Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: joey logano

  • He’s Back….Juan Pablo Montoya is Back in NASCAR

    He’s Back….Juan Pablo Montoya is Back in NASCAR

    Juan Pablo Montoya, whose contract was not renewed by Earnhardt Ganassi Racing last year in favor of rookie Kyle Larson, will make his return back to NASCAR with Team Penske for two races this year.

    Montoya will add the NASCAR Cup starts at Michigan and the Brickyard at Indy to his Verizon IndyCar Series full-time schedule. The 38 year old Columbian will pilot the No. 12 SKF Ford at Michigan International Speedway on June 15th and the sponsor-to-be-named No. 12 car for the Brickyard 400 on July 27th.

    Greg Erwin, a veteran NASCAR crew chief, will be atop the pit box of Montoya for both races.

    “Juan is a proven winner in multiple racing disciplines and he is one of the most versatile racecar drivers competing today,” Roger Penske, team owner, said. “Michigan and Indianapolis are two important races for Team Penske. We know Juan has the ability to race for wins in both of those events while still focusing on his full-time program in the Verizon IndyCar Series.”

    Juan Pablo Montoya is also back on the NASCAR circuit with one of the most successful teams to date. Team Penske, whose two drivers Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano have both visited Victory Lane this year, will no doubt welcome their newest teammate to the fold.

    “This opportunity is pretty unique,” Montoya said. “This year, it will be nice to be in a Penske car because they are so competitive week in and week out. Both Keselowski and Logano are running up front.”

    One place that Montoya really wants to go back to is the Brickyard, where he has come so close to winning in a stock car. JPM has mastered the Indianapolis Motor Speedway having won the Indy 500 in 2000.

    “It’s one of those places where I feel like I got robbed a few times,” Montoya said. “To be able to come here and be able to close that deal will be really, really nice.”

    Montoya is also back as he is on a mission to get take team owner Roger Penske to Victory Lane for the first time ever at the Brickyard.

    “It’s hard to believe, but Roger Penske has never won the Brickyard 400,” JPM said. “I think that Brad, Joey and I will give Roger and Team Penske a great opportunity to check that off the list and we should be strong at Michigan as well.”

    Montoya is also back with a vengeance to attempt something that no one else has done, winning three feature races at Indy in the same season. He is scheduled for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on May 10th, the Indy 500 a week later, and then the Brickyard 40 in July. So, if JPM qualifies for each one, he would be the first to do so.

    “Three chances gives me a better chance of winning one of them now,” Montoya said.

    So, just how will Montoya get back in shape to get back on the NASCAR Cup tracks?

    “I had a chance to test a car last week at Nashville and I felt like it was a good test,” Montoya said. “I was very happy that I got up to speed very easy. Within five laps I was comfortable in the car.”

    “I think running Michigan and Indy are two tracks where running open wheel helps you, especially Michigan, which is a lot like an open-wheel car because you don’t slow down much but use momentum and a lot of high speed.”

    “To just run the Brickyard would be a pretty big ask of our team and of Juan, without having spent much time in our cars or with having been out of a Cup car for a while,” Tim Cindric, Team Penske President said. “So, we felt like we needed to give him another shot at Michigan prior to the Brickyard so he could get ready for Indy.”

    While Montoya has been enjoying being back in the IndyCar Series, where he is 11th in the point standings currently, he is equally thrilled about this new opportunity back in his old stomping ground of NASCAR where he spent six year.

    “It will be fun to get back behind the wheel of that Cup car,” Montoya said simply.

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Richmond Toyota Owners 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Richmond Toyota Owners 400

    At the track which made Chase-altering headlines the last time the Cup Series came to town, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 60th annual Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

    Surprising: While another racer with two wins has most often been known by this moniker, crew chief Todd Gordon dubbed his own winning driver Joey Logano ‘The Closer’ instead. Not only did Logano close the deal on his first win at Richmond but also closed on a Chase berth with his second win of the 2014 season.

    “Joey does a really good job closing,” Todd Gordon, crew chief, said in the media center after the race. “I think that’s one thing that’s impressed me in the last year and a little bit.”

    “I knew we had a shot at the win and it all kind of lined up for us.”

    “We kind of thought with one win you’re going to be all but locked in, but this really secures you,” the closing 23 year old driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Shell Pennzoil Ford said. “Having a couple wins this early in the season and in two completely different racetracks makes you very confident for the rest of the season.”

    Not Surprising: While Joey Logano punched his card to the Chase, both Marcos Ambrose and Casey Mears punched their tickets for NASCAR’s further review of the punches thrown in the pits at the conclusion of the race.

    In fact, the normally good natured Aussie landed such a punch that Mears acknowledged he was still smarting from the day after the race.

    “He got me good,” Mears said of Ambrose’s punch. “That’s one thing I can say that out of all the NASCAR fights or punches or when you see people swing, usually it’s a lot of fly-swatting.”

    “But he actually connected.”

    Surprising: One of the most surprising aspects of the Richmond race was that tire management issues led to fire management issues, with several drivers going up in flames after tire failures occurred.

    What was even more surprising is that those tire to fire issues happened four consecutive times right around lap 60 on tires.

    One of the most dramatic tire to fire episodes impacted Reed Sorenson, driver of the No. 36 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet, who was pulled out of his burning car by a NASCAR official and a crew member from the No. 5 Kasey Kahne team.

    “Seems like the rubber got to the oil lines and the brake lines and that was what was burning was the oil and the fuel,” Sorenson said. “So I got out of there as quick as I could and to try and not inhale all that smoke.”

