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  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Phoenix Advocare 500

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Phoenix Advocare 500

    [media-credit name=”Simon Scoggins” align=”alignright” width=”244″][/media-credit]In the next to the last race on the one miler in the Valley of the Sun, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 25th annual Advocare 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

    Surprising:  Although avoiding the shower of sponsor product, baby Keelan had his first ever visit to Victory Lane, celebrating with his dad Kevin Harvick, driver of the Richard Childress Racing No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet.

    “It was great to be back in Victory Lane and to have Keelan there for our first victory celebration as a family,” Harvick said. “He was fine until everyone started screaming.”

    “That made him cry.”

    Surprisingly, this was Harvick’s first victory of the 2012 season, breaking a 44 race winless streak. Also surprisingly, this was Richard Childress Racing’s first win of the year as well.

    Harvick’s victory came on the heels of a surprising announcement prior to the race, one that will see him leave RCR for Stewart Haas Racing in the 2014 season.

    “It has been a struggle and an interesting weekend to say the least,” Harvick said. “Regardless of what happens in 2014, we have the end of this year and we’ve got all of next year.”

    “We want to win races and we want to be competitive and that is what we are here to do.”

    Not Surprising:  The theme of survival, which has been his mantra since Talladega and throughout the Chase, continued with the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge.

    Brad Keselowski finished sixth in the Blue Deuce and also grabbed the points lead in the championship race after competitor Jimmie Johnson hit the wall to finish 32nd. Keselowski also had to navigate a wild last lap wreck, in which he was dinged, to take the checkered flag.

    “I raced pretty hard last week at Texas but that was borderline ridiculous,” Keselowski said. “We survived and I’m proud of everyone on the Miller Lite team for that.”

    “I felt very lucky to make it through the carnage today.”

    Surprising:  For a driver, crew chief and team that is so often totally in control, it was most surprising for the championship contending Jimmie Johnson and team No. 48 to come out of Phoenix feeling totally out of control.

    “We were cruising along and I think going to have a top-10 day if things worked out,” Johnson said. “I had a slight vibration and then as I was coming off of turn four, it went down and straight in the wall I went.”

    “Unfortunately, we lost a lot of control or all control in the championship,” Johnson continued, now 20 points back of point leader Keselowski. “It’s way, way out of our control with the problem we had.”

    “That’s racing,” Johnson said. “We will go to Homestead and do all we can down there and see how things pan out.”

    Not Surprising:  As with any fracas, there are a variety of ways to see the incident, depending on your point of view. And the melee on and off the track between Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet, and Clint Bowyer, pilot of the No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota, was no exception to this rule.

    “It’s just that things have gotten escalated over the year and I’ve just had it,” Gordon said after wrecking Bowyer and participating in a bench-emptying brawl in the garage area. “Clint’s run into me numerous times.”

    “I’ve had it and was fed up with it and got him back.”

    “For him to act like that, I barely touched him,” Bowyer said. “Next thing I know, Brett (Griffin, spotter) is telling me that he’s waiting on me.”

    “It’s pretty embarrassing for a four-time champion and what I consider one of the best the sport’s ever seen to act like that.”

    For those directly and not so directly involved in the disagreement, other perceptions prevailed.

    “When I was young, I thought Jeff Gordon was the best driver,” Joey Logano, whose No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet was collateral damage in the Gordon/Bowyer madness, tweeted after the race. “Now I’ve lost a lot of respect for him.”

    “The 24 should be parked!” Denny Hamlin tweeted after the race. “He took out 5 cars in that BS!”

    One driver, however, seemingly enjoyed the hoopla and the sparring.

    “I like fights,” Kevin Harvick, race winner, said to the media with a devilish grin. “We should have more fights.”

    “They’re not always fun to be in, but fights are what made NASCAR what it is.”

    Surprising:  While Denny Hamlin had much to say about fellow competitor Jeff Gordon via Twitter, he also had a lot to say about the track, even with a second place finish.

    “The track is just so slick,” Hamlin said after the race. “Treacherous. The race track is extremely treacherous.”

    “You can’t – with these hard tires – you just can’t get a grip on the race track.”

    “Everyone’s just sliding around and sliding into each other.”

