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  • Larson’s title run ended by engine failure

    Larson’s title run ended by engine failure

    Entering Kansas Speedway, Kyle Larson was third in points and trailed Martin Truex Jr. by 24 for the points lead. Exiting Kansas, his run at a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2017 left with his expired engine.

    Larson hit pit road for possible engine issues on Lap 67, saying later that it felt like a dropped cylinder. Three laps later, he was back on track. He was told to run until the car couldn’t run anymore.

    Well on Lap 77, the engine couldn’t run anymore as it gave way on the front stretch and brought out the second caution of the Hollywood Casino 400.

    “Well it just dropped a cylinder 10 laps ago or so and then it suddenly got worse and finally blew up,” Larson said. “I hate that we blew an engine and probably blew our shot at the championship, but luck is a big factor of our sport.”

    When asked his emotional state, he said he couldn’t say.

    “I guess it’s sinking in as each second passes by. But I don’t know,” he said. “Things happen. You look at the past playoffs and the No. 78 (Truex) had an engine issue last year and he was the best car all year; and then us, this year. So, it’s disappointing. But there’s still a long race left to go and maybe we can get lucky (he said prior to the end and his elimination).”

    Larson left with a 39th-place finish and dropped to ninth in points, thanks to the points reset.

  • Truex makes late pass to complete season sweep at Kansas

    Truex makes late pass to complete season sweep at Kansas

    Martin Truex Jr. overcame an early restart violation to win the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 and complete the season sweep at Kansas Speedway.

    Truex drove underneath Kyle Busch entering Turn 1 with 57 laps to go and drove on to his 14th career victory in 437 career starts.

    “Just can’t say enough about all these guys on this Furniture Row/Bass Pro Toyota, just really proud of them. Definitely raced with heavy hearts today with the of Jim (Watson) last night. Want to say our condolences to his family and all his friends. He was a heck of a guy and a great working put a heck of a lot of speed in these Furniture Row Toyota’s.

    “Glad we could get him on here today. Excited to get another one here at Kansas. This feels really awesome. It’s really Furniture Row’s home track. It just feels really good to finally get another one here. We got one in the spring after so many heartbreaks. And then today, it looked like it was going to happen and we just persevered.”

    Kurt Busch finished second and Ryan Blaney rounded out the podium.

    “I just feel like I’m on razorblades here,” Busch said. “I really wanted that one bad. At the end, I had the sticker tires. As I’m warming them up they weren’t grabbing in the back. I knew that I wasn’t going to get the jump that I needed. I tried to play middle of the ground. Early in the race with scuffs from qualifying I brushed the fence. Kansas; I don’t know what it is about this place. Kyle (Busch) struggles here too. I feel like I’m on pins and needles most of the day. (Tony) Gibson always throws nice adjustments at it and the race comes to us and we’re right there. We had a shot at winning. I just feel like I’m pushing too hard early on. I saw (Jimmie) Johnson spin. We saw the 77 spin. All the drivers asked for less downforce and yet never got the softer tire that we hoped for. But we’re right there. When we get it right we’re right there. It just feels like I have to overdrive. When you’re overdriving you’re not going to make it work.”

    “We started off in the back and was able to make some good ground early,” Blaney said. “We were able to run up through there and made good adjustments throughout the day which got us in a spot to be up toward the front towards the end and advance. It was a solid day for our team. We overcame a lot coming from the back and they should be proud of that.”

    “It was a good race. We did a nice job coming form the back back and I thought we got our car pretty decent there in the second stage. Then there was a mixup with some strategy stuff and pit calls and it felt like we were kind of at the back part of that but we were able to recover and miss that wreck which was big for us. We ran strong enough all day that we should have been in with where we ran. I am really proud of my team for the effort and we will move on to the next round and Martinsville.”

    Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-10.

    “It was a wild day for sure,” Elliott said. “We fought our balance all weekend. I know the result wasn’t terrible, but definitely feel like we could have been a lot better this weekend and just the way things worked out for us. But, our car got better as the day went along, we just didn’t have the balance on a very long run to go up and pass guys like you need to have. So, we will go to work and get this side of things ready for Texas.”