    “Definitely not what you want to be inside of.”

    Not Surprising: While Jeff Gordon remained the point’s leader, currently five points ahead of Matt Kenseth, both drivers expressed the same feelings as far as prioritizing wins over position in the point standings.

    “You’re right, I mean, normally I’d be ecstatic with leading the points and where we’re at and consistency, but right now those wins are just so important,” the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet said. “I mean, I’d rather be 12th in points right now with three wins than be leading the points.”

    The driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Husky Toyota echoed Gordon’s sentiments.

    “I’m disappointed I didn’t get the win,” Kenseth said. “I did everything I could do.”

    “I was trying to win the race and at the end of the day I just didn’t get it done.”

    Surprising: Some of the drivers with the highest driver ratings at Richmond International Raceway struggled the most mightily at the short track.

    Denny Hamlin, who had the highest driver rating of 114.8 coming into the race, had an abysmal finish of 22nd after spinning out and being narrowly missed by many in the field.

    Tony Stewart, who came to the race with a driver rating of 96.5, the fifth best, also struggled, finishing 25th, one lap down.

    Two of the other drivers with good driver ratings, Kurt Busch in seventh and Jimmie Johnson in tenth, also had difficult nights finishing 23rd and 32nd respectively.

    “We struggled tonight in the Haas Automation Chevrolet,” Busch said. “The car was loose in, tight in the center and loose off for most of the night.”

    “It was frustrating.”

    “Really thought we had a decent car and was going to run in the top-five, top 10 at the worst,” Johnson said. “Then we had one run where we cut a right-front and the next run another right-front.”

    “That really just kind of put an end to our night.”

    Not Surprising: Martin Truex, Jr. finally tamed the bad racing luck demons with his best result of the season, tenth, in his No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet.

    “We finally finished one!” Truex said after the race. “Nothing fell out of the sky and hit us. We kept the air in the tires all night.”

    “The biggest thing is finally shaking the bad luck.”

    Surprising: While others may describe him in colorful ways, Kyle Busch had some interesting descriptors for himself after finishing third in the race.

    “That last restart was intense,” the driver of the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota said after finishing third. “I thought that that was a bad call coming in and putting tires on, but man, when we went back green, everybody went fighting for the bottom.”

    “Really crazy the way that ended up and just drove past everybody on the outside like a bad mofo, just getting my job done like I was supposed to, and kind of recovering our day and ended up third,” Busch continued. “Dave (Rogers, crew chief) made a very gutsy call there to come in and put four tires on it and restart 16th and I just was a bad ass and drove the hell out of it.”

    Not Surprising:   After what happened in the fall Richmond race and then what happened at this race, Clint Bowyer no doubt would like to take the track completely off his dance card.

    Instead of doing his own spinning, this time around Bowyer collided with the rookie pole sitter Kyle Larson on the very first lap, sending Larson spinning and sending himself into fiery tire hell.

    “What a bad night,” the driver of the No. 15 AAA Insurance Toyota said after his 43rd place finish. “I was on fire and I really hate that happened with Kyle because I really like him and I’m a big fan of his.”

    “It was just one thing after another and not a very good night.”

    Surprising: Rookie Kyle Larson made a surprising comeback drive after starting from the pole and then having that first-lap incident with Clint Bowyer. The young driver of the No. 42 AXE Peace Chevrolet finished 16th and was yet again the highest finishing rookie of the race.

    Not Surprising: Dale Earnhardt Jr. did his best ‘Frozen’ imitation, substituting ‘Let it Go’ with just ‘Get over It’ in response to all the tempers flaring after the race. Junior himself got over it by bringing his No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet home in the seventh spot.

    “The No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) was mad at the No. 20 (Matt Kenseth) and he slammed on brakes after the checkered and the No. 47 (AJ Allmendinger) ran into the No. 20 and I ran into the No. 20 and I don’t know what that was all about,” Junior said, summing up all the action in the final lap. “You know, get over it.”

    Surprising: AJ Allmendinger celebrated his 200th Cup start in style, with his best finish to date. He brought his No. 47 Bush’s Grillin’ Beans Chevrolet to the checkered flag in sixth place.

    “It was a good race,” the Dinger said. “Just a tough race track.”

    “I was really happy with the car in general.”

    Not Surprising: When all is said and done, NASCAR is a family sport. Thus there was an outpouring of love for the ‘King’ Richard Petty as he returned to the race track for the first time after the passing of his wife Lynda.

    “I just felt like I needed to have a little time on our own so I have been gone for two or three weeks but I am back in the saddle again now,” Petty said. “I am just learning to live all over again.”

    “I am surviving,” Petty continued. “The busier they keep me the better off I will be.

    The ‘King’, along with the rest of the Cup Series will be busy as they travel next to the superspeedway of Talladega for the Aaron’s 499 on Sunday, May 4th.

     

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Darlington

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Darlington

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Jeff Gordon: Gordon finished seventh in the Bojangle’s Southern 500 and held on to the lead in the Sprint Cup points standings. He leads Matt Kenseth by one point.

    “I’m surprised Kenseth didn’t win a race sponsored by Bojangles,” Gordon said, “because he knows chicken better than anyone.

    “But the ‘Drive For Five’ is still alive. And if I win the Sprint Cup title, you can best believe I’ll ride off into the sunset. If not, I might call it a day, anyway.”

