Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: Juan Pablo Montoya

Jimmie Johnson and Juan Pablo Montoya Still Jawing About Restarts

While most have the race at the Monster Mile in their rear view mirrors, with the focus moving to the Tricky Triangle of Pocono, competitors Jimmie Johnson and Juan Pablo Montoya are still jawing about that pesky restart at Dover last weekend.

In fact, the five-time champion announced during his media availability that he is going to use some of the rain delay time at Pocono to sit down with NASCAR and talk about it some more. And here is what Johnson advised that he wanted to share.

“I feel that in NASCAR and auto racing there are very few moments where maybe a penalty could be drawn or a foul could be drawn like we would see in the NBA Finals where there is flopping going on,” Johnson said. “I really believe that in the restart zone to the start-finish line that Juan (Pablo Montoya) just didn’t go.”

“I think he was smart in letting me get out ahead of him and letting NASCAR make the call on me to keep me from having the lead and winning the race.”

For Johnson, this was all about NASCAR enforcing the restart rules in his opinion.

“I think we can look at enforcing it differently,” Johnson said. “I think everybody looking at it afterwards can see that Juan just didn’t go.”

Johnson also opined that these types of calls just should not happen anymore, especially with the data and technology now available.

“We have the tools to maybe make a better decision,” Johnson said. “The race had been taken away from us, the championship bonus points are gone, and it’s very difficult at that point to do the right thing.”

“But in today’s world of technology, I hope that we can figure out exactly how does that rule read.”

Johnson continued to also look at the whole situation as a Juan Pablo Montoya flop.

“I kind of get it, but from the restart zone to the start-finish line, if a guy breaks or has trouble NASCAR has the ability to make the call and say that they had trouble and it’s fine to go,” Johnson said. “Someone flops, what then?

“Essentially Juan found a loophole in the officiating and worked it to his advantage,” Johnson continued. “I took the bait clearly.”

Johnson advised that he was not in favor of getting rid of the restart zone but clearly expressed his desire for further clarification from the sanctioning body.

“I’m cool with whatever it is, I just want it to be crystal clear what we can and cannot do,” Johnson said. “I’m fine with whatever; I just need to better understand the rule.”

“If we want the leader to have full advantage, let’s really give them the opportunity to take that restart and if not, then let’s enforce it properly the other way.”

Johnson said that he bore no ill will against Montoya but remained clearly aggravated about the whole restart situation.

“I really don’t have anything against Juan for doing it,” Johnson said. “As racers, we need to work any and every angle we can to win a race.”

“That’s what we do, we race,” Johnson continued. “Sure I’m mad I didn’t win the race, but I’m not mad at him.”

“I think we need to look at how we officiate and how we can regulate that and keep that from happening again.”

Johnson also advised that other drivers have come up to him and shared that they too thought there were issues with that restart.

“All these guys have talked to me and I just saw Clint (Bowyer) and he was like ‘Dude, I was on the brakes, like I stomped on the brakes to stop because I knew you were in trouble.’

“It is what it is,” Johnson said. “I can’t change it and I can’t do anything about it.”

“But moving forward, I think we can prevent that situation from happening again.”

So, what was Juan Pablo Montoya’s take on the restart situation?

“If I did that on the restart, why only Jimmie passed me in his lane?” Montoya asked. “Even if I had a bad start and he beat me by a bumper, NASCAR would not have said anything.”

“But it was Jimmie…….and then the field.”

“I’m OK with it,” Montoya continued. “He didn’t even want to line up next to me when we came to the cones.”

“He wanted to dime it and he just mistimed it.”

While Johnson may need more clarity about the rule, Montoya felt that it was crystal clear, at least from his perspective. And he clarified that he was not taking advantage of any loophole in his opinion.

“The loophole is that you have to start between the cones and the leader is in charge,” Montoya said. “And that’s what I did.”

“What’s so hard about that?”

“I’m the leader,” JPM continued. “I know you (Johnson) dominated the race, but we came to a pit stop and we did a better job than you guys.”

“We’re the leader not you.”

For Montoya, the ultimate irony was that Johnson was indeed dominant and most likely would have passed him back had he not received the restart penalty.

“If he would have backed off and let me go, he would have passed me again,” JPM said. “It would have been all good.”

“He wanted to time it really well where he didn’t have to deal with me but he mistimed it.”

“That’s it,” Montoya said. “No drama.”

What seemed to seal the deal for Montoya in his argument about being right on the restart was that Johnson was the only one that seemed to have gotten snookered.

“I normally do a good job on restarts,” JPM said. “If I would have restarted and Jimmie passed me and four cars followed Jimmie, I think NASCAR would have said the 42 had a bad start.”

“But how is it that only Jimmie went away?” Montoya continued. “I don’t know.”

“He’s probably that good.”

June 7, 2013
Surprising and Not Surprising: FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks

With the temperatures soaring and the ‘monster’ on the prowl, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 44^th annual FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway.

Surprising: With even the drivers predicting that the ‘usual suspects’ would run well at Dover, there was a most surprising and surprised driver in Victory Lane instead.

“If somebody would have told me it was going to be this way, I would have told them they were crazy,” race winner Tony Stewart declared in Victory Lane. “This was not a car that could win the race.”

Stewart had not won a race at the Monster Mile since 2000 and has struggled for the most part at the track. This was not only Smoke’s first win of the season but, also surprisingly, his first top-10 finish in 2013.

“Our guys at the shop have been digging, “ the driver of the No. 14 Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevrolet said of his team. “That is what carries you to days like today at the end of the day.”

Not Surprising: Restart gamesmanship, which has been discussed all season long this year, played a major factor as well at the Monster Mile. This time the games played out between then race leader Juan Pablo Montoya and Jimmie Johnson, the latter of whom was undoubtedly the strongest car on the track.

Late in the race, NASCAR deemed that Johnson jumped the restart and black flagged him, forcing him to serve a pass through penalty. Johnson ended the race in the 17^th position while Montoya finished second after the late pass on the high side by race winner Stewart.

“Jimmie (Johnson) was laying off about nearly a car length from me, and I knew he was trying to jump the restart,” the driver of the No. 42 Energizer Chevrolet said. “When we got to the line, I think he wanted to time it and he timed it too well.”

“He wanted to get the jump on me and he just jumped it too much,” Montoya continued. “I would have tried to have done the same.”

“It’s one of those deals that when you time it too good, it actually hurts you.”

Johnson of course had a different take on the restart gamesmanship, blaming Montoya instead.

“I was at half throttle,” Johnson said. “At some point you have to go.”

“I’m waiting for Montoya and he never comes,” Johnson continued. “Chad (Knaus, crew chief) told me to take off and not worry about it.”

“Not a good way to lose the race,” Johnson said. “We had the strongest car.”

Surprising: Jeff Gordon, this week driving the No. 24 AARP Credit Cards from Chase Chevrolet, was surprisingly the best finisher amongst the Hendrick Motorsports group.

Gordon finished third, while teammates Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finished tenth, Jimmie Johnson finished 17^th and Kasey Kahne took the checkered flag in 23^rd after spinning out on lap 318.

