Tag: kyle busch

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Michigan Quicken Loans 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Michigan Quicken Loans 400

    Awash in tributes to the memory of Jason Leffler and to all the dads for Father’s Day, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

    Surprising:  For the first time since June of 2005 at Sonoma, every Hendrick Motorsports car finished outside the top 25.

    Five-time champ Jimmie Johnson finished 28th after hitting the wall in the remaining laps of the race, while Dale Earnhardt, Jr. blew an engine to finish 37th. The next HMS driver to finish was Kasey Kahne in the 38th position after blowing a tire and hitting the wall, followed by Jeff Gordon, who was caught up in an early wreck with Bobby Labonte to finish 39th.

    Four-time champion Jeff Gordon, who himself experienced his second DNF in a row at MIS, summed up the disappointing finishes of all of Hendrick Motorsports teams best.

    “It’s testing my frustration level,” Gordon said. “I don’t want to see the team get down.”

    “I have a lot of fight and so does the team,” Gordon continued. “I’m looking forward to going to Sonoma.”

    Not Surprising:  Since it was Michigan, a track that has been known as a Ford playground and where Roush Fenway Racing has such deep roots, it was no surprise that the race winner was Greg Biffle, the driver of the No. 16 3M/Give Kids a Smile Ford.

    It was also not surprising that Biffle scored the 1,000th win for the Ford Motor Company as well as giving the Ford Motor Company a happy 110th birthday. And for the Biff, he was also able to celebrate his very first win of the 2013 season.

    But what was not surprising in the least was the emotion of the driver in Victory Lane as he held his daughter Emma tight, celebrated Father’s Day, and honored the memory of a fellow competitor who was lost too soon, leaving his beloved five year old son behind.

    “It is Emma’s first victory lane on Father’s Day,” Biffle said as the confetti rained down upon them. “I am thinking about my dad that couldn’t be here who is hopefully watching.”

    “We are also thinking about little Charlie Leffler that doesn’t have a father today.”

    Surprising:  In spite of an engine failure on Lap 132 and the resulting poor finish, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was surprisingly upbeat when all was said and done. In fact, he actually took on the role of team leader and chief cheerleader, especially when it came to the performance of his car.

    “We just had something come apart in the motor,” the driver of the No. 88 National Guard/Man of Steel Chevrolet said. “Really happy though with the engine.”

    “Happy with the way the car performed,” Junior continued. “We had an awesome car.”

    “We had a first or second place car there.”

    Not Surprising:  He may not have closed the deal, but Kevin Harvick was indeed happy with his second place finish in his No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet. And he even managed that great finish in spite of having an ill-handling car to start off with and a vibration at the end of the race.

    “I didn’t wake up thinking that we were going to even run in the top ten,” Harvick said. “I was pretty nervous about our car.”

    “But everybody on this whole Budweiser team did a great job,” Harvick continued. “We just kept our head in there and kept digging.”

    This was Harvick’s fifth top-10 in a row and his fifth top-five finish of the season. His good run also moved him up one spot in the point standings to the fourth position.

    Surprising:  The rest of Richard Childress Racing had a surprisingly good day at the race track, with all of their other drivers in the top 15 at Michigan International Speedway. Jeff Burton finished 10th, Austin Dillon finished 11th and Paul Menard finished 14th for team RCR.

    “The No. 31 Caterpillar team fought hard all day to bring home another solid finish,” Burton said. “We continue to make progress with our mile-and-a –half and two-mile track programs.”

    “Overall it was a good points day,” Burton said, moving four spots up to 17th in the standings.

    Not Surprising:   Smoke, who has been on fire as of late, continued to rip off good finishes now that the summer has arrived. In spite of a crash on Friday, the driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet finished top-five and moved up into the top ten in the point standings.

    “We had some breaks go our way,” Stewart said. “I’m proud of these guys.”

    “We weren’t very good all weekend so this team had to work hard to get us where we were today.”

    Surprising:  After all the talk of engine woes and failures and the ratcheting up and down of horsepower, Toyota had a surprisingly good day, scoring a third place finish with Martin Truex, Jr., a fourth place with Kyle Busch, a sixth place with Matt Kenseth and a seventh place finish with Clint Bowyer.

    “The power in the engine was definitely better than last week,” Truex, Jr., driver of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota said. “They’re working on that.”

    “We were very competitive horsepower-wise and all that was good.”

    “That was a crazy day,” Bowyer, driver of the No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota said. “We got off to a rough start but we worked on it all day long and made the absolute best of the situation.”

    “Not the way we would have drawn it up, but I’ll take it.”

    Not Surprising:  There was indeed some drama between teammates, from a restart issue with Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., as well as  a disagreement about trash between Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards.

    “Yeah, he spun his tires and almost ran into the side of me trying to control his car,” Johnson said of teammate Junior on a restart. “I wasn’t going to get burned on that again so I jumped off the gas and got drilled from behind.”

    “There is a game to be played there and you can cause a heck of a pile up if you are trying to give it back.”

    Biffle and Edwards, on the other hand, had a major disagreement about of all things trash on the grille.

    “It’s his job to help me,” Edwards said of Biffle, who he felt should have backed up to help him dislodge trash that was causing significant overheating.

