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A Race of Rain and Fire: Daytona 500 Lap By Lap

[media-credit name=”Tom Pennington/Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”274″][/media-credit]30 hours after the race was supposed to start, the drivers strapped into their cars and got ready to run the first Daytona 500 run at night. The rain delayed Daytona 500 also marked the first 500 that rescheduled for a day other than Sunday. The rain delay would be just the beginning for this race, though…..

Lap 1 Biffle leads Kenseth and Edwards

Caution Lap 2 – Johnson, Bayne, Patrick, Kurt Busch, Ragan – Sadler gets into Johnson as Johnson get loose, turning him into the wall followed by hard driver’s door contact from Ragan. Sadler passed along his apologies.

Restart Lap 8 as Biffle leads with help from Edwards over Kenseth

Lap 11 Regan Smith and Biffle run side-by-side for the lead

Lap 12 Biffle leads as Edwards and Smith run side-by-side for second

Caution as Newman goes for a spin as he has a flat tire…..Pit stops as everybody takes fuel….Newman loses tire leaving pit, Allmendinger runs in back getting enough damage to send him behind the wall

Restart lap 17 as Menard leads after staying out

Lap 18 Denny Hamlin dumps Carl in the sucker hole to take the lead

Lap 25 Top 10 are single file as Hamlin leads Menard, Smith, Logano, Burton, Ambrose

Lap 35 Top six single file as Hamlin leads Menard, Smith, Logano, Burton, Ambrose

Lap 44 Burton to the lead with help from Biffle and then they went to the bottom

Lap 54 Menard and Hamlin pit

Lap 55 Labonte, Bowyer and others pit.

Lap 57 The back group pits – Harvick, McMurray, Montoya,

Lap 58 Truex, Logano, Ky Busch and others pit

Lap 59 Half of the pack pits – Biffle, Burton, Edwards, Biffle and others. Stewart leads

Lap 60 Gordon, Blaney, Earnhardt Jr. pit

Lap 61 Stewart pits, giving the lead back to Burton.

Caution Lap 64 for debris as Landon Cassil gets the Lucky Dog…….Pit stops for fuel for some while leader Burton stays out

Restart Lap 68 as Biffle and Burton run side-by-side to the green. Biffle pulls ahead with from Ambrose.

Lap 70 Top 8 are single file with Biffle leading Ambrose, Kyle Busch, Bowyer, Logano, Burton, Reuitmann, Truex Jr., and Bowyer

Lap 79 Truex leads after Hamlin pushed him up the outside.

Lap 80 Truex leads the field as Hamlin and Biffle run side-by-side for second.

Caution Lap 81 Jeff Gordon blows up…..Everybody pits for tire as Biffle wins the race off pit road over Ambrose

Restart lap 85 as Biffle leads Terry Labonte

Caution Lap 89 Terry Labonte spins after contact from Ambrose, sending him for a spin but no contact with walls

Restart Lap 92 as Bile and Ambrose lead them to the flag side-by-side. Biffle leads the field through turns with help from Truex

Lap 94 Biffle leads while Ambrose and Truex run side-by-side

Lap 98 Top four are single-file as Biffle continues to lead.

Lap 100 Biffle leads Truex, Hamlin, Burton and Bowyer….Coming off turn four, Truex gets the lead with help from Hamlin. Truex gets the halfway payday of $200,000.

Lap 102 Stewart to the lead with help from Hamlin on the back shoot but Hamlin goes under Stewart going into the turn 3. Hamlin is the new leader.

Lap 116 Top 8 are single file as Hamlin leads Truex, Biffle, Burton and Bowyer. Elliott Sadler is blowing up.

Lap 121 Hamlin leads Truex, Biffle, Burton, Bowyer, Almirola

Lap 128 Bowyer is out of gas, misses pit road due to other cars, as Hamlin continues to lead.

Lap 129 Stewart, Mark Martin, Logano pit as the caution comes for Bowyer being stalled. Logano didn’t stop as he skipped his stall while Stewart and Martin finished their pit work. Burton comes on while pit road is closed as he is out of fuel………Everybody pits as they are all low on fuel so its four tires and fuel. Regan Smith wins the race off pit road followed by Biffle. Sadler couldn’t find his pit stall so he causes a mess and then begins to look at engine issue

Restart 68 to go as Mark Martin and Stewart lead the field to the green. Martin pulls down in front of Stewart in turn 1 and Martin leads the field with Stewart on his bumper. Biffle takes the lead out of turn four with help from Hamlin.

64 to go Biffle leads Hamlin, Martin, Stewart, Smith, Almirola, Truex, Harvick, Kenseth and Burton.

63 to go as the top eight continue to run single file.

58 to go Joey Logano took the lead from Hamlin after help from Biffle

54 to go Kenseth to the lead with help from Biffle

53 to go Kenseth leads Earnhardt Jr., Harvick and Biffle

49 to go Kenseth leads Earnhardt Jr., Biffle and Casey Mears as Keselowski and Logano run side-by-side for fifth

42 to go Caution as Stremme blows up……Pit stops as everybody needs fuel. Casey Mears leads McMurray, Harvick, Biffle, Logano and Earnhardt Jr. off………….Montoya’s car breaks and slides up into the jet dryer, causing the jet dryer and Montoya’s cars to catch fire…….Red Flag….Kyle Busch and Edwards to the back for pulling off a windshield tear off under the red……. Red Flag was 2 hours, 5 minutes, 29 seconds

The race is under yellow……..Casey Mears has run out of fuel on the apron

The top 4 – Blaney, Cassil, Gilliland – pit to give the lead to Kenseth.

Restart 34 to go as Kenseth takes the strong charge through one with help from Biffle

30 to go Kenseth leads Biffle, Earnhardt Jr., Harvick, Logano, Martin, Menard, Hamlin, Truex Jr and Burton. Top five are single file

25 to go Kenseth leads Biffle and Earnhardt Jr. as Hamlin and Harvick run side-by-side for fourth

Caution 23 to go Casey Mears and Marcos Ambrose go for a slide. Stenhouse went into Ambrose, who then hit Mears, sending him for a spin while and Ambrose spins in the aftermath. Clint Bowyer gets the lucky dog.

