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  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Texas

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Texas

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Kyle Busch: Busch won his second consecutive race, passing Martin Truex Jr. on a restart with 33 laps to go and cruising to the win in the Duck Commander 500.

    “That’s two wins in two weeks,” Busch said, “in two different states, both pretty convincingly. What I’ve done to the rest of the field is known as ‘Interstate Battery.’

    “It’s funny, given the misguided political opinions of the likes of Brian France and Phil Robertson, that NASCAR has become a haven for people endorsing candidates. Much like American presidential elections, NASCAR crowns a winner in November. That will be me. I’m here today to announce my 2016 slogan for repeating as Sprint Cup champion: ‘Make America One-Eight Again.’”

    2. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson finished fourth at Texas, posting his fourth top five of the season.

    “We got off to a shaky start,” Johnson said. “On our first pit stop, I banged the back of Kyle Busch’s car. That left the No. 48 Chevrolet with some damage to the nose. That, of course, made the car difficult to drive. Trust me. I’m a triathlete—I know an ‘out-of-shape’ car when I see one.”

    3. Kevin Harvick: Harvick finished 10th at Texas, earning his sixth top 10 of the season. He is third in the Sprint Cup points standings, seven behind Kyle Busch.

    “We had a top-10 car,” Harvick said, “and nothing else. It was clear early on that we weren’t going to win. In other words, we ‘didn’t have a prayer,’ which would also happen to be a good position for NASCAR to take in regards to pre-race ceremonies.”

    4. Carl Edwards: Edwards, along with Martin Truex Jr., had one of the fields best cars at Texas, but failed to secure the win due to a loose wheel with 113 laps to go.

    “Speaking of a ‘screw loose,’” Edwards said, “did you hear Phil Robertson’s pre-race prayer? It was more quotable than the Bible itself.

    “Now, I’m frankly sick and tired of congratulating Kyle Busch on his victories. If he wants a pat on the back, he’ll have to get it from someone else, because when I joined JGR, I promised Matt Kenseth I wouldn’t raise a hand to anyone.”

    5. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Earnhardt finished second in the Duck Commander 500 at Texas as Kyle Busch took the win.

    “Once Kyle got into clean air,” Earnhardt said, “there was no stopping him. I think Phil Robertson said it best when he quipped, ‘Jesus man, that car is fast.’

    “Texas Motor Speedway had on display the taxidermied ‘Lil’ Dale’ goat. That goat rose to fame when it was born in 2002 with a marking on its side that looked like the No. 3. Despite the fact that ‘Lil’ Dale’ is a male, he’s been milked for all he’s worth.”

    6. Kurt Busch: Busch took ninth in the Duck Commander 500 as younger brother Kyle gained his second consecutive win.

    “Kyle is on a roll,” Busch said. “He won four races across three NASCAR series in eight days. You can say he’s done just about everything, except accuse his wife of being an assassin.”

    “In his pre-race prayer, Phil Robertson asked the Lord to put a ‘Jesus man’ in the White House. I’m not sure Robertson is qualified to speak intelligently about religion or politics, or to speak intelligently period. But you know the old saying: ‘Robertson 3:16 says I’m just talking out my ass.’”

    7. Joey Logano: Logano finished third in the Duck Commander 500, recording his third top-five finish of the year.

    “Dale Earnhardt Jr. created a stir on Twitter,” Logano said, “when he tweeted about eating a banana and mayonnaise sandwich. I received a lot of unwanted responses because Junior happened to add ‘#SlicedBread’ to his tweet.”

    8. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin started sixth and finished 12th as Joe Gibbs Racing placed all four cars in the top 12, led by Kyle Busch’s win. Hamlin is eighth in the points standings, 58 out of first.

    “JGR is building a dynasty,” Hamlin said, “and unlike some other ‘dynasties,’ this one isn’t full of quacks. And speaking of ‘duck calls,’ did you hear the national anthem performed by Will Robertson? He hit all the notes. And by ‘all’ the notes, I mean one. But Will has one thing going for him—he’s adopted.”

    9. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski finished 19th at Texas and is now eighth in the points standings, 58 out of first.

    “Once again,” Keselowski said, “politics made its way into NASCAR when Phil Robertson prayed for a ‘Jesus man’ in the White House. This happened just weeks after Brian France endorsed Donald Trump for President. What’s next? Robertson and France start a NASCAR team and call it ‘Presidential Racing?’”

    10. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex led a race-high 147 laps but couldn’t hold off Kyle Busch on a late restart, and eventually finished fifth.

    “I clearly had the best car,” Truex said, “but what I lacked was a little luck, or maybe a little bible, and a little gun. But I don’t need anyone to tell me that we let a win slip away. I also don’t need anyone to tell me who to vote for, or anyone to pray for me.”

  • The Final Word – The best little race car in Texas was not the one that won

    The Final Word – The best little race car in Texas was not the one that won

    Watching NASCAR is very much akin to viewing a bunch of toddlers race each other. Little Johnny might take off early, get within a few feet of the finish line, then that damn butterfly takes all his attention and he swerves right and off the course. Saturday night in Texas was a lot like that.

    If you tuned in early, you saw rain for two hours. Not the beginning they had hoped for, but for others the rain on their parade would come later. In the beginning, it was pole sitter Carl Edwards dueling Martin Truex Jr. for the lead. If it was not one, it was the other. That is how it went for 200 laps, then came the butterfly. Actually, then came a loose lug nut on the right front after a pit miscue, and Edwards went from leading 124 laps to fighting just to get close enough to finish seventh.

    That left Truex. He led 141 laps. He was leading with just over 30 laps to go. Truex did not wander anywhere, but he should have. When most came to the pits for tires under caution, the team threw caution to the wind, and Truex under the bus. Sometimes Little Johnny needs to come in for a change, but the call from Cole Pearn to dive into the pits came too late for the driver to do so, and they were left with a soiled diaper.

