allmendinger – 1 – 556
    12 – Kurt Busch – 1 – 553
    13 – Matt Kenseth – 0 – 709
    14 – Ryan Newman – 0 – 679
    15 – Clint Bowyer – 0 – 672
    16 – Greg Biffle – 0 – 660

    CONTENDERS & PRETENDERS
    17 – Kasey Kahne – 0 Wins – 651 Points
    18 – Austin Dillon – 0 – 638
    19 – Kyle Larson – 0 – 636
    20 – Marcos Ambrose – 0 – 616
    21 – Paul Menard – 0 – 614
    22 – Brian Vickers – 0 – 598
    23 – Jamie McMurray – 0 – 596
    24 – Casey Mears – 0 – 543
    25 – Tony Stewart – 0 – 537
    26 – Martin Truex, Jr. – 0 – 516
    27 – Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 0 – 476
    28 – Danica Patrick – 0 – 445
    29 – Justin Allgaier – 0 – 400
    30 – Michael Annett – 0 – 364
    31 – David Gilliland – 0 – 357
    32 – David Ragan – 0 – 332
    33 – Cole Whitt – 0 – 325

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Pure Michigan 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Pure Michigan 400

    With an impassioned driver’s meeting speech by Carl Edwards urging safety and throttling back during cautions at such a high-speed track, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 45th annual Pure Michigan 400.

    Surprising: Drivers were apparently in full throttle preparation for Bristol, with tempers surprisingly abounding at the two-mile track in the Irish hills. Six time champion Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman exchanged words after the race, as did Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Denny Hamlin.

    “Just old Ryan Newman stuff,” Johnson said after his heated conversation with the driver of the No. 31 WIX Filters Chevrolet. “Anybody that has watched the sport long enough or has been in a race car out there understands the frustration of racing Ryan.”

    Racing frustrations also abounded between the drivers of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota and the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet.

    “I felt like he crowded me off of (Turn) 4 in the middle part of the race,” Hamlin said. “We’re trying to make the best we can do down 50 horsepower.”

    “I’m going to eventually let him go, but I’m not some lapped car that you can just shove to the high side and I’m going to back off.”

    “I ran him up the track a little bit early in the race,” Earnhardt said. “He didn’t like it too much. I’ve been run up the track, too. I don’t like it either, but I didn’t want him hanging on my quarter panel all the way down the front straightaway and ended up three- or four-wide.”

    “I just wanted to get on by him because I was flying. We were hauling.”

    Not Surprising: Jeff Gordon went three for three for three, with his third win of the season, his third win at Michigan and a now three-win season, his first since 2011.

    “Well, I like to go fast. This place is really, really fast,” the driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet said. “Michigan has always been one of my favorites.”

    “Today I was able to drive this place the way I like to drive it, have success here again.”

    Surprising: It was a surprisingly rough weekend for Martin Truex, Jr., with his girlfriend Sherry Pollex undergoing surgery for ovarian cancer, his brother Ryan suffering a concussion in Michigan practice and his involvement a nine car pile-up that relegated him to a 36th place finish.

    “These two Michigan races turned out to be very long days,” the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet said. “It was hard to learn anything about this place back in June and it was the same story today.”

    “I just wish we could have finished one of these Michigan races with a clean car,” stated Truex. “You’re always curious to see how things would have played out and where you could have potentially finished.”

    Not Surprising: He may have been a bridesmaid yet again, in fact for the fourth time at Michigan, but Kevin Harvick deemed his second place run a success, especially in light of the upcoming Chase.

    “Yeah, I mean, we had a solid day,” Harvick said. “Just the 24 had more speed than we did all day. I felt like when Joey was out front, he could get away at the short run, we’d kind of even out.”

    “But all in all, it was a good day,” the driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet said. “The main focus for our team has been consistency heading into the Chase to make sure we can scramble and do the things we’ve done over the last month.”

    “Obviously you want to win, but all in all we had some different goals that are as important leading into the Chase.”

    Surprising: While Joey Logano joked in the media center after the race that he really did not want to relive his last few laps, he too like Harvick had the championship on his mind, laying down the gauntlet after his third place finish.

    “We can win a championship. I really feel we can do that,” the driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford said. “That’s the message I want to put out there. I want to put out for my team that we’re strong enough to do that. I think we showed that today.”

    Not Surprising: It was indeed a ‘hard week’ as Jeff Burton put it after being tapped to substitute for Tony Stewart, who decided to miss another race, grieving the contact with Kevin Ward Jr. which cost the young driver his life.

    “This was a hard week,” Burton said. “This was honestly one of the hardest weeks I’ve ever spent, coming here on Friday not knowing what to expect.”

    Burton’s No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet finished 37th after an electrical issue and a burning smell in the cockpit sent him to the garage.

    Surprising: It was a surprisingly bad day if your name was Kyle. Both Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson crashed, the first on lap four and the latter on lap 98.

    “I felt so good about my car those first few laps running the bottom, but then I was getting hung out on the straightaways,” Busch said “Then I just tried going to the top in (turns) three and four right away, and I got loose all the way through three and four. Every time I touched the gas it wanted to spin out, and finally it was too much gas and not enough save, and I wrecked.”