    2. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt took second at Darlington, posting his fifth top-3 finish of the season. Earnhardt is fourth in the points standings, 26 behind Jeff Gordon.

    “I’m sponsored by the National Guard,” Earnhardt said. “Is Kevin Harvick sponsored by the Navy? Because his wife curses like a sailor.

    “As Harvick proved, tires were the most important factor in winning. Maybe we should have put on those extra two tires. I guess you could say we failed. Of course, it’s surely not the first case of ‘blown’ tires this year.”

    3. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson took the lead with a two-tire pit stop on a caution with ten laps to go at Darlington. Harvick eventually chased down Johnson and passed Dale Earnhardt, Jr. for the lead on the final lap. Johnson finished third and is now fourth in the points standings, 27 behind Jeff Gordon.

    “I’m still winless on the year,” Johnson said. “But winning isn’t everything. Otherwise, I’d have everything. Harvick can have his four tires; I’ll take my six Cups. Unlike those tires, those Cups will last forever.”

    4. Kevin Harvick: Harvick’s four tire pit stop on the final caution at Darlington proved the difference. Harvick, restarting fifth, chased down Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt, Jr, to secure the win in the Bojangle’s Southern 500.

    “We were ‘great’ in ‘Darlington,’” Harvick said. “Taking four tires was a ‘good decision.’ Those weren’t the only ‘G.D.’s’ heard at Darlington.

    “Gene Haas of Stewart-Haas Racing is planning to field a Formula 1 team in 2015. Gene’s got the money to make it work. He’s loaded. He has to be. Reportedly, he couldn’t pay Tony Stewart enough to have Kurt Busch as a teammate.”

    5. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth claimed fourth at Darlington, posting his sixth top-10 result of the year. He is second in the points standings, trailing Jeff Gordon by a single point.

    “The call Darlington Raceway the ‘Lady In Black,’” Kenseth said. “They call Delana Harvick the ‘Lady In Blue’ because of her language. Harvick may be the best driver never to win a Cup championship. Maybe he’s cursed.”

    6. Carl Edwards: Edwards finished 13th at Darlington, as Roush Fenway teammate Greg Biffle was the only Ford in the top 10. Edwards is third in the points standings, 19 behind Jeff Gordon.

    “How is Delana Harvick like the Aflac duck?” Edwards said. “They’re both ‘fowl-mouthed.’”

    7. Kyle Busch: Busch finished sixth at Darlington, joining Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth, who finished fourth, in the top 10. Busch is sixth in the Sprint Cup points standings, 28 out of first.

    “My brother Kurt was wrecked by Clint Bowyer,” Busch said. “Rest assured, Kurt won’t take that lying down. Or at least not before an open-handed slap takes him off his feet.”

    8. Joey Logano: Logano blew an engine with ten laps to go at Darlington and finished 35th, 15 laps down. He fell four spots in the points standings to eighth, 52 out of first.

    “Hey,” Logano said, “I wasn’t the only one cursing my blown engine.”

    9. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski finished 17th at Darlington on a disappointing day for Penske Racing. Teammate Joey Logano suffered an engine failure, while Keselowski dealt with handling issues late in the race.

    “With no top 10 finishes in the last five races,” Keselowski said, “I haven’t looked like a Cup contender. We’re heading to Easter for a much needed break, and hopefully I’ll be a lot better upon returning. Just call it a ‘Kes-urrection.’”

    10. Kyle Larson: Rookie Of The Year candidate Larson finished seventh in the Bojangle’s Southern 500, scoring his second straight top 10 and fourth of the year.

    “I earned my Darlington stripe,” Larson said. “The ‘Lady In Black’ always leaves an impression. But I think I did the same. Hopefully, this driver of the No. 42 Target car will leave a mark, and not just leave.”

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington

    As the blinding sun faded into darkness, drivers danced with the lady in black at one of the toughest tracks on the circuit. Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 65th annual Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

    Surprising:  Perhaps it was the full moon or the sheer intensity of the competition, but there was a surprising amount of testiness, more so than at another of the other tracks to date, between drivers and even between drivers and crew chiefs.

    At one point, Aric Almirola and Danica Patrick were trading paint, as well as Austin Dillon and A.J. Allmendinger, the latter calling the young Dillon rookie a ‘punk’. There was also some testiness between the normally solid duo of six-time champ Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus during some of their radio chatter.

    Probably the biggest incident of the race occurred in the last few laps between Kurt Busch, who was running ninth in the first attempt at the green-white-checkered, and Clint Bowyer, who made contact with him when the green flag flew.

    The contact was so severe that Busch was unable to complete the race, finishing 31st in his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet. Bowyer, on the other hand, finished 12th in his No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota.

    “That was a terrible way to end what could have been a decent night,” Busch said. “We struggled at times to get the balance of the Haas Automation Chevrolet right, but we kind of found our spot just past the halfway point and made slight adjustments the rest of the way.”

    “I tried to hold them off the best I could, but someone moved me out of their way and it ruined our night,” Busch said of the restart. “I hate it for the team, but we keep learning each week and we will get better.”

    Although Busch has a win, he lost one position in the point standings, falling to 26th, 164 points behind the leader. Bowyer, who is winless, climbed one spot up in the point standings to 16th, 78 points behind the leader.

    Not Surprising:  In spite of the challenges, several personal bests were achieved by race winner Kevin Harvick, who by far had the stoutest car, leading 239 laps of the 374 total. This was Harvick’s first ever Southern 500 win, adding to his other crown jewel race wins, from the Daytona 500 to the Coca Cola 600 and the Brickyard.