    Some wore their big boy pants, again. If you tuned in when things turned green, you would have thought Kyle Busch had one hell of a day. He immediately charged past Truex, who finished sixth, and that was it. Rowdy was literally off to the races to claim his second straight Cup victory, the 36th of his career. While Busch was near the front for the latter half of the event, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made a few cameos but only in the late stages did he emerge to claim the runner-up spot. Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson and Chase Elliott rounded out the top five.

    Matt Kenseth was a factor early, but you just knew something had to go wrong. It always does this season. Look, a butterfly. Eleventh proved to be a good result after a flying lug nut in the pits got caught behind a new tire and prevented the crew from tightening the replacement. Greg Biffle is having a sad season, and after hitting the wall he got even sadder. The Biff was boffed, to finish 39th, just one behind Clint Bowyer. Driving for Harry Scott this season as he awaits Tony Stewart’s retirement is not proving to be much fun.

    In fact, you probably did not notice Bowyer much out on the playground, at least not until late. With 40 laps left, Austin Dillon tried to fit into a spot ahead of Johnson, but there was not enough room and soon enough not enough air on the rear spoiler. Dillon lost control, hit the wall, and came back across the track to clip the inside fence. Meanwhile, the checkers behind him became wreckers, with Bowyer and Brian Vickers ending their day as a host of other cars received a dent or five in the mishap. Hard to watch for butterflies when someone just kicked open a hornets nest.

    The Danica Patrick Line was set this week at 21st in Texas, just ahead of Ty Dillon and one up on A.J. Allmendinger. The trio were all a lap off the pace and nowhere near the front the entire day. As much as I wish for her better things, this fourth season appears a be a lot like the previous three. Patrick sits, as per usual, 24th in the rankings. If we are asking too much of her, at what time should we?

    Any butterflies at Bristol this Sunday probably will come in the form of a similar looking vehicle doing things to make a driver’s auto look less similar. Six drivers come in with at least a pair of victories there, but no one could use another more than four-time winner Matt Kenseth. He comes in as the Food City 500’s defending champion. Just as long as those Busch toddlers are not so spoiled as to add to the 10 they have already split between them.

    I just do not think you can rely on their sharing natures at Bristol over the past five years to continue. The younger one has been exceptionally greedy as of late.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Duck Commander 500 at Texas

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Duck Commander 500 at Texas

    The first Saturday night race under the lights occurred this weekend, as the Sprint Cup Series invaded Texas Motor Speedway for the 20th Annual Duck Commander 500. Everything is bigger in Texas, and Saturday night’s race was no exception. Here was what was surprising and not surprising from the event.

    Not Surprising: Another NASCAR race in the books, another win for Kyle Busch.

    Busch got around Martin Truex Jr. on the final restart of the night and drove away from Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win at Texas.

    It’s Kyle Busch’s 36th career Sprint Cup Series victory and his second in a row. The driver of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota has now won 161 national touring races and has swept the past two weekends at Martinsville Speedway and Texas.

    It’s the seventh win for Busch since coming back from an injury last season. In 32 races since that time, Busch has led over 1,200 laps and has 22 top 10s.

    Busch talked about teamwork following the race when asked how he came back so fast from a broken leg and a broken ankle.

    “It’s not just me, it’s not just Samantha, but it’s Adam Stevens, it’s Coach Gibbs, it’s the organization and everyone rallying around us,” Busch said. “It’s my medical team, everyone that helped me, as well, getting me healthy, too, and forcing me to do the therapies and things like that and getting up in the morning and going and trying to get better faster.

    “I think, too, things are clicking. Things are gelling, and it wouldn’t be possible probably, without the relationship that Adam and I were able to spend gathering and gaining in the Xfinity Series. If we would have come into this Cup deal not really knowing each other, it probably wouldn’t have been as good as it was. So I think that has been a huge part of it, as well, too. It’s all worked real well, and it’s been exciting to have the success that we’ve had as of late, and let’s just keep it going.”

    Surprising: Texas has always been a good track for Dale Earnhardt Jr. It’s the site of his very first win and although it’s his only win, he has recorded nine top 10s in the last 11 races there.

    This week was no exception, with a runner-up finish. But how he did so, by getting around Joey Logano in the last few laps, was a little surprising, to say the least. It would have been much harder to get around him just a year or two ago.

    “We got lucky at the end to be able to restart on the inside,” the driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet said. “The outside was kind of difficult, and we restarted fifth and were able to get up to third and raced the 22 at the end. It was fun. I enjoyed driving the car tonight. The car was very loose and very challenging but a lot of fun for me. Obviously, our car was good, so passing guys — we had a lot of passing, which with the ’14 or ’15 package, I’d have never got by Joey, so it was fun to have an opportunity to sort of set somebody up and get it by him there at the end, and that’s due to the direction we went this year with the low downforce. Pretty cool.”

    Surprising: Chase Elliott has had an up and down season so far, but what at first looked like a mistake by crew chief Alan Gustafson ended up netting the Georgia driver his first top five finish in Sprint Cup competition.

    With 50 laps to go on the second to last caution, Elliott was the only car that pitted and changed two tires. On the last caution with about 30 to go, Gustafson made the call to come back down and grab four fresh Goodyear Eagles.

    On the ensuing restart, Elliott passed a few cars and ended the day fifth after losing a duel with Jimmie Johnson for fourth with two laps to go.

    “It was just Alan’s decision to come back, and it was a quick decision,” Elliott, who is the highest rookie in points at 14th. “He didn’t have a lot of time. Once the caution came out, I think pretty much the first time we came back, pit road was open. Those crew chiefs are put in a position they’ve got to make a call in a hurry, and they have all — they definitely have my respect because I respect them for what they do because that’s a tough, tough spot to be in, but as I’ve said, we’re a team. I’m going to support his decision, right, wrong or indifferent, so I was happy we did it, and we tried to make the most of it.”

