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  • The Final Word – The Countdown to the New Season is Down to Single Digits

    The Final Word – The Countdown to the New Season is Down to Single Digits

    The countdown has begun to the start of a new season, with less than ten days to go before the Sprint Unlimited exhibition race at Daytona. A new campaign, some new teams and some new expectations.

    Stewart-Haas had a year of mixed results in 2014. Kevin Harvick has his crown, but I think if you claim one championship you might like to claim another. Hey, it works for Jimmie Johnson. His boss, Tony Stewart, has three, but just having a year without the drama would be a Godsend. Kurt Busch won a race, which placed him in the Chase, but he actually was not even as good as Austin Dillon, Paul Menard, or Brian Vickers over the course of the season. He needs to show this year as to why Gene Haas spent the big money to bring him into the stable.

    Danica Patrick must do well. I hear that, I believe that should be so, but I am not so convinced the bloom is off the rose just yet. With the big money funding, a solid organization behind her, and the media attention she gets, I do not believe she needs to be anything more than the novelty she already is. Being the best female driver in NASCAR history might still be enough, but results better than those of, say, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. should be expected as the soon-to-be 33-year-old embarks on her third full season.

    Kasey Kahne turns 35 this spring and probably is considered the little guy at the big boys table at Hendrick by some. Seventeen wins over his career, including six in the past four years, argues otherwise. The only reason Kahne is not more front and center is due to having teammates who have either won the title multiple times or who happens to be the sports most popular performer. Even Harvick and Stewart would be considered fourth on the depth chart on this outfit.

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a new crew chief. After matching his win totals of the previous nine seasons in 2014, Junior has Greg Ives on the box after Steve Letarte left for the broadcast booth. The 40-year-old needs to repeat what he did in 2014, as 23 Cup wins, 23 more on the junior circuit, two Daytona 500 wins, five Talladega celebrations, and a dozen straight Most Popular Driver of the Year nods might not be enough to make the Hall…in 2030.

    2015 marks the final full-time season for Jeff Gordon. You better enjoy it, as he will not be eligible for the Hall of Fame until at least 2023. That would mark 30 years since he began his career, which is one qualification. If he has to wait until he is 55, that would be in 2027. Gone is the former three years in retirement qualification, as of this year. This alone causes me to expect more tinkering to the qualification rules between now and then.

    Trevor Bayne has a Daytona 500 to his credit, and not much else over the past four seasons. He leaves his part-time job driving for the Wood Brothers to a full-time gig with Roush Fenway. Bayne turns 24 the day they run the Duels at Daytona, with hopes of taking Mark Martin’s old No. 6 ride back to the front. The question is, does he and teammates Greg Biffle and Stenhouse represent an organization on the rise?

    Bayne takes the place of Carl Edwards, who hopes to realize that first championship with his move. Twice he has been the season’s runner-up, as the 35-year-old seeks some greener grass on Joe Gibbs’ side of the fence. Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth are a pretty good trio of teammates to roll with. Without question, one of NASCAR’s Big Three organizations, along with Hendrick and Stewart-Haas.

    Or should that be Big Four? Penske is just a two car outfit, but with Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano on the reins their wagons can make something happen. Both finished amongst the season’s Top Five, combining for 11 victories last year. Yes, Big Four is more like it.

    Is there anyone to make it a Big Five? Childress has youth in Austin Dillon, with brother Ty waiting in the wings. They have experience in Ryan Newman, who was just one point behind Harvick when the smoke cleared at Homestead last November. Then there is Paul Menard, who has yet to crack the season’s Top Fifteen in his career, the past four with Childress. On the positive side, he does come complete with a sponsor. Is that enough?

    Michael Waltrip’s crew once was considered a top flight team, until the wings came off. Martin Truex Jr. found himself with Furniture Row, where their gains with Kurt Busch disappeared with his replacement. Brian Vickers is on the mend with a heart issue, so he will require a temporary replacement. As for Clint Bowyer, Captain Skid dropped to 19th in the season rankings after being the runner-up in 2012 and seventh the season after. Bowyer is locked in for another three years, but will they be the best of times, or the worst of times?

    Ganassi has 22-year old Kyle Larson, who just missed the Chase in his rookie season, along with veteran Jamie McMurray. Am I the only one who thinks this team should have been, and should be, more successful? McMurray has only seven wins over 13 seasons, but where he won is impressive. Two came at Daytona, including the 500 in 2010, two at Talladega, two at Charlotte, as well as the Brickyard 400. Not enough to make one a contender, but certainly one who gets remembered.

    You cannot forget Petty, if only for the guy the outfit is named after. Aric Almirola is back, after a single win got him into the Chase…for three races. That victory was just one of five the team has had over six seasons. Coming in is Sam Hornish Jr. who, in 239 NASCAR races in all three top series, has just three wins on the junior circuit. Two of them came over his last 39 races run there over the past two campaigns. Let us not forget his 19 IndyCar wins between 2001 and 2007, including the 2006 Indianapolis 500. Does that get one excited? Sadly, not much.

    Maybe the biggest move comes off the track. Gone is ESPN. Thank God Almighty. FOX returns, with NBC taking over the second half of the season. Mike Joy is a good lap-by-lap announcer, while Rick Allen is even better. While he may have a few detractors, I enjoy Darrell Waltrip, along with Larry McReynolds, providing color analysis. I think Steve Letarte will be even better though, surprisingly, Jeff Burton may be the weak link until he smooths out his delivery. Still, he has a few months to work on it. All are infinitely better than the ESPN crew, and that works for me.

    It all begins on Saturday, February 14th with the Sprint Unlimited from Daytona on FOX. Dare I say it, “Boogity, Boogity, Boogity.” Sorry, I just could not resist.

  • Odds and Ends as the New NASCAR Season Prepares to Crank it Over

    Odds and Ends as the New NASCAR Season Prepares to Crank it Over

    A new season, with a new defending champion, will be soon upon us. Kevin Harvick and the rest of the boys, and girl, will be in Daytona in less than a month to kick things off. According to Jayski, 43 teams have dreams of running full-time in 2015, with more than a dozen seeing drivers with new crew chiefs, and a handful of wheel men changing seats.

