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Tag: Jeff Gordon

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Finger Lakes 355 at The Glen

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Finger Lakes 355 at The Glen

    [media-credit id=24 align=”alignright” width=”224″][/media-credit]In spite of a few drops of rain and much discussion about oil on the track in the waning laps, here is what else was surprising and not surprising for the 27th annual Finger Lakes 355 at The Glen.

    Surprising:  Although this two-time winner at the Glen was far from home, in fact about as far away as one can possibly be, he felt right at home, relishing his triumph with his family from down under in Victory Lane.

    Australian Marcos Ambrose, driving the No. 9 Stanley Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports, scored his first victory of the season and his second win in 141 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.

    “My kids haven’t shared this in America and it’s a special thing to win a NASCAR race, especially a Sprint Cup race, so it’s fantastic,” Ambrose said of having his children with him in Victory Lane and the media center post-race. “I’ve got my in-laws sitting in the back here too.”

    Although Ambrose was surrounded by family, his thoughts were with his family who could not be with him to celebrate.

    “My dad is in the hospital right now, so I hope this makes him feel better and gets him going,” Ambrose continued. “It’s a tough life when you’re racing , especially I’m from Australia and my immediate family is down home and I feel a long way away a lot of days.”

    “It’s great to have my family here and great to let them celebrate with me,” Ambrose said. “These days don’t come around every day.”

    Not Surprising:  Ever the hard core racer, it was no surprise to see Brad Keselowski so completely jazzed with his runner up finish after beating and banging with Ambrose all the way to the checkered flag.

    This was the second top-10 finish in three races at Watkins Glen International for the driver of the Miller Lite Blue Deuce for Penske Racing. It was also Keselowski’s 12th top-10 finish of the season.

    “That’s what racing is supposed to be right there; a little bit of bumping and rubbing but none of that intentional wrecking BS,” Keselowski said. “It came down to just running a whole lap against Marcos.”

    “I got in the oil and we’d slip up,” Keselowski continued. “He’d get by me and then he’d get in the oil and I’d get by him.”

    “It’s great to race against guys like Marcos that you can run on, lean on and don’t lose their cool,” Keselowski said. “I think that’s the way racing should be.”

    Surprising:  They may be teammates and even share a Hendrick Motorsports garage, but Jimmie Johnson took advantage of his teammate Dale Junior’s slip up to not only finish third in the race, but also snatch the points lead away from him.

    “I just got in the corner and made a mistake and that was pretty much all there was to it,” the driver of the No. 88 National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet said. “I was just overdriving the car.”

    “It was a bad ugly finish at the end.”

    Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Cortez Silver Chevrolet, deemed the finish “chaotic” as well.

    “But I’m glad we got back to the finish line and finished third,” Johnson continued. “Very solid day for this Lowe’s team.”

    “I’m excited to be leading the points.”

    Not Surprising:  In spite of one Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver sitting on the pole and the other re-signing with the team, both EGR drivers had yet another rough day at the race track.

    Juan Pablo Montoya, driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet, secured his second pole in a row, last week at Pocono and this week at the Glen. Mechanical troubles, however, sidelined JPM, relegating him to a 33rd place finish.

    “I think it was the lower control arm,” Montoya said. “We got the last two poles and I did think we had a car to win today.”

    “It was looking really good; everything looked like it was going according to the plan,” Montoya continued. “All of a sudden I hit a curb and the car went completely left on me.”

    Teammate Jamie McMurray, fresh off inking his signature on his new contract with the team, also struggled. Jamie Mac hit the Armco barrier so hard that it left its impression on the driver’s side door of his No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet.

    “It just happened all of a sudden,” McMurray said. “The tire blew out and we hit the guardrail pretty hard.”

    Surprising:  While the Queen may have had her James Bond moment at the Olympics, there was one such moment at the Glen, with the wild card spots being definitely ‘shaken, not stirred.’

    The two drivers whose Chase chances were most shaken were both Kyle Busch and four-time champion Jeff Gordon.

    Busch, behind the wheel of his No. 18 M&Ms Toyota, looked like he would notch another win until he tangled with Brad Keselowski and got shuffled back to seventh at the race end. That win would have moved Busch into the second wild-card spot in the Chase.

    “I’ve got nothing good to say,” was Busch’s only post-race comment. He later posted on Facebook, “Can it get any worse?”

    The other driver shaken in the Chase was Jeff Gordon, behind the wheel of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet. He too was headed for at least a top-10 finish until he slid in oil and wrecked on the last lap, finishing 21st.

    Gordon lost two spots in the Chase standings, falling to 15th.

    “I’m pretty bummed,” Gordon said after the race. “We didn’t have the day I thought we were going to have.”

    Not Surprising:   While brother Kyle struggled at the Glen, so too did big brother Kurt Busch. Busch, driving the No. 51 Phoenix Racing Construction Services Chevrolet, had a mechanical problem, blew a tire, and headed to the garage.

    “These guys work way too hard for these mechanical things to happen,” Busch said. “Sometimes these things just add up and we are just on the wrong side of the eight-ball.”

    Surprising:  For the second race in a row, Denny Hamlin suffered problems on the track that entailed another quick exit from his No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota.

    “I have a thing with wrecks and fires here lately,” Hamlin said. “I was fine until once again I started feeling the heat and looked down and saw the fire at my feet.”

    “Once I got fire on me, I decided to stop at the nearest fire station,” Hamlin continued. “It’s unfortunate but an overall bad weekend for us.”

    Not Surprising:  Regan Smith, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet, had another top 10 finish for himself and the team. Smith, who finished ninth at Pocono last weekend, replicated it again at the Glen.

    This was also his first career top-10 finish on a road course.

    “I am happy to come away with a top-10,” Smith said. “I am very proud of this team and very excited about what we’ve been able to accomplish recently.”

    “We’re on the right track and that’s encouraging.”

    Surprising:  Something that is surprisingly not heard often was heard at the road course this weekend. Veteran driver Jeff Burton was black flagged for failing to maintain minimum speed.

    “Once again, bad luck found us, this time it was in the form of a fuel pump issue,” the driver of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet said. Burton soldiered on to finish 30th.

    Not Surprising:  Michael Waltrip Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. conquered nerves and dodged bullets respectively to both finish in the top-10 on the road course.

    “That was some slick racing the last few laps,” Bowyer, behind the wheel of the No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota, said. “We were sliding everywhere.”

    “It was kind of fun, but it was pretty nerve-wracking.”

    “Man, it was rough,” teammate Truex, Jr., driving the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, said after running out of gas with 25 laps to go. “Those kinds of days when you make mistakes, you’ve got to battle back.”

    “We dodged a big bullet be being able to come back through the field like that.”

    Surprising:  Tony Stewart, driving the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, made a surprising and uncharacteristic error on a road course, spinning on lap 71 after being second in the race running order.

    Smoke backed into the Armco barrier, significantly shortening up the car. He went on to rally after repairs from 29th to finish 19th.

    “Sorry guys,” Stewart said. “I gave it away there.”

    Not Surprising:   On the flip side, Stewart Haas Racing teammate Ryan Newman said a big hello to the wild card spot in the Chase. The driver of the No. 39 US Army Chevrolet finished 11th to move up to 13th in the point standings, just 49 points out of the 10th position.

    “In the end, it was a good day for us in the points, which was what we needed to make the Chase,” Newman said. “That’s our mission and we’re going to have to fight it out these next four races.”

    “Just like our Army Strong soldiers, we’re a determined bunch and we’re not going to give up.”

     

  • Looking out for a champion: Eddie D’Hondt

    Looking out for a champion: Eddie D’Hondt

    [media-credit name=”Photo Credit: Gary Buchanan” align=”alignright” width=”168″][/media-credit]How did you become a spotter?
    “Well, I used to drive late models and modified’s in the NASCAR touring division. I first drove to Charlotte in 1996. I became a General Manager since I have a good business background and we needed a spotter one day for the Cup race with Bill Elliott when I was a general manager there so I just started doing it and I’ve been doing it ever since 12-13 years ago.”

    Entering adulthood, was your plan originally to work in auto racing or did you have another plan for your future?
    “Everything just kind of fell into place. I went to high school and college at C.W. Post on a Baseball and academic scholarship and I went there and started commercial window business in Manhattan where we made and sold commercial window systems and I just raced in the area. I did that for about 15-16 years. But, I raced all over the East Coast while I did that. A bunch of us moved down to Charlotte in 1996, Tommy Baldwin, myself, and Steve Park, and it just kind of all evolved.”

    How did you manage your time between your business and your racing?
    “We had very little sleep. I had to wake up at four o’clock every day to travel to my job and then come home and be with my family for a little while and then go to the shop and work on my race cars and go to be at 12:30-one o’clock every night.”

    What has been the biggest challenge that you’ve faced in your career?
    “I think the change in it all. After about four years I went to work for Bill Elliott as his General Manager. I wanted to work with him for the rest of my life. His career was winding down and Ray Evernham came up to me and asked me if I can convince Bill to drive for him as he was going to start up a Dodge team and he wanted me to come and be his General Manager. Eventually he bought out Bill Elliott Racing. After that I became the GM at Evernham Motorsports. But, the biggest challenge has been changing jobs because the platform of the sport changes. I worked with Robert Yates for almost four years and became like a second son to him and the challenge itself has been to pick up teams from the ground and the business changes in one way or another. The change of it is a little bit devastating but you have to try to make the best of it in the long term.”