    Not Surprising: Martin Truex Jr.’s run at Texas could be used as the quintessential race of his time so far at Furniture Row Racing.

    Truex led 141 laps, more than anybody else, but not going in for tires on either of the last two caution breaks left him a sitting duck for Kyle Busch on the final restart. Truex hung on for a sixth place finish.

    “It was Cole [Pearn, my crew chief,] who called me in at the last second,” Truex said. “Our plan was to stay out and he called me in. I didn’t want to hit the cone. It’s just the way it goes. Had we went green that next restart, we did OK. We got the lead and we drove away. We just kept getting yellows and caution laps and the tires just kept getting more air in them and more air in them. By the time we finally got moving there, we just didn’t have the grip everybody else had. Just sliding around.

    “It’s frustrating, but that’s racing. That’s the way it goes sometimes. I’m proud of my guys for the race car they brought. That thing was so fast all night, we did everything we were supposed to do except for that one deal there. I don’t know. It hurts, it’s tough, but we have a lot to look forward to this year. We have great race cars and we have a lot to look forward to. We’ll go back home and get to work and hopefully come out smarter and stronger.”

    Surprising: It was not a good night for Richard Childress Racing. All three RCR cars ended up getting caught up in the only multi-car wreck of the evening late in the race.

    Other drivers involved in the accident, which happened going into turn three, included Jimmie Johnson, Brian Vickers, Clint Bowyer, and Matt Kenseth.

    “We were on older tires and I was trying to get all I could there,” RCR driver Austin Dillon said. “It’s part of trying to win a race. We put ourselves in a position to be out front, thinking that two laps wouldn’t mean much, but it did. That’s part of it.

    “We’ll come back next week with another fast car and hopefully, we can do the same thing we did today, and that’s run up front. It tore up a bunch of race cars. We had a good car. I just wish we could re-do it. But heck, we’re learning. We had another fast race car. We’ll go on from here.”

    Not Surprising: It was a good night for Jimmie Johnson. A return to yellow numbers after running primarily white numbers the last few years on his No. 48 Lowes Chevrolet netted Johnson fourth at the end of the night. But it wasn’t an easy night for the six-time Sprint Cup champion.

    “We overcame a lot today,” Johnson said. “On that first pit stop, everyone was checking up and I hammered the back of the 18. We had to fix damage on the nose, and it wasn’t pretty. There’s a big hole up front and that couldn’t have been helping us at all. There’s a lot of fight in this Lowe’s team today.”

    The next race on the calendar? Bristol, baby! Tune in at 1 p.m. EST Sunday on Fox for the first race at Bristol since the installation of Colossus, the Food City 500.

     

  • Rowdy is on a Roll in Texas

    Rowdy is on a Roll in Texas

    Kyle Busch continued his run of excellence in NASCAR with his win in the Lone Star State.

    The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota took the lead with 32 laps to go and drove on to score the victory in the Duck Commander 500. It’s his 36th career win,  his second of the season, second at Texas Motor Speedway and the second weekend sweep this season.

    “Our car was really, really fast, especially entry and the center of the corner,” Busch said. “As the night progressed, I think the track came to us. Our car got a little better. Adam made some great adjustments all night long. We fought it in the beginning. We weren’t very good. Our other teammates were really fast. The 19, the 78. I don’t know what happened to the 19 but the 78, we just out-tired them at the end. Overall, a great night for JGR, a great night for Toyota.”

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet home to a runner-up finish.

    “We got a little behind and got caught on pit road on that one caution,” Earnhardt said. “We had a fast car, probably good enough to win. Martin (Truex Jr.) probably had the best car, but the best car doesn’t always win. Kyle did a great job on the outside on that last restart. Truss’s tires were worse than I thought. We finished up there where we should have. We need a win. We’d love a win; I know our fans want a win really bad. Trust me, man, we’re all working really hard and running great every week. Hopefully, that’s fun for everyone to watch. I had a blast inside the car – a lot of sliding around sideways and good, hard racing. We’ll go to the next one I guess and try again.”

    Joey Logano rounded out the podium in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

    “I’m proud of what my race team did,” Logano said. “This Shell/Pennzoil team executed perfectly today. We may not have had the fastest car, we obviously didn’t have the fastest car, but we executed into a top-three finish, and I’m very proud of my team for that. We had great pit stops and great calls, so everything worked out well. Everyone did their job. That’s kind of been our weak point this year is that we haven’t had the speed, but we haven’t been executing perfectly. Now it seemed like we executed right and we’ve got to work on our speed now.”

    Jimmie Johnson’s run of three-straight wins at Texas came to an end after a collision with race winner Busch on pit road early in the race and a fourth-place finish in his No. 48 HMS Chevrolet.

    “We overcame a lot today,” Johnson said. “On that first pit stop, everyone was checking up and I hammered the back of the 18. We had to fix damage on the nose, and it wasn’t pretty. There’s a big hole up front and that couldn’t have been helping us at all. There’s a lot of fight in this Lowe’s team today. I’m thankful for the great equipment and the fight that these guys have because with all the damage and adversity we went through tonight, to come home fourth is really good for this Lowe’s Chevrolet.”

    Chase Elliott led one lap on his way to rounding out the top-five in his No. 24 HMS Chevrolet.

    “Yeah, it was a step in the right direction,” Elliott said. “We’re definitely not satisfied running fifth. I feel like we have a group of guys that are capable of doing that. We’ll keep digging at it. We have a long way to go with a lot of racing to go in the season. We’ll keep working to get where we can roll with those guys.”

    Martin Truex Jr. had the car to beat this morning after leading 142 of the 334 laps, but opting to stay out on the final caution ultimately cost him a chance at victory and forced the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota to settle for a sixth-place finish.