    “I didn’t know when I passed him he had something on his grille or I’d let him get it off then,” Biffle said. “But when I looked up and he was 25 car lengths back, I said ‘I can’t help him, not right now.’ This is my chance to win today.”

    “I didn’t feel like I could take that risk.”

    Surprising:  After starting 37th, Danica Patrick scored her first top-15 finish in a Cup Series race at the big track in the rolling hills of Michigan.

    “At the end of the race, the last run was the best run I felt,” the driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet said. “It’s so nice to get a decent finish for the team.”

    “This will hopefully get everyone’s head up a little bit and we will go on,” Patrick said. “I think we have been strong lately.”

    “We just needed to have days like today where we finished it off.”

    Not Surprising:  Bobby Labonte, booted temporarily from his No. 47 Charter Toyota for JTG Daugherty Racing, struggled even after picking up a new ride in the No. 51 Phoenix Construction Services Chevrolet for James Finch and Phoenix Racing.

    Although Labonte was able to keep his consecutive race streak alive at 702, unfortunately his race results were not what he wanted or needed as he wrecked out early, finishing dead last.

    AJ Allmendinger, who JTG Daugherty had hired to shake down Labonte’s ride, did a little better in that car, scoring a top-20 finish.

    Allmendinger could drive a few more times for JTG, while Labonte is scheduled to return for the remainder of the schedule. Labonte’s best finish so far in the No. 47 car has been 15th in the Daytona 500.

    Surprising:  Kasey Kahne showed off a surprisingly new talent, that of firefighting. The driver of the No. 5 Farmer’s Insurance Chevrolet was leading the race when the car took off, hit the wall and burst into flames.

    “Something broke,” Kahne said. “I would say it was a tire that went down but I don’t know for sure.”

    “I was just going into the corner and then it went ‘boom’ and turned right straight into the wall.”

    Kahne’s car burst into flames and he was able to exit quickly. He then, however, reached back into the car and initiated the fire extinguishing equipment, putting out the fire well before any of the safety professionals arrived at the scene.

    Kahne later tweeted, “First time I have ever pulled the fire extinguisher. That was cool.”

    Not Surprising:  As with every driver, team and owner, hearts were heavy for the loss of Jason Leffler, who died in a sprint car from blunt neck trauma at a dirt track in New Jersey. Team owner Jack Roush put it best with his hope that Leffler would live on through new and improved safety at those local race tracks.

    “Every time somebody gets hurt in racing, we need to look behind it and see what we can learn about the tragedy and see what we can do to establish some safety thing that would make it survivable for somebody else in the future,” Roush said. “If there was something to be learned from this, Jason will have an impact, as Dale Earnhardt’s death did, on the generation of drivers that follow him.”

  • Threat of Rain a Recipe for Exciting Nationwide Finish at Michigan

    Threat of Rain a Recipe for Exciting Nationwide Finish at Michigan

    As rain loomed over Michigan International Speedway, every driver scrambled for position, and every crew chief formulated a strategy in an effort to beat Mother Nature.  Several teams elected not to pit in an effort to gain track position hoping to be at the front of the pack in case a red flag fell on the field.   A timely caution gave No. 7 TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet driver, Regan Smith the track position he needed to grab his first victory at Michigan International Speedway.

    Winning the 22nd Annual Alliance Truck Parts 250 is Smith’s second victory this season after winning the Aaron’s 312 at Talladega Superspeedway, and is his third victory in 116 NASCAR Nationwide Series races.  JR Racing driver, Smith, has finished in the top-10 in eleven consecutive races.  He now leads Sam Hornish Jr. by 58 points in the Nationwide Series points standings.

    No. 32 Cessna Chevrolet driver, Kyle Larson, posted his first top-10 finish and matched his career-best finish at Michigan International Speedway by finishing in second behind Smith.  This marks his eighth top-10 finish in 2013.

    Driver of the No. 33 Menards/Rheem Chevrolet, Paul Menard, posted his seventh top-10 finish in eight races at Michigan International Speedway by finishing third in Saturday’s race.  Primarily competing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Saturday’s race marked Menard’s first NASCAR Nationwide Series start this season.

    Another Sprint Cup Series regular,  Kyle Busch, finished the race in fourth position.  When crew chief of the Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Adam Stevens, was asked if it was a difficult race to call knowing that rain was in the area, he responded, “The radar showed the rain here pretty much all day.  It wasn’t hitting the ground.  I’m glad we got to run the full distance—it took a while to make some progress, but we did and we got the car better.  We just weren’t going to make it any better on pit road.  I really felt like if we could have had a good restart on the last restart that we were in the catbird seat, but the last two restarts just didn’t go our way.  I felt like we had the balances good and we were going to get it, but we were just missing something with overall speed—kind of missing it in qualifying and missed it today in the race too.  All in all, we finished and we don’t have a scratch on it so we’ll take it.”  This marks Busch’s eleventh top-10 finish in fourteen NASCAR Nationwide Series starts this season.