Restart 18 laps to go as Kenseth gets the jump on Biffle on the start, slides up in front of him and they pull ahead

15 to go Kenseth leads Biffle, Earnhardt Jr., Harvick as Menard and Harvick are side-by-side for fifth

Caution 13 to go- big wreck – Kahne, Smith, McMurray, Edwards, Keselowski, Stewart – McMurray had a cut tire and Logano made contact with him. McMurray actually just said on the radio that he felt that something was broken. So Biffle leads Kenseth, Earnhardt Jr., Hamlin, Harvick, Burton, Menard, Mark Martin, Newman, Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Stenhouse Jr., Logano, Reuitmann, Stewart

Green flag with 7 to go as Earnhardt Jr. gives Kenseth a big push on the bottom while Biffle pushes Hamlin on the outside. Kenseth dumps Jr so its now Kenseth, Biffle, Harvick and Earnhardt Jr. now

Caution 4 to go Stewart spins due to contact from Stenhouse after he made contact with Logano, collecting Kyle Busch, Blaney, Newman, Reuitmann, Gilliland

Green – White – Checkered

Green flag as Kenseth and Biffle start the race lined-up. Kenseth gets the jump and moves up to pick up Greg Biffle, setting Earnhardt Jr. in third and Hamlin in fourth

Kenseth holds everybody off to win the Daytona 500 as Dale Jr. passes Biffle at the line for second

February 28, 2012
Poor Season Causes Personnel Shake Up At Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing

[media-credit id=22 align=”alignright” width=”195″][/media-credit]Immediately after he was introduced, Chip Ganassi, owner and president of Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, took the podium and politely welcomed attending members of the media.

EGR was the first of several race teams to be visited by the media on day two of the Sprint Cup Media Tour presented by Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Once Ganassi issued his welcome, he went straight to business.

“Hopefully this is the last time I have to say we finished 21st and 27th in the points, and talk about such a performance.”

Going into 2011, neither Jamie McMurray nor Juan Pablo Montoya could continue the momentum and success they had in 2010.

“Last season was frustrating,” said McMurray. “It made us appreciate what we had in 2010.”

McMurray continued that it was difficult pinpointing exactly what was hindering their performance.

“Nothing changed from 2010 to 2011. We just didn’t have the success. If we knew what the problems were, we would have fixed them.”

Ganassi must have felt the elusive problems were insurmountable and couldn’t be corrected with the current personnel at EGR. During the off season a decision was made to change the majority of those personnel.

“People around the car were a problem,” said Sabates. “We made personnel changes over the off season to help this. We have made mistakes in the past by keeping people too long.”

Ganassi said the organization needed a shake up because recent performance was pathetic for a team of their abilities and resources.

“We live in an information age”, said Ganassi. “I don’t need just information, I need CORRECT information.”

Given the years of economic woes and the continued attrition of competing race teams and employees, the quality of available talent should have been abundant for EGR’s personnel transitions.

January 24, 2012
Countdown to Daytona: 85

With just 85 more days to Daytona, the focus can be on none other than Jeff Gordon’s 85^th historic win this season. With his 85^th victory, Gordon moved from being tied with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip to sole position in third on the all-time career win list.

[media-credit name=”Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”224″][/media-credit]Gordon also joined even more elite company, now behind Richard Petty, with 200 career victories, and David Pearson, with 105 career wins. The Hendrick Motorsports driver earned his 85^th win at the track where he made his Cup debut in 1992.

The historic 85^th win also came with some drama as weather wreaked havoc with the AdvocCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway that weekend this season. Gordon scored the historic 85^th after a two-day rain delay and by surviving a race delayed by several showers, as well as several late-race wrecks.

In fact, Gordon’s historic win came in an historic race, as the AdvoCare 500 was only the second Cup race since 1978 to run on a Tuesday. The race was originally scheduled for Sunday evening, but Tropical Storm Lee forced the two-day rain delay.

While Gordon led 146 of the 325 laps during the Tuesday race and was out front for the final 38 laps, the finish was more than challenging. And it was none other than his teammate, nemesis and five-time champ Jimmie Johnson battling him for the race win at the end.

Gordon was so intent on holding off Johnson to win the race, that he totally lost track of his historic 85^th.

“I totally forgot about that,” Gordon said in Victory Lane on receiving a special plaque from NASCAR saluting his 85^th win. “Eighty-five, wow. That is unbelievable.”

“We really used the car up at the end,” Gordon continued. “I was slipping and sliding. It was a lot of fun racing with Jimmie (Johnson).”

While securing his 85th, Gordon was also at that time primarily focused on making the Chase for the Championship and a run at his own fifth title. With his 85^th victory and third win of the 2011 season, he also scored sole possession for the fifth spot in the point standings.

“I’m just blown away by the kind of day we had; the kind of year we’re having,” Gordon said. “I just feel rejuvenated in such a big way.”

Gordon’s crew chief Alan Gustafson shared his driver’s sentiments, but also admitted that he had been worried going into the 1.5 mile Atlanta race track.

“This was one of the race tracks that we felt like, to be an elite team and contend for the championship, we’ll have to do well on these styles of tracks,” Gustafson said. “There were times when I felt like we were going to win the race and times that we were 10^th and it look like it was going to rain out.”

“That’s all Jeff Gordon right there,” Gustafson said of his driver and his historic 85^th win.

There was other drama on the race track that might have impacted Gordon’s historic 85^th win, however, the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger managed to stay out of the fray. Involved in ‘Boys have at it, Atlanta style’ were Juan Pablo Montoya and Clint Bowyer, the former sending the latter into the wall, damaging his Chase hopes.

After that encounter, Bowyer had a few choice names for JPM, as well as saying it was impossible to race around him.

“We’re out here racing for a spot in the Chase,” Bowyer said. “He’s racing for nothing.”

In addition to dodging the wrecks at race end, Gordon also had to survive a very close finish to score his 85^th career victory. He won by just about half a second, 0.598 seconds to be exact, over his teammate Jimmie Johnson, who at the end of this race took over the top spot in the Chase standings.

Johnson was running so fast at the end trying to catch Gordon that he literally was sideways coming to the checkered flag.

“I’m so glad I grew up racing on dirt,” Johnson said. “I could have spun out four or five times at the end. To race that hard, that sideways at 180 mph, lap after lap, is a good time.”

“That was fun,” Gordon said of his Atlanta win and his 85^th career victory. “We’ve been able to send a message of how strong this team is and just how good our race cars are.”

December 3, 2011
Surprising and Not Surprising: AAA Texas 500

When the green flag flew on the seventh annual running of the AAA Texas 500, it seemed almost as an afterthought to a difficult week, with the passing of patriarch Russ Wallace, the plane crash injuring Rick and Linda Hendrick, and of course the parking of Kyle Busch after his detrimental on-track actions during the Truck race.