    Chris Buescher, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-10.

    RACE SUMMARY

    Truex led the field to the green flag at 3:19 p.m. On the restart following the competition caution, he was black-flagged for going below the white line before crossing the start/finish line. This handed the lead to Kyle Busch, who led from there, until he pitted under the second caution of the race — which flew for Brett Moffitt slamming the Turn 1 wall — and the lead went to Brad Keselowski.

    Back to green on Lap 52, Ryan Blaney got the superior start and took the lead. He was passed by Busch three laps later, who drove on to win the first stage.

    He kept on leading, until he hit pit road under a cycle of green flag stops on Lap 128.

    Following a two-lap stint in the lead by Jamie McMurray and 14 by Keselowski, the lead cycled back to Busch.

    After Moffitt brought out the fifth caution on Lap 156, Busch ducked onto pit road and handed the lead to Denny Hamlin, who drove on to win the second stage.

    Staying out to take the lead, Kevin Harvick led the field to the Lap 167 restart. Busch regained the lead prior to a multi-car wreck in Turn 2 following the Lap 198 restart, which forced a 10-minute and 10-second red flag and set up the run to the finish.

    CAUTION SUMMATION

    Caution flew for the first time on Lap 30, a scheduled competition caution, due to overnight rain. The second caution flew for Moffitt slamming the wall in Turn 1 on Lap 47. Kyle Larson’s engine giving way on the front stretch on Lap 77 brought out the third caution. The fourth caution flew when Moffitt slammed the wall a second time in Turn 2 on Lap 156. The fifth flew for the end of the second stage. The sixth caution flew when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. slammed the Turn 3 wall on Lap 175. Jimmie Johnson brought out the seventh caution when he spun out in Turn 4 and through the front stretch grass on Lap 188. He brought out the eighth caution when he spun out a second time in Turn 3. Caution flew on Lap 198 for a 14-car incident on the backstretch. Allmendinger brought out the 10th and final caution when he spun out and came to a halt in the grass with 32 to go.

    NUTS & BOLTS

    The race lasted three hours, 11 minutes and 57 seconds, at an average speed of 125.189 mph. There were 14 lead changes among seven different drivers and 10 cautions for 49 laps.

    Truex leaves with a 27-point lead over Kyle Busch. Larson, McMurray, Matt Kenseth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fail to advance on in the Playoffs.

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  • Christopher Bell gets first NASCAR XFINITY Series win at Kansas

    Christopher Bell gets first NASCAR XFINITY Series win at Kansas

    By Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 may have been the opening race in the Round of 8 of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoff, but the real drama involved two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates outside the championship battle.

    On Lap 197 of 200 at Kansas Speedway, Christopher Bell caught and passed Erik Jones for the lead, clearing Jones’ No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a slide job and drifting up to the outside wall right in front of his JGR teammate.

    Under a full head of steam, Jones plowed into the back of Bell’s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, wrecking the No. 20 Camry, which slowed markedly and finished 15th, a lap down.

    Bell took the checkered flag with polesitter Tyler Reddick and some hard feelings on Jones’ part in his wake.

    “It’s not dirt racing,” Jones complained, referencing Bell’s dirt-track background. “He’s not clear. I can’t just stop on the top. I didn’t expect him to drive in on the bottom so hard he wouldn’t be able to hold his lane.

    “It’s unfortunate. I thought we were going to race for the win, and unfortunately, it wasn’t much of a race—it was more of a wreck. We’ll just have to move on.”

    Jones had led four times for 186 laps before Bell ran him down from more than two seconds back in the closing laps. The series leader in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Bell got the victory in his fifth start, becoming the first driver to get his maiden XFINITY win at the 1.5-mile track.

    Bell also is the 10th straight different winner in the series.

    “I never want to wreck anyone, especially my teammate,” Bell said. “I don’t know. My spotter said ‘Clear.’ I drove it in really deep. I felt like I cleared him – I don’t know.