“Yeah it was a fantastic finish for us,” Gordon said. “We battled hard all day long.”

“Today was a great race for us, just because we were sitting there 12^th, 13^th, 14^th, and we stayed out and all of a sudden, here we are third.”

“So that’s a great lesson for us to learn when we go to other tracks as well.”

This was Gordon’s 23^rd top-10 finish in 41 races at Dover International Speedway. The third place finish was also critical to Gordon, who jumped from fifteenth to eleventh in the point standings.

Not Surprising: Another parts failure played a role in Kyle Busch’s failure to score the finish that he wanted. In spite of that, however, he did end the race in the top—five, finishing fourth.

“We must have broken a right front bump stop or something,” Busch said. “Just past halfway, that’s when it took a dump on us.”

“I hate it,” Busch continued. “It’s unfortunate we weren’t able to capitalize on getting a win.”

Surprising: Kyle Busch was not the only Toyota driver to experience mechanical failures as both Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr. surprisingly suffered blown engines.

“Something let go in the motor,” Truex Jr. said. “Just dropped a cylinder and started smoking all at once.”

“We were one or two adjustments away there from having something for them,” the driver of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota said. “Damn, I wish we could have made it to the end.”

“Something broke in our engine too,” Kenseth said. “Pretty disappointing.”

“Something went wrong with a part,” the driver of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota said. “There’s nothing I can do about it.”

Not Surprising: Michael Waltrip Racing, with the exception of Martin Truex, Jr., showcased their survival skills at the Monster Mile , with Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin finishing sixth and ninth respectively.

“We got a pretty decent finish but we just didn’t run very good all weekend long,” Bowyer said. “Definitely need to go back and do our homework and figure some things out for our 5-Hour Energy Toyota.”

“It was a really great effort by our team,” Martin said. “Our Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota had more potential at the end than we were able to show.”

“We’re making progress.”

Surprising: Denny Hamlin, who described himself as being on a mission to win and who snagged the coveted pole position, had a surprisingly bad day at Dover.

On lap 378, Hamlin blew a tire and hit the wall, bringing out the seventh caution of the day. The driver of the No. 11 FedEx Freight/Autism Speaks Toyota finished 34^th and fell to 26^th in the point standings.

Not Surprising: With the temperature being so high, it was no surprise that tempers ran a little hot as well. Ryan Newman, manhandling his No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet without power steering, had his own temper flare-up while trying to pass David Gilliland, behind the wheel of the No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford.

And when the two drivers touched, they both went spinning and crashing hard.

“We just got wrecked,” Gilliland said. “It is a shame.”

“Unfortunately someone lost their patience a little bit,” Gilliland continued. “It is too bad but that is just the way it goes I guess.”

Newman declined comment after the incident.

Surprising: Brad Keselowski was the highest finishing Ford, bringing his Blue Deuce to the checkered flag in the fifth position. He also had his crew chief Paul Wolfe back atop the war wagon after serving his penalties and suspension.

“We drove hard all day, we just didn’t have the speed needed to go win the race,” Keselowski said. “ But we had the speed we needed to have a solid day.”

“The guys did a great job executing today,” Keselowski said. “We wanted to win too so we will keep working to find a little more speed and get up there.”

Unfortunately, Keselowski’s good run was marred by NASCAR’s announcement that his car did not pass post-race inspection as its front was too low. Penalties were just announced and include a fine of $25,000 for crew chief Wolfe and the continuation of his probation until year-end.

The team has also been docked six driver points and six car owner points.

Not Surprising: Joey Logano, who won the Nationwide race the day before, exceeded his own expectations, battling back from a flat tire and using the lucky dog position to finally finish the race in the seventh position.

“We fought all day basically trying to get a lucky dog after that flat tire,” Logano said. “We would get one back and then go down two and then get one back.”

“This weekend I thought we were going to finish about 15 laps down,” Logano continued. “We weren’t any good in practice and Todd (Gordon, crew chief) and all the guys did a good job making it better for me.”

“By the end it was a top-five car and we just ran out of time,” Logano said. “ I feel like that we could have finished in the top-five but considering where we were, we will take that all day.”

June 4, 2013
Tony Stewart Outsmoked Juan Pablo Montoya for Monster Mile Win

Tony Stewart defied all odds, coming from a 22^nd starting position at the Monster Mile, to battle Juan Pablo Montoya to win the 44^th Annual FedEx benefiting Autism Speaks race. This was Smoke’s first victory of the season and only his third top-10 finish in 2013.

“This was not a car that could have won the race,” Stewart said. “Just great pit strategy at the end.”

“Steve Addington (crew chief) made a great call there that last caution and gave us the opportunity to race for it up there.”

“Just really proud of the Code 3 Associates Chevy,” Stewart continued. “Code 3 has done such an awesome job of getting everybody in Oklahoma back on their feet.”

“I couldn’t think of a better wayto celebrate their work.”

Stewart acknowledged that this has been a tough season, however, the win will certainly prove that the team is headed in the right direction, thanks to their perseverance.

“Our guys at our shop have been digging,” Smoke said. “None of these guys get down.”

“That is what carries you to days like today at the end of the day.”

Juan Pablo Montoya, finishing second in the No. 42 Energizer Chevrolet for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, benefitted from a black flag of the strongest car in the race when NASCAR ruled on lap 381 that Jimmie Johnson jumped the restart. The penalty sent Johnson through the pits for a pass through penalty and Montoya to the race lead.

Montoya, however, could not hold off Tony Stewart and had to settle for the runner up race finish instead. And he admitted that it was a struggle in spite of testing earlier at the Monster Mile.

“Our car was OK,” Juan Pablo said in the media center after the race. “We came here and did a test before the race.”

“It was a lot cooler, so when we unloaded we had to do quite a bit of work on the car,” Montoya continued. “We struggled with loose all day.”

“We were really, really loose and the longer we would run, the looser we would get,” Montoya said. “It was a bit of a hit and miss.”

“On one of the runs under green, we decided to make a couple changes on the car and it just came to life,” Montoya continued. “It came to life at the right time.”

“It was a shame to lose but I just couldn’t hold Tony off.”

While Juan Pablo Montoya thought that Johnson was trying to time the restart just right, he admitted that he would have done the exact same thing given the circumstances.

“Jimmie was letting off and I knew he was trying to jump the start,” Montoya said. “And I backed up a little bit for him and when we got to the line, he wanted to time it and he timed it too well.”

“He wanted to get the jump on me and he just jumped it too much,” JPM continued. “I would have tried to do the same thing.”

Runner up Montoya also traded paint with Kurt Busch, in the No. 78 Furniture Row/Sealy Chevrolet, who finished 12^th.

“It’s weird, I got to his bumper – I don’t think I touched him, got him loose, got into turn three and he gave me a tap and I’m like, I don’t think I hit you,” Montoya said. “But it’s OK.”

“It’s racing hard.”