[media-credit name=”Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”272″][/media-credit]Yet, when the checkered flag finally flew at Texas Motor Speedway, there were some surprising, as well as not so surprising, moments from the third to the last race of the 2011 season.

Surprising: After back to back wins, it was surprising to see that even Smoke was a bit overcome, albeit by the intensity of the race, emotion and the heat of Victory Lane.

“This is for the Wallace family,” Stewart said after getting out of his car. “And for Mr. Hendrick and his wife. And I had a buddy that passed away when we were at Charlotte and I didn’t want to forget him.”

Yet even with splashing some water on his face, Smoke still had to take a seat in Victory Lane, while those around him fanned him with their Stetson hats to allow him to catch his breath.

Tony Stewart, however, bounced back quickly. He then donned the traditional black hat and took some shots with the guns in celebration of scoring his 43^rd career victory, his fourth win of the season, and his second victory at Texas.

Stewart also re-affirmed that his sights are firmly set on winning that coveted Cup championship. With his race win, Smoke is now just three points behind leader Carl Edwards.

“I don’t think we have to say anything,” Stewart said, unlike last week where he talked some smack in Victory Lane. “Our performance speaks for itself.”

“Do not count us out of this thing,” Stewart said. “We did everything we needed to do today.”

Not Surprising: Roush Fenway Racing did not disappoint or surprise at the mile-and-a-half track where they have been so dominant all season. RFR had three of their drivers in the top five, with Carl Edwards in second, Matt Kenseth in fourth, and pole sitter Greg Biffle in fifth.

The team combined to lead 124 laps at Texas Motor Speedway, with Edwards leading 14, Kenseth leading 87 and Biffle leading 23. Even David Ragan, whose future remains uncertain, finished in the 12^th position.

“I’m proud of our guys today,” Edwards, behind the wheel of the No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion said. “We wanted to beat Tony and pad the lead, but we are still the point’s leader.”

This was Edwards’ sixth top-10 finish in 14 races at Texas Motor Speedway. It is his 24^th top-10 finish to date in the 2011 season.

Greg Biffle, behind the wheel of the No. 16 Ford Fusion, started from the pole to bring his car home for a top-five finish.

“We had a pretty good car,” Biffle said. “The last pit stop, I slid through the box and that probably cost me a third-place finish or a couple of spots anyway. We fought hard and came back.”

“It’s hard to be disappointed when you run in the top five,” teammate Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion, said. “I wish we could have performed a little better, but that’s all we had.”

“This has always been a pretty good track for our organization.”

Surprising: It was a bit surprising to see how current Michael Waltrip Racing driver Martin Truex, Jr. did, finishing eighth in his No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, in spite of the big changes announced for the MWR organization prior to the race.

“I am really proud of my entire NAPA team today,” Truex Jr. said. “The NAPA Know How pit crew was on it.”

“We are moving in the right direction and I appreciate all the work MWR is doing to get us in contention.”

Not Surprising: After learning that he was no longer a member of the MWR team after the 2011 season, it was no surprise that the woes on the track continued for driver David Reutimann. The driver of the No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine finished 22^nd.

“It was very difficult,” team owner Michael Waltrip said of his decision to let Reutimann go. “I love David. He’s a great man and he’s always been there to do anything I needed him to do.”

“I know it was hard for David to get the news,” Waltrip continued. “I’m thankful that he drove for me for so long.”

Surprising: After such a Cinderella run, Brad Keselowski’s championship hopes have all but gone up in smoke. The driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge had a very difficult day at Texas, finishing 24^th.

“Just a tough night,” Keselowski said. “We couldn’t get the speed out of our car that we needed and fought all day for track position.”

“We lost the handling on the car right in the middle part of the race and adjustments were made to make it better and it just made it worse,” Keselowski continued. “It was unfortunate.”

Not Surprising: One driver who continues to make noise, however, was AJ Allmendinger, who scored another top-10 in his No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion for Richard Petty Motorsports.

“That was probably the most comfortable I’ve ever felt on a mile-and-a-half, especially one like this,” Dinger said. “It was fun.”

“From the start we were just passing cars and making good adjustments,” Allmendinger continued. “It was a good fight to 10^th but overall, and more importantly, that’s something to build on.”

Surprising: It was a bit surprising to see that Brian Vickers’ intense driving style carried over from Martinsville to Texas. On lap 201, the driver of the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota assisted with bringing out the second caution by tussling with Juan Pablo Montoya and Geoffrey Bodine.

“Stupid Vickers ran over a lapped car,” came over JPM’s radio, summing up yet another tough day at the office for ‘The Sheriff’, who finished 21^st.

Not Surprising: Kasey Kahne continued his string of top-10 finishes, scoring the third spot in his No. 4 Red Bull Toyota. This was Kahne’s fourth top-10 in 15 races at Texas Motor Speedway.

“We were really close,” Kahne said of his almost-winning run. “I wanted to win really bad today.”

“It was a great race for us,” Kahne continued. “This has been our best time the whole season.”

Surprising: Taking the wheel of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry from sidelined Kyle Busch, Michael McDowell surprisingly was not able to capitalize on his prime opportunity. Even with Busch looking on atop the pit box, McDowell could not get his car dialed in and finished 33^rd.

“We obviously were hoping for more and were hoping for a big day,” McDowell said. “But that wasn’t meant to be.”

“Gave it all I had and we just struggled pretty much all day long.”

Not Surprising: McDowell was not the only JGR driver to struggle at Texas Motor Speedway. Joey Logano, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota, blew an engine on Lap 262, and Denny Hamlin, behind the wheel of the No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota, struggled all day, finishing 20^th.

“We just fought an ill-handling car all day,” Hamlin said. “It’s probably one of the worst that we’ve had in a long time.”

“We’ll have to go back to the shop and look at it,” Dave Rogers, crew chief for the No. 18, said of the entire team’s performance. “This tire at this track is pretty tricky. You have to dare to lean on it and it’s not comfortable getting in the corner.”

“We have to look at it for sure.”

Surprising: Although not mathematically eliminated, it still seems surprising to think that, without some sort of miracle, Jimmie Johnson will not be on the championship banquet stage this year. With his struggling performance at Texas, including a spin through the grass on Lap 240, the driver of the No. 48 MyLowes Chevrolet, managed to finish fourteenth and is now back 55 points to the Chase leader.