    “It’s my first XFINITY win. I’m sorry that Erik didn’t finish the race, but, man, I’m just stoked. This thing was awesome. To be able to win in the XFINITY Series is something I dreamed of as a kid. We were both on old tires. We were sliding around.

    “Bummed for the way it finished, but I’m glad it held on, man. I was getting tire smoke in the car there those last couple of laps, and I was worried we weren’t going to make it.”

    Ryan Blaney ran third, followed by playoff drivers and JR Motorsports teammates William Byron and Justin Allgaier, the latter of whom collected 11 stage points and took over the top spot in the standings by two points over Byron, who had to start from the rear of the field because of unapproved pre-race adjustments to his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.

    Elliott Sadler, another JRM entry, recovered from a spin in Turn 4 on Lap 76 to finish seventh and is third in the Playoff standings, 11 points behind Allgaier.

    “A tire came apart—I don’t know whether I ran over something or not,” said Sadler, who turned sideways in the path of oncoming traffic. Eventual sixth-place finisher Austin Dillon did a masterful job of avoiding Sadler’s spinning car.

    “I gave ‘em a big target, but nobody hit us,” a relieved Sadler said after the race.

    Beyond the top three Playoff positions, little was decided. With two races left in the Round of 8, there’s an eight-point gap between fourth-place Brennan Poole, who ran 12th on Saturday, and eighth-place Cole Custer, who brought his No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to pit road with two laps left because of a cut tire and finished 19th, two laps down.

    NASCAR XFINITY Series Race – Kansas Lottery 300 – Kansas Speedway

    1. (4) Christopher Bell(i), Toyota, 200.
    2. (1) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 200.
    3. (3) Ryan Blaney(i), Ford, 200.
    4. (6) William Byron # (P), Chevrolet, 200.
    5. (13) Justin Allgaier (P), Chevrolet, 200.
    6. (5) Austin Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 200.
    7. (11) Elliott Sadler (P), Chevrolet, 200.
    8. (8) Matt Tifft # (P), Toyota, 200.
    9. (16) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 200.
    10. (15) Ryan Reed (P), Ford, 200.
    11. (12) Brandon Jones, Chevrolet, 200.
    12. (9) Brennan Poole (P), Chevrolet, 200.
    13. (24) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 200.
    14. (20) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 199.
    15. (2) Erik Jones(i), Toyota, 199.
    16. (19) Dylan Lupton, Toyota, 199.
    17. (21) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 199.
    18. (10) Daniel Hemric # (P), Chevrolet, 199.
    19. (7) Cole Custer # (P), Ford, 198.
    20. (23) JJ Yeley, Toyota, 198.
    21. (14) Spencer Gallagher #, Chevrolet, 197.
    22. (31) Quin Houff, Chevrolet, 196.
    23. (18) Blake Koch, Chevrolet, 196.
    24. (28) Harrison Rhodes, Chevrolet, 195.
    25. (22) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 195.
    26. (17) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 194.
    27. (32) David Starr, Chevrolet, 194.
    28. (34) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 192.
    29. (36) Mario Gosselin, Chevrolet, 192.
    30. (35) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 192.
    31. (40) Bobby Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 188.
    32. (26) BJ McLeod, Chevrolet, 188.
    33. (38) Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 188.
    34. (33) Josh Berry, Toyota, Engine, 182.
    35. (39) Jennifer Jo Cobb(i), Chevrolet, 139.
    36. (30) Timmy Hill, Dodge, Vibration, 36.
    37. (37) Morgan Shepherd, Chevrolet, Suspension, 24.
    38. (27) Reed Sorenson(i), Chevrolet, Handling, 7.
    39. (29) Gray Gaulding(i), Chevrolet, Brakes, 3.
    40. (25) Jeff Green, Chevrolet, Handling, 2.

    Average Speed of Race Winner: 141.158 mph.
    Time of Race: 02 Hrs, 07 Mins, 31 Secs. Margin of Victory: 2.670 Seconds.
    Caution Flags: 4 for 20 laps.
    Lead Changes: 8 among 5 drivers.

