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  • NASCAR: Championship 4 Success At Homestead

    NASCAR: Championship 4 Success At Homestead

    With the final race of the 2017 Monster Energy Cup series looming, four drivers go into Homestead hoping to hoist the trophy come Sunday night.

    Before the green flag waves on Sunday, here’s how the Championship 4 have fared at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

     

    1. Kyle Busch  

    Photo Credit: Noel Lanier

    Coming into Homestead, Kyle Busch will be one to keep your eye on. With one win coming back when Busch won the championship in 2015, he has shown he has what it takes to hoist the championship trophy when the checkered flag falls. In 12 starts in Homestead, Kyle Busch has an average start of 12.8 and an average finish of 19.8. Before the new championship format was introduced, Busch had only three top-10 finishes. With the stakes high this weekend, Busch hopes to recapture his 2015 dominance and win his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title.

    2. Kevin Harvick

    Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/NASCAR via Getty Images

    With one win coming in his championship season, 2014, Kevin Harvick has statically had the best finishes out of the Championship 4 with an average finish of 6.9. Harvick didn’t really show his dominance this season until his first win of the season coming earlier in the year at Sonoma. In just three years at Stewart-Haas Racing, Harvick has been the face of the team grabbing Gene Haas and Tony Stewart their first championship in 2014.

    Brad Keselowski

    Photo Credit: Tom Pennington – Getty Images for NASCAR.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The 2012 season was the most memorable season for Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 team as he held off Jimmie Johnson to capture Roger Penske his first Monster Energy Cup Series championship. Heading into Homestead this weekend, Keselowski hasn’t shown his dominance of the 2012 season but nevertheless has had consistent finishes all year round.

     

    Martin Truex Jr.

    Martin Truex Jr. celebrates victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. Photo: Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images

    Martin Truex Jr. heads into Homestead as the legitimate favorite as he has compiled seven wins this season, more than any season in the past. With three top-five finishes and seven top-10 finishes, Truex has an average finish of 12.3. Furniture Row Racing will be without team owner Barney Visser this weekend after he suffered a heart attack just two weeks ago. Heading into Homestead this weekend Truex looks to show his dominance of this season and bring Barney Visser his first NASCAR title.

  • Christopher Bell Looks To Secure First Truck Series Championship

    Christopher Bell Looks To Secure First Truck Series Championship

    The 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season has been very kind to the driver of the No. 4 JBL Toyota Tundra, Christopher Bell.

    The young 23-year-old in his second season is, so far, so good, but now the toughest challenge of the season comes this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where Bell looks to collect his first ever championship before he moves to the NASCAR XFINITY Series.

    However, it was a close one Friday night, as he and teammate Noah Gragson, were battling hard for the win in the remaining laps until both made contact and wrecked. Bell’s Tundra was not as bad as Gragson’s but cost him a chance at the win and he finished eighth. With five wins, 14 top fives and 20 top 10 finishes, only two DNF’s and 865 laps led, it was enough for him to lock himself into the Championship 4 for the second consecutive year. Bell talks about the wreck.

    “It was really intense and we were both doing everything we could to go for the win,” Bell said. “It’s a big advantage to be on the outside because you have all the side force and whenever you crowd him like that you take all the air off the side of his truck. I knew that I was playing with fire there and that there was a good possibility that I was going to get us both in trouble. He (Noah Gragson) was doing a really good job down there of hanging onto it and keeping it up – we were just racing really hard and it didn’t work out.”

  • Johnny Sauter Searching For Second Consecutive Championship

    Johnny Sauter Searching For Second Consecutive Championship

    With wins at Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway, last year’s champion, Johnny Sauter will be looking for his second consecutive championship Friday night at Homestead-Miami. His 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series campaign has been nothing short of spectacular.

    In 2017, Sauter has collected four wins, 12 top fives, and 18 top 10 finishes in the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet. Meanwhile, he has posted an average start of 4.9 and an average finish of 6.5, with 455 laps led. None of that will matter though, when the season finale takes place Friday night at Homestead-Miami, as it’s every person for themselves and the highest finishing order of the Championship 4.

    Despite high expectations, Sauter is being cautious about his trip for the second consecutive year.

    “That track is really tricky,” the 14-year Truck Series veteran said. “We go down there and we get one set of tires for practice and that place eats tires like a cheese grater. Your first couple of laps you’re going to feel like King Kong and then you’re going to think ‘what is wrong with this truck?’ I suspect you’re going to see everything next week. Unload decent, struggle a little then be good in the race. We’ve just got to be smart and make smart decisions and we’ll be okay.”