    The driver of the No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota also had some choice, but perhaps not politically correct words, for the track conditions on the final lap, which led to multiple wrecks and many torn up race cars.

    “There was oil all over the track,” Hamlin said. “Ray Charles could see that.”

    “Holy cow, it was a mess.”

    Not Surprising:   After dominating for the first third of the race, the intrepid Kyle Busch, behind the wheel of the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota, had to settle for a third place finish. This was Busch’s 10th top-10 finishes in 16 races at Phoenix International Raceway.

    “Great day,” Busch said simply. “Guys gave me an awesome car.”

    “Obviously, having a car that’s the class of the field – you expect to win and you’re supposed to win,” Busch continued. “I guess I just didn’t know how to win it today.”

    “So, it seems to be the way the year goes.”

    Surprising:  For as bad of a season and weekend that Jeff Burton was having, the driver of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet pulled off a surprisingly good 13th place finish in the Advocare 500.

    Burton had to start from the rear of the field after multiple accidents in both Friday and Saturday’s practices.

    “Just a solid effort this weekend from the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team,” Burton said. “We wrecked two cars on Friday and Saturday.”

    “For these guys to come back and give this kind of effort was amazing.”

    Not Surprising:  Kurt Busch continued to settle in with his new Furniture Row race team, recovering from a lug nut problem to finish eighth in the Valley of the Sun. This was his second straight eighth-place finish, giving his team its best back-to-back finishes in the team’s history.

    “That was a wild ending,” the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet said. “I just stayed on the gas to get to the finish line.”

    “We definitely had a car that was capable of winning,” Busch continued. “We battled back to notch our second straight top-10.”

    Surprising:  Another Cup rookie had a surprisingly good day, in fact the best yet in her young career in the top tier of the sport. Danica Patrick, in the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, finished 17th, her best result to date.

    “We had a green-white-checkered, so it was a nice exciting finish for the fans,” Patrick said. “The No. 31 went in too deep and clipped my left rear, spun me around and I just tried to limp back to the line.”

    “Still our best finish,” Patrick continued. “But you always want more.”

    Not Surprising:  Ryan Newman, often known as the ‘Iron Man’ of the sport, proved he was as tough as all the veterans’ pictures on his camouflaged car. After qualifying in the 12th position, the driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet worked his way to the front to finish fifth in the Advocare 500.

    “That was a good run for our Quicken Loans Chevrolet,” Newman said. “It was a special Veteran’s Day paint scheme and I’m really proud of everything there.”

    Surprising:  Chaser Martin Truex, Jr., racing no doubt with a heavy heart for his home state of New Jersey ravaged by Hurricane Sandy, saw his day end before it even got started. The driver of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota had an engine failure and finished 43rd.

    “Well, the engine started laying down on like the second lap and something broke in the top end, so we were done for the day,” Truex said. “It’s a shame.”

    “Just one of those deals – probably a parts failure or something.”

    Not Surprising:  Greg Biffle showed his mettle behind the wheel, coming back from a miserable start to the race to being the highest finishing Ford, scoring a top-10 finish.

    “It was actually a hard fought day,” the driver of the No. 16 Filtrete/3M Ford said. “We came back from not having a very good car to being really good.”

    “We kept working on it and working on it,” Biffle continued. “I never thought we’d get that good.”

    “That was remarkable.”

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Kansas Hollywood Casino 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Kansas Hollywood Casino 400

    [media-credit name=”Credit: Wesley Hitt/Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”236″][/media-credit]On a repaved track that even team owner Jack Roush pronounced surprisingly fast and treacherous and with a record number of cautions to boot, here is what else was surprising and not surprising in the 12th annual Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

    Surprising:  While many know his wicked sense of humor through social media, they now know just how much it means for him to stand in Victory Lane, not as a lame duck with a team he will leave at year end, but as the first time race winner on the newly repaved Kansas Speedway.

    “It really means a lot,” Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Zest Ford for Roush Fenway Racing said in Victory Lane, his voice choked with emotion.” I really got to thank God for all the opportunities he’s put in front of me.”

    Kenseth’s victory was not an easy one, having hit the outside wall hard and sustaining right side damage to the car. This was Kenseth’s first Kansas win, his third victory of the season, and his 24th career victory, moving him into a tie for 26th on the all-time Series win list.