Montoya also credited his good finish to the growing chemistry with his crew chief Chris Heroy. But that relationship has been a struggle as they found ways to work together to get the car to Montoya’s liking.

“When we started, we sucked and it was hard,” Montoya said. “He had a certain mentality as to how the car should be set up.”

“He didn’t get that if he set it up that way, I couldn’t drive it,” Montoya continued. “You have to give me something that I can drive and be comfortable.”

“It took a little time but now we’re clicking real well,” Montoya said. “And we’ve been getting good results every week.”

Although the car was a handful, Montoya was pleased with the race finish and acknowledged that it bodes well for their continuing success.

“It was a hell of a finish,” Montoya said. “It’s been awhile since we finished this good.”

“We’ve had near misses but I think the wins are coming.”Montoya continued. “I’ve said this before, you’ve got to get top-5s and top-10s to be able to add wins.”

“Today we gave ourselves a good chance but the car was a little too much of a handful there at the end,” Montoya said. “We tried.”

This was Montoya’s third top-10 finish in 13 races at Dover and his third top-10 finish of the season.

Jeff Gordon, driving the No. 24 AARP Credit Cards from Chase Chevrolet, finished a strong third, ahead of all of his other Hendrick Motorsports teammates. This was Gordon’s 23^rd top-10 finish at Dover.

“Yeah it was a fantastic finish for us,” Gordon said. “We battled hard all day long, hovering 13^th, 14^th, I think we got to maybe 10^th at one time.”

“I knew that clean air was making a huge difference,” Gordon continued. “So, we were fortunate there where we only had a few laps on the tires and we decided to stay out.”

Gordon acknowledged that this run was exactly what he was hoping for to turn his season around.

“It’s certainly a great feeling,” Gordon said. “We just have to fight.”

“We fought hard today, very hard and this is a tough place,” Gordon continued. “It was not an easy race but this team never gave up.”

Gordon jumped four spots in the point standings, from 15^th to 11^th, now within striking distance of Chase contention.

Kyle Busch, driving the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, finished in the fourth position, in spite of yet again some sort of parts failure.

“We must have broken a right front bump stop or something,” Busch said. “Just another parts failure for us.”

“It’s unfortunate we weren’t able to capitalize on getting a win today,” Busch continued. “I felt like we had something for the 48 but it didn’t come down to having to race the 48.”

“Just seems to be our two years continuing today.”

Brad Keselowski in the Blue Deuce, with his crew chief Paul Wolfe back at his side, finished in the fifth position. But the reigning champ was most complimentary of past champ Stewart after the race.

“We drove hard all day but didn’t have the speed to win the race,” Keselowski said. “It’s good to see Tony win.”

“That was a good race,” Keselowski said. “I was having fun watching him.”

After the race, however, NASCAR reported that Keselowski’s No. 2 was found to be too low in the front in post-race inspection, with potential penalties to be announced later in the week.

Certainly, one of the most dramatic moments of the race was the black flag of Jimmie Johnson, who had worked his way through the pack and looked to be the car to beat. Understandably, Johnson saw the restart just a bit differently fromJuan Pablo Montoya.

“No, I was half throttle,” Johnson said of the restart. “At some point you have to go.”

“I’m waiting for him and he never comes,” Johnson said of Montoya. “Chad (Knaus, crew chief) told me to take off and not worry about it.”

“Not a good way to lose the race,” Johnson lamented. “We had the strongest car.”

There were also several engine issues in the race as well, including Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr., both with Toyota engines.

“Something let go in the motor,” Truex said. “Just dropped a cylinder and started smoking all at once.”

“Same thing happened to the 20 it looked like,” Truex continued. “Pretty disappointing.”

Truex Jr. finished 38^th while Kenseth finished 40^th.

“Something broke in the engine,” Kenseth said, sounding eerily similar to Truex’s report. “You have to finish these things.”

“Man, it’s disappointing.”

The other dramatic moment in the race occurred between Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet, and David Gilliland, driver of the No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford, who traded paint and then wrecked each other.

“We just got wrecked,” Gilliland said. “It is a shame.”

“We had a fast race car and a great run going and unfortunately someone lost their patience a little bit and we got wrecked.”

“It is too bad but that is just the way it goes I guess.”

Ryan Newman declined to comment after the incident.

Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top ten finishers in the FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway.

June 2, 2013
NASCAR BTS: Jason Trinchere’s Journey From Racer to Penske Engineer

Many racers realize along the way that another career may be awaiting them other than being behind the wheel. This week’s edition of NASCAR BTS goes behind the scenes with Jason Trinchere to learn more about his journey from short-track racer to design engineer at Penske Racing.

Trinchere started his racing journey early, in fact from the time of his birth. And, as with so many racers, his father also was involved in the sport.

“Ever since the time I was born, there was a race car or a go kart in our garage,” Trinchere said. “My dad started racing when he was in high school.”

“When I was born, he stopped driving and became a car owner,” Trinchere continued. “So, he always had cars around the whole time I was growing up.”

Trinchere caught the racing bug from his father and set off in go karts. Initially it was just for fun but the competition soon drew him in, hook, line and sinker.

“When I was about ten or eleven years old, he sold his modified team and we started racing go karts,” Trinchere said. “It was mainly just for fun but then we started racing competitively.”

“We had fun, raced dirt and had three championships,” Trinchere continued. “Then we started racing in the dirt asphalt division in the early ‘90s.”

“So, I started driving those and that was the whole time I was in high school,” Trinchere said. “I didn’t even have my driver’s license when I started racing.”

Although he loved being behind the wheel of a race car, Trinchere also enjoyed the mechanical and engineering side of the sport.

“My dad was an auto mechanic so I learned that side of the business from him,” Trinchere said. “When I was in high school, I took machine shop in Vo Tech so I could make a lot of the components for our race cars.”

“I wasn’t’ too sure of what I wanted to do and I was thinking of coming to the NASCAR Tech School but was concerned it was more for people not involved in racing,” Trinchere continued. “My dad talked me into studying engineering since I was the kid sitting at home playing with erector sets all the time.”

After high school graduation, Trinchere had to make a critical decision about going to college and also what to do about his racing career. Ironically, he initially wanted to follow the path of his now team owner at Penske Racing.

“When I came out of school, I wanted to go to Lehigh to follow in the footsteps of Roger Penske but the reality of how much college costs set in,” Trinchere said. “So, I went to community college to do my electives and take their associates classes in engineering.”

“Then I transferred to Penn State Harrisburg campus,” Trinchere continued. “It was far enough to experience college life but close enough to home to go there and race.”

Trinchere also happened to find his soul mate in the racing business.

“When I went to college, I didn’t have the time to race in one place, so I started going to upstate New York and raced at Oswego and all different kinds of tracks,” Trinchere said. “At that time, when I was finishing college, my girlfriend (who is my wife now) was also involved in racing as her dad raced at Selinsgrove Speedway in Pennsylvania.”

“So, imagine that, I met my wife through racing as well.”

Trinchere and his wife decided that they needed to consider heading south to Charlotte and the heart of racing country to make both of their dreams come true.