    “It’s been a good place for me. I wouldn’t say it’s been great, but a good place. I’ve got a lot of experience. I hope that helps.”

     

  • Matt Crafton Looking For Third Championship

    Matt Crafton Looking For Third Championship

    At the end of Stage 2 Friday night at Phoenix Raceway, the two-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Matt Crafton, was able to clinch his way into his second consecutive Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami. He will now be seeking his third career championship.

    Before he got there, though, Crafton had to fight his way in despite an uncharacteristic-like year for the No.88 Menards Toyota Tundra.

    At Daytona, he was involved in wild last lap ride, where he went up in the air and landed on the ground. Even with that wreck, Crafton was relegated to a 14th place finish. Throughout the rest of the season, it was up and down for Crafton. However, it wasn’t until Eldora in July, where he scored his first victory of 2017 season, locking himself into the Playoffs for the second consecutive year.

    When the Playoffs started in Loudon, Crafton only finished outside the top 10 once, which took place recently at Phoenix Raceway this past weekend due to a crash. finishing 21st.  With the accident at Phoenix, he is still just a bit bitter, even though he will be searching for the third championship of his career.

    “The 19 just hooked the 27 (Ben Rhodes),” Crafton said.  “No racing about that – but I just said, I told Ben (Rhodes), ‘That ain’t fair, but next week.”

  • No. 7 NXS Crew Chief Suspended For Homestead-Miami Finale

    No. 7 NXS Crew Chief Suspended For Homestead-Miami Finale

    Justin Allgaier’s Crew Chief Jason Burdett has been fined $10,000 and suspended for the NASCAR XFINITY Series finale at Homestead following an L1-infraction issued after Saturday’s post-race inspection at Phoenix Raceway. The No. 7 NXS team has also been penalized both 10 driver and owner points heading into the weekend, although they will still remain in the Championship Round at Homestead.

    According to NASCAR’s statement, both team and Burdett were penalized for a rear-brake assembly cooling issue, which is in violation of Section 20.15.2.2, which states that rear brake cooling assemblies must be sealed from inlet to exhaust.

    As a result, Allgaier’s 10th-place finish Saturday is encumbered.

    We’ll bring you more as the story unfolds.

  • Late race multi-car wreck ruins title hopes for Edwards

    Late race multi-car wreck ruins title hopes for Edwards

    Carl Edwards’s championship hopes were dashed in a violent wreck that took out a number of cars in the closing laps of the season finale in South Florida.

    Restarting with 10 laps to go, the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota restarted ahead of the other Championship 4 drivers when Joey Logano dove to the bottom to try and pass him. Edwards mirrored his move with a block, but he came across the nose of Logano’s car and got hooked into the wall.

    The lifeless 19 car came back across the active race track into the oncoming path of Kasey Kahne who slammed into the back of his car and lifted it up into the air. Regan Smith was also collected in the chaos.

    “Joey (Logano) was so good on the short run that I knew I couldn’t give it to him. I couldn’t give him that lane,” Edwards said talking about the restart. “I went down there and blocked and he went down there as far as a guy could expect to go down and I just thought – I thought we were going to possibly hit. I just thought I’d have a little more time to correct it, but we were so far down there we couldn’t go any farther down and basically we ended up wrecked, so that’s the way things go sometimes.”

    Logano’s car continued on, but got loosened by Edwards’s car coming back towards the track. This sent him across the nose of his teammate Brad Keselowski, who gets hooked into the wall by Ryan Newman.

    “It’s a product of a format that’s based on putting everything and risking everything,” Keselowski said of his thoughts on the incident. “I don’t know. It’s not really all that surprising. It’s disappointing. I don’t think that’s great racing, but I understand why it happened on both ends.”

    Martin Truex Jr. slams into Keselowski, which sets the engine of his car on fire.

    “All I see is the 2 (Brad Keselowski) coming up the track and nowhere to go,” Truex said of what happened from his vantage point. “This is one of those wrong place, wrong time. We got put in the back a few times. Once was our mistake early and (Kevin) Harvick’s after that. It’s unfortunate. We had a really good race car tonight and nothing to show for it. It’s two weeks in a row. Frustrating, glad this year is over and we will go and regroup and get ready for next year.”

    Ty Dillon also sustained damage in that melee.

    He, Edwards, Kahne, Keselowski, Smith and Truex all retired from the race as a result.

