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Tag: Jason Leffler

  • Kyle Busch Motorsports to surpass 750 combined Truck Series starts at Mid-Ohio

    Kyle Busch Motorsports to surpass 750 combined Truck Series starts at Mid-Ohio

    With the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular season stretch reaching its conclusion, Kyle Busch Motorsports is set to surpass a milestone start in the team’s 13th season in Truck competition. When KBM drivers Corey Heim, John Hunter Nemechek and Chandler Smith compete in this weekend’s inaugural event at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, KBM will surpass a combined 750 career starts in the Truck Series.

    Kyle Busch Motorsports debuted in the NASCAR Truck Series in 2010 with trucks purchased from Roush Fenway Racing and assets acquired from Xpress Motorsports as the team headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina. By then, Busch had campaigned in seven part-time seasons in the series while accumulating 16 victories, all occurring with Billy Ballew Motorsports.

    For the 2010 season, Kyle Busch Motorsports planned on fielding three trucks: one that would be split between Busch and Brian Ickler, another that would be driven on a full-time basis by Taylor Malsam and a third that would be piloted by former champion Johnny Benson Jr. pending additional sponsorships. Prior to the start of the season, however, Miccosukee Resorts, one of Busch’s key Truck sponsors that initially followed him to KBM from Billy Ballew Motorsports, terminated its partnership with NASCAR and left Busch without a full-time sponsor throughout his part-time campaign. In addition, Benson’s role was limited to a part-time status as he shared the No. 18 Toyota Tundra entry with Busch, Ickler and Kasey Kahne while the second KBM entry, the No. 56 Toyota Tundra that was piloted by Malsam, was terminated following the first seven events. Despite the rocky start, it only took the first four events of the season for Kyle Busch to record the first victory for KBM at Nashville Superspeedway in April 2010. Busch went on to achieve victories at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, Bristol Motor Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway in August, New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September, Talladega Superspeedway in October and at Texas Motor Speedway in November, all occurring in the No. 18 entry. After winning the season-finale event at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November following a four-lap shootout, Busch captured the 2010 Truck Series owners’ championship on the strength of eight victories in 16 starts throughout the 25-race schedule. In total, KBM achieved eight victories, six poles, 16 top-five results and 21 top-10 results in its first season in NASCAR competition.

    For the team’s second season in 2011, Busch fielded the No. 18 Toyota Tundra as the primary, “all-star” entry that was split between himself, Kasey Kahne, Brian Ickler, Josh Richards and Denny Hamlin. Busch also fielded the Nos. 15 and 51 entries that both campaigned in limited events and was shared between Kimi Räikkönen, German Quiroga and Richards. Throughout the 2011 Truck season, Busch notched six victories in 16 starts, Kahne won at Darlington Raceway in March and Hamlin notched his first Truck victory at Martinsville Speedway in October, all occurring in KBM’s No. 18 entry. Despite accumulating a total of eight victories, two poles, 16 top-five results and 18 top-10 results throughout the 25-race schedule, the No. 18 entry settled in second place in the final owners’ standings behind the No. 2 Kevin Harvick Inc. entry.

    Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR.

    The 2012 Truck season was a difficult season for Kyle Busch Motorsports despite the team fielding the No. 18 Toyota Tundra on a full-time basis for a third consecutive season while the No. 51 Toyota Tundra competed the final five scheduled events with Quiroga and Hamlin behind the wheel. At the start of the season, veteran Jason Leffler piloted the No. 18 Toyota as the team’s primary competitor, but was released in August after only recording six top-10 results through the first 10 events. For the remainder of the season, the No. 18 entry was split between Busch, Hamlin, Brian Scott, Kurt Busch, Drew Herring and David Mayhew. After going winless for the majority of the season, Hamlin recorded the first victory of 2012 for KBM when he piloted the No. 51 Toyota to a win at Martinsville in October. Two races later, Scott overtook rookie Kyle Larson during a two-lap shootout to wheel the No. 18 Toyota to a late victory at Phoenix Raceway in November. In the end, KBM capped off the season with Busch being edged by Cale Gale in a photo finish at Homestead as Busch concluded a Truck season winless for the first time since 2004.

    In 2013, Kyle Busch Motorsports fielded three full-time entries for the first time in the team’s history with the No. 51 Toyota Tundra entry becoming the team’s “all-star” entry that was piloted between Busch, Erik Jones, Chad Hackenbracht, Scott Bloomquist and Hamlin throughout the 22-race schedule. For the new season, the No. 18 Toyota Tundra entry was taken sole possession by full-time competitor Joey Coulter while KBM’s No. 54 Toyota Tundra entry debuted for newcomer Bubba Wallace. Through the first 20 events, the No. 51 entry visited Victory Lane four times, all with Busch. At Phoenix in November, Jones became the youngest winner in the series at age 17 years, five months and nine days after recording his first career victory in KBM’s No. 51 truck. During the following weekend at Homestead, Busch survived three late-race restarts to capture his fifth win of the 2013 season and clinch the owners’ title for his No. 51 entry in a tie-breaker against ThorSport Racing’s No. 88 entry piloted by the 2013 drivers’ champion Matt Crafton. Meanwhile, the No. 18 entry that was piloted by Coulter achieved a total of five top-10 results and a 15th-place result in the final drivers’ standings while the No. 54 entry managed to earn a trip to Victory Lane at Martinsville in October as Wallace became the first African-American competitor to win in the Truck Series. To go along with his first Truck career victory, Wallace capped off his first full-time campaign in the series with a pole, five top-five results, 12 top-10 results and an eighth-place result in the drivers’ standings.

    Photo by Kala Perkins for SpeedwayMedia.com.
    Photo by Gary Buchanan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    The 2014 season was a breakout year for Kyle Busch Motorsports, which featured Busch and Erik Jones splitting driving responsibilities of the No. 51 Toyota Tundra while Bubba Wallace returned as the driver of the No. 54 Toyota Tundra. In total, KBM won 14 of the 22 races to the schedule as Busch and Jones, both of whom earned a combined 10 victories, guided the No. 51 entry to the team’s third owners’ championship. Wallace piloted the No. 54 truck to four victories, two poles, nine top-five results and 14 top-10 results as he finished in third place in the final drivers’ standings. 

    A month following the conclusion of the 2014 season, Kyle Busch Motorsports unveiled its driver lineup for the 2015 season with Erik Jones headlining the lineup as he was promoted to a full-time Truck Series campaign in the No. 4 Toyota Tundra while newcomer Justin Boston replaced Bubba Wallace, who graduated to the Xfinity Series with Roush Fenway Racing, in the No. 54 Toyota Tundra. Meanwhile, KBM’s No. 51 Toyota Tundra team remained as an “all-star” entry that was split between Busch, Daniel Suarez, Matt Tifft and Christopher Bell. Early in the season, Suarez and Tifft served as the primary competitors of the No. 51 entry with Busch recovering from injuries sustained in a late multi-car wreck during the Xfinity season-opening event at Daytona in February. Boston, however, was released by KBM nine races into the new season due to a breech of contract involving the driver and his sponsor Zloop. With Boston out, the No. 54 entry was split between Tifft, Cody Coughlin, Gray Gaulding, Bell and Busch, who returned to full-time competition in May. Despite the early season drama for KBM, Bell captured his first career victory at Eldora Speedway in July following a two-lap shootout while Busch piloted the No. 51 truck to two victories at Pocono Raceway and at Michigan International Speedway between July and August. Meanwhile, Jones earned victories at Iowa Speedway in June, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in August and at Texas Motor Speedway in November. To go along with five poles, 11 top-five results and 20 top-10 results, Jones claimed the 2015 Truck Series championship following a sixth-place result at Homestead and by 15 points over Tyler Reddick and 22 over Matt Crafton. With Jones’ accomplishment, Kyle Busch Motorsports achieved its first drivers’ championship along with its fourth owners’ title in NASCAR.