    This was Harvick’s 25th victory in the Sprint Cup Series and he also became the first two-time winner of the season, virtually guaranteeing him a spot in the Chase for the championship.

    The driver of the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing also became the first driver to win from pole position since Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett did so in 1997.

    “This is one race I told Rodney (Childers, crew chief) that I wanted to win,” Harvick said. “We were able to put it all together, but this is the Southern 500, this is as big as it gets in NASCAR racing.”

    Surprising:  There were several surprising bounces that occurred at the ‘Track Too Tough to Tame.’ Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had a surprising bounce back to score his career best, runner up finish at Darlington after finishing dead last at Texas last weekend with the mistake in the grass.

    “A great run, good job by my team,” the driver of the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet said. “This isn’t one of my best tracks so my team gave me a great car.”

    This was Junior’s ninth top-10 finish at Darlington and his fifth top-10 finish of the season.

    On the flip side, Paul Menard took a surprisingly hard bounce backwards, dropping eight positions in the points, from 10th to 18th, after finishing 41st in his No. 27 CertainTeed/Menards Chevrolet.

    “When the sun went down, I think it freed up,” Menard said after hitting the wall on Lap 201. “I hit the wall like ten laps before and I guess the right-front tire just went down.”

    “I guess I was in denial,” Menard continued. “There was a lot of damage.”

    Not Surprising:  Rookie of the Year contender Kyle Larson continued to impress with his eighth place finish in a backup car to become the highest finishing rookie of the race.

    “Yeah, just really proud of my Target Chip Ganassi team for how hard they had to work after I got into the wall and pulled the backup car out,” Larson said. “I started the race off so loose and just had to hang on for a couple runs and Shine got the car tightened up the car for me and we were able to run I thought top‑10 or ‑12 speeds.”

    “Finally got up there and then I got in the wall a couple times and had to pull the fenders back out and drive back up there,” Larson continued. “Still ended up 8th, but all in all it was a good Saturday for us.”

    Surprising: Six-time champion Jimmie Johnson surprisingly called on the old school racing gods to round out the podium finish for Team Chevy.

    “Yeah, just very happy to finish there in the top three,” the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Kobalt Tools Chevrolet said. “We struggled the first run or two of the race, but we got the car turning for me and came to life and really did it the old‑fashioned way and kind of drove up through the field before the last pit stop, so proud of the hard work.”

    Although he remains winless to date, this was Johnson’s fifth top 10 finish of the season and his 12th top-10 finish in 16 races at Darlington Raceway.

    Not Surprising:  Even champions make mistake as demonstrated by the difficulties in restarting by four-time champion Jeff Gordon pretty much throughout the race.

    “We had a really strong car and everything was going really well,” the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet said. “There towards the end, we just kind of started fading and got ate up on those restarts.”

    Gordon finished seventh and is still in the points lead, albeit by one point over Matt Kenseth.

    “I feel like it is a missed opportunity,” Gordon said. “But another great race car and I’m happy about that.”

    Surprising:  Team Penske had a surprisingly tough time under the watchful eye of the ‘Lady in Black’, with Keselowski finishing 17th and Logano finishing 35th.

    “It was a long night,” the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford said. “We didn’t get the finish we wanted, that is for sure.”

    “The track was slick so that is part of the unique challenge of Darlington that we all love.”

    While Keselowski admitted to getting pushed back by those struggling on restarts, teammate Logano instead had a mechanical failure with just ten laps to go.

    “We had an issue with the right front hub which broke,” the driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford said. “It is unfortunate that the right front hub broke and then that messed with the rotor and into the caliper and everything got hot and broke after that.”

    “It sucks because you run the whole race and get nothing to show for it at the end.”

    Not Surprising:   With the third best driver rating of 107.5 coming into Darlington Raceway, it was not surprising the Greg Biffle, behind the wheel of the No. 16 3M/Red Cross Ford, was the highest finishing Ford when the checkered flag waved.

    “We worked really hard all night and probably didn’t have a fifth place car but we worked really hard on it and we had good pit stops and track position was everything tonight,” Biffle said. “Those last restarts we were on the outside, the inside and then the outside and we picked up one or two spots there at the end.”

    “Everybody worked hard and we will keep working on our car. We have to get better here but we will keep working at it.”

    Surprising:  NASCAR actually made a surprising move, granting an extra set of Goodyear tires for the Bojangles’ Southern 500. The sanctioning body apparently made that move after many teams voiced concerns about running out of tires, given the fall-off and wear.

    Not Surprising:  No doubt all of the Cup drivers are looking forward to an off-weekend of rest but Richard Petty Motorsports driver Marcos Ambrose summed it up best.

    “From the first lap, the track was as slick as anything,” the driver of the No. 9 DeWalt Ford said after finishing 14th. “This is the most worn out I have been in my NASCAR career.”

    After the Easter break, the NASCAR elite return to action in two weeks under the lights for some short-track racing at Richmond International Raceway.

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Texas

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Texas

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Jeff Gordon: Gordon took the lead on a late two tire pit stop, but was unable to hold off Joey Logano, with four tires, down the stretch at Texas. Gordon’s runner-up finish, his second of the year, moved him to the top of the points standings.

    “I still like our two tire strategy at that point,” Gordon said. “If you put on four Goodyear tires there, the odds of one of them exploding is doubled.

    “Texas Motor Speedway has a 12-story high HD video screen. If it displays a picture of Jeremy Mayfield, would that be considered “high” resolution?”

