Tag: jamie mcmurray

Jimmie Johnson Stole the Monster Mile Show to Make it Two in a Row

For the ninth time, Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet stole the show at the Monster Mile, making it two race wins in a row and virtually guaranteeing himself a place in the Chase for the tenth consecutive year.

“It was an awesome race car,” Johnson said. “The first run I wasn’t sure we were really going to have the normal Dover magic here. Once the track ‘rubbered’ in our car came to life and it was so good.”

“It’s amazing that we can stay on top of things here with the different generation car, different rules, different tires,” Johnson continued. “This place just fits my style and Chad Knaus’ style.”

“I don’t even know where to begin,” Chad Knaus, winning crew chief, said. “We came in here with high expectations and things went really well for us right out of the gate. We were pretty optimistic at that point. Qualifying went well and we were excited to get into the event today.”

“At that point, we tried to manage the race and it turned out to be a pretty good day.”

Both Brad Keselowski, who started from the pole, and Matt Kenseth, who remains winless for the season, attempted to hang with the six-time champ, but finished second and third instead.

“We just had an up and down day,” the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford said. “We started up front and went to the back early in the race.”

“Then we took back off and had some strong runs,” Keselowski continued. “We were probably going to get a crack at Jimmie and then that last caution came out. We drove back up to second with the help of the restart and we were pretty even with Jimmie but it was just a matter of being out front.”

“It was a solid day for us,” the third place finishing driver of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota said. “I did a poor job qualifying and so good adjustments and pit stops moved us forward. There was just that one group of cars that we couldn’t quite run with. We just need to be a little bit faster.”

Kenseth, who looked like he had a shot to win, actually struggled on the final restart with six laps to go, spinning his tires and then getting into the wall.

“The 48 spun them and I spun them a little bit,” Kenseth said. “I just need to do a better job and let the rear tires quit screaming so I could get going. And then Clint (Bowyer) hit me I guess trying to give me a push there.”

In addition to being a factor in the final restart with Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer was a factor in another incident early in the race with Kyle Busch, who looked strong as he tried to achieve the sweep of the race weekend after winning both the Truck and Nationwide races.

Bowyer and Busch tangled on Lap 126, putting Busch out of the race. Bowyer went on to salvage a good finish, bringing home his No. 15 Cherry 5-Hour Energy Special Ops Warrior Foundation Toyota home in the fourth position.

“I hated to be in that position with the 18,” Bowyer said. “I thought I was clear, obviously I wasn’t. Ruined his day.”

One of the other major incidents of the race involved AJ Allmendinger, Greg Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., the latter of whom sustained hard hits on Lap 135.

“Inside of the car I didn’t really know what happened,” the driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion said. “I just knew that the 47 got into us pretty hard and turned us into the fence. After watching the replay I see what happened.”

“They were racing hard back there and he stuck it into a hole that maybe there wasn’t room for,” Biffle continued. “There definitely wasn’t room come three-quarters of the way around the corner I guess and he slid off the bottom and got his right-rear caught by the 17 and up into us. It was a chain reaction. This place is tight and fast and when you get racing that hard back there on a restart stuff like that is going to happen.”

“We were really loose,” Ricky Stenhouse Jr. said. “The 47 jumped to the inside of us there and I tried to stay out of his way and he got me. We met right-rear to left-front and it got him sideways and everything else happened after that.”

“Our Nationwide Insurance Ford was really, really loose all race long and we were trying to hang on with it,” the driver of the No. 17 Nationwide Ford Fusion said. “We didn’t want it to end that way and we got our teammate caught up in it and tore up a lot of cars.”

“That is now what we wanted to do. It is a tough end to our day,” Stenhouse Jr. continued. “It is a bummer.”

In one of the more bizarre incidents and for just the third time in the last few years, once in April 2004 at Martinsville and once in 2010 at the Daytona 500, the red flag was displayed after a piece of concrete dislodged from the race track and hit Jamie McMurray’s car.

The red flag lasted six minutes and 39 seconds and while McMurray could not work on his car during that time, repairs were made when the red flag was lifted and the driver of the No. 1 Cessna Chevrolet got the ‘lucky dog’ break, soldiering on to a respectable 13^th place finish.

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president for competition, addressed the media after the race, advising that NASCAR was not aware of the concrete hole prior to the race and then addressed it immediately after the issue occurred with materials that are utilized regularly for repair work.

“We do a track walk after every race and in the morning and at the time, that had been a previous patch, but our staff did not see anything wrong with it,” Pemberton said. “The hole was two or three inches deep and six or eight inches by ten inches, so it was pretty substantial.”

“Our team has equipment and product at every facility in case there is a need for it. It’s an epoxy type filler that we use and is the same material we use whether it be asphalt or concrete.”

Many of the drivers praised NASCAR’s handling of the concrete repair, including Brad Keselowski.

“I think NASCAR did a good job or whoever fixed it did a good job of repairing it,” Keselowski said. “It’s hard to come back up there at the end and it was definitely an issue when it happened. You knew it was going to get worse if it wasn’t repaired and a small hole was going to turn into a big hole. I give NASCAR credit to realize that, stop, and fix it.”

Kyle Larson, behind the wheel of the No. 42 Cottonelle Chevrolet, was the highest finishing rookie yet again. With the third place finish of Matt Kenseth and the 15^th place finish by the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet Jeff Gordon, Kenseth gained the points lead over Gordon and is now in P1 by two points.