    Photo by Don Dunn for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    The 2016 Truck Series season featured another new driver lineup for Kyle Busch Motorsports as Bell, coming off his first career victory at Eldora, replaced Erik Jones, who moved up to the Xfinity Series with Joe Gibbs Racing, as the driver of the No. 4 Toyota Tundra while William Byron, the reigning ARCA Menards Series East champion who made his Truck debut with KBM at Phoenix in November during the previous season, piloted the No. 9 Toyota Tundra. The No. 51 Toyota Tundra entry was split between Daniel Suarez, Cody Coughlin, Jones and Gary Klutt throughout the season while the No. 18 KBM entry made a total of five starts between Busch, Coughlin and Harrison Burton. Throughout the season, Busch wheeled the No. 18 truck to victories at Martinsville in April and at Chicagoland Speedway in September while Suarez drove the No. 51 Toyota to his first Truck career victory at Phoenix in November. The No. 9 Toyota team piloted by Byron achieved great success throughout the season with the Charlotte native earning his first career victory at Kansas Speedway in May after dodging a final lap incident involving Johnny Sauter and Ben Rhodes. He went on to win at Texas and Iowa Speedway in June followed by Kentucky Speedway in July as KBM became the winningest team in the Truck Series with 51 victories. After Byron won at Pocono in July, he established a new record for achieving the most victories by a rookie Truck competitor with five. After qualifying for the inaugural 2016 Truck Playoffs, he won the first postseason event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September and utilized consistency to transfer all the way to the Playoff’s Round of 6. Byron’s title hopes, however, came to an end at Phoenix in November after his No. 9 entry suffered an engine failure with 10 laps remaining while he was leading, which prevented him from earning a ticket to the Championship Round at Homestead. Nonetheless, he went on to win the season-finale event at Homestead for his unprecedented seventh victory of the season as he wrapped up both the 2016 Rookie-of-the-Year title and the fifth career owners’ title for KBM. In comparison to Byron and the No. 9 team, Bell and the No. 4 team rallied from a rocky start to generate a consistent regular season run, including a victory at Gateway in June, to qualify for the Playoffs. Bell remained consistent throughout the Playoffs to make it all the way to the Championship Round at Homestead and contend for the drivers’ title. During the finale, however, Bell finished in eighth place on the track and in third place in the final drivers’ standings.

    Photo by Simon Scoggins for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    For the 2017 season, Kyle Busch Motorsports retained Bell as driver of the No. 4 Toyota Tundra while welcoming Noah Gragson as a full-time competitor of KBM’s No. 18 Toyota Tundra. Busch remained as a part-time competitor of his No. 51 Toyota Tundra as he split the ride with rookies Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland and Myatt Snider while also debuting the No. 46 Toyota Tundra for a total of four events, with himself and Gilliland earning two events apiece. Busch earned a total of three victories throughout the 2017 Truck season: two in the No. 51 entry at Kansas and at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May and one in the No. 46 entry at Bristol Motor Speedway in August. In addition, the No. 51 team earned a total of nine top-10 results and settled in fourth place in the final owners’ standings. For the No. 18 entry, Gragson earned his first career victory at Martinsville in October following a late duel with former champions Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter. To go along with three poles, four top-five results and 13 top-10 results, Gragson finished in 10th place in the final drivers’ standings and in his first full-time Truck campaign. For Bell, who entered the season as a potential title favorite, he achieved five victories along with five poles, 15 top-five results and 21 top-10 results as he made his second consecutive appearance both in the Playoffs and in the Championship Round at Homestead. During the finale, Bell finished in the runner-up spot on the track and captured the 2017 Truck Series drivers’ championship over Sauter, Austin Cindric and Crafton. With his first championship in NASCAR, Bell recorded the second drivers’ championship and the sixth owners’ title overall for KBM.

    Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images.

    During the following season, Busch retained Gragson in the No. 18 KBM Toyota Tundra while Todd Gilliland contended for the 2018 Truck Rookie-of-the-Year title in the No. 4 Toyota Tundra, thus replacing Bell as Bell became a full-time Xfinity competitor for Joe Gibbs Racing. Gilliland, however, missed four of the first six events due to age restrictions and spent the early portions of the season splitting the No. 4 Toyota with his father David, Busch and newcomer Spencer Davis while Davis, Busch, David Gilliland, Harrison Burton, Brandon Jones, Riley Herbst, Logan Seavey and Christopher Bell took turns piloting the No. 51 Toyota Tundra. The No. 46 KBM Toyota Tundra also returned for a total of six events that was split between Brandon Jones, Herbst and newcomer Christian Eckes. Throughout the season, the No. 46 entry’s best on-track result was third at Charlotte in May made by Jones while the No. 4 entry achieved a season-best result of second place at Gateway in June with Todd Gilliland, who finished in 10th place in the final drivers’ standings. The No. 51 entry went to Victory Lane twice during the season with Busch at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March and at Pocono in July while Gragson wheeled the No. 18 entry to a dominant win at Kansas in May. Despite being absent at Pocono due to illness, where he was replaced by Erik Jones, Gragson utilized consistency to qualify for the 2018 Truck Playoffs and transfer all the way to the Championship Round at Homestead, where he settled in the runner-up spot in the final drivers’ standings.  

    The 2019 season featured Harrison Burton replacing Noah Gragson, who graduated to the Xfinity Series, as the driver of Kyle Busch Motorsports’ No. 18 Toyota Tundra while Todd Gilliland remained as a full-time driver of the No. 4 Toyota Tundra. Meanwhile, the No. 51 Toyota Tundra entry returned as the “all-star” entry that was split between Busch, Eckes, Brandon Jones, Greg Biffle, Chandler Smith, Alex Tagliani and Riley Herbst. The No. 46 Toyota Tundra entry returned for a total of seven events that was split between Herbst, Smith and Raphaël Lessard. In comparison to recent seasons, KBM endured a difficult 2019 season as both Burton and Gilliland did not make the Playoffs. While Burton finished in 12th place in the final drivers’ standings with no victories and 11 top-10 results, Gilliland managed to record his first Truck career victory at Martinsville in October along with 14 top-10 results before settling in 11th place in the final standings. With the No. 46 entry finishing no higher than fourth at Gateway in June made by Chandler Smith, the No. 51 entry won six of the 23-scheduled events: five with Busch and one with Biffle. To go along with a total of 15 top-five results and 17 top-10 results throughout the 23-race schedule, the No. 51 entry managed to capture the 2019 Truck owners’ title as KBM achieved its seventh owners’ championship in NASCAR.

    Photo by Brad Keppel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    For the following season, Kyle Busch Motorsports introduced new drivers to the Nos. 4 and 18 entries as Harrison Burton moved up to the Xfinity Series with Joe Gibbs Racing while Todd Gilliland moved over to Front Row Motorsports. The No. 18 Toyota was taken over by Christian Eckes while Raphaël Lessard took over the No. 4 Toyota. The No. 51 Toyota also returned as Busch, Brandon Jones, Chandler Smith, Riley Herbst and Alex Tagliani took turns to drive the truck throughout the season. In his first full-time campaign in the series, Eckes qualified for the 2020 Truck Playoffs, but was eliminated from title contention following the Round of 10 as he ended up in eighth place in the final drivers’ standings with no victories and 11 top-10 results. Lessard, on the other hand, did not make the Playoffs, but he managed to capture his first career victory at Talladega in October along with a total of seven top-10 results before finishing in 12th place in the final standings. Meanwhile, the No. 51 entry went to Victory Lane four times: three with Busch and once with Brandon Jones, who captured his first elusive series win at Pocono in June. To go along with a total of 10 results in the top five, the No. 51 entry settled in sixth place in the final owners’ standings.