    Lap Leaders: T. Reddick 0; E. Jones(i) 1-51; T. Reddick 52-54; E. Jones(i) 55-81; R. Blaney(i) 82-84; E. Jones(i) 85-93; T. Dillon(i) 94-97; E. Jones(i) 98-196; C. Bell(i) 197-200.

    Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): E. Jones(i) 4 times for 186 laps; T. Dillon(i) 1 time for 4 laps; C. Bell(i) 1 time for 4 laps; T. Reddick 1 time for 3 laps; R. Blaney(i) 1 time for 3 laps.

    Stage #1 Top Ten: 20,22,42,2,18,1,48,7,21,00
    Stage #2 Top Ten: 20,22,7,18,42,9,00,48,21,2

  • Martin Truex Jr. Earns Kansas Coors Light Pole Award

    Martin Truex Jr. Earns Kansas Coors Light Pole Award

    By Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. – You can’t blame Martin Truex Jr. for looking ahead.

    The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series leader didn’t need to win the pole position at Kansas Speedway, having already qualified for the NASCAR Playoffs’ Round of 8 with a victory two weeks ago at Charlotte.

    But by posting the fastest lap in Friday’s knockout qualifying session at the 1.5-mile track, Truex got a leg up on a trip to the Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, because the time trials at Kansas came with a significant bonus — first choice of pit stalls for the Oct. 29 Round of 8 opener at Martinsville Speedway.

    For the record, Truex ran the fastest lap of the afternoon in the final round of qualifying for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (on NBCSN at 3 p.m. ET), covering the distance in 28.719 seconds (188.029 mph) to beat Kevin Harvick (187.682 mph) for the top starting spot by .053 seconds.

    But Truex had to push his car to the limit in the final round to earn his third Coors Light Pole Award of the season, his second at Kansas and the 15th of his career.

    “I was shaking a little — I’m not going to lie,” Truex said. “My heart was beating. It gets the adrenaline going so high to put down a lap like that, to go the fastest you’ve gone all day in that final round.

    “We put it all together. We got the balance better, and I stepped up and put it on the line out there, and it stuck. The commitment level was high, and the car handled it well. That’s always a good combination.”

    Ryan Blaney had qualified third but his time was disallowed following post-qualifying inspection as it was found that the package tray on the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford did not maintain its original shape. As a result of that, Blaney will start from the 40th position in Sunday’s race.

    Matt Kenseth will start third and Denny Hamlin fourth, as playoff drivers garnered the top four spots on the grid. Daniel Suarez was fifth, followed by Erik Jones and Kyle Busch, as Toyota drivers claimed six of the top seven starting positions, the only exception being the Ford of Harvick.

    Because qualifying at Martinsville is on the same day as the race, pit selection at the .526-mile short track was tied to qualifying at Kansas, where the No. 1 pit stall gives a driver unfettered egress from pit road.

    “It was definitely on our minds,” said Truex, who has won a series-best six races in a dream season for the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team. “We talked about it. It was like ‘It’d be pretty nice to go to Martinsville and have the No. 1 pit stall.’

    “It was definitely on our minds, but I don’t know if it really played into how we got the job done or not. But it was definitely good timing, more than anything, because that’s going to be huge for us going into the Round of 8 next week.”

    Harvick, the 2014 series champion described his qualifying session as “three sketchy laps,” but feels he has a competitive car for the race that will trim the playoff field from 12 drivers to eight.

    “I think we have a car that can be capable of staying up there and hopefully having a chance to win the race at the end,” Harvick said. “It’s a good start to the weekend. That’s half the battle when you’re trying to collect stage points in the first stage and get pit stall selection and try and gain all the advantages that you can on Friday.

    “That’s something that our team did a good job at this year. I feel like our cars are a lot faster from the beginning of the year on the mile-and-a-half race tracks, and we’re on the game. It’s been a fun few weeks.”

    Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who currently leads Kyle Busch by seven points for the final spot in the Round of 8, and will start 12th. Playoff driver Jamie McMurray qualified eight in the fastest Chevrolet.

