Tag: Kevin Harvick

Darlington Raceway Rewind
There’s nothing like a weekend at Darlington Raceway to remind you why you love racing. The excitement begins to build as you drive through the tunnel. As you step out of your car and gaze out at the grandstands, your mind begins to fill with the memories of all that has gone before and the anticipation of things to come.

Will a first time winner be crowned? Will records be broken? Whose dreams will come true and whose hopes will be crushed?

A look back at some of the highlights from another historic racing weekend at Darlington:

Nationwide Series:

Kyle Busch scored his 37^th career Nationwide Series pole and with 65 wins in the series was a serious contender for the win in the VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 race. But the “Lady in Black had other plans and he had to settle for a fourth place finish.”

Chase Elliott made it look easy Friday night winning in his first start at Darlington. He also etched his name in the record books becoming:
- The youngest driver to win two NASCAR Nationwide Series races at 18 years, 4 months and 14 days.
- The youngest driver to win a Nationwide Series race at Darlington
- The youngest driver to lead the series point standings.
- The fourth driver to win in his first start at Darlington. Johnny Mantz did so in 1950, Herb Thomas in 1951 and Dick Rathmann in 1952.
He now has two wins in only seven starts in the series but if you listen to team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. the best is yet to come.

“He has amazing car control. We saw that on several occasions out there tonight.” Earnhardt continued saying, “He’s got a great level head, good character and nothing really rattles him. So when it came down to the end there and it was time to really get after it, he kept his composure and did what he needed to do to make it work. That’s going to be tough to contend with for many years. I’d like to think that we’re going to hang on to him for a little bit and try to get him ready for the next level but he’s ahead of schedule.”

Sprint Cup:

Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson gave the crowd an electrifying finish at the Bojangles’ Southern 500 Saturday night as Harvick grabbed his second victory of the season in a green-white-checkered finish. He became the first driver to capture two wins this season which virtually assures him a place in the Sprint Cup Chase.

Harvick waxed poetic as he talked about the allure of Darlington.

“You’ve got to love it, gray racetracks”, he said. “You can almost see the sparkle of the rocks coming out in the asphalt. That’s so exciting. Maybe we need to spread the South Carolina sand on Kansas and Charlotte and all these other racetracks that haven’t aged as fast as this one. When you start to see that gray and you start to see the seams and you can see the sparkle of the small rocks in the asphalt, it just makes it fun. Darlington is what it was supposed to be tonight, the cars slipping and sliding and bouncing off the walls and hard to drive something, I don’t know.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second for the third time this season and Jimmie Johnson saw another race win slip away.

Earnhardt was clearly disappointed that he came up short but proud of the effort.

“It’s a little disappointing,” he admitted, “to come that close because I know I don’t really run that well here and the opportunities to win are going to be very few compared to other tracks. It hurts a little bit to come that close because we worked so hard to try to win races. Running second is great but nobody is going to really remember that. But we’re proud of it. ”

Johnson said that moving forward, their efforts would be focused on “unloading closer.” He explained, “We seem to find a way come race time to get a good finish and honestly have a shot to win some races. But showing up at the track a little bit closer is key for us. We’re really just trying to get a grasp on these rules, and we go home with what we’ve learned from a previous race, bring a new mousetrap, and unfortunately we’ve had to continue to work on it each week. That’s really our goal is to show up closer.”

2015 and Beyond:

Darlington Raceway continues to cement its place in NASCAR history and promises to deliver more with plans to “honor the track’s history and shape its future.”

As part of the celebration, Bill and Chase Elliott were introduced Saturday as the “face” of the program. Track president Chip Wile, along with Bill and Chase, talked about future plans which will include a retro ticket design for the 2015 Bojangles’ Southern 500 and a Classic merchandise product line that will focus on previous decades and will be available for purchase.

Wile encouraged fans to share their stories saying “We have the most passionate, loyal fans in all of motorsports and we look forward to the role they will play as we celebrate our past, present and future.”

If you have a story to share or an idea on how to celebrate the history of Darlington and NASCAR, you can send an Email to mailto:darlington1950@darlingtonraceway.com.