“I fought a loose race car all night long and I lost it,” Johnson said. “And I think sliding through the grass did some damage.”

“It didn’t really drive good after that.”

Not Surprising: With a sixth place run in his No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, it was not surprising that it felt like a win to driver Jeff Gordon.

“We moved up right away,” Gordon said. “I thought we had a car that could compete for the win but when the sun went down, it changed for us and we lost a little bit there at the end.”

“Compared to the way we ran here earlier in the year, it is almost like a win for us.”

November 7, 2011
Surprising and Not Surprising: Atlanta AdvoCare 500

With a rain delay of days instead of hours, the NASCAR Sprint Cup race which was to have run at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday evening of the Labor Day weekend, was finally completed on Tuesday afternoon. Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 52^nd annual AdvoCare 500.

[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”245″][/media-credit]Surprising: While one five-time champion Hendrick Motor Sports driver is usually the one peaking at this stage of the season, it was most surprising that the other HMS four-time champion instead took the checkered flag for the multi-day rain-delayed race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Jeff Gordon, driving the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, beat out his teammate to score an historic 85^th victory, placing him solely in the third position of all-time wins in NASCAR.

This was Gordon’s third victory for the season and his 13^th top-10 finish in 2011.

“This team is on a roll,” Gordon said. “I don’t care if it’s Sunday or Monday or Tuesday; to have a race like that, man, that’s awesome. It feels awesome.”

Gordon was also feeling awesome by making history, in addition to celebrating his daughter Ella’s first day of school.

“I just feel rejuvenated in such a big way,” Gordon said. “85 yeah! I can’t wait to get home and celebrate with these guys and my family. 85, wow!”

Not Surprising: To no one’s surprise, five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, driving the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, was the one nipping at Gordon’s heels, careening sideways behind his teammate to take the checkered flag in the runner up position.

This was Johnson’s 13^th top-10 finish in 20 races at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“Man, that is what racing is all about,” Johnson said. “I am grateful that I got to grow up racing off-road trucks and buggies because I was dead sideways those last 10 or 15 laps.”

Since the Chase is looming with just the Richmond race to set the championship field, it was also not surprising to see Johnson take the points lead, now 21 points ahead of Kyle Busch.

When asked about that, Johnson said with a smile and a laugh, “Yeah, we’re just having a terrible year. So, hopefully we can pick things up a little bit.”

Surprising: Two drivers who were having much-needed good runs ended up with surprisingly bad finishes. Clint Bowyer, behind the wheel of the No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet, got into it with Juan Pablo Montoya on lap 241, dashing Bowyer’s hopes for any Chase possibilities with his 36^th place finish.

“We’re out here racing for a spot in the Chase,” Bowyer said after being released from the infield care center. “He’s out here racing for nothing.”

“I’m tired of it,” Bowyer continued of his tussle with JPM. “He’s just an idiot.”

The other driver with a surprisingly good run but bad finish was David Ragan, behind the wheel of the No. 6 UPS Ford. Ragan, also hoping to make the Chase, was running in the top ten for much of the race, only to fall victim to engine failure.

“I bet there’s still a mathematical chance that we could win Richmond and get into the top 20 and make the Chase,” Ragan said optimistically. “And that’s certainly the mindset we’re going to have.”

“We’re not going to give up no matter what.”

Not Surprising: Both Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Tony Stewart held serve on their ninth and tenth place positions respectively in the point standings.

While the driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet had an outstanding run, finishing third, the driver of the No. 88 National Guard Military Intelligence/Amp Energy Chevrolet had an unsurprisingly tough run, finishing 19^th.

This was Stewart’s 15^th top-10 finish in 25 races at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“It was just a really good Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy,” Smoke said. “It was a long day for sure and we battled a lot of adversity to get up there. I’m just really proud of these guys.”

“It was not a good day,” Junior said in contrast. “We didn’t have a good car.”

“We worked on it a little bit and had a couple decent runs where we were competitive, but just fought the car all day long and just couldn’t make anything happen.”

Both drivers can clinch positions in the Chase for the Cup championship at the next race in Richmond. Stewart will clinch if he finishes 18^th or better, 19^th or better and leads one lap, or 20^th or better and leads the most laps.

Earnhardt, Jr. will clinch is he finishes 20^th or better, 21^st or better and leads at least one lap, or 22^nd or better and leads the most laps.

Surprising: After leading laps and looking like a race win contender, it was surprising to see the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion slide back after one of the race’s rain delays to finish ninth.

“After the rain, we didn’t do anything to the car,” Matt Kenseth said. “We just put a set of tires on it and it was junk.”

“I don’t really know what happened,” Kenseth continued. “We had a lot of speed and it was pretty fast the first half of the race, but we just struggled after that.”

Not Surprising: It was not surprising, yet again, to see Brad Keselowski continue his ‘Iron Man’ performance since injuring himself in a testing wreck. The driver of the ‘Blue Deuce’ finished sixth, locking himself into the Chase.

Surprising: In addition to the race winners, there were other winners at Atlanta as well. First and foremost were all of the children battling cancer that were featured on Carl Edward’s car. In their honor, the driver of the No. 99 Aflac ‘Friends of a Feather’, finished top-five.

“We appreciate Aflac being on board with the Aflac Cancer Center,” Edwards said. “It’s Aflac.com/friends if you want to help these kids out.”

“These are great kids,” Edwards continued. “We wish we would have gotten a win for them, but it was a good run.”

Another winner was Huckleberry Pets, who scored the ‘Official Small Business of NASCAR’ title thanks to Tony Stewart’s great run.

“It was great to get Huckleberry Pets the title today,” Stewart said. “I wish we could have won her a million dollars, but we did the best we could.”

Not Surprising: Unfortunately, but not surprising, no one claimed the Sprint Summer Showdown bonus. While several drivers were eligible to win a million for themselves, their charities and their respective fans, not one was able to score the ultimate promotion.

Sadly, fans Andrea Gay, Helene Cross, Ron Rempinski, Dana Hardie, and Molly Hilyard did not find their Sprint pot of gold since Paul Menard, Brad Keselowski, Marcos Ambrose and Kyle Busch respectively did not take the checkered flag at Atlanta.

Surprising: In a surprising driver swap, Mike Skinner actually got to finish a race, and did so solidly in 27^th place. Skinner climbed into the No. 36 Collective Soul/Golden Corral Chevrolet for Dave Blaney who was suffering from kidney stones.