    “You never know when your next win is,” Kenseth said. “Especially as you get older, you appreciate it more.”

    “I’m really thankful and humbled to be here honestly.”

    Not Surprising:  Whether the lucky horseshoe or shades of the ‘Six Million Dollar Man’, Chad Knaus and team 48 proved they could rebuild the battered back end of Jimmie Johnson’s wrecked race car, making it better, stronger and faster.

    In fact, Johnson was so much better, stronger, and faster that after the on pit road rebuild, he rallied back to finish ninth in his Lowe’s Chevrolet. And with that comeback, Johnson, not surprisingly, also had a message to share with his fellow Chase competitors.

    “I’m just now getting a chance to look at the damage on the car and it was pretty severe,” Johnson said after the race. “I’m definitely proud of this team and the fact that we never give up.”

    “It’s more mature racing here in 2012,” Johnson continued. “We showed what our team is capable of.”

    “I hope the other guys are paying attention.”

    Surprising:  The championship point’s leader surprisingly continued to have survival on his mind, a theme that carried over from Talladega right into the race in the Midwest heartland.

    Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Blue Deuce, managed to finish eighth, one spot ahead of Chaser Jimmie Johnson, over whom he maintains a seven point lead in the standings.

    “I said when we finished Talladega that somebody should make ‘I Survived Talladega’ t-shirts,” Keselowski said. “Well, I didn’t know coming to Kansas it was going to be the same.”

    “Just wrecks and accidents and blown tires; everything you can imagine happened,” Keselowski continued. “It seemed like every wreck happened in front of me.”

    “I felt really lucky to survive it.”

    Not Surprising:  While Kansas broke many hearts on race day this past weekend, there was no one more heart broken than the driver of the No. 43 Farmland Ford Fusion. Aric Almirola qualified fifth and led over 60 laps of the race before blowing a tire and slamming into the wall so hard that it took his breath away.

    “I have never in my entire life had a race car that good,” Almirola said. “It was just so fast and so easy to drive.”

    “I hate that it ended like this but I have always been told you have to give a few away before you can win one,” Almirola continued. “We certainly gave one away today.”

    Surprising:  It was indeed a tale of two Kansas races, yet with a surprisingly similar result. Martin Truex Jr., in the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota finished second for the second time at Kansas Speedway.

    “Well, it’s a lot different mood after this one,” Truex said after the race. “After the first one I was disappointed.  Today, I’m happy with my team and my race car.”

    “We really had to battle for this one,” That’s a good run for us for sure.”

    With his bridesmaid finish, Truex Jr. gained one position in the point standings to sixth, 43 points out of first.

    Not Surprising:   Unfortunately, Kansas was killing Clint Bowyer softly with its song, even though he finished sixth in his No. 15 5-Hour Energy Benefitting Avon Foundation Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing.

    “I think I started on the outside one time early in the race and just every time it just killed me,” Bowyer said. “I don’t know what the hell was going on behind us.”

    “They kept wrecking,” Bowyer continued. “Restarts kind of killed us all day long.”

    Surprising:  There were a surprising number of temper tantrums, more typical of a short track like Martinsville than the mile and a half at Kansas. Tempers flared between Danica Patrick and Landon Cassill, as they did between Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman.

    Patrick, in her No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet actually took herself out on lap 155 as a result of her on-track tiff with the driver of the No. 83 Burger King Toyota.

    “I have just been really frustrated with the No. 83,” Patrick said. “It’s been pretty consistent with him getting into me.”

    “So, at some point in time, I have to stand up for myself,” Patrick continued. “The bummer is I’m out of the race and he’s not.”

    Patrick finished 32nd, while Cassill brought home his race car for a much better 18th place finish.

    Kyle Busch, in the No. 18 M&M’s Halloween Toyota, finished 31st after a scuffle with the driver of the No. 39 Code 3 Associates Chevrolet. And this one might result in some payback as the 2012 season winds down.

    “Everything is just on edge,” Busch said. “Newman just ran up on the back of me and got me loose.”

    “So, just impatience,” Busch continued. “I’m glad he’s wrecked along with me and he’ll get another one here before the year is out.”