“I got a phone call from Dave McCarty, who at that time was the crew chief at Spears Motorsports for David Starr,” Trinchere said. “So, I followed up on that opportunity and he liked the fact that I was a racer with a degree in engineering.”

“Being a Truck team, they didn’t want to hire a Cup engineer because a kid coming out of college was much cheaper,” Trinchere continued with a chuckle. “We moved down, bought a house (the same one we are living in now) and went racing.”

“I worked at Spears and the next year Aric Almirola came in as the driver,” Trinchere continued. “I learned a lot there with David Starr, Aric Almirola and Dennis Setzer.”

“It was a very small team with about twelve employees,” Trinchere said. “It was a neat opportunity to go to a little team and run against the big boys and do well.”

“That made me feel good.”

Trinchere left Spears to go to CJN Racing with Jason Keller as the driver. But shortly thereafter, he headed to DEI where he stayed even through the merger with Chip Ganassi Racing.

“I went to DEI to be the Nationwide engineer when they ran a car, which was only part-time,” Trinchere said. “We had Trevor Bayne and Jesus Hernandez as the drivers.”

“I was also support engineer for the 01 Cup car when Regan Smith was driving it,” Trinchere continued. “Then I switched over to Martin Truex’s car.”

“It was a very busy year, going to a third of the Cup races and the rest of the East races.”

“At the end of the season, there were talks and then the merger with Chip Ganassi occurred,” Trinchere said. “Before Homestead they came around and told us what time the meeting was, all but me.”

“I didn’t know if that was good or bad,” Trinchere continued. “But I learned that people with meetings were let go and people who didn’t have a meeting were being kept.”

“That was a little bit of a hard time.”

Post-merger, Trinchere worked for both the 1 and 42 teams.

“It worked out pretty well working for Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya,” Trinchere said. “I did a program called ‘Dart Fish’ at the track where I would record qualifying runs.”

“I did that for a year and at the end of the season, the engineering manager asked if I could do anything else to help the team and I was moved over to the design engineering team,” Trinchere continued. “It was fun to have the direct impact of what happened at the track.”

Trinchere had a very eventful New Year, however, as he was offered and accepted a job at Penske Racing.

“Within three days of sending my resume in, I had an interview,” Trinchere said. “I’m doing the same stuff as a design engineer.”

“Their group is a little larger and uses different software but I am working with the 2 and 22, “Trinchere continued. “It’s been exciting but scary changing jobs, especially after five years.”

“So, this is the next chapter for me.”

May 27, 2013
Surprising and Not Surprising: Bojangles’ Southern 500

On what has become a Mother’s day weekend tradition at the historic Darlington Raceway, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 64^th annual Bojangles’ Southern 500.

Surprising: While bad news often comes in threes, Matt Kenseth had the opposite experience, with only good news in threes for this Joe Gibbs Racing team member. Kenseth scored his third Sprint Cup win of the season and advanced one spot to third in the point standings.

Not only was it a stellar evening for JGR with Kenseth in Victory Lane, but teammate Denny Hamlin gutted out a surprisingly good full-race performance after returning from his back injury. Hamlin finished in the runner up position, scoring his seventh top-10 at Darlington and his second top-10 finish for the season.

“I think our whole team, we’ve just got a great team from top to bottom,” J.D. Gibbs, President of Joe Gibbs Racing, said. “Gosh, I couldn’t feel much better about our year so far.”

Not Surprising: For the other member of the Joe Gibbs Race team, however, three times was nowhere near a charm. JGR driver Kyle Busch, who was the dominant driver all evening long, in fact leading 265 laps, tussled with competitor Kasey Kahne for the third time this season to finish a disappointing sixth in the race.

“He’s pretty tore up that they’re racing hard and Kasey Kahne tore up another car,” Dave Rogers, crew chief of the No. 18 Doublemint Toyota, said. “This is the third time we’ve been involved in an incident with Kasey and all of us over here have a ton of respect for that program.”

“Well, he needs to quit,” Kasey Kahne, recipient of the three incidents with Busch, said simply. “Three times this year. I mean he’s got to just race me.”

Surprising: While enjoying a much celebrated 700^th career start, Jeff Gordon, at the tender age of 41 years, also managed to set yet another record. Gordon posted his 300^th top-five finish, becoming only the fourth driver to accomplish this feat, along with NASCAR legends David Pearson, Bobby Allison and Richard Petty.

“Well, we all wanted this 700^th start to be a memorable one,” the driver of the No. 24 Cromax Pro Chevrolet said. “I’m very proud of this.”

Not Surprising: As so often happens, David Ragan experienced the highs and lows of the sport, from his previous week’s win at Talladega to overheating and struggling to finish 39^th at Darlington at this weekend’s race.

“Yeah, that’s how it goes sometimes,” the driver of the No. 34 Peanut Patch Boiled Peanuts Ford said. “That’s a character-building weekend for sure.”

“You’ve just got to work hard and stay focused and keep the right attitude.”

Surprising: In spite of decent race finishes for two of the Roush Fenway drivers, with Carl Edwards taking the checkered flag in seventh and Greg Biffle in 13^th, both expressed the feeling that they are lacking something so far this season.

“We struggled a lot and ended coming back to seventh so I’m proud of our effort,” Edwards, behind the wheel of the No. 99 Geek Squad Ford, said. “But we’re just missing something.”

“It’s a little disappointing,” Biffle, driver of the No. 16 Meguiar’s Ford, said. “We still don’t have the grip that we need.”

“We’re missing it ever since the season started with this car.”

Not Surprising: All good things must come to an end and so it was not surprising that Aric Almirola’s streak of top-tens came crashing down at Darlington. The driver of the No. 43 Smithfield Ford finished 20^th at the track ‘Too Tough to Tame.’

“That’s not the result we wanted at all,” Almirola said. “We fought hard, but just weren’t quite good enough.”

“That was a tough night.”

Surprising: The struggles of Tony Stewart surprisingly continued at Darlington and the trip to Victory Lane that he so badly wanted at a track where he had never won eluded the former champion yet again.

Stewart was poised to get a good finish, in fact starting eighth on a restart with under 60 laps to go. But the Lady reached out and grabbed the driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, putting that old Darlington stripe right down the side of his race car.

Stewart finished a disappointing 15^th when the checkered flag finally flew.

“Darlington is such a tough track to get a handle on,” Stewart said. “You don’t see a lot of guys who have a lot of success there.”

Not Surprising: In spite of scoring a pole run, with a track record to boot, and a record number of laps led for his team, Kurt Busch still did not get the finish he wanted at Darlington.

The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Serta Chevrolet ran strong all night but slipped at the end after getting hit by the No. 13 of Casey Mears. Busch finished 14^th in the Bojangles’ Southern 500.

“We could not keep up with the changing conditions of the track,” Busch said. “We made a number of chassis and air pressure adjustments but couldn’t get the car hooked up.”

“We let it slip away and that’s disappointing,” Busch continued. “But we won the pole, led laps, ran up front for a good portion of the race and came away with a respectable finish.”

