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Tag: Jimmie Johnson

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes

    With all of NASCAR nation standing up for Steve Byrnes and others battling cancer, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 55th annual Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

    Surprising: With the day race stretching into night because of the Bristol rain drops, it was all about windows for NASCAR and the race winner. NASCAR made difficult decisions all day, focusing on windows in the weather to successfully get the entire race in, and then some due to the green-white-checkered finish.

    And Matt Kenseth, along with crew chief Jason Ratcliff, took advantage of their window of opportunity to capture the checkered flag, ending a 51 race drought and taking Toyota back to Victory Lane. And with that win, Kenseth and team No. 20 have also opened their window on the opportunity to race for the Chase.

    “Matt, he did a phenomenal job, as always, especially here at Bristol,” Ratcliff said. “This place is unbelievable. I get out of breath just watching him go around here. Great night, obviously.”

    “To get a win under our belt and we can look at the season a little differently now, knowing that we’re in the Chase, so I’m really excited,” Ratcliff continued. “I think we’ve turned the corner, and we’ve got a great season ahead of us.”

    Not Surprising: As appropriate, tributes to Jeff Gordon as he runs his last season of Cup competition continue to pour in. But he received one of the biggest gifts in his career to date, that of having his children Ella and Leo, give the command to the drivers, and their papa, to start the engines for the Bristol racing.

    “Highlight for me,” Gordon said of his children giving the command. “The day couldn’t be bad after that. That was so, so cool, and they nailed it. I’m just so, so proud of them.”

    “I’m just so thankful to Bristol Motor Speedway and Marcus and Bruton and all those folks. To do that, to invite them to do that means so much to me, and they just had a blast preparing for it, just practicing in the car on the way to school.”

    “So funny, and Leo, he had to put his little engine rev in there at the end, which I thought just kind of put it over the top. As soon as the red flag came, I went back to the bus and rewound it and watched it with them, and they were just beaming. It was awesome.”

    Gordon battled back after a loose wheel in the race caused him to lose a lap, finishing third in his No. 24 3M Chevrolet after a hard fought day to night race.

    Surprising: There was whole lot of surprising hurting going on prior to and during the race. Denny Hamlin decided to remove himself from the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota due to back pain and neck spasms, while Kurt Busch’s crew chief Tony Gibson had to absent the pit box due to recurring kidney stones.

    Young up and coming racer Erik Jones took over driving responsibilities for Hamlin, while Stewart Haas Racing’s team engineer John Klausmeyer took over crew chief duties for the No. 41 team, with an assist from Vice president of Competition Greg Zipadelli.

    “Watching race in my motorcoach is agonizing!” Gibson tweeted during the race. “Just released from the Bristol ER with a kidney stone. @GZipadelli @johnklax have crew chief duty.”

    “We had the wild thing happen with Denny,” Coach Joe Gibbs said after the race. “He had a spasm with his neck and shooting pain. We wound up flying Erik over here. He got here with five minutes to go, went and got in the car, first time in a Cup car, and we put him in that situation. And then he just — I thought he handled everything really well.”

    After all that hurting going on, Jones, whose arms were sore due to the steering wheel being too close, managed a respectable 26th place finish, while Kurt Busch finished 15th in his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet.

    Not Surprising: In spite of some frustrations early on in the race, Jimmie Johnson rode the wave of momentum from his Texas win into the rainy banks of Bristol to finish runner up.

    “Yeah, the first half of the race or first third of the race I was behind the 24 and we just worked our way up through the field and things went pretty smoothly,” Johnson said. “I had a very fast race car and felt like we were going to have a strong night.”

    “And then one of the restarts midway through the race, the 41, I don’t know what happened, but he lost control, got into me. I went into the outside wall in Turn 3, and a caution came out. We had a fair amount of damage to the right-rear quarter panel. We weren’t as good as we were at the start of the race but still very competitive.”

    “Chad (Knaus, crew chief) called for two late in the race. That picked us up a few more spots, and then I think the last two restarts I was in the outside lane and that helped me out quite a bit. Wild night, but glad to get it in.”

    Surprising: It was a strange case of teammate-palooza at Bristol, with teammates who normally look out for one another, wrecking each other instead. Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano got into each other in the early part of the race before the rains came, as did Hendrick teammates Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. later in the race.

    “I just really hate that I tore up my teammate in the process,” Keselowski said after his contact with teammate Logano. “That’s really a bummer. I felt like I had a pretty normal line and it just flew crazy sideways on me. It’s a bummer for everybody at Team Penske to tear up both cars that way.”

    Not Surprising: Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. was on a high, loving the high banks of Bristol as well as his highest finish of the season to date, bringing his Zestfully clean car home in the fourth place position.

    “I knew when we came back here, it didn’t matter how we ran anywhere else, that we could have a decent car,” Stenhouse said. “I wish we could get it to translate to other racetracks, but I think it’s the high bank is what really helps us get our car to turn here and being able to run the top.”