    This past season, Kyle Busch Motorsports welcomed John Hunter Nemechek as the driver of the No. 4 Toyota Tundra, where he replaced Lessard, while Chandler Smith replaced Christian Eckes as a full-time competitor of the No. 18 Toyota Tundra. The No. 51 Toyota Tundra remained as the “all-star” entry for a ninth consecutive season as the truck was piloted between Busch, Drew Dollar, Parker Chase, Martin Truex Jr., Corey Heim, Brian Brown, Derek Griffith and Dylan Lupton throughout the 22-race schedule. Three races into the new season, Nemechek recorded his first win with KBM at Las Vegas in March before the No. 51 entry visited Victory Lane during the following two events: the first with Busch at Atlanta and the second at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course with Truex, who claimed his first Truck career victory. Not long after, Nemechek fended off Busch to win at Richmond Raceway before Busch capitalized on a late restart to win at Kansas. Those five victories followed by three additional victories by Nemechek capped off a strong regular season stretch as Nemechek, who claimed the regular season championship, and Chandler Smith qualified for the 2021 Truck Playoffs. During the Playoffs, Smith claimed his first Truck career victory at Bristol in September to advance from the Round of 10 to 8 along with Nemechek. During the Round of 8, Smith’s title hopes evaporated while Nemechek was able to earn enough points through consistency to secure a spot in the Championship 4 finale at Phoenix Raceway. An early tire issued, however, derailed Nemechek’s title hopes as he ended up in third place in the final drivers’ standings while Smith won the finale and captured the 2021 Truck Rookie-of-the-Year title. Meanwhile, the No. 51 entry settled in 10th place in the owners’ standings.

    This season, Kyle Busch Motorsports retained John Hunter Nemechek and Chandler Smith as drivers of the Nos. 4 and 18 entries, respectively. In addition, Corey Heim returned with an expanded part-time Truck schedule as he split the No. 51 entry with Kyle Busch and Buddy Kofoid. Through the first 14 scheduled events, all three KBM entries have visited Victory Lane at least once, with Smith winning at Las Vegas in March, Nemechek winning at Darlington in May, Busch winning at Sonoma Raceway in June and Heim recording his first two career victories in the series at Atlanta in March followed by Gateway in June. Heim is scheduled to take over the No. 51 entry for the remainder of the season as he contends for the 2022 Truck Rookie-of-the-Year title while Nemechek and Smith, both of whom are pursuing their first championship in NASCAR, are guaranteed spots for the 2022 Truck Playoffs.

    Photo by Simon Scoggins for SpeedwayMedia.com.
    Photo by David Myers for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    Through a combined 749 Truck starts, Kyle Busch Motorsports has achieved two drivers’ championships, a record seven owners’ championships, 95 victories, 63 poles, 276 top-five results, 439 top-10 results and 13,196 laps led with 51 different competitors making at least one start for the organization.

    Kyle Busch Motorsports is primed to surpass 750 career starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday, July 9, with coverage to occur at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Kansas Speedway – Did You Know?

    Kansas Speedway – Did You Know?

    The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and the Camping World Truck Series travel to Kansas Speedway this weekend for racing under the lights. The Truck Series Toyota Tundra 250 is set for Friday, May 12, at 8:30 p.m. ET while the Cup Series Go Bowling 400 will air Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET. Both races will be televised on FS1.

    Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch is the defending race winner and is still searching for his first victory this season. He has four top fives and six top 10s at the track with the 12th best driver rating. Busch is currently 10th in the point standings.

    The first Cup Series race at the 1.5-mile track was on Sept. 30, 2001, but did you know that it was won by Jeff Gordon? There have been 22 Cup Series races at Kansas Speedway, one each year from 2001 – 2010 and two races per year since 2011. Hendrick Motorsports leads the series in wins at Kansas with six; Gordon has three (2001, 2002, 2014) and Jimmie Johnson also has three (2008, 2011, 2015).

    Fourteen different drivers have won poles at Kansas, led by Kevin Harvick, Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne, with three poles each. But did you know that Jason Leffler won the pole for the inaugural Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway in 2001? He won it in the No. 01 Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing with a speed of 176.499 mph and is the only driver to capture his first career Cup Series pole at Kansas.

    Leffler, known as “LEFturn,” began his career as an open-wheel driver winning three consecutive USAC Midget championships from 1997-99 and the 1998 USAC Silver Crown championship. He also made three starts in the IndyCar Series and finished 17th in the 2000 Indianapolis 500.

    Leffler’s NASCAR career began with four starts in the XFINITY Series in 1999 with Joe Gibbs Racing, running a full-time schedule in 2000. He advanced to the Cup Series in 2001 with Chip Ganassi Racing. During his career, he made 423 starts across the three national series and has two XFINITY wins and one victory in the Camping World Truck Series.

    On June 12, 2013, Leffler lost his life in a crash during a 410 sprint car race at Bridgeport Speedway in New Jersey. He was 37 and left behind a son, Charlie, who was only five years old at the time

    Leffler was a fierce competitor on the track but his most enduring quality was his generous spirit off the track. He will always be remembered for his irresistible smile, his selfless desire to help others and who could forget his trademark haircut?

    Three-time Cup Series champion Tony Stewart remembers Leffler as “a great racer and an even better friend. We raced together a lot, and our career paths were very similar. He loved racing, especially open-wheel racing, and that’s a passion we both share. To not have him around to talk about whatever race one of us had just run, or were going to run, will be hard.”

    Qualifying well at Kansas Speedway should give drivers an edge. Five of the 22 (22.7 percent) Cup Series events have been won from the front row, four from the pole position and one from second-place. But did you know that 54.5 percent of the races have been won from a top-10 starting position? Brad Keselowski won from the deepest in the field ( 25th) in the spring race of 2011.

    As we head to Kansas Speedway, Jimmie Johnson leads all drivers with the series-best driver rating of 110.6, with three wins, nine top fives, 17 top 10s and three poles. Kenseth (108.1), Harvick (105.3), Martin Truex Jr. (95.7) and Kahne (91.4) round out the top five best driver ratings.

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. has struggled this season but did you know that he has the sixth-best driver rating (90.0) at Kansas Speedway? He has three top fives, nine top 10s and one pole at the track and is looking forward to the race.

    “Kansas is a great racetrack for me,” Earnhardt said. “That place has widened out pretty good and you can run against the fence there, which is a line that I like to run. It’s a very fast racetrack and very smooth, a lot of fun, so we should have a good time.”

    The on-track action begins Thursday, May 11, with Truck Series practice, culminating with the Go Bowling 400 Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. In the meantime, check out the video below as we take a moment to remember Jason Leffler.

    Follow @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and feature stories.

  • Kansas Speedway Sprint Cup Preview – Milestones, Firsts and Driver Quotes

    Kansas Speedway Sprint Cup Preview – Milestones, Firsts and Driver Quotes

    As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Kansas Speedway, eight drivers are locked into the Chase for the Sprint Cup, provided they attempt to qualify for the remaining regular season races. Several prominent drivers are still searching for that elusive victory or the consistency needed to grab one of the eight remaining spots as the Chase approaches.

    Milestones:

    1) Jimmie Johnson is approaching two career milestones as he heads to Kansas Speedway.

    A top-five at Kansas Speedway would give him 200 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series top-five finishes. He is currently tied with Benny Parsons for 12th on the all-time NSCS top fives list and only two top-fives behind Buddy Baker in 11th (201).

    Johnson is also one away from 300 NSCS top-10 finishes. He is 16th on the all-time NSCS top 10s list and only two top-10s behind James Hylton in 15th (301).

    In the 18 NSCS events held at Kansas Speedway, Johnson has finished among the top 10 a total of 14 times. Combine that with two wins, three poles and the Series-best driver rating (112.1) and it’s a safe bet that Johnson will quickly mark these two items off his to-do list.

    2) Reigning champion and current points leader Kevin Harvick is 47 laps away from becoming the 10th driver in NSCS history to lead 1,000 laps or more in the first 11 races of a season.

    He has three consecutive poles at Kansas (October 2013, May 2014, and October 2014), holds the track qualifying record of 197.773 mph and has the sixth best driver rating (100.4). Leading 47 laps is certainly within Harvick’s capabilities and Kansas Speedway may be the perfect track to accomplish yet another milestone in his career.

    3) Matt Kenseth is only one checkered flag away from 33 NSCS wins. Another victory would move him up to 21st on the all-time wins list, tied with Fireball Roberts.

    He has two wins, two poles, six top-fives, 10 top-10s and the second best driver rating at Kansas. After a frustrating finish of 25th at Talladega, Kenseth will be looking for redemption this weekend.