As I left the track and made my way home, my only regret was that it would be another year before I could reunite with old friends and make new memories together at “The Track Too Tough To Tame.”
April 13, 2014
Surprising and Not Surprising: Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

April 13, 2014
RACEDAY: Kevin Harvick Feeling Jaunty; Pursuing Southern 500 Triumph

Darlington Raceway’s moniker ‘Too Tough To Tame’ certainly is fitting for Kevin Harvick driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

The 2007 Daytona 500 champion, Harvick, is still held winless in Darlington. He’s experienced 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at the challenging 1.366-mile speedway, but has only posted three top five and six top-10 finishes.

However, remarkably, he’s only received one DNF (Did Not Finish) on his resume at Darlington, but still has yet to score the ultimate goal: winning.

“This is one of those, I guess, what would refer to as a crown jewel race.” Harvick explained on Friday in the media center. “(This) is one that’s not sitting in our trophy case, not only that, but it’s just Darlington and this is what NASCAR racing is all about.”

On Saturday at Darlington – during ‘Knockout Qualifying – Harvick saved his tires, as your not able to change tires during the session, and eventually qualified a 26.802 en route to his seventh career Sprint Cup Series pole.

“It all worked out,” Harvick expressed following his pole-winning lap time. “Knockout qualifying paid off for us today. We were able to save the best for last.”

Harvick, with the best starting position for Saturday’s race, is aiming for his first career triumph at Darlington, in his first-career start at the historic track with Stewart-Haas.

“To win here would mean a lot,” Harvick furthered commented. “Hopefully we can keep it together for 500 miles, I believe we have a really fast car and (just) everything has gone well all weekend.”

Harvick’s also already, almost, confirmed his placing in this season’s Chase, after winning at Phoenix International Speedway, giving him and crew chief Rodney Childers to gamble for victories.

However, the past few weekends the team’s been restricted from visiting victory lane after having mechanical failures.

“Since we’ve already won and obviously we feel like we have given away some wins with the failures, (we) just need to keep going about our business.” Harvick explained about the struggles this season, “I think (winning the pole) is good medicine for everybody and proof that everybody just works week to week on what they need to work on and last week is over.”

The Bojangles Southern 500 pre-race show begins at 5:00 PM EST on FOX and Harvick will lead the field to the green flag at 6:45 PM EST – follow @MarshallGabell on Twitter for live updates of the action.

April 12, 2014
Kyle Busch wins the Nationwide Series Coors Light Pole Award at Darlington Raceway

After posting fast speeds in all three rounds, Kyle Busch went to the top of the leaderboard in Round 3 of Knockout Qualifying to score his 37^th pole in 277 NASCAR Nationwide Series races. He posted a lap speed of 173.681 mph. It is his third pole in ten races at Darlington Raceway.

Chase Elliott will start on the outside pole position in his debut at “The Track Too Tough To Tame” and scores his fourth top-10 start this season. He also has the distinction of being the fastest qualifying rookie.

Matt Kenseth will begin third, marking his seventh top-10 in seven races this season. Kevin Harvick will start fourth followed by Ty Dillon in fifth. Chris Buescher, Brian Scott, Regan Smith, Elliott Sadler and Trevor Bayne qualified in positions six through 10, respectively.

Of special note, all three JR Motorsports cars qualified in the top-10. Kyle Larson spun out during qualifying, hitting the wall and will most likely have to go to a backup car for the race.

Busch will lead the field to green in the 32nd annual VFW Sports Clips Help a Hero 200 Friday evening. The race coverage will be broadcast on ESPN2 beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Complete NASCAR Nationwide Series Starting Lineup – Darlington Raceway

1. Kyle Busch

2. Chase Elliott

3. Matt Kenseth

4. Kevin Harvick

5. Ty Dillon

6. Chris Buescher

7. Brian Scott

8. Regan Smith

9. Elliott Sadler

10. Trevor Bayne

11. Cale Conley

12. Kyle Larson

13. Bendan Gaughan

14. Ryan Sieg

15. Joey Logano

16. Landon Cassill

17. Dylan Kwasniewski

18. Ryan Reed

19. Josh Wise

20. Mike Bliss

21. Jeremy Clements

22. James Buescher

23. JJ Yeley

24. David Starr

25. Dakoda Armstrong

26. Jeffrey Earnhardt

27. Mike Wallace

28. Tanner Berryhill

29. Todd Bodine

30. Eric McClure

31. Kevin LePage

32. Joey Gase

33. Matt Dibenedetto

34. Tommy Joe Martins

35. Derrike Cope

36. Carlos Contreras

37. Matt Carter

38. Jeff Green

39. Mike Harmon

40. Blake Koch

April 11, 2014

Hot 20 – If baseball has the Mendoza Line, surely NASCAR can have the Danica Line