    Larson’s incident was far more frightening, however, as his No. 42 Target Chevrolet went up in flames after his hard impact.

    “I had no warning the right-front was going to blow,” Larson said. “Michigan is a fast track and into turn three is fast too. We are turning some really high speeds here so the hit was definitely a hard one.”

    “Yeah anytime you see flames you want to get out,” Larson continued, explaining his bailing out of his car in spite of NASCAR’s new ruling. “I have had fires and stuff, but that is the first time I have ever had fumes or smoke and stuff in the cockpit. That is the main reason why I wanted to get out.”

    Not Surprising: Once you get a win under your belt, as AJ Allmendinger did at Watkins Glen, those good finishes just seem to roll along. The Dinger finished top-15 at Michigan and officially clinched his spot in the Chase.

    “It’s really cool,” the driver of the No. 47 Kingsford Charcoal Chevrolet said of his Chase berth. “I thought we had a really good shot, but you never know until it’s official. So to have that is really good.”

    “More than anything I felt like this weekend made some gains so that gets a little excitement going into the next couple of race tracks to see if we can keep getting better. Overall the last few weeks has been really cool to share with the guys and come here and have a little energy and confidence. To come out here all weekend and show some speed has been really good.”

    Surprising: In spite of burning up a test session at Michigan International Speedway prior to the race weekend, Roush Fenway Racing continued to struggle at a track they once owned. Greg Biffle did manage a tenth place finish and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 15th, however, Carl Edwards had a disappointing end to his day, taking the checkered flag in 23rd.

    “You know, I guess it was a good day,” Biffle said. “We got a top-10. Really we wanted to run up in the top-five. We had a car to do that and that track position we would get loose around other cars. We still have to work on that with our race cars.”

    “It was a good solid top-15,” Stenhouse Jr. said. “We qualified 10th and finished 15th and ran right around 15th the whole time which is kind of a goal. Obviously we want to run top-10 and pass as many cars as we can but all in all we accomplished what we were looking to do.”

    “We were so loose I just couldn’t drive it,” Edwards said. “It looked like Greg (Biffle) had a good run and we had speed in qualifying so that gives us something to look forward to but we were just too loose today to be able to do anything.”

    Not Surprising: After some difficult runs recently, it was not surprising that Paul Menard scored a fourth place finish at an intermediate track where he tends to run well. The driver of the No. 27 Certainteed/Menards Chevrolet did in fact run well, finishing fourth.

    “Our cars are really good,” Menard said. “The RCR fab shop, the ECR engine shop they make really good race cars. This track kind of suits my driving style I guess. Sluggar (Labbe, crew chief) and I, Justin and James and everybody on the No. 27 car have a good baseline intermediate track package that seems to work good at these fast tracks.”

    “Definitely needed a good run the last three or four weeks have been pretty brutal,” Menard continued. “We definitely needed this.”

    As a result of the Michigan race and assuming that they all attempt to qualify for the remaining three races of the regular season, AJ Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin all scored their spot in the championship Chase.

     

  • Hot 20 – After the Week We’ve Had, We Could Use a Little Good News From Michigan

    Hot 20 – After the Week We’ve Had, We Could Use a Little Good News From Michigan

    The news of late has been enough to make a clown cry. In fact, we just lost one of our most treasured entertainers, by his own hand. We have the tragedy involving Kevin Ward Jr. and Tony Stewart still on our minds. We have Martin Truex Jr.’s girlfriend facing health challenges.

    This has not been the best of weeks. You turn on your televison or check out Youtube and it does not get much better. Police lobbing tear gas at news crews in Missouri. One nation protecting its people with missiles while the other side protects its missiles with people. A tyrant threatening a neighboring country because he can. People streaming into another like it is “no pay and stay day” at Disneyland because some think that allowing them to do so is the right thing to do.

    I even sought escape in reality shows, with no luck. “America” just tossed out the best dancer on “So You Think You Can Dance” and I cannot begin to describe the talent tossed aside for crap on “America’s Got Talent.” It is enough to make Lewis Black go nuclear. Good Lord, we sure could use some positive diversions from all this damn reality.

    Just maybe Michigan will provide it for us. Might four time winner Greg Biffle lay claim to another and a Chase berth? Jack Roush’s organization could use a little good news today, an organization that will see a major sponsor and its best driver both fly away next season. Maybe Matt Kenseth could lock his way in with a third Michigan victory, even though a berth by points alone seems likely. Then again, one of those Hendrick boys might claim this thing again. Even Kasey Kahne has won there before. At least it would make some folks happier.

    Good news is that there will not be a single Cup driver in the Nationwide race. The bad news is that only 37 cars are entered to compete in the Ohio event. Only 28 trucks will run in the Camping World race at Michigan on Saturday. Kyle Busch will be competing, for you can never have enough races involving Kyle Busch.

    Maybe he just loves to race. Like Tony. Tony has won at Michigan before, but he will not be racing there on Sunday. With that, we’ve come full circle.