    The rain around the Michigan International Speedway did not cooperate with the No. 77 Bandit Chippers Toyota of Parker Kligerman.  Kligerman’s crew chief, Eric Phillips, molded his team’s race strategy on the high possibility of rain causing the race to be red flagged.  Kligerman did not pit when he had the opportunity gambling on the fact that the rain would come before they ran out of fuel.  It was a gamble that did not pay off.   The No. 77 team finished in 25th when they were forced to pit under green.  When asked if he was praying for rain while leading, Kligerman commented, “Yeah, we played it perfectly for that situation and I’m not down on Eric (Phillips, crew chief) or anyone about that.  I was fully for it, but it sucks when you run top-five all day.  This Bandit Chippers Camry right in front of a Bandit Chippers home crowd and a car that could win on speed alone and –we drove away from the field there—and it just didn’t go our way.  There was debris everywhere the last 20 laps.  Of course, no one threw a caution, so we ran out of fuel and finished wherever we finished.  Disappointing day result-wise, but a lot of positives in terms of the speed we had in our Camry and we’ll get them next time.”

    At a track where fuel strategy races are common, today’s chess match with Mother Nature put an interesting twist on things that left some teams frustrated  as Regan Smith declared check mate at the end of the day.

  • Dillon Makes Nationwide Series History at Michigan

    Dillon Makes Nationwide Series History at Michigan

    Driver of the No. 3 AdvoCare Chevrolet, Austin Dillon, captured the Coors Light Pole Award for the 22nd Annual Truck Parts 250 at Michigan International Speedway.  With a qualifying lap of 37.523 seconds, 191.882 mph, Dillon broke the track qualifying record of 190.375 mph, which he set at Michigan last year.  This is Dillon’s seventh pole in 57 NASCAR Nationwide Series races. Today’s pole award marks Dillon’s fourth consecutive pole, which sets a NASCAR Nationwide Series record.  Dillon’s previous three poles came at Charlotte, Dover, and Iowa with top ten finishes in both Dover and Iowa.

    Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing teammate, Paul Menard, will be starting in 2nd position. The 22nd Annual Alliance Truck Parts 250 marks Menard’s first NASCAR Nationwide Series start of 2013.  This is the fourth top-10 start out of eight races at Michigan International Speedway.

    RAB Racing driver, No. 99 Alex Bowman, was the fastest qualifying rookie for the 22nd Annual Alliance Truck Parts 250.  Bowman will be starting in fifth position driving his St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital Toyota.

    Last week’s winner of Iowa’s Dupont Pioneer 250 and newlywed, Trevor Bayne, will be starting in fourth position in the Roush Clean Tech Ford.  Bayne has six top-10 finishes this season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and is currently 9th in points standings.

    Nationwide Series points leader and driver of the Taxslayer.com Chevrolet, Regan Smith, didn’t fare as well in qualifying for the 22nd Annual Truck Parts 250.  He will be starting in 20th position with ten top-10 finishes this season and one win at Talladega Superspeedway.

    Sprint Cup Series regular, Kyle Busch, who has dominated the Nationwide Series this season will be starting in 14th position in his Monster Energy Toyota.  No. 54 Busch has won three Nationwide Series pole awards, and has had nine top-10 finishes with six wins in 2013.  Busch has one win and four top-10 finishes at Michigan International Speedway.

    The green flag will fall on the 22nd Annual Alliance Truck Parts 250 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan on Saturday at 2:15 pm EST.

  • Crunching The Numbers: Michigan

    Crunching The Numbers: Michigan

    After having races in three different states last weekend for the three national series, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series join back up for a companion weekend at Michigan International Speedway, the bad fast two-mile oval located in the Irish Hills of Michigan. The high speeds generated at the track are due in large part to the repave that the track underwent last season, as well as the long straightaways and the wide, sweeping corners that tend to produce three and four wide racing.

    Sprint Cup Series – Quicken Loans 400

    After taking on the “Tricky Triangle” in Pocono last weekend, the Sprint Cup Series heads west to Michigan for race No. 15 of the season. Many are expecting a blazing fast race with the combination of the new pavement from last year and the new Gen6 car that has been breaking track records all season long. If that trend continues this weekend, the track record of 203.241 mph set last season at this race by Marcos Ambrose could very well be in danger of falling.

    Driver Races Win Top 5 Top 10 Pole Laps Led Avg. Start Avg. Finish
    Carl Edwards 17 2 9 13 0 275 21.1 8.2
    Matt Kenseth 27 2 12 17 0 284 18.3 9.6
    Jeff Gordon 40 2 18 25 5 954 11.1 11.7
    Greg Biffle 20 3 9 12 1 517 13.2 11.8
    Tony Stewart 28 1 11 19 0 224 19.4 11.9
    Denny Hamlin 14 2 5 7 0 149 14.5 13.6
    Mark Martin 54 5 18 31 1 965 11.7 14.0
    Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 27 2 6 10 2 293 15.0 14.8
    Kevin Harvick 24 1 3 8 0 149 18.1 14.8
    Jimmie Johnson 22 0 4 9 0 565 8.8 15.2

    Who To Watch: With car owner Jack Roush hailing from Michigan and some of the Roush organization being based in Michigan, it is no surprise that Ford drivers run well at this track. Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Ford for Roush-Fenway Racing, leads all active drivers in the stats category at Michigan with two wins, nine top fives, 13 top tens, 275 laps led, and an average finish of 8.2 in 17 races.