Not Surprising: A.J. Allmendinger continued his solid run streak, this time with a 10^th place finish in his No. 43 Best Buy Ford.

“That’s where we are as a team right now,” Allmendinger said. “We’re about an eighth to a 12^th or 13^th place race team, but that’s better than where we had been, so that’s the improvement I’m looking for.”

“If we can just keep getting there, whether we make the Chase or not, then I’ll be really happy with the season.”

September 7, 2011
Surprising and Not Surprising: Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen

Not to be outdone by the weather at Pocono last weekend, Watkins Glen International took it one step further with a full course, one day rain delay. Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the Monday matinee Cup race at the Glen.

[media-credit name=”Ed Coombs” align=”alignright” width=”245″][/media-credit]Surprising: In a race in which he started from the pole position and clearly dominated, leading three times for a record-high 49 laps, it was surprising that Kyle Busch was not in Victory Lane yet again. The driver of the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota took the checkered flag in the third position, one back from his runner up position at Pocono the weekend before.

Busch lost the lead on the final restart, a green-white-checkered one at that, of the race. Known for his usually stout re-starts, Busch made a surprising mistake in Turn One, taking it just a bit wide enough to allow both Brad Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose through to the lead.

“Just knew exactly what not to do and did it anyway,” Busch said. “I just screwed up.”

“I felt like we were right there and had a shot to win,” Busch continued. “I knew it was going to come down to one corner and I messed it up.”

Surprisingly, although Busch did not score the win, he did re-emerge as the co-leader in the point standings. Busch climbed two spots to tie with Carl Edwards, both atop the Chase leader board with 752 points each.

Not Surprising: It was not surprising to see road course redemption collide with another first time winner, resulting in Marcos Ambrose, driver of the No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion, being in Victory Lane. With his loss of the win at Sonoma due to his own error firmly behind him, Ambrose redeemed himself to become NASCAR’s fifth first-time winner of the season.

“I’ve fought so much to get here, to finally win and be in Victory Lane is a dream come true,” Ambrose said. “To win in the Cup Series is an incredible feeling and I’m very, very proud.”

Ambrose’s win was Richard Petty Motorsports first since 2009 when Kasey Kahne won on the road course at Infineon. Ambrose’s win officially came on his 105^th Cup start.

“It’s just a dream day,” Ambrose continued. “The sacrifices you make to be a contender in the Cup Series, to finally get to Victory Lane is a dream come true for me.”

Surprising: As surprising as Brad Keselowski’s ‘Iron Man’ performance was at Pocono, with his win there in spite of his broken ankle, the driver of the No. 2 ‘Blue Deuce’ pulled off an ‘Iron Man Redux’, with a runner up score at the Glen.

“I wouldn’t say it got easier,” Keselowski said of racing with his injured ankle. “But when your car is fast, you can put a lot of stuff behind you and make it work.”

“I think that’s about as good as the racing gets right there,” Keselowski continued. “I’m proud to be a part of it. Life is good when you have fast race cars.”

Not Surprising: It was not surprising that the stars of several other traditionally good road racers shone at the Glen. Juan Pablo Montoya, driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet, finished seventh and AJ Allmendinger, who started outside pole in his No. 43 Best Buy Ford, finished eighth.

Allmendinger was particularly proud to not only see his Richard Petty Motorsports teammate in Victory Lane, but also took great pride in his comeback after an altercation with Kurt Busch early in the race.

“It’s great to see Marcos in Victory Lane and it’s great for the team,” Allmendinger said. “I’m proud of my guys and proud of the way we fought back all day. The car was fast.”

“Our Target Chevy was really good,” Juan Pablo Montoya said. “I thought we had a winning car. We were really close but it was all okay. It was a good day for us.”

Surprising: It was most surprising to see Boris Said and Greg Biffle channeling the fighting spirits of two other competitors, Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch. This week, instead of Johnson and Busch feuding, it was Said and Biffle who were trading paint on the track and harsh words in the garage as well.

Said, standing in for Landon Cassill in the No. 51 Phoenix Construction/Thank A Teacher Today Security Benefit Chevrolet, was furious with the way Biffle, in his No. 16 Valvoline Ford, raced him in the waning laps, especially since Biffle was a lap down at the time.

Said accused Biffle of ‘flipping him off’ and Biffle countered by accusing Said of causing the last race crash that sent two cars hard into the wall. After the race, the disagreement really heated up into not only harsh words but also some attempted punches.

“He wouldn’t even let me get out of the car and he comes over and throws a few little baby punches,” Said said of Biffle. “Then when I get out, he runs away and hides behind some big guys.”

“But he won’t hide from me long,” Said continued. “I won’t settle it out on the track. It’s not right to wreck cars.”

“But he’ll show up at a race with a black eye one of these days.”

Biffle, for his part, had equally strong reactions.

“Let me tell you something,” Biffle said. “Boris, the ‘road course ringer’ caused that wreck. He did the same thing to me earlier in the race.”

“Then ‘Mr. Class’ pulls in behind my truck after the race today,” Biffle continued. “How unprofessional and disrespectful.”

Not Surprising: It was not surprising that the aforementioned feud between Johnson and Busch did not continue to percolate at the Glen, especially since the two drivers were nowhere near each other on the race track.

The driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge spun early in the race and then lost his brakes on Lap 49 after a tire failure sent him hard into the wall. Busch did not finish the race, scored in the 38^th position, causing him to fall two positions to sixth in the point standings.

“I had a big problem getting into the braking zones today,” Busch said. “I had to crank eight rounds of front brake into our car just to survive.”

“All that does is generate brake heat and I blew out the left-front tire,” Busch continued. “It was a bummer of a day.”

Johnson, on the other hand, had a top-ten finish in his No. 48 Lowes Chevrolet. The five-time champ currently sits just six points behind Chase co-leaders Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch.

“We had a great day,” Johnson said. “To have the pace that we did all day long, even though we weren’t up there leading, we had a very fast race car and that’s what we wanted to have here.”

Surprising: It was a bit surprising that a 15^th place finish left NASCAR’s most popular driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and his crew chief Steve Letarte feeling so very optimistic. Both agreed that they ‘did what they had to do’ to solidify their place in the Chase, a place where Junior has not been for the past three years.

Dale Junior, admittedly not a lover of road course racing, scored his first top-15 in six years of racing at the Glen. The driver of the No. 88 National Guard/Amp Energy Chevrolet now sits solidly in the ninth spot in the Chase standings.

“I think we’re a good enough team to make the Chase bar none,” Earnhardt, Jr. said. “We should be able to get in there no problem.”