    Can you elaborate on your relationship with Robert Yates, Tommy Baldwin, and Ray Evernham?
    “Tommy and I have been best friends for 37 years, our friendship goes back when he was seven years old and I stuffed him in a tire and rolled him down a hill in the mud and we became best friend’s ever since. His dad and I were extremely close. As far as Ray goes, I knew him from back home and when I came down here and I was always happy for him and his accomplishments. Then I started working for him for a while. Robert and getting to know him and getting to run his company and turning it around was a pretty big change from when I got there. I can say that I became a second son to him and after three and a half years his career wound down and sold the team. I spent so much time with these people, it’s pretty easy to build a relationship with them. You spend more time with the people you work with than your own family.”

    What years did you work with RYR and what did you do to turn around the team?
    “I started in the last two races in 2003 and I left mid-season 2006. When I left, there was trouble financially. When I got there, they had two top ten’s between Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler and then the next year they had two wins, 23 tops ten’s and when I took over it totally changed a lot of the ways things were going on. They just needed someone to come in and give a fresh look at it. We won Talladega in 2005 and it was also the last time Dale Jarrett won a race. It was pretty good for a couple of years and they ran well.”

    How do you take that experience you have with managing teams and taking it to the teams when your spotting?
    “There aren’t that many parts of the managerial side that play a role while spotting, it’s more of my time as a driver. I make it seem like the driver’s I’m working with are in my shoes.”

    Previously, you worked with Kyle Busch, this season you’re working with Jeff Gordon and Justin Allgair. What differences do you see between the two drivers compared to other drivers you worked with in the past?
    “Jeff is a Cup Series professional and he’s extremely professional in his approach as he never ever gets angry, he doesn’t call out anyone on our team and when something goes wrong he’s the positive guy that takes care of everything and he’s extremely talented. Kyle is also talented, but he’s more exaggerated in his feelings and emotions. All of the stuff that is happening to him is happening for the first time when Jeff has been through all of it, winning four championships and having a lot of experience. With Kyle, he has all of the talent in the world to win multiple championships, but they are totally different personalities. They’re both very good but on two parts of the spectrum.”

    What are the differences which you have witnessed going from Joe Gibbs Racing to Hendrick Motorsports?
    “I think that they’re very similar in how they approach things on the performance side. My son works at JGR and I’m very happy for him. At HMS, it’s very polished, they have more years than JGR, JGR started up after HMS so you can see that the experience things that HMS has with the championships between Jimmie Johnson and Jeff in house as opposed to just three with JGR with Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte. It’s just the maturity of the organization. Gibbs will get to winning championships in years to come, but I think Hendrick stand on its own platform.”

    What does your OLDEST son do with JGR?
    “He is a mechanic for the No. 18 Nationwide team.”

    Besides being a spotter, what additional roles do you have with the team?
    “None, that is all I do with the No. 24 team. I also spot for Miguel Paludo and Justin Allgair. I do contract work for drivers and teams, but that’s all I do.”

    When not spotting or writing up contracts, what do you usually do?
    “Well I have two dogs that I look after and take care of in my house. I’ve been doing a lot of laundry these days because we’re in mid-season form and get home at four o’clock in the morning on Saturday night.”

    Does the speed of the sport, going week-to-week ever get to you?
    “Yeah it does, but, after all these years, I’ve gotten a pretty good basis of it without overwhelming me. I can see that happening to some young kids that drive. But, I started all of this in 1981 and have been through it for a quite amount of years. The schedule isn’t foreign to me. It used to be a lot harder with all of the testing where we spent the weekend at the racetrack and then go to another track for three days to test.”

    How much longer do you plan on spotting?
    “I don’t really know. I don’t really have a plan. I’ll probably keep going as long as I can do it. I enjoy working for the best company in the business and the best driver in the business. But, I don’t really have a plan.”

    Once you do retire, what will you do with all the free time every weekend?
    “I don’t know (chuckles). That’s a good question, but I’m not sure yet. Maybe I’ll consult for people. It’s just in my blood and it’s really hard to walk away from it.”

    With your managerial background, what is the possibility of you owning a team in the future?
    “I owned two Nationwide teams with Tommy Baldwin and myself and then I had my own Nationwide team and ARCA team with Randy Humphrey. I might get back to it one day, but it would be when the economy turns around a little bit better and when I can get people to be behind me to keep it financially stable. There was a couple of times around when Tommy and I built teams that were very strong, but we couldn’t find the funding.”

    The Nationwide team you owned a few years ago in 2008 or 2009 right?
    “That sounds roughly correct. The last Nationwide team I owned, Kyle drove for us at Watkins Glen and finished second. But I also owned the start and park teams with Randy Humphrey a few years ago. We were trying to build a full-time Nationwide team but we could never get the money to do it. But, the Nationwide team that Tommy and I had was sponsored by Unilever and is still around today.”

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Pennsylvania 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Pennsylvania 400

    [media-credit id=26 align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Under stormy skies that unfortunately ultimately proved fatal for one race fan, here is what was surprising and not so surprising from the Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway.

    Surprising:  It was surprising just how quickly the NASCAR family came together after several fans were struck by lightning at the track and one was killed. Pocono Raceway has established the Pennsylvania 400 Memorial Fund to benefit the victims of the lightning strike.

    Donations are being accepted at any PNC branch or by mailing checks or money order to the Pennsylvania 400 Memorial Fund, Pocono Raceway, 1234 Long Pond Road, Long Pond, PA 18334.

    Not Surprising:  After a weekend of Heisman honors and birthday celebrations, the winner of the Pennsylvania 400 had just one thought on his mind.

    Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, was grateful to have his family with him to celebrate his first victory of the season.

    “Today was an amazing victory experience, probably one of the best in my career because with the rain, the lightning, wind blowing sideways, everything going on, you know; I was just so excited to be able to have my family here,” Jeff Gordon said. “It’s the first time I’ve had all of them here for a victory.”

    “I didn’t care if it was under the shed or in the garage,” Gordon continued. “Even my wife, she’s not been able to experience all those wins. I want her to feel what it’s like.”

    “Ella is getting to the age where it’s exciting,” Gordon said. “Leo was able to hold up his finger, No. 1, so that was cool.”

    “This is one that I’m not going to forget.”

    Surprising:  It was surprising how verbose and a bit resigned Kyle Busch was after having yet another tough day at the track. The driver of the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota finished a miserable 33rd and fell out of Chase contention, losing four spots to 15th place in the points.

    “We just blew out the rear brake rotors – disintegrated it and then blew out the rear caliper after that,” Busch said. “Getting down into Turn One with a three-wheel brake is about the worst situation you can have as a race car driver.”

    “I just hate it for all of these guys,” Busch continued. “We had a really fast race car today.”

    “It’s just the way it seems to be, but the way our year has gone,” Busch said. “It’s just inevitable to have something every week happen.”

    “We hoped we had shaken it but obviously it’s not to be.”

    Not Surprising:  Big brother Kurt Busch had absolutely nothing to say after his check in at the infield care center post hitting the wall hard at Pocono Raceway on Lap 86.

    The driver of the No. 51 Phoenix Construction Services Chevrolet finished 30th. Kurt Busch is now 25th in the point standings.

    Surprising:  The driver who never seems to stop improving, just like his sponsor, had an uncharacteristic moment that changed the course of the race at Pocono.

    Jimmie Johnson, behind the wheel of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, was leading the race when he tangled with competitor Matt Kenseth, taking out the leaders of the pack and allowing teammate Jeff Gordon to drive through for the win.

    “I thought it was just junk on my tires,” Johnson said. “And when I got into Turn 1, I realized quickly that it was a flat and it wasn’t trash on my tires.”

    “I don’t think he had a flat, did he?,” Kenseth said of Johnson. “We went off into Turn 1 and I could hear his pipes (roaring). I’m not sure he has lifted yet.”

    “He just drove in really, really, really, really far and spun out underneath me and I got wrecked.”

    Johnson came in 14th while Kenseth finished 23rd in his No. 17 Zest Ford.

    Not Surprising:   Martin Truex Jr., driver of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing continued his quiet ascension up the Chase standings, up two positions to the fifth spot. Truex Jr., from nearby New Jersey, finished 3rd at Pocono.

    “We had a pretty good car all weekend long,” Truex Jr. said. “We were really fast at the end.”

    “I’m proud of the team for what we’ve done and what we’ve accomplished,” Truex Jr. continued. “To be where we’re at; this is a big deal for us.”

    Surprising:  At a track he has so often mastered and one where he just announced his impending fatherhood, Denny Hamlin had a surprisingly terrible finish at Pocono.

    The driver of the No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry struggled all day and was caught up in the late race accident with Johnson and Kenseth to finish 29th.