The full race results are as follows:

2014 NSCS FedEx 400 Race Results

Fin	Str	Car	Driver	Team	Lap	Pts	BPts	Status	TLd	LLd
1	4	48	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet	400	48	5	Running	7	272
2	1	2	Brad Keselowski	Miller Lite Ford	400	43	1	Running	1	1
3	21	20	Matt Kenseth	Dollar General Toyota	400	42	1	Running	5	17
4	10	15	Clint Bowyer	Cherry5-hrEnergySpecialOpsWarriorFnd Toyota	400	41	1	Running	2	5
5	7	11	Denny Hamlin	Autism Speaks/FedEx Freight Toyota	400	39		Running
6	16	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Furniture Row Chevrolet	400	38		Running
7	20	14	Tony Stewart	Code 3/Mobil 1 Chevrolet	400	37		Running
8	3	22	Joey Logano	Shell Pennzoil Ford	400	36		Running
9	13	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	National Guard Chevrolet	400	35		Running
10	15	27	Paul Menard	Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Chevrolet	400	34		Running
11	5	42	Kyle Larson #	Cottonelle Chevrolet	400	33		Running
12	25	43	Aric Almirola	Smithfield Ford	400	32		Running
13	19	1	Jamie McMurray	Cessna Chevrolet	400	31		Running
14	29	99	Carl Edwards	Subway Ford	400	30		Running
15	6	24	Jeff Gordon	Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet	400	29		Running
16	27	9	Marcos Ambrose	DeWalt Ford	400	28		Running
17	8	4	Kevin Harvick	Budweiser Chevrolet	399	28	1	Running	2	24
18	24	41	Kurt Busch	Haas Automation Chevrolet	399	26		Running
19	17	5	Kasey Kahne	Farmers Insurance Chevrolet	399	25		Running
20	23	3	Austin Dillon #	American Ethanol Chevrolet	398	24		Running
21	11	47	AJ Allmendinger	Scott Products Chevrolet	397	23		Running
22	18	66	Brett Moffitt	Land Castle Title Toyota	396	22		Running
23	28	10	Danica Patrick	GoDaddy Chevrolet	396	21		Running
24	38	36	Reed Sorenson	Click It or Ticket Chevrolet	396	20		Running
25	22	13	Casey Mears	GEICO Chevrolet	395	19		Running
26	30	51	Justin Allgaier #	AccuDoc Solutions Chevrolet	395	18		Running
27	31	26	Cole Whitt #	Burger King Toyota	394	17		Running
28	33	98	Josh Wise	iRacing.com/Reddit.com Chevrolet	390	16		Running
29	32	38	David Gilliland	The Pete Store Ford	388	15		Running
30	43	32	Blake Koch(i)	supportmilitary.org Ford	388	0		Running
31	14	31	Ryan Newman	Caterpillar Chevrolet	387	13		Running
32	41	83	Ryan Truex #	Burger King Toyota	387	12		Running
33	42	77	Dave Blaney	Ford	383	11		Running
34	36	40	Landon Cassill(i)	Newtown Building Supplies Chevrolet	382	0		Running
35	39	7	Michael Annett #	Pilot Flying J Chevrolet	378	9		Running
36	34	34	David Ragan	Dockside Logistics Ford	350	8		Running
37	40	33	David Stremme	Little Joe’s Autos Chevrolet	297	7		Overheating
38	12	16	Greg Biffle	3M Ford	292	6		Running
39	37	44	JJ Yeley(i)	Phoenix Warehouse Chevrolet	232	0		Engine
40	35	23	Alex Bowman #	Dr.Pepper Toyota	208	4		Accident
41	26	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Nationwide Ford	131	3		Accident
42	2	18	Kyle Busch	M&M’s Peanut Butter Toyota	125	3	1	Accident	1	81
43	9	55	Brian Vickers	Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota	73	1		Engine

June 1, 2014

The Hot 20 – It ain’t over till Johnson wins again at Dover

Jimmie Johnson won last week. The odds are that Johnson will win again this week. Nothing is for sure, but a 33% winning rate anywhere is astronomical and Six Time has done it eight times in 24 attempts in Delaware. At least we will not have to hear his name dropped in the ongoing non-story as to “when, oh when might he win again?”

No, now it will be Matt Kenseth the focal point of these nonsensical hand wringers. We have 14 races to the Chase, 14 more bids for victory to make it. Me thinks it a bit too early to worry about such things, especially when it comes to the former champ. Never in the modern era has more than 16 drivers won prior to race number 27, and considering Kenseth has the second highest point total even without a win he is just fine, for now. Those outside the Top 16, well, they might have cause for worry.

Just what in the world is wrong at Stewart-Haas? Sure, Kevin Harvick has a couple of wins and does well, as long as the car stays together. Kurt Busch has a win, but without it he would be buried in the depths with Tony Stewart and Danica Patrick. We might view Patrick’s body of work and toss her under the bus as just not being good enough, but you cannot do that for Stewart or Busch. Now, if you want to start wailing as to Smoke’s woes and his need for a victory, go right ahead. He will need one. For that matter, what about Clint Bowyer, Jamie McMurray, and Martin Truex Jr? I think it is pretty clear now that none of them can make the Chase on points alone.

I have some sad news to bring to your attention. Soon we will say goodbye to the FOX guys after Dover, as TNT takes over for a six race run before surrendering the coverage to ESPN in late July. Enjoy Chris, Michael, Darrell, Mike, Larry, Jeff and all those infield boys and girls while you can. Savor Adam, Wally, and Kyle when they come our way from June to mid-July. Soon enough it will be back to Allen, Brad, and Rusty, but at least it will be for only one more excruciating season.

By leaving the points alone, other than giving 22 bonus points per win, we see that Jeff Gordon remains our top driver over the season, with Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards in the mix. However, if all goes according to the script at Dover, I would expect the guy in seventh to move up the ladder significantly by the time the weekend comes to a close.