    Firsts – Now and Then:

    Erik Jones will make his first official start in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut at Kansas in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Although he replaced the ailing Denny Hamlin after the rain delay at Bristol, his drive to a 26th place finish is credited to Hamlin. Jones has one XFINITY Series win and four victories in the Camping World Truck Series.

    David Ragan will begin a new chapter in his career at Kansas in his first race driving for Michael Waltrip Racing in the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota. His primary focus will be centered on securing a spot on the Chase Grid.

    “Our expectations are very high,” Ragan emphasized. “At the end of the day, Michael Waltrip Racing has all the tools and resources that Joe Gibbs Racing has or that Hendrick Motorsports or Stewart-Haas Racing has and there’s no reason for us not to be able to win a race and have a shot at making the Chase. Certainly, that is our goal going forward.”

    Jeff Gordon won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway on September 30, 2001. It was his sixth win of his fourth championship season. He made it two-for-two at Kansas with another victory at the track on Sept. 29, 2002.

     Jason Leffler won the inaugural pole at Kansas Speedway in 2001 with a speed of 176.499 mph. He holds the track record as the youngest pole winner, at 26 years, 0 months and 14 days.

    Jim Roper, a Kansas native, won the very first NASCAR Strictly Stock (now Sprint Cup) race in June, 1949, at Charlotte Speedway. The event was 1,200 miles away from his hometown in Halstead, Kansas, but neither the distance nor lack of a car would deter him.

    He purchased a Lincoln Cosmopolitan and drove it from the showroom all the way to Charlotte to compete for the $2,000 purse. He raced with the best including Curtis Turner, the Flock brothers and Red Byron, the reigning modified champion. Roper finished the race, second to only Glenn Dunaway.

    But Dunaway was quickly disqualified when the post-race inspection revealed modifications to the rear springs, a bootlegger’s trick to improve the car’s handling. Roper was declared the winner even though he only finished 197 of the 200 laps. He only competed in one more NASCAR race, retiring in 1955 after he broke a vertebra in a sprint car accident.

    Noteworthy:

    Jeff Gordon is winless in his last full-time Sprint Cup season, but that could change this weekend at Kansas Speedway where he will defend his 2014 win at the track. The victory secured his place in the Chase and was the first of four wins during the 2014 season. Gordon also holds the track record with three victories and leads the series with10 top-five finishes in 18 starts.

    Martin Truex Jr. continues to impress, coming off a fifth place at Talladega to capture his ninth top-10 finish of the season. He is second in the points standings, 40 points behind leader Kevin Harvick, but needs a win to guarantee a position on the Chase Grid.

    Outside Looking In:

    Some of the biggest names in NASCAR are outside the top 16 and desperately need to make something happen, including Clint Bowyer (17), Carl Edwards (18) and Greg Biffle (22).

    Bowyer and Edwards are winless at Kansas Speedway while Biffle has two victories.  However, Biffle has only one top-5 in his last six outings at Kansas.

    Kyle Larson is 24th in the points standings, partly due to missing the race at Martinsville this season after he fainted following an autograph session. Larson will make his third Cup start at Kansas this weekend. He finished 12th in his first attempt and claimed the runner-up position last year in October. The race will also mark Larson’s 50th career NSCS start.

    Tony Stewart heads to Kansas Speedway in 30th place in the points standings. After a frustrating start to the season, the results of the last few weeks suggest that the team may have turned the corner. Stewart finished in sixth place, his best result of the year, three weeks ago at Bristol and looked to be headed for a top-10 at Richmond until an incident on lap 361 took him out of contention. He has two previous wins at Kansas in 2006 and 2009.

    Driver Quotes:

    Paul Menard is 12th in the point standings and is looking for a win to claim his entry into the Chase. “Kansas is a pretty newly repaved track so it’s extremely fast,” Menard said.  “Since it’s a night race it will be even faster than during the day. I enjoy night racing, I think it adds another level of excitement. You can see flames from the exhaust and sparks from under the car which makes it cool for the fans. The only downside is we have to wait all day for the race and there really isn’t much to do. I enjoy it, but I’ll be there ready to go whether it’s Sunday afternoon or Saturday night.”

    Ty Dillon is looking forward to making his fourth Sprint Cup Series start and his debut at Kansas Speedway. “From all the practices, testing and races I’m starting to get very comfortable in the Chevrolet SS, “he said. “I’m fortunate to be put in the position to race as often as I do and I’m focused on going out and doing the best that I possibly can. Kansas will be a fun race this weekend, not only off the track, but on the track with the high speeds, different racing lines and competition. Our team will be ready.”

    Ryan Newman is 15th on the Chase Grid and looking for a win to solidify his position. He finished in sixth place in his last outing at Kansas Speedway. “Kansas is super fast, I am kind of excited to get back there after it has aged a little bit,” Newman explained. “With the new pavement we’ve had a few years back, it has still maintained its speed. It seems like we keep coming back here with softer tires. In general, the track has maintained the speed and I hope it’s gained some more character.”

    Martin Truex Jr. counts Kansas Speedway as one of his favorite tracks. With four top-five finishes in the last six races at Kansas, Truex is hoping to grab the checkered flag this time around. “I love Kansas Speedway,” Truex says. “I don’t know what it is about the track, it’s not much different than any other mile-and-a-half track, but something about the way the corners are laid out there seems to fit my style. I’ve run well at Kansas, led a lot of laps (251) and feel I should have won a few times there. “We’re enjoying the top-10s this season, but we want to get up there and be fighting for a win,” he continued. “Cole (Pearn, crew chief), the engineering staff and all the guys at the track and at the shop have done an outstanding job. We’re having plenty of fun, but we want that victory really bad.”

    By the Numbers:

    Chase Grid

    The following drivers are locked into the 2015 Chase provided they attempt to qualify for the remaining regular season races.

    1) Kevin Harvick – 2 wins
    2) Jimmie Johnson – 2 wins
    3) Joey Logano – 1 win
    4) Dale Earnhardt Jr. – 1 win
    5) Brad Keselowski – 1 win
    6) Matt Kenseth – 1 win
    7) Denny Hamlin – 1 win
    8) Kurt Busch – 1 win

    The following drivers are currently in the Chase Top 16, but without any wins, are not locked in.

    9) Martin Truex Jr.
    10) Jamie McMurray
    11) Kasey Kahne
    12) Paul Menard
    13) Aric Almirola
    14) Jeff Gordon
    15) Ryan Newman
    16) Danica Patrick

    Top 10 Driver Ratings at Kansas

    112.1 Jimmie Johnson
    105.6 Matt Kenseth
    103.9 Kyle Larson
    102.8 Greg Biffle
    100.5 Jeff Gordon
    100.4 Kevin Harvick
    96.8 Carl Edwards
    95.3 Tony Stewart
    92.7 Kasey Kahne
    91.3 Dale Earnhardt Jr.

    Tune in to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series SpongeBob SquarePants 400 Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on FOX Sports 1.

  • Looking Back at NASCAR’s 2013

    Looking Back at NASCAR’s 2013

    Looking back at the 2013 season, NASCAR had the usual ups and downs but this year would be different. NASCAR unveiled its new GEN-6 car to mixed reviews and fans waiting to see what this new car would bring to actual racing.

    It started with the horrific wreck during the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) season opener at Daytona International Speedway (DIS).  Unfortunately, we watched the same scene played out at most restrictor plate tracks like Daytona, only this time when the “big one” happened the fence didn’t hold and fans were hurt, some seriously.  Everyone waited and listened the rest of the day for updates on those injured and looked back in amazement that the car of Kyle Larson, which had hit the fence, was destroyed, yet he walked away.

    The next day at the Daytona 500 we all waited and watched, held our breath and prayed that the scene the day before would not repeat itself and thankfully it didn’t. The 55th running of the Daytona 500 went off without any major issues with Jimmie Johnson in his 400th start taking the prize. That perhaps was a sign of the year to come.

    It was the fifth race of the season in Fontana, California that Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin got together with six laps to go and ended up wrecking each other. Denny Hamlin suffered a compression fracture in his back that most thought would sideline the driver for the season.  But Hamlin worked hard at his recovery and was able to return to race at Talladega.