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. has returned to where he was, a decade ago. In these standings, where we bump up the victor’s bonus from 3 to 25 points, he leads. In the official standings, he leads. Twice before at Michigan, at the end, he has led. Maybe a win by Junior, or Jeff, or Brad, or Jimmie, Joey, Matt, Carl or Kevin might help put a big ole smile back on this face. I sure hope so. It has been one hell of a week.

    1 –   Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 839 Points – 3 Wins
    2 –   Jeff Gordon – 812 – 2
    3 –   Brad Keselowski – 762 – 3
    4 –   Jimmie Johnson – 716 – 3
    5 –   Joey Logano – 715 – 2
    6 –   Matt Kenseth – 703 – 0
    7 –   Carl Edwards – 702 – 2
    8 –   Kevin Harvick – 689 – 2
    9 –   Ryan Newman – 645 – 0
    10 –   Kyle Busch – 637 – 1
    11 –   Kyle Larson – 635 – 0
    12 –   Clint Bowyer – 634 – 0
    13 –   Greg Biffle – 626 – 0
    14 –   Kasey Kahne – 622 – 0
    15 –   Austin Dillon – 616 – 0
    16 –   Marcos Ambrose – 584 – 0
    17 –   Denny Hamlin – 574 – 1
    18 –   Paul Menard – 574 – 0
    19 –   Brian Vickers – 573 – 0
    20 –   Jamie McMurray – 566 – 0

     

  • Roush Fenway Gets Another Hit

    Roush Fenway Gets Another Hit

    Things are not rosy at Roush Fenway Racing. Lately, they’ve lost their top driver to apparently Joe Gibbs Racing, and today they lost 3M as a primary sponsor on the No. 16 Ford of Greg Biffle. The performance has been putrid at best all year even though Carl Edwards has two wins, but Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. have not had the performance that a top team should have. That is cruel, but fact. Biffle had a good day at Pocono last week, but that’s been pretty much it for this season. Stenhouse is a former Nationwide Series champion, but it has not transferred to the Cup series. It has to be the cars, and that’s a really big problem for RFR.

    Stealing sponsors is nothing new, but Gibbs and Hendrick are very good at it. It’s kind of like the rich get richer is true. Yeah, it is business, as they like to say, but there seems to be a big target on RFR and those who are running better have determined to make sure they don’t come back to prominence. Baseball does it all the time at the trade deadline, of course. Teams trade players to non-contenders and never to contenders. At the waiver deadline, teams claim players so that other teams cannot get them. It’s just business.

    That said, you have to image the mood over at Roush Fenway—Ford’s top team for years. Roger Penske, the gentleman he is, said that he would never take a driver or sponsor from a fellow Ford team. In fact, Penske has a kept a professional attitude toward all teams. For some reason, non-Ford teams seem to like to pick on Jack Roush. He’s an easy target now. It’s easy to pick on the guy who is down. It happens. Now, it’s up to Roush. If he gets his teams back to being competitive, things might turn around, but teams must always remember that if you stumble, there are two giants waiting to grab your drivers and sponsors.

    RFR has had more success than either Gibbs or especially Richard Childress Racing in 2014; RCR has no wins. That may change now as a down on their luck organization is faced with a lame duck driver, minimal sponsorship, and a down year. It would be good if they could rise like the Phoenix and make some noise, but I don’t see it and that is bad for the sport.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Cheez-It 355 at the Glen

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Cheez-It 355 at the Glen

    As the NASCAR community mourned the death of sprint car driver Kevin Ward Jr., which led to Tony Stewart’s decision not to participate at Watkins Glen, the racing did go on at one of the sport’s more challenging road courses.

    And with that overlay of respect for all involved in the tragedy, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 29th annual Cheez-It 355 at the Glen.

    Surprising: For at least two drivers, one with a powerhouse team and the other from a small operation, the race was all about power, from the four-time champion driver who lost it to the first-time winning driver who dug down deep to find the sheer willpower to get to Victory Lane.

    Jeff Gordon, whose sponsor Drive to End Hunger just announced their renewal for 2015, looked like the man to beat, scoring the pole position and leading laps early in the race. Then, inexplicably, Gordon’s No. 24 machine slowed on the track and he lost power, finishing a disappointing 34th and losing the points lead to teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.

    “I’ve got to get with the team and find out what caused it,” Gordon said. “It looks like we had a battery go dead, two batteries go dead. I didn’t see anything on the volts meter that stood out or anything really going on there that was alarming.”

    The other driver, AJ Allmendinger, drove the race of his life against Watkins Glen expert Marcos Ambrose, running on sheer willpower, as he was bound and determined to get his first ever win in the Sprint Cup Series.

    “I wasn’t going to let Marcos take that from me,” AJ Allmendinger, driver of the No. 47 Scott Products Chevrolet for JTG Daugherty Racing, said simply. “I’ve dreamed about this moment, and I’m not going to forget it.”

    Not Surprising: It is not often that the race winner pays homage to the track workers, but AJ Allmendinger did just that, recognizing those that had to make extensive repairs, not only to the Armco barriers but also to the pit road barrels, after two horrific crashes.