Driver – Points – Wins
1 Jeff Gordon – 454 – 1
2 Kyle Busch – 430 – 1
3 Carl Edwards – 430 – 1
4 Joey Logano – 422 – 2
5 Matt Kenseth – 421
6 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 416 – 1
7 Jimmie Johnson – 410 – 1
8 Kevin Harvick – 389 – 2
9 Brad Keselowski – 383 – 1
10 Brian Vickers – 365
11 Denny Hamlin – 362 – 1
12 Ryan Newman – 361
13 Greg Biffle – 351
14 Kyle Larson – 344
15 Austin Dillon – 334
16 Paul Menard – 328
17 Kasey Kahne – 324
18 A.J. Allmendinger – 314
19 Aric Almirola – 312
20 Clint Bowyer – 309

May 29, 2014
Surprising and Not Surprising: Coca Cola 600

With military tributes abounding and NASCAR patriotism at its best, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 55^th annual running of the sport’s longest race, the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Surprising: In a sport where man so often is at the mercy of machine, the competitive spirit of the drivers surprisingly triumphed over whatever difficulties they were facing in their race cars.

One such example of perseverance was Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, who triumphed over back spasms that were so severe that he missed final practice to finish the longest race of the season in the seventh spot.

“It was tough,” Gordon said after the race. “I was aching in there. There was one time when I got on the brakes into (Turn) 1 and it triggered something. I didn’t know what was going to happen after that, but it settled down.”

“I’m happy that I got through it. It tells me a lot about what kind of threshold I have and I just want to show this team the kind of commitment I have to them because of what they have shown me this year.”

The driver who triumphed most mightily over his race machines, however, was Kurt Busch, who raced his heart out in the Indianapolis 500, finishing sixth in his rookie effort, and then went on to race in the Coke 600, only to have his engine give up the ghost on Lap 271.

“To feel the stock car right after driving the Indy car was a day I’ll never forget,” the driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Made in America Chevrolet, said. “I can’t let the mood here with the car dampen what happened up at Indy today. That was very special.”

“Andretti Autosport gave me a top-five car to try and win the 500 with, and these Stewart-Haas guys gave me a good car too,” Busch continued. “The motor just went, sometimes that happens. All in all I gave it my all.”

Not Surprising: For Hendrick Motorsports, with their headquarters just up the road from the speedway, there truly is no place like home. And for race winner, Jimmie Johnson, and his team owner Rick Hendrick, Charlotte Motor Speedway is like coming home.

“I think, number one, Charlotte is kind of home,” Mr. H said after the race. “Won my first NASCAR race here with Sr. in ’83 in the Nationwide or Busch Series. It’s a special place, all the families here.”

“Winning a race, Jimmie and Chad have been so close this year, and several situations got away,” Mr. Hendrick continued. “To get this one behind us is great.”

This home track win was Johnson’s first of the season, his 67^th victory in 44 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races and his seventh win at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Patriotic Chevrolet also broke the tie with NASCAR Hall of Famers Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip as the all-time series points wins leader at Charlotte.

Surprising: Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. had surprisingly much in common in the Coke 600, starting out strong and then both going down for the count with engine issues. Junior finished 19^th and Patrick finished an even more disappointing 39^th.

“We had a little bit of an engine issue or something cropping up,” the driver of the No. 88 National Guard/Superman Chevrolet said. “But it was very fast. I was very happy with the speed.”

“We were able to at least finish 19th,” Junior continued. “We could have blowed up and finished in the back. You’re going to have some bad weeks and you’ve got to be able to roll with them. This was one of them and we just have to look at the positives and try not to dwell too much on what happened.”

“Yeah, it’s really unfortunate,” Patrick said, echoing the words of Dale Earnhardt Jr. “We started off great and started to get tighter and tighter. We couldn’t really figure out how to fix it.”

“We had a good plan, then dropped a cylinder and lost power, then got rear-ended,” the driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet continued. “That was our day. We’ll just remember the good stuff that happened here at Charlotte and at Kansas last race and build on that for Dover.”

Not Surprising: Kevin Harvick did not close and was not fast in the pits so therefore it was not surprising that he also was not happy after the race, even though he finished second.

“We shot ourselves in the foot again,” the driver of the No. 4 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet said. “We left two wheels loose and played catch up the rest of the night.”

“We’re just shooting ourselves in the foot on pit road,” Harvick continued. “We have to clean that up because we obviously can’t win races with the fastest car if we make mistakes continuously on pit road. It’s frustrating.”

Surprising: Jamie Mac is back, backing up his All Star race win with a top-five finish in his No. 1 Cessna Chevrolet.

“Our car was fast enough that even when we went to the back, we were able to recover and get back to the top-five, which was great,” McMurray said. “We’ve had such good cars all year long and have not been able to capitalize because of tire issues or just some bad luck.”

“So I’m excited we won last week. We ran really good again this week. Just an all-around good night.”

Not Surprising: Carl Edwards, one of Ford’s best pitch men, credited his manufacturer’s fuel mileage for getting him a fourth place finish and scoring top honors for Ford in the race.

“That’s Ford fuel mileage right here,” the driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion said. “You talk about Fords getting great fuel mileage and they did today.”

“Our car finished fourth and that was probably as good as we deserved to finish,” Edwards continued. “We did have a good run.”

Surprising: This time, rookie Austin Dillon actually finished ahead of ROTY competitor Kyle Larson to tighten up that rookie recognition battle. Dillon scored the 16^th finishing spot while Larson finished two behind in 18^th.

“I’m proud of everyone’s effort on this No. 3 Cheerios Chevrolet team this weekend,” Dillon said. “It was not a bad finish considering all of the challenges we battled during the race.”

Not Surprising: Pleased but not satisfied was the theme for the top-finishing Toyota drivers. Matt Kenseth finished third in his No. 20 Home Depot Husky Toyota and Brian Vickers had a great run, finishing sixth in his No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota.

“I thought we had a top-five car — a lot of it was definitely an improvement,” Kenseth said. “Just needed a little more and couldn’t quite run with the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) and the 4 (Kevin Harvick) and a couple of them other cars. Overall, it was a good night for our Home Depot Husky Tools Camry — we just have to get just a little better.”

“Our Camry was good all night,” Vickers said. “We were really close to top-five and probably close to a win, we just needed a little more speed.”

“The guys did a great job and just really proud of them,” Vickers continued. “Pleased but not satisfied.”