    2. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet suffered early damage as debris from Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s wreck damaged the front of his car, including the windshield. Johnson eventually finished in 25th, two laps down, and is now sixth in the points standings.

    “Talk about ‘dirty’ air,” Johnson said. “I’m so vanilla, this is the closest anyone’s come to getting the dirt on me. Usually, when there’s mudslinging, there’s a Busch brother involved, often followed by a right hand to the face. But there’s a fine line between SOB and SOD.”

    3. Carl Edwards: Edwards finished 14th in the Duck Commander 500 while Roush Fenway teammate Greg Biffle took sixth. Edwards is now third in the points standings, 12 behind Jeff Gordon.

    “The whole Duck Dynasty Robertson clan was at the race,” Edwards said. “They’ve created an empire out of good old-fashioned hard work and homophobia. But my car owner is not a fan. In fact, he’s banned all references to the show. Some may consider it an overreaction, but Mr. Roush disagrees. It’s a natural reaction after someone says ‘Hey Jack!’ to you for the millionth time.”

    4. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth finished third at Texas on a solid day for Joe Gibbs Racing, and Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin came home third and 13th, respectively. Kenseth is now second in the Sprint Cup points standings, four out of first.

    “Did I hear correctly?” Kenseth said. “Did a duck give the command to ‘Start your engines?’ Of course, why should I be surprised? It’s the Duck Commander 500; I should expect a ‘duck call.’”

    5. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski lost a shot to win the Duck Commander 500 when he was nabbed for speeding on pit road during the race’s final caution. Instead of his second win of the year, Keselowski went home with a 15th.

    “My hood got blown up by a jet dryer,” Keselowski said. “That’s two races in a row in which my hood wouldn’t stay down. If it happens again, I might have to write a book about it, from the perspective of a misplaced hood. The book, which will be endorsed by NASCAR’s ‘Drive For Diversity’ program, will be called ‘Tales From The Hood.’”

    6. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt blew a tire after going too low on the apron into the soft, rain-soaked infield at Texas Motor Speedway. The No. 88 smacked the wall and caught on fire before Earnhardt escaped unharmed. He finished 43rd, and tumbled two spots in the Sprint Cup points standings to sixth.

    “It was a mistake on my part,” Earnhardt said. “I put the nose of the No. 88 car in the grass, and the results were disastrous. That’s not always the case with Junior Nation. Ask one of my fans about a ‘faceplant’ in the infield, and many will tell you it’s a good thing.

    “There’s not a lot of margin for error with the Goodyear tires. Apparently, my tire was punctured by a blade of grass.”

    7. Joey Logano: Logano charged past Brian Vickers and Jeff Gordon on a green-white-checkered finish to win the Duck Commander 500 at Texas, earning his first win of the year. Logano is now fourth in the points standings, 28 behind Jeff Gordon.

    “The ‘Bread’ is sliced,” Logano said, “and Vickers and Gordon were diced. It’s an honor to win such a prestigious race. It was an historic win, also. It was the first race in NASCAR history in which the winner’s trophy outweighed the winner.”

    8. Kyle Busch: Busch started 29th and led 10 laps on his way to a third-place finish at Texas. He holds the fourth spot in the Sprint Cup points standings, 28 behind Jeff Gordon.

    “Luckily,” Busch said, “tire wear was not much of a factor in the Duck Commander 500. Thank heavens for that, because it prevented someone from calling the race the ‘Rubber Ducky 500.’”

    9. Brian Vickers: Vickers posted his best win of the year with a fourth in the Duck Commander 500.

    “Those jet dryers wreaked havoc at Texas Motor Speedway,” Edwards said. “It was a welcome relief for NASCAR officials. Finally, something else was responsible for blowing hot air. By the way, do jet dryers run on jet fuel? I bet Michael Waltrip can answer that.”

    10. Kyle Larson: Larson finished fifth at Texas, the best finish among rookies in the Duck Commander 500. It was his second top-five of the season, placing him two short of Juan Montoya’s total from last season in the same No. 42 car.

    “I’m NASCAR’s only Japanese-American driver,” Larson said. “I may be a rookie, but I fear no one or no thing, not even Godzilla, whose image is sure to adorn a car with the release of the new Godzilla movie upcoming. I’m guessing it will be on a Toyota.”

  • The Final Word – That was no pass in the grass at Texas

    The Final Word – That was no pass in the grass at Texas

    Sometimes when you mess with the bull, you get the horns. This past weekend, there was one ornery Texas Longhorn who made his displeasure known.

    First to be gored were those fans who mosied on down to Dallas for a Sunday race. If they had no Plan B, the race was run on Monday while they were on the return trip home to Poughkeepsie. Rain took care of business on the scheduled day, and I wonder how many were like me and did not plan on a “what if” strategy. Fortunately, I did not need it, but some sure did this past Sunday.

    When a roper misses, it often is forgotten in a week. Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecked riding a bull instead, and when he poked his nose down to the inside in the opening laps, he went where no car should ever go.  It was his version of “the Crash in the Grass”, as his front end dug in to shatter his car before it even got thrown for a hard hit along the outside fence. The fact it then burst into flames was just a final touch of the torch, so to speak. Ten laps of caution to open, two laps of green, then a trip to the garage and an early flight home for Junior, dead last in 43rd.