    “We struggled in practice. When the line moved up to the top, we gained like 10 or 15 spots on the leaderboard in practice just because it moved to the top, and I could make some better speed up there.”

    Surprising: There was some NASCAR second guessing going on, even amongst those drivers who finished in the top-ten at Bristol, including Danica Patrick, who finished ninth and Austin Dillon, who finished tenth.

    “It was a bummer that we got a long run when I got the lucky dog,” Patrick said. “It was just so frustrating. There was a big accident after the rain. I should have got the lucky dog and I missed it all. I was in control enough to stay on the track instead of take the pit road. So I come around and I got on the apron and it was like it was still wet and the back-end just kind of slid around. I was like ‘ah well just restart it’. They said you are part of the accident you don’t get the lucky dog. I thought that was total crap.”

    “Then another time Jimmie (Johnson) gets the lucky dog and he goes and passes everybody and he is in front of me after getting the lucky dog. And I’m the lucky dog. I know it’s hard because it’s Bristol and everything happens very quickly here, but there were definitely quite a few mistakes by NASCAR just in making sure everything was right before we went green.”

    “We came out with a top 10 in the GoDaddy car. It looks terrible. I had to walk around it just to see what it looked like, but it’s Bristol baby.”

    “We worked hard all night and stayed in the top 10 all night,” Dillon said, echoing Patrick in frustration. “We get in a save fuel mode when we get a certain amount of heat and I guess it was dumping fuel and we just ran out of fuel. Then when we were trying to pull up there we might have finished ninth or eighth, but NASCAR held us back.”

    “I don’t know why.   Because Danica (Patrick) moved around and she was the lucky dog and I was trying to follow her. I don’t know. Not happy.”

    Not Surprising: Streaks are unfortunately made to be broken as both Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex, Jr. can attest. Both drivers had their top-five and top-ten finishing streaks come to an end at the track known as the Coliseum.

    Harvick in particular had no place to run to and no place to hide, slamming into David Ragan’s car after melee in front of them occurred.

    “I’m sorry guys,” Harvick said on the radio after the crash. “I just couldn’t stop.”

    “Today, nothing went our way,” Truex said. “We had a pretty good car that could run in the top-10. But the loose wheel incident was a costly deal that was very difficult to overcome. We just didn’t get the cautions when we needed them.”

    Truex, Jr., in his No. 78 Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet, finished 29th while Harvick, behind the wheel of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s/Budweiser Chevrolet finished 38th.

    Surprising: David Ragan had perhaps the best quote of the day/night race, saying “Sometimes when you race back there with the squirrels, you find a nut sometimes,” after getting wrecked out of the race and finishing 41st in his No. 18 Snickers Xtreme Toyota.

    “That’s just Bristol. You’re racing hard and the 26 (Jeb Burton) was a little slower and I know Jimmie (Johnson) is probably a little impatient trying to get back to the front,” Ragan continued. “I see he just touched him there and as soon as my spotter said they were wrecking, I’m all into the 48 (Johnson).”

    “That’s just one of those things you have at short track racing and all in all it’s just Bristol – wrong place at the wrong time.”

    Not Surprising: Justin Allgaier finally felt like he earned some respect with his career best NASCAR Sprint Cup Series finish of eighth place in his No. 51 Auto-Owners Chevrolet.

    “You know, it just seems like the first time I came here I felt like it was my kind of race track,” Allgaier said. “I just felt comfortable and have been fortunate enough over the years to have some good runs here.”

    “But at the same time, the Cup series is definitely an extreme challenge.   It’s not been easy to break our way up through the pack but tonight we felt like that was a big step in doing that and getting respect by racing around a lot of these guys,” Allgaier continued. “We need to do that on a weekly basis so when you can do that here at a place you run good at, hopefully you can take that momentum and go somewhere else that you don’t run good at and use that same momentum.”

     

  • The Final Word – With all the rain and challenges at Bristol, the only guy missing was Jeff Probst

    The Final Word – With all the rain and challenges at Bristol, the only guy missing was Jeff Probst

    Bristol. Just about the only thing missing was Jeff Probst and his Tribal Council as this turned into a game of survival. With the rains that delayed the start, the rains that stopped it again and again, the day race that ran into night became a reality show of its own.

    Take Kevin Harvick, for instance. He led 186 of the eventual 511 laps, but at Lap 310 he slid into a wrecked David Ragan and he found himself voted off the island in 38th place. If not Harv, then it was Kurt Busch in a dominant car. With eight to go, he took the brunt of it when Jeff Gordon got into Carl Edwards. Busch at least managed a 15th for his troubles.

    Then there was the case of Team Penske. You know you needed a hidden immunity idol when things go down the outdoor commode during the opening credits. Brad Keselowski wobbled and that allowed teammate Joey Logano to put out both their torches. Thirty-fifth and beyond was their fate.