Surprising: Paul Menard had a surprisingly good run in his No. 27 Serta/Menards Chevrolet at Charlotte, finishing in the eighth spot after starting 21^st.

“We had a great finish tonight in Charlotte considering where we started,” Menard said. “It was a hard fought race the for No. 27 Serta/Menards team, but with some strategy and adjustments we were able salvage what could have been a tough night.”

“This race in Charlotte is a tough one, but we finished strong.”

Not Surprising: Ryan Newman, behind the wheel of the No. 31 Quicken Loans Chevrolet, epitomized the spirit of the weekend as he never quit and never gave up in spite of cutting down a tire on Lap 293 and finishing 15^th in the Coca Cola 600.

“This Quicken Loans team persevered this weekend,” Newman declared. “We had quite a bit to overcome, but we never gave up.”

“We started from the back after an issue in qualifying and had a Chevrolet good enough to race all the way up to ninth position before we had a tire cut down on a restart,” Newman continued. “I have to hand it to this team; we never gave up through all the adversity.”

“I will never stop fighting and nor will my crew, we’ll be fine.”

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series moves on next weekend to pay a visit to Miles the Monster in the 45th Annual FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware.

May 26, 2014
Coca-Cola 600 Preview

Come Sunday, Kurt Busch will join John Andretti, Robby Gordon and his boss Tony Stewart as the only NASCAR drivers to complete the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. Kurt Busch will start the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500 from the 12th position. Busch’s attempt has enraptured the entire motorsports community. There is a reason why the double has not been attempted since 2004; however, Kurt Busch does not care.

Inside and outside of the NASCAR community, Kurt Busch has gained a tremendous amount of respect. Busch serves as a spokesman for the Armed Forces Foundation, when he is not driving in NASCAR’s top circuit. Busch has been dearly involved with the AFF’s efforts and dedicates each race during the season to a service member that has been killed in action or to a member that suffers from an invisible wound such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As the son of a Marine and the grandson of a fallen World War II veteran, Busch has earned my respect.

What can we expect from Kurt Busch in the Indianapolis 500? First, Busch has much to learn. During practice for the 500 on May 22, Busch broke loose and smacked the turn two wall, hitting the SAFER barrier. Flames erupted from behind the No. 26 Honda as it came to rest in the grass at the exit of the turn. Veteran open-wheel drivers like Josef Newgarden and Juan Pablo Montoya, blamed the wreck on Busch’s NASCAR instincts. The car broke loose, but both drivers agreed that Busch tried to save the car like he would in a stock car. It is entirely different in IndyCar.

Finishing the race would be monumental for Kurt Busch, considering the fact that it has been 12 years since a driver attempting the double has finished the race. Busch conceded to the media that pulling off the double would require a prodigious amount of self-preservation. Given what some consider Kurt Busch’s reckless driving style, many people doubted he would even attempt such a feat. However, Busch is here to silence the critics. Even if he wrecks in the 500, he will have attempted a feat that most drivers would never give a second thought.

Once Busch is done with the Indianapolis 500, the 2004 Cup Series Champion, will head to Charlotte, searching for his second Coca-Cola 600 win. In 2010, Chip Ganassi had a shot to win the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and Indianapolis 500 all in the same year, but it was Busch who denied Ganassi a shot at history. It is a feat that is certainly rare and the chance may not come again for a while.

Many people do not see Jamie McMurray as a favorite this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but why not? When McMurray was subbing for the injured Sterling Marlin in 2002, McMurray won in just his second career start, holding off Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon among other drivers. McMurray won at Charlotte in the fall of 2010, redemption after coming up short in the 600 earlier in the year. Just this past weekend, McMurray won a million dollars, passing Kevin Harvick on lap 81, and never looking back as he won the Sprint All-Star race. Expect McMurray to be the dark horse for this race. McMurray is an underdog, but he is not one to be doubted.

The season has not even reached the halfway mark , but Joey Logano is showing promise as a championship contender. Logano has been strong, especially at the 1.5 mile tracks. In addition, he has won multiple races this season (Texas and Richmond) for the first time in his Cup career. Logano was also dominant at Texas. I have no reason to doubt Joey Logano. For that reason, I am picking Joey Logano to score his first major victory, becoming the first three-time winner in the Sprint Cup Series this season.

May 25, 2014
Surprising and Not Surprising: 5-Hour Energy 400 at Kansas

Even with the surprising but thankfully slight delay of the race start for thunderstorms and lightning in the area, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the first race at Kansas Speedway under the Saturday night lights.

Surprising: Weird and freaky things continue to happen at NASCAR races and the Kansas race was no exception. The lights went dark on the back stretch, the speedy dry truck lost a gear, and the car that was ‘Freaky Fast’, starting from the pole with a new track record, just could not pull off the victory, coming in second instead.

“What put us in second is I didn’t get down pit road very good there coming to the pit box,” Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy Johns ‘Freaky Fast’ Chevrolet said. “I kind of ran out of gas, and I was paying attention to the fuel pressure gauge instead of the pit road speed light.”

“I lost some time there,” Harvick continued. “It was a weird night.”

In spite of all the freakiness, this was Harvick’s eighth top-10 finish in 17 races at Kansas Speedway and his fifth top-10 finish in 2014.

Not Surprising: The race winner shed some pounds, had a blast, and felt like a kid again after scoring his first ‘w’ of the season. Jeff Gordon, behind the wheel of the No. 24 Axalta Coatings Chevrolet, became the ninth different driver to win for the year and scored his 89^th career victory.

“It just feels so good to get that first win of the season, especially this year with the point’s structure and how close we’ve been so many weekends,” Gordon said. “I think that that’s a huge weight off our shoulders.”

“I just feel so competitive out there, and that makes me feel young again,” Gordon continued. “I’m going to be 43 this year, but, man, if 43 is like this, I can’t wait for 50. This is all right. I’m having a good time. That’s why I feel young, because I’m just having a great time.”