    Playoff drivers Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott will start 13th and 14th, respectively. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the only playoff driver who failed to make the second round, will take the green flag from 24th.

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Kansas-Starting-Lineup-MENCS-Oct.-2017-C1732_STARTROW.pdf” title=”Kansas Starting Lineup MENCS Oct. 2017 C1732_STARTROW”]

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Kansas

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Kansas

    Martin Truex Jr. made the pass on Ryan Blaney to win Saturday nights GoBowling 400 at Kansas Speedway. Truex Jr. led a race-high 104 laps in route to his second victory this season and his first at Kansas.

    “It’s always good to get a nice beer shower, 5-Hour Energy and whatever else they’re throwing on us here. Pretty awesome. Awesome day. Awesome weekend. This team rocks, man, they’re so good. We just stuck with it all night. We had an awesome race car. There’s times there we looked like we weren’t going to have a shot at it. We just kept fighting and made it happen.”

    Surprising

    A crash involving Joey Logano, Danica Patrick and Aric Almirola in lap 201 brought out the red flag. The crash resulted in Almirola being airlifted to the hospital.

    A lot of us took a hard hit. Something broke on my car, I don’t know what it was. I noticed it as I was trying to go in. I tried to back it off but you’re going 215 (mph) and it’s hard to check up. The car just took a bit step sideways into the corner and I hooked Danica (Patrick). I haven’t seen a replay yet, I don’t know what happened. You can see the right-front popped (right there) and it popped. I just hope everyone is okay. I hope Aric is alright. That’s the last thing you want to see, a big hit like that for anyone. It’s unfortunate for everyone,” Logano said.

    A Richard Petty Motorsports press release was sent out on Sunday saying, “Almirola suffered a compression fracture to his T5 Vertebra after a multi-car accident at Kansas Speedway Saturday night. Almirola is mobile and will follow-up with his doctors in Charlotte.”

    Not Surprising

    Blaney won his first career pole position at Kansas on Friday and won Stage 2. Blaney finished fourth and captured the team’s second top-five finish and its fifth top-10 result of the season.

    “The last three races have been really, really bad, and it’s just an extra kind of slap to the face that we’ve had really fast cars in all those races we had troubles in, and we shouldn’t have finished 35th. We should have had top 10s in all of them. So it was nice to show our muscle this weekend and prove that, like I said, this is where the 21 team deserves to be, so it’s just nice to get back on track.”

    Surprising

    Kyle Larson finished in sixth-place finish in his No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS. But Larson continues to maintain the series point lead by 44.

    “The early parts of the race I thought we were okay, not great, but I thought we were like a fourth or fifth place car and I got into the wall on one of those later restarts after that big wreck. I just got really tight and it took off and hit the wall. Then my car was pretty tight afterwards, so I’m sure some aerodynamic issues there, but still recovered for a decent finish there.”

    Not Surprising

    Trevor Bayne finished 10th and captured his second top-10 finish and his eighth top-15 finish of the season.

    “That was a hard-fought 10th-place finish. It’s funny how expectations change. A year ago I would have been pumped for a 10th and now it is what we should be doing. We are getting better. Our potential is better. If we can finish 10th on a weekend like this, when we get the cars where we need them we can do business. I appreciate the hard work and execution by my team tonight.”

    Surprising

    Ricky Stenhouse Jr. went a lap down early due to a loose wheel. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. battled back and finished in 11th place.

    “We had a strong GoBowling Ford all weekend which shows the gains of the Roush Fenway Racing organization. We know what we need to work on for future intermediate tracks. It’s great to be locked into the All-Star race so I’m looking forward to going after that 1 million.”

    Not Surprising

    Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 Elite Support Ford Fusion team fought back from two laps down to finish in second place. Keselowski now has seven top-5 and nine top-10s finishes this season.

    “We had a really good Elite Support Ford Fusion all day and just never had a chance to show it. Every time we started to pass cars and cycle up to the front, we had some kind of issue, which was a real bummer to not be able to showcase the strength that we had.”