    Former Daytona winner Trevor Bayne goes full-time with Roush, returning in Mark Martin’s old No. 6. Sam Hornish Jr. makes a return to Cup driving the Petty No. 9. Carl Edwards moves on to Gibbs and the No. 19. Brian Vickers is out of Waltrip’s No. 55 until he mends from a heart repair. Nineteen-year-old Chase Elliot should get some seat time with Hendrick, while driving for Junior in the minor series. In the trucks, Junior will have soon-to-be 17-year-old Cole Custer running about 10 races. Cole Custer. If that isn’t the best damned name in NASCAR, I don’t know what is.

    Danica Patrick will be back. She will continue to be back regardless as to what she does, or does not do on the track, as long as fans and sponsors love her and pay her way. You could say she is a lot like Dale Earnhardt Jr. in that way, albeit minus the iconic father, the two Daytona 500 wins, five Talladega triumphs, 23 career victories, and seven appearances in the season’s top ten rankings.

    As I mentioned, while Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus continue their most successful racing marriage, others will be in new relationships. Danica, Junior, and Cousin Carl will be amongst those with new crew chiefs. So will Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Paul Menard, Martin Truex Jr. and both Busch brothers. That could prove interesting, especially in the early going.

    Some get going, some get gone, and sometimes somebody is not happy the ways things turned out. As none of us were witness to the alleged altercation between Kurt Busch and his ex, we are left following along the court case. To be honest, as long as the guy is shown not to be a menace to society, as long as what may have happened is all that may have happened, I really do not care. As much as it is serious business for the principles involved, it is nothing more than a sideline event for the rest of us. An outcome to take notice of if we so wish, but not much more.

    It would be nice to owe millions, if only for having the chance to have spent millions in the first place. We try to live within our means, so that means my family is not bogged down in debt. Still, it would be nice to know that if I completely blew it there might be a bank or two willing to forgive millions in loans they gave me. It must be sweet to be in a position to forgive such a loan.

    The NASCAR Hall of Fame has been a white elephant from the beginning, with even its location suspect. It would seem the 25 minute drive from the track in Concord to downtown Charlotte is a trek many are not interested in making. Even the Daytona Experience, rejected as a site for the Hall, closed its doors and it was located right beside that track. I understand it will re-open again next year as the home of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. That is irony. Oh well, all is forgiven, I guess, to the tune of nearly $20 million. Now if they can only attract some paying customers, or the Convention Center there might wind up with tons of space for it to expand.

    It would be nice to say the new season means a change in the seasons, but for those of us in the lands of snow and ice, it does not. At least it gives us an idea what clear pavement, green grass, and shirt sleeves might look like. That, and a return of our favorite drivers, is good enough.

  • Hot 20 – The Elimination Format was Good, but an Actual Five Race Post-Season Even Better

    Hot 20 – The Elimination Format was Good, but an Actual Five Race Post-Season Even Better

    Over the course of the season, Jeff Gordon was the top driver of 2014. However, NASCAR has not determined its champion using the results of the entire campaign for more than a decade. They want excitement, drama, unpredictability. They want what the other big boy sports have, and when they waved the flag to start the season finale, four drivers had an even shot to claim the prize. Unfortunately, 39 we knew who would not, also were out there.

    Regular season and then the playoffs. That is what you get with the NFL, MLB, NBA, and the NHL. You play to entertain and to position yourself into earning a shot at the championship. Since 2004, NASCAR has also done this, except for allowing the non-contenders to remain out on the field of play getting in the way of those who matter.

    What if NASCAR had a real playoff? It has been brought up that the season is too long, that there needs to be a reduction in the schedule. Realistically, there is no way anyone is going to say adios to the big dollars that comes with putting on a 36 event schedule, not including the extras at Daytona in February and Charlotte in May. However, NASCAR could shorten its regular season to 31 races, as it was in some seasons in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, for its 43 car fields. Then they could reduce it to the top 20 drivers and teams over the course of a five-race championship playoff, resetting the points to zero for the post-season, and allowing the best of the best to settle it among themselves.

    The point system would remain the same, other than instead of “win and you are in,” winners are given credit for their victory with 25 bonus points, instead of the three they are presently given. In that way, a race winner would claim as much as 70 points, compared to the 43 for the runner-up. During the playoffs, points would range from one to 20, with the winner’s bonus reduced to three points in recognition of the smaller field and the impact of a win over the shorter “season.” So, in the playoffs, a race win could earn up to 25 points, compared to the runner-up’s 20. Yes, a driver sweeping the first four races of the playoff would have enough to win the title before they run Homestead but, let’s be honest, if they were that dominant they should win it.

    The playoff teams would be expanded from 16 to 20, with those not making the cut sent home, their season over. Considering there are really no more than 25 quality entries in any given race, all we would be doing is exchanging quantity for quality, with Charlotte being the final race of the regular season.

    Using 2014 as a guide for illustrative purposes, neither A.J. Allmendinger or Aric Almirola would make the playoffs as, despite each picking up a win, neither would have made it on points in our Top 20. Along with the other 14 Chasers from this season we would have included Austin Dillon, Brian Vickers, Clint Bowyer, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson and Paul Menard. A pretty fair exchange.

    TALLADEGA

    Twenty drivers hit the track all even as the opening round of the playoff Chase begins on the super speedway in Alabama. Kyle Busch once again got snake bit come go time when he gets caught up in a crash that left him dead last. Of course, those cars that got him in reality would have been home watching television under this format. Meanwhile, Brad Keselowski responded from the less than loving embraces Denny Hamlin wanted to put on him at Charlotte, and Matt Kenseth did, by claiming 24 points in winning at Talladega. Kenseth, ironically enough, pushed Bad Brad to the front and finished just behind him on the track.

    1 Brad Keselowski 24 Pts
    2 Matt Kenseth 20
    3 Ryan Newman 18
    4 Clint Bowyer 18
    5 Kevin Harvick 16
    6 Kurt Busch 16
    7 Joey Logano 14
    8 Kasey Kahne 14
    9 Austin Dillon 12
    10 Denny Hamlin 11
    11 Kyle Larson 11
    12 Jimmie Johnson 9
    13 Brian Vickers 9
    14 Carl Edwards 8
    15 Greg Biffle 7
    16 Jeff Gordon 6
    17 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 5
    18 Jamie McMurray 4
    19 Paul Menard 2
    20 Kyle Busch 1

    MARTINSVILLE

    Keselowski takes his four point lead over Kenseth to Martinsville, where more than a few need to come up big to make amends for the previous week. After finishing 17th at Talladega, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was among them. In winning, he added 24 points to the five he picked up the previous week, but he remained deep in the standings. Kenseth, Bowyer, Ryan Newman and Joey Logano all had a second strong playoff result, Keselowski was 16th to drop like a stone, as Jimmie Johnson slipped well out of contention with yet another less than stellar result.