    Do you want more examples? After the Penske wreck on the 19th lap, it rained some more. In that time, Denny Hamlin’s stiff neck got worse and when they restarted 18-year-old Erik Jones found himself racing a Cup car for the very first time, ending up 26th.

    How good was Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car? We will never know, as a flat tire took him off the lead lap early, never to be seen again. At least he got 16th when it was all over. As for Austin Dillon, the extra laps before the final re-start ran him out of gas, but even with that he finished 10th.

    After a final caution, they needed a green-white-checker, but rain even delayed that, hence those extra caution laps before the fall of the final green. Matt Kenseth got a fine re-start to take a race he was not all that noticeable in, but the victory shows up just fine in the standings. After no wins last season, his 32nd career triumph had to be sweet no matter how he got it. Jimmie Johnson’s car did not look that pretty, but he came back to slip by Gordon for second while Jeff rebounded from a flat that had him down early to grab third. In short, these boys survived. Nobody thrived.

    Some folks play the game and slip in under the radar. Tony Stewart was sixth Sunday night, but that was a gift for to a guy who was 15th best at best. Danica Patrick was ninth. Another gift. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fourth, the best gift of all. Despite that good fortune, Roush-Fenway entries are still coming up short. Trevor Bayne was 28th, Greg Biffle 30th.

    Ryan Newman, fifth at Bristol, got 25 points back from his appeal over Tiregate. He still is missing his crew chief and two other team members due to suspension, and Richard Childress will continue his quest for their early return with a further appeal.

    It meant jack squat to see Logano win the Saturday XFINITY race at Bristol. Having Daniel Suarez (23 year old from Mexico), Chris Buescher (22), Erik Jones (18), Ty Dillon (23) and Chase Elliott (19) take the next five spots meant everything.

    Sunday we had the day long 2015 Food City 500 In Support of Steve Byrnes. For the NASCAR family, the broadcaster and his fight against cancer, is what truly is meaningful. We have tallied the vote, the tribe has spoken, we want you back just as soon as you are able, Steve.

  • Matty’s Picks 2015: Bristol – Part 1

    Matty’s Picks 2015: Bristol – Part 1

    It has been a couple weeks since you’ve heard from me, and I couldn’t pick a better track to make my return on. Not only is it one of the best venues on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuit, but its one of the best venues in all of sports. From the 160,000 seats, to the extreme banking, to the tiny pit stalls, to the extreme speeds for a short track, Bristol is a bucket list race for any NASCAR fan, despite the claims that the racing was ruined in 2007 when the track was re-paved and progressive banking added. If you’re a fan of racing, Bristol Motor Speedway is on your list.

    I watched my first race at Bristol Motor Speedway in August of 2002, amongst a sold out crowd of over 150,000 when I watched Jeff Gordon execute the bump and run on Rusty Wallace with three laps remaining in the Sharpie 500. I happened to be sitting with a Rusty Wallace fan at the time, who was not happy with the move, but later on admitted if the roles were reversed, Wallace would have done the same thing. It’s just the way things went back then, if you were not on the bottom, you were losing positions. With the progressive banking, drivers are using all parts of the track to improve their position. The top side can be as good as the bottom, and the middle groove offers a safe haven for drivers with ill-handling cars that will not make it to the bottom or for those without the courage to run up next to the wall.

    I will save you all the grief of reading through my last few weeks of finishes, and let you know that I am sitting fourth in the CNY Sports Fans group and 12,044th on the FoxSports Fantasy Auto Leaderboards. I will let you know that I’ve finished second and third the last two weeks on my trek out of the basement.

    (more…)

  • Hot 20 heading to Bristol – Even being among the Lukewarm 30 would be beneficial for Tony

    Hot 20 heading to Bristol – Even being among the Lukewarm 30 would be beneficial for Tony

    Our Hot 20 is a look at those in contention to slip into one of the sixteen Chase spots. A win while in the Top 30 in points could prove to be just as good. Neither matters at the moment for Tony Stewart. Sadly, 2015 has been a year Smoke has been a participant, not a competitor.

    Even Kurt Busch, suspended for the first three events, should make this list in another week or two. Ryan Newman is outside, but we all know why that is. Roush-Fenway cars have been duds most of the season, which explains Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne. Kyle Larson missed one race to mend, but even if he had run there is no certainty it would have been enough. As for Sam Hornish Jr., he was 12th at Daytona, outside the Top 20 ever since.

    To be taken seriously, a driver really should at least average a 25th place finish week in and week out. That is just 684 points over the course of a season, just 19 each week. Twenty-eight drivers managed the feat in 2014, ranging from Kevin Harvick on top, down to what’s her name. They competed, the rest participated.

    Twenty-six have done it thus far in 2014. Stenhouse, Hornish and Stewart are not amongst them. While a win is not crucial just yet, it would solve a lot of ills. Just ask Kurt how that worked out for him last year.