Surprising: Penske Racing had a surprisingly bad day, especially for reigning champ Brad Keselowski, who had never finished outside the top 15 in his four starts at Darlington. The driver of the Blue Deuce was caught up in an accident and finished 32^nd.

While teammate Joey Logano has had an admittedly up and down relationship with the track, with two top-10 finishes and two finishes outside the top-25, he struggled as well. The driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford finished in the same position as his car number, 22^nd.

Not Surprising: Although the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Emerald Green Chevrolet admitted that the track is tough, his love affair with Darlington continued, especially after scoring another top-five finish. Johnson now leads the point standings by more than a full race worth.

“It was just a great 500 miles here at Darlington,” Jimmie Johnson said. “I love this place.”

“I wish we could race here three or four times a year.”

Surprising: It was a bit surprising that there were just enough cars at Darlington for a full 43 car field. For the first time in quite a long time, no one was sent home unhappy after qualifying for this Southern 500.

Not Surprising: Juan Pablo Montoya’s focus on execution continued at the ‘Lady in Black’. He and his No. 42 Target Chevrolet team had a great run, finishing eighth.

“Well, we didn’t unload as good as we wanted, but we got it really good,” Montoya said. “I keep telling the guys we have got to execute.”

“If every person here does their best, we are going to be looking like heroes here.”

May 13, 2013
Surprising and Not Surprising: Talladega Aaron’s 499

With a three hour plus rain delay pushing the Aaron’s 499 from day into a Talladega Night, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the Alabama 2.66 mile oval.

Surprising: While Talladega has seen its share of calamities, the 44^th annual race running seemed to be the granddaddy of all mayhem. There was not just one ‘big one’ but two, with sixteen cars involved in the first wreck early in the race and twelve cars in the second ‘big one’ near the end of the race.

In between the crashes, there was the weather red flag, which lasted three hours, 36 minutes and six seconds, pushing the race to its finish in what some called darkness.

There were two drivers, however, who experienced the most ‘Dega mayhem. Kurt Busch, driving the No. 78 Furniture Row/Beautyrest Chevrolet, was having a great run until getting clipped by another car as it slipped down the track.

This sent Busch airborne and rolling over and over to eventually land smack dab on top of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet of Ryan Newman.

“We just got hit from behind and along for the ride we went,” Busch said. “It’s Talladega, what can I say.”

“That’s no way to end a race,” Newman said. “You got what you wanted but that’s just poor judgment restarting the race, running in the dark and running in the rain.”

Not Surprising: While ‘Dega may have been filled with mayhem for many drivers, it was a dream come true and the luckiest track ever for two Ford drivers, who both just happened to be named David.

For David Ragan, winning his first race at Talladega and scoring the first ever victory for his team Front Row Motorsports, Talladega was indeed a dream come true.

“I always knew in my heart I would get another chance,” Ragan said. “We know we are an underdog but we know ‘Dega is an equalizer.”

“How sweet to see all those Fords up there for the win,” Ragan continued. “I’m looking at my mirror and I was wondering if I was dreaming.”

While David Ragan stood in Victory Lane, he would not have been there without the push of his teammate David Gilliland, who himself pronounced Talladega as the luckiest track ever.

“It was a big day,” the driver of the No. 38 Love’s Travel Stops Ford said. “A lot of it had to do with this little note from my 10-year-old daughter Taylor wishing me good luck.”

“She wrote that with a little horseshoe on it and put it on my dash before the race,” Gilliland continued. “And she had some horseshoe good luck earrings in too.”

Surprising: The race at Talladega was surprisingly nightmarish for one Trevor Bayne, who had once asked if he was dreaming after winning the Daytona 500. The driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford blew up, bringing out the first caution of the race.

“There was no warning at all,” Bayne said of his engine issue. “I got to turn one and it let go.”

“I’m surprised the whole field didn’t crash with as much oil that was pouring out of this thing.”

Not Surprising: Given the carnage on the race track, it was not surprising that Trevor Bayne was not the only driver watching the remainder of the race from his motor home. In fact, Kasey Kahne, who was involved in the ‘big one’ early on, watched what was left of the race from his couch at home.

“Btw I’m on the couch at home,” Kahne, driver of the No. 5 Time Warner Cable Chevrolet for Hendrick Motor Sports, tweeted after being knocked early. “This sucks.”

Kahne finished 42^nd and lost three spots in the point standings, falling from the third to the sixth position.

Surprising: Demonstrating a new-found maturity, Kyle Busch accepted full responsibility for causing the first ‘big one’ at Talladega.

“Kind of caused it,” the driver of the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota said. “I really don’t know what happened.”

“I know I got in the back of the No. 5,” Busch continued. “I hated that I caused a melee for everybody especially early in the race.”

“I hated that we all got crashed in that deal.”

Not Surprising: Restrictor plate racing does indeed make strange bedfellows. There was no better demonstration of this than the ‘friends’ that Denny Hamlin made to enable his successful comeback to the sport after his back injury.

“It means a lot as a driver to have your peers have your back like that,” Hamlin said of Tony Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, Michael Waltrip and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., all of whom fell to the back of the pack to help him. “They really sacrificed the first part of the race for me.”

“I can’t thank them enough.”

Also, not surprisingly, the driver change between Hamlin and Brian Vickers went perfectly, allowing Hamlin to escape through the roof hatch to the broadcast booth in the Hollywood Hotel while watching his replacement Brian Vickers take the wheel, only to wreck out in the ‘big one.’

“Everything went seamless and painless,” Hamlin said. “Every week I feel a lot better.”

Surprising: Danica Patrick showed some surprisingly skilled evasive moves in avoiding the first wreck and was in good position until the late-race accident on lap 182 ended her day. The driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for Stewart Haas Racing finished 33rd.

“We were watching and we were like, ‘Holy Cow’,” Tony Gibson, crew chief, said of Danica’s avoidance of the first ‘big one’. “I don’t know how she missed it.”

“It’s just unfortunate how it ended up with the late-race crash,” Gibson continued. “But that’s part of restrictor-plate racing.”

Not Surprising: With a rain delay of the magnitude at Talladega, it was not surprising that several drivers and cars had issues attempting to go back racing. Juan Pablo Montoya could not get his No. 42 Clorox Chevrolet re-started after the rain delay and ended up behind the wall before returning to the track for a 25^th place finish.

Joey Logano was right there with JPM struggling to restart after the rain delay, however, his problem was more serious and ultimately fatal. The No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford had some sort of engine issue that led to his 35^th place finish.

“We’re not sure what happened,” Logano said. “We’re thinking maybe an air pocket somehow got in the water system, but it doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s a bummer when you’re sitting third when it is raining and you don’t finish the race.”

Surprising: Toyota had a good day at Talladega with occasional Toyota driver and team owner Michael Waltrip surprisingly leading the way. Waltrip was the highest running Toyota with a fourth place finish, followed by Martin Truex Jr. in seventh and lap-leader Matt Kenseth in eighth.