    Matt Kenseth, former teammate to Edwards and current driver of the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, also has run well at Michigan with two wins, 12 top fives, 17 top tens, 284 laps led, and an average finish of 9.6 in 27 races. However, Toyota’s recent decision to detune their engines in favor of better reliability may hamper Kenseth and the other Toyota drivers at Michigan, where an engine that can produce big horsepower and speed can provide a sizeable advantage over the competition.

    Others to keep an eye on include: Jeff Gordon, with two wins, 18 top fives, 25 top tens, five poles, 954 laps led, and an average finish of 11.7 in 40 races; Greg Biffle, with three wins, nine top fives, 12 top tens, one pole, 517 laps led, and an average finish of 11.8 in 20 starts; Tony Stewart, who has been on a roll since winning at Dover two weeks ago, has one win, 11 top fives, 19 top tens, 224 laps led, and an average finish of 11.9 in 28 starts; Denny Hamlin, with two wins, five top fives, seven top tens, 149 laps led, and an average finish of 13.6; and Mark Martin, with five wins, 18 top fives, 31 top tens, one pole, 965 laps led, and an average finish of 14.0 in 54 races.

    We can’t forget about Dale Earnhardt, Jr. either, with both of his Michigan wins equating to his last two Sprint Cup Series wins, including his win in this race one year ago. In addition to his two wins, Earnhardt, Jr. has six top fives, 10 top tens, two poles, 293 laps led, and an average finish of 14.8 in 27 races. Earnhardt will also be running a special “Man of Steel” paint scheme this weekend, and the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet could very well take a superhero themed car to Victory Lane for the second year in a row.

    Nationwide Series – Alliance Truck Parts 250

    The first standalone race of the season for the Nationwide Series at Iowa last weekend surely did not disappoint as the race that was postponed to Sunday due to rain saw Trevor Bayne overtake a dominant Austin Dillon in the closing laps to win. The Nationwide drivers head north to Michigan this weekend for another companion weekend with their Sprint Cup counterparts. With only a few Sprint Cup regulars running this race, we could possibly see a Nationwide regular get to Victory Lane once again on Saturday.

    Driver Races Win Top 5 Top 10 Pole Laps Led Avg. Start Avg. Finish
    Kyle Busch 5 1 4 4 0 119 7.4 4.8
    Joey Logano 4 1 1 4 0 31 6.8 5.0
    Brian Vickers 5 0 2 3 1 114 5.2 9.0
    Paul Menard 7 0 2 6 1 50 12.9 9.3
    Justin Allgaier 4 0 1 2 0 14 14.0 9.5
    Austin Dillon 2 0 1 1 1 11 19.0 12.0
    Brian Scott 3 0 0 1 0 0 15.0 13.7
    Elliott Sadler 8 0 0 4 0 10 20.6 14.5
    Michael Annett 4 0 0 0 0 0 18.5 15.0
    Trevor Bayne 3 0 1 1 0 1 5.7 15.3

    Who To Watch: Two of the three Sprint Cup regulars running on Saturday, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano, lead in the stats category at Michigan with each driver having one win apiece. Busch has slightly better stats than Logano with four top fives, four top tens, 119 laps led and an average finish of 4.8 in five starts versus Logano’s one top five, four top tens, 31 laps led and an average finish of 5.0 in four starts. Logano and Busch are also the only drivers that will be racing on Saturday that have a Nationwide Series win at Michigan.

    Others to keep an eye on include: Brian Vickers, with two top fives, three top tens, one pole, 114 laps led, and an average finish of 9.0 in five starts; Paul Menard, the third of the three Sprint Cup regulars, with two top fives, six top tens, one pole, 50 laps led, and an average finish of 9.3 in seven starts; Justin Allgaier, with one top five, two top tens, 14 laps led, and an average finish of 9.5 in four starts; and Austin Dillon, who nearly won last week in Iowa, with one top five, one top ten, one pole, 11 laps led, and an average finish of 12.0 in two starts.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Party in the Poconos 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Party in the Poconos 400

    With a picture-perfect race day after a qualifying rainout, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 32nd annual Party in the Poconos 400.

    Surprising:  With good practice times and a decent starting position set on owner’s points, it was most surprising to see the No. 5 Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet  head to pit road and then to the garage on the first lap of the race.

    “We have no idea what happened with the car yet,” Kasey Kahne said. “The crew and engineers have been looking at things but they’re still unsure.”

    “II know that when I took off, in second gear, I had no power and it was just vibrating like crazy,” Kahne continued. “The faster I went, the worse the vibration was.”

    With the garage time, Kahne finished nineteen laps down in the 36th position. He also lost two positions in the point standings, falling from the fifth to seventh spot.

    Not Surprising:  With the controversy of the Dover restart still ringing in his ears, Jimmie Johnson put it all behind him, leading a record setting 128 laps out of the total 160 at Pocono Raceway.

    And with a lap leading percentage of 80%, there was no surprise that the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet found Victory Lane for the third time of the season and the third time at Pocono.

    “I’m sure we’ve had some other really strong races like that, but not in recent memory,” Johnson said. “What a race car.”

    “There are only so many tricks you have if you play by the rules with those restarts,” Johnson continued. “Fortunately, I was able to get the lead and have clean air again at the end.”

    Surprising:  With all the struggles of team Ford, it was most surprising to see Greg Biffle, in the No. 16 3M Ford, surge at the end to score the runner up position.