Not Surprising: It was not surprising at all that the calls for safer barriers at Watkins Glen International have intensified after several very hard hits at the road course in the midst of the Finger Lakes.

Not only did Kurt Busch hit hard into the wall, but Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota, also lost his brakes and took a nasty lick head on into the tire barrels.

“Something blew out in the left front,” Hamlin said after being checked and released from the infield care center after his hit. “I had no brakes. There was nothing you could do.”

The worst of the hard hits, however, came in the final lap of the race where David Ragan, driver of the No. 6 UPS “We Love Logistics” Ford, wrecked hard himself and then spun into David Reutimann, behind the wheel of the No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota, sending him into the air and into the wall as well.

Both Davids were rattled but escaped major injuries, exiting gingerly from their mangled race cars as they attempted to catch their collective breaths.

“It’s just a product of close quarters racing at the end,” Ragan said. “I’m sore. That was a hard hit.”

“I looked down at my feet and my pedals and my leg rests were all pushed over,” Ragan continued. “It’s a shame that a race track we go to in 2011 doesn’t have a better wall design all the way around the race track.”

“Hopefully they’ll look at that,” Ragan said. “I’ve been to some dirt tracks that have better walls than that.”

“This is one of the bigger hits I would say, but it’s part of the gig,” Reutimann said. “You sign up to do this stuff every once and awhile and you’re going to hit something.”

“Overall I’m okay,” Reutimann continued. “I’m thinking where I hit would probably be a good place for SAFER barriers.”

“I’m good and will be ready for Michigan next week.”

August 17, 2011
Juan Pablo Montoya: One Driver, Many Facets

[media-credit id=18 align=”alignright” width=”200″][/media-credit]Given his history with Formula One, his status as an Indy 500 winner, and now his five year tenure with NASCAR, Juan Pablo Montoya is most certainly one of racing’s most recognized figures.

[media-credit id=62 align=”alignright” width=”138″][/media-credit]But this one driver, now securely behind the wheel of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing for this season as well as next year, most certainly has many facets.

One of Montoya’s most visible facets is his passion for racing, of all sorts and types, as well as winning in whatever series. But for this talented driver, NASCAR is one of the most challenging forms of racing in which he has ever participated.

“For me it’s not just stock car racing, it’s racing in general,” Montoya said. “I have been in all kinds of racing and it’s just a passion for winning.”

“This sport is the hardest,” Montoya said. “There’s so many, many more drivers than any other series I’ve been in that winning is that much harder. You have that many more competitive cars, so it’s always tough.”

How does Juan Pablo maintain his passion even when he is not winning and in spite of sitting 20^th in the point standings for the NASCAR championship Chase?

“It’s just one of those deals,” Montoya said. “You look at people that win races and sometimes you outrun them all year and they get a lucky break. Probably at first it’s nice to get a lucky break.”

“But for me, I want to try to win a race without the lucky break,” Montoya continued. “You know, I’ll take a lucky break any day, but you really want to win the races spinning everybody out there.”

With this passion and extreme desire to win, another facet of Juan Pablo Montoya, at least one that is highly perceived, is that he is not only assertive but a bit aggressive. And with that, has come some hard racing in return.

“It depends on the moment,” Montoya said of his aggressiveness. “If you’ve got to run smart, you run smart. If you’ve got to be aggressive, you’ve got to be aggressive, you know. It’s whatever comes.”

“I think everybody races everybody differently,” Montoya continued. “For me, it’s always different.”

“Some guys are good to you and you’re good to them,” Montoya said. “And when people are bad to you, you’re bad to them.”

One facet that Montoya thinks most fans do not know about him is that his racing is not only calculating but very precise.

“I think you’re the first person to say that and I think that’s pretty accurate,” Montoya said. “That’s something that I do.”

“I always try to be consistent,” Montoya said. “Just the way you run in open wheels, you try to adhere as well.”

Montoya plans to continue his calculating facet of racing even with his new crew chief, Jim Pohlman. Prior to the Brickyard 400 last weekend, Pohlman was named to replace Brian Pattie, Montoya’s crew chief since 2008.

“We’re just starting a relationship,” Montoya said. “It’s very early.”

“I think the start of the relationship is really good so far,” JPM continued. “Of course, we’re going to have good moments and bad moments but Jim is doing a really good job and he’s very open to anything, which is pretty cool.”

One of the most important facets to Juan Pablo Montoya is one that he is quite proud of, bringing more of an international flavor to the traditionally all-American sport of stock car racing.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” Montoya said. “A lot of people international pay attention now, I think more than people in America understand and believe.”

“I think NASCAR knows how many people watch international but they don’t make a big deal of it,” JPM continued. “They try to keep it an all-America sport but it’s cool that people international are paying attention.”

Another facet of Montoya that many fans are well aware of is his penchant for utilizing social media, especially Twitter.

“I think it’s cool for the fans,” Montoya said. “Somebody that follows me wants to know what I do in a regular day.”

“I don’t think I’m that exciting,” Montoya said. At that moment, his teammate Jamie McMurray walked by, muttering that he definitely did not think Montoya was exciting either, to which Montoya shouted after him, “I agree!”

“I don’t do it to promote this or promote that,” JPM continued re his Twitter usage. “I just do it for fun, you know what I mean?”

“I fly my remote control planes and wind surf, although I haven’t done a lot of wind surf this year, and I play a little golf,” Montoya continued. “It’s fun for people to see what I do. I don’t do it for anything else.”

“There’s days when I don’t feel like tweeting, so I don’t tweet.”

A critical facet of the racing personality of Juan Pablo Montoya is his dedication to trying to maintain balance with his career and his family. Yet, he openly acknowledges that he is challenged in that area by his own ‘child-like’ behavior, which often creates just a wee bit of strain between he and his lovely wife Connie.

“It’s really hard because I’m a kid,” JPM said with a chuckle. “So, you’ve got to balance the family, the toys and the work. So, that’s always really hard.”

“I want to be with the kids and the wife and kids want to do things and I want to do things,” JPM said. “So, it’s always really hard. So, you don’t balance, you fight, like a regular marriage.”

The last facet of Juan Pablo Montoya is his dedication not only to his own family, but to other families in need. He and his family have been supporting the charity Formula Smiles for quite some time, raising funds and helping Columbian children who are burdened by poverty and violence.

“We keep doing a lot of different things for the Foundation,” Montoya said. “We try to keep growing it.”