    The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday May 20 at 8 p.m. EST on FS1 for the Monster Energy Open and All Star Race.

  • Blaney Falls Short of Maiden Victory with Fourth at Kansas

    Blaney Falls Short of Maiden Victory with Fourth at Kansas

    Ryan Blaney is still searching for his first victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series after another dominant performance ends with just a top-five finish in the Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway.

    The weekend for Blaney started with taking pole position on Friday, the first of his career and first for Wood Brothers Racing since Ricky Rudd at Talladega Superspeedway in April of 2004.

    He led the first 10 laps before Martin Truex Jr. powered by his outside exiting Turn 2 on lap 11.

    Blaney was near the front the entire race with a 2.1 average running position, the best of anyone. He never ran lower than fifth at any point in the race.

    It should come as no surprise then that he finished third in the first stage and won the second stage.

    He and Truex traded battled for the lead in the final stage, with Truex taking it with 87 laps to go and Blaney with 46 to go.

    But the winning move belonged to Truex, who made it exiting Turn 2 with 24 to go and held of Blaney on subsequent restarts to win the race.

    Blaney restarted second in the outside lane on the final restart with two laps to go. But while the outside was the lane of choice early in the race when the Sun was still out, it proved inferior under the cover of darkness.

    He was unable to hold the advance of Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski and settled for a fourth-place finish.

    “Yeah, it happens I guess. We weren’t very good on the long run,” he said on pit road after the race. “I felt that we had a great short run car tonight and I thought that was going to play right into our hands at the end. The 78 got us on that restart somehow. I don’t know. I was super loose there on the last restarts and the 78 got me spinning my tires a little bit. It kind of stinks. I think that it says a lot about this team to go out and lead some laps and go have a shot and win races.”

    Blaney leaves Kansas 11th in points, 184 behind points leader Kyle Larson.

  • Keselowski Ends Up and Down Kansas Race with Runner-Up Finish

    Keselowski Ends Up and Down Kansas Race with Runner-Up Finish

    Brad Keselowski’s adventurous day up and down the running order ended with a second-place finish in the Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway.

    Starting the day 17th, Keselowski demonstrated the strength of his car early, going from 14th to eighth in one lap on the lap 55 restart and worked his way into a fifth-place finish at the end of the first stage.

    He dropped back through the field after electing to pit under the fifth caution of the race on lap 97, but drove from 24th to fifth in just 10 laps on the ensuing restart.

    On lap 120, however, he made an unscheduled stop for a loose left-rear wheel. Adding insult to injury, he was handed a pass through penalty for driving through too many pit boxes. He rejoined the race in 35th, two laps down.

    He elected to take a wave around under the following two cautions to put himself back on the lead lap. He slowly worked his way back into the top-10.

    Keselowski was fourth on the final restart. He was still fourth coming to the white flag. But going into Turn 1, he drove to the outside of Ryan Blaney and Kevin Harvick and drove on to finish second.

    “Well, so much happened, I’m not sure I even know,” Keselowski said of the final restart in his post-race media availability. “But we were really good all day and just never had a chance to show it. Every time we started to pass cars and cycle up to the front, we had some kind of issue, which was a real bummer to not be able to showcase the strength that we had. Towards the end we were able to get some runs and make the most of it, and I think we went from probably 20th with 100 to go to second, which was a pretty big climb in the sport. That’s something to be proud of, but I kind of feel like I would have liked to have seen if it would have just played out normal, and I think we might have had a shot at him (Martin Truex Jr.).”

    Keselowski leaves Kansas third in points, 67 behind points leader Kyle Larson.

  • Almirola Released from Hospital after Violent Wreck

    Almirola Released from Hospital after Violent Wreck

    Aric Almirola has been released from the University of Kansas Medical Center after suffering a compression fracture to his T5 Vertebra in a vicious three-car wreck late in the Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway.

    Richard Petty Motorsports issued the following statement this morning.

    “Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford, has been released from a local Kansas hospital and will fly back to his home in Mooresville, N.C. today.