    “We had some good restarts and we were lucky with the lane choices and my car ran pretty good on restarts,” Biffle said. “Clearly we’re not celebrating that we finished second quite yet and have our cars figured out, but this is definitely a step in the right direction.”

    “We certainly ran better here than we have been all season and certainly that’s a positive for us going to next week, so hopefully we’ll continue to build on that.”

    Not Surprising:  With a third place finish in the books, NASCAR’s most popular driver pronounced it all good, as well as predicting that the momentum might just carry the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet into Victory Lane soon.

    “We are all right,” Dale Earnhardt, Jr. said. “We know what we need to do.”

    “Confidence is there so all the fans can rest assured we feel like we are on the right track,” Junior continued. “We want to get a win, man.”

    “If we keep getting close, we are going to get one.”

    Surprising:  The announcement of Toyota Racing Development backing down the horsepower to improve reliability surprisingly came at the worst time for Denny Hamlin, who has been battling intently to recover from his injury and make the Chase.

    “We weren’t competitive,” the driver of the No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota said after finishing eighth. “We’re just trying to do everything we can and grind and finish good when we don’t have a winning car.”

    “And by no means did we have a winning car this weekend.”

    Not Surprising:   Fellow Toyota teammate Kyle Busch was the top Toyota finisher, bringing his No. 18 M&Ms Toyota Camry home in the sixth position.

    “The car was loose in turn three all day, but we got the car feeling pretty good towards the end,” Busch said. “We probably had a seventh place car all day long.”

    “I just couldn’t get going on that last restart,” Busch continued. “I just didn’t do a good job there and we found ourselves in sixth.”

    “We’ll take that and go on to Michigan.”

    Surprising:  Stewart-Haas Racing had a surprisingly good time at the Party in the Poconos, with Tony Stewart finishing in fourth, Ryan Newman finishing fifth, and Danica Patrick finishing on the lead lap at her first ever try on that tricky track.

    “It’s one thing if one car runs good, but to have two or all three of us running good shows that we are gaining momentum,” Tony Stewart, team owner and driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet, said . “Really proud of our group at SHR.”

    Not Surprising:  Kurt Busch, behind the wheel of the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet, once again faced adversity, this time with a problem on pit road. And not surprisingly, he and his team rallied yet again to finish top-10.

    “We had a fast car again, ran up front but a mistake on my part on pit road stalled our momentum,” Busch said. “But we battled back with a solid finish.”

    “The good news is that we know how to overcome adversity and the more we perform the way we have been, the better we’ll get.”

    Surprising:  Matt Kenseth had an uncharacteristically and surprisingly tough day, doing some synchronized spinning with Juan Pablo Montoya and then wheel-hopping on pit road and having some contact with Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

    “I mean, disappointing,” the driver of the No. 20 Home Depot/Husky Tools Toyota said. “I thought we had a top-five at the very worst or seventh or eighth-place car.”

    “Whenever you don’t finish where you are running, it’s always disappointing.”

    Not Surprising:  Earnhardt Ganassi Racing just keeps gaining ground, this week with Jamie McMurray finishing thirteenth and Juan Pablo Montoya finishing fourteenth.

    “We just have to execute,” Montoya said. “Each person has got to do its own little thing.”

    “We just have to keep our heads down and keep doing our work and we will be fine.”

    Surprising:  AJ Allmendinger had a surprisingly difficult day in the No. 51 Phoenix Construction Services Chevrolet, finishing a disappointing 33rd. The ‘Dinger was responsible for the next to the last race caution after experiencing significant tire troubles.

    In spite of this, Allmendinger was surprisingly chosen to replace Bobby Labonte when the Cup crowd heads to Michigan next weekend. JTG Daugherty Racing’s leadership apparently selected ‘Dinger to shake down the car to see if and how the performance can be enhanced.

    “I have raced for Phoenix Racing some this year and feel confident I’ll be able to provide JTG Daugherty Racing with a good comparison,” Allmendinger said. “I’m thankful for this opportunity to work with the team and Bobby.”

    Not Surprising:  For Chad Knaus, crew chief, and team Jimmie Johnson, the focus still remains on the point standings. And this team not surprisingly knows exactly how important their points lead is, now 51 points ahead of Carl Edwards.

    “As far as points go, it’s always important,” Knaus said. “We’ve got some very tricky race tracks coming up and we want to make sure that we get as many points accumulated as possible.”

    “That’s just the way we roll.”

     

  • Jimmie Johnson Party of One in Pocono Victory Lane

    Jimmie Johnson Party of One in Pocono Victory Lane

    After dominating at Dover last week and not getting the result he wanted due to a restart penalty, Jimmie Johnson ordered up a table for one at the Party in the Poconos 400 Presented by Walmart, right in Victory Lane.

    Although challenged by some late race cautions, Johnson dominated the race, leading a career high 128 laps.

    He also dominated the race weekend, from being quickest in first practice to being at the front of the field in the final practice session. And thanks to the rainout of qualifying, the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet also started from the pole, which was critical for track position.

    The win was Johnson’s 63rd career victory, his third win of the season, and his third checkered flag in 23 races at the Tricky Triangle.

    “What a race car,” Johnson said. “Not only the car and the handling and the grip that it had, but also the engine and what was under the hood.”