“It’s never easy to get the support from the people,” Montoya said. “But it’s fun to be there.”

August 6, 2011
Matty’s Picks Vol. 12 – Pocono – August 7, 2011

Back to Long Pond, PA we go for the second time this year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

[media-credit name=”poconoraceway.com” align=”alignright” width=”271″][/media-credit]I’m going to learn from my mistakes this week, and pick two drivers that I have not picked in my column before. Back in just my 6th edition of Matty’s Picks, I chose two drivers, both with storied histories at the Tricky Triangle. Denny Hamlin, my winner pick had finished in the Top 10 in 8 out of his 10 races at Pocono (after the race in June it was 9 out of 11 races – 19th place finish).

My Dark Horse pick faired a bit better in the 5-Hour Energy 500 this season, netting me one of my 4 Top 10 finishes. Juan Montoya has been my Dark Horse pick twice this year, once coming last week at the Brickyard, and the other at Pocono in June. In the race in June, Montoya gambled on two-tire stops a total of three times throughout the afternoon, a strategy that would net him a 7th place finish and me a Top 10 Dark Horse pick.

Brickyard Recap

As stated earlier Juan Montoya was my Dark Horse last week for the Brickyard 400. He was never really in contention to win the race last week, but lingered around the Top 5 for a good portion of the 200 laps last Sunday. It was tough for anyone to predict how the fuel-mileage frenzy would unfold last Sunday, and when the checkered flag flew over the #27 of Paul Menard, Montoya was nowhere to be found.

Montoya said after the race “It was good. We had the fastest car but when we could see the front it seemed like I could get a little more out of the car and I was pushing really hard.” The #42 team would lose out on the almost road-course-like pit strategy and would come home 28th.

As for my winner pick last week, after starting 3rd on the grid Jimmie Johnson also hovered around the Top 5 for the majority of the laps around Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

About his qualifying lap last Friday at IMS, “It was a good lap for us and I certainly hope that it hopes up and keeps us in the top five. If we can have a good spot on pit road, it makes for such a different race. And there are some very generous areas to work on pit road here, so I’m hoping to get one of those spots.”

And it was one of those “generous” spots he would end up with for the race, but just like everyone else, Johnson was not able to stay out of trouble. The 48’s contact with Brian Vickers squashed all my hopes for a win out of the Lowe’s Chevrolet last weekend bringing home a 19th place finish.

Yes, last week at the Brickyard was the first time I did not have a driver finish in the Top 10 or better since Michigan back in Mid-June.

Pocono Picks

Winner Pick

I’ve decided to spread the wealth this week and pick a driver that has not been mentioned this year in Matty’s Picks. He is very deserving of a Winner Pick this week for his efforts at PIR in June. He started on the pole for the 5-Hour Energy 500, and currently sits second on the speed charts after the first practice session of the day.

Kurt Busch is no stranger to Victory Lane at the Tricky Triangle, earning his first win at the track in July 2005 and then winning again in August 2007. Kurt Busch also has and astounding 5 – second place finishes at Pocono as well, his most recent coming in June. Kurt Busch has been running well this season, with one win, 4 Top 5’s, and 11 Top 10’s. He will look to rebound after dropping 3 spots in the points following the Brickyard 400 with a strong finish on Sunday in the Good Sam RV Insurance 500.

Dark Horse Pick

My Dark Horse this week currently sits in 13 place in points. He is extremely hungry to make a statement with a win and solidify his spot in the 2011 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. He also, is no stranger to Victory Lane at Pocono, a track where he has less than impressive finishing statistics.

Greg Biffle averages a finish of 16.4 at Pocono International Raceway, but will use the momentum he has from his 7th place finish last week at Indy to lay down a qualifying lap good enough to start towards the front and remain there throughout the race. He has managed to finish in the Top 5 at Pocono only 6 times in 17 starts, and will look to gain upon his 27th place finish in June.

Stay tuned next week as I preview my 19th trip to Watkins Glen International. I am extremely excited to head to my home track next week, tremendously eager to get camp set up with friends and family and enjoy another fantastic weekend of road racing at WGI!

Until Next Week…You Stay Classy NASCAR NATION!

August 5, 2011
Surprising and Not Surprising: Brickyard 400 at Indy

With Big Machine Records as the presenting sponsor, the Indy pre-race festivities were destined to feature artists such as Reba McIntire and Rascal Flatts performing ‘America the Beautiful’ and the national anthem respectively, as well as CEO Scott Borchetta waving the green flag for the race start.

[media-credit name=”Adam Lovelace” align=”alignright” width=”245″][/media-credit]Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 18^th annual Brickyard 400 presented by BigMachineRecords.com:

Surprising: In spite of leading the race at the halfway point, clicking off a position a lap in the final twelve laps of the race, and being the only car assured of finishing the race with enough fuel, it was surprising that the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, Jeff Gordon did not win the race.

Gordon did, however, come in a solid second, improving his point standings to being just 52 points behind leader Carl Edwards. This was Gordon’s 14^th top 10 finish in 18 races at Indianapolis Speedway and his ninth top-10 finish in 2011.

“Oh my goodness what a day,” Gordon said. “I am so proud of this Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet team. I mean they were just flawless.”

“It was all we could do to put pressure on those guys and hope they would run out,” Gordon said of his battle with those in danger of running out of fuel. “I passed all of them but one.”

Not Surprising: It was not surprising that the one that Gordon could not get past was a driver with a family history as storied as the Brickyard itself. Dedicating the win to his father John, Paul Menard, driver of the No. 27 NIBCO/Menards Chevrolet won his first ever NASCAR race at the track where he had been coming with his family since he was a youngster.

“You know I’ve been coming here since I was a kid and my Daddy has been trying to win this race for 35 years,” Menard said. “So this is for my Dad.”

“I can’t believe we won Indy,” Menard continued. “This is just a really special place for my family and myself.”

Menard made a little history at the Brickyard himself, becoming the first driver to win his first career race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This is also the first Indy win in a Menard’s sponsored race car.

This is Menard’s sixth top-10 finish in 2011 and his first top-10 finish in five races at Indy. He also became the fourth different first-time winner for the 2011 NASCAR season.

Surprising: One of the biggest surprises of the day was how many drivers pitted under green for fuel directly after a restart towards the end of the race. One of those drivers who did just that was NASCAR’s favorite son Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in his No. 88 Amp Energy/National Guard Chevrolet.