Mario Mendoza is a member of the Mexican Baseball League’s Hall of Fame, yet his legacy in the Major Leagues is not as illustrious. In fact, when one measures how competent a batsmen has been throughout a season and, indeed, his MLB career, the Mendoza Line is one players strive not to fall below. It began as a club house joke; hit below .200 and one has fallen below the Mendoza Line. Though he hit .215 over parts of nine Big League campaigns, in five of them Mendoza hit under .200.

NASCAR has something similar, though unlike baseball’s this is a floating standard. It all comes down to where Danica Patrick falls in the points. Record fewer points than she has, well, you have fallen below the Danica Line. Why Danica, some might ask? She arrived on the scene with tons of hoop-la, buckets of sponsorship cash, and drives top flight equipment, yet her on-track results have been anything but stellar. Heading into Darlington, her average finish in 53 Cup races is worse than 26^th. Even in 61 Nationwide races, it took a good day to even crack the Top 20. Sunday at Texas, she was 27^th.

Granted, that means Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kevin Harvick, and Kurt Busch all finished below the Danica Line on that day, finishing 43^rd,42^nd, and 39^th respectively. However, of the other 13 cars that finished behind her, I would wager that each and every one of those drivers would have given their eye teeth to have been able to be in her car instead of their own.

For Kevin Harvick, the new points system, where wins trump points, has been a real blessing. If NASCAR had gone with my idea of giving 22 additional points for victories and tossing out the Chase, he would have become somewhat irrelevant already, a Phoenix win or not.

Here is a look at our most dominant hot 20 drivers this season, and where the Danica Line is set coming in to the Southern 500 in Darlington on Saturday night.

	Driver	Races	Win	Points	LW
1	Carl Edwards	7	1	269	2
2	Jeff Gordon	7	0	259	4
3	Joey Logano	7	1	257	8
4	Matt Kenseth	7	0	255	3
5	Kyle Busch	7	1	253	5
6	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	7	1	250	1
7	Brad Keselowski	7	1	240	6
8	Jimmie Johnson	7	0	228	7
9	Brian Vickers	7	0	205	14
10	Paul Menard	7	0	203	12
11	Ryan Newman	7	0	202	10
12	Austin Dillon	7	0	202	9
13	Denny Hamlin	6	0	197	13
14	Tony Stewart	7	0	189	17
15	Kyle Larson	7	0	187	NR
16	Greg Biffle	7	0	187	20
17	Clint Bowyer	7	0	187	19
18	Marcos Ambrose	7	0	186	15
19	Kasey Kahne	7	0	178	NR
20	Kurt Busch	7	1	173	11
21	A.J. Allmendinger	7	0	173	18

22	Jamie McMurray	7	0	167
23	Aric Almirola	7	0	164
24	Casey Mears	7	0	162
25	Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.	7	0	154
26	Kevin Harvick	7	1	150
27	Martin Truex, Jr.	7	0	131
28	Justin Allgaier	7	0	129
29	*Danica Patrick*	7	0	*121*
30	Reed Sorenson	7	0	113
31	David Gilliland	7	0	107
32	Michael Annett	7	0	103
33	Cole Whitt	7	0	99
34	David Ragan	7	0	94
35	Alex Bowman	7	0	85
36	Josh Wise	6	0	67
37	Travis Kvapil	6	0	52
38	Ryan Truex	5	0	47
39	Michael McDowell	5	0	40
40	Parker Kligerman	7	0	40

April 10, 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

	Driver	Races	Win	Points
1	Carl Edwards	7	1	247
2	Joey Logano	7	1	235
3	Kyle Busch	7	1	231
4	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	7	1	228
5	Brad Keselowski	7	1	218
6	Kurt Busch	7	1	151
7	Kevin Harvick	7	1	138
8	Jeff Gordon	7	0	259
9	Matt Kenseth	7	0	255
10	Jimmie Johnson	7	0	228
11	Brian Vickers	7	0	205
12	Paul Menard	7	0	203
13	Ryan Newman	7	0	202
14	Austin Dillon	7	0	202
15	Denny Hamlin	6	0	197
16	Tony Stewart	7	0	189
31				107