“I love being a part of the Toyota family,” the driver of the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine/Alabama National Champ Toyota said. “We had a great run.”

“I had a ball,” Waltrip continued. “I love being at Talladega and I love racing.”

Not Surprising: Jimmie Johnson extended his points lead to 41 over second place Carl Edwards with his fifth place finish at Talladega.

“It was obviously a very good day for our Lowe’s Chevrolet,” Johnson said. “We had a very fast car and I felt like we were a player all day long, and that’s awesome.”

Surprising: Regan Smith, behind the wheel of the No. 51 Hendricks.com Chevrolet, was surprisingly disappointed with his top-ten finish, especially after winning the crash-filled Nationwide race.

“Well the last few laps I didn’t see much because it was pretty dark,” Smith said. “A little disappointed.”

“I kept getting stalled out by the cars on the outside.”

Not Surprising: Even with the mayhem of restrictor plate racing, Aric Almirola, behind the wheel of the No. 43 Gwaltney Ford, continued his streak of consecutive top-ten finishes. In fact, he will make history for Richard Petty Motorsports at Darlington if he finishes in the top-ten there.

“We sure are on a roll lately,” Almirola said. “I think we are the only people that aren’t surprised we are seventh in points and have the longest current top-10 streak in the series.”

“We just need to keep it up and start moving to top-fives and hopefully a win soon.”

May 8, 2013
Surprising and Not Surprising: Richmond Toyota Owners 400

A full moon and short track racing led to plenty of surprises and some not so surprising moments in the 59^th Annual Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

Surprising: Race winner Kevin Harvick, currently with Richard Childress Racing but leaving at year end, was surprisingly more fixated on dispelling the moniker of ‘Lame Duck’ than celebrating his ‘Closer’ nickname in Victory Lane.

In fact, with his first win of the season for RCR and his 20^th career win under his belt, Harvick proclaimed he was nothing like a ‘Lame Duck’.

“You know, a lot of people have thought we might lay down this year,” Harvick said. “There ain’t no lame in that game is there?”

“It was a great night.”

Not Surprising: With some tempers tested on the short track, it was no surprise that a late-race caution and a green-white-checkered finish led to total chaos up to and even after the checkered flag flew.

Perhaps the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing/Sealy Chevrolet summed it up best after seeing his potential top-five finish disappear to a ninth place finish thanks to the final lap craziness.

“It was just chaos,” Kurt Busch said. “Some guys had older tires. Some guys had newer tires.”

“People were beating and banging and shoving each other out of the way,” Busch continued. “It was a free-for-all at the end.”

Surprising: Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 15 Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip Racing, was surprisingly pleased with his bridesmaid’s position. This was his ninth top-ten finish in 15 races at Richmond and his fifth top-ten finish of the season.

“We had a good car,” Bowyer said. “It really got wild there at the end.”

“Wish we could have won the Toyota race, but second’s not bad.”

Not Surprising: With his team’s appeal hearing looming this week, it was not surprising to see Penske’s Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, make a statement with a third place finish. This was Logano’s second top-ten finish in nine races at Richmond.

“I’m just super-proud of my guys,” Logano said. “They never quit.”

“They threw the kitchen sink at it and I’m just proud of what we got out of that.”

Surprising: Logano’s teammate, Brad Keselowski, however, had a surprisingly freaky bad day at the track, perhaps proving that ‘Redd’ was not a good color for a car known as the No. 2 ‘Blue Deuce.’

“It was a long day,” the reigning champ said. “We had a bad pit stop and then blew a tire.”

“Then whatever happened with the engine,” Keselowski continued. “It was a freak deal where something in the wheel broke and let all the air out of the tires.”

“We got hit by a lot of freak deals.”

Not Surprising: With the ‘Orange Cone’ away, commitment violations came into play. And no one understood that more completely than Kyle Busch, who was tagged by NASCAR for that violation.

In an unusual move, however, NASCAR reviewed the penalty and actually overturned it. Unfortunately for Busch, the damage was done and his four Spring Richmond race win streak came to a screeching halt.

Busch’s fate was sealed after he was caught up in an accident and he finished 24^th in the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota.

Surprising: With the beginnings of resurgence by Petty Motorsports, it was surprising that driver Marcos Ambrose suffered his first DNF of the season since Texas last year.

“This is so disappointing for us,” the driver of the No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion said. “We were fast and had fantastic power from Ford Racing and Roush Yates Engines.”

“So, we can’t complain.”

Not Surprising: Even with his first win on an oval track in sight, it was not surprising to see Juan Pablo Montoya and his crew chief thinking big picture and maximum points. The team elected to pit to take tires before the green-white-checkered finish to guarantee themselves a top-five finish.

“Everybody on the Depend Chevy did an amazing job,” Montoya said. “We had a great car.”

“This is what we needed,” Montoya continued. “We made the right call when we pitted.”

Surprising: Another Richard Childress racer Jeff Burton had a surprisingly great run, from threading his way through one of the many wrecks to finishing fifth.

“Kevin Harvick and I both got better at the end of the race,” the driver of the No. 31 Airgas/Bulwark Chevrolet said. “We were best at the end.”

Not Surprising: Richard Petty Motorsports’ other driver Aric Almirola continued to reel off top-ten finishes in his No. 43 Smithfield Ford. Almirola managed an eighth place finish on the short track after battling an ill-handling race car.

“At one point we were almost a lap down,” Almirola said. “We were in big trouble and Todd Parrott made so many adjustments and kept making it better and better and better.”

“Our guys never gave up.”

Surprising: Matt Kenseth may have won the pole for the Toyota Owners 400, led the most laps at 140, and finished seventh, but he felt more like he was riding a roller coaster than driving an elite Cup car.

“It was an up and down race,” Kenseth said. “In the beginning, we were real strong.”

“That last restart, just being on the outside and the 78 (Kurt Busch) drove up through there and knocked my whole side off,” Kenseth continued. “That was the best I could do.”

Not Surprising: While Richmond may be known more as a Denny Hamlin type track, the Hendrick Motorsports team fared pretty well, with three of the four drivers finishing in the top-15.

In fact, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson finished tenth, eleventh and twelfth respectively while Kasey Kahne brought up the rear in 21^st.

With his finish, Johnson extended his points lead, now 43 points ahead of Carl Edwards in the second spot. And all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers are now in the top 15 in the point standings.

April 30, 2013
Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Is Back

After two years of miserable races, Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing (EGR) has finally returned back to its old form. Although they haven’t quite gotten rid of all the bad luck that seems to haunt the two car organization, the cars seem fast again and have made monumental progress in their overall performance. McMurray sits a solid 12th in the standings with three top 10’s in 2013 which already equals his total from 2012. Juan Pablo Montoya has been snake bit by wrecks and mechanical failures that have kept him deep in the points but he proved at Richmond what is possible for that No.42 should he stay out of trouble.