    1 Matt Kenseth 37 Pts
    2 Ryan Newman 36
    3 Clint Bowyer 34
    4 Joey Logano 32
    6 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 29
    5 Brad Keselowski 29
    8 Jeff Gordon 26
    7 Denny Hamlin 26
    9 Austin Dillon 24
    11 Kurt Busch 19
    10 Kevin Harvick 19
    12 Greg Biffle 18
    13 Kyle Larson 17
    15 Carl Edwards 16
    14 Brian Vickers 16
    16 Kasey Kahne 15
    18 Kyle Busch 14
    17 Jamie McMurray 14
    19 Jimmie Johnson 13
    20 Paul Menard 12

    TEXAS

    Kenseth heads into the Lone Star State a point ahead of Newman, with Bowyer three away. When it came time to fire off the six guns, Gordon was seeking his own version of High Noon after Keselowski’s bid to take the lead left him with a cut tire and a good day that went for nought. To make matters worse, his rival returned atop the leader board. Johnson’s win at least moved him back into territory where he might yet see light at the end of the long tunnel he is trying to emerge from.

    1 Brad Keselowski 48 Pts
    2 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 44
    3 Ryan Newman 44
    4 Matt Kenseth 42
    5 Joey Logano 42
    6 Kevin Harvick 39
    7 Denny Hamlin 38
    8 Jimmie Johnson 38
    9 Clint Bowyer 37
    10 Kurt Busch 33
    11 Kyle Larson 31
    12 Kyle Busch 31
    13 Jamie McMurray 30
    14 Jeff Gordon 29
    15 Austin Dillon 29
    16 Carl Edwards 28
    17 Greg Biffle 27
    18 Brian Vickers 23
    19 Paul Menard 18
    20 Kasey Kahne 16

    PHOENIX

    After the events at Texas, Keselowski takes a four point lead over both Earnhardt and Newman heading out to the desert, with Gordon’s dreams pretty much shattered by that torn tire. Kevin Harvick came up with a race most can only dream about, absolutely dominating most laps and pretty much all of the re-starts to win. He now sits just behind Keselowski, who finished fourth behind Gordon and Kenseth. Bowyer was dead last on this day, taking him from contender to pretender, while Johnson erased even a glimmer of good tidings by finishing 19th.

    1 Brad Keselowski 65 Pts
    2 Kevin Harvick 64
    3 Matt Kenseth 60
    4 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 58
    5 Joey Logano 58
    6 Ryan Newman 55
    7 Denny Hamlin 55
    8 Jeff Gordon 48
    9 Kurt Busch 47
    10 Kyle Larson 41
    11 Jimmie Johnson 40
    12 Jamie McMurray 39
    13 Greg Biffle 39
    14 Clint Bowyer 38
    15 Carl Edwards 36
    16 Kyle Busch 35
    17 Austin Dillon 32
    18 Brian Vickers 30
    19 Paul Menard 23
    20 Kasey Kahne 22

    HOMESTEAD

    Heading for Miami and the final showdown, 10 drivers remain mathematically alive with seven still with a legitimate shot at the title. Kenseth and Harvick, in fact, could claim it with a victory, no matter what Keselowski did. That is just what Happy Harvick did, leaving Keselowski’s third place result at Homestead just not good enough. A five race playoff, only 20 cars on the track and, in this scenario, the same Sprint Cup champion as provided by the elimination series.

    1 Kevin Harvick 88 Pts
    2 Brad Keselowski 83
    3 Matt Kenseth 75
    4 Ryan Newman 74
    5 Denny Hamlin 70
    6 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 65
    7 Joey Logano 64
    8 Jeff Gordon 61
    9 Kurt Busch 58
    10 Jamie McMurray 55
    11 Jimmie Johnson 52
    12 Clint Bowyer 51
    13 Kyle Larson 49
    14 Paul Menard 40
    15 Greg Biffle 40
    16 Carl Edwards 39
    17 Kyle Busch 37
    18 Austin Dillon 36
    19 Brian Vickers 35
    20 Kasey Kahne 31

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Texas AAA 500

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Texas AAA 500

    After remembering the passing of racer Jim Sauter with a moment of silence, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 10th annual AAA Texas 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway.

    Surprising: Brad Keselowski gave a whole new meaning to minding the gap after his on and off track real estate dispute with Jeff Gordon.

    “Today something happened,” Keselowski said after finishing third. “There was a gap. It closed up. By the time it closed up, I was committed, and I stayed in it. That almost won me the race.”

    “It hurt somebody else’s day. That’s a shame,” the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford said. “But the reality is there was a gap.”

    “You know, I’m not Dale Earnhardt or Senna. I read how they raced, how great they were for this sport. They would sit here and tell you they would go for that same gap. I’m not them, but I’m inspired by that, and I’m going to race that way.”

    Not Surprising: Team Hendrick continued flawlessly executing their strategy in the Eliminator Round of the Chase, sending their Chase busting team members into Victory Lane as a sort of protection for their Chaser brethren Jeff Gordon, who did not quite make it there after his Keselowski encounter.

    Hendrick driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. became the Chase buster in Martinsville last weekend and this weekend it was another HMS Chase buster Jimmie Johnson who took his turn, honoring all Lowe’s employees who wear the red vest in his red No. 48.

    “We are back on track,” Johnson said after winning his fourth of the year and his fourth at Texas Motor Speedway. “Unfortunately we didn’t find this stuff a month or two ago, but that is the way racing goes.”

    With both HMS Chase busters in Victory Lane for the first two races in the Eliminator Round, the lone HMS Chaser Gordon has maintained his position in the top-4, a team feat especially impressive given Gordon’s 29th place run at Texas.