Surprising: At least one Busch brother has felt that Kansas Speedway has been somewhat of a curse for him, however, this time it was not Kyle Busch but brother Kurt who felt that way after the race.

Kyle Busch, in the No. 18 Snickers Toyota, actually finished the race in the 15^th position, while Kurt, behind the wheel of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet, spun not just once but twice and finished 29^th.

“We definitely didn’t get the finish we wanted in our Haas Automation Chevrolet,” Busch said. “It was a disappointing day all around. We had the best qualifying session of the season this weekend, and we had high hopes for the race.”

“It just didn’t work out the way we planned,” Busch continued. “The car was loose, and we couldn’t tighten it up no matter what we tried. It’s just frustrating. We need to do better, and hopefully we will do better moving forward.”

Not Surprising: Danica Patrick was certainly thrilled with her career best finish of 7^th in her No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet at Kansas. But what really got her going was what she managed to do while racing six-time champ Jimmie Johnson.

“Honestly, the most rewarding part of my night was probably when I drove around the outside of the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) on a restart,” Patrick said. “That was probably my most rewarding thing of the night.”

“I say that with all the respect in the world,” Patrick continued. “It’s a big deal because he is Jimmie Johnson.”

“Aside from that I was really just overall proud that we stayed up front all day. That was the biggest thing.”

Surprising: Sometimes Goodyear gets thrown under the bus for any type of tire troubles, but this time the third place driver Kasey Kahne gave them all the credit in the world.

In fact, Kahne scored his first top 5 of the season in his No. 5 FarmersInsurance/Thankamillionteachers.com Chevrolet thanks to the tire manufacturer and their recent Kansas tire test.

“I think the Goodyear test here, for whatever reason, we were able to try some things and just look at stuff a little differently than what we had been, and it helped the 5 team, my guys, myself and Kenny (Francis, crew chief) and our communication together,” Kahne said. “It’s helped us a lot since then.”

“I feel like that’s been the key, and ever since we tested here, we’ve ran much better and been a lot more competitive.”

Not Surprising: Given the high speeds at Kansas and the freakiness of the night, it was not surprising to see some really violent crashes, including Jamie McMurray up in flames and David Gilliland in a horrific wreck with Justin Allgaier and AJ Allmendinger.

“I just lost all the steering and got into the fence and had a little fire,” the driver of the No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet said. “I don’t know if I ran over something but I ended up crashing.”

“I don’t know what happened,” Gilliland, driver of the No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford, said. “It looked like the 47 and 51 got together and the 51 came back up the track and I hit him and from there a lot of stuff happened.”

“We are alright though,” Gilliland continued. “Just a little sore obviously.”

“That is one of the hardest hits I have had in a while. Hopefully it will be the hardest one for a while to come too,” Gilliland said. “It was a hard lick. It was the hardest hit I’ve had in a long time.”

McMurray finished 39^th and Gilliland finished 37^th.

Surprising: Interestingly, there was only one Toyota in the top 10 when the checkered flag flew. Matt Kenseth, who had struggled for most of the race, managed to rebound and finish tenth in his No. 20 Dollar General Toyota.

“We were just pretty slow all weekend — as a group, really,” Kenseth said. “Lost that lap on that first run — I was in the ‘lucky dog’ spot a lot of times, just couldn’t catch a caution at the right times.”

“We were just off a little bit all week,” Kenseth continued. “Trying to figure out mile-and-a-half tracks — it was our strong suit last year. We’re really struggling this year as a group. We’re trying to figure it out.”

“We got lucky to finish 10th really.”

With his top-10 finish, Kenseth remains second in the point standings, now 15 points behind leader Jeff Gordon.

Not Surprising: Kyle Larson, to no one’s surprise, just keeps reeling off impressive finishes in spite of his rookie status. The driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet overcame obstacles to finish 12^th and score the Sunoco Rookie of the Race honors.

Surprising: Dale Earnhardt, Jr. surprisingly admitted it himself when he shared his frustration at finishing top five and leading nine laps, the same number as race winner and teammate Jeff Gordon.

“What stands out in the back of my mind was how fast the car was during the first half of the race,” Junior said. “We were just flying.”

“But I knew when the temps came down, the bottom was going to be faster and we were going to be in trouble because we were tight all weekend,” the driver of the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet continued. “We got real tight at the end of the race.”

“Just kind of frustrating there because we never really improved the front grip and struggled with it all weekend,” Junior said. “So, frustrated about that but a good result for us.”

Not Surprising: While it was not Darlington, a track where Mother’s Day has been traditionally celebrated by the sport, there was still a great outpouring of love and support for all mothers in the NASCAR garage.

In fact, driver after driver paid tribute to their mothers, as well as their wives, many of whom were mothers to their children.

So, as Mother’s Day comes to a close, the Cup Series will move next into its home track double header, with the All Star Race and then the Coca Cola 600, NASCAR’s longest endurance race, both at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the next two weekends.

May 11, 2014
Expect Trend of Nail-biting Finishes to Continue at ‘Dega

We are only a quarter of the way through the 2014 season and there have already been more memorable finishes than all of last year.

At Daytona, Dale Earnhardt Jr. held off a hard charging Denny Hamlin to win his second Daytona 500. Two weeks later at Las Vegas, Brad Keselowski passed Earnhardt Jr. on the last lap to score the victory. At Auto Club, a green-white-checkered finish allowed Kyle Busch to go from third to first on the last lap and beat rookie Kyle Larson by just 0.214 seconds.

The trend continued at tracks such at Martinsville, Texas, and Darlington. Last week at Richmond may have been the most edge-of-your-seat finish in 2014. In the closing laps, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, and Brad Keselowski battled hard while Joey Logano inconspicuously snuck past them all with only a few laps to go.

The reason for all of these nail-biting finishes is due to two factors, late cautions and the new points system. Four of the nine races so far have been decided by a green-white-checkered finish and the longest final green flag run was still only 42 laps at Las Vegas. These late cautions set up shoot-out style finishes that create the fantastic finishes you see week after week.