    Hamlin also spent some extended time in the infield care center receiving medical evaluation because of stomach pain. He was treated and eventually released.

    “The leaders got in trouble and next thing you know, one of the cars slid right in front of me and that was about the end of it,” Hamlin said. “We weren’t going to win anyway and at this point, all we’re racing for is wins.”

    “I had some pains in my stomach, but they’ve subsided.”

    Not Surprising:  The impending storm off the track was Kasey Kahne’s friend on the track as he finished second even with a flat tire and a stormy pit stop, where he ran over his air hose and lost precious time in his stall.

    “I felt good about where we were,” Kahne said. “I am a little upset with myself and the way I ran the race, but we definitely had a great Farmers Insurance Chevrolet and ended up with a great result.”

    Surprising:  Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who looked so strong at the start of the race, even taking the lead early, had surprising transmission problems that ended his consecutive laps run streak for the season.

    Even with that 32nd place finish, however, Junior was surprisingly able to hang on to the points lead due to Kenseth’s wreck at the end of the race. He is now just 5 points ahead on the Chase leader board.

    “We don’t ever break parts,” the driver of the No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew/AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet said. “It’s tough.”

    “We had a good run going and I’m sorry for all the guys in the shop.”

    Not Surprising:  The Stewart Haas Racing duo of Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman had a good day at the ‘Tricky Triangle’, finishing fifth and sixth respectively.

    “I’m really proud of Steve Addington (crew chief) and these guys,” the driver of the No. 14 Office Depot Back to School Chevrolet said. “We didn’t necessarily throw a Hail Mary at it, but we kind of went back to where we started and worked from that.”

    “I’m really proud of Steve for finding the package that we ran.”

    “A good solid day,” the driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation/Quicken Loans Chevrolet, said. “We needed that.”

    “And another top-10.”

    Surprising:  Regan Smith, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet, who has had a rough 2012, had a surprisingly good run at Pocono, finishing ninth. This was his first top-10 finish in quite a while at the track.

    “We had a good car this weekend and it got even better as the race went on,” Smith said. “It’s a great feeling in our Furniture Row camp to have the kind of performances we’ve had the last two weekends.”

    “We’re moving along with plenty of enthusiasm right now and feel that we’re in the process of turning things around.”

    Not Surprising:  While Martin Truex Jr. had a great run at Pocono, so too did the rest of the Michael Waltrip Racing team.

    Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota Camry and star of the Pocono tweet-up, finished 8th, and teammate Mark Martin, in the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota, finished 12th.

    “We’ll take it,” Bowyer said.

    “We had a fast car,” Martin said. “A 12th place finish isn’t too bad.”

  • CHEVY NSCS AT WATKINS GLEN: Jeff Gordon NASCAR Weekly Teleconference Transcript

    CHEVY NSCS AT WATKINS GLEN: Jeff Gordon NASCAR Weekly Teleconference Transcript

    JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET, was this week’s guest on the NASCAR Weekly Teleconference. Below is the complete transcript:

    THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to today’s NASCAR teleconference. We are joined by Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. The four-time champion scored his first win of 2012 and his 86th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory Sunday.

    Gordon has rerouted from a 35th place ranking following the Daytona 500 and currently sits second in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Series wild card standings.

    Next on the schedule is the road course race at Watkins Glen International, where Gordon have four wins and nine top-10 finishes. He has more road course wins, nine, than any other driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series history.

    Jeff, you have mentioned in interviews following the Pocono win that the win put more pressure on the team over these next several race weeks, but you are up to the challenge. Talk about how the team has persevered throughout the season, and what are your expectations the remaining five races leading into the Chase?

    JEFF GORDON: Yeah, you know, we’ve talked about it several times, about going through a season like we’re going through this year where we’ve had great racecars and have for different reasons come up short for the victory, and even at time with solid finishes that put us far back in the points.

    When you go through something like that, it really tests you. It tests every aspect of the team, personalities. It either pulls you apart or it brings you closer together. I think the fact that we have been able to persevere, it’s brought us closer and stronger together.

    But eventually you have to have a win. I know this is probably not the victory that we were really looking for or the way that we wanted to win it, but the way our season has gone, as close as we’ve been, you know what, even the win under these circumstances is still going to be a great boost for us to go through these next five races.

    Now there is more pressure because four, five weeks ago I don’t know if we really felt legitimately there was a shot at us getting into the Chase. We knew how badly we needed one win. Now we’ve got one win. Hopefully we cannot only just keep the momentum going but take on that extra pressure of we do have a shot at it now and step up.

    THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

    We’ll now go to the media for questions for today’s teleconference guest, Jeff Gordon.

    Q. Jeff, you haven’t won at Watkins Glen in a decade, but you’ve been in contention more than a few times. What do you have to do to stay out of some of that bad stuff that’s happened to you?

    JEFF GORDON: Well, the first thing we have to do is have a good-performing car. We’ve had that obviously a lot this year.

    I’ll be honest. In the past few years, we have not had that at Watkins Glen. We sort of lost that edge and great performance that we’ve had in the past when we were winning there at Watkins Glen. We kind of lost that.

    I’m really optimistic because I feel like we made some great gains at Sonoma this year, had a nice finish there. Qualified good there, as well. Sonoma and Watkins Glen are different, but we feel like the test we did at Road Atlanta earlier in the year, the things we’re finding to improve the car in performance is going to pay off at Watkins Glen as well.

    I’m hoping that’s what we do first. Then knowing now that things can go our way if we put ourselves in the right place at the right time, we’re very capable of pulling off top-5 finishes and even a win.

    Q. I know you have a lot of racing left in you, but you obviously had a landmark there with the birthday, 41. Do you have a target date as to when you want to kind of pursue other things in life or are you taking it one season at a time as you go into the later years of your career?

    JEFF GORDON: Yeah, I can’t say there’s necessarily a target date. With the unique situation I’m in, with an equity position at Hendrick Motorsports, the lifetime contract with Rick several years ago, most of the decision making happens when we’re dealing with sponsors and doing sponsor contracts because that usually has more of a lifespan or a date on it of when it might need to be redone or up for negotiation to extend.

    Right now at this time we’re running good. Last year was a great year for us, even though we came up short in the Chase. Won three races. My kids are getting older. Those are the factors that have always played into my excitement, enthusiasm and passion for being out there on the racetrack because that is a lot of it.

    If we’re performing well, if we’re getting results, and I’m healthy, then I want to keep doing it. Now that my kids are getting older and understanding a little bit more, it only drives me to want to do it longer and to do it better.

    My health, even though I’m still battling this cold I had at Indy, other than that health-wise things are going well. I think I’ve got too good of a race team to even be thinking about that right now.

    Listen, I know it’s in the future. I have to be smart and at least think enough about it to plan for it if it happens. You hope that it happens on your own terms. Luckily I’ve got a great team around me – not just my race team, but my stepfather and people in my office, Rick Hendrick. I’ve been able to put myself in a position to do some fun things when I’m not driving. I’ll look forward to that day when it does come.

    Q. You obviously have one of the best winning legacies at Watkins Glen. You’re part of their track Hall of Fame. How important would making a statement that you could still win there be? ‘A bookend’ is maybe not the best way to put it, but how important would it be to reestablish that you can win at Watkins Glen?

    JEFF GORDON: I mean, that would be huge. To follow up what just happened in Pocono, to know what’s happening with the wild card, the battle for the Chase, I think that we know while we’ve made some huge gains over the last several weeks, that we’re certainly in no position to take a breath or be comfortable with one win being, what, 13th in points.

    Not only do we understand – and that’s why there is added pressure – how important it is to continue to keep up a high level of performance. I don’t know if we need the second win as badly as we needed the first one, but it’s not far off. Plus, we just have not performed at a level recently of being able to pull off a win at Watkins Glen like we have in the past.

    Yeah, it would be huge. That would not only help solidify us for getting in the Chase but make us a much bigger factor if we do get in.

    Q. Jeff, I know you drive a Chevrolet. Do you have any reaction today to the news that Dodge is withdrawing from NASCAR at the end of the season?

    JEFF GORDON: It’s always a question mark and somewhat disappointing when a great American manufacturer who has been part of the sport for such a long time, you know, is making that decision. I don’t know if there’s really enough to read off of the statement of all their reasons for it.

    I’ve never driven a Dodge. When you look at the limited number of teams that they’ve had in the past, you kind of had to feel that this was something that was coming. They’re not growing within the sport with more teams; they were getting less and less.

    I’m sure Penske was questioning that commitment and what they’re capable of doing, being the only ones with a Dodge out there.

    I guess it’s not a huge surprise to me, but it is unfortunate because you want to see as many manufacturers, especially somebody like Dodge who has a heritage in our sport and history, to look at the sport and know this is something they have to be a part of.

    Q. They’re testing a new car today up at Martinsville. Does the prospect of driving a different vehicle next year, are you excited about it, worried about it? What is the mindset of going into a new vehicle?

    JEFF GORDON: I’m excited about it. I think things that NASCAR’s implementing into this car, involving the manufacturers and the teams to the level that they are, is a great step, going to be good for us, good for the sport, good for the fans. That falls back to good for the sponsors and everybody.