    Almirola suffered a compression fracture to his T5 Vertebra after a multi-car accident at Kansas Speedway Saturday night. Almirola is mobile and will follow-up with his doctors in Charlotte.

    Richard Petty Motorsports will provide further updates when available.”

    The wreck started with 68 laps to go when Joey Logano was going to the outside of Danica Patrick for position. Going into Turn 1, Logano suffered a right-front tire blowout, causing his car to veer down and hook the right-rear corner of Patrick’s car. This sent her car head-on into the outside wall.

    Logano’s car spun backwards up into the wall just a few feet ahead of Patrick’s. They made contact a second time a few seconds later.

    Almirola was running seven car lengths back of the wreck, at the time Logano first hit the wall, and running near the top groove when his car got loose, clipped the left-rear corner of Patrick’s car and slammed head-on into the left-front of Logano’s car.

    Almirola’s car continued down the track before coming to a halt against the outside wall on the exit of Turn 2 with the window net down, while the destroyed cars of Logano and Patrick stopped on the apron in Turn 2. Patrick quickly exited from her car, which NASCAR says to do if it’s on fire, while Logano sat in his until instructed to exit by the safety team.

    While Almirola put the window net down, signaling the safety team that he’s okay, the safety team elected to extract him from the car rather than have him exit under his own power. After cutting open the driver cockpit, Almirola was placed onto a stretcher, loaded into an awaiting ambulance and taken to the University of Kansas Medical Center.

    Logano and Patrick were taken to and released from the infield care center.

    Logano, with unease in his vocal patterns, told Jamie Little of FOX Sports that he was “okay” and he was “saying a lot of prayers for Aric (Almirola) right now.”

    “A lot of us took a hard hit,” he said. “Something broke on my car, I don’t know what it was. I noticed it as I was trying to go in. I tried to back it off but you’re going 215 (mph) and it’s hard to check up. The car just took a bit step sideways into the corner and I hooked Danica (Patrick). I haven’t seen a replay yet, I don’t know what happened. You can see the right-front popped (right there) and it popped. I just hope everyone is okay. I hope Aric is alright. That’s the last thing you want to see, a big hit like that for anyone. It’s unfortunate for everyone. Let’s hope that Aric is alright.”

    Asked if there was any indication leading to what happened, he said it was “out of nowhere. Just out of nowhere. Everything was fine and then it just took a hard right. Everyone pray for Aric right now.”

    He also added that he told Patrick that “something broke” in the ambulance ride to the care center.

    “We were back in the ambulance together and I just told here something broke,” Logano added. “There’s nothing I could have done. I don’t know what happened. Like I said, something broke and tore up a bunch of really good cars.”

    Not long after, Patrick spoke to the media.

    “We were having a really good race and having fun out there and had a lot of speed. I kinda felt like Wonder Woman for a little while. All I know is that I all of a sudden crashed,” she said of what happened.” I definitely had a feeling it was the 22 and I am sure that the doctors in the medical center checking my neurological abilities are glad to know I was right that it was Joey. When he said he had a failure I can’t say it made me feel that much better in the moment. I am just frustrated for the lack of breaks I get. It seems like every time things are going better and something happens I get crashed or am in a crash. Especially a place like this, a brake rotor, when we are using 200-300 pounds of pressure seems odd. Unfortunately there were two of us that got collected and while I am okay, one of these times one if these really big accidents someone is not going to be okay. Aric (Almirola) is not okay and his car looked the best of everybody. You never know when it is going to be the wrong hit. I have a team that works hard and put another car on the track and I hope we are saving up for a really good run of good luck.”

    She was also asked about the ambulance conversation Logano mentioned.

    “I think I said everything I needed to say before I got in. I said something else in there and I just – really if he had a failure there is really nothing you can do about that,” Patrick added. “That is unfortunate and me and Aric are unfortunate recipients of that problem. It isn’t that I haven’t had issues with Joey in the past so to think it was something else was imaginable.”