April 8, 2014

Surprising and Not Surprising: Texas Duck Commander 500

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

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

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

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

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

“I feel very fortunate to have finished second.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

April 7, 2014
NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Martinsville

Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

1. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: After two straight races outside the top 20, Earnhardt finished third at Martinsville and reclaimed the lead in the Sprint Cup points standings. He leads Matt Kenseth by nine.

“I’m thinking about taking Graham Rahal’s Indy car for a spin,” Earnhardt said. “I doubt Junior Nation cares too much about seeing me in an Indy car. They don’t care about open wheels, just open containers.”

2. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson led 296 laps at Martinsville, but couldn’t hold off Kurt Busch down the stretch. Busch took the lead with ten laps to go and Johnson took second. Although winless on the year, Johnson is fifth in the points standings, 18 out of first.

“With eight wins at Martinsville,” Johnson said, “I’m practically a sure thing. Ironically, ‘automatic’ lost out to ‘automation,’ that being the No. 41 car sponsored by Haas Automation. I couldn’t hold Busch off. I drove the wheels off the No. 48 Lowe’s car. Kurt drove the hood off the No. 2 Miller Lite car.”

3. Carl Edwards: Edwards finished 13th at Martinsville, leading the way on a disappointing day for Roush Fenway Racing. He is third in the points standings, 10 out of first.

“Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch had quite a battle,” Edwards said. “They exchanged sheet metal, insults, and fingers. And speaking of ‘birds,’ the No. 99 car with the Aflac duck on it should be one of the favorites at the Duck Commander 500 at Texas. If we win, you could call it the ‘Duck Commandeer 500.”

4. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth posted his fourth top-10 finish of the year with a sixth in the STP 500. He moved up three places to second in the points standings, and trails Dale Earnhardt, Jr. by nine.

“Denny Hamlin had some metal removed from his eye,” Kenseth said. “And that calls for some ‘cornea’ jokes. I think it was glass. That may explain the ‘Who shard-ed?’ buttons that the No. 11 team wore at Martinsville. Many are questioning Denny’s character, accusing him of only caring about himself. Well, let me tell you, Denny’s passed the ‘eye’ test, and he’s passed the ‘me’ test.”

5. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski’s No. 2 Miller Lite car suffered major damage early when Kurt Busch plowed into it as Keselowski was trying to leave the pits. With his front end wrecked, Keselowski finished 38th, 31 laps down, and fell three places in the points standings.

“Kurt won a grandfather clock for his win,” Keselowski said. “And trust me, his time is coming. When I see him next, there will be one hand on his nose, and one hand on his mouth.”

6. Joey Logano: Logano continued his strong year with a fourth at Martinsville, aided by a solid qualifying run of third. He is seventh in the points standings, 40 behind Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

“I doubt we’ve heard the last of the Brad Keselowski-Kurt Busch incident,” Logano said. “Brad’s angry. Kurt’s just as angry, if not angrier. How can you tell? Because he’s got his ears pinned back.”

7. Jeff Gordon: Gordon suffered front-end damage early at Martinsville and struggled the rest of the way, yet managed a 12th-place finish. He is fourth in the Sprint Cup points standings, 11 out of first.

“Texas is next on the agenda,” Gordon said. “They’re calling it the ‘Duck Commander 500’ in honor of Duck Dynasty. Robertson family patriarch Phil Robertson is set to wave the green flag. However, there’s no chance in hell he’ll be waving the ‘P-Flag.’”

8. Kyle Busch: Busch started on the pole at Martinsville and led some early laps before handling issues stifled his efforts. He eventually finished 14th and is now sixth in the points standings, 38 out of first.

“Congratulations to my brother Kurt,” Kyle said. “That was an impressive win. He held off Martinsville master Jimmie Johnson. This pasty white boy’s not hip to the current street lingo, but this seemed to be a case of ‘Bro’s Before Lowe’s.’”

9. Kurt Busch: Busch bounced back from early contact with Brad Keselowski to pass Jimmie Johnson with ten laps to go, and won the STP 500 at Martinsville.