Montoya ran up front all night and not many people could say after an event that saw more comers and goers than any race in recent memory. He led 67 laps and finished 4th after a late race caution thwarted his chances of a victory. His last top five was way back in March of 2011 when he finished 4th at Martinsville and he hasn’t led that many laps since his win at Watkins Glen nearly three years ago. It would be ignorant to say that Montoya doesn’t have the talent but it would be acceptable to say that the poor man has no luck at all. Even though he came home with a 4th place finish Saturday and seemed pretty happy about it, the Colombian was all but guaranteed a win as he pulled away from Kevin Harvick until a caution with four laps remaining jumbled up the running order. He restarted 6th while eventual race winner Kevin Harvick restarted 7th and starting on the inside is what won him the race. Had the roles been reversed, Montoya would have most likely been the one passing Jeff Burton with one lap to go.

Photo Credit: David Yeazell

McMurray restarted the race 2nd but the field basically ran him over with how old his tires were finishing a disappointing 26th. Even with the unsatisfactory result, the 2010 Daytona 500 winner finds himself just 26pts out of the top 10 and ahead of champions such as Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart. In 2009 and 2010, EGR asserted themselves as one of the better teams winning four races including the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400. They also put Montoya in the 2009 chase and had the Wild-Card existed in 2010, McMurray would have been in it with his three wins. It looks like they are steadily turning things around and I wouldn’t be surprised to see both of their drivers make the chase this year. At the very least, I see both McMurray and Montoya winning a race before the year is over.

Is it the switch Hendrick engines that has helped this team or is it something else? People were shocked when team owner Chip Ganassi didn’t make any major personal changes following their dismal 2012 which saw Jamie finish 21st in points and Juan 22nd. I have to give major props to Chip for not overreacting to what seemed to be a hopeless situation in the eyes of most. Kevin Manion and Chris Heroy are still the crew chiefs and the combinations seem to be working well. All this team lacked was speed and I believe Hendrick power has given them that missing piece they needed to run up front again. Chip felt it would be imprudent to turn the team inside out after all their struggles saying this during the off season; “We’re not afraid to make changes, but we’re not going to make change for the sake of making change.”

That risky ideology looks like it was the right call after all. Between McMurray and Montoya there are 8 NASCAR Sprint Cup wins, 9 Nationwide wins, 3 in Grand-Am, 10 in open-wheel and 7 F1 victories that include races such as the 24 Hours of Daytona, the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix. There is certainly no lack of talent there and now they have the cars to back their fully capable drivers up. The travails of the past two years has finally ended and EGR has 27 more races to parlay these great results into race wins and they can do it. Watch out for these two because they could easily become two of the biggest upsets in 2013 and if the bad luck ceases, they will become threats to win almost every single week.

April 28, 2013
Surprising and Not Surprising: Texas NRA 500

From the agonizing delays in pre-race tech to the broom in Victory Lane, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 17^th annual NRA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Surprising: While it might have taken a surprising twenty years of trying, Norm Miller and Interstate Batteries, thanks to their driver Kyle Busch, finally made it to Victory Lane. This was Busch’s 26^th win in 300 Cup Series races and surprisingly his first win at Texas Motor Speedway in the Cup Series.

“For Interstate Batteries and Norm Miller to be in Victory Lane in Texas – there’s nothing better than putting him right here,” Busch said. “This feels good.”

In addition to the sweep at Texas, winning the Nationwide and Cup races, Busch and company also had a surprisingly stellar night in the pits. In fact, for eight pit stops, the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota team led the way statistically with the least amount of time on pit road.

“We had a great racecar, and we worked really hard all weekend, but without that pit crew – they’re the best in the business,” Busch said. “They know when it’s crunch time.”

Not Surprising: When a racer fails to win, especially after coming so close, it is not surprising that the end result is bitterness and disappointment. But for Martin Truex, Jr., the runner up run was almost unbearable, especially after losing the lead in the pits.

“Shoulda, coulda, woulda,” the driver of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota said. “I’m just disappointed.”

“The race was over when we got beat out of the pits,” Truex Jr. continued. “We’ve had a tough season and we had a car capable of winning.”

“I’m just tired of finishing second,” Truex Jr. said. “This is getting old. It sucks.”

Truex’s day got even worse when it was determined that his car flunked post-race inspection, being too low in the front. Any possible penalties issued by the sanctioning body may come early in the week.

Surprising: There was a surprising amount of drama prior to and after the race for team Penske. Both Keselowski and Logano had difficulty in pre-race tech, so much so that Logano almost did not make it out on the track for the start of the race.

Yet both Penske drivers managed to score top-ten finishes in spite of it all, with Logano in fifth and Keselowski in ninth.

“Shoot, I wasn’t even in the car yet,” Logano said. “It was a little too close for my comfort.”

“If you would have told me I would have finished fifth today, I would have given you a hug.”

Keselowski, however, had some harsh words for the sanctioning body after the race as a result of having to change the rear-end housing prior to the race.

“The things I’ve seen over the last seven days have me questioning everything I believe in and I’m not happy about it,” the driver of the Blue Deuce said. “You have no (expletive) idea what’s going on.”

“I feel like we’ve been targeted over the last seven days more than I’ve ever seen a team targeted,” Keselowski continued. “We’re not going to take it.”

As with Truex Jr., NASCAR will most likely assess penalties later in the week.

Not Surprising: Roush Fenway Racing traditionally does well at Texas Motor Speedway, so it was not surprising to see both Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle have good runs, finishing third and fourth respectively. Both RFR drivers, however, faced some significant obstacles along the way to both finish top-five.

Edwards had a mechanical issue with a cracked tailpipe and then had difficulties with his seat belts coming undone.

“That’s a gift for us,” the driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford said after the race. “I know Martin (Truex, Jr.) is not happy with second, but I’m real happy with third.”

Biffle also struggled, from starting towards the back with a 35^th qualifying spot to a speeding penalty on lap 224 for too fast entering the pits.

“It was a tough night,” Biffle said. “Our car definitely wasn’t as good as it was last year, but we battled back.”

Surprising: Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered his worst finish of the season in 29^th after having an eventful evening. Junior struggled with seeing his pit sign, asking at one point for a deer spotlight on it, and then headed to the pits with a dead battery.

That started the perfect storm of other issues, since without the engine running the driver of the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet sped and incurred a penalty. With that poor finish, Dale Jr. dropped three positions in the point standings, down to the sixth spot.

“It has been rough but we had a really good car tonight,” Junior said. “Eventually things will turn back around for us.”

Not Surprising: While this driver may have surprised a military veteran prior to the race, Aric Almirola has been steadily gaining momentum on the track, so much so that his seventh place finish was not at all surprising.

And with that good finish, the young driver gained two spots in the point standings, up to the 14^th position.

“We had a great car,” the driver of the No. 43 Petty race car said. “Todd Parrott and these guys gave me a great Eckrich Ford Fusion and I felt really good about it.”

“It was a great day, a great points day for us.”

Surprising: While not surprising to see mechanical failures in a race as grueling as Texas, it was surprising to see two of the stronger cars in the race succumb to those issues. Both Kurt Busch, in the No. 78 Furniture Row/Serta Chevrolet, and Jeff Gordon, in the No. 24 Cromax Pro Chevrolet, had difficulties, resulting in 37^th and 38^th place finishes respectively.