  • Johnson makes NASCAR history with victory in Miami

    Johnson makes NASCAR history with victory in Miami

    Jimmie Johnson etched his name into the history books of NASCAR with a race victory and title victory in South Florida.

    The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet took the lead from Kyle Larson on the final restart of the race in overtime to win the Ford EcoBoost 400 and his record-tying seventh Sprint Cup Series championship.

    “Oh my gosh, there is no, no way on earth. Just beyond words,” Johnson said. “Just didn’t think the race was unfolding for us like we needed to do to be the champs, but we just kept our heads in the game. Chad called a great strategy, made some great adjustments for the short runs.  Luck came our way and we were able to win the race and win the championship. I wouldn’t be here without so many people believing in me and giving me this chance; from my dirt days – my parents first and foremost, my brothers, my wife and family today.  Car owners, sponsors, Chevrolet, Lowe’s, so many amazing people along the way that believed in me to give me this chance.  Jeff Gordon, Rick Hendrick, all the men and women at Hendrick Motorsports for working so hard to get these cars fast and giving me an awesome 15 years with the company. Just thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.  So thrilled to be in this moment and so grateful for the opportunity and so thankful and blessed. I am at a loss for words.”

    It’s his 80th win in 543 career Sprint Cup Series starts, fifth of 2016 and first at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

    He joins Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt in a tie for first in most championships in NASCAR history. He and Chad Knaus also join Petty and Dale Inman as the only driver/crew chief duo’s to win seven championships.

    Larson, who led a race-high of 132 laps, finished runner-up. It’s his 15th top-10 finish on the season.

    The run to the finish was setup by a caution with 15 laps to go related to Dylan Lupton.

    On the restart with 10 to go, Joey Logano tried to go inside of Carl Edwards, Edwards went down to block him, but got himself hooked into the inside wall. This led to a multi-car wreck that took out a number of cars, notably Martin Truex Jr., whose car went up in flames.

    Logano brought his car home fourth.

    “It was eventful to say the least,” Logano said of his race. “I hate being that close to a championship and not getting it. The team did a great job all day. We had a good race car and we put ourselves in position to win. No one made any mistakes or anything like that on our pit crew. That last restart, I was hoping to get Jimmie there and trying to get either to the inside or outside of him. I just timed it a little bit wrong to get underneath him. I just didn’t have enough time to get under him. We lost some time there and unfortunately we finish second. The championship means so much and everyone forgets about second place. That is what stinks. But overall I am proud of this team. This will be motivation for next year. This hurts.”

    It required the race to be red-flagged for 31 minutes and nine seconds.

    On the following restart with five to go, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got loose exiting turn 2, slid down the track and slammed into the inside wall.

    “I was just trying to get all I could get there,” Stenhouse said. “It looked like the 3 got underneath the 20 and I tried to get underneath the 3 and when I did he was really close to my door and it just kind of sucked me around and we got loose. It’s a bummer way to end. We were just kind of average all night. It’s a tough way to end the season, but we’ll build it and get back ready for next year.”

    Kyle Busch made the decision to pit under the caution and wound up finishing sixth, clinching the 2016 manufacturer’s championship for Toyota and snapping a 13-year win streak by Chevrolet.

    Edwards finished 34th retired from the race in that accident with 10 to go.

    Notables include a third-place finish by Kevin Harvick, who led 79 laps, and Michael McDowell finishing 10th.

    “We had a great car,” McDowell said. “We made up a lot of spots in the beginning and we just sort of maintained that all day. We were running right there 16th – 20th most of the day and the strategy worked out, everything played out. Got back on the lead lap which obviously was a game changer. There at the end we got a couple of good restarts and we had a good car. We were able to close off a good season.”

    Sixteen cars finished the race on the lead lap and 32 cars were running at the finish.

    The race lasted three hours, seven minutes and 10 seconds at an average speed of 128.869 mph. There were 20 lead changes among six different drivers and seven cautions for 33 laps.

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  • Brian France responds to decline in ratings and attendance

    Brian France responds to decline in ratings and attendance

    Brian France responded to concerns regarding continual declines in ratings and attendance saying they “could always be better,” but NASCAR is “pleased with where we’re at.”

    Speaking to the media in the deadline room at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the chairman and CEO of NASCAR was asked, given the decline in ratings for most of the Chase races and few races being sellouts, if he believed this Chase format was resonating with fans.