“Unlike some drivers who are expecting children,” Busch said, “I don’t have a baby on the way. But there was a ‘baby’ in the way. I’m sure Brad will say I haven’t heard the last of me. That’s okay, because he has heard the ‘first’ of me.

“Kyle started in the lead, and I finished with the lead. That’s great publicity for Sprint’s new cell phone plan. But neither of us has any friends, so it’s not the ‘Framily’ plan, it’s just the ‘Family’ plan.”

10. Austin Dillon: Dillon posted a solid 15th in the STP 500, the top finish among rookies at Martinsville. He is ninth in the points standings, 48 out of first.

“I really wish I could have won the race,” Dillon said. “Then I would have a grandfather clock to go with my grandfather. Without Richard Childress, I doubt I would be in a Sprint Cup car right now. He’s no clock, but he tells me when it’s ‘time.’”

April 1, 2014

The Final Word – Kurt Busch breaks Johnson’s heart and Keselowski’s car at Martinsville

Winning races gets your name, and that of your sponsor out there. You run where they can see you, or you do something that causes the cameras to wander your way. If that is the goal, it was mission accomplished for Kurt Busch.

At the start, Kurt was in there somewhere but not yet up front. So, with 45 laps gone in a 500 lap event, he managed to find a way into the headlines. When Kasey Kahne turned left to head toward his pit stall, he cut in front of Brad Keselowski. That caused a minor bump. However, Kurt Busch saw room on Keselowski’s right and went for it. Unfortunately, Brad turned ever so slightly to his right and into Busch. Kurt thought he had ruined his chances for good things at Martinsville while Keselowski went to the garage for extensive repairs and a place to stew.

Thirty-odd laps later, Kurt was still not in front, but Keselowski was back on the track in what looked like a stripped down hot rod roadster. Needless to say, Brad was not happy. He tried to keep Kurt behind him when they met again. Kurt nudged Brad’s rear in return. Keselowski tried to brake check Busch, then they banged fenders, or whatever passed for a fender on the 2 car. Keselowski got downright cuddly as a kitten with Busch, if the critter was on catnip and some Colorado herbals. They met; they banged like William Hung, and kept this up until Kurt finally got away. Still not at the front, but he sure got lots of screen time for owner/sponsor Gene Haas. Not bad for being out in the weeds. As for Keselowski, he was the guy driving the No. 2…that white car with no fenders or hood. He was sponsored, was he not?

To maximize his exposure, Kurt’s crew managed to work on the car, got it better and better, and in the final laps he managed to slip past the most dominant car of the day. Jimmie Johnson finished second as his winless streak is now extended to nine whole races, going back to Texas last November. Busch won his first since October 2, 2011 at Dover, the 25th of his Cup career, and this puts him in a likely Chase place. Most important of all, anyone watching the race knew that Kurt Busch and Haas Automation were there.

I also noticed that Busch climbed onto the roof of his car in celebration. Isn’t that now illegal? As for Brad, he is making like Michael Buffer, calling to Kurt to get ready to rumble. Yet, when I rewatched the video, it was Brad’s slight right hand turn after hitting Kahne that caused the contact with Busch on pit row. A wrecked car, a ruined race, and now it is his fault…not that Keselowski would agree.

Carl Edwards was 13th, which gave Dale Earnhardt Jr a ten position jump on him on the track and moves Junior that many points ahead of Edwards on top in the over-all standings. The winless Matt Kenseth, with finishes this year ranging between fourth and 13th, is in second place, nine points back.

Busch is 20th, based strictly on points, and Kevin Harvick sits in 25th after finishing seventh at Martinsville. A Top 30 in the standings is needed for their wins to count toward making the Chase, but they hold 45 and 34 point cushions respectively in that department. As wins count more than points, they sit fifth and sixth in the standings.

Each week the media seems intent on telling us how much better Danica Patrick is each and every race over last year’s performance. She was 32nd on Sunday, and 12th in the spring race at Martinsville a year ago. She finished no better than 24th over the next eight races last year, so between now and Michigan all she needs to do is finish 23rd or better for this improvement talk to be taken seriously. It should be interesting to see how she does compared to the likes of Justin Allgaier, Michael Annett, and Cole Whitt over that span.