    I think it’s a good thing. The car is great-looking, which is think is step number one. Look forward to talking to Jimmie to see how it drove. I think there are some things currently that are pretty far out there. You see these cars dog tracking, running sideways down the straightaways, it’s to make the cars have more grip, drive better, go faster. But it’s kind of whacky to see them like that. That’s something that they’re trying to take away.

    They’re talking about taking some weight out of it. I’d like to see some more weight come out of it, but structurally it’s hard to pull off. The car is very safe, and that is an important aspect of it. It’s hard to find where that weight can come out.

    I’m certainly a lot more excited than I was when the COT first came out because I feel like we’ve learned so much over the years, and all that we’ve learned and NASCAR has learned will be implemented into that car.

    I think it’s great. The manufacturers are excited about it because the product recognition, being able to win on Sunday and drive that car on Monday, or a customer wanting to buy that car, it’s something that’s important, something that is definitely going to be a big part of this car for 2013.

    Q. What are the differences in driving Sonoma and Watkins Glen? What have you learned as a racecar driver that you might apply to daily driving? What do you wish drivers out there would know?

    JEFF GORDON: The fast lane is for the fast lane (laughter).

    No, I think I’ll probably answer your second question first. In a racecar you’re so much more aware of your surroundings, understanding what environment you’re in, using your mirrors. I think a lot of people think racecar drivers are more brave-hearted and wild and crazy, but really I think it’s about calculated risk.

    On the street it’s about being safe, getting from one point to the next, doing it calmly and safely. I think being a racecar driver has helped me really understand that better than ever.

    Sometimes my wife says I don’t drive fast enough on the street. But using your mirrors and all those things I think obviously helps me understand what’s happening when changing lanes and all those things.

    The difference between Sonoma and Watkins Glen are tremendous. If you were to look at Bristol and Martinsville and say they’re both half-mile racetracks, what’s the difference? It’s obvious. One is high-banked and faster. The other one is flat, long straightaways, tight corners and hard braking. That’s the difference between Sonoma and Watkins Glen. Watkins Glen is very high speed, much faster overall average speed, so you’re carrying a lot more speed through the corners. You rely more on the downforce there than at Sonoma. You rely a lot more on the downforce, whereas at Sonoma it’s more of a finesse driving, not locking up the tires, not getting the tire to wheel hop, as well as drive-off and mechanical grip is very important there, whereas Watkins Glen most of that comes from the amount of downforce and grip that you have in the car. You got to be a lot more aggressive at Watkins Glen than Sonoma.

    Q. Jeff, have you talked to anybody at Pocono since the incident with the lightning? Is there a policy with the tracks or NASCAR that might have helped in that situation?

    JEFF GORDON: We are trying to get contact information to reach out because we definitely want to do that. It’s a very unfortunate situation. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everybody that’s been affected, especially the family of the gentleman that lost his life. That’s high on our list right now. We’re trying to put all that together as fast as we can.

    As far as procedures and all those things, I think NASCAR is always in a difficult position when it comes to weather. I feel like they do a really good job working with the tracks, working with local officials to try to come up with the best scenario.

    I kind of refer back to them as far as the details that that involved and let you make your own assessment.

    Q. AJ Allmendinger said he called you after the positive test for some advice. Can you talk about that conversation and what you advised?

    JEFF GORDON: Well, it was a private conversation. But I’ve always liked AJ. He reached out to me. I felt that as a friend and fellow racecar driver, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, to talk, see if I can help him in any way, understand what went on from a competitor’s standpoint as well as from a friend.

    I think he’s going to work hard on that road to recovery to get back, and I think he understands the responsibility that he in his choices made that put him in this position, how much of a mistake it was. He’s ready to do whatever it takes to get back into racing.

    I certainly applaud him for that.

    Q. Jeff, with the season going the way it has, with so much bad luck, if you want to put it that way, I’ve had a lot of race fans ask me, How in the heck does something like this affect his family life? Does he try to leave it at the track? Does he get with the family and become a very quiet person? Does he go out and try to have some fun with the family to get your mind off of things?

    JEFF GORDON: That’s a great question.

    You know, as a father of two, and anybody that is a father understands, especially when they’re 5 and 2, whatever happens at the racetrack really doesn’t matter to them a whole lot, except maybe things that happened like this past weekend when they got to go celebrate with the team, get their picture taken, see the trophy, touch it. They were pretty excited about that.

    When I’ve had a bad day, yeah, certainly my wife and I, we discuss it and talk about it. For about 24 hours it weighs on you, you’re upset and disappointed. But, I don’t know, I’ve always been somebody that has been able to keep things in perspective, stay humble, understand the things that are important in life.

    As hard as I work at racing, it’s been good to me over the years. There’s going to be bad days. You just have to put it behind you and move on.

    Sometimes I think it’s been tougher for my wife to understand than me because she hasn’t been in a competitive sport as long as I have. She’s getting better at it. Certainly, like I said, days like Sunday make up for it.

    It’s been an amazing experience to enjoy that with all of them. When I have a bad day, I come home and it’s just all about them, their routine, the things that they want to do. That makes me happy and it gets certainly my mind off of if we did have a bad day.

    Q. Obviously the big celebration, you talked about that. What has changed the Jeff Gordon before family life? In any occupation there’s time commitment balance, priority issues, and how have you handled those things?

    JEFF GORDON: Yeah, you know, I feel like prior to having children, you know, you try to prioritize things, you’re committed to racing, you’re committed to certain levels of time and input that you put in, whether it be work on my foundation, time with my wife. But now, adding two children to that, it makes it very challenging, no doubt about that.

    But my priorities juggle. When I go to the racetrack, I put my head down and I focus on the racecar. When I’m at the shop with the team, I sink myself into that. The rest of the time, the family is my priority.

    Juggling that gets tough at times. Fortunately, I have a very understanding wife. She knows how important racing is to me. But I make it a point to make sure she knows that her and our kids are the most important thing to me. I want to do everything I can as a dad to be the best dad that I can.

    You know, it certainly creates challenges throughout the year ’cause we travel a lot. Racing takes a lot of time. But every bit of time I have when I’m not racing, I’m with the family. Every bit of time I’m not with the family, I’m focused on the team.

    Q. You’ve been around the sport for a really long time, dating all the way back to ’92. You’ve seen a lot of changes. Can you compare the racing now from 10 or 20 years ago?

    JEFF GORDON: It’s certainly far more competitive from the rules that NASCAR has provided us on how we build the cars as well as the teams, the drivers, you know, everybody has just gotten better, smarter. It makes the depth of the field far greater. Track position has become extremely important. That’s just evolution of technology. Most of it’s aerodynamics. But all that leads to something else. You find something that makes your car have more grip, you go down that path. You get to a point where all of a sudden Goodyear has to redesign a tire because of the faster speeds to stay more durable. So on and so on, domino effects into each other.

    I think back 10, 15 years ago, the first time I ever said, Starting to get tight in traffic, aero tight, losing downforce, and it was something that we talked about but we didn’t really put a lot of energy into it. Then all of a sudden that just turned into dominating your every thought of what you do to the car from an engineering standpoint.

    Then for the driver, especially a driver like me that has been around for as long as I have, adapting to a different grip level, a different pace. That’s also turned into more physical fitness, working out, because you’re pushing the limits of the car more, and it’s pushing the limits of your body more.

    Yeah, from that standpoint a lot has changed.

    Q. Do you like that it’s that way or do you wish it was maybe a little less about aerodynamics and technology and all that?

    JEFF GORDON: Well, you like the way the car drives because it has a lot of grip and it sticks good to the racetrack. But I think, you know, there’s times when it definitely makes it harder to pass, harder to get side-by-side.

    One thing leads to another. If that’s the case, then pit strategy and pit stops, qualifying, all those things play a much bigger role. So there’s a lot of excitement that is geared towards that.

    You know, I think it’s hard to know what kind of would be accepted by the fans and the media, the general public, of having one or two drivers just dominate the entire season. I feel like, yeah, Hendrick’s on quite a roll right now. Jimmie has been strong. Junior is up in the points. But we’ve had a lot of different winners this year even with that being said.

    It’s hard to say. From a pure competitive standpoint, driving the cars in traffic, racing around the competitors, yeah, I kind of like the old-school stuff. But I think most guys that have been in this sport for 20 years would probably say that. Some of my best years were in the mid to late ’90s when that’s the way the cars were.

    Q. At Iowa Speedway following the Nationwide race, I think it was Richard Childress and a couple other people said they would like to see a Cup race at Iowa. If they make the proper improvements, would you like to see that?

    JEFF GORDON: I love the track. Every time I’ve seen a race there, it seems like a great race. It kind of reminds me of Kentucky in the way the fans support it. A much different racetrack. I think it offers even more side-by-side racing and better racing than Kentucky did, but it has that fan following out there that seems to be strong.

    Paxton Waters, who worked with Rusty on designing that track, is somebody I’m working with on the track up in Canada. I think they really caught on to something and did some great things out there to create great racing, multiple grooves, a fun race to watch.