    Jimmie Johnson was like a rodeo barrel man. You know, that nice guy with the painted up smiley face who keeps the kids entertained while poking his head out of the barrel to tease the bull. Then the bull decides to hook the barrel and flip it high into the air, or just toss a piece of a deteriorating tire from Junior’s dying beast into Johnson’s windshield. It bent the bar meant to support the glass and even tore Jimmie a new one in the front end where not even the old one would have been located. His crew fixed him up, but he never got back to the lead lap, having to settle for 25th.

    It is good that Kevin Harvick won at Phoenix, as four of the seven rodeos have seen him shoved face deep in the dirt. A broken hub left him 41st in Las Vegas, a lost oil line meant 39th at Bristol, then a blown tire left him 36th in California. Once again, his bronco came snorting out of the gate in Texas, twisted, turned, and then suddenly dropped dead.  Harvick lasted more than twice as long as Earnhardt, which is saying nothing, when his engine quit. He was 42nd, and the only race he was part of was to see which of the two got back to North Carolina the quickest.

    Joey Logano thought he was also bound for heart break. With the white flag on the horizon, he was heading to the line when the left rear on Kurt Busch’s car let go to shred the quarter-panel to pieces. Out came the caution, four Goodyears went on Joey’s ride, but Jeff Gordon took two to start in front for the green-white-checker. That drama did not last long, as the Connecticut Yankee stormed back in front to win for the fourth time of his career and picked himself up a Chase place.

    While things went well for Logano, team mate Brad Keselowski was out near the front almost the entire day. However, while Logano got his four feel goods in the pits, Keselowski was earning himself a speeding penalty to vacate his spot beside Joey at the re-start to finish 15th. Sometimes the bull just sits back and lets you kick your own butt.

    In tallying up the standings, the first to be considered are the seven race winners before we worry about points. Too bad, as Jeff Gordon has no wins but more points than anyone else. He was consistently up front on Monday, to finish second, just ahead of Kyle Busch, Brian Vickers, and Kyle Larson.

    Texas was tough on some, mild on others. Matt Kenseth remains winless yet his seventh place result on Monday leaves him just four points back of Gordon.  Danica Patrick was a barrel racer in the midst of the bull riding, finishing 27th to sit 29th in the standings. Nobody sits behind her other than those you would have bet on to be back there.

    Austin Dillon is 12th, four spots ahead of Larson in the rookie race. Despite all the talk about the good crop of first year drivers this season, only those two will matter. Frankly, none of the others are in equipment worthy of challenging, with only Justin Allgaier (28th) joining the other two ahead of the “Danica line.” It should be interesting to see how they, and their teams, will fare the rest of the season. One point of measure might indeed be the Danica line.

    As for Harvick and Kurt Busch, they need to stay within the Top 30 over-all to make their wins work for them. With more than a 30 point bulge over the 31st place David Gilliland, they both still look safe for the next few weeks. That Texas bull was bad, but nothing those two cowboys cannot recover from.

    They replace the critter with the lady this Saturday night, as Darlington and the Southern 500 is next on the dance card.  Seven different drivers have won this season. Seven different drivers have won at Darlington since Greg Biffle won back to back in 2005-06. Jeff Gordon has won seven times there, the last in 2007. If he drove the No. 7, picking the winner for Saturday night would have been a no brainer.  Still, if he brings flowers maybe the Lady in Black will be kind to him one more time.

    One more thing. When rain washed away Sunday’s date, fans wondered if they would get a chance to see the Monday attempt. Thanks to TSN2, I could and did. Thanks! Here is a look at the standings, with the priority given to our seven winners…

     

    Driver

    Races

    Win

    Points

    1

      Carl Edwards

    7

    1

    247

    2

      Joey Logano

    7

    1

    235

    3

      Kyle Busch

    7

    1

    231

    4

      Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

    7

    1

    228

    5

      Brad Keselowski

    7

    1

    218

    6

      Kurt Busch

    7

    1

    151

    7

      Kevin Harvick

    7

    1

    138

    8

      Jeff Gordon

    7

    0

    259

    9

      Matt Kenseth

    7

    0

    255

    10

      Jimmie Johnson

    7

    0

    228

    11

      Brian Vickers

    7

    0

    205

    12

      Paul Menard

    7

    0

    203

    13

      Ryan Newman

    7

    0

    202

    14

      Austin Dillon

    7

    0

    202

    15

      Denny Hamlin

    6

    0

    197

    16

      Tony Stewart

    7

    0

    189

    31

     

     

     

    107
  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Texas Duck Commander 500

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Texas Duck Commander 500

    In a rain-filled race day fit only for the ducks, so much so that the race was postponed from Sunday to Monday, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 18th Annual Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

    Surprising:  He may have finished second in the race, but Jeff Gordon achieved the top spot in the point standings, a position that he surprisingly has not held since 2009.

    And with his runner up status, the consistent driver of the No. 24 No. 24 Axalta/Texas A&M School of Engineering Chevrolet scored his 12th top-10 finish at Texas and his fifth top-10 finish for the season.

    “It was a great second‑place finish for me,” Gordon said. “I knew it was going to be hard to hold those guys off.”

    “Looked out my mirror, those guys were racing hard behind me,” Gordon continued. “At that point I was thinking, I just want to finish.”

    “I feel very fortunate to have finished second.”

    Not Surprising:  It was after all the Duck Commander 500 race, so it was not at all surprising for the seventh winner in seven races to capitalize on that duck theme.

    “Obviously these wins are so important this year to get into the Chase and to have both Team Penske cars with a win already is big, so we feel good about that,” Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford, said after celebrating his first victory of the season. “You kind of start getting your ducks in a row for Chase time and making sure you get everything ready for then.”