    “Yeah, you’re seeing TV ratings slide all over the place in sports, right? You’re seeing all kinds of things happen in TV ratings,” France said. “The big events, they go one way, the digital audience is consuming things different. We’re no different from that. It’s not a surprise on that.

    “Attendance has been fine. We’ve come off weather issues like we did in Phoenix a year ago. We don’t have Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt. Needless to say, there’s going to be a little impact there.

    “(Indiscernible) huge crowd. It could always be better, but we’re pleased with where we’re at.”

    NASCAR television ratings have declined dramatically from their peak in 2005. This season alone, ratings are down six percent from last season (Forbes).

    According to Sports Media Watch, 21 of 30 (six races affected by rain weren’t included) races have hit multi-year lows. That includes seven of the nine Chase races run so far (the rain affected races at Charlotte and Texas weren’t included).

    Attendance also appears shaky, but it’s hard to measure since NASCAR stopped releasing official attendance figures for races since the conclusion of the 2012 season.

    The declines in viewership, be it attendance or television, isn’t exclusively a NASCAR problem. It’s plagued all professional sports in the United States. The NFL most notably, which for the longest time has withstood any damage of the 2008 economic recession, has seen significant declines in television viewership this season.

    But it’s one that’s hit NASCAR the hardest of any sport.

    Ratings and attendance is important to teams when looking for sponsorship. When Bob Pockrass asked about this, however, France seemed rather annoyed by it and actually interrupted his question.

    “Let me stop you,” he said. “Maybe what you don’t realize, or maybe you to realize, we report our attendance, right? We have publicly traded companies. We don’t have publicly financed facilities for the most part. All the other leagues have that benefit, so they can discount tickets, give them away. That’s not reported. So we’re in a little bit of a double standard on that, number one.

    “Number two, we are still very pleased with our position in sports. The audience isn’t going away at all. It’s sliding to different places, consuming in different ways.

    “I would tell you some other leagues that have 30% drop‑offs, they didn’t lose 30% of their audience from one moment to the next, that audience is just sliding and consuming in some different ways. Our digital consumption is off the charts.

    “I want to tell you a little something. I watched the other day, as an example, I’m a sportsfan, so I watched a Duke Blue Devils game, after they had played, in like a six‑ or seven‑minute recap of the game. It was pretty good. Maybe it was a little longer than that. I didn’t watch the game on TV, but I watched it fairly intense with my laptop.

    “So things are happening and sliding and moving around. It will all work out. Sports, in the end, us included, will always have a huge, big audience. So whether ratings are sliding over here, spiking at times over here, that will all work out.”

  • The White Zone: The Chase has run its course

    The White Zone: The Chase has run its course

    “The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading…” and I’m here to say that the Chase has run it’s course and it’s time NASCAR do away with it.

    Now right off the bat, I know this might be a tad hypocritical of me to say given I once wrote an article admonishing fans for still hating the Chase. I’ve abandonded that point of view and now don’t look upon the Chase as favorably.

    There is probably nothing more polarizing in the world of NASCAR today than the Chase. Since it’s inception in the 2004 Nextel Cup season, it’s been a source of constant angst that’s divided the fanbase of the sport for a number of reasons.

    The original Chase was less of a “playoff” like in stick and ball sports and more of a 10-race “miniseason.” In it’s first season, Kurt Busch recovered from literally losing a wheel to win the championship by a margin of eight points over Jimmie Johnson, then a record for the closest points finish in NASCAR history.

    As time went on, more and more changes made it more and more artificial and conveluted.

    In 2014, NASCAR implemented the elimination format style of the Chase. This was more like a “playoff” with eliminations and rounds, rather than it being a miniseason.

    This was the format that took the cake in artificiallity. It ensures that no matter what happens, four drivers will always vie for the title at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

    They went a step further this year and added the same format to the XFINITY Series and Camping World Truck Series.

    For me, it came to a head today.

    On the final restart of the Ford EcoBoost 300, Cole Whitt, who opted not to pit and assumed the lead on 30-lap old tires, spun his tires and cost Erik Jones and Justin Allgaier a chance at winning the XFINITY Championship.

    While it was a dumb move on his part, it was the reaction that I don’t agree with and what led to this column.

    There was a lot of people chastizing him for determining the outcome of the championship the way it occured.

    My take on that is this: Whitt has every right to be there. This is racing! Just because Jones was competing for the title didn’t mean Whitt was obligated to move out of the way for him.