    Talladega was a rainy day and eventually the race was red flagged due to the rain. The red flag was three hours and 36 minutes long and darkness had started to fall but with the rain stopped, NASCAR made the decision to go ahead and race. A late race caution bunched the field up with 20 to go. By this time the skies were even darker and the “big one” happened sending Kurt Busch flipping and landing on top of Ryan Newman’s car. In all 14 cars were involved and Newman went on to criticize NASCAR for continuing the race in the dark.

    It was at Iowa Speedway where Tony Stewart crashed hard into a car that spun in front of him. Stewart was taken to the hospital where it was determined by doctors that he had broken both his tibia and fibula in his lower right leg. Stewart would be sidelined for the rest of the season, after undergoing several surgeries and then physical therapy, so that he would be ready for the 2014 season.

    There was a lot of hype over Danica Patrick joining the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) for the 2013 season. There was a lot of expectation put on her but she was still a rookie and ended up with a best finish of 8th, her only top-10 finish, which came in the Daytona 500 where she had also won the pole.  Her boyfriend, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, competed with Patrick for Rookie of the Year in which Stenhouse took home the prize.

    Jamie McMurray won at Talladega, his second at that track, and his seventh win overall in his NSCS career. The win snapped a 108 winless streak for McMurray.

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. would see the 2013 season close without a win.  But it was a consistent season overall and he ended up fifth in the series standings.

    We had the announcement that Mark Martin had decided to retire along with Ken Schrader. Martin ended a long career with NASCAR starting in 1981 in North Wilkesboro and giving him a career with 40 wins, 453 top 10′s and 56 poles. Schrader started his career in 1984 in Nashville and went on to have four wins, 184 top 10′s, and 23 poles. NASCAR will not be the same without these drivers and they will both be missed in 2014.

    To everyone’s astonishment we also had what was dubbed “Spingate” which was Michael Waltrip Racing’s (MWR) attempt to manipulate the chase for the championship. This not only marred MWR but their reputation was further damaged by Clint Bowyer who is believed to have spun to cause a caution in order to get a teammate into the chase.  These issues actually made NASCAR add a 13th spot to the chase, to the benefit of Jeff Gordon being that 13th driver. This put another mark on NASCAR for adding the 13th spot but with the chase outcome in question, it was the only course of action NASCAR could see to attempt to right what MWR had attempted to change. The biggest loser in that whole deal was Martin Truex Jr. who had done no wrong but paid a penalty all the same.

    Matt Kenseth probably had one of his best years of his career and in the end was truly the only driver in contention with Johnson to take home the big prize. Kevin Harvick, having a good run of his own, was unable to catch Kenseth and Johnson. Kenseth did everything he could and came out strong at the end but it was Johnson who would bring home the 2013 Sprint Cup Series trophy, the sixth of his career, making him at the moment the only driver with the chance to tie or surpass Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt’s seven championships.

    When we look back on the year there were tragedies as well.

    On June 12th 2013 on a Wednesday night we heard of a serious crash at Bridgeport Speedway involving former NASCAR driver Jason Leffler in a Sprint car. We would find out later that Jason “LEFturn” Leffler had died from the injuries that he sustained in the accident. He left behind one son, five year old Charlie. The biggest tragedy of all is learning that if Sprint cars used the same neck restraints as NASCAR does, he may have survived the accident.

    It was May 16th that I learned of the death of my friend, Richard Leroy Trickle, aka Dick Trickle; he had taken his own life after years of struggling with chronic pain. He had raced in NASCAR becoming the oldest Rookie of the Year at age 48 in 1989. He was best known for his career in the Midwest. Known best as “the White Knight,” it is estimated that he ran well over 2,200 races in his Midwest short track career and his many loyal fans will remember not how he died, but how he lived.  He will be remembered wearing snakeskin boots, a cigarette in one hand, and a cup of coffee or barley pop (beer) in the other, signing autographs and even going down to his knees to be eye level with children who wanted an autograph.

    With a new season beginning, questions remain to be answered.

    • What will the 2014 NASCAR season bring?
    • Which rookie will come out on top, maybe Kyle Larson or perhaps Parker Kligerman?
    • Who will win their first race this season?
    • Will Austin Dillon, driving the number three, live up to the expectations of fans that are waiting to see if he will do the number three proud?
    • Who will take it all? Matt Kenseth or maybe it will be Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s breakout year, or will it be Jimmie Johnson again, tying that seventh championship.
    • What new rivalries will form, and what old rivalries will manage to put it behind them?

    Hopefully in 2014 there will be no injuries or tragedies as we’ve seen this year. Perhaps it will be NASCAR’s best year yet. We won’t have to wait long as it’s right around the corner!

  • Kasey Kahne Pays Tribute to Jason Leffler in Pocono Victory Lane

    Kasey Kahne Pays Tribute to Jason Leffler in Pocono Victory Lane

    Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, came from the eighteenth starting spot to finish first in the GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway.

    And in the midst of his celebration in Victory Lane, he took a moment to pause and pay tribute to his friend Jason Leffler, with whom he had ridden home with before and after the last Pocono race prior to Leffler’s fatal sprint car accident.

    “This summer has been tough on some racers,” Kahne said. “I thought about it on my way up here because Jason flew up and back with me.”

    “It was tough and there are so many people that were good friends with Jason so I wanted to mention him.”

    This was Kahne’s 16th victory in 345 NASCAR Sprint Cup races, his second victory in 2013, and his second victory at Pocono. He advanced one position in the point standings to the eighth spot.

    “I felt like our Farmers Insurance Chevrolet was the best car,” Kahne said. “Once I cleared Jeff (Gordon), that was pretty much the race.”

    “To come here and dominate the race and get the win was really cool,” Kenny Francis, crew chief said. “We were all about to jump off the box when Kasey made that pass.”

    Jeff Gordon, who suffered that fateful pass by teammate Kasey Kahne, celebrated his birthday by finishing runner up in his No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet.

    This was Gordon’s 29th top-10 finish in 42 races at Pocono and his ninth top-10 finish of the season.

    “He was super-fast all day,” Gordon said of Kahne. “Those guys deserved and earned that win today.”

    “We had them though,” Gordon continued. “We had the position and got a good restart and I’m pretty disappointed that I allowed him to get to the outside of me in Turn One.”

    “That’s the advantage you have of being second, just like the restart before that where I had a little bit of an advantage being in second and got position on him,” Gordon said. “I thought that last restart I did everything I needed to do and I looked in my mirror and I really thought that the inside lane got a good run. I thought all I needed to do was get the bottom but man, he caught me by surprise and blasted by me.”

    “And in that scenario, it just kills your momentum.”

    While Gordon was disappointed, he was definitely counting his blessings, especially as it pertains to the point standings and getting into Chase contention.

    “I feel fortunate to come in second,” Gordon said.  “I feel like we had a great day all in all and I’m very proud of that.”

    “That’s something we can build a lot of momentum on,” Gordon continued. “Yeah, I’m frustrated right now because we had a shot at it and I know how important wins are, but second is a great points day for us as well.”

    Gordon moved up one spot in the point standings up to the ninth position.

    Fellow birthday boy Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet, finished third. And for him it felt like a victory, having conquered some of the demons that had plagued the team.

    “It was definitely a run that we were able to close the chapter on having little problems here and there,” Busch said. “What I mean by that is that we executed really well today.”

    “It was pit strategy, pit stops, two tires, four tires and all to be in position at the end,” Busch continued. “When the 48 had their trouble, we were even able to get into the pits before they closed them.”

    “It just seems like the team is flowing really well and I’m excited for this portion of the season because we now get to go back to all these tracks a second time and we have fresh notes,” Busch said. “So, working together, what I’m happy about is that we’re small but we can shoot from the hip a lot and make up a lot of ground by being aggressive.”

    “Even though we didn’t win, I feel good about this third place finish because this was a championship effort.”

    This was Busch’s 14th top-10 finish in 25 races at Pocono and he moved up one position to 13th in the point standings.

    Ryan Newman, coming off the race win at the Brickyard, continued riding the momentum wave with a fourth place finish in his No. 39 Haas Automation 30th Anniversary Chevrolet.