And since the new points system makes winning extremely important, drivers can be a lot more aggressive. Who cares if you crash? You can just try to win next week. That attitude will be turned up to 11 this week at Talladega, a track already known for its chaotic finishes. If this year’s Daytona 500 is any indication, pack racing is back.

Allow me to paint the picture in your mind for you. It’s a green-white-checkered scenario at the biggest and baddest track NASCAR has to offer. The big names, Kenseth, Gordon, Junior and Keselowski are all up front, behind them are restrictor plate aces such as McMurray and dark horse David Ragan. The green flag waves and all bets are off. The first lap is somewhat orderly, yet it’s still three by three all the way through the lead pack.

The white flag waves and the chaos begins. Drivers become more aggressive and bounce off each other. Restrictor plate experts Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon battle for the race lead and coming off turn four, a large wreck takes out multiple drivers. It’s the big one.

Who wins? Probably whoever survives. That’s the kind of finish I expect to see at Talladega this Sunday. The ingredients are already there for an amazing finish and when you add the fact that winning means more than ever, you have the perfect recipe for the greatest finish of 2014. If you listen closely, you can hear a faint rumble in the background. That’s the calm before the impending storm.

May 1, 2014
Surprising and Not Surprising: Martinsville STP 500

With no practice due to a rainy weekend, the Cup drivers unleashed their pent up aggression on the short track of Martinsville. Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 65^th running of the STP 500.

Surprising: The closest that Hendrick Motorsports got to Victory Lane at Martinsville was the motor and chassis as Kurt Busch surprisingly took his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet to the checkered flag.

The win also marked significant milestones for driver and crew chief as this was Busch’s 25^th Cup win and his crew chief Daniel Knost’s first win as a crew chief.

Busch’s 83 start winless drought finally came to a close, with his last victory prior to this at the Monster Mile in the fall race of 2011.

“Every time you come to Martinsville you draw a line through it; like there’s no way I’ll be able to challenge those Hendrick guys,” Busch said. “The Stewart-Haas team gave me a team to do it.”

“It’s an unbelievable feeling to deliver.”

Not Surprising: While Brad Keselowski had some harsh words to say about the race winner, sarcastically ‘thanking Kurt’ after tangling with him early in the race and finishing 38^th, he kept his sense of humor when he took to Twitter after the race.

“I’m here,” Keselowski tweeted when a follower said that he would probably not be on social media for a while. “Laughing at all the hate tweets. #freeEntertainment.”

With that difficult finish, the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford dropped three spots to seventh in the point standings.

Surprising: Dale Earnhardt Jr. was surprisingly disappointed with not getting a clock, even though he finished third in his No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet and took the points lead away from Carl Edwards.

“Well, it was up and down,” Junior said of his race. “We ran out of tire there just trying to get by those lap guys that were giving me the top in the corner and I don’t need to be up there running.”

“That cost us a little bit.”

Junior and girlfriend Amy Reimann did, however, console themselves with a Martinsville hot dog as his “reward” for finishing third, tweeting a picture of the celebration from the plane.

This was Earnhardt Jr.’s 16th top-10 finish in 29 races at the track known as the ‘Paper Clip.’

Not Surprising: Martinsville made for some interesting milestones, including another new winner for the season and a record number of lead changes.

Kurt Busch became the sixth different winner in six races to date and there were a record 33 lead changes among 12 drivers, the most ever at Martinsville. The previous record for lead changes was 31, set in April of 2011.

Surprising: They may have been driving with heavy hearts due to the death of Miss Lynda Petty, the King’s late wife, but the two Richard Petty Motorsports drivers pulled off great finishes, with Marcos Ambrose in fifth and Aric Almirola in eighth.

In fact, this was only the fourth time that the two RPM teammates have finished in the top-10 together, but the second time in six races this season.

““We’ve had a really tough week. We lost Miss Lynda.” Ambrose, driver of the No. 9 DeWalt Ford said. “We really wanted to win for them bad out there, but we’ll take a top five.”

“I’m really proud of all the guys at Richard Petty Motorsports,” Almirola, driver of the No. 43 STP Ford, said. “If we keep running like this, we’ll get to Victory Lane.”

Not Surprising: The highest finishing Ford was Joey Logano, who deemed his drive in the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford “a battle.”

“This race is really hard, but we finished where we deserved to finish,” Logano said after finishing fourth. “That’s where we ran and that’s about all we had.”

“I wish we had a little more.”

Surprising: “That’s all I had,” are words that are eerily similar to Logano’s but are not typically heard from six-time champion Jimmie Johnson. But that was his summary of the race as well at one of his strongest tracks.

“I’d been loose in the final third of the race and was hanging on there,” Johnson, who finished runner up in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, said. “When (Kurt Busch) got back by me, I was hopefully that he’d wear his stuff out and I could get back by him. He did but I couldn’t hold him off.”

“I started to get looser and looser,” Johnson continued. “I ran the rear tires off the car.”

“That’s all I had.”

This was Johnson’s 22^nd top-10 finish in 25 races at Martinsville Speedway and his fourth top-10 finish in the 2014 season.

Not Surprising: While most drivers are focused on the wins, Jamie McMurray was thinking about points and shaking his head.

McMurray, behind the wheel of the No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet, was involved in an on-track incident with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Lap 199 that caused him to finish 42^nd and falling eleven spots in the point standings to 23^rd.

“I thought the No. 88 would be a little more patient with me. I had gotten by him in lap traffic. Then he got on my inside. When he got into me it was like it couldn’t get off and spun me around and just got into the wall there,” Jamie Mac said. “Really unfortunate had a good car, every race we’ve had good cars.”

“You just wish you weren’t racing for points because that is the hardest part to swallow is the point’s loss,” McMurray continued. “It’s fun to run well but that is what you will think about for the next five days.”

Surprising: After missing the previous race week due to metal in his eye and after vowing to make a comeback and win at a track where he has the third-best driver rating, it was most surprising to see Denny Hamlin finish a disappointing 19^th.