    “You feel a little bit more comfortable now that we have won than what we would have been.”

    This was Logano’s first ever win at Texas Motor Speedway and he also became the youngest winner in TMS history at the tender age of 23 years, 10 months and 14 days.

    Surprising:  Brian Vickers had a surprisingly good run, in fact the best of his season in fourth place. The driver of the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota also climbed four places in the point standings to crack the top-10 in points, currently sitting in the ninth position, 54 points behind leader Jeff Gordon.

    “Really proud of everyone on this Aaron’s Dream Machine team,” Vickers said. “Just really proud of the effort.  We probably didn’t have a car to win, but we made the most of it.”

    “We’ll learn from this and we’ll move on to the next race and we gave it our best there at the end.”

    Not Surprising:  The ‘Kyle and Kyle’ show continued its run at Texas, with Kyle Busch battling young Rookie of the Year contender Kyle Larson yet again for a top-five finish.

    Busch, who scored third place in his No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, posted his eighth top-10 finish in 18 races at Texas while Larson, behind the wheel of his No. 42 Target Chevrolet, finished fifth as the highest finishing ROTY candidate.

    “It was a good afternoon for us,” Busch said. “Just drove the hell out of it there those last two laps and got all she could and come home third.  Good, deserving finish for us here today.”

    “We were really good today, pretty much good from the start,” Larson said. “Our Target Chevy was average on a short run, but long runs I thought we probably had the best car.”

    “Just kept sticking with it, got it better and better each run,” Larson continued. “Put ourselves in position there on that last restart to get a good finish.”

    Surprising:  Two drivers were surprisingly up in smoke early in the race, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. hitting the grass and exploding in flames on lap 13 while Kevin Harvick’s engine expired in a huge puff of smoke just 27 laps into the race.

    “Something happened with the engine right after that restart,” Harvick said. “The Jimmy John’s Chevrolet was really fast.”

    “It’s frustrating. I don’t know what else I can say,” Harvick continued. “I didn’t get any indication that anything was going wrong.”

    “We’ll take it back to the shop and figure out what happened. But that’s a disappointing end to the day.”

    Earnhardt Jr.’s day also ended up in flames and smoke but for a very different reason.

    “Just didn’t see the grass. Didn’t know the grass was down there,” Junior said. “With the way the A-post is on these cars you can’t really see that good to that angle. I just didn’t have a good visual of where the apron and the grass was and got down in there pretty good.”

    “You can’t run through there the way they have these cars on the ground like that,” the driver of the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet said. “Just a mistake on my part. I just didn’t know I was that close to the grass, and made a mistake.”

    Not Surprising:  With rain in the air and the track changing throughout the race day, it was not surprising that gremlins in the flaps and hoods reared their ugly heads. In fact, because of the force of air from the jet dryers, at least four cars had hood flaps popping up, including the cars of Brad Keselowski, Ryan Newman, Danica Patrick and Justin Allgaier.

    “I was definitely wondering what happened,” the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford said on seeing his hood flap pop up. “I knew it was the jet dryer that caused it, but it was one of those freak deals.”

    Surprising:  As much as the race fans wanted to see the sun, it was surprisingly not Tony Stewart’s friend as his car fared better in the gloomier conditions.

    “We had a really good racecar for what the track conditions were most of this weekend,” the driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet said. “I think we showed that with getting the pole on Saturday and then leading all those laps at the first part of the race.”

    “But the track changed a lot and the setup we had didn’t really change with it.”

    In spite of handling struggles late in the race, Smoke led 74 laps and did manage to finish top-10 for the day, advancing one position up in points to fourteenth.

    Not Surprising:   Along with his heavy heart on the untimely death of his brother-in-law due to a sky-diving accident, Jimmie Johnson had heavy damage to match, unfortunately being the recipient of the mud and debris from his teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s foray into the grass and wall.

    Johnson finished the race with a disappointing 25th place run in his No. 48 Lowe’s Spring is Calling Chevrolet.

    “It’s kind of surreal what happened,” the six-time champion said. “Junior hit the grass there and something off his car like a splitter or something just destroyed my windshield and then something hit the nose of the car too.”

    “We were in a good position and were running decent lap times when the right rear blew,” Johnson continued. “It was a day of bad luck. We had a fast race car, so there was a little silk lining in it, but it was a terrible finish.”

    Surprising:  The third time was not a charm for Kurt Busch, previous race winner at Martinsville, who suffered not one, not two, but three tire failures in the Duck Commander 500 and finished 39th.

    “That was a very disappointing day after having a fast Haas Automation Chevrolet all weekend,” Daniel Knost, Busch’s crew chief, said. “We brought out a backup car after a wreck early in the weekend due to a tire issue.”

    “We took a little too aggressive setup today, and it cost us,” Knost continued. “I hate that we had a day like this, but we’ll continue to learn and get better each week.”

    Not Surprising:  While Aric Almirola and his Eckrich sponsor granted wishes for a local veteran injured in Afghanistan, the driver of the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford, had his own wish for improvement in his point standings come true as well.

    “The car was loose all day,” Almirola said. “Our intermediate track program is still not where we want it to be, but this was a good improvement.”

    “We hung in the Top-15 all day, and hopefully, a 12th-place finish will help us in the points.”

    Almirola and his team indeed moved up four spots in the points standings to 22nd as he and his fellow Cup compatriots head into the night race this upcoming weekend at Darlington Raceway.