    “Well it was a good run no doubt,” Newman said, in spite of some pit road challenges. “Big for Quicken Loans and their ‘Bring it Home’ sweepstakes.”

    And of course Newman reminded all that Bloomin’ Onions would be available for all at Outback on Monday.

    Rounding out the top-five was Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the No. 88 National Guard Youth Foundation Chevrolet.

    “We had a good car but not as good as it needed to be,” Junior said. “We just didn’t have the edge that we needed.”

    “I want to thank my guys who did a good job on strategy and pit stops.”

    While Chevrolet dominated the top five, team Penske flew the Ford team colors, with Brad Keselowski finishing sixth and Joey Logano finishing seventh.

    “We were close to the 5 and 24 but they were probably a tad faster,” the reigning champ and driver of the No. 2 Redd’s Apple Ale Ford said. “Damn, we were just a little bit short.”

    “We were a lot better than we finished,” the driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford said. “Seventh isn’t bad but I thought we were a top-three car today.”

    “We just have to keep our heads in the game and keep trying to make up points.”

    Both Logano and Keselowski each moved up one position in the point standings, with Logano now in 17th and Keselowski now in wild card contention in 12th.

    Kyle Busch was the highest finishing Toyota. He brought the No. 18 M&M’s Peanut Butter Toyota to the checkered flag in the eighth spot.

    “We were just a little bit off today,” Busch said after starting from the outside pole. “It seemed like we could get going good on restarts and it would drive well for a few laps, then we couldn’t keep up as well on the long run.”

    “That’s about all we had.”

    Points leader Jimmie Johnson had a very eventful day in his No. 48 Lowe’s Planes Chevrolet, but battled back to a 13th place finish after blowing a tire and hitting the wall. In spite of all that, Johnson actually increased his points lead over Clint Bowyer to 77 points.

    “Yeah, my day kept needing to be calibrated as the day went on,” Johnson said. “I really felt like we had a shot to win, unfortunately blew a tire off of Turn One and ended those hopes there.”

    “We worked on the car and got it better,” Johnson said. “Then I hit the wall so hard that it knocked a spark plug wire off the spark plug.”

    “They were able to get everything hooked back up and the engine took off,” Johnson continued. “Off we went and salvaged a very nice finish.”

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Michigan Quicken Loans 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Michigan Quicken Loans 400

    Awash in tributes to the memory of Jason Leffler and to all the dads for Father’s Day, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

    Surprising:  For the first time since June of 2005 at Sonoma, every Hendrick Motorsports car finished outside the top 25.

    Five-time champ Jimmie Johnson finished 28th after hitting the wall in the remaining laps of the race, while Dale Earnhardt, Jr. blew an engine to finish 37th. The next HMS driver to finish was Kasey Kahne in the 38th position after blowing a tire and hitting the wall, followed by Jeff Gordon, who was caught up in an early wreck with Bobby Labonte to finish 39th.

    Four-time champion Jeff Gordon, who himself experienced his second DNF in a row at MIS, summed up the disappointing finishes of all of Hendrick Motorsports teams best.

    “It’s testing my frustration level,” Gordon said. “I don’t want to see the team get down.”

    “I have a lot of fight and so does the team,” Gordon continued. “I’m looking forward to going to Sonoma.”

    Not Surprising:  Since it was Michigan, a track that has been known as a Ford playground and where Roush Fenway Racing has such deep roots, it was no surprise that the race winner was Greg Biffle, the driver of the No. 16 3M/Give Kids a Smile Ford.

    It was also not surprising that Biffle scored the 1,000th win for the Ford Motor Company as well as giving the Ford Motor Company a happy 110th birthday. And for the Biff, he was also able to celebrate his very first win of the 2013 season.

    But what was not surprising in the least was the emotion of the driver in Victory Lane as he held his daughter Emma tight, celebrated Father’s Day, and honored the memory of a fellow competitor who was lost too soon, leaving his beloved five year old son behind.

    “It is Emma’s first victory lane on Father’s Day,” Biffle said as the confetti rained down upon them. “I am thinking about my dad that couldn’t be here who is hopefully watching.”

    “We are also thinking about little Charlie Leffler that doesn’t have a father today.”

    Surprising:  In spite of an engine failure on Lap 132 and the resulting poor finish, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was surprisingly upbeat when all was said and done. In fact, he actually took on the role of team leader and chief cheerleader, especially when it came to the performance of his car.

    “We just had something come apart in the motor,” the driver of the No. 88 National Guard/Man of Steel Chevrolet said. “Really happy though with the engine.”

    “Happy with the way the car performed,” Junior continued. “We had an awesome car.”

    “We had a first or second place car there.”

    Not Surprising:  He may not have closed the deal, but Kevin Harvick was indeed happy with his second place finish in his No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet. And he even managed that great finish in spite of having an ill-handling car to start off with and a vibration at the end of the race.

    “I didn’t wake up thinking that we were going to even run in the top ten,” Harvick said. “I was pretty nervous about our car.”

    “But everybody on this whole Budweiser team did a great job,” Harvick continued. “We just kept our head in there and kept digging.”

    This was Harvick’s fifth top-10 in a row and his fifth top-five finish of the season. His good run also moved him up one spot in the point standings to the fourth position.

    Surprising:  The rest of Richard Childress Racing had a surprisingly good day at the race track, with all of their other drivers in the top 15 at Michigan International Speedway. Jeff Burton finished 10th, Austin Dillon finished 11th and Paul Menard finished 14th for team RCR.

    “The No. 31 Caterpillar team fought hard all day to bring home another solid finish,” Burton said. “We continue to make progress with our mile-and-a –half and two-mile track programs.”

    “Overall it was a good points day,” Burton said, moving four spots up to 17th in the standings.

    Not Surprising:   Smoke, who has been on fire as of late, continued to rip off good finishes now that the summer has arrived. In spite of a crash on Friday, the driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet finished top-five and moved up into the top ten in the point standings.

    “We had some breaks go our way,” Stewart said. “I’m proud of these guys.”

    “We weren’t very good all weekend so this team had to work hard to get us where we were today.”

    Surprising:  After all the talk of engine woes and failures and the ratcheting up and down of horsepower, Toyota had a surprisingly good day, scoring a third place finish with Martin Truex, Jr., a fourth place with Kyle Busch, a sixth place with Matt Kenseth and a seventh place finish with Clint Bowyer.

    “The power in the engine was definitely better than last week,” Truex, Jr., driver of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota said. “They’re working on that.”

    “We were very competitive horsepower-wise and all that was good.”

    “That was a crazy day,” Bowyer, driver of the No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota said. “We got off to a rough start but we worked on it all day long and made the absolute best of the situation.”

    “Not the way we would have drawn it up, but I’ll take it.”

    Not Surprising:  There was indeed some drama between teammates, from a restart issue with Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., as well as  a disagreement about trash between Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards.

    “Yeah, he spun his tires and almost ran into the side of me trying to control his car,” Johnson said of teammate Junior on a restart. “I wasn’t going to get burned on that again so I jumped off the gas and got drilled from behind.”

    “There is a game to be played there and you can cause a heck of a pile up if you are trying to give it back.”

    Biffle and Edwards, on the other hand, had a major disagreement about of all things trash on the grille.

    “It’s his job to help me,” Edwards said of Biffle, who he felt should have backed up to help him dislodge trash that was causing significant overheating.

    “I didn’t know when I passed him he had something on his grille or I’d let him get it off then,” Biffle said. “But when I looked up and he was 25 car lengths back, I said ‘I can’t help him, not right now.’ This is my chance to win today.”

    “I didn’t feel like I could take that risk.”

    Surprising:  After starting 37th, Danica Patrick scored her first top-15 finish in a Cup Series race at the big track in the rolling hills of Michigan.

    “At the end of the race, the last run was the best run I felt,” the driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet said. “It’s so nice to get a decent finish for the team.”

    “This will hopefully get everyone’s head up a little bit and we will go on,” Patrick said. “I think we have been strong lately.”

    “We just needed to have days like today where we finished it off.”