    Hot 20 heading to Bristol…

    1. Kevin Harvick – 2 Wins (306 Points)
    A slump is finishing eighth at Martinsville. His boss would love that kind of hard luck.

    2. Jimmie Johnson – 2 Wins (216 Points)
    Sure, points are nice, but wins are better.

    3. Joey Logano – 1 Win (280 Points)
    Gets those Duke boys to help him launch new sponsor (Autotrader).

    4. Brad Keselowski – 1 Win (246 Points)
    The Captain has to be happier than the Skipper…two sweet ships and not a Gilligan in sight.

    5. Denny Hamlin – 1 Win (205 Points)
    Denny’s loves Denny. What’s next, Chick-fil-A for Danica? Taco Bell for Michael?

    6. Martin Truex Jr – 266 Points
    Like Harvick and Logano, going for eight straight in the Top Ten this season.

    7. Kasey Kahne – 230 Points
    Loves his tires, just not as wheely, wheely loose as they were at Texas.

    8. Dale Earnhardt Jr – 213 Points
    Going round and round is not pointless for Junior.

    9. Aric Almirola – 195 Points
    Smithfield Pork is the sponsor in the Food City 500. I’m sensing a theme here.

    10. David Ragan – 194 Points
    Would he be just as finger lickin’ good back in the No. 34?

    11. Jamie McMurray – 193 Points
    After showing off the new digital dashboard, hopes to dash to victory lane on Sunday.

    12. Matt Kenseth – 189 Points
    If you want a sure thing to make the Chase, Matt is as good as it gets.

    13. Jeff Gordon – 186 Points
    If Jeff is old I might as well go ahead and make my appointment with the undertaker.

    14. Carl Edwards – 182 Points
    A definite Bristol contender, a season changer if he can pull it off.

    15. Casey Mears – 178 Points
    Is getting by with a little help from his alliance friends.

    16. Paul Menard – 177 Points
    Runs better with an engine than in a soap box derby entry.

    17. Danica Patrick – 176 Points
    Not good enough to draw rave reviews just yet, but it sure beats 28th.

    18. Clint Bowyer – 168 Points
    Still in the hunt despite a Rodney Dangerfield kind of season.

    19. Greg Biffle – 165 Points
    If the Biff is suffering, imagine how teammates Stenhouse and Bayne are feeling.

    20. A.J. Allmendinger – 161 Points
    In 2007, at this track, in this race, A.J. made his Cup debut.

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Texas

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Texas

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Kevin Harvick: Harvick finished second at Texas, earning his ninth runner-up finish in his last 10 races. He leads the Sprint Cup points standings by 26 over Joey Logano.

    “Jimmie Johnson and I have won four of seven races this season,” Harvick said. “Johnson’s win at Texas supports the notion that the Sprint Cup championship is a two-man battle, and I ‘seconded’ that.

    “I visited The Masters on Thursday in support of my friend Scott Harvey, who’s an amateur. I took my Stewart-Haas Chevy with me. Every time Scott hit a shot, I said ‘4!’”

    2. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson took the lead for good with 14 laps to go, passing Kevin Harvick and Jamie McMurray, to win the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

    “Nothing’s more satisfying that putting on a cowboy hat and firing off a few rounds from a six-shooter,” Johnson said. “It’s a feeling that’s hard to describe unless you’re Kurt Busch, who would no doubt say he felt like an ‘assassin.’ And he knows.

    “But I’m not a big fan of ten-gallon hats. I prefer my volume measured in ‘Cups,’ and seven is the quantity I’m looking for.”

    3. Joey Logano: Logano led 19 laps and finished fourth in the Duck Commander 500, posting his third top-five result of the season.

    “Kurt Busch won his second pole of the season,” Logano said. “In Kurt’s world, winning the pole again is known as getting ‘reinstated’ to the first starting spot.”

    4. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski joined Penske Racing teammate Joey Logano, who finished fourth, in the top five with a fifth in the Duck Commander 500.

    “It was a very uneventful race,” Keselowski said. “Unlike November’s race in Texas, nothing happened. Call it a ‘ho humdinger.’ Even the boredom was Texas-sized. Had the race last November been called the Duck Commander 500, maybe it would have done me some good. With all the shoves and punches flying at me then, a ‘duck’ call surely would have helped.”

    5. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex finished ninth in the Duck Commander 500, giving him six top 10’s in the season’s first seven races. He stands third in the points standings, 50 behind Kevin Harvick.

    “There’s another ‘Junior’ making news,” Truex said. “Apparently, Danica Patrick would say ‘yes’ if Ricky Stenhouse Jr. would propose. That puts Ricky in a truly awkward predicament. Now, it seems both Patrick and Stenhouse are in ‘no-win’ situations.”