    The first crash involved Ryan Newman and Michael McDowell, resulting in almost a rebuild of fencing, and the second involved Denny Hamlin hitting the pit barriers hard. Track workers labored furiously making repairs for almost two hours after the serious damage from the two crashes.

    “For me to be able to have that race be so memorable about how it ended, for the fans, they were so great for staying around through all the red flags, the track workers did such a great job to fix the fence and everything,” the Dinger said. “It’s just a memorable day to go out there and remember everything that just happened.”

    Surprising: Just when you thought that Kyle Larson’s rookie mistake of missing the inner loop would lead to a surprisingly bad finish, the Rookie of the Year contender pulled it off once again, scoring a surprising top-five finish.

    “It was a really good day for us,” The driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet said. “We were terrible all weekend long. I was down on myself. It’s probably the most frustrated I’ve ever been with myself, aside from racing sprint cars in Pennsylvania.”

    “I can’t believe we finished top five,” Larson continued. “It feels like a win. I was hoping for a top 15 or top 20 going into today. I’m totally shocked and super excited.”

    Not Surprising: While it was not at all surprising that the No. 9 Ford of Marcos Ambrose was strong, taking the checkered flag in the runner up position, the Australian also had some Ford comrades with whom to celebrate. In fact, there were four Fords that finished in the top-ten at the Glen.

    “I left nothing on the table,” runner up Ambrose said. “We just came up a little short. I am just really proud of my Stanley team. We put a lot of effort into this race and really tried to win it. We won yesterday and came up one short today.”

    “I am glad Jimmy Fennig put us in a position to be up there for the win,” Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Kellogg’s/Cheez-It Ford and fifth place finisher, said. “I am sure like everyone up there that you want the last few laps to do over again. It was a blast and a lot of fun.”

    “That was crazy to say the least,” Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, said after finishing sixth. “We had about a fifth place car and had to go through a lot to get back to that point. We fought hard with this Shell Pennzoil Ford and put tires on it late and was very aggressive on the restarts and got a few spots back. I wish there were more laps. The tires were worth a few there at the end but I needed a few more laps there at the end.”

    “The racing was really good,” Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M Ford said after finishing eighth. “We were able to make up a lot of ground. It is aggressive and as people got more comfortable it got nuts. You just try to do the best you can and protect your position and race hard. That is about all you can do.”

    Surprising: Jimmie Johnson’s troubles continued to plague him, even at Watkins Glen. The six-time champion went for a dramatic spin late in the race, resulting in a 28th place finish. Although he has three wins to his credit and is solidly in the Chase, Johnson fell one position in the point standings, from sixth to seventh as a result.

    Not Surprising: Perhaps it was because he can relate to having to overcome adversity and seek redemption in the sport, but third place finisher Kurt Busch had nothing but praise for race winner AJ Allmendinger.

    “He won the race today in a fashion that everyone is proud of him for doing, to beat one of the best in the world at driving these stock cars,” the driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet said of race winner Allmendinger. “He deserves the trophy, and he had to pull from within. He had to dig in deep, and he had to believe in himself all the way through this.”

    “He’s put himself through all those mental challenges, and today he persevered. He didn’t break down and he brought home a victory, so we’re all very proud of him.”

    Surprising: Brakes, or the lack thereof, were responsible for some of the bigger crashes of the day, especially for Cole Whitt, who crashed his No. 26 Bully Hill Vineyards Toyota Camry surprisingly hard into the tire barriers, finishing 43rd.

    “It just seemed like something in the rear brakes faded or just actually just completely lost them going into (turn) one,” Whitt said. “It seemed like the front was trying to stop but the rear wasn’t at all and the pedal was just going to the floor on brakes. Not a whole lot you can do there. I was trying to get it turned but there was no way I was going to be able to.”

    “Sucks for the guys but I know we’ll rebound.”

    Past champion Brad Keselowski also suffered from tire issues, finishing a surprising 35<sup>th</sup> in his No. 2 Miller Lite Ford.

    “We had something in the brakes that broke,” Keselowski said. “At Watkins Glen you can’t run without brakes.”

    Not Surprising: Matt Kenseth, still without a win, continued his run of good points days, advancing one spot up to third, just 70 behind new points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kenseth was the top-finishing Toyota driver with a ninth-place result in the race at the Glen.

    “It was an okay finish,” the driver of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, said. “Things didn’t pan out quite as we were hoping. But, overall not a terrible day.”

    Surprising: Danica Patrick was making quite the bear bond fashion statement after surviving an accident in practice, as well as one during the race. The driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet soldiered on in her bear-bonded race car to finish 21st, after gaining 22 spots

    “It was a tough day,” Patrick said. “It was a long race, but Gibson (Tony, crew chief) and the GoDaddy guys worked on the car and we got a 21st out of it, which isn’t bad with the weekend we had.”

    Not Surprising: Regan Smith, who was called on at the last minute to replace Tony Stewart in the race, summed up the situation best after an on-track incident at lap 81 caused him to finish 37th.