    Surprising: While tire troubles may be a common driver mantra, it is not often that there are complaints about the sheer lack of number of tires available, so much so that NASCAR actually permitted teams to get an extra set of tires during this particular race.

    “It’s kind of a sad situation when you run out of tires like that,” Newman, driver of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet said after finishing 15th. “I wish NASCAR had given us more tires. They gave us one set, but when they keep throwing cautions like that that were totally unnecessary, and there’s not debris on the race track and no reason to throw it. We need to keep racing. And it’s sad to see but that’s the way they’ve been playing it.”

    Not Surprising: If you think that Alexander had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, just ask the Toyota drivers how they were feeling after Texas.

    “We were a bag of everything today. Man we were so bad,” Kyle Busch said after his fourth place run. “I don’t know what happened to us from yesterday. We fought all day long.”

    “We had a bad car,” Denny Hamlin, who finished tenth, said, echoing the theme. “We made the best of it. Other guys made mistakes. We weren’t really that good. Luckily other guys had problems. That’s what happened.”

    “We went the wrong direction on adjustments during the middle part of the race,” Brian Vickers said after his 16th place run. “Billy Scott (crew chief) was able to get the car pretty good for the end of the race but with all those cautions we just got too tight.”

    “We were okay when we were up front and had track position, but we had a problem in the pits and lost our track position,” Matt Kenseth said after finishing 25th. “The way my car drove — I was kind of afraid of how it would be in traffic. We got most of our track position back, stayed out on tires and just couldn’t get by Kurt (Busch) there — and got to the back again having to get tires. Then we got caught up in a restart deal that was three-four wide which did some damage, and we could just never overcome it.”

    Surprising: Joey Logano was on a surprisingly odd salvage mission of his own, trying to make good after, of all things, a glue issue on pit road.

    “We were able to salvage something decent out of tonight,” the driver of the No. 22 AAA Insurance Ford said. “We were a top five car and possibly a winning car if scenarios played out right.”

    “I don’t know what happened with the glue on the pit stop and I haven’t gotten the full story yet but we had a hell of a time trying to put rear tires on the car,” Logano continued. “We lost all our track position with 30 to go and I came off the corner and the 9 hit me and popped my right rear and then we spun out. We put tires back on it and then just held on until the end and got something decent out of something that could have been way worse.”

    In spite of his sticky situation, Logano did emerge the point’s leader by virtue of his five wins for the season, which broke the points tie with Denny Hamlin, who has but one win to date.

    Not Surprising: After the two past races where Austin Dillon scored Rookie of the Race honors, Kyle Larson emerged victorious in that regard, finishing seventh to Dillon’s 21st place run.

    “I thought we practiced really well,” the driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet said. “When the race fired off, we weren’t very good. I thought we’d get better, but we didn’t. We got worse and worse and worse. We had a lot of late-race restarts to get up there to get a better finish.”

    “Disappointing day, but okay to finish seventh where we did. Hopefully we can get some better runs in the last races.”

    Surprising: In a somewhat surprisingly ironic twist, Kevin Harvick, who nudged along the Keselowski vs. Gordon post-race match up, did not want anything to do with retaliation, even after some harsh words for Matt Kenseth as a result of last weekend’s short track racing.

    “I just raced,” Harvick said after Texas was completed. “I thought my car was fast enough to win the race and be in contention. Doing something crazy at that point in the race, then I never saw him (Matt Kenseth) towards the end of the race, so it wasn’t really our game plan to get into that situation any further than we needed to.”

    “It’s like I said before the race, I know he didn’t do it on purpose, but in the end we still lost 33 points to the leader. We got to race as hard as we can to try to get that back.”

    Not Surprising: Even with a swapped out crew chief, Kurt Busch was able to pull off a top-10 finish in his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet.

    “It was great to have a shot at the win,” Busch said after taking the checkered flag in the eighth position. “Tony Gibson (new Crew Chief), the engineers did a great job reading my balance, and I was trying to pick up on their changes. So, it was nice to go out there and execute.”

    “We used the last yellow to our advantage,” Busch continued. “The last two yellows for fresh tires, and worked our way from, I don’t know, 25th to eighth. All-in-all, a great first day. I love the team; I love the guys. We are going to be good. We just have to work out the details.”

    Surprising: Jamie McMurray could not wait for the sun to go down on him, as when the darkness descended he ascended to the fifth finishing spot.

    “We had an up and down day,” the driver of the No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet said. “Fortunately for us we were better when the sun went down. It was really slick at the beginning. We really struggled with the car, but when the sun went down the car started coming to us.”

    Not Surprising: There is no quit in the No. 99 Aflac Ford team, who finished the race ninth after battling from the rear.

    “We got super lucky there at the end and my guys never quit,” Carl Edwards said. “I am so proud of my guys. I have no idea where we are at in points but we certainly finished better than we should have tonight.”

    “It was a great night when for awhile it didn’t look like it was going to be,” Edwards continued. “We get to move on to Phoenix now and we will know what we have to do there. We will take it.”

    “My guys didn’t quit and I know they won’t quit and we are going to go next week and go for this thing.”

  • Jamie McMurray Grabs the Pole at Martinsville

    Jamie McMurray Grabs the Pole at Martinsville

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Charlotte Bank of America 500

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Charlotte Bank of America 500

    With new paint schemes under the lights, as well as pink for breast cancer awareness abounding, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 55th annual Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    Surprising: In spite of the championship not even being close to secured for 2014, there was a surprising amount of discussion about champions after the checkered flag flew at Charlotte.

    Past champs Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski had quite the confrontation in the pits after the race, as well as exchanging some beating and banging on the track during the race and at the end of it.

    “The race had ended, and he’s running into cars on the cool-down lap,” Kenseth said of Keselowski. “I mean, the race is over, and he comes down pit road and drives into the side of me. That’s inexcusable. He’s a champion, and he’s supposed to know better.”

    Denny Hamlin was also a participant in the melee on and off the track with Keselowski, calling the driver of the powder blue deuce “out of control.”

    “He’s desperate, obviously, and it’s either four or five of us are wrong or he’s wrong because he’s pissed off everyone,” Hamlin said. “That was unfortunate. Matt (Kenseth) was nearly out of his car, and he just plowed into Matt and then ran into Tony and then went in through the garage and cleared out transmissions and did burnouts in the garage.”