“I’m not sure maybe a burned wheel bearing or something,” Gordon said. “We’ll learn about what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“When you’re running solidly in the top-five and then to have a parts failure knock you out of contention, it’s frustrating,” Kurt Busch said. “We had a part on the fuel injection system break.”

“What’s done is done and we have to put tonight behind us and focus on getting these problems rectified sooner than later.”

Not Surprising: While many drivers had difficulty in the pits, from a fire in Matt Kenseth’s pit to Tony Stewart’s newest perpendicular approach to his pit stall, it was not surprising that the most basic issue, that of pit box color, tripped up at least two drivers on pit road.

Juan Pablo Montoya, who sports the traditional red and white colors, got a bit confused when he tried to pit in Dave Blaney’s stall, which also just so happened to be red and white for the evening.

Montoya finished 20^th and Blaney ended up in the 25^th spot in the race.

Surprising: While both rookies, sporting similar cowboy hats and boots, had surprisingly challenging days at Texas, Danica Patrick again beat out her boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the rookie battle on the track.

Patrick finished 28^th while Stenhouse Jr., after cutting down a left-rear tire and spinning, finished 40^th.

“It was a tough night,” Patrick said. “The car was just kind of all over the place.”

“It’s kind of tough to go straight when you lose a left-rear tire,” Stenhouse, Jr. said. “I felt like our car was pretty good, but it was just a tough break.”

Not Surprising: With Denny Hamlin at the track and on the pit box and a fast No. 11 FedEx Office/March of Dimes Toyota, it was certainly not surprising to see Brian Vickers, who is literally competing for a ride with each race, finish eighth.

“It feels great,” Vickers said of his top-ten run. “We’re pleased but I wanted to win.”

“I guess that’s what we are here for.”

April 16, 2013
Surprising and Not Surprising: Vegas Kobalt Tools 400

With rain in the desert setting the field and the Denny Hamlin fine all the talk, here is what else was surprising and not so surprising from the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Surprising: The transformation surprisingly continued for Matt Kenseth, who moved from lame duck last year at Roush Fenway Racing to winner this year in just the third race of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing.

“Thank you Lord for putting me here,” Kenseth said simply as he took the checkered flag.

This was the driver of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota’s 25th career victory and the 101^st victory for his new owner Joe Gibbs. And it was Kenseth’s 41^st birthday to boot.

Not Surprising: It was a strong day for the Hendrick bunch, with one notable exception, Jeff Gordon, who brought up the rear with a disappointing 25^th finish in his No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet.

Kasey Kahne, who had a strong No. 5 Farmer’s Insurance Chevrolet, gave Kenseth a run for his money but could not close the deal, finishing second.

“I had the car to beat today,” Kahne said. “We lost, but it was still a great run for all of our guys.” 

Jimmie Johnson, behind the wheel of the No. 48 Lowes/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet, finished sixth and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., driver of the No. 88 AMP Energy Orange Chevrolet, finished 7^th.

“I lost a couple of spots in that last restart, but it was fun to race that fast,” Johnson said. “We were flying.”

“We had a real good race,” Junior said. “I enjoyed the race track and the raceability of the track was a lot of fun. I had a blast really.”

Not surprisingly, Hendrick Motorsports is also strong in the point standings, with Johnson in the lead, Junior in third, Gordon dropping five spots to 13^th and Kahne moving up 17 spots to 14^th after the Vegas race.

Surprising: While every other driver complained of being loose, Rookie of the Year contender Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. surprisingly complained about being tight.

“I kept telling them to free it up and we would get tighter and tighter,” the driver of the No. 17 Zest Ford said. “That is why we gave up all our track position.”

“Every pit stop we made we got tighter and tighter,” Stenhouse, Jr. continued. “I couldn’t go on a restart.”

Stenhouse Jr. finished 18^th and is still in the lead in what he refers to as the ‘Ricky of the Year’ standings. He also led his first ever Cup lap after staying out while others headed to pit road.

Not Surprising: Stenhouse Jr.’s other half, Danica Patrick had ‘one of those days’ at the track. Not only did she struggle and finish 33^rd in her GoDaddy.com Chevrolet but her team also had a tire outside the box violation on Lap 123, necessitating a pass through penalty.

“That’s alright, guys,” Patrick said. “If we’re going to have these days, might as well have them all together.”

“It was a real tough day, no doubt.”

Surprising: While both Earnhardt Ganassi Racing cars had to start from the rear of the field due to engine changes, both rebounded surprisingly well.

Jamie McMurray, behind the wheel of the No. 1 McDonalds Chevrolet, finished 13^th and EGR teammate Juan Pablo Montoya in the No. 42 AXE Apollo Chevrolet finished 19^th.

Not Surprising: While Denny Hamlin paid the price for sharing his concerns publicly about the new Gen 6 car, many other drivers admitted to still trying to figure out their own race cars.

Top among that group, however, was Kyle Busch, who overcame a Lap 48 pit road speeding penalty to finish fourth in his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota.

“Man it was really unique,” Busch said. “When I was out front, I was fast as heck.”

“But behind others, then I was wrecking loose,” Busch continued. “All in all it was fun and today was the first part of figuring out the nuances of this race car.”

Surprising: In his 150th career start, Joey Logano, behind the wheel of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion, made an uncharacteristic mistake. Just like his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch, Logano sped down pit road on his first pit stop.

Logano rebounded, just like Busch, to finish in the 12^th spot.

“I screwed up,” Logano said. “I went down a lap but never caught our break to go.”

“I felt like we had a top-five car but I made a dumb mistake.”

Not Surprising: Although not running a full-time season, NASCAR’s Iron Man Mark Martin continued to show his mettle, finishing 14^th in his No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine and moving one spot up to sixth place in the point standings.

“It was fun,” Martin said. “I didn’t get a good restart on the last one but other than that, it was a good solid day by this team and car.”

Surprising: There is a bit of surprising name up there in the top ten in points and he just so happens to drive for the King. Aric Almirola, driver of the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Farmland Ford Fusion, may have finished 16^th at Vegas but he remains right there in the tenth spot in the point standings.

“We probably had an 8^th – 12^th place car so I’m disappointed we finished 16^th,” Almirola said. “We didn’t have any major mistakes and I think points-wise we are still decent.”

Almirola tweeted this after the race, “Headed to one of my favorite tracks next week in top 10 in points. Proud of my team!”

Not Surprising: Finally, the determination and grit of the reigning champ Brad Keselowski came through yet again. Keselowski posted his first top-ten finish at Las Vegas and brought the Blue Deuce home in the third spot.

“Never give up,” Keselowski said. “Never give up. This team doesn’t and we didn’t today.”

The champ is taking that attitude right into Bristol next weekend. And he admitted he has no idea how the new Gen 6 car will react on the first short track of the season.

“That’s why you’ve got to watch,” Keselowski said simply.

March 12, 2013