The driver of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota had ignition issues and then was just plain slow during the race.

“Just a frustrating day, especially when you know that this is a race track that I feel like I can make up a difference here and there,” Hamlin said. “We were a football field and then some away from the right set up today.”

Not Surprising: Austin Dillon, behind the wheel of the No. 3 Dow Chevrolet was the highest finishing rookie, finishing 15^th at the very demanding short track.

“I had some good runs there in my truck but it was totally different in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car,” Dillon said. “It’s one of those races where you have to fight to stay in it.”

“Things were definitely wild there.”

The Cup Series will move from the short track of Martinsville to the track in Texas where everything is big for the Duck Commander 500.

March 30, 2014

Hot 20 – Harvick hoping for some California heat

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

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

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

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

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

	Driver	Win	Points
1	Brad Keselowski	1	185
2	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	1	175
3	Carl Edwards	1	174
4	Jeff Gordon	0	152
5	Jimmie Johnson	0	143
6	Joey Logano	0	141
7	Denny Hamlin	0	140
8	Matt Kenseth	0	138
9	Ryan Newman	0	125
10	Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.	0	122
11	Kasey Kahne	0	120
12	Greg Biffle	0	118
13	Austin Dillon	0	117
14	Kevin Harvick	1	111
15	Kyle Busch	0	111
16	Marcos Ambrose	0	108
17	Jamie McMurray	0	100
18	Paul Menard	0	99
19	Brian Vickers	0	99
20	Casey Mears	0	97

March 20, 2014

The Final Word – Bristol was one heck of a race…if you were able to see it

Rain. That was the theme of the cool, overcast, and often wet event at Bristol last Sunday. Rain delayed things, then stopped it all together for two hours as we sat on lap 125 of 500 for a spell. Often in the past, we have seen the guys who are leading near the start of the race just happen to be the same dudes there at the end. This was not one of those races.

Carl Edwards was nowhere to be seen early, but he emerged in the second half to lead 78 laps en route to his 22^nd career Cup victory. It was like a Talladega night as some unexpected names finished near the front. Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Aric Almirola rounded up the podium finishers, while Tony Stewart had his best result since his return from surgery, followed by Marcos Ambrose. It was not how we thought this might end.

For example, Matt Kenseth led the most laps, but it was an up and down day for him. He led early, but when Timmy Hill ran him over he found himself back in 30^th. He eventually worked his way back to the front again, only to fade over the final hundred laps to wind up 13^th.

That was one better than Brad Keselowski, he appeared done with about fifty left after he thundered into Jamie McMurray. It is tough to stop in oil, and after Kevin Harvick’s engine let go, there was lots to be found. Harvick once again had a good car, a horrid result (39^th), and a lot of flames.

Jimmie Johnson’s hopes unraveled. Literally. When you take a baseball apart, you go through a ton of string before you get to the rubber center. For Jimmie Johnson’s front right tire, you had a ribbon of rubber before getting to the cords. That flat took Six Time off the lead lap before the red flag and he never quite got back into a position to matter, winding up 19^th a couple of laps down.

Them Busch boys usually do well at Bristol, and for the first part of the race they were up there. The next thing you know they are battling Junior and Danica for the lucky dog. I would say that was a sign of the Apocalypse, then I remembered who the Grand Marshal is slated to be in California. No, THAT was the true sign. Junior had tire issues, not once but twice, and then he was…Gonzo. Kurt kept flirting with getting that lucky dog, but instead got the fence with his right rear with about a hundred to go. That dropped him into Unhappyland (35^th) with the likes of his brother (29^th), Junior (24^th), and the power steering challenged Joey Logano (20^th). Patrick finished 18^th.

So, TSN booted the race to FOX, who sent it to FOX 1, and for a lot of us, that was the end of the visual component of the race. Why does NASCAR allow race coverage to wind up in spots where a lot of folks get shut out? My guess is it is due to NASCAR really not giving a damn about you. If they did, you would be looked after. Pretty simple, really. I moved my Sirius out from the house to the car as it proved a real pain trying to secure a signal. I loaned my car to my sons to drive to college Sunday afternoon. Adios the audio component. Thank God for the Internet and my ability to read.

Weird race. We had a battery fall out of a car, tossing toilet paper everywhere, then a mystery caution at the end when the lights just started flashing after someone accidently leaned against the button. It would seem your butt can do more than just make phone calls.

So Kyle Busch wins Saturday’s Nationwide race, his 65^th career win in the juniors, his 2^nd of the season, and his 7^th at this particular track. As he won, he is the only Cup guy who mattered. Regan Smith finished 10^th as he leads the series by a point over eighth place finisher Trevor Bayne. Ty Dillon was the best finisher amongst series regulars, as his sixth place finish Saturday leaves him eight points out of top spot. Dear ESPN, these are the drivers you should have been interviewing, not fawning all over the Cup dudes like doe eyed gals at a high school dance. Pretty damn pathetic, to be honest with you.

In the end, Bristol lived up to its billing. Too bad about the rain, the long delay, and the lack of television coverage for many. Other than that, it was darn near perfect. This upcoming weekend, they are off to Fontana, California. Kyle Busch won there last year. Hell, he won the Nationwide race in 2013 as well, his sixth time kicking the stuffings out of the underfunded and under-experienced on the west coast. While Harvick (2011), Edwards (2008), Kasey Kahne (fall 2006), and Greg Biffle (spring 2005) have won there in recent memory, it is just as likely the man on top next week will have a name like Tony, Jimmie, Matt…or Kyle. Of the other 11 Cup events run there over the past nine years, all were claimed by one from that quartet.

All eight of the above named are currently sitting in a Sweet 16 spot to make the Chase, with the exception of Tony Stewart. He is 20 points out though, as Harvick demonstrates, points do not matter as long as one has a victory to their credit.