    “When I would lean on the throttle, this baby would yard anybody and everybody,” Johnson continued. “Today everything worked out.”

    Not only did Chad Knaus, Johnson’s crew chief, concur but he also enjoyed every minute of the Pocono competition.

    “Wow, it was a lot of fun,” Knaus said. “I really love this race track.”

    “It’s always been one of my favorites,” Knaus continued. “When you come up here you have to have a race car that will handle, great horsepower and so many cool things that come into play.”

    “When we showed up on Friday, we realized that we had a great car,” Knaus said. “Jimmie did a fantastic job and his car control was second to none.”

    Greg Biffle, who had a great run at Pocono, particularly on the last restart, finished in the runner up position with his No. 16 3M Ford. Although this was his fifth top-10 finish in 21 races at Pocono and his fifth top-10 finish of the season, Biffle acknowledged that the good finish did not come quite as easily as he would have liked.

    “It was definitely a struggle for us,” Biffle said. “We had two pit stops that weren’t the greatest and hung a lug nut.”

    “We were struggling for track position all day,” Biffle continued. “Turns 3 and 4 (or whatever you call it) was where we struggled.”

    “I was terrible there and anything I would gain in turns 1 and 2, I would lose.”

    Biffle acknowledged that he simply did not have anything for the 48 bunch. But he took the runner up finish as a positive, particularly going into Michigan next week, a track where he has had success in the past.

    “The 48 was super fast,” Biffle said. “He just drove away from everybody.”

    “We had some good restarts and we were lucky with the lane choices, but most of the top five cars were faster than us on sheer speed,” Biffle continued. “We still have work to do but this is a step in the right direction.”

    “That’s a positive for us going to next week.”

    Fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the Hendrick Motorsports team in the finishing order, taking the checkered flag third in the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet. This was Junior’s 10th top-10 finish in 27 races at Pocono.

    But even with the top-five finish, Earnhardt Jr. acknowledged that the restarts at the Tricky Triangle were the most challenging for him to overcome.

    “Them last restarts were kind of tough,” Junior said. “Being on the inside on the front row really ain’t the cat bird’s seat.”

    “The guys behind you can get good runs and put you three-wide,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “So, I was more in defense mode there and Greg (Biffle) just got around us on the outside.”

    “But I’m pretty happy with the way we ran,” Junior said. “Just looking forward to going to Michigan, a track we run pretty good at, next week.”

    Stewart-Haas Racing had a great time at the Party in the Poconos, with Tony Stewart, in the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet, finishing fourth and teammate Ryan Newman, in the No. 39 HAAS Automation Chevrolet, finishing fifth.

    “The restarts got tight,” Stewart acknowledged. “The good thing is we got confidence from the last three weeks in a row.”

    The third member of the Stewart-Haas team, Danica Patrick, finished 29th in her first ever run in a Cup car at Pocono. She did, however, bring her No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet to the checkered flag on the lead lap.

    “For Ryan and I to finish in the top five and Danica doing better, we’re just gaining on it,” Stewart said. “I’m just proud our group had a good run.”

    Stewart’s teammate Ryan Newman did indeed have a good finish, playing both the speed and strategy cards throughout the race, even on the restarts.

    “Well we did have the speed today,” Newman said. “Strategy worked out to our benefit.”

    “I thought I was going to be in the middle of a Busch (brother Kurt and Kyle) sandwich there at the end going into Turn 2,” Newman continued. “But I have to thank them for giving me a little bit of room.”

    “Strategy worked to our benefit with the yellows there at the end,” Newman said. “Just a good rebound for us and that’s really what we needed for this team.”

    The Busch brothers, Kyle and Kurt, finished sixth and seventh respectively. Both, however, had their share of adversity from which they had to battle back.

    “We just kept working on our M&M’s Camry all day,” Kyle Busch said. “We probably had a seventh-place car all day long and found ourselves in third on the last restart.”

    “I just couldn’t get going for some reason,” Busch continued. “I just didn’t do a good job there and we found ourselves in sixth.”

    “We’ll take that and go on to Michigan.”

    “We had a fast car again, ran up front but a mistake on my part on pit road stalled our momentum,” Kurt Busch said, after overshooting his pit box on Lap 126. “But we battled back with a solid finish.”

    “We’ve made great strides in the past month and need to continue the progression,” Busch continued. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t.”

    Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota, Kevin Harvick, behind the wheel of the No. 29 Rheem Chevrolet, and Joey Logano, just back from Iowa in time to jump behind the wheel of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford rounded out the top ten finishers for the 32nd annual Party in the Poconos.

     

     

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Dover

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Dover

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson was black-flagged for jumping the final restart at Dover, a mistake that most likely cost him his third win this season. After serving a drive-through penalty, Johnson finished 17th, one lap down.

    “Much like NASCAR did by allowing the NRA to sponsor a race,” Johnson said, “I jumped the gun. Needless to say, I won’t be exchanging pleasantries with NASCAR any time soon. We’re certainly not ‘BFF’s.’ After getting black flagged, it appears I got ‘BF-F’d.’

    “I don’t agree with the call. Obviously, it’s NASCAR’s last-ditch effort to add some color to the sport.”