They go from the short track in Martinsville, Virginia to the 1.5-mile circuit in Fort Worth, Texas. Kyle Busch won there last spring, though Jimmie Johnson has won the past two fall events. Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, and Kasey Kahne are all currently outside our sweet 16 qualifying positions for the Chase, but all three know where Victory Lane can be found in Texas.

	Driver	Races	Wins	Points
1	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	6	1	227
2	Carl Edwards	6	1	217
3	Kyle Busch	6	1	189
4	Brad Keselowski	6	1	188
5	Kurt Busch	6	1	146
6	Kevin Harvick	6	1	135
7	Matt Kenseth	6	0	218
8	Jeff Gordon	6	0	216
9	Jimmie Johnson	6	0	209
10	Joey Logano	6	0	187
11	Austin Dillon	6	0	179
12	Ryan Newman	6	0	174
13	Paul Menard	6	0	168
14	Denny Hamlin	5	0	165
15	Brian Vickers	6	0	165
16	Marcos Ambrose	6	0	162

30	Reed Sorenson	6	0	101

March 31, 2014

Hot 20 – As Jeff Gordon experiences an interesting week, we remember Lynda Petty

I guess Jeff Gordon had reason to be somewhat hot this past week. Last Sunday, he came within a Clint Bowyer spin of taking the prize in California. Then, a satirical website came out with a story of Gordon coming out, admitting to dating an openly gay fellow, and “reporting” on the outrage of some fans at the “news.” I guess this comes with being the second prettiest driver in NASCAR, though the fact he has two kids with one of the prettiest spouses in NASCAR should be a hint that happy he may be, gay he is not.

One thing Gordon is, and that is the best driver in Cup who thus far has yet to register a win this season. Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson are in the ball park. Even though Kevin Harvick may have won at Phoenix he finds his stock plunging. Three races he has looked good, at least the first few chapters, then someone rips out the final few pages to leave him with finishes of 41^st, 39^th, and 36^th. While the official standings might have him sitting fifth, last among those with a victory to their credit, he is nowhere to be found in anybody’s Top 20 finishers when it comes to accumulated points.

Every method of determining a champion has its critics. While we await reaction to this year’s elimination rounds, most remember that Matt Kenseth won the title in 2003 but fewer remember that Ryan Newman won eight races that year. The points system in place did not really reward him for the effort. Still, that in no way diminishes Kenseth’s crown or the six Johnson has claimed since the Chase was instituted. It may alter who we think of as being the best over any one campaign, but in the long run the cream always rises to the top.

Richard Petty may have become the King due to his seven championships and 200 victories, but this week we mourn the loss of his queen. Lynda and Richard were married in 1959, and it probably is not a coincidence that it was the next year her husband began to win his first races. While Richard ruled the tracks, it was Lynda who ruled the roost. She was even the family disciplinarian. On that subject, a few years ago she said that you could ask her son “‘Did your daddy ever whip you?’ and he’d say, ‘No, but my mother wailed the daylights out of me.’ ” She had her causes that she was passionate about, but none were as important to her than her family. We join with the entire NASCAR family in remembering Lynda Petty.

If we returned to former days when there was no Chase, if we used today’s points system but winners were rewarded with 69 to 70 points, and we determined our champion over 36 races, this is how our Hot 20 standings would look like as the action heads to Martinsville for this Sunday.

	Driver	Races	Win	Points
1	Carl Edwards	5	1	208
2	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	5	1	207
3	Brad Keselowski	5	1	204
4	Jeff Gordon	5	0	184
5	Kyle Busch	5	1	180
6	Matt Kenseth	5	0	179
7	Jimmie Johnson	5	0	165
8	Ryan Newman	5	0	150
9	Austin Dillon	5	0	150
10	Joey Logano	5	0	146
11	Denny Hamlin	4	0	140
12	Jamie McMurray	5	0	138
13	Brian Vickers	5	0	137
14	Paul Menard	5	0	134
15	Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.	5	0	132
16	Kyle Larson	5	0	131
17	Tony Stewart	5	0	127
18	Casey Mears	5	0	126
19	Kasey Kahne	5	0	123
20	Greg Biffle	5	0	122
21	Marcos Ambrose	5	0	122

March 27, 2014