    “We just ran out of tires, you know,” Truex said. “Made it through (turns) one and two side-by-side, got to three and just didn’t have the grip. Then we fell back because we were sliding around. Everybody had new tires, we ran under caution for a long time, they keep building air pressure and losing grip. Pretty big disadvantage, but can’t say enough about the guys for the race car they brought here and the weekend we had. It hurts. It’s happened a few times to me here. Hurts a little bit, but we’ll get over it and we’ll move on and we’ll take the positives out of it tonight.”

    Carl Edwards led 124 laps and fell down a lap after pitting for a loose wheel, but the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota worked his way back up and finished seventh. Kasey Kahne ended a run of bad finishes with an eighth-place finish in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet.

    “We just battled,” Kahne said. “We got behind, got a lap down early again and we just had to fight back. The team did an awesome job to do that. We had great calls to get the car tightened up; I was so loose that I couldn’t go fast enough for a little while there. There at the end, we were actually pretty competitive the last probably 250 laps, like really competitive. We were down a lap a lot of it, but we were really competitive. Once we got back up there I think we were definitely a top 10 car and we finished eighth. It was the best we have done in a long time. It feels nice.”

    Kurt Busch finished ninth in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Kevin Harvick led one lap on his way to rounding out the top-10 in his No. 4 SHR Chevrolet.

    The race lasted three hours, 37 minutes and 16 seconds at an average speed of 138.355 mph. There were 17 lead changes among eight different drivers and seven cautions for 41 laps.

     

  • Kyle Busch Wins in XFINITY at Texas

    Kyle Busch Wins in XFINITY at Texas

    Kyle Busch continued his run of dominance in the NASCAR XFINITY Series with a dominant win in the Lone Star State.

    The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 150 of the 200 laps on his way to taking the checkered flag in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300. It’s his 80th career victory in the series and eighth at Texas Motor Speedway.

    “We’ve had some really good runs here over the years,” Busch said after the race, “and we’ve been really fast. This NOS Energy Drink Camry was great. We got our money’s worth out of it and (crew chief Chris) Gayle got his money’s worth out of it, too, on the pit box today. We had to make some adjustments to it and fine-tune on it to make it better and better.”

    Defending race winner Erik Jones led 12 laps on his way to a runner-up finish in the No. 20 JGR Toyota and was the highest finishing rookie.

    Jones, who had to come back from the rear of the field after a penalty in the pits, said, “Getting the penalty didn’t help but it wasn’t the reason we ran second either. We just didn’t take a big enough swing to free it up (on the final pit stop on Lap 148). The track just tightened up as it rubbered up. Then it got slick again and we didn’t keep up with it enough.”

    Brad Keselowski finished third in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Chase Elliott finished fourth in his No. 5 JR Motorsports Chevrolet while Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top-five in his No. 88 JRM Chevrolet.

    Justin Allgaier finished sixth in his No. 7 JRM Chevrolet. Elliott Sadler finished seventh in his No. 1 JRM Chevrolet followed by Austin Dillon who finished eighth in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Brandon Jones finished ninth in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet as Ryan Sieg rounded out the top-10 in his No. 39 RSS Racing Chevrolet.

    Seven cars failed to finish the race while 15 finished on the lead lap.

    The race lasted two hours, seven minutes and 33 seconds at an average speed of 141.121 mph. There were five cautions for 22 laps and six lead changes among three drivers.

    Daniel Suárez leaves Fort Worth with a one-point lead in the points standings.

    Complete NXS Race Results at Texas Motor Speedway:

    Texas NXS Race Results 04-08-16

     

  • Hot 20 – If you’re going to play in Texas, you got to have a Biffle in the band

    Hot 20 – If you’re going to play in Texas, you got to have a Biffle in the band

    The voting begins, and there is nary a Trump, Cruz, Clinton, or Sanders to be found. Of course, I am referring to NASCAR’s all-star event coming up in May. While Danica Patrick and that neat gimmick of her’s attracts lots of interest, my pick based on performance would be A.J. Allmendinger. It is not easy for teams to gain relevance. Stewart-Haas picked up a star and that worked for them. Furniture Row had Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. to allow them to turn the corner. A.J. is doing it for JTG Daughterty. That is great to see.

    With the pipes on Chase Elliott, I am wondering if the guy can sing. We have had Merle Haggard, Randy Travis, and Josh Turner, to name a few, but if Chase can sing, we got another potential star on our hands. If not, broadcasting is in his future, but we might have to wait a long, long time. That is a hell of a lot of Boogity-Boogity-Boogities we might have yet to endure in the meantime.

    A three-part series on NASCAR is coming to CMT next month. It looks good. Now, will it show up north of the line? Sometimes I fear that somebody built a wall on the wrong damn border.

    This Saturday night, the boys and girl head west. The way I hear it, if you are going to play in Texas, you got to have a Biffle in the band. That may be true, and it may be a fact this weekend, but sadly such edicts do not include our Hot 20. Greg sits 16 points shy. Maybe the following week.

    1. JIMMIE JOHNSON – 2 WINS – 216 PTS
    Three straight at Texas, five of the past seven. Jimmie does not share easily, except for tweets.

    2. KEVIN HARVICK – 1 WIN – 220 PTS
    Still stands tall, despite less than stellar finish last week.

    3. KYLE BUSCH – 1 WIN – 215 PTS
    After winning a Cup and truck grandfather clock last week, he should never be late ever again.

    4. BRAD KESELOWSKI – 1 WIN – 178 PTS
    Took some time off in Birmingham to see some humpy backed camels and some chimpanzees.

    5. DENNY HAMLIN – 1 WIN – 172 PTS
    Collected a win at Daytona and a wall at Martinsville. Still, he had a better day than Almirola.