    2. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth’s day ended abruptly in Dover, as his engine blew on lap 159 with the lead. He finished 40th, his worst finish of the year, and fell one spot in the point standings to fourth, 74 behind Jimmie Johnson.

    “That’s not the first engine to blow,” Kenseth said. “If it’s not our engine, it’s our ‘suspension’ holding us back. What do our engine and ‘suspension’ have in common? They both will ‘expire’ soon.”

    “But there’s one good thing about blowing an engine. The faulty parts get burned beyond recognition. Ha! Take that, NASCAR inspectors.”

    3. Carl Edwards: Edwards finished 14th at Dover, as Roush Fenway Racing cars all finished in the top 15. Edwards remained second in the point standings, 30 out of first.

    “Roush cars took the 13th, 14th, and 15th spots,” Edwards said. “All week long, Ricky Stenhouse has been singing Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together.’ I guess Greg Biffle and I thought he was singing to us.

    “But it remains to be seen what lasts longer for Stenhouse—his relationship, or his manhood.”

    4. Kyle Busch: Busch led a race-high 150 laps and finished fourth in the Fed Ex 400 at Dover International Raceway, posting his sixth top 5 of the year. He is ninth in the Sprint Cup point standings, and trails Jimmie Johnson by 99.

    “NASCAR races will soon be covered on TNT,” Busch said. “Interestingly enough, that’s home to the series Falling Skies. Fox recently became the home to a new series—Falling Cables.”

    5. Clint Bowyer: Bowyer came home fourth at Dover, scoring the top finish for Michael Waltrip Racing. He moved up one spot to third in the point standings, and is 50 out of first.

    “We’re still searching for our first win of the year,” Bowyer said. “It’s not a matter of ‘if,’ it’s a matter of ‘when.’ That also applies to the matter of whether a Toyota engine will explode. In that respect, Toyota’s got a lot of ‘whens’ this year.”

    6. Kevin Harvick: After winning in Charlotte last week, Harvick finished eighth at Dover for his fifth top-10 result of the year. He is now fourth in the Sprint Cup point standings, 74 out of first.

    “The finish at Dover begs the question,” Harvick said. “Who’s faster? Jimmy John’s or Jimmie Johnson. All I know is that Jimmy John’s, unlike Jimmie Johnson, can’t get their too fast.”

    7. Kasey Kahne: Kahne led two laps early and was headed for a sure top-10 finish before a late incident left him with rear-end damage. He finished 23rd, four laps down, and fell two spots to seventh in the point standings, 81 out of first.

    “Have you heard?” Kahne said. “There’s a new swimsuit calendar coming out featuring 12 of NASCAR’s sexiest inspectors in bikinis. It’s called ‘Sanctioning Bodies.’”

    8. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski posted his first top-10 finish since Kansas with a fifth at Dover. The defending Sprint Cup champion is now eighth in the point standings, 98 behind Jimmie Johnson.

    “I’m well behind Johnson,” Keselowski said, “and my car failed post-race inspection at Dover. I’m the defending Cup champion, but I’m not driving like it. I don’t know who’s ‘come down’ harder this year—-NASCAR or me.

    “NASCAR said the front of our car was too low, and I was penalized for it. That’s odd, because as A.J. Allmendinger found out, Penske drivers are often penalized for being too high.”

    9. Tony Stewart: Stewart benefitted on Jimmie Johnson’s black flag and caught Juan Montoya with three laps to go to win the Fed Ex 400 at Dover. The win ended a four-month winless drought, and moved Stewart up to 16th in the point standings.

    “I like my wins like I like my food,” Stewart said. “Served on a silver platter. And apparently, I like my wins like I like my women—single. And, I like my wins like I like my engines—gift-wrapped from Hendrick Motorsports.”

    10. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt posted a quiet 10th-place finish at Dover, collecting his eighth top 10 of the year. He remained sixth in the point standings, where he trails Jimmie Johnson by 75.

    “I still feel like we’re building on something here,” Earnhardt said. “Unfortunately, it’s another long winless streak.”

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks

    Surprising and Not Surprising: FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    “We’re making progress.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Newman declined comment after the incident.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Tony Stewart Outsmoked Juan Pablo Montoya for Monster Mile Win

    Tony Stewart Outsmoked Juan Pablo Montoya for Monster Mile Win

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    “It’s racing hard.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    “Man, it’s disappointing.”

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

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

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

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

    Ryan Newman declined to comment after the incident.

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

  • For Joey Logano, Monster Mile Nationwide Win Feels Like the First Time

    For Joey Logano, Monster Mile Nationwide Win Feels Like the First Time

    While Joey Logano’s victory in the Nationwide race at Dover was his third straight Dover win, the driver of the No. 22 Hertz Ford for Penske Racing was fixated on firsts instead.

    “There were a lot of firsts for me today,” Logano said in the media center after the race. “Winning for Hertz, winning for the No. 22 Nationwide team, and winning for Ford were all firsts.”

    “And finally and most importantly, winning for Roger (Penske, team owner) was a first,” Logano continued. “That’s the coolest part of this win.”

    “There is a huge list of great race car drivers that have won for Roger Penske,” Logano said. “It’s cool to have my name put on that list too.”

    In spite of battling Cup drivers Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne, both of whom had cars good enough to contend for the win, Logano was confident that he had  Miles the Monster under his control.