    “It’s my job to be able to drive a race car and it took me a little longer to get acclimated than I would have hoped it would and felt like at the end there I was finally starting to make some progress and I was able to get consistent with the car and understood the car a little better and what it was doing,” the substitute driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet said. “These guys build fast race cars at Stewart-Haas and I was thankful to get to get in one. Definitely not under the circumstances.”

    “My day really doesn’t matter right now,” Smith continued. “There are a lot of people more important than me at the moment; so we’re thinking about all those people and our prayers are with them.”

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Pocono

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Pocono

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Earnhardt used a no-tire pit stop to take the lead and subdued the challenge of Kevin Harvick down the stretch to win the GoBowling.Com 400 at Pocono. The victory completed Earnhardt’s season sweep at the “Tricky Triangle” and was his third win of the year.

    “That’s the first season sweep at Pocono since Denny Hamlin’s in 2006,” Earnhardt said. “Normally, I would celebrate with a broom, but I can’t. I developed an aversion to brooms when I discovered that Teresa Earnhardt rode them.

    “The fans of Junior Nation will certainly party. I’m not sure they’re that into bowling, though. They couldn’t tell you anything about PBA, but they sure know a lot about PBR.”

    2. Jeff Gordon: Gordon led a race-high 63 laps at Pocono but fell victim to lack of track position and some untimely cautions, finishing sixth. He remains atop the Sprint Cup points standings with a 17-point lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr.

    “Junior’s No. 88 car had the name ‘Michael Baker’ all over it,” Gordon said. “That had to be a new experience for Earnhardt. It’s not often people see the No. 88 car and have to ask, ‘Who is that?’”

    3. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski survived an unlucky day at Pocono, salvaging a 23rd-place finish, one lap down to the leaders. Keselowski damaged the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford with after contact with Kurt Busch on lap two, then was an unwilling participant in the lap 117 “Big One.”

    “Thanks, Kurt Busch,” Keselowski said. “Just like the last race at Pocono, I had a run-in with a ‘piece of trash.’”

    4. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson suffered two blown tires, the last of which sent him into the wall, ending his day at Pocono on lap 111. He finished 39th, 49 laps down.

    “We’ve had our share of tires issues this season,” Johnson said. “It’s not a big deal to us. That’s called ‘underinflating’ the severity of an issue, just the opposite of what Goodyear thinks.

    “We’ve finished 39th or worse in three of the last five races. But don’t count us out once the Chase starts. Chad Knaus has a lot of things up his sleeve, including a sandbag of tricks.”

    5. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth was collected in a lap 117 pileup triggered when Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin got loose, causing Brian Vickers to check up and create mayhem behind him. Thirteen cars were involved in the accident and Kenseth finished 38th.

    “It was the GoBowling.Com 400,” Kenseth said, “and I’d like to pin the blame on Hamlin. But congratulations go to Dale Earnhardt Jr. He deserves to celebrate, not in Victory Lane, but in Victory Alley.”

    6. Joey Logano: Logano led 30 laps and posted a strong third-place finish at Pocono, earning his eighth top-five of the year. He is seventh in the points standings, 124 behind Jeff Gordon.

    “Richard Petty was the grand marshal for the GoBowling.Com 400,” Logano said. “In the Poconos, they call that being the ‘King Of The Mountain.’

    “I’ve always had a ton of respect for Petty. Now I’ve got even more after realizing he raced against Morgan Shepherd for over 20 years and lived to tell about it.”

    7. Carl Edwards: Edwards finished a disappointing 29th at Pocono as Dale Earnhardt Jr. raced to the win. He is eighth in the points standings, 139 out of first.

    “I’m going to blame this on a preoccupation with thoughts of where I’ll be driving next year,” Edwards said. “As was evident at Pocono, my mind was racing, but I wasn’t.”

    8. Ryan Newman: Once again, Newman was solid for Richard Childress Racing, taking eighth in the GoBowling.Com 400.

    “It was an otherwise tough day for RCR,” Newman said. “Austin Dillon finished 15th while Paul Menard finished 33rd, under Tony Stewart’s No. 14 after that big wreck on lap 117. I hear it’s no fun looking up and seeing Stewart on top of you. But at least Tony was awake.”

    9. Kevin Harvick: Harvick chased Dale Earnhardt Jr. for three laps after the final restart at Pocono, but couldn’t get around the No. 88 car. Harvick settled for second, his fourth runner-up finish of the year.

    “After a pit road speeding penalty and damage from the lap 117 wreck,” Harvick said, “I was ‘Happy’ to be in that position.”

    10. Clint Bowyer: Bowyer finished fourth in the GoBowling.Com 400, boosting his Chase For The Cup chances with five races left until the playoffs. He stands ninth in the Sprint Cup points standings, 140 out of first.

    “No team needs a win more than Michael Waltrip Racing,” Bowyer said. “I think all we need is a lively pep talk from Michael. And I think that should work. Everybody knows Michael makes a great cheerleader.”