    6. CARL EDWARDS – 206 PTS
    When one struggles and still places in the Top Ten, you know you are having a good season.

    7. JOEY LOGANO – 196 PTS
    11th is not bad, but it sucks when you had hopes of finishing first.

    8. AUSTIN DILLON – 176 PTS
    A small issue with teammate Menard, but I understand he has connections with the ownership.

    9. KURT BUSCH – 176 PTS
    Must have the odd Jan Brady moment hearing how wonderful Kyle was…Kyle, Kyle, Kyle.

    10. DALE EARNHARDT JR. – 172 PTS
    Junior loves banana and mayo sandwiches. I prefer tuna and sandwich spread. Discuss.

    11. MARTIN TRUEX JR. – 150 PTS
    Other than for that loose wheel and speeding penalty, Martinsville was great. Just great.

    12. A.J. ALLMENDINGER – 147 PTS
    What Kurt and Truex did for Furniture Row, A.J. is doing for Daugherty.

    13. JAMIE MCMURRAY – 143 PTS
    For Jamie, the STP 500 stood for Stupid Tire Problem.

    14. MATT KENSETH – 140 PTS
    Does not always take the high road, but when he does, he loses a lot of spots late in a race.

    15. RYAN BLANEY – 132 PTS
    Not David Pearson just yet, but at one time even Pearson was not that David Pearson.

    16. CHASE ELLIOTT – 131 PTS
    Jeff who?

    17. RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – 128 PTS
    Sunday he was undone when he got spun.

    18. KASEY KAHNE – 128 PTS
    I think he needs to get All-State back as a sponsor. He was in good hands back then.

    19. RYAN NEWMAN – 126 PTS
    According to the Internet, Newman is a driver, an actress, and manager of the minor league Birmingham Barons. Busy guy.

    20. KYLE LARSON – 125 PTS
    Along with Dillon, Blaney, and Elliott, the kids are making their presence known, with more great talent on the horizon.

    21. PAUL MENARD – 125 PTS
    Should Dillon and Menard have issues, I am sure Paul would retain the support of his sponsor.

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Martinsville

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Martinsville

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Kyle Busch: Busch led 352 of 500 laps on his way to a commanding win in the STP 500, his first ever Sprint Cup win at Martinsville.

    “Finally,” Busch said, “I get the Martinsville grandfather clock. After 21 tries, I can look at this trophy and confidently say, ‘It’s about time.’

    “Leading 352 of 500 laps is just pure dominance. I’m shocked that the car was a good as it was. And my crew chief Dave Rogers was as well. After the race, he said to me, ‘Do you know how fast you were going?’”

    2. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson finished ninth in the STP 500, posting his fourth top 10 of the year. He is second in the Sprint Cup points standings, four behind Kevin Harvick.

    “I advocate stronger concussion protocols in our sport,” Johnson said. “Chad Knaus disagrees. He’s against anything that calls for more thorough inspections.”

    3. Kevin Harvick: Harvick finished 17th at Martinsville, his first result outside the top 10 this season.

    “If you would have told me before the race,” Harvick said, “that I’d finish one spot behind Danica Patrick, I would have said, “I guess I didn’t finish second.”

    4. Carl Edwards: Edwards took sixth in the STP 500 as Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch won. Edwards is 14th in the Sprint Cup points standings, 14 out of first.

    “Congratulations to Kyle,” Edwards said. “In his victory burnout, he smoked the tires. And speaking of ‘smoking’ the tires, NASCAR driver Derek White was arrested by Canadian police in a tobacco smuggling ring. Authorities seized 52,800 kilograms of tobacco. I guess where tobacco in concerned, the US-Canada border is unfiltered.”

    5. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski recorded his second top-five finish of the year with a fifth at Martinsville.

    “It was a typical day at Martinsville,” Keselowski said. “There was beating and banging, grumbling, and a few caution flags. These are all examples of your stomach warning you after eating a Martinsville hot dog.”

    6. Kurt Busch: Busch finished 13th at Martinsville as younger brother Kyle won. Busch is seventh in the points standings, 44 out of first.

    “I’m proud of Kyle for winning his first Martinsville grandfather clock,” Busch said. “As you know, clocks have little hands and big hands, and Brian France earlier made his political endorsement based on that criteria.”

    7. Joey Logano: Logano started on the pole but went a lap down early at Martinsville, as tire grip issues sent him backward. However, he recovered to post a solid 11th, and now occupies the fifth spot in the points standings.

    “We hit a rough patch to start the race,” Logano said, “but we worked things out. That’s a testament to the preparation and attention to detail of this team. There’s a lot to be said for crossing your T’s and dotting your ‘squinty and douchey’ ‘I’s.’

    8. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin crashed early and finished a disappointing 39th in the STP 500 at Martinsville.

    “The wreck was the result of a wheel hop,” Hamlin said. “Frankly, I’m embarrassed that it happened. I’m also angry. You could say I’m ‘hopping mad.’ Ironically, if you’ve ever seen me play basketball, you know I’ve never been accused of having ‘mad hops.’”

    9. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: After falling a lap down early at Martinsville, Earnhardt battled his way back to score a respectable 14th-place finish. He is ninth in the points standings, 48 out of first.

    “As you probably heard,” Earnhardt said, “I decided to donate my brain to concussion research. My dad made a lot of enemies on the track, so you can add ‘science’ to the list of entities that wanted an Earnhardt’s head on a platter.”

    10. Austin Dillon: Dillon posted his second top-five finish of the year with a fourth at Martinsville. He is seventh in the Sprint Cup points standings, 44 out of first.

    “Joey Logano finished 11th,” Dillon said, “and Matt Kenseth finished 15th. So, much like the last race here, there were four drivers ‘separating’ the two.”