    “Just acting like a dumbass instead of a champion.”

    Not Surprising: Although he won his 26th race, tying Hall of Famer inductee Fred Lorenzen for 25th on the all-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win list, as well as securing his spot in the Eliminator round of the Chase, Kevin Harvick seemed more than willing to turn over the wheel of his No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet to another driver for next weekend’s race at Talladega.

    “I’d park it because it’ll be one hell of a race to watch,” Harvick said simply when asked about the potential mayhem at ‘Dega. “That’s what I’d do.”

    “I’m parking it and watching it. It’s going to be fun to watch. It’s going to be crazy, offensive racing.”

    “You want to drive, DeLana?”

    Surprising: It was a surprisingly good night in Charlotte for the Ganassi Racing team, with Jamie McMurray finishing third and the rim-riding rookie Kyle Larson finishing sixth.

    “Yeah, it was a really good night for our whole group,” McMurray said. “When I got to second place at one point I looked at my mirror and Kyle was catching me. We certainly went through a couple of really tough years as our group at Chip Ganassi Racing, and it’s so great right now to have both cars run that well every single week at a lot of different type racetracks.”

    “I was not only thrilled for our group but also for the 42 car and just everybody. This is a big weekend for all the race teams. There’s a lot of crew guys that get to bring their kids here to watch their dads or their moms work that sit in the stands, so that’s pretty special I think for Kyle and I to have a good showing.”

    “Top groove got going, and I was able to run up there and get to the front and lead for a little bit and the yellow came out and we lost some spots on pit road,” Larson said. “I was able to get back to second and then got into the wall in 3 and 4 chasing down the 11, and messed up the aerodynamics and was really tight after that and just kind of held on and I was lucky with that green-white-checkered, we came down and took four, restarted on the outside and was able to follow the 22 up around the top to get to sixth.”

    Not Surprising: Although he finished second in his No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, restarts continue to be the Achilles heel for Jeff Gordon.

    “I didn’t want to see another restart, because every time we start on the inside, we seem to lose positions; there at the end, and the whole race,” Gordon said. “We were just trying to tune to make it better.”

    “I’m really proud of that finish and really proud of that effort.” Gordon continued. “It looked like we were going to be second. We got off a little bit and lost some track position. I had some terrible restarts. Kevin was tough. I knew when he got out in front it was going to be hard to beat him.”

    “I’m really happy about this second (place finish). It doesn’t make us, by any means, comfortable going into next week, but a lot better than it could be.”

    Surprising: With all the post-race drama, one of the most dramatic turn of events at the race start was lost in the shuffle. Matt Kenseth was penalized at the start of the race for an unapproved adjustment on pit road, which was reportedly a bumper decal.

    After his crew chief vociferously argued the call, Kenseth was forced to start the race at the rear of the field, which perhaps led to his anger and frustration that spilled over at race end.

    Not Surprising: While there was much drama for the Chase competitors, there were many non-Chasers that were having quite their own little races as well.

    Both Kurt Busch and AJ Allmendinger were satisfied with their finishes at Charlotte, taking the checkered flag in eleventh and twelfth places respectively.

    “I would call it a really good effort,” Kurt Busch, the driver of the No. 41 State Water Heaters Chevrolet, said. “The lap times were there. We were running second at half-way and ended up finishing 11th. But all-in-all, it was nice to run up front with the guys, and to show a turn in the right direction from where we had been running.”

    “We started off a little bit off,” AJ Allmendinger, the driver of the No. 47 Scott Products Chevrolet, said. “There were a couple of runs that I thought we were really good. I’m happy with it and stayed on the lead-lap all day.”

    “We have to keep working. I think there are little, small things that we are missing instead of big things. Getting better.”

    Surprising: After Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne was the only Hendrick driver to finish top-ten, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. having shifter problems and Jimmie Johnson testily telling crew chief Chad Knaus that he was going to crash every lap.

    “It was better than we ran most of the night,” Kahne, driver of the No. 5 Pepsi Chevrolet, said. “The only way I could get it to turn in the center was to be so loose. Then it would still get tight after 15 laps so we would go slower at that point. So we just tried a lot of things.”

    Johnson soldiered on to finish 17th and Junior ended the race in the 20th spot.

    Not Surprising: While Joey Logano did not even have to finish the race given his race win at Kansas last weekend, he was still very pleased with maintaining his points lead position. In fact, he remarked prior to the race that he was thrilled to see his hauler and car in the garage area at the front of the pack.

    “Obviously, this doesn’t do a whole bunch for us because we’re in the next round,” Logano said after his fourth place finish. “But we still need to keep that momentum like we have been. It was definitely a hard-fought day for this whole Pennzoil team and they did a good job.”

    Logano leads the point standings by six points over competitor Kyle Busch.

    Surprising: With the focus more on tire concerns, the real issue of the race was the incredible number of blown engines. In fact, there were five engine expirations, including Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard, Josh Wise, Michael Annett, and Brian Vickers.

    “I had a really good car,” Paul Menard, driver of the No. 27 Schrock/Menards Chevrolet, said. “It’s too bad, awesome car, we had a pit stop problem and went to the back, but drove our way back up into the top 15 or so. We definitely had a top five car, just unfortunate. Something let go in the motor.”

    Not Surprising: Next week’s race is the infamous crap shoot of Talladega and not surprisingly, the drivers have different opinions on just how that race will play out.

    “It wasn’t a win – which is what we really want – but it’s another solid finish for us,” Kyle Busch said after his fifth place run at Charlotte. “We just need to go to Talladega next week and try to avoid the ‘big one.’ ”

    “We had a good finish for our Fastenal Ford,” Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford, said after finishing eighth. “It’s fun racing here at Charlotte and now we get to go to Talladega and have a little fun. We’ve got 20 points on ninth-place so it went pretty well for us.”

    “We’ll go on to Talladega, but I’m just glad we got out of here clean,” Edwards continued. “I don’t think we made any enemies, so we’ll go have some fun at Talladega and hopefully make the next round.”