  • Dale Earnhardt Jr. Wins and Sweeps at Pocono Raceway

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. Wins and Sweeps at Pocono Raceway

    In 2006 it was Denny Hamlin. This time around, it was Dale Earnhardt Jr. who won for the second time this year at Pocono Raceway, effectively sweeping the season. Earnhardt picked up his third win of the season and his 22nd career victory in NASCAR’s most elite series. The last time he swept a race was in 2002 at Talladega Superspeedway.

    Earnhardt credited the win to a team effort led by crew chief Steve Letarte saying, “Steve did a great job, really, with his strategy to get in that position. We’re not in that position just on car alone. We had a fast car and I drove a good race, but Steve’s strategy gave us a chance to win.”

    Letarte cited the work the team has done since their first visit to the track earlier this season.

    “I feel we unloaded a better car for the second Pocono than we did the first Pocono,” he said. “You cannot ever assume a winning car is going to be good enough the next week. While we were excited to win (in June) and we’ll take it, there was room for improvement, so we worked very hard between that race and this race.”

    Coming in second in the GoBowling.com 400 was Kevin Harvick who definitely had his fair share of battles today, and third was Joey Logano.

    The dominant car of the race was Jeff Gordon. After leading a race-high 63 laps, the No. 88 team strategy bested Gordon, and ultimately left the five-time Brickyard winner to finish a disheartening sixth place. Fortunately for Gordon and his fans, he was able to maintain the regular season points lead.

    The race started when there was nearly a caution on lap one when Brad Keselowski almost lost his car after Kurt Busch attempted a pass of the No. 2 car. Fortunately, the race continued on smoothly until Jimmie Johnson encountered his first problem of the day.

    The first caution of the day came when debris was reported on the track after Johnson brushed the wall and as soon as he went down, a tire blew. The 48 team went a lap down but almost immediately regained it when yet another caution came out.

    Danica Patrick brought out the second caution while running in 10th as she clipped the wall which resulted in a blown tire.

    Another two cautions were brought out and Kyle Busch’s day ended early when he encountered engine issues. After that, the race remained relatively quiet, despite the fact that there were three different pit strategies going on by the time that Johnson hit the wall and ruined his day.

    On the restart, Denny Hamlin got a little loose which caused a 13 car accident that was reminiscent of what you would expect to see on a superspeedway like Talladega or Daytona. Cars that ran so well earlier in the day suddenly found themselves behind the wall. Drivers like Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, and Carl Edwards found themselves out of the running.

    Another driver involved in the accident was race runner-up Kevin Harvick.

    Under this caution, eventual race winner Earnhardt chose to pit, making it so he would only have to pit once more and only for a splash of gas when the time arose.

    When the race restarted on lap 126 drivers were wary of gas, and it turns out that that wouldn’t be an issue, as the race went on to have two more cautions. On the first one, Earnhardt was able to take the lead for the first time and after the second caution, he was able to hold off a hard charging Harvick with three laps to go, and take the win.

    The fourth place finisher was Clint Bowyer who ran strongly throughout the entirety of the race and fifth place went to Greg Biffle.

    Jeff Gordon retains the points lead by 17 over second place Dale Earnhardt Jr. Brad Keselowski (-70) is third followed by Matt Kenseth (-89) and Ryan Newman (-115).

    Complete Results for the GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway:

     

    Position Car No. Driver
    1 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
    2 4 Kevin Harvick
    3 22 Joey Logano
    4 15 Clint Bowyer
    5 16 Greg Biffle
    6 24 Jeff Gordon
    7 1 Jamie McMurray
    8 31 Ryan Newman
    9 11 Denny Hamlin
    10 5 Kasey Kahne
    11 42 Kyle Larson
    12 13 Casey Mears
    13 41 Kurt Busch
    14 9 Marcos Ambrose
    15 3 Austin Dillon
    16 51 Justin Allgaier
    17 38 David Gilliland
    18 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
    19 34 David Ragan
    20 83 Ryan Truex
    21 26 Cole Whitt
    22 7 Michael Annett
    23 2 Brad Keselowski
    24 98 Josh Wise
    25 32 Travis Kvapil
    26 37 Dave Blaney
    27 36 Reed Sorenson
    28 33 Alex Kennedy
    29 99 Carl Edwards
    30 10 Danica Patrick
    31 23 Alex Bowman
    32 78 Martin Truex Jr.
    33 27 Paul Menard
    34 47 AJ Allmendinger
    35 43 Aric Almirola
    36 14 Tony Stewart
    37 55 Brain Vickers
    38 20 Matt Kenseth
    39 48 Jimmie Johnson
    40 66 Joe Nemechek
    41 40 Landon Cassill
    42 18 Kyle Busch
    43 93 Johnny Sauter
  • Is Jack Roush Driving Sprint Cup Team Into Irrelevancy?

    Is Jack Roush Driving Sprint Cup Team Into Irrelevancy?

    One of the biggest announcements of the Brickyard 400 weekend was that Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards would not be returning to the stable in 2015. In my honest opinion, this was beyond unprofessional by Jack Roush, especially on the morning of the fifth and final major of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

    Sadly, this is not the first time Roush Fenway Racing has shot itself in the foot. On the other hand, the organization could have made this announcement later in the season, but chose not to. The organization tends to instigate conflict unnecessarily if they feel wronged. Honestly, it is just childish behavior. Perhaps I am too young, but I have not seen other organizations, big or small, pull these sort of shenanigans.