    Not Surprising:  Bobby Labonte, booted temporarily from his No. 47 Charter Toyota for JTG Daugherty Racing, struggled even after picking up a new ride in the No. 51 Phoenix Construction Services Chevrolet for James Finch and Phoenix Racing.

    Although Labonte was able to keep his consecutive race streak alive at 702, unfortunately his race results were not what he wanted or needed as he wrecked out early, finishing dead last.

    AJ Allmendinger, who JTG Daugherty had hired to shake down Labonte’s ride, did a little better in that car, scoring a top-20 finish.

    Allmendinger could drive a few more times for JTG, while Labonte is scheduled to return for the remainder of the schedule. Labonte’s best finish so far in the No. 47 car has been 15th in the Daytona 500.

    Surprising:  Kasey Kahne showed off a surprisingly new talent, that of firefighting. The driver of the No. 5 Farmer’s Insurance Chevrolet was leading the race when the car took off, hit the wall and burst into flames.

    “Something broke,” Kahne said. “I would say it was a tire that went down but I don’t know for sure.”

    “I was just going into the corner and then it went ‘boom’ and turned right straight into the wall.”

    Kahne’s car burst into flames and he was able to exit quickly. He then, however, reached back into the car and initiated the fire extinguishing equipment, putting out the fire well before any of the safety professionals arrived at the scene.

    Kahne later tweeted, “First time I have ever pulled the fire extinguisher. That was cool.”

    Not Surprising:  As with every driver, team and owner, hearts were heavy for the loss of Jason Leffler, who died in a sprint car from blunt neck trauma at a dirt track in New Jersey. Team owner Jack Roush put it best with his hope that Leffler would live on through new and improved safety at those local race tracks.

    “Every time somebody gets hurt in racing, we need to look behind it and see what we can learn about the tragedy and see what we can do to establish some safety thing that would make it survivable for somebody else in the future,” Roush said. “If there was something to be learned from this, Jason will have an impact, as Dale Earnhardt’s death did, on the generation of drivers that follow him.”

  • Matty’s Picks 2013 – Vol. 11 Quicken Loans 400 – Michigan International Speedway – June 16, 2013

    Matty’s Picks 2013 – Vol. 11 Quicken Loans 400 – Michigan International Speedway – June 16, 2013

    I’m back after my yearly boycott of one of the two Pocono races, and I come back amidst a shake up in both the number 1 seed for The Chase, and a hot streak out of the Stewart-Hass stable has mixed up the standings for the two Wild Card spots at the end of the season. Matt Kenseth held the advantage for the top seed in The Chase with three early victories but now he’s got a companion in fellow champion Jimmie Johnson, who recorded his third win of the year last Sunday at Pocono Raceway. Remember, each win in the regular season is worth three bonus points when the Chase begins in mid-September, so winning races now can really help our your cause in September.

    Kenseth, a two-time Michigan winner, arguably has been the season’s fastest commodity leading 11 of 14 races. The 2003 champ’s pace has sometimes proved too fast for his JGR Toyota, which has suffered two engine-related DNFs – something to watch for this weekend, as Michigan tends to be rough on engines.

    Johnson peaked early, winning the Daytona 500. Nothing’s happened over the next 13 races to suggest that’s anything but a good thing for the Hendrick Motorsports team. In fact, his best vote of confidence comes from crew chief Chad Knaus following Sunday’s dominant victory at Pocono:

    “Jimmie and I are in a really good spot. Jimmie is switched on right now,” said Knaus in the post race press-conference. “He’s as good or better than I’ve ever seen him.”

    An important stat for Jimmie’s start to this 2013 season is in four of his five championship seasons, he won two or more races through the first Pocono event – he’s won 3 so far this season. Considering he has finished among the top five in 7 of this season’s 14 races and led a combined 271 laps in his past two starts, I think this team is really clicking, and when this team is clicking, WATCH OUT.

    Taking a look at the other end of The Chase field, you’ve got red-hot Tony Stewart. Stewart’s latest feat is disproving a mysterious theory that the current points system works against recovery from an early season filled with misfortune. It took Tony just 3 races to erase that misconception.
    Tony left Darlington on Mother’s Day weekend ranked 21st in the standings, but he enters Father’s Day weekend in 13th, but more importantly just 17 points out of the 10th spot in points. In just 3 races, Stewart has closed the gap on 10th by 45 points with 3 solid finishes, including the win at Dover.

    As far as Michigan goes, the track itself is a 2-mile D-shaped oval situated in the “Irish Hills” of Michigan. It was previously known as the “sister track” to Texas World Speedway, not to be confused with Texas Motor Speedway of course, which was actually used as a blueprint for the construction of California Speedway. Michigan is recognized as one of motorsports’ premier facilities because of its wide surface and fast speeds. Because there are no restrictor plates at Michigan, it’s considered the fastest track in NASCAR as corner entry speeds are anywhere from 215 to 220 MPH. There’s a lot of room to race at Michigan, creating a lot of passing and great opportunities for 3 & 4 wide restarts.

    Michigan Picks

    Winner Pick
    On Wednesday, I picked Carl Edwards while previewing Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 with Greg of the Prime Sports Network. It’s a pick I am happy with considering 16 drivers have won from the pole at Michigan, making it the winningest starting spot in the field. Edwards took the pole on Friday with a qualifying speed topping 202 MPH.

    On top of taking the pole on Friday, Edwards boasts the series-best average finish of 8.2 over the course of his career, the second-best average running position, over 2,500 laps run in the top 15, and a Driver Rating of 105.2 which is good enough for 3rd best on the list of active drivers.
    Even in the horrific 2012 season for Carl Edwards, he managed to finish 11th in the June race after starting 42nd, and 6th after he started outside the front row. Considering his success here over the years, I still like Carl as a pick this week.

    Dark Horse Pick
    I didn’t have a longshot on Wednesday during the preview show with Greg, and unfortunately don’t have one for this Saturday Pick’s column this week. To me, there is so much talent starting at the front of the field this week, the top-10 finishing spots are going to be claimed by the top guys. I don’t see too much room for any drivers to “shock the world” this week in Michigan.

    A melancholy Godspeed this week to Jason Leffler, who passed following a Sprint Car crash in Bridgeport, NJ earlier this week. I was a fan of Leffler throughout his career, and am saddened by the loss of one of the true racers of the NASCAR community.

    That’s all for this week, so until we head to wine country…You Stay Classy NASCAR Nation!

  • Remembering Jason Leffler

    Remembering Jason Leffler

    Late Wednesday night, we received the tragic news that Jason Leffler was killed in a Sprint Car crash in Swedesboro, New Jersey. He was 37 years old and leaves behind a five year old son named Charlie Dean. When I heard the news, I couldn’t bear to believe it just like the rest of you. The racing community is a family and always comes together in times like this. Jason Leffler and #LEFturn were trending worldwide as drivers and fans alike took to Twitter to mourn the loss of a good man who like so many others, was taken much too soon.

    Leffler was a real grassroots racer who loved to play in the dirt and he did so better than most. In 1997, he became a USAC National Midget champion and went on to win 3 consecutive titles in that division. It was the first time since 1962 that a driver won three midget titles in succession and no one has done it since. In 1998, he won the USAC Silver Crown championship joining NASCAR legends Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon as champions of that series. Some of his major short track victories include the 1997 Hut Hundred, the 1999 Copper Classic and two Turkey Night Grand Prix’s. His success in USAC caught the attention of Joe Gibbs Racing who put him in a Nationwide car for select races in 1999. He ran his first full Nationwide season in 2000 finishing 20th in points. He also made his one and only start in the Indianapolis 500 that year placing 17th.

    In 2001, he moved to the Cup ranks with Chip Ganassi and struggled to find success although he did win a pole and post a top 10 at Homestead; the only pole of his Cup career. In 2002, he went to the Camping World Truck Series (CWTS) and put in a solid effort earning 4th place in the standings. Jason was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 2003. After an impressive season in the CWTS, he began to jump around running part-time schedules in all three national touring divisions of NASCAR. Nashville Superspeedway in 2004 was the site of Leffler’s first Nationwide victory when he held off Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer in the closing stages of the event.