    6. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Earnhardt came home third on a strong day for Hendrick Motorsports, which placed four drivers in the top seven. Earnhardt is seventh is the points standings, 93 out of first.

    “Rick Hendrick couldn’t be happier,” Earnhardt said. “Unlike a Richard Childress Racing tire, Rick’s ego is fully inflated.

    7. Kasey Kahne: Kahne finished eighth in the Duck Commander 500 after starting fourth and leading six laps.

    “Did you see Michael Waltrip standing atop Texas Motor Speedway’s giant video monitor?” Kahne said. “Michael looked a little wobbly up there, but then again, when has Michael ever been that sure of his ‘orientation.’”

    8. Jeff Gordon: Gordon finished seventh at Texas as all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers finished in the top seven.

    “I really wanted to win in Texas,” Gordon said. “That would have been the perfect going away present. As it was, Jimmie Johnson won ‘going away.’”

    9. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin finished 11th at Texas, one spot behind Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Carl Edwards in 10th. Hamlin is seventh in the points standings.

    “This race was called the ‘NRA 500’ in 2013,” Hamlin said. “That was a scary day, especially for the No. 42 Target car.

    “Michael Waltrip dropped a taco on my car before the race. It wasn’t a big deal to me. It’s one thing to have hot sauce on your Toyota; it’s another to have hot sauce in your Toyota. Michael did; it was called ‘jet fuel.’”

    10. Jamie McMurray: McMurray finished sixth in the Duck Commander 500, scoring his third top-10 finish of the year.

    “Wow!” McMurray said. “There were stars of the ‘Duck Dynasty’ show in Victory Lane. I really would have loved to win this race so I could have met the one and only Willie Robertson. That way, the ‘McDaddy’ could have met the ‘Quack Daddy.’”

  • The Final Word – Texas was all about Jimmie and Kevin with a Junior cameo

    The Final Word – Texas was all about Jimmie and Kevin with a Junior cameo

    Jimmie, and Kevin, and Dale, oh my. Jimmie, and Kevin, and Dale, oh my.

    Last Saturday night was a good one if you happened to be a fan of one of the above-mentioned drivers. Johnson was the class of the field, leading 128 laps, including the final one. It was his second win of the season and the 72nd of his career. Six-time rather likes the Texas track, having won the last three fall races, now four in his last six attempts, and his fifth win overall in Fort Worth. I am starting to think he likes the place.

    Kevin Harvick, also with a pair of victories this season along with four runner-up finishes, led 96 laps and came home second. Life must be good when finishing eighth at Martinsville represents a slump. As for Junior, well, Mr. Earnhardt led zero laps but he was close, closer still near the end, to claim third. If he could only get a mulligan for both Phoenix and Martinsville, for he has finished between third and sixth everywhere else.

    Another good day as well for the likes of Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, as the Penske duo finished in the Top Five. Proof positive you can get away with being a two car operation if those teams actually matter. Same goes for single car outfits, as Martin Truex Jr. now has a Top Ten in each race of this season, a huge turnaround from a year ago. As for the likes of Tony Stewart and Sam Hornish Jr, nothing much to write home about regarding this race or this season. Maybe this weekend things will be different. Probably not.

    Maybe they could join the rest of us, experiencing success at home driving a video game version. Next month the new NASCAR ‘15 game comes out. Of course, for me, realism is being able to switch to indestructible mode in order to take out the entire field en route to victory. Hey, it could happen in real life. Having cars flying a hundred feet into the air, now that was unrealistic.

    Unrealistic, like me growing taller, or having my hair back, or holding out hope that one day I might actually become a Cup driver. If I could just shed 60 pounds and 40 years, I could be Erik Jones. You might as well become familiar with the 18-year-old, who is registered in the trucks. All he has done there is win four of his career 20 events, with 16 Top Tens. When he was 16 and 17, he ran ARCA, winning one of 14 with eight Top Tens. Oh, Jones also runs Xfinity, winning his first in nine attempts last weekend to go with six Top Tens. Joe Gibbs did not want to rush him into Cup, going with David Ragan instead of Jones to fill in for Kyle Busch. Even though Ragan sits 10th in the standings, maybe they might want to re-think that. The man child might be ready.

    We are always ready for a day at Bristol, where Jimmie and Kevin and Dale have all won. Once. Jimmie won it five years ago while 10 have gone by for the other two. Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon each have five, but a few years have ticked by even for them.

    No, your best bet would be Carl Edwards. Winner of three, including the event one year ago, he did pick up his first Top Ten last Saturday. Maybe it is his time to shine this season though if he falters I am sure teammates Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin would be more than willing to pick up the slack. Both are also past Bristol winners.

    As for some Bristol trivia, there were 56 races run at that track between 1973 and 2000. Thirty of those, more than half, were won by Cale Yarborough (9), Darrell Waltrip (12), Dale Earnhardt (9), and Rusty Wallace (9). Hall of Famers all. Oh my, indeed.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Duck Commander 500

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Duck Commander 500

    For the first night race under the vast Texas lights, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 19th annual Duck Commander 500.