     

  • Harvick Takes the Victory at Charlotte but Matt Kenseth Delivers the Final Blow

    Harvick Takes the Victory at Charlotte but Matt Kenseth Delivers the Final Blow

  • Kevin Harvick Freaky Fast Yet Again to Score Monster Mile Pole

    Kevin Harvick Freaky Fast Yet Again to Score Monster Mile Pole

    After a celebratory hug from son Keelan, Kevin Harvick proved that he was ‘freaky fast’ again in his No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet, scoring the pole for the AAA 400 at the Monster Mile with a speed of 162.933 mph and a time of 22.095 seconds.

    This was his first pole at the Monster Mile but the seventh pole of the season. He has six poles combined in his entire career prior to 2014.

    “Just really proud of my guys,” Harvick said. “There’s a lot going on with the Chase and they just keep bringing fast cars to the race track. Hopefully tomorrow we can evolve a little bit more. It’s a lot of fun when you unload well.”

    “This used to be a huge hurdle for us,” Harvick continued. “We’ve had some bad days here. It’s been a long time but over the last three or four years this has been a good race track for us, been enjoyable and a lot of fun to drive.”

    “We just have to keep doing what we’re doing.”

    Kyle Busch, behind the wheel of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, was second in qualifying with a speed of 162.404 mph and a time of 22.167 seconds, followed by Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota, in the third starting spot, with a speed of 162.250 mph and a time of 22.188 seconds.

    “So far, so good,” Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, said. “This was a good opportunity to start up front here at Dover. I look forward to this weekend’s chance to bring Interstate Batteries back to Victory Lane.”

    This was Busch’s 14th top-10 start of 2014 and his 11th in 20 races at Dover.

    Although Hamlin was pleased with his third place starting position, he acknowledged that he will be driving the race of his life hoping to avoid elimination from the Chase competition.

    “Obviously excited to start off on a good foot and a good position to start the race,” Hamlin said. “But this is going to be the hardest race that I’m ever going to drive.”

    “I have to be as aggressive as I can but this is the most important race of my career at this point. We’ve got to get the job done and I have to do my part to make sure that I’m successful.”

    “If we’re going to live to race another day, we have to get past this race.”

    While Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski qualified fourth in his No. 2 Wurth Ford and was the highest Ford qualifier, his teammate Joey Logano only secured the sixteenth starting spot.

    “We’re strong,” Keselowski said. “The 4 car is a little bit better. We seem to be right there with everyone else or maybe just a touch better, but we’ll keep working on it. We’ve got tomorrow’s practice and we’ve got a good starting spot for Sunday. It’s not a pole, but you can’t always get poles. Still, it’s something to be proud of.”

    “We just didn’t go fast enough, I don’t know,” Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford said. “We unloaded pretty far off today and we spent a lot of time on race trim. We got started behind the eight-ball and trying to make that up and didn’t put a great effort into qualifying today, so we’re gonna start a little further toward the back. We’ll just work on it tomorrow and try to make our Shell/Pennzoil Fusion a little better.”

    Jamie McMurray, fresh off his streak of three consecutive top-10 runs, rounded out the top-five qualifiers, with a speed of 161.936 mph in his No. 1 McDonalds Chevrolet.

    “I really didn’t even know we had advanced to round two after the initial round,” Big Mac said. “We just barely got in, and made some good changes. The car was really loose on that second run. So I was surprised that I ran quicker than I did the first time. The McDonalds Chevy has been really good in race trim, so I am really excited that we qualified well. This is a tough place to pass at. Good pit selection and good starting spot, so off to a good start for the weekend.”

    Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet, qualified seventh, scoring the top starting rookie spot as par for the course.

    “I was hoping for a little bit more in qualifying,” Larson said. “We were pretty tight through one and two, which is where we gave up most of our time. Seventh is still not bad. We can get a good pit stall and hopefully have a good race on Sunday.”

    Probably the most disappointed of all of the Chase contenders was AJ Allmendinger, who qualified 28th in his No. 47 Hungry Jack/ACME Chevrolet.

    “It sucked,” Dinger said of his qualifying effort. “We are just not fast enough.”

    The full qualifying order for the 45th Annual AAA 400 is as follows:

    2014 NSCS AAA 400 Starting Lineup

    Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
    1 4 Kevin Harvick Budweiser Chevrolet 22.095 162.933
    2 18 Kyle Busch Interstate Batteries Toyota 22.167 162.404
    3 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Freight Toyota 22.188 162.25
    4 2 Brad Keselowski Wurth Ford 22.203 162.14
    5 1 Jamie McMurray McDonald’s Chevrolet 22.231 161.936
    6 24 Jeff Gordon Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet 22.281 161.573
    7 42 Kyle Larson # Target Chevrolet 22.297 161.457
    8 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet 22.319 161.298
    9 15 Clint Bowyer 5-hour Energy Toyota 22.41 160.643
    10 3 Austin Dillon # Dow Chevrolet 22.429 160.506
    11 55 Brian Vickers Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota 22.431 160.492
    12 5 Kasey Kahne Farmers Insurance Chevrolet 22.473 160.192
    13 10 Danica Patrick GoDaddy Chevrolet 22.333 161.196
    14 20 Matt Kenseth Home Depot Husky Toyota 22.342 161.132
    15 14 Tony Stewart Mobil1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet 22.358 161.016
    16 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 22.377 160.879
    17 9 Marcos Ambrose Twisted Tea Ford 22.387 160.808
    18 99 Carl Edwards Fastenal Ford 22.401 160.707
    19 27 Paul Menard CertainTeed/Menards Chevrolet 22.411 160.635
    20 31 Ryan Newman Quicken Loans Design A Scheme Chevrolet 22.413 160.621
    21 43 Aric Almirola Nathan’s Famous Ford 22.418 160.585
    22 41 Kurt Busch Haas Automation Chevrolet 22.426 160.528
    23 51 Justin Allgaier # Brandt Professional Agriculture Chevrolet 22.437 160.449
    24 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Zest Ford 22.441 160.421
    25 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. National Guard Chevrolet 22.444 160.399
    26 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Chevrolet 22.48 160.142
    27 16 Greg Biffle Post-it Ford 22.51 159.929
    28 47 AJ Allmendinger Hungry Jack/ACME Chevrolet 22.519 159.865
    29 26 Cole Whitt # Uponor Toyota 22.54 159.716
    30 13 Casey Mears GEICO Chevrolet 22.613 159.2
    31 38 David Gilliland Long John Silver’s Ford 22.624 159.123
    32 98 Josh Wise Phil Parsons Racing Chevrolet 22.749 158.249
    33 36 Reed Sorenson American Muscle Driving Experience 22.76 158.172
    34 23 Alex Bowman # Dr Pepper Toyota 22.772 158.089
    35 7 Michael Annett # Cypress HQ Chevrolet 22.789 157.971
    36 40 Landon Cassill(i) Newtown Building Supplies Chevrolet 22.91 157.137
    37 34 David Ragan Plimpton & Hills Ford Owner Points
    38 33 David Stremme Little Joe’s Autos Chevrolet Owner Points
    39 32 JJ Yeley(i) CorvetteParts.net Ford Owner Points
    40 37 Mike Bliss(i) Accell Construction Inc. Chevrolet Owner Points
    41 66 Mike Wallace(i) Toyota Owner Points
    42 83 Travis Kvapil Burger King Toyota Owner Points
    43 44 Timmy Hill Phoenix Warehouse Chevrolet Owner Points