  • Richard Petty Motorsports Statement on Aric Almirola

    Richard Petty Motorsports Statement on Aric Almirola

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. – (May 14, 2017) – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford, was involved in a multi-car accident on Lap 199 during Saturday night’s race.

    Almirola was alert after the accident as safety professionals removed him from the car. He was transported by helicopter to a local medical facility for evaluation. He is in stable condition and will be held overnight for further observation.

    Richard Petty Motorsports will provide further updates when appropriate.

    A performance and marketing driven company, Richard Petty Motorsports, co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty and successful business entrepreneur Andrew Murstein, is one of the most recognized brands in all of motorsports. With a history of over 200 wins and business partnerships with national and global leaders, today the race operation fields one team in competition in the NASCAR premier series with driver Aric Almirola. Almirola will return to the iconic No. 43 Ford with partners Smithfield Foods, STP, United States Air Force and Fresh From Florida. The team is headquartered in Mooresville, N.C.

  • Truex Wins Caution-Fest Kansas Cup Race

    Truex Wins Caution-Fest Kansas Cup Race

    A pass for the lead with just over 20 laps remaining in the Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway proved crucial to Martin Truex Jr. on his drive to winning in his team’s backyard.

    Truex passed Ryan Blaney exiting Turn 2 to take the lead with 24 laps to go and held off Blaney on three restarts to win for the ninth time in his career and seventh time since 2015.

    “It feels great,” Truex said. “It’s definitely been a thorn in our side. That’s for sure. You know for years and years even, before I was with this (Furniture Row) team, for whatever reason we always ran good here and never could close the deal.

    “Proud to get these guys back in victory lane. This is our home race track — the guys from Colorado. Appreciate all the fans. We got a lot of fans from Colorado here today. I met a bunch of them before the race and hopefully they’re all psyched.”

    Brad Keselowski finished second and Kevin Harvick rounded out the podium.

    Blaney and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five.

    Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez, Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer and Trevor Bayne rounded out the top-10.

    Blaney led the field to the green flag at 7:53 p.m. Truex shot past Blaney’s outside exiting Turn 2 to take the lead on the 11th lap. Landon Cassill brought out the first caution on lap 29 when a flat right-front tire led to slamming the wall in Turn 1. He slammed the wall a second time on lap 50.

    On pit road, Chase Elliott was exiting pit road when he made contact with Michael McDowell, who was coming into his pit box.

    Kevin Harvick took the lead opting not to pit under the second caution, but spun the tires on the lap 62 restart and lost the lead to Kyle Busch, who drove on to win the first stage.

    Truex led the field to the restart on lap 88 and held it, through teammate Erik Jones spinning in Turn 2 on lap 97, through lap 100, then lost it to Busch.

    Blaney took back the lead on lap 143 and won the second stage.

    He and Truex battled back and forth for the lead in the final stage.

    Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson made contact on the restart with five laps to go, sending Johnson spinning through the grass in Turn 1 and setting up the final two-lap run to the finish.

    Ty Dillon brought out a caution on lap 62 for a solo spin in Turn 2. Erik Jones spun out the first of three times on lap 97 in Turn 2. LaJoie slammed the wall in Turn 3 after suffering cuts in both right-side tires. Gray Gaulding slammed the wall in Turn 4 and shredded his right-rear tire in Turn 2 on lap 146. Paul Menard and AJ Allmendinger crashed together in Turn 1 with 74 laps to go. Jones got loose in speedy dry in Turn 2 and spun out with 52 to go. LaJoie slammed the wall in Turn 1 with 24 to go. Jones got turned by Ty Dillon and spun through the infield grass with nine to go.

    With 68 to go, a violent three-car wreck in Turn 1 involving Joey Logano, Danica Patrick and Aric Almirola sent Almirola to the University of Kansas Medical Center. As of the publishing of this piece, no further update was available on his condition.

    The race lasted three hours, 24 minutes and 16 seconds at an average speed of 117.640 mph. There were 21 lead changes among nine different drivers and 15 cautions for 61 laps.

    Larson leaves with a 44-point lead over Truex.

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