    Surprising: This race featured a surprising number of penalties for driving through more than three pit boxes, surpassing the previous most popular penalty in the season to date for uncontrolled tires. There were a total of four such driving through pit box penalties, including ones for Denny Hamlin, Trevor Bayne, Kyle Larson and Casey Mears.

    Hamlin was able to rebound to finish eleventh, Bayne took the checkered flag in the 18th position, Kyle Larson finished a disappointing 25th and Casey Mears ended the race in the 27th spot.

    “To be realistic, we need stuff to go our way,” Hamlin said after the race. “We need cautions and track position. We just can’t drive through the field like that – what those guys are capable of – and we’re a work in progress.”

    Not Surprising: After waking up with a cold and practically no voice, it was not surprising that Jimmie Johnson needed a little assist from Willie Robinson from Duck Dynasty, title sponsor of the race, to lift high the massive Texas trophy.

    “Just a great, great race car,” Johnson said. “We just kept plugging at it and I think the off-week was good for us to sit down and relax, reboot and come back to the track. They brought me a fast race car that was good all weekend.”

    The win signified Johnson’s fifth victory at Texas but his first ever win in the spring race and was also his 72nd victory in 478 Cup Series races.

    Surprising: Hendrick Motorsports teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne had something in common that they both most likely wished they did not share. Both had a whole lot of shaking going on, with vibrations and loose wheels abounding.

    Yet in spite of all that shaking and vibrating going on, both drivers managed good finishes, with Earnhardt in third and Kahne finishing eighth.

    “It’s good to get a good finish in the bank because these last few weeks have been pretty rough, but we know what we are capable of,” Junior said. “Greg (Ives, crew chief) and I are just getting started here and we are right there on their heels man. If we ever get this thing figured out – it’s going to be tough.”

    “There were times when I felt really competitive with the leaders and other times more like a fifth-place car,” Kahne said. “We just left too many wheels loose throughout the race. I think three; you can’t run well when you do that.”

    Not Surprising: While Brad Keselowski had a close encounter of the cone kind, he was able to rally back to score a top-five finish for Team Penske.

    “I was trying to make my mind up and chose poorly,” Keselowski said when asked about the commitment cone violation. “But it was still a great day for the Miller Lite Ford and we have a lot to be proud of.”

    Keselowski’s Penske teammate Joey Logano also had a strong run, finishing fourth in his No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford.

    Surprising: Oops, he did it again. Yes, Kevin Harvick again finished in the second spot in the No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet. In fact, this was the eleventh time that Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick have finished one/two in a race and it was also Harvick’s seventh top-10 finish in 2015.

    “I just got behind there and Jimmie was fast for those last couple laps and got around us,” Harvick said. “I got loose coming off four and I got in the wall and just was trying to hang on to where I needed to be. We just raced as hard as we could and it was a lot of fun.”

    Not Surprising: Carl Edwards finally got he wanted and expected after leaving Roush Fenway Racing for Joe Gibbs Racing this season. He got his first top-10 finish with his new No. 19 Stanley Racing For A Miracle Toyota.

    “I wanted to make a statement,” Edwards said. “It’s not a win, but for us it is our first top-10 and we dug hard all day, and we had a lot of fun. It’s a good race track.”

    Surprising: Aric Almirola, who did double duty at Texas racing XFINITY and Cup, may have finished 19th but he has managed to stay firm in his top ten ranking in the point standings.

    In fact, the driver of the Richard Petty Motorsports famed No. 43 held steady in the ninth spot of the point positions and would be considered a Chase contender if that competition started after this most recent race.

    Not Surprising: A two tire gamble was the key for many of the drivers who rounded out the top-ten in the finishing order.

    Jamie McMurray, who finished sixth; Jeff Gordon, who finished seventh; and Martin Truex, Jr., who kept his top-10 streak alive with a ninth place run, all took just two tires at the final stop of the race.

    “We did two (tires) two other times in the race and it worked out really well for us,” McMurray said. “When I cleared the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) I thought we had a legitimate shot at winning. But once the guys with four tires got clear their cars were a little better than ours and they had better tires. You just can’t hold them up here.”

    “Yeah that was a great gamble, great call by Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and we saw early some guys take two tires and made it work for a short period of time,” Gordon said. “Alan made a great call there at the end to take two tires and that is what got us to seventh.”

    “At the end we had to start doing some strategy stuff to get our track position back and probably gave up a few spots doing it,” Truex Jr. said. “I think it was the right call. We’re taking some gambles and they’ve been paying off.”

    “It was still a top 10, so all in all, it was a good night for us.”

    Surprising: Both Paul Menard and Ryan Blaney checked into the engine heartbreak hotel, finishing respectively after having engine issues.