    “This is one of those race tracks that I feel like I know what it takes to win and what I need in a race car,” Logano said. “I was able to get Jeremy (Bullins, crew chief) the feedback he needed to give that car to me.”

    Logano admitted that he didn’t quite have that confidence, however, the night before the race.

    “Last night, I felt like we still weren’t there,” Logano said. “We had decent speed in our car but I felt like we were a second place car and not quite good enough to win.”

    “Jeremy and all the 22 team did a great job changing about everything on it,” Logano continued. “They got the car a little bit better.”

    In the end, the race was won in the pits by a gutsy call from the crew chief according to Logano.

    “Really the winning call was on that last pit stop,” Logano said. “Jeremy made an audible and decided to do two tires to beat out a lot of those guys.”

    “To give us that track position was the biggest thing.”

    Crew chief Jeremy Bullins could not agree more with his driver and race winner.

    “Obviously he’s really good here to win three in a row at any track,” Bullins said. “He obviously knows how to get around here.”

    “And he’s right,” Bullins continued. “We changed just about everything.”

    “I thought we were better today but wasn’t sure if we were good enough to win,” Bullins said. “We went back and forth in track position.”

    “In the end we were racing the 5 and the 54, who had been up front all day,” Bullins continued. “As soon as we saw they were taking four, we called it off and took two.”

    “The guys did a good job.”

    Logano may have had another first in mind, that of beating that 54 car, driven by fellow Cup competitor Kyle Busch.

    “It feels good, especially since this year he (Kyle Busch) has been winning everything,” Logano said. “To finally beat that 54 car, that was the team I worked with for the last seven years or so since my Nationwide debut really felt good.”

    “To beat them means a lot to me after they have been winning so much this year,” Logano continued. “I wanted to beat them really bad and to get here in Victory Lane, you have to beat everyone.”

    “They had a strong car again today but my man Jeremy made the right call for us.”

    The victory was also Logano’s 19th in 114 NASCAR Nationwide Series races and his fourth top-10 finish for the season.

    Following closely behind Logano was Brian Vickers in the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Vickers finished second and had the best finish of his season to date.

    “The guys did a good job,” Vickers said. “But we just needed a little bit more right, one spot more right.”

    “Obviously we wanted to get a win and get this Dollar General in Victory Lane,” Vickers continued. “But we were able to give $1.63 million dollars to Autism Speaks from the customers and Dollar General.”

    “It’s phenomenal for them,” Vickers said. “And to show their generosity for a top-10 finish today, all Dollar General customers get 10 percent off on Monday.”

    Vickers also credited his crew chief with gutsy calls on the pit box, just as Logano had done with his crew chief.

    “That was a great call on Kevin’s (Kidd, crew chief) part,” Vickers said. “It was a last minute call and it was one thousand percent the right call to keep track position.”

    “We were close to even with Logano there at the end of the race,” Vickers continued. “He was probably a little better on the short run and we were a little bit better on the long run.”

    Vickers admitted that he was “pleased but not satisfied” with his runner up status.

    “On one hand, I’m very excited – it was a great points day for the Dollar General team,” Vickers said. “But on the other hand – we wanted to win.”

    “We were so close.”

    This was Vickers fifth top-10 finish in six races at the Monster Mile. It was his sixth top-10 finish of the season.

    Another Cup regular, Matt Kenseth, rounded out the top three in the 32nd annual 5-Hour Energy 200. Kenseth posted his 11th top-10 finish in 19 races at Dover International Speedway.

    “We had a decent GameStop Toyota and made it better there at the end,” Kenseth said. “Got two tires and was able to make up some ground.”

    “I stalled it one time coming out of the pits and so we got ourselves behind,” Kenseth continued. “So, it was just hard to come back from that.”

    Even though he was disappointed, Kenseth did have some fun at the Monster Mile.

    “It was fun to go out and get 200 laps,” Kenseth said. “We were ten laps away from getting a win.”

    “So that was fun.”

    Trevor Bayne also had a decent day behind the wheel of the No. 6 Ford Ecoboost Mustang, finishing fourth. And he too accomplished that top-5 finish with a gutsy call in the pits.

    “Yeah, that two-tire stop got us in the game there,” Bayne said. “We needed that to get some track position.”

    “I was really proud of these guys and the car that they gave me,” Bayne continued. “We have had some bad runs but now we got a couple good ones in a row and we need to keep it going.”

    “Top-fives are what we gotta knock out every weekend and eventually that will lead to Victory Lane.”

    Kyle Busch, who had been so strong in his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing for much of the race, did pull off a fifth place finish. Unfortunately for him, pit strategy did not play to his favor, ruining a possible Dover sweep.

    “It was a great race car,” Busch said simply. “Just real unfortunate that I messed up pit strategy there, you know.”

    “Got us too far back,” Busch continued. “I tried to make some big moves there and a couple of them worked.”

    “But a couple of them didn’t,” Busch said. “It is what it is.”

    Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 32 Vizio/Hulu Chevrolet, was the top finishing rookie, scoring the tenth spot.

    “We started out the first half of the race good through one and two,” Larson said. “We were really good there at the end but we lost a spot or two on every pit stop.”

    “Track position was key today,” Larson continued. “Three top-10s in a row is great and I’m looking forward to Iowa.”