    Joe Gibbs Racing signed Jason to drive their newly formed Cup team with sponsorship from FedEx in 2005. With pressure from a big time sponsor like FedEx to perform, Gibbs decided to replace him mid-season with Denny Hamlin. In 2006, he went back to the Nationwide (NNS) ranks with a full-time ride courtesy of Todd Braun. He continued to run full-time in NNS until 2011 with his best season being 2007. He finished 3rd in points and won what would be his final NASCAR race in thrilling fashion that year. He battled fiercely with David Reutimann and Greg Biffle in the closing laps trading paint and rubbing fenders as he tried desperately to hold on. He refused to lose and after David passed him, he came right back at him and muscled his way by. After running Biffle up the track with three to go, he put the pedal to the floor and drove off taking the checkered flag. That was also Toyota’s first win in the Nationwide series. Kyle Busch put him in a truck for a handful of races in 2012 and Jason finished top 10 in six of his ten starts with a best result of 4th. His last flash of greatness in NASCAR came in the July NNS Daytona event back in 2011 when he drove from outside the top 10 with just one lap remaining to finish a very close 2nd to Joey Logano.

    Jason Leffler Sprint Car
    Jason Leffler Sprint Car

    He made his final Cup start a Pocono last weekend before a Sprint Car race at Bridgeport Speedway. While running 2nd in the dirt race, he lost control and flipped into the wall. Jason was killed on impact and the racing world is still stunned by this unfathomable loss. It’s been a long time since we’ve lost an active NASCAR driver like this and the mood is somber as we all reluctantly gear up for a weekend of racing at Michigan International Speedway. Leffler will be remembered as an aggressive driver who never gave an inch and fought tooth and nail for every position. After getting into it with Sorenson once, Reed said to Leffler, “if you had lifted, we both would have made it through there.” Jason simply replied, “I don’t lift.” Just one of the many examples of what kind of competitor Leffler was. Panther Racing owner John Barnes was quoted saying, ” Jason was a small man with a huge right foot.”

    Jason was a devoted single father who adored his son and had an unshakable passion for going fast. His determination to win was incorruptible and even through all the hardships, he pushed on, he persevered,  he refused to give up. This phenomenal talent could push a car to the absolute limit, teetering on the edge of disaster with no fear or trepidation of what could happen should something go wrong. His tenacity behind the wheel was awe-inspiring and his goofy, yet friendly personality will be remembered with smiles and with tears. We lost more than just a racer on that track, we lost a great man and a little boy lost his father.

    The unwavering bravery and determination of racers never ceases to amaze as they look death in the eye every time they drive and losses like Leffler’s are never in vain. As legendary racer Bruce McLaren who also perished behind the wheel once put it; ” To do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one’s ability, for I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone.”

    Well said Bruce. Death in racing is unavoidable and the wounds left in its wake sometimes never heel. We bury the fallen with tears, embrace the ones who escape death’s firm and final grip with relief and race on because that’s what racers do. Rest in peace Jason Leffler and let us all take comfort in the fact that you’re racing with angels now.

     

    “Last night we lost a real racer (in) Jason Leffler” -Mario Andretti

    “Jason Leffler was a great racer and an even better friend….We raced together a lot, and our career paths were very similar. He loved racing, especially open-wheel racing, and that’s a passion we both share. To not have him around to talk about whatever race one of us had just run, or were going to run, will be hard.” -Tony Stewart

    “He died doing what he loved. He was a real racer, and he will be missed.” -Ryan Newman

    “Can’t stop thinking about Jason Leffler…Very sad night. What a great guy we lost tonight. Rest in Peace Jason.” -Kasey Kahne

    “Hate bein reminded of whatta dangerous sport racing is. Lost a good buddy 2nite” -Shane Hmiel

  • BREAKING NEWS: Jason Leffler Killed in Sprint Car Crash

    BREAKING NEWS: Jason Leffler Killed in Sprint Car Crash

    SWEDESBORO, N.J., June 12 – Jason Leffler, who has driven in all three of NASCAR’s touring series, died as the result of a crash at the Bridgeport Speedway while competing in a 410 Sprint car event.

    NASCAR, in a statement said, “NASCAR extends its thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies to the family of Jason Leffler who passed away earlier this evening. For more than a decade, Jason was a fierce competitor in our sport and he will be missed.”

    Reports indicated that Leffler was running in second place during a qualifying heat race when his car flipped several times down the front straight.

    The track cancelled all further events for the evening after the crash as State Police arrived.

     

     

  • Nelson Piquet Jr. Wins the Camping World Truck Series Pole at Rockingham Speedway

    Nelson Piquet Jr. Wins the Camping World Truck Series Pole at Rockingham Speedway

    [media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photography” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]After four practice sessions, the trucks took to the track Saturday afternoon to qualify at ‘The Rock.’ Nelson Piquet Jr. captured the pole driving his No. 30 Chevrolet Silverado. It was his first pole in 33 career starts.

    He described the track as difficult and said the last couple of days have been tough. He doesn’t necessarily expect the pole position to translate into a win because of the unpredictability of tire wear at the track.

    Paulie Harraka qualified in the second position, calling it a “solid” run. Timothy Peters will start the race in third position after fighting “a tight condition.”

    Jason Leffler and Brad Sweet (qualifying for Kasey Kahne) round out the top five.  Kahne, who will compete in the Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway Saturday, will start the truck race from the back of the field Sunday afternoon.

    The Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200 begins at 1:00 pm Sunday and will be televised live on Speed. Speed coverage will begin at 12:30pm with ‘NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Setup.’  It will mark NASCAR’s first return to the track since 2004.

     

    Starting Lineup
    Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200, Rockingham Speedway
    http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Cup/qual.php?race=3
    ===========================================
    Pos. No. Driver Make Speed Time
    ===========================================
    1 30 Nelson Piquet Jr. Chevrolet 144.387 24.933
    2 5 Paulie Harraka* Ford 144.381 24.934
    3 17 Timothy Peters Toyota 143.937 25.011
    4 18 Jason Leffler Toyota 143.73 25.047
    5 4 Brad Sweet Chevrolet 143.392 25.106
    6 29 Parker Kligerman Ram 143.147 25.149
    7 11 Todd Bodine Toyota 143.033 25.169
    8 88 Matt Crafton Toyota 142.976 25.179
    9 60 Grant Enfinger Chevrolet 142.885 25.195
    10 13 Johnny Sauter Toyota 142.693 25.229
    11 98 Dakoda Armstrong* Toyota 142.642 25.238
    12 3 Ty Dillon* Chevrolet 142.535 25.257
    13 33 Cale Gale* Chevrolet 142.349 25.29
    14 8 Ross Chastain* Toyota 142.298 25.299
    15 24 Max Gresham* Chevrolet 142.259 25.306
    16 31 James Buescher Chevrolet 142.158 25.324
    17 22 Joey Coulter Chevrolet 142.034 25.346
    18 92 Chad McCumbee Chevrolet 141.989 25.354
    19 6 Justin Lofton Chevrolet 141.766 25.394
    20 9 John Wes Townley* Toyota 141.682 25.409
    21 81 David Starr Toyota 141.06 25.521
    22 9 Ron Hornaday Chevrolet 140.658 25.594
    23 32 Miguel Paludo Chevrolet 140.488 25.625
    24 275 Caleb Holman* Chevrolet 140.455 25.631
    25 7 John King* Toyota 140.384 25.644
    26 202 Tyler Young Chevrolet 140.362 25.648
    27 27 Jeb Burton* Chevrolet 140.203 25.677
    28 23 Jason White Ford 139.969 25.72
    29 2 Tim George Jr. Chevrolet 139.654 25.778
    30 214 Brennan Newberry Chevrolet 139.373 25.83
    31 99 Bryan Silas* Ford 138.648 25.965
    32 39 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet 138.206 26.048
    33 93 Chris Cockrum+ Chevrolet 134.133 26.839
    34 7 Johnny Chapman+ Toyota 131.536 27.369
    35 57 Norm Benning+ Chevrolet 131.411 27.395
    36 170 Jeff Agnew Chevrolet 139.346 25.835