    What the organization needs to do is maintain a healthy, stable relationship with all drivers, but they have not done so. Let’s face it, Jack Roush was not surprised that Kenseth wanted to leave. How long was Roush going to make Ricky Stenhouse Jr., a two-time Nationwide Series champion, wait for a ride? The Roush stable has suffered for years because they have failed to adapt to the new economic environment. Sponsors continue to leave the sport here and there, and Roush continues to see sponsors and drivers head for the exit.

    Carl Edwards is Roush Fenway’s only shot to win the championship this season, but it is not going to happen. Yes, he will be in 16 car chase field, but he will be a contender. The Roush stable struggles every week regardless of the two wins Carl Edwards has this season. As a result, the loss of Edwards is a monumental loss for Roush Fenway Racing.

    In 2015, Roush Fenway Racing will feature three drivers. Let’s be blunt, the driver lineup is decrepit. Greg Biffle is the strongest guy in the stable, his teammate, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., only has two-career top five finishes.

    Trevor Bayne finally got the call to race full-time in the Sprint Cup Series. He has a Daytona 500 championship on his resume, but it is his only finish inside the top five to date. If tandem racing is not a lottery, I do not know what is. Two cars hook up on the race track and push each other around for a couple of hours, no sugar coating there. It does not matter who hooked up with who. James Hylton could have won the 2011 Daytona 500 had he started. With that being said, one Daytona 500 win, does not equal success in the long run.

    If Roush Fenway Racing can figure out the ride height, a title run could be in the works, however, that has yet to be accomplished as a team. If poor performance continues, Roush Fenway could be the next Robert Yates Racing, a team of irrelevancy, leaving Team Penske as the only competitive Ford team.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Brickyard 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Brickyard 400

    With the announcement by Roush Fenway Racing that Carl Edwards would not be returning in 2015 still reverberating throughout the garage, here is what else was surprising and not surprising in the 21st Annual Crown Royal presents The John Wayne Walding 400 at The Brickyard Powered by BigMachineRecords.com at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

    Surprising: In spite of securing his second win of the season, as well as having the points lead well in hand, it surprisingly took securing his fifth win at the Brickyard and his 90th career victory to make a championship believer out of Jeff Gordon.

    “It’s so hard to gain confidence in this series,” the driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet said. “I think we saw we were points leaders, we saw we won at Kansas, but I don’t know if we believed we were capable of winning this championship this year, truly believe it.”

    “We do now,” Gordon continued. “But a Brickyard 400 win, it just doesn’t get any better. I mean, to share that with that team that worked so hard, to see the look on their face, you can just see it in them now, you know, they believe.”

    Not Surprising: The Kyle and Kyle tandem were at it again, with Kyle Busch finishing in the runner up spot and Kyle Larson scoring highest finishing rookie honors yet again with his seventh place run. This was Busch’s third runner-up result in the last four races, scoring bridesmaid honors at Kentucky, Loudon and Indy.

    “I finished second at Kentucky, Loudon and here,” the driver of the No. 18 Snickers Toyota said. “We had some good races going. It would be certainly more beneficial to pick up some trophies, take some trophies home, get some of those benefits for the Chase.”

    “Three second places, that’s 11 extra points that you miss out on,” Busch continued. “That sucks pretty big for the Chase and for those bonus points. But, you know, if we keep going that way, then things will pay off sooner or later. We’ll start winning some.”

    With his top-10 finish, the other Kyle continued his domination of the Sunoco Rookie of the Year battle, now leading the standings by 37 points over Austin Dillon. Larson also sits 13th in the points as he tries to make his way into the championship Chase.

    “It was a good day for us,” Larson said. “The Target car was really good. We were a top-10 car the whole race.

    “Cool to finish in the top 10 at the Brickyard,” the driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet said. “To see Jeff Gordon win is pretty special. It’s kind of like Junior winning the 500 this year. It was a really good day for everybody and all the fans, too. So happy about it.”

    Surprising: Just when Denny Hamlin thought he and his Joe Gibbs race team had turned the corner after finishing third in his No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota, some surprising post-race inspection issues reared their ugly heads.

    NASCAR took several rear firewall block-off plates off the car for further examination back at the R and D Center. These particular plates could have improved the aerodynamics of the car so Tuesday will be an interesting day for Hamlin and company as far as any potential penalties.

    “It was a little something; it wasn’t that big of a deal,” Jimmy Makar, Senior Vice President for Joe Gibbs Racing, said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal (penalty-wise). It is just a questionable thing.”

    As a result of his good Brickyard finish, Hamlin advanced one spot in the point standings to 11th and is poised for a run at the championship with his win at Talladega earlier in the season.

    Not Surprising: With Indy known as a track where passing is difficult, it was no surprise that restarts were key and where much of the action took place. And again, not surprisingly, the final restart was critical for so many drivers, from Matt Kenseth, who gained a few spots to finish fourth, to Kasey Kahne who lost the lead to finish sixth.