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Martinsville STP 500

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Martinsville STP 500

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

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

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

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

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

    “It’s an unbelievable feeling to deliver.”

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

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

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

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

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

    “That cost us a little bit.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    “I wish we had a little more.”

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

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

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

    “That’s all I had.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    “Things were definitely wild there.”

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

     

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Bristol

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Bristol

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski was in shape for a top-5 finish before Kevin Harvick’s blown engine littered the track with oil. Keselowski’s No. 2 Miller Lite Ford rammed Jamie McMurray’s No. 1 car, which had checked up. Keselowski still managed a 14th and took over the Sprint Cup points lead from Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

    “That was quite a lot fluid on the track,” Keselowski said. “At the ‘Bull Ring,’ that would be called ‘Oil Of Olé.’

    “Harvick was ‘on fire’ at Phoenix, as well. The result was much different, however. He nearly burned the garage down after blowing his engine at Bristol, though. To sum it up, he went from ‘distinguished’ to ‘extinguished.’”

    2. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt suffered two blown tires and finished 24th, four laps down, at Bristol. He fell out of the lead in the points standings, and trails Brad Keselowski by 10.

    “Tires notwithstanding” Earnhardt said, “it’s been a ‘Goodyear’ for us so far.

    “I find it hard to believe that someone accidentally hit a switch to make the caution lights come on. There have been rumors that there’s a ‘switch hitter’ in NASCAR; maybe this is confirmation.”

    3. Jeff Gordon: Gordon finished seventh in the Food City 500, joining Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne in the top 10. This is the first time in his Sprint Cup career that Gordon has started the season with four top 10’s.

    “There’s a first time for everything,” Gordon said, “but apparently not a fifth time.

    4. Carl Edwards: Edwards stayed out during a caution with 76 laps to go and assumed the lead, which he held to easily win the Food City 500, his first win of the year. Edwards held off Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Aric Almirola, and survived a mysterious caution with two laps to go, for the win.

    “It was a long day,” Edwards said, “but I was still able to perform my signature back flip. And speaking of ‘flips,’ someone accidentally ‘flipped’ a switch and turned on the caution lights with two laps to go. That sounds like ‘B.S.’ to me. Here in Bristol, that explanation had a ‘bull ring’ to it.”

    “I hear my former teammate Matt Kenseth is going to be a father again. I hear he’s a great one. I bet he’s amazing with a pacifier. That’s probably why he’s such a ‘pacifist.’”

    5. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson struggled at Bristol after blowing a right-front tire early in the race. He finished two laps down in 19th, his first finish outside the top 10 this season, and is now sixth in the points standings, 20 behind Brad Keselowski.

    “After falling behind like that,” Johnson said, “I just wanted to get the race over. But then there were weather delays. I felt like saying what everyone said after my fifth straight Cup title: ‘Somebody stop this reign.’ That’s why they call Brad Keselowski, the driver that ended my five-year championship run, ‘Reign delay.’”

    6. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth was leading with about 100 laps remaining at Bristol, but nearly crashed when a rear tire went down. Kenseth kept the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota off the wall, and remained on the lead lap to eventually finished 13th. He is ninth in the point standings, 25 out of first.

    “I nearly lost it,” Kenseth said. “Hopefully, Toyota can ‘find it’ soon.

    “As you might know, my wife and I are expecting a baby any minute now. I hope to be in the delivery room, but only under one condition: that Jeff Gordon is not in there with me. I absolutely don’t want to be in the same room as Gordon at a time when everyone is yelling ‘Push!’”

    7. Joey Logano: Logano salvaged a 20th-place finish after early power steering problems sent him to the garage. He is now sixth in the point standings, 22 behind Brad Keselowski.

    “Usually,” Logano said, “I don’t have steering ‘problems’ unless Denny Hamlin’s in my way. There once was a ‘wall’ between us. But we’ve crashed through that wall. Luckily, no one suffered a back injury this time.”

    8. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin won the pole at Bristol and finished sixth, the top finisher among Joe Gibbs Racing cars. Hamlin is seventh in the points standings, 23 out of first.

    “Caution lights ‘accidentally’ turned on,” Hamlin said. “The NASCAR conspiracy theorists should have a field day with this. Ironically, NASCAR conspiracy theorists don’t have a lot of light switches turning on in their heads.”

    9. Kevin Harvick: Harvick was leading on lap 450 when his engine blew, spewing oil along his path. Harvick guided his burning No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevy behind the pit wall, where it was doused.

    “I really wanted to get out of that car,” Harvick said. “I’m not even talking about the No. 4 car, but the No. 29 car.

    “Everyone was talking after the race about ‘Smoke.’ That’s because Tony Stewart finally posted a top-5 finish. And where there’s ‘Smoke,’ there’s an ornery car owner with a bum leg who’s still wondering how Kurt Busch ended up on his team.”

    10. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.: Stenhouse trailed leader Carl Edwards when a phantom caution slowed the race with two laps remaining. The race ended that way, with Stenhouse taking second, his best finish of the year.

    “I was hoping for another restart,” Stenhouse said. “I was prepared to use my bumper, if need be, to get by Edwards. Of course, maybe it would not have been wise to do that. If Edwards gets his tail punted, I might get my tail kicked.

    “My girlfriend Danica Patrick finished 18th, her best finish of the season. I asked her to verify where she finished. She said 18th. I just wanted to make sure she ‘knew her place.’”

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Bristol Food City 500

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Bristol Food City 500

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    “Something made it come apart.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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