    “We broke a water hose, I guess,” Menard said after being sidelined with mechanical issues as lap 222. ”The main line that goes in the motor just broke. It pushed a bunch of water out. No warning. The temperature gauge never moved. I was coming down the backstretch to pit and was slowing down and it broke. We popped the hood but couldn’t see anything. So, we went back out but then had no power.”

    “The bright side is I feel like we had a really good car,” Jeremy Bullins, crew chief of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion driven by Ryan Blaney, said. “Obviously, something happened with the engine. I’m not sure exactly what because it’s hard to tell what happened first, so we just got to the point where we couldn’t keep going.”

    “It’s unfortunate. We’ve got a lot of power, so we won’t complain and we’ll go on and get ready for the next one.”

    Not Surprising: David Ragan continued his run as the happiest replacement driver on the race track, bringing his usually driven by Kyle Busch No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota to a 13th place finish after qualifying 30th.

    “Our overall race was really good considering where we started at,” Ragan said. “We didn’t have the best pit stall selection, we were having to drive around cars all night. Adam Stevens (crew chief) and our Interstate Batteries team did a really nice job adjusting on our Camry and I felt like we had a chance at a certainly a top-10 or maybe even a top-five if the cautions would have fell right.”

    “We just weren’t at our best the last 50 laps,” Ragan continued. “I think we learned a few things and certainly overcame a poor qualifying effort.”

    “Not too excited about our finish, very pleased with our race.”

     

  • Johnson’s Texas Win Solidifies Contender Status

    Johnson’s Texas Win Solidifies Contender Status

    With Jimmie Johnson’s win at the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday night, the 48 team has solidified their status as the team that could possibly dethrone Kevin Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing team for the Sprint Cup championship in 2015.

    At this point in the season, not much has changed from a year ago. He was winless yet stood sixth in points. This season, despite a 41st-place showing at Las Vegas and a 35th at Martinsville, Johnson has won twice (Atlanta, Texas) and once again sits sixth in points.

    However, in 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2013 (four of Johnson’s six Cup titles), Johnson made it a point to win early and win often. Considering the elimination-style Chase for the Sprint Cup waiting after the 26th race of the season, that could prove effective in Johnson’s hunt for a seventh title.

    However, Harvick is experiencing a Johnson-esque run of consistency coming off his 2014 Sprint Cup championship. He has finished in the top-10 in every race since the last visit to Texas and is consistently knocking on the door to more wins. Considering Johnson and Harvick have been swapping wins on the 1.5-mile tracks since the fall Texas race, don’t be surprised if Harvick takes Kansas, the next 1.5-mile race on the schedule.

    Still, this is a position Johnson is familiar with, and one we shouldn’t be surprised to see him in. He’s a champion with a championship team, and it’s a good idea not to bet against him.

    Two wins in seven starts? Competitors beware because Johnson seems to be on a mission. He’s bent on putting his dismal 2014 behind him and so far, he’s doing a great job of it. He’s won on every track coming up in the next month, so there’s no reason he won’t be able to keep up with Harvick’s SHR group.

  • Hot 20 – Texas awaits as our thoughts are with a broadcaster back in the hospital

    Hot 20 – Texas awaits as our thoughts are with a broadcaster back in the hospital

    A week of rest, a week of contemplation, a week for those of faith. I so desperately pray that miracles do happen. Pit reporter Steve Byrnes is back in the hospital in his fight against neck and head cancer. He is in the ICU with pneumonia and a blood clot in his lung. At least he was able to tweet that information himself. This, more than anything I have written here, is the most meaningful and important. I could use some faith restoration about now. How about you?

    Kyle Larson missed Martinsville as doctors sought out a cause for his fainting at an event prior to the race. Today, they have the luxury to err on the side of caution as an injury no longer automatically means a championship run is done. This reduced pressure to race also means an injured driver no longer needs to feel compelled to climb back into the seat much too soon to keep his hopes alive. Even a suspension does not spell the end, as Kurt Busch sits a win away from proving. While it might be a trial for Kyle Busch to make the Chase with a win and Top 20 spot when he returns, Larson should be fine as Denny Hamlin was last season. He missed Fontana, yet finished 2014 in third.

    The National Network to End Domestic Violence is not happy Kurt Busch is back racing. To be honest, I believe there are more serious matters for them to hang their shingle. In this case, we had a questionable incident based on the opinion of a single Delaware judge from the questionable comments of two people over an incident in which little, if any, physical harm was caused. I applaud their vigilance, but I do question their bid to use this case as their cause celebre. For me, the issue has turned out to be more pathetic than violent.

    It has been announced that Cup regulars Aric Almirola and Sam Hornish Jr. will run even more XFINITY series events than they originally planned. It makes it easier to explain why some of us could not be bothered covering major leaguers kicking minor league butt week after week, season after season. Twenty-one-year-old Ryan Reed won at Daytona. Cup guys have won the other five, with Kevin Harvick taking two. Enough said.