    (i) Ineligible for Driver Points in this Series, # Denotes Rookie, * Required to Qualify on Time

    Source: Timing and Scoring provided by NASCAR Media/NASCAR Statistics

    – See more at: http://www.catchfence.com/2014/sprintcup/09/26/2014-nscs-aaa-400-starting-lineup/#sthash.OvymXWvG.dpu

  • The Final Word – Loudon was Full of Surprises, and Not all of Them Were Happy Ones

    The Final Word – Loudon was Full of Surprises, and Not all of Them Were Happy Ones

    New Hampshire, for about 180 laps, was a mind numbing experience. It was the Round-and-round 300, and when you add the beleaguered ESPN desk trios to the mix, it was damn near unwatchable. Then stuff started to happen.

    Early on, Kurt Busch had to come in due to a tire issue. Then Dale Earnhadt Jr.’s crew failed to secure lugnuts on a tire, and he had to make an unscheduled stop. Not long after, there was Denny Hamlin stuck on pit row with a car that would not accept fuel. It was enough to make one kick off the fast forward button to check out exactly what was going on.

    Matt Kenseth did not seem to have a lot of command over his sliding vehicle, and when he broke traction and had to whoa up he got hit from behind by Kyle Busch, who got hit from behind by Kasey Kahne, who got hit from behind by Ryan Newman. On the positive side, it at least allowed Junior to get back on the lead lap.

    Brad Keselowski got spun, but after his win at Chicago he was just driving for fun and sponsor dollars. Kurt Busch got into Jamie McMurray which caused a tire rub that caused a blow out that caused Mr. Busch to hit the wall.

    Later, Kenseth again wobbled and after contact with Paul Menard it was the Chaser doing some metal work against the wall. Jeff Gordon looked good with under ten to go, until his tire let go and he nailed the fence.

    In the end, it was almost a recasting of last week, with Kevin Harvick the dominant once again on the day, but once again it was a Penske car driving off on the re-starts. Joey Logano got the lead in this play, driving off, not to be seen again until the finish line, to punch his ticket to the next round. Harvick finished third.

    The runner-up? That would be one Kyle Larson, as the kid did it again. Not a Chaser, but no doubt the 22-year old is a racer as he claims his second straight Top Three. Top Ten days for Jimmie Johnson, Keselowski, Kyle Busch, and Junior keep them high on the charts.

    Aric Almirola was dead last amongst Chasers after his disaster in Chicago. Until his engine blew, he had been doing great. Sixth at Loudon sure helps, and having a bunch of folks joining him in the deep end of the pool at least allows him a chance of standing on somebody’s shoulders to advance. He was 23 points out when they began Sunday, he is ten away going into next weekend.

    Out of 16 Chasers, half of them finished outside the Top Fifteen. Greg Biffle had a non-competitive day to finish 16th. Carl Edwards was 17th, Newman one behind him. Kenseth was 21st, Kahne 23rd, and Gordon 26th. Way back there was Kurt, at 36th, one up on Hamlin’s beast. If nothing else, it rather muddled up what had been, or so I thought, a few foregone conclusions.

    What that leaves us with is Sunday at Dover. Keselowski and Logano are safe, with a disaster of Biblical proportions needed to deny Harvick. Almirola is still dead last, but the gap between 16th and 8th is now just a dozen points. One blown tire, one blown engine, one broken part, or one miscue out on the track, and all bets are off.

    Last Sunday’s televised action would not have added a single new fan to the sport, not in the way Talladega might next month. Loudon was painful to watch and even more painful to listen to. However, for fans who know what is at stake, New Hampshire provided something huge. Unpredictability. Heading to Dover I am confident as to who three, even seven, of the drivers advancing to the next round of the Chase will be. I am not so sure about the other five. Not anymore.

    Dandy Dozen
    1 – Brad Keselowski – 1 Win – 2097 Points –  *
    2 – Joey Logano – 1 – 2096 – *
    3 – Kevin Harvick – 0 – 2090 – 41 Points in
    4 – Jimmie Johnson – 0 – 2080 – 31 Points in
    5 – Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 0 – 2077 – 28 Points in
    6 – Kyle Busch – 0 – 2077 – 28 Points in
    7 – Jeff Gordon – 0 – 2070 – 21 Points in
    8 – Carl Edwards – 0 – 2057 – 8 Points in
    9 – Matt Kenseth – 0 – 2057 – 8 Points in
    10 – A.J. Allmendinger – 0 – 2056 – 7 Points in
    11 – Ryan Newman – 0 – 2055 – 6 Points in
    12 – Kasey Kahne – 0 – 2055 – 6 Points in

    One chance at Redemption
    13 – Denny Hamlin – 0 – 2049 – 6 Points out
    14 – Greg Biffle – 0 – 2049 – 6 Points out
    15 – Kurt Busch – 0 – 2047 – 8 Points out
    16 – Aric Almirola – 0 – 2045 – 10 Points out

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: New Hampshire Sylvania 300

    Surprising and Not Surprising: New Hampshire Sylvania 300

    In the second race of the Chase for NASCAR’s championship, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 18th annual Sylvania 300 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

    Surprising: Instead of being magical, New Hampshire Motor Speedway proved to be more of a combination of Daytona, Darlington and Martinsville.