    “It was interesting because I was — I was kind of picking on Jeff’s (Gordon) restarts all day because he just couldn’t get going on the outside,” Kenseth said. “He was getting on the outside of the front row. I was behind and was like, ‘Man, this is going to be bad.’ He got into (turn) one and kind of carried the 5 (Kasey Kahne) and the 5 must have got loose.”

    “And, then Denny (Hamlin) gave me a break,” the driver of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota continued. “I got out in front of him and we were both able to pass Kasey (Kahne). Then Denny (Hamlin) got us three-wide. Once it singled out we were able to get away a little bit.”

    For Kahne, behind the wheel of the No. 5 Time Warner Cable Chevrolet, the final restart result was not as favorable.

    “Jeff (Gordon) just beat me,” Kahne said. “We got into Turn 1 he held me down and he was able to momentum off of Turn 1 which he did a better job.”

    “I should have choose the outside, looking back, but I thought there was more grip on the inside down the front stretch,” Kahne continued. “Then he controlled the start. I just gave it up at that point. Either way that was the best we were going to finish.”

    “That was alright though.”

    Surprising: It was a surprisingly good weekend for the Dillon brothers, with Ty winning the Nationwide race and brother Austin finishing top-10 at the Brickyard.

    “It’s great for us,” the driver of the No. 3 Dow/MyCogen Seeds Chevrolet said. “As a team we just want to build momentum and that was a solid day. Our car had some speed in it, but it was tough to pass because when you got in traffic you couldn’t do much.”

    “I am very proud of my guys, solid day, and hard to back up that win that Ty got yesterday but I will definitely take a top ten in this series.”

    Not Surprising: Paul Menard was NASCAR’s biggest loser after contact with Juan Pablo Montoya, back in a part-time ride for Team Penske, forced him to a 34th place finish, dropping him five spots in the points to 16th and teetering on the brink of Chase contention.

    “It’s stupid,” Slugger Labbe, Menard’s crew chief, said. “People have no respect…. I just don’t get Juan Pablo, what he’s doing. It doesn’t make sense. You’d think the guy would come over and apologize or something.”

    “We’re running for a spot in the Chase, and some part-time racer left-rears us and puts us in the fence,” Labbe continued. “Then you’re done.”

    “It probably knocked us out of the Chase (for the Sprint Cup), but…we’ve just got to fight back in six more races.”

    Surprising: In spite of a grueling day and a 42nd place finish due to a broken axle, Danica Patrick still managed to find her happy place.

    “It’s just one of those things,” the driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet said. “We were having a good day. It’s disappointing and the GoDaddy guys built me a really good car. Hendrick gave me great horsepower.”

    “We were the fastest car out there at times,” Patrick continued. “We qualified better and had a good car for the race, it just didn’t end the way we wanted it to.”

    “The good thing is, I get to come back to Indy and that makes me happy.”

    Not Surprising: After a 16th place run, Clint Bowyer in his No. 15 RK Motors Charlotte Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing, was wishing his ride would turn magically into an IndyCar race car, complete with all its bells and whistles.

    “No wonder them Indy car things have a push to pass button,” Bowyer tweeted after the race with the hashtag of #indyproblems.

    “Our RK Motors Toyota was much better than our 16th-place finish,” Bowyer continued. “We had a little trouble in the pits and we got back in some traffic. We had to pit under that last caution because we got some debris on the grill from another car when we were leaving pit road.”

    “It was a frustrating day but Brian Pattie and the guys gave me a good car just wish we finished better than we did.”

    Surprising: Greg Biffle had a surprisingly lucky weekend, first hearing from his team owner that he would be the anchor driver for Roush Fenway Racing for 2015 and then gambling on pit strategy to finish lucky 13.

    “Certainly the focus of our leadership is going to be with Greg Biffle and the things that he does with the racecar and the leadership he provides for the engineering initiatives we take,” Jack Roush said. “We had that split with Carl and Greg together this year, so that will be a little different next year.

    “I had other options but I felt like I spent a lot of time there and we’ve always won races and I feel like we can win races again,” Biffle said. “The first half of the season has not been what we wanted. It’s no mystery.”

    “I don’t think that’s a reason to jump ship and say I’m leaving because we haven’t won a race and we’re not performing the way we should.”

    Not Surprising: With one win under his belt, it is not surprising that team Almirola is headed to test at Watkins Glen on their way to next week’s race at Pocono. Almirola passed many cars at Indy after starting in the rear in a backup car to finish 21st.

    “That’s a decent finish, but I’m frustrated because we’ve got to figure out how to get more speed,” Almirola said. “We’ve got six more weeks to get our cars better before the Chase, so we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to try to figure it out and try to be more competitive.”

    “But it is what it is,” the driver of the No. 43 Eckrich Ford said. “We dug ourselves a hole this weekend and finished 21st.”

    “We had one run where we drove up to like 15th, and I thought we were going to be pretty good, and I don’t know if we got a bad set of tires or what, but we could never recover after that.”