    I’ve not driven on that track, but I certainly would like to. I think it would be a lot of fun. I don’t know, we’ll just have to kind of see where that goes.

    Q. With having the most road course wins at Watkins Glen in the Sprint Cup Series, does that add any pressure this weekend?

    JEFF GORDON: There’s always pressure to every race and to win. It seems like we’ve been the team to beat at Watkins Glen. I don’t feel like we have a tremendous amount of pressure on us this weekend from all the competitors looking at us from the team to beat.

    If our weekend goes like it did in Sonoma, then throughout the weekend we might put a little extra pressure on ourselves. That’s a good problem to have.

    At this point going into it, I think people are looking at some other competitors like Marcos Ambrose, maybe Kyle Busch, Juan Pablo, a couple others that have been really strong on the road courses the last couple years, probably put them higher up on the list. I think there’s more pressure on them than us right now.

    Q. Jeff, this fast season has been a hot season with the drought, record heat across the United States. How does that affect drivers, team members, who have to work the pits, the garage area?

    JEFF GORDON: I feel like we help droughts out tremendously when we come into town because the rain seems to follow us everywhere we go (laughter).

    I feel like it’s something that all of us have to be mindful of. I mean, our pit crews, they work out so hard during the weekend. Obviously here in Charlotte, North Carolina, it’s usually hot and humid. Staying hydrated and working in the heat is something they’re used to and prepare for. It’s something that on a hot race weekend, I know Alan, my crew chief, he makes sure that he reminds the guys how important it is to be mindful of the heat, and also why it’s important to be in as good of shape as you can be in. But hydration is a big part of that, as well.

    It gets tough. You know, there’s certain tracks that it’s harder to adapt to than others. As a driver, I’m fortunate that these days. It seems like the cars inside are much cooler than they have been because of some of the ducting. The hot, humid races where there’s not much air moving around, like a Bristol or a Martinsville, it can get pretty tough.

    How you handle your hydration is extremely important and can be a big part of making sure you don’t get cramps and fall out of the seat during the race.

    Q. Your team and you have gone, since Charlotte, one or two positions every week for the last eight races or so. How do you feel going into the next five races with that kind of record?

    JEFF GORDON: Well, you know, with the position that we’ve been in in points, it’s sort of hard to say. I don’t think a lot of people have really even put much emphasis and recognize, other than ourselves, how consistently we’ve been top 5, top 10 the last eight weeks. That’s what’s moved us up into the position we’re in. That’s what put us into position to win that race on Sunday.

    If that was the first race we ever won, I certainly wouldn’t want to win it that way. That’s 86 for me. I’ve won plenty of races like that and lost plenty of races like that.

    For us, we’ve been building momentum for several weeks with great finishes, as well as just really solid runs. That’s the difference from the start of the season. We had great runs and just weren’t putting any kind of results together.

    So we put ourselves into this hole that we’re in. But the last eight weeks, even with a few glitches along the way, we’ve been getting ourselves out of it. I hope the next five weeks we continue to do that.

    THE MODERATOR: That concludes today’s teleconference. Thank you very much for joining us today, Jeff.

    JEFF GORDON: Thank you.

    THE MODERATOR: Congrats again on your win at Pocono and best of luck at Watkins Glen this weekend.

    JEFF GORDON: I appreciate it. Thanks a lot to everybody.

    FastScripts by ASAP Sports

    About Chevrolet

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  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Pocono

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Pocono

    [media-credit name=”Kirk Schroll” align=”alignright” width=”205″][/media-credit]Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson led heading to a lap 91 restart, but got loose upon accelerating and slid into the path of Matt Kenseth. Denny Hamlin slammed into Kenseth while Jeff Gordon took the lead. Ran ended the race two laps later, and Johnson was left with a disappointing 14th-place finish.

    “I’ll be thinking about this one for awhile,” Johnson said. “Call it a ‘Long Pond-er.’

    “It was a mistake on my part. We knew the rain was coming; I just lost control when it counted. Obviously, I don’t work as well under clouds of suspicion as Chad Knaus.”

    2. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt was strong early at Pocono, leading 17 laps before transmission problems surfaced on lap 50. He eventually finished 32nd, 18 laps down to the leaders, but remained atop the Sprint Cup point standings, five ahead of Matt Kenseth.

    “I’m still on top of the points,” Earnhardt said, “thanks to a lengthy downpour. Ironically, the absence of a short-lived rain prevented a short-lived reign.

    “In the business, we call a transmission a ‘tranny.’ We call a funny-sounding tranny ‘Michael Waltrip.’ And the No. 88 sounded a lot like Michael on Sunday.”

    3. Tony Stewart: Stewart posted his ninth top-5 finish of the year with a fifth in the rain-shortened Pennsylvania 400. He is sixth in the points standings, 53 out of first.

    “I can’t complain,” Stewart said. “I’ll take this result and run with it, which is the only ‘running’ I plan to do. It’s certainly not the first time I’ve said this, but I’ll take what Mother Nature gave me.”

    4. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth saw a top-5 result evaporate when he was clipped by Jimmie Johnson on a lap 91 restart. Kenseth’s spinning No. 17 Zest car was nailed by Denny Hamlin in the aftermath. Rain ended the race early two laps later, and Kenseth finished 23rd.

    “I joined an exclusive club,” Kenseth said. “Now, much like Jimmie Johnson’s wife, I can say I’ve been ‘taken out’ by a five-time champion.”

    5. Brad Keselowski: Keselowki finished fourth at Pocono, recording his ninth top-5 finish of the year. He moved up two places to seventh in the point standings, and trails Dale Earnhardt, Jr. by 54.

    “The No. 2 Miller Lite car was fast,” Keselowski said. “By the way, how is A.J. Allmendinger like Miller Lite? He’s ‘canned.’”

    6. Greg Biffle: Biffle came home 15th in the rain-shortened Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono, seeing a top-5 finish disappear due to Jimmie Johnson’s late spin. He remained third in the Sprint Cup point standings where he trails Dale Earnhardt, Jr. by six.

    “I don’t agree with NASCAR’s scoring after Johnson’s crash,” Biffle said. “You could say that, like A.J. Allmendinger, I’m ‘super-pissed.”

    7. Denny Hamlin: With rain approaching, Hamlin was victimized by the wreckage caused by a mad scramble on a lap 91 restart. Hamlin’s No. 11 Fed Ex car plowed in to Matt Kenseth, who was spun by Jimmie Johnson. A thunderstorm minutes later officially ended the race, and Hamlin limped away with a 29th.

    “Kenseth has been reluctant to announce his move to Joe Gibbs Racing,” Hamlin said, “so I decided to put out the unofficial ‘Welcome, Matt’ for him.

    “As you may have heard, I’m expecting my first child with my girlfriend. I’m excited, and so is Fed Ex, because it’s a great opportunity for a ‘delivery’ promo.”

    8. Jeff Gordon: Gordon finally took his first win of the year, thanks to chaos on a late restart and a timely thunderstorm that ended the Pennsylvania 400 after just 98 of 160 laps. Gordon weaved his way to the lead when Jimmie Johnson spun on the lap 91 restart, which shuffled the front-runners.

    “I’ll take any good fortune that comes my way,” Gordon said. “Take it from me, it’s better to be smiled upon by Lady Luck than Miss Winston. And if ‘Luck’ runs out, it will cost me much less.

    9. Kasey Kahne: Kahne took the runner-up spot to Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon at Pocono, finding fortune in Sunday’s rain shortened race. Kahne sits 11th in the point standings, and would currently qualify for the Chase For The Cup as a wildcard.

    “I’m not sure what happened to Jimmie Johnson up front,” Kahne said. “I’ve heard he had a flat tire. Or did he? Either way, the ‘pressure’ got to him.”

    10. Clint Bowyer: Bowyer finished eighth at Pocono, earning his tenth top-10 finish of the year. He is currently 10th in the Sprint Cup point standings, 65 out of first and 77 ahead of Kasey Kahne in 11th.

    “Kevin Harvick and I sit ninth and tenth in the point standings,” Bowyer said, “which places us in very tenuous positions for the Chase. It’s possible RCR won’t have a representative in the Chase, which is not very representative of RCR.”

  • Jeff Gordon Weathers Storm to Win Pennsylvania 400

    [media-credit id=62 align=”alignright” width=”241″][/media-credit]In a race delayed by rain at the start and then called later for severe thunderstorms, one driver weathered the storms to collect his first victory of the season.

    Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, won the rain-shortened race, with torrential rain, blinding wind, thunder and lightning heralding his official celebration.

    The win tops an action-packed weekend for the Hendrick Motorsports driver, who earlier collected the Heisman Trophy Humanitarian Award and celebrated his 41st birthday. Crew chief Alan Gustafson also celebrated his birthday on race day.

    This was Gordon’s 86th victory in 674 Cup races and he is third on the all-time series wins list. But sweeter still is that this is Gordon’s first win of the season and his ninth top-10 finish in 2012.

    Although wild weather this weekend, Pocono Raceway has been smooth sailing for Gordon. This is his sixth victory at the ‘Tricky Triangle’ and he is now the sole proprietor of the all-time Pocono win list.