    The 303 lap race included a Daytona-like ‘big one’, many cars striping the wall similar to Darlington, and some typically short-track Martinsville-like beating and banging, especially during the restarts.

    David Ragan was involved in New Hampshire’s version of the ‘big one’, slamming hard into the wall after tangling with Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. and then getting tagged after the wreck by Denny Hamlin to boot.

    “It was unfortunate,” Ragan, driver of the No. 32 Taco Bell Ford, said. “It looked like the 51 and 78 were both mad and they were running over each other. They kind of shot up the race track and that just kind of shot me up.”

    Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. was just one of many drivers who had a too close encounter with the New Hampshire wall, getting an even more severe stripe than at Darlington.

    “I blew a left-front,” the driver of the No. 17 EcoPower Ford said. “We were all just racing really, really hard on that restart. Everybody was bouncing off each other. I don’t know who hit my left-front, but it got a fender rub and just blew the left-front going down the front straightaway.”

    “I was trying to get it slowed down as much as I could, but it wasn’t gonna turn, so I just hit the wall.”

    Chaser Matt Kenseth and Paul Menard were just one pair that were duking it out like on a short track while on the Magic Mile. Both drivers spun, causing a 21st place finish for Kenseth while Menard soldiered on to finish 15th.

    “I got spun out on that wall up there,” the driver of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota said. “Menard said he wheel-hopped it in there and got into me.”

    Not Surprising: New England native Joey Logano, clicking his heels together in Victory Lane, proved that there truly is no place like home. Logano won his fourth race of the season at his home track and secured his place, along with his Penske teammate, in the next round of the Chase competition.

    “This is my home race track, the coolest place to win for me,” the driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford said. “I could never pick a better race track to win.”

    “I watched my first Cup race here when I was five and I won that other Cup race here (rain-shortened race), but I just felt like I had to win one the right way here, and this means so much.”

    This was Logano’s seventh career NASCAR victory and his second win at the Magic Mile.

    Surprising: Penske teammate Brad Keselowski emerged after the race surprisingly conflicted, in spite of finishing fourth in the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford.

    “I don’t know,” Keselowski said. “We had a lot of adversity. I made a few mistakes that got us behind, but Paul Wolfe (crew chief) and the crew did a great job of getting us back in position. It was kind of an up-and-down day and I guess we ended on an OK note.”

    “We finished seventh, but I was definitely looking for more than that,” Keselowski continued. “We certainly have a lot to be proud of, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”

    Not Surprising: It certainly was not surprising that Denny Hamlin’s post-race interview included the word crap as he battled a fueling issue and then got involved in a wreck to finish 37th in his No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota.

    “It’s so frustrating,” Hamlin said. “We just got bit by a mechanical deal. We’ve had them bite us in the Chase in the past, but I thought we were past that — but sometimes you roll the dice and you crap out.”

    “Today is that day for us.”

    Surprising: While Michael Waltrip lived to dance another day after being in the bottom three in ‘Dancing with the Stars’, his drivers both had decent top-15 runs at New Hampshire this race weekend.

    Vickers fared best in his No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota, with a 10th place finish, while Clint Bowyer, expectant father, finished 14th.

    “The guys just did an awesome job with our Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota today,” Vickers said. “We had a really good race car — it was fast, we were one of the best cars in the corner today.”

    “The guys did a good job today, I’m really proud of them.”

    Not Surprising: Yes, the youngster did it again. Kyle Larson, the highest finishing rookie, scored the runner up finishing spot in his No. 42 Target Chevrolet.

    “It was a really good race for us,” Larson said. “Our Target Chevy wasn’t even a top-15 car the first 100 laps, and Shine (Chris Heroy, crew chief) and everybody on this Target team did a great job to get me in the game.”

    “They made some big changes there under the second or third caution, and it felt like a totally different race car.”

    This was Larson’s second top-10 finish in just two races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and his 13th top-10 finish of the season.

    Surprising: There was plenty of talk after the race yet again about restarts, from Kevin Harvick’s complaint about the restarts late in the race to other drivers commenting on the craziness of the multiple restarts, particularly the green-white-checkered finish.

    “And then at the end there, NASCAR must not be able to see the lines on the restart there and the No. 22 (Joey Logano) was way early all day,” Harvick said ruefully about the restarts after finishing third. “But all in all, we did what we had to do and I just enjoyed racing that hard.”

    “All those cautions are fairly frustrating,” Jamie McMurray said after finishing fourth in his No. 1 Belkin/WEMO Chevrolet. “I know it is fun to watch as a fan, but you are so panicked as a driver as to which lane you are going to get to restart in because that is critical.”

    “It was a wild day, especially with all of those restarts,” six-time champ Jimmie Johnson said. “Man I don’t know what it looked like from the grandstands today, but I can tell you that inside the car, I was hanging on trying not to spin out.”

    Not Surprising: The pendulum swung for Aric Almirola, whose engine blew up last weekend, to his sixth place finish this weekend in his No. 43 Smithfield Ford.

    “We’re down but we’re not out,” Almirola said. “We can only control what we can control and today we did that and did a good job and finished sixth.”

    “Last week it didn’t work out in our favor, but this week it did,” Almirola continued. “We’ll do the same thing at Dover and we’ll see what happens.”

    Surprising: Martin Truex, Jr. made another surprising comeback from two laps down just like last weekend to finish a respectable 12th place.

    “The guys didn’t quit on me today and I’m driving my heart out,” Truex said. “Though we made good adjustments today and came through at the end, we struggled for most of the weekend and need to work out some issues. But the guys worked hard and kept on making the car better.”

    “I never thought I would say this about New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but I wish the race was longer,” stated Truex. “We were moving forward and felt there were more cars that we could have passed.”

    Not Surprising: Next week will be anything but comfortable for the remaining Chase contenders fighting to go into the next round.

    “I wonder that the last race in each round may be quite eventful,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said about the next race in Dover after finishing ninth at the Magic Mile. “Guys are going to have to – you know on the last restarts or those last cautions guys that need those points and aren’t going to get them any other way are going to have to take some crazy gamble on tires, fuel.”

    “You are going to have some guys out there on old tires trying to hold people off and it’s going to cause a lot of traffic,” Junior continued. “It’s going to get tight. It’s going to get furious.”