Junior’s fuel strategy did not, however, play to his advantage. He finished 16^th and dropped one more position in the point standings to tenth, just barely maintaining Chase contention status.

“You don’t want to be hanging around out there on the race track when everybody else is already inside a fuel window,” Earnhardt, Jr. said. “So, yeah I can understand why it turned out like it did.”

Not Surprising: Since the Brickyard is considered one of the ‘big’ races on the NASCAR schedule, it was not surprising that two drivers who have won ‘big’ races in the past had good runs. Regan Smith, behind the wheel of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet and winner of the Darlington Showtime Southern 500, scored the third place finish and Jamie McMurray, Daytona 500 and defending winner of the Brickyard 400 last year, took fourth in his No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet.

“It was a great run for the Furniture Row Chevy and my guys worked their butts off all weekend,” Smith said. “This is not a great track for me, so I am happy and if I couldn’t win, the guy in Victory lane is my best friend on the circuit and I can’t wait to congratulate him.”

“We got a little bit lucky today,” McMurray said. “We’ve had a tough year and a lot of things go wrong and a lot of bad luck. So, it’s very nice to have good luck and a good finish.”

Surprising: In spite of an uncertain future for 2012, with his ride for Rick Hendrick ending at the end of the season, Mark Martin in his No. 5 Quaker State/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet pulled off a surprisingly good top-10 finish.

Martin took the checkered flag at the Brickyard in eighth place, advancing his point standings by two spots up to the 18^th position.

Not Surprising: It was not surprising that the winner of the final Nationwide race at Lucas Oil Raceway continued his great weekend run over at the Brickyard. Brad Keselowski, behind the wheel of the Blue Deuce, finished top-10.

“It was kind of an up-and-down day for the Miller Lite Dodge,” Keselowski said of his ninth place run. “At the three-quarter part of the race, I thought we were going to win the Brickyard.”

“It just didn’t quite work out, but we made our car faster throughout the day and I was proud of that.”

Surprising: Even Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota, surprised himself by battling not only track position and fuel strategy but also a tussle with Tony Stewart in the pits to attain a top-10 finish.

“I definitely had no idea that the day would be so ugly, but yet come out of it smelling like a rose I guess,” Busch said. “We worked our butts of this whole weekend trying to get something out of nothing.”

Not Surprising: In spite of a crew chief change, Jeff Burton, RCR veteran and NASCAR statesman, continued his downward spiral. Burton finished 35^th in his No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet.

“We had a little miscommunication on pit road,” Burton said. “The radios blanked out and I couldn’t hear him (Burton’s new crew chief Luke Lambert). I drove by pit road and it just put us in a hole the rest of the day.”

“We were fast but we just had a lot of crap go on.”

Surprising: With so many media pundits predicting a victory at Indy, it was surprising to see how badly Indy 500 champ Juan Pablo Montoya finished. JPM, piloting his No. 42 Target Chevrolet, finished 28^th.

“It sucks when you run good all day,” Montoya said. “We unloaded really bad but at the end, we were a really competitive car.”

“Right now it’s all about looking at the future.”

Not Surprising: After their one, two finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, it was not surprising to see the two drivers of Stewart Haas Racing have another fairly good day. Tony Stewart, piloting the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet overcame adversity on the track and on pit road to finish sixth.

Stewart’s teammate Ryan Newman, behind the wheel of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet, also had a decent day, finishing 12^th. Both drivers maintained their positions solidly in the top ten in the point standings.

“I just fought for everything I could get all day,” Stewart said. “We didn’t have the best car by any means.”

“Whatever you get here, you appreciate it because you had to earn it,” Stewart continued. “You don’t get anything free here.”

August 1, 2011
Montoya Says He Won’t Apologize While Johnson Doesn’t Want to Hear It

Juan Pablo Montoya said he doesn’t believe he owes Jimmie Johnson an apology but should he see him he’ll offer one anyway.

[media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]The reason is that two weeks ago in New Hampshire the two again made contact, which Johnson again got the worst off as he spun. Montoya told Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus he was sorry but thought he left Johnson plenty of room.

Friday in Indianapolis Johnson didn’t hold back, saying he was tired of his run-ins with Montoya and he was especially tired of hearing the same two words over and over again. According to the five-time and defending Sprint Cup Series champion, enough is enough.

“Definitely upset,” said Johnson. “What it really boils down to, I don’t feel at least two of the three things that have happened are intentional, they were racing instances. But there’s a point where you’ve got to respect the people you’re racing around and also respect a driver you have had some run-ins with.”

This isn’t the first time that Montoya and Johnson have run into each other. Last August in Bristol, Montoya hooked Johnson in the right rear and sent the 48 head on into the backstretch wall. This past May, Montoya spun Johnson entering turn one after Johnson had passed him down the frontstretch at Darlington.

It was that incident where Johnson could at least offer a smile while revealing how Montoya apologized.

“I’m in my motorhome showering, he walked into my bus and into my shower to apologize,” said Johnson. “Then he told me I’m naked. I said, ‘Of course I am, I’m in the shower.’ There’s some times when you can understand, but after three times being turned around, hearing ‘I’m sorry,’ it can’t happen.”

As far as Johnson’s concerned, Montoya can hold his apologies going forward. He knows that every time the two are around each other he gets the short end of the stick, just as he did in New Hampshire. While he didn’t sustain any damage and was able to rebound for a fifth place finish, Johnson said the accident put him in a bad position.

“Juan and I have a friendship, we get along great,” Johnson said. “After three times of me getting turned around, hearing apologies, I’m tired of hearing apologies. I don’t want the contact; I don’t want to be raced that way. We can do it for different parts of the race but towards the end of an event I find myself spun around. I’ve certainly had my fair share. It certainly can’t happen again.”

They’ll most likely talk sometime soon Johnson believes, because they always do. Except just as Johnson is done hearing apologies, Montoya is done talking and said that the only reason he would apologize is for his own good.

“You don’t want to have problems with people here that you don’t need to,” said Montoya. “It’s to avoid future confrontations. It’s being smart.”

If Johnson was asked he’d probably say if Montoya were smart they wouldn’t be in their current situation. Instead, the two are at odds in their opinions of what actually happened. Johnson believes he again got hit for no reason while Montoya believes Johnson did it to himself.

“If you really look at it he had plenty of race track at the bottom,” said Montoya. “So, do I apologize? No. I think the other time that I hit him he actually run into the wall and I decided not to hit the wall and hit him. It all depends on how you see it. His point of view and my point of view are very different.”

July 29, 2011