    Not Surprising:  With his crew chief back after suspension, it was not surprising for this driver to pull off a top five finish. In fact, Paul Menard, in the No. 27 Certainteed Insulation/Menards Chevrolet, finished third at Kansas.

    “We had Slugger (Labbe, crew chief) back this weekend,” Menard said. “He is well rested after six weeks off and had some good ideas to try this weekend.”

    “We had a good car,” Menard continued. “It was just a matter of getting us up there.”

    Surprising:  The ‘uh oh’ uttered by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon surprisingly captured the moment late in the race for Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet.

    Kahne, who started out on the pole after shattering the track qualifying record, had a chance to win before he shut off his engine during a caution in an attempt to save fuel.

    As a result, he lost several spots on the race track before getting his car back up to minimum speed, managing  a fourth place finish instead of that oh-so-close victory.

    “It just wouldn’t re-fire,” Kahne said after the race. “Disappointing.”

    “It was coming to me at the end,” Kahne continued. “We just weren’t close enough at that point in time.”

    Not Surprising:  From telling his team to get their heads out of their ‘expletive’ to praising them effusively after the race, Tony Stewart did, in his own words, have ‘an eventful day.’

    The driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet started 33rd, had to overcome a pit stop where his crew left a wrench in the car, battled an incident with Jeff Burton and a spin to finish fifth.

    This was Smoke’s sixth top-five in Sprint Cup starts at Kansas, pre and post repaving, having to pass 74 cars during the race to do so.

    “We had some stuff to deal with, but our guys never gave up,” Stewart said. “We probably had to pass more cars than anybody today, but that seems to be our MO.”

    “That’s how we won a championship last year, by never giving up.”

    Surprising:  While there was a surprising bit of a confusion on the part of team owner Rick Hendrick about the status of Dale Earnhardt Junior’s return to the race car (and he will return at Martinsville), substitute driver Regan Smith was feeling surprisingly right at home in the No. 88 National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet.

    In fact, Smith felt so much at home that he finished top-ten, in the seventh position.

    “It’s been nice to be able to step in and have them treat me like a normal driver,” Smith said. “I know Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.) is excited to get back so that is going to be good for him.”

    “Looking forward to whatever comes next for me.”

    Not Surprising:  The other drivers in new seats struggled on the newly repaved Kansas track. Kurt Busch, in the No. 78 Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet, finished 25th and A.J. Allmendinger, in the No. 51 Phoenix Construction Chevrolet, finished even further back in 35th.

    But not surprisingly, both drivers and teams looked on the bright side of life in spite of the wrecks and results.

    “Kurt Busch showed all of us today what an impressive driver he is,” Todd Berrier, crew chief, said. “It was the performance that counted today, not the finishing result.”

    “The car was fast and we were running well,” Allmendinger said. “Tried to save it and I feel bad.”

    “I hope I’m in the car next week, but if not, it’s meant the world to get back to the sport,” Dinger continued. “I love the sport.”

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Charlotte Bank of America 500

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Charlotte Bank of America 500

    [media-credit name=”Greg Arthur” align=”alignright” width=”241″][/media-credit]In a race now known as one without an Earnhardt and without a North Carolina born driver, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    Surprising:  At his worst track statistically and on a mile and half track where he has never won, this driver, although thrilled to be in Victory Lane after a fuel mileage battle extraordinaire, seemed also to be strangely depressed.

    “I can’t do a burnout,” Clint Bowyer said woefully after having his No. 15 5-Hour Energy/Avon Foundation for Women Toyota pushed to the winner’s circle. “The thing doesn’t have enough fuel in it to do a burnout.”

    “I’d like to practice a burnout,” Bowyer continued ruefully. “It’s so much fun burning rubber.”

    “Oh hell, I don’t care,” Bowyer then said. “It’s a lot more fun getting handed that trophy – that’s what it’s all about.”

    Not Surprising:  Although Chaser Clint Bowyer survived on fumes to end the race, it was not surprising that his other Chase contenders, in fact the top three in the points battle, were also challenging their own fuel demons, literally having to slow down in order to finish the race.

    “Yeah, you’re just running the race backwards basically,” Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota, said after finishing second. “You’re just seeing how slow you can go and maintain your track position.”

    “It’s tough because I’m sitting there thinking I can go by this 15 (Bowyer) or catch him just about any time I want, but Darian (Grubb, crew chief) is screaming at me to back off.”