    Just because he had no chance of winning the race – by the way, would you tell me if my Tennessee Volunteers will play in the Sugar Bowl this season while you’re looking in your crystal ball – doesn’t mean he doesn’t get to be there. We harp on other drivers when they decide to lay back and not go for the win, yet criticize Whitt for doing exactly that.

    MAKE UP YOUR MINDS!!!

    But it was this one tweet in particular from Jeff Gluck of USA Today that led to this column.

    The part that caught my eye, and led to this column, was suggesting that maybe NASCAR should’ve stepped in and told Cole Whitt he couldn’t restart up front so he wouldn’t interfere with the championship fight. (I’ll come back to this in a moment)

    Now to be fair, he did issue a retraction of that statement in a later tweet.

    So Jeff, if you’re reading this, I’m not directing my ire at you. I just used your earlier tweet for reference.

    I hate to play the hypothetical game, but let’s say hypothetically NASCAR did step in and tell Whitt, who, even on worn out tires, was leading the race, to take a hike and let championship contender Sadler, Jones or Allgaier in first. If that happened, well, let’s just say I hope Mike Bagley, Pete Pistone, Jim Noble, Chocolate Myers, Dave Moody and anyone else at SiriusXM NASCAR Radio would still has vacation days to burn, because they would not want to be present when those people call in on Monday.

    Fans would be irate, and rightly so, at NASCAR explicitly manipulating the outcome of a race. It would instantly validate every last claim of manipulating the outcome of races that has ever been levied against the people that run NASCAR.

    So what does this have to do with my original thesis? It’s my proof that the Chase has done more harm to the sport than its done good and it’s time we put it in the vault labelled “Good on paper, but poorly executed idea” along with the Car of Tomorrow.

    My plane is about to take off so I must get going.

  • Suarez makes history with title victory in Miami

    Suarez makes history with title victory in Miami

    Daniel Suarez made history in South Florida as a victory in Miami made him the champion of the XFINITY Series.

    Starting on the pole, he dominated the race, leading 133 of the 200 laps. However, the championship the whole race was never a lock for the native of Mexico, as each of the Championship 4 drivers spent time at the head of the field.

    It started to intensify with 57 laps to go when all four of the title contenders held the top four spots in the running order for around 10 laps. It peaked with Erik Jones taking the lead with 43 to go before debris slowed the race.

    Suarez worked his way back to the lead on the restart with 37 to go. From there, it was game on to the finish. Justin Allgaier made contact with the wall running in second with 20 to go and Jones made contact with the wall running down his teammate for the lead with 15 and 13 to go.

    Ray Black Jr. spun exiting Turn 4 and brought out the caution with 10 to go. Elliott Sadler exited pit road first but restarted second because, Cole Whitt, on much older tires, opted not to pit.

    Mike Bumgarner, Sadler’s interim crew chief, pleaded with the 14 team to take the bottom lane on the restart, but they wouldn’t. Sadler restarted as the lead bottom car.

    On the restart with three to go, Whitt spun his tires and backed up Jones and Allgaier, costing them a chance at a championship.

    Sadler gunned ahead, but Suarez jumped to the outside, took the lead and scored the victory and the championship.

    It’s his third victory in 68 career XFINITY Series starts, third of 2016 and first at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

    He’s also the first foreign-born champion in any NASCAR national series.

    Sadler came home third.

    “It’s heartbreaking to be that close and to kind of be in position there in the end,” Sadler said. “The guys made a great call to put me in that spot. Yeah, I’m sad for myself, but I’m more sad for my sponsors, my team my guys in the shop. I love them to death. All the hard work they put in these cars. I wanted to win this championship for them really bad.”

    He also addressed his team pleading with the 14 team to let them have the top lane on the final restart.

    “I just wanted to see if they would let us have the top and just let us four race for it because he was on such old tires,” he added. “He decided to stay up there.”

    “I made a mistake on the restart,” Sadler continued. “He didn’t go and I was a little intimidated and I let Daniel get a good run on me. Congratulations to him and his team. He did a really good job on that restart. I messed up a little bit.”

    Allgaier came home fourth. Jones finished ninth and secured Sunoco Rookie of The Year honors.

    A major incident of note took place on lap 137 Jordan Anderson slammed into the back of Jeremy Clements on the backstretch, who was slowing down to avoid hitting the 16 of Ryan Reed in the middle of a lazy spin.

    The race lasted two hours, 34 minutes and 34 seconds at an average speed of 116.455 mph. There were 21 lead changes among 11 different drivers and seven cautions for 39 laps.

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