  • The Final Word – It was a John Wayne kind of day for Mr. Busch at Martinsville

    The Final Word – It was a John Wayne kind of day for Mr. Busch at Martinsville

    Martinsville has been on the NASCAR calendar since 1948, the year before John Wayne truly hit it big in Hollywood. Both showcased a great cast of supporting characters over the years, and both have been synonymous with action. Sunday was no different.

    If Martinsville was The Searchers from 1956, Kyle Busch was its Ethan Edwards, the Wayne character who was determined, diligent, and successful in his quest. In the end, he crossed his arms and headed out into the sunset with his 35th career victory in a dominant performance that saw our defending champion up front for 70 percent of the picture.

    Kevin Harvick was a featured performer. He arrived a bit late, stayed near the front for a time, but in the end, he had to be content with 17th. You might remember Wayne’s 1962 picture The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. In the end, Jimmy Stewart rode off in a train, while Wayne’s Tom Doniphon, who actually shot the title character, was last seen in a pine box. Come to think of it, ole Tom was in that box when they started that film, so maybe Harvick got the best of it.

    There was 1972’s The Cowboys, with the Matt Kenseth version of Wil Anderson also a force to be reckoned with for 90 percent of the movie. Then things went bad for our hero, another hole got dug, and the cattle drive was left to others to decide as Matt finished 15th.

    John Wayne began his movie career in a 1926 silent called Brown of Harvard. The Duke played an uncredited role as a Yale player. Dale Earnhardt Jr. mattered for five laps, cut a tire and spun out, and went down a lap. It took him 300 laps to get it back, and the best he could do was 14th. Like Wayne, Junior was in the film, but you had to keep an eye out in order to catch him.

    The Greatest Story Ever Told was an epic 1965 story on Christ. It featured the likes of Max von Sydow, Charlton Heston, Jose Ferrer, and Telly Savalas. Then, after the Crucifixion scene, a centurion utters the words, “Truly this man was the Son of God” in a very familiar drawling voice. My God, it was John Wayne, in a skirt. At the end, some said the same thing when A.J. Allmendinger showed up in the runner-up spot, except for the skirt part. At least, we noticed the Dinger was in the vicinity, so it probably came as less of a shock.

    In 1949, Wayne played Captain Nathan Brittles in She Tied a Yellow Ribbon. He was an aging officer near retirement. Ben Johnson and Harry Carey, Jr. played Tyree and Pennell, a pair of up and comers of the next generation. They remind me of a pair who represent the future in this modern calvary, played Sunday by the fourth and fifth place finishers, Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon.

    Another driver had an interesting day. He got caught speeding early, managed to crumple up his hood a bit later, but in the end, he still managed a Top Five. Brad Keselowski took his lumps but came away with a decent result. This Rooster Cogburn displayed some True Grit (1968).

    Then there was John Wayne’s Alamo from 1960. I do not think I need to explain why Aric Almirola and Denny Hamlin come to mind. Let us just say that 38 drivers did better on the day, including a 16th placed Danica Patrick.

    At least, everyone lasted 200 laps or more, so we could not cite 1931’s The Deceiver. In that one, Wayne had a brief role in the picture. He played a corpse. Thankfully, we no longer have start and park entries.

    If you got John Wayne on your mind, then it seems apropos that the boys and girl head back west to Texas for a Saturday night showdown. The last three straight races that have been run there, four of the past five, and five of the previous seven, were all won by Jimmie Johnson, the guy who finished ninth last weekend. I guess we have seen this movie before.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: STP 500 at Martinsville

    Surprising and Not Surprising: STP 500 at Martinsville

    Paperclips, hot dogs, and close racing. These are all the ingredients of another exciting Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, the oldest track in NASCAR. The 67th annual STP 500, the second oldest race in all of NASCAR, is in the books. Here is what was surprising and not surprising from Sunday’s event.

    Surprising: Kyle Busch finally won his first Sprint Cup race at Martinsville in his 22nd attempt. It’s his 35th Sprint Cup win and yet another weekend sweep as “Rowdy” had won the Camping World Truck Series race the day before.

    Busch, who is a month shy of his 31st birthday, has won 169 national touring series races (Cup, XFINITY, and Truck) in just 13 full time seasons. He is only 41 wins away from Richard Petty’s mark of 200, a record nobody thought could ever be broken. That being said, if Cup races were only being counted, Busch would need to win 165 more races to reach Petty’s 200; a near impossibility that would require Busch to go undefeated for nearly five seasons.

    Busch is also very close to becoming the first driver in NASCAR’s Modern Era (1972 on) to have won at every single track he has ever raced at in Sprint Cup. The only tracks he hasn’t won at are Kansas, Pocono, and Charlotte. He’s already won at both Kansas and Charlotte multiple times in XFINITY and Trucks as it is. The two closest to this mark, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart, cannot achieve this as they never won at Rockingham Speedway when it was on the Sprint Cup calendar.

    Busch was proud of this diversity when he entered the media room following his win. But, of course, he wasn’t thinking just about Cup.

    “As far as being able to check off some more races, I checked off the truck series win yesterday,” said Busch.  “I never won here at Martinsville in the trucks.  I think I’ve concluded being able to win at all the active tracks that I’ve made a start in the truck series.  I believe that’s right.  And then I’ve got Watkins Glen left on the XFINITY side, and I’ve got I think three, Kansas, Pocono and somewhere — Charlotte.  Imagine that.

    “So it’s a pretty good problem to have. There’s not very many left on the list, but we’ve certainly put some emphasis on that over the past few years and being able to try to do that last year was a big year for us, knocking off a couple of those, as well. I’m pumped when I’m able to do that. I don’t know that many guys have ever been able to accomplish being able to win at every single active track that they’ve made starts at, and I look forward to trying to complete that feat.”

    Even so, Busch isn’t thinking too much about old Cup records, even when asked if he could match David Pearson’s 105 mark.