	Driver	Win	Points	Diff
1	Brad Keselowski	1	163
2	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	1	153	-10
3	Carl Edwards	1	152	-11
4	Kevin Harvick	1	89	-74
5	Jeff Gordon	0	152	-11
6	Jimmie Johnson	0	143	-20
7	Joey Logano	0	141	-22
8	Denny Hamlin	0	140	-23
9	Matt Kenseth	0	138	-25
10	Ryan Newman	0	125	-38
11	Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.	0	122	-41
12	Kasey Kahne	0	120	-43
13	Greg Biffle	0	118	-45
14	Austin Dillon	0	117	-46
15	Kyle Busch	0	111	-52
16	Marcos Ambrose	0	108	-55

March 17, 2014

Surprising and Not Surprising: Bristol Food City 500

Just as in the Daytona 500, starting in day and ending at night due to extensive rain delays, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 54^th annual Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Surprising: Creating his own ‘March Madness’, the leader of the Stewart-Haas Racing team rebounded from having to use a provisional to get into the race to finishing in the top five.

“To start 37th and end up fourth today, I’m pretty excited about that,” Tony Stewart said. “I’m really excited for Chad Johnston (crew chief) and everybody on this Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 team.”

“We had a long way to go from Friday when we weren’t very good, and every day we just got better and better. So, I’m really proud of this team.”

Not Surprising: With a gladiator’s sword as the prize for the victor, it was appropriate that the race ended as a survival of the fittest contest. And the survivor of this race was indeed fit, as demonstrated by his back flip on a wet start finish line in the track known as ‘the Last Great Coliseum.’

Carl Edwards, behind the wheel of the No. 99 Kellogg’s / Frosted Flakes Ford, scored his first win of the 2014 season, making him the fourth different driver to win in the season and qualifying him for the Chase. This was Edwards’s third victory and eighth top-10 finish at Bristol.

“I just can’t believe it,” Edwards said. “We were terrible on Saturday, so I’m just glad we turned it around.”

“We had no clue we were going to win this race.”

Surprising: While typically the action ensues when the green flag flies, in this race most of the intense crashing took place when the caution flag came out. There were two instances where the yellow flew yet two drivers were struck from the rear at fairly high rates of speed.

The first incident occurred when Timmy Hill drilled Matt Kenseth from behind and the second occurred when Brad Keselowski was unable to slow down and hit Jamie McMurray in the rear.

One of the more bizarre incidents occurred on pit road under caution when Danica Patrick attempted to pull out of her pit stall, got sideways and drilled Clint Bowyer’s machine.

“It was an eventful night,” Patrick said. “I lost first and second gear and then finally third gear. That’s why I hit Clint (Bowyer) in the pits.”

“It wouldn’t go so I dipped the clutch and got sideways, and when it was about to spin around, I lifted, it caught and then it went straight and it wouldn’t stop.”

“So, I hit him,” Patrick said. “I apologized to his crew after the race.”

Not Surprising: Kyle and Kurt Busch had an ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ moment on lap 394 when Kyle spun out after losing his car in the marbles and big brother Kurt hit the wall trying to avoid him. As a result of that damage, Kurt Busch had to go back behind the wall to repair the right front suspension.

Kurt Busch finished 35^th and brother Kyle finished 29^th.

“Had a moment of brightness but it went downhill from there,” Kyle Busch tweeted after the race. “Really thankful no one hit me when I was sideways.”

Surprising: While the streak of top five finishes sadly ended for NASCAR’s most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., another streak surprisingly was born.

Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon scored his fourth consecutive top-10 finish, which the four-time champ has never been done before in his career to start the season.

Not Surprising: Bristol is one of the most physically demanding tracks so it was no wonder that Joey Logano was feeling the need to improve his upper body workout regimen. Logano lost his power steering prior to the rain delay but soldiered on to finish 20^th in his No. 22 Shell Pennzoil For.

“I was already huffing and puffing pretty hard trying to get the thing to turn,” Logano said. “It was intermittent for a while once we restarted and then it just went away.”

Surprising: Jimmie Johnson and his crew chief Chad Knaus must have remained in previous race Las Vega mode, gambling with taking left sides only early in the race and then cutting a right front tire down as a result.

The tread on the No. 48 Kobalt Tools Chevrolet unwound, which forced him to the pits, losing several laps to the leader.

“The tire still had air in it,” Johnson said. “It didn’t wear it out.”

“Something made it come apart.”

Not Surprising: It was only a matter of time for these two drivers to have a bit of a break out in the Sprint Cup Series, both posting their career best finishes.

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., behind the wheel of his No. 17 Nationwide Insurance Ford, finished second, bettering his previous career high finish in third at Talladega in October 2013. And Aric Almirola, in his No. 43 Smithfield Ford Petty blue machine, finished third, bettering his previous career best at Homestead in 2010.

“It helps our confidence for sure,” Stenhouse Jr. said. “We’re just slowly working and getting better and better.”

“It was a good night for us,” Almirola said after the race was finally concluded. “It seemed like our car got better and better.”

“I’m really proud of everybody on our team because they gave me a really good car.”

Surprising: A strange new hashtag on Twitter was surprisingly born after one of the most bizarre equipment malfunctions occurred. As a result, rookie driver Alex Bowman tweeted “#badluckbowman is getting freaking ridiculous. Solid top 20 car and the battery literally fell out. Now I get to ride around all day.”

And with that tweet, the young Rookie of the Year contender picked up ad additional ten thousand followers of his Twitter handle @AlexBRacing.

Not Surprising: Speaking of rookie contenders, young Kyle Larson, piloting the No. 42 Target Chevrolet, finished top-10 and also was the highest finishing rookie of the race.

“We had a really good run today,” Larson said. “Started off in 20^th and got to the top ten pretty easily there in the beginning.”

“Ran in second and third for a long time,” Larson continued. “Pretty much stayed in the top ten for the whole race and inched our way up to the front.”

The Cup Series heads back across country next week for the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.

March 17, 2014