    At least Chase Elliott won the spring XFINITY race in Texas a year ago. He is not a Cup regular just yet. As for the big boys…and girl…here are the…

    Hot 20 going down to Texas…

    1. Kevin Harvick – 2 Wins (263 Points)
    It wasn’t his tires up there on the Grassy Knoll.

    2. Joey Logano – 1 Win (239 Points)
    Won two weeks ago Saturday, third on that Sunday.

    3. Brad Keselowski – 1 Win (206 Points)
    Bloody Keselipski, according to the billboards in Texas.

    4. Denny Hamlin – 1 Win (172 Points)
    Only tire issues he had at Martinsville were during his burnout.

    5. Jimmie Johnson – 1 Win (168 Points)
    Won last three fall races in Fort Worth, but was 25th last spring.

    6. Martin Truex Jr – 231 Points
    It is nice when all one’s ducks and furniture is all in a row.

    7. Kasey Kahne – 193 Points
    Best Hendrick driver, by points, is ole what’s his name.

    8. Paul Menard – 173 Points
    Once one of two Childress drivers in the Hot 20…then Newman got tired, so to speak.

    9. Dale Earnhardt Jr – 172 Points
    According to Gordon, Junior doesn’t know squat…jumps.

    10. Aric Almirola – 170 Points
    More XFINITY for him, less seat time for others.

    11. Matt Kenseth – 168 Points
    Fort Worth is Matt’s kind of town.

    12. David Ragan – 163 Points
    Kyle Busch? I don’t know. The names does sound rather familiar, though.

    13. Casey Mears – 161 Points
    500-1 to win at Texas? Really? Is he driving it or running it?

    14. Jamie McMurray – 154 Points
    Claims he and Larson are ego free. I am hair free, but you don’t hear me bragging.

    15T Jeff Gordon – 148 Points
    Soft start followed by a trio of Top Tens.

    15T Danica Patrick – 148 Points
    From what we saw in the last race, Virginia really is for lovers…of Danica.

    15T Carl Edwards – 148 Points
    Has a million very good reasons to race for the win Saturday night.

    18. Clint Bowyer – 146 Points
    Truex left, Bowyer stayed. I wonder who got the best of that deal?

    19T A.J. Allmendinger – 138 Points
    Bush’s Beans is the sponsor. You wouldn’t want to be running behind him.

    19T Greg Biffle – 138 Points
    Has led at least a lap in 12 of the 20 Texas races he has run.

  • The Final Word – Newman’s early success deflated heading into Texas

    The Final Word – Newman’s early success deflated heading into Texas

    As the boys and girl venture on to Fort Worth, it seems apropos for some to seek a resurrection of their hopes on the season. For others, the off weekend did little to help matters from where we left off after Martinsville.

    Somebody was doing something to their tires, and somebody was going to pay. We knew NASCAR had some suspects, that they had some tires that they were testing, and we discovered soon enough that this was one conspiracy theory that held up.

    The rules state that “any device, modification, or procedure to the tire or wheel, including the valve stem hardware, that is used to release pressure, beyond normal pressure adjustments, from the tire and/or inner shield, will not be permitted.”

    For violating the rules, Ryan Newman’s crew chief Luke Lambert has been fined $125,000 and is gone until the points race in Charlotte in late May. Team tire tech James Bender and team engineer Philip Surgen are similarly on vacation. Seventy-five of the points that Ryan Newman had garnered in the opening six events, along with the same amount of owner points for Richard Childress, are gone, as they say at Shawshank, like a “fart in the wind.”

    Newman falls from sixth to 26th in the standings, yet could bounce back with a win this Saturday night. At least he will be in the race. Thankfully, Kyle Larson is also back after fainting at a Martinsville autograph session prior to that event. The culprit turned out to be dehydration.

    Will the Roush-Fenway trio of Greg Biffle, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Trevor Bayne be back? Sure, they are participating, but a combined total of a single Top Ten and two laps led does not make one a competitor.

    Voting is now open for the next class for the Hall of Fame. I think Rick Hendrick’s 232 Cup wins to go with his 11 Cup championships should make him an automatic selection. If I had a vote, other picks would likely be crew chief Harry Hyde, track owner Bruton Smith, and driver Mark Martin.

    Maybe even Richard Childress. Hey, the guy could use some positive feedback about now.

    Jimmie Johnson heads to Texas having won three of the past five there, though none of them was in the spring. Those went to Kyle Busch, who continues to mend, and Joey Logano.

    However, Matt Kenseth is also strong at this track, and is seeking to resurrect his success on the Texas circuit. He was 25th last fall, his worst performance there in 25 starts, where ninth or better is an expected outcome. If it all comes back together, maybe a third set of six-guns could be in the offing.