    “Man, I thought I’d get that question when I was like 75 or wherever the hell Jimmie is at,” Busch responded. “Y’all just asked Jimmie if he could make it to 100, I think last week or two weeks ago.  We’ve got a long ways ahead of us.  Let’s get to 50 first; how about that?”

    Not surprising: There were more accidents at Martinsville than at any other races so far in this young season. It all started off when David Ragan got into the fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. just six laps into the 500 lap endurance race.

    “The No. 23 pushed up in the middle of the corner and just barely touched us and it cut the left-rear tire,” Earnhardt said following the race. He battled for much of the day to get back on the lead lap and ended up 14th after pitting on the last caution.

    Some of the other incidents included Brian Scott knocking Michael Annett into the wall, Regan Smith’s two wrecks, and shockingly, favorite Denny Hamlin.

    “It’s my first time ever doing it here, so it’s a little embarrassing, but I mean we were the fastest car those last 30 laps and we got back to the top-five and I was making up a lot of my speed on entry,” Hamlin said about his misfortune on lap 222. “As the tires wear, the rears get hotter, less grip, you can’t brake at the same amount and I, just – it was really out of the blue. I didn’t ever have a hint of it up until that moment, so a bit of a rookie move on my part – been around here too much to do something like that, but learning for the fall and I’m really encouraged about how good our car came up through the pack and I really thought we had a car that could win.”

    Surprising: AJ Allmendinger ended the day second after spending most of the race in the top 10. It matched his record finish at a NASCAR oval, another runner-up finish at Martinsville in 2012.

    It’s the Los Gatos, California native’s first top-five finish since his win at Watkins Glen in 2014.

    “Well, Brian Burns and Tony Palmer, my crew chief and race engineer last year, they were just at a bit of a disadvantage,” Allmendinger said, reflecting on what has changed since last season at JTG Daugherty. “We didn’t have the personnel to have the cars where we needed them when they left the race shop, exactly where they needed to be, getting put into the hauler and getting brought to the racetrack. Ernie (new competition director, Cope) is really good.  He’s had a relationship with RCR working there, and obviously, when he worked with Kevin Harvick and they had the truck and Busch teams at the time.  So he’s been really good about making sure we got what we need for the race cars and built the way they need to be to the specs that he wants them and things like that, and Randall, for a first-year crew chief, you wouldn’t really know it.  He’s great on the box.  He calms me, which shockingly I don’t know if you guys know that, I probably need that sometimes.

    “It doesn’t seem like he’s only done this for six races. They’ve brought a lot, but it’s not just about those guys. Brian Burns and Tony Palmer, they stepped back into new roles and instead of feeling like they were downsized or demoted they’ve stepped up and embraced it.”

    Kyle Larson, who ended the day third, had run top five all day before moving up on the final restart.

    “Yeah, it was a solid weekend for myself, also,” Larson said, referring to his start in the truck race the day before.  “I was able to do double duty this week, and I think that definitely helped me get my rhythm early in the weekend and better myself each time I was on the track.

    “Our car was way better than it has been here in the past. I felt like I learned a lot throughout that race. I was able to run behind great drivers here, AJ, Jimmie (Johnson) Kevin (Harvick), Kurt (Busch), (Brad) Keselowski, there was a lot of people that I could learn off of.  You know, this was — in the past it’s been my worst racetrack on the schedule, so to get a top-three finish here feels great, feels like a win, to be honest, and hopefully, this is a good momentum shift that we need. We’ve been struggling all year long so far and been working hard, but it hasn’t paid off.”

    Not surprising: Change the cars, change the tires, change the point system. The one constant in NASCAR, outside of Kevin Harvick winning at Phoenix, is that restarting on the outside line at Martinsville is not a good thing.

    Matt Kenseth and Harvick, after being up front almost the entire day, struggled to 15th and 17th respectively after being on the outside line on the last restart.

    It has been the story of the year for Kenseth. He has been fast every week but outside of a seventh at Phoenix has always faded back by the time the checkered flag waves.

    “Yeah, we had a great Dollar General Toyota today,” Kenseth said following the race. “We’ve had fast cars this year, but got shuffled to the back, so disappointing ending but it was an encouraging day. We ran really well, had great pit stops and they gave me fast cars. Hopefully, we’ll start getting some finishes soon.”

    Harvick did not speak to the media following the race.

    Surprising: Austin Dillon, at a track where he had a best finish of 12th going in, ended the day a strong fourth after a back and fourth battle between himself and teammate Paul Menard in the latter stages of the race.

    It has been a career year for the Richard Childress Racing driver, who has an average finish of 10.3 and has doubled his career number of top fives. He currently sits eighth in points. Dillon, however, puts most of the credit on his crew at RCR.

    “We just keep getting better every week,” Dillon said. “I didn’t like myself last year. I didn’t like who I was for the team. I was frustrated and I wanted to be better for these guys. When they step-up, they make me better. I’m trying to be different, but I’m not doing a lot of different stuff. They’re just building me a lot better race cars. Everybody back at the shop putting all those 80-hour weeks in, I hope you understand how important it is because you’re making it happen. I wish we had one more spot, but that was pretty darn cool.”

    Not surprising: Brad Keselowski has never won at Martinsville but has always been very consistent, with seven top 10s in 13 starts at “the Paperclip”.

    This didn’t change on Sunday when the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford finished fifth.

    “It was a good Martinsville race,” the 2012 Sprint Cup champion said. “We had a lot of speed with the Miller Lite Ford on the long runs, but just not quite enough on the short runs to make anything of the Gibbs cars. They were really strong all day. All in all, I’m real proud of my team. We’re starting to get to this place where we’re real consistent and can run up front and that’s a good feeling.”

    Next week, it’s the first night race of the season at the Texas Motor Speedway. Tune in Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. EST for the Duck Commander 500.