    With the victory, Gordon moves to second in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup wild card standings.

    “Pocono has been a special place for us,” Gordon said. “It’s been an interesting year to say the least.”

    “We’ve had some trying times,” Gordon continued. “We’ve had cars capable of winning and things didn’t go our way, so to see this race unfold the way it did certainly makes up for those would have, could have, should haves.”

    “Today we got the win and it’s nice to know that things can still go our way.”

    What meant the most to Gordon, however, was that his family, his wife Ingrid Vandebosch and children Ella and Leo, were there to celebrate with him.

    “With the wind, rain and lightning, I was so excited to have all my family here,” Gordon said. “I didn’t care if Victory Lane was in a shed.”

    “That experience means more to me than anything else.”

    “Obviously that was a great day for us,” Alan Gustafson, crew chief, said. “We didn’t have the fastest car but we did have a good enough car to get a win. It all worked out our way.”

    Along with Gordon in the first wild card position is now teammate Kasey Kahne. The driver of the No. 5 Farmer’s Insurance Chevrolet finished in the runner up spot, even with a flat right rear tire and some miscues in the pits.

    This was Kahne’s sixth top-10 finish in 18 races at Pocono and his 11th top-10 finish for the season.

    “We had a great car,” Kahne said. “The Hendrick power is something else here on these straightaways.”

    “I made a mistake on pit road, slid over the hose, and it cost us a lot of time and a couple of positions,” Kahne continued. “Jeff got a little better restart and got in front of me when the field wrecked in front of us and he won the race.”

    “And we came in second,” Kahne said. “It was a solid day for us car-wise.”

    New Jersey native Martin Truex Jr., in the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, posted his fifth top-10 finish in 14 races at Pocono. He scored the third place finish in the 39th Annual Pennsylvania 400.

    Truex Jr. commented that the weather was a ‘monsoon’ and that he had to move quickly through his post-race media obligations.

    “Newman told me ‘one word answers’ because he’s waiting on me and we’ve got to go,’ Truex Jr. said. “It was a good race for NAPA Toyota.”

    “Once we got going out there, we were the fastest car on the track,” Truex Jr. continued. “Obviously we got a little bit lucky because a lot of those guys wrecked.”

    “All in all a good day for us.”

    Storms brewed for the Busch brothers, both of whom had close encounters with the wall. Kyle Busch, driving the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota, brought out the first caution on Lap 20 and brother Kurt, behind the wheel of the No. 51 Phoenix Construction Services Chevrolet, brought out the second caution on Lap 87.

    While Kurt Busch was whisked away without comment from the infield care center after his hard hit, Kyle Busch had plenty to share as his team worked feverishly on his car to get him back on the track.

    “We just blew out the rear brake rotors – – disintegrated it and then blew out the rear caliper after that,” Kyle Busch said. “Getting down into Turn One with a three-wheel brake is about the worst situation you can have as a race car driver.”

    “I kept trying to pump it to keep feeding pressure to the rest of the three wheels to keep it off the fence, but just couldn’t do it,” Busch continued. “I hate it for all of these guys. We had a really fast race car today.”

    Busch admitted that this did nothing but hurt him in the point standings. And he knows that a win will be a necessity going forward.

    “We’re obviously not going to make the top-10 so if we get a win great we’ll make the Chase,” Busch said. “If not, we’ll probably miss it.”

    Points leader Dale Earnhardt, Jr. also had a stormy day at the ‘Tricky Triangle.’  The driver of the No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew/AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet lost a transmission and finished 32nd.

    “We didn’t have third or fourth gear, so we had to change the transmission,” Junior said. “After qualifying it was fine, but when the race started it was a bit of a vibration and started missing some shifts.”

    “We had a good run going,” Junior continued. “I’m sorry to all the guys at the shop and I hope we get a win for one of our cars.”

    The other major drama of the race occurred in the waning laps just before the storms hit. On Lap 92, the race leaders got into one another, causing a wreck that involved Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton and Jimmie Johnson.

    “Well on that last restart, Turn One actually widened out pretty good and we took off,” Kenseth, driving the No. 17 Zest Ford, said. “The 2 didn’t get going and I had a pretty good gap so I crossed the line and was going to pull behind Jimmie (Johnson) and when I pulled down to go behind him I got a little draft and actually pulled up to his door.”

    “So, I decided to race him through there and we went off into One and I could hear his pipes,” Kenseth continued. “I wasn’t sure he lifted. He drove in really, really far and spun out underneath me and I got wrecked.”

    “You don’t mind if something happens it is just a bummer when it takes you out after you are running top three all day and finish 22nd or wherever we are,” Kenseth said. “That is very disappointing and it is hard to look at the bright spot in that.”

    Rounding out the top-five finishers in the Pennsylvania 400 were Brad Keselowski, in the No. 2 Miller Lite Doge, who finished fourth, and Tony Stewart, in the No. 14 Office Depot Back to School Chevrolet, who finished fifth.

    Unofficial Race Results
    Pennsylvania 400, Pocono Raceway
    http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Cup/race.php?race=21
    =========================================
    Pos. St. No. Driver Make Points
    =========================================
    1 27 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 47
    2 4 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 43
    3 15 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 41
    4 31 2 Brad Keselowski Dodge 41
    5 28 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 39
    6 9 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 38
    7 17 99 Carl Edwards Ford 37
    8 19 15 Clint Bowyer Toyota 36
    9 11 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet 35
    10 5 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford 34
    11 3 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet 33
    12 18 55 Mark Martin Toyota 32
    13 14 20 Joey Logano Toyota 31
    14 10 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 32
    15 12 16 Greg Biffle Ford 29
    16 25 22 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge 0
    17 21 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 27
    18 16 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 27
    19 13 43 Aric Almirola Ford 25
    20 1 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet 25
    21 26 38 David Gilliland Ford 23
    22 23 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 22
    23 7 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 22
    24 24 10 David Reutimann Chevrolet 20
    25 37 93 Travis Kvapil Toyota 19
    26 22 83 Landon Cassill Toyota 18
    27 39 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota 17
    28 32 34 David Ragan Ford 16
    29 2 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 16
    30 6 51 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 15
    31 41 32 Jason White Ford 0
    32 8 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 13
    33 20 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 11
    34 36 30 David Stremme Toyota 10
    35 29 13 Casey Mears Ford 9
    36 38 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota 0
    37 34 26 Josh Wise * Ford 7
    38 42 36 Tony Raines Chevrolet 6
    39 30 119 Mike Bliss Toyota 0
    40 35 37 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 4
    41 43 98 Mike Skinner Ford 0
    42 40 191 Reed Sorenson Ford 0
    43 33 23 Scott Riggs Chevrolet 1
  • Matty’s Picks 2012 – Vol. 19 Pocono Raceway – Pennsylvania 400 – August 5, 2012

    Matty’s Picks 2012 – Vol. 19 Pocono Raceway – Pennsylvania 400 – August 5, 2012

    Well, what can I say other than it’s been a month since you’ve heard from me. Since my last edition of Matty’s picks, AJ Allmendinger has been suspended indefinitely, Kasey Kahne has slid into the number one ‘wild card’ spot, Jimmie Johnson won his fourth Brickyard 400, and Dale Jr has taken the points lead. I didn’t miss much did I?

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a guy who started the season with two major feats to tackle, one being his four-year winless streak, the other, a Sprint Cup Championship. With the first of the two monkeys in Jr’s closet being taken care of in June, there’s just one left to conquer. Earnhardt hadn’t occupied the No. 1 points position since September of 2004, until his 4th place finish last week at the Brickyard vaulted him into garage stall number two. Dale Jr. has had a consistent season thus far, and keeping his streak of solid finishes alive is the goal for the No. 88 team in these coming five weeks.

    Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team flexed their muscles last week in Indianapolis in Johnson’s fourth win at the yard of bricks, but also joined the short list of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers with three wins in this 2012 season. Reigning Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart and Brad Keselowski are the other two drivers visiting Victory Lane, three times this season. Since his fourth place finish at Pocono back in June’s Pocono 400, Johnson has one victory, four top-fives, and six top-tens, truly morphing into championship form. The summer time is when Jimmie tends to flex his muscles, and the heat of the summer is where we’re at.

    The ‘wild card’ race is shaping up to be as big of a craps shoot as ever, and these last five races before the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup begins have become must-wins for drivers sitting 11th through 20th in the points standings. Kasey Kahne sits in the top ‘wild card’ spot with his two wins, and Kyle Busch sits in the second of the two ‘wild card’ spots, after a tie-breaker with Ryan Newman and Joey Logano, who visited Victory Lane after our first trip to the Tricky Triangle back in June. Time is ticking for 2012 non-winners Carl Edwards who played a major role in last year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, currently 12th in points, and Jeff Gordon, currently 15th in points, a five time winner at Pocono. Drivers with their hopes riding on snagging a win in these last five races will surely be dicing it out this weekend in the Keystone State.