  • Rowdy Takes a Bow in Martinsville

    Rowdy Takes a Bow in Martinsville

    MARTINSVILLE, Va.– One clock wasn’t enough for Kyle Busch this weekend because he dominated and scored a second grandfather clock at the Virginia paperclip.

    The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 352 of the 500 laps on his way to scoring the victory in the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway. It’s his 35th career victory in the Sprint Cup Series and first at Martinsville.

    “I’d say it certainly helps when you get to run other divisions and that’s why I do it to pay off on Sundays,” Busch said in victory lane. “It doesn’t work every single weekend, but it works more times than it doesn’t, so can’t say enough about everyone at KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) for giving me a great piece yesterday to help me learn, teach me some more things about Martinsville that I didn’t already know in 30 other prior starts. I can’t say enough about this whole JGR team on this side. This M&M’s Camry was awesome in practice yesterday. We had a really good car through practice and Adam (Stevens, crew chief) made some really good adjustments overnight to keep us where we need to be in order to run up front all day, led a lot of laps, probably led the most laps there and to win here in Martinsville is pretty cool – finally get to take a clock home. A lot of people said I didn’t deserve yesterday – maybe I don’t – but I certainly got one today.”

    AJ Allmendinger brought his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet home to a runner-up finish.

    “Well, I was hoping for one more spot for a culmination. But, I passed Jimmie Johnson like five times at Martinsville; that’s pretty cool! I can’t thank everybody on this team enough, especially (team owners) Tad and Jodi Geschickter. They put a lot of effort into this team. We weren’t where we wanted to be about six months ago. We brought in so many people who stepped up to embrace their new roles. I can’t thank all our sponsors enough.”

    Kyle Larson rounded out the podium in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Austin Dillon finished fourth in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-five in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford.

    “It was a good Martinsville race,” Keselowski said. “We had a lot of speed with the Miller Lite Ford on the long runs, but just not quite enough on the short runs to make anything of the Gibbs cars. They were really strong all day. All in all, I’m really proud of my team. We’re starting to get to this place where we’re real consistent and can run up front and that’s a good feeling.”

    Carl Edwards finished sixth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota. Brian Vickers finished seventh in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet followed by Paul Menard who led 10 laps on his way to an eighth-place finish in his No. 27 RCR Chevrolet. Jimmie Johnson finished ninth in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet while Ryan Newman rounded out the top-10 in his No. 31 RCR Chevrolet.

    Pole-sitter Joey Logano led 21 laps, but fell way off early in the race, was busted for an uncontrolled tire and recovered for an 11th-place finish.

    “It was frustrating,” said Logano. “You want to go out there and win for sure and we just missed it. The first run was just absolutely awful to go down a lap from the lead, so we fought to get our car better, which we did, and then we over adjusted and came back and over adjusted on the way back, and then we had a pit road penalty. I think we know where we missed it, but we didn’t have the tools to fix what we needed to fix. Once the race starts a lot of times your hands are tied because you only have a certain amount of adjustments on your car or even on pit stops that we could fix what our problem was.

    “We’ve just got to back and learn from our mistakes and learn from what happened today. It seems like this tire kind of threw us for a loop today, or at least for our car.”

    Matt Kenseth led 45 laps and restarted the race second on the final restart, but was unable to get to the bottom and finished 15th. Despite leading 72 laps, Kevin Harvick was a non-factor toward the end as he finished 17th.

    The race lasted three hours, 17 minutes and two seconds at an average speed of 80.088 mph. There were 11 lead changes among five different drivers and eight cautions for 51 laps. Nineteen cars finished on the lead lap and three failed to finish.

    “We had a part failure with a part that typically doesn’t break, so I’m not sure,” said Aric Almirola after finishing 40th. “Doug (Yates) will go back and investigate it and I’m sure they’ll figure something out so it won’t ever happen again. It was a disappointing end to our day. We had an okay STP Ford Fusion. We were making it better and were probably a 15th-place car. Walking out of the track now, I certainly would have taken a 15th-place finish because this is gonna put us in a pretty big hole.”

    Harvick retains the points lead after Martinsville followed by Johnson (-4), Kyle Busch (-5), Edwards (-14) and Logano (-24), to round out the top five.

    Complete Results NSCS STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway:

    1. (7) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 500.
    2. (6) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 500.
    3. (17) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 500.
    4. (29) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 500.
    5. (11) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 500.
    6. (25) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 500.
    7. (3) Brian Vickers, Chevrolet, 500.
    8. (4) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 500.
    9. (24) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 500.
    10. (5) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 500.
    11. (1) Joey Logano, Ford, 500.
    12. (14) Greg Biffle, Ford, 500.
    13. (23) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 500.
    14. (21) Dale Earnhardt Jr, Chevrolet, 500.
    15. (9) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 500.
    16. (28) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 500.
    17. (19) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 500.
    18. (16) Martin Truex Jr, Toyota, 500.
    19. (12) * Ryan Blaney #, Ford, 500.
    20. (10) Chase Elliott #, Chevrolet, 499.
    21. (22) David Ragan, Toyota, 499.
    22. (2) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 499.
    23. (15) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 499.
    24. (27) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 498.
    25. (30) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 497.
    26. (26) Brian Scott #, Ford, 496.
    27. (32) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 496.
    28. (33) Landon Cassill, Ford, 495.
    29. (35) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 495.
    30. (31) * Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 495.
    31. (18) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 494.
    32. (13) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ford, 494.
    33. (36) Chris Buescher #, Ford, 491.
    34. (34) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 491.
    35. (38) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 490.
    36. (37) Joey Gase(i), Ford, 490.
    37. (40) * Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 490.
    38. (39) * Josh Wise, Chevrolet, Engine, 326.
    39. (8) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, Accident, 221.
    40. (20) Aric Almirola, Ford, Engine, 206.