    Following two samples testing positive for banned substances, indefinite suspension from NASCAR, and near silence from the public eye, AJ Allmendinger found himself officially unemployed on Wednesday. Penske Racing announced on Wednesday that Allmendinger would no longer be a part of their organization following his failing of a random NASCAR drug test before last month’s race at Daytona, and a face-to-face meeting with team owner Roger Penske. Allmendinger must complete NASCAR’s ‘Road to Recovery’ program before there is any chance of being reinstated, giving no timeline for the possibility of return to the sport.

    Pocono Picks

    Now that I’ve recapped the last month of NASCAR Sprint cup action in just over 500 words, I can get going on my picks for this week’s Pennsylvania 400. Much to my surprise, June’s Pocono 400 was not nearly as uneventful as I had projected. With the new racing surface facilitating a glimpse of passing opportunities , the pit road timing line fiasco, and the race being shortened from the traditional 500-mile mark to 400, I found the Pocono 400 moderately tolerable to watch. Though the weather in Long Pond, Pa is not looking great for tomorrow’s Pennsylvania 400, I am hopeful the race will go on as scheduled and these summer story lines live up to their hype.

    Winner Pick

    Its got to be Denny Hamlin this week in Pocono…

    He’s one of the most decorated drivers to come out of Pocono Raceway with four wins, eight top-fives, and nine top-tens, after just thirteen starts at the Tricky Triangle. Pocono has been one of Hamlin’s best tracks since his rookie sweep of the two races in Eastern Pennsylvania back in the 2006 season, and his practice speeds from yesterday were certainly good enough to throw him to the top of the list of favorites for the win tomorrow afternoon. Fast forwarding to his most recent six starts at Pocono, Hamlin has an average finish of 17.50, a stat Hamlin is eager to boost with a solid finish this weekend. He’s a flat track specialist, and looks to join Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, and Brad Keselowski as drivers with three wins on the season.

    Dark Horse Pick

    Mark Martin is a guy little talked about around the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series garage after taking his shortened schedule this season. He is not to be overlooked this weekend in Long Pond as he leads active drivers in both top-fives (20) and top-tens (34) in an unprecedented 51 starts at Pocono. Looking back to June’s Pocono 400, Martin lost the lead to eventual race-winner, Joey Logano, late in the race and earned his seventh runner-up finish in his storied NASCAR history. His average finish at Pocono in the last three years is 12.67, after failing to crack the top ten in both races at the Tricky Triangle last season. Martin is motivated to improve on his second place finish back in June, but has some work on his hands hovering around tenth place during both practice sessions yesterday at Pocono.

    That’s all for this week, and be sure to stay tuned next week for my 20th or so consecutive trip to the road course located in the Finger Lakes of Central New York for live updates all weekend. I look forward to sharing another great race at Watkins Glen International with the great group of folks that make the trip each year to the 2.45-mile tyrant.

    Until the wheels turn right…You Stay Classy NASCAR NATION!

  • Jeff Gordon’s Charitable Work Scores Heisman Humanitarian Honor

    Jeff Gordon’s Charitable Work Scores Heisman Humanitarian Honor

    [media-credit name=”Gary Buchanan” align=”alignright” width=”235″][/media-credit]Jeff Gordon, four-time champion driver on the NASCAR track, received one of the highest honors, the Heisman Humanitarian Honor, for his philanthropic works off the track.

    The driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet was accompanied by Heisman Trophy Trustee Jim Corcoran and Heisman Trophy winners George Rogers and Tim Brown for the announcement of the award at Pocono Raceway.

    Gordon is the seventh recipient of this prestigious award and he will actually receive the award at the 78th Annual Heisman Memorial Trophy Dinner on Monday, December 10th at the New York Marriott Marquis.

    “This year, the Heisman Memorial Trust is delighted to add one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history as the seventh name on the list,” Jim Corcoran, Heisman Trophy Trustee said. “The Trust decision to honor Jeff was very easy.”

    “Like the Heisman Trophy itself, Jeff Gordon has created a legacy of excellence both on the field of competition and for the greater good of society.”

    Corcoran said that Gordon was honored specifically for his work with helping children with serious illnesses, through the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation and through his launch of a comprehensive cancer care center in Rwanda.

    “This Humanitarian award is something I’m very proud of,” Jeff Gordon said. “This is truly an honor.”

    Gordon was also pleased to be in the company of the other Heisman Trophy winners, although he did joke at the beginning of the press conference that he was the smallest person on the dais.

    The four-time champ also acknowledged the interesting connection being made through the award between NASCAR and other sports.

    “Having these two former Heisman Trophy winners here is a real privilege because we’ve never had two Heisman Trophy winners here at Pocono in the media center,” Gordon said. “I think a lot of you probably were questioning Heisman and NASCAR, where is the tie?”

    “But the award is given to all walks of life and sport,” Gordon continued. “To be a part of this list is something that I never expected and something that I’m very honored by.”

    Gordon joins other Heisman Humanitarian winners, including two Olympians, three NFL players, and an All-Star center from the NHL. Joey Check, an Olympian and philanthropist, was the inaugural winner in 2006, recognized for donation of his gold medal bonus to the Right to Play Organization to help children in need.

    Other winners include George Martin, NY Giants defensive end, who helped those impacted by the 9/11 tragedy; Pat LaFontaine, an NHL great who founded an organization building interactive children’s playrooms; Mia Hamm, world-famous soccer player for her work with the Foundation that bears her name dedicated to helping those with aplastic anemia; William Dunn, Tampa Bay Buccaneers star who founded Homes for the Holidays; and Marty Lyons, another NFL great, who became a surrogate father to a critically ill child.

    “This is a big day for me and I really look forward to December,” Gordon said. “You always want your efforts to be recognized and today this is a very, very proud moment.”

    “It doesn’t get any better than being recognized by excellence, which is what the Heisman is all about.”

    Gordon acknowledged that NASCAR as a sport has enabled him to be so involved philanthropically. In fact, given his sponsor, the AARP Foundation’s Drive to End Hunger, he is even more involved in charitable works on and off the track.

    “I feel so privileged to be a part of this sport,” Gordon said. “I think of NASCAR and what it’s given to me.”

    “It’s given me so many opportunities but it’s also given me a great platform and way to give back,” Gordon continued. “I see such a giving community and environment.”

    “Everybody really wants to help and that’s what drove me to start my own foundation,” Gordon said. “And it continues to drive me in ways that I never expected.”

    “My own sponsor, the first ever cause-driven sponsorship, just continues the work,” Gordon said. “This award just solidifies all the efforts that makes my work what it is and takes us to places we never thought we would go to help so many children and to find those treatments and cures.”

    Gordon’s teammate and five-time champion Jimmie Johnson expressed his pride in Gordon’s accomplishments as well during his media appearance at Pocono.

    “I am happy to hear that and think he is extremely deserving,” Johnson said. “Fundraising and charitable work is only as good as the name behind it and the name that’s behind it; and that’s Jeff.”

    “I’m very proud of him,” Johnson said. “That’s an amazing honor.”

    Basking in the glow of his teammate’s praise as well as his new award, Gordon turned a bit more philosophical. He admitted that what drives him now is the success and the wins that he is seeing off the track through his charitable work world-wide.

    “Today we’re seeing a lot more success and what we can call winning because the cure rates have gone high,” Gordon said. “But at the same time, long term effects are still in place and you still see kids suffering and dying.”

    “Then you go abroad and see what’s happening there,” Gordon continued. “I know what a difference we can make there because kids are dying of things that are curable.”

    “Life is a journey and racing has been a big part of my journey,” Gordon said. “I’ve been able to experience winning more than I ever thought.”

    “I was thinking how hard we have worked to try to win and put so much effort into it,” Gordon continued. “Yet ten or fifteen years, what it is all going to mean?”

    “Those trophies are nice but they tarnish,” Gordon said. “But when you save a child’s life and you have something as meaningful as this, those are things that stick with you for a lifetime.”

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Brickyard 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Brickyard 400

    [media-credit name=”Dan Sanger” align=”alignright” width=”254″][/media-credit]At one of the most storied tracks on not just the NASCAR schedule but the motor sports circuit overall, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 19th Annual Crown Royal Presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard.

    Surprising:  It was surprising that the emerging points leader after the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway enhanced his proud team owner’s sleep habits.

    Hendrick Motor Sports principal Rick Hendrick had just one thing to say about his driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who assumed the coveted lead by 14 points after a fourth place finish at the Brickyard.

    “I will be able to sleep better tonight,” Mr. H. said simply after the race. His HMS driver has not led the point standings since September of 2004 after the race at New Hampshire.

    Junior echoed his team owner’s sentiments of pride, while reiterating that he not only wants, but needs more wins to keep that top spot.

    “I’m proud of that because it says a lot about our body of work,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “I have felt that way about our position in points all season long.”

    “But we need to win more races,” Junior continued. “If we want to win the championship, we have to.”

    “We’d like to step it up just a little bit more.”

    Not Surprising:  While making history with his fourth Brickyard win and tying teammate Jeff Gordon and idols Al Unser, A.J. Foyt and Rick Mears for four victories, it was not surprising to see this driver’s  little girl Genevieve steal the show during the post-race ceremonies.

    Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet, simply could not convince his daughter to kiss those hot, gritty bricks in spite of his intense coaxing.

    “I don’t really think she knew what was going on,” Johnson said. “The asphalt was pretty hot, so she got her hands down on it and I think that scared her.”

    “She’s a very cautious girl and that is going against everything we’re trying to teach her,” Johnson continued. “She just wasn’t in to it.”

    Surprising:  It was most surprising that the second place finisher was so ecstatic about his finish that he wanted to do his own ‘victory’ burnout after the race.

    Kyle Busch, behind the wheel of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota, posted his career best finish at the Brickyard and his best finish of the season since his third place finish at Charlotte in May.

    “It feels so good to actually run well and finish well,” Busch said. “We’ve been needed to do this for so long.”

    “It felt like a win to us,” Busch continued. “I wanted to do a burnout, but I’ll save that for when we really do collect the checkered flag.”

    Not Surprising:  Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M Ford, proved one NASCAR adage true, that loose is fast. Biff came in third, his sixth top-10 finish in ten races at Indy.

    “We were pretty loose all day long,” Biffle said. “It was unfortunate we were that free and we couldn’t fix it.”

    “We were too loose to get it done so we came in third.”

    Surprising:  With a great qualifying run, an outside pole starting position and a brand new crew chief in Chad Norris on the box, it looked like nothing could derail Carl Edwards from finally pulling out a decent finish and a good day in the points race for the Chase.

    But a surprising mechanical problem forced the driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford to go laps down early in the race and finish 29th.

    “We didn’t know what was wrong with the engine and we were kind of points racing but also racing for the win,” Edwards said. “We stayed out there with seven cylinders or so and then got caught up on pit road again and went another lap down.”

    “That was pretty much the death knell for the whole thing.”

    Not Surprising:   As is so often the case, being at the back of the pack leads to trouble. And that’s just what Matt Kenseth experienced on lap 134 when Joey Logano lost control, slid into Trevor Bayne, Bobby Labonte and ultimately Kenseth.

    “The farther that we went back, the dumber people drove,” Kenseth said after exiting his fiery No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford. “You could see it was just a matter of time before the wreck happened.”

    Kenseth finished the race in the 35th position and, not surprisingly as a result, fell to second in the point standings.

    Surprising:  Jeff Gordon surprisingly has not posted a top-3 finish in his last 23 races and he continued the longest stretch of his career in that mode with a fifth place finish at Indy.

    “I’m pretty disappointed really,” the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet said. “It’s always nice to finish in the top five but at this point in the season, I feel like it was a little bit of a missed opportunity.”

    Not Surprising:  So much uncertainty continued to reign for the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Penske race team, even at the Brickyard. Although Sam Hornish, Jr. was still behind the wheel, finishing 16th, the cloud of the A.J. Allmendinger indefinite suspension for the failed drug test continued to hang over the proceedings.

    “There are so many questions,” Roger Penske, team owner said after the drivers’ meeting at Indy. “Our phone is ringing off the hook with people who are interested in the ride in the No. 22.”

    Penske has since made the decision to release Allmendinger as their driver and have named Hornish Jr. the driver for the remainder of the 2012 season.

    Surprising:  Only one driver could compare the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway to a junk yard but Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 29 Jimmy Johns Chevrolet, did just that, at least when it came to his 13th place car.

    “We were junk all weekend,” Harvick said. “No matter if we were turning left or going straight.”

    “That pretty much summed up today.”

    Not Surprising:  Stewart Haas racers Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman showed their Midwestern pride by scoring top-10 finishes at the Brickyard.

    Stewart, who qualified his No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot in the 28th position, rallied to finish tenth and teammate Newman, in the No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet, finished seventh.

    “We just were a little bit tight in the center of the corner and that’s kind of what we fought all day,” Smoke said. “So, I was proud of the gains we made.”

    “I’m from the Midwest and so is Quicken Loans so it was nice to get a top-10 finish,” Newman said. “We just didn’t have quite the speed we needed.”

    This was Newman’s sixth top-10 finish of the season and his second top-10 finish in 12 starts at the Brickyard.

    The Cup Series will next take on the ‘Tricky Triangle’ at Pocono Raceway.

     

  • Zack Jarrell Saving the Ocean One FASCAR Lap at a Time

    Zack Jarrell Saving the Ocean One FASCAR Lap at a Time

    [media-credit name=”Photo Credit: Barry Vaught/Sea Shepherd” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Nineteen year old FASCAR (Florida Association of Stock Car Auto Racing) racer Zack Jarrell has two passions, driving his race car and saving the ocean, both important parts of his life.

    So, it was natural for Jarrell to marry those passions on the race track, flying the conservation organization Sea Shepherd’s Jolly Roger logo on his No. 18 Chevrolet Impala at a recent FASCAR Pro Late Models race at New Smyrna Speedway in his home state of Florida.

    “My passion for the ocean really started in high school, “Jarrell said. “I was a little bit of a science major in high school, taking environmental science and marine biology.”

    “I actually knew of Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, before I ever knew about the movement against whalers and marine poachers,” Jarrell continued. “So, I learned about his work at the Cove and his documentaries.”

    “Later on I saw the TV show Whale Wars, the Animal Planet TV Series, so that interest continued,” Jarrell said. “I live right on the beach and this is something that is close to home to me.”

    This young racer sees absolutely nothing strange about his ocean and race car marriage. In fact, he thinks the two actually go hand in hand.

    “Race cars these days are very scientific and very technical,” Jarrell said. “The science side of racing is something I’ve always enjoyed.”

    “So, having Sea Shepherd on the car was the perfect combination of my passion for racing with my interest in science, all combined into one.”

    Jarrell also believes that racing and being out on the ocean, especially enjoying his ocean passion of surfing, engender similar feelings.

    “Being on the ocean, it’s a calming feeling,” Jarrell said. “I have the feeling like I belong there.”

    “When I’m behind the wheel of the race car, it’s like I’m at home and I belong there,” Jarrell continued. “I feel like it’s meant for me to be there and it comes very naturally to me.”

    Jarrell has been racing for quite some time, in fact since 2005 where he started in quarter midgets. In 2007, he started racing stock cars and then trucks at New Smyrna, racing 27 times with one win.

    “It was a big culture shock, coming from a quarter midget to a full-size stock car with 450 horse power,” Jarrell said. “I ended up second in points for my first season and was Rookie of the Year.”

    “That was a really big deal for me and I really tried hard for that, especially competing against some of the bigger name and bigger budget teams.”

    Jarrell continued racing trucks in 2009, however, was unable to run the full season because of sponsorship.  In spite of that, he ran sixteen select races and won seven of them.

    “It was an amazing feeling showing up at race tracks and having great equipment,” Jarrell said. “But then we had to take the year off for 2010 because we didn’t have the sponsorship and I had a racing injury, a broken leg.”

    “So, we decided to let my leg heal and focus on 2011,” Jarrell continued. “We were able to put sponsorship together and went racing in late models for the first time that year.”

    “That was a different beast too but I was the happiest kid in the world being back in a race car,” Jarrell said. “I felt like I was back home.”

    Jarrell was ‘home’ indeed, proving to many that he still had the ability to get behind the wheel of a race car and win. And this year, Jarrell has seen even more success.

    “This year, I couldn’t ask for much more,” Jarrell said. “It’s been the best racing year I’ve ever had.”

    “Even though I haven’t won yet, I’m racing in this new series, the Pro Late Model Series, against some of the best drivers I’ve ever seen,” Jarrell continued. “To be able to compete with them and even be mentioned in the same sentence as them, I’m so fortunate.”

    “This last race, when I had the Sea Shepherd on board, I finished third, which was an amazing feeling,” Jarrell said. “It gave me a calming sense and I showed everyone I deserved to be out there driving a race car.”

    “I was so happy that the race was able to go so well.”

    Jarrell has big plans for next year’s season, which includes hopes for either a NASCAR K&N Pro Series ride or competing in the ARCA Series.

    “Some new people have been approaching us this week because we are a low budget team and they have been impressed with what we have done in spite of that,” Jarrell said. “I’m proving to people that I can take a low budget car and finish up front with it.”

    “I’m very happy,” Jarrell continued. “My only thing is to prove that I deserve to be out there.”

    The youngster definitely fashions himself as a NASCAR up and comer, particularly dreaming of one day driving for one of the major teams.

    “Growing up, my favorite race car drivers were the whole Hendrick Motorsports team, including Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson,” Jarrell said. “Drivers I’d like to follow are Joey Logano and also the Dillons (Ty and Austin).”

    “They are closer to my age and I’ve seen them race at short tracks,” Jarrell continued. “Just to have an opportunity to start in a NASCAR Truck or Nationwide race ultimately, that’s my goal.”

    Until he achieves that goal, Jarrell is content to race hard and also do all he can to save the ocean, one lap at a time.

    “My career has paralleled the ocean,” Jarrell said. “I feel like when you’re surfing and you have that momentum and you’re getting ready to stand up and ride the wave in.”

    “That’s the point I feel that my career is at right now,” Jarrell continued. “I’m just catching the wave and all I need to do is stand up.”