    “We started saving with double the distance to just be cautious,” Jimmie Johnson, who finished third in the No. 48 MyLowe’s Chevrolet, said. “We didn’t want to go up there and chase the No. 11 (Hamlin) and get ourselves in trouble.”

    Brad Keselowski, usually known as an excellent fuel-mileage racer, actually sputtered, coasting to pit road after running out of fuel. “I didn’t know what was going on,” the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge said. “I think we probably would have finished fourth or fifth if we didn’t run out of fuel.”

    “I had to coast for quite a ways and it wouldn’t start when I got back to pit road.”

    This small fuel sputter, along with having to stop for fuel in the waning laps, cost Keselowski a top-5 finish, landing him in the 11th spot instead when the checkered flag flew.

    Yet, in spite of the fuel challenges at Charlotte, Keselowski maintained P1 in the Chase standings but is now just seven points ahead of Jimmie Johnson and fifteen points ahead of Denny Hamlin.

    Surprising:  Jeff Gordon and team 24 Drive to End Hunger made some surprisingly costly errors in the Bank of America 500. Gordon, fighting an ill-handling race car most of the night, incurred a speeding road penalty and struggled to regain track position from that point on.

    “We missed the setup at the beginning, but we worked on it and worked on it and had it driving good there at the end,” Gordon said. “We just couldn’t catch a caution to get us back on the lead lap.”

    “It was just one of those nights.”

    Gordon finished 18th, his fourth finish of 18th or worse in his last five races at Charlotte. He also fell three positions, from sixth to ninth in the Chase standings, 50 points back from the Chase leader.

    Not Surprising:  Pole sitter Greg Biffle had a good enough run to actually swap point’s positions with Jeff Gordon in the Chase standings. The driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion finished fourth, gaining three Chase positions, from ninth to sixth in the standings, 43 points out of the lead.

    “We had the fastest car, but couldn’t make it on fuel,” Biffle said. “We had the fastest car at the end, but didn’t quite get there.”

    “It hurts to get beat on fuel mileage, but we were the first car behind the three that made it on fuel mileage, so I feel pretty good with fourth.”

    Surprising:  Stewart Haas Racing faced some surprising challenges at Charlotte Motor Speedway under the lights.

    SHR Chase driver Tony Stewart started from deep in the field and got into an accordion-style accident on a restart that damaged the front of his No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet.

    “I was following the 2 car (Keselowski) there and he had to check up,” Smoke said. “Man, I drilled him and it screwed up the nose of our race car.”

    SHR teammate Ryan Newman forfeited a great starting spot in the front of the field due to an engine change, which forced him to the rear of the field in a race where track position was key.

    “We definitely took a hit with the engine change,” Newman said. “We had a really fast car in practice and qualifying and it wasn’t the same in the race.”

    “It was a tough night for us.”

    Stewart rallied to finish 13th, while Newman, in the No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet, finished a disappointing 20th.

    Not Surprising:   Kyle Busch, in the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota, finally had a good finish, in fact a top-five finish, to show for his efforts in front of the home crowd.

    “The car was really good,” Busch said. “I felt like we had a winning car barring circumstances and how they played out.”

    “But that just wasn’t there for us at the end with the strategy and everything,” Busch continued. “We came home okay.”

    Surprising:  With every other driver so fixated on fuel, it was surprising that this driver, who finished seventh, could have cared less.

    “We got good fuel mileage, but that wasn’t our focus,” Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford, said. “Our focus was going as fast as we could and I think we showed a little more promise than we have in a long time.”

    “It’s been a long time since we’ve been this competitive on a mile-and-a-half, so I’m very happy with it.”

    Not Surprising:  With Dale Earnhardt, Jr. out of the race car due to a concussion, it was no surprise that all eyes were on Regan Smith, substituting for Junior in the No. 88 Amp Energy/National Guard Chevy, and also on Kurt Busch, who took over Smith’s No. 78 Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet ride for the first time this season.

    Busch finished 21st while Smith finished 38th with an engine failure.

    “The important part was that we had a really fast race car,” Smith said. “It’s disappointing and it’s a shame.”

    “Finishing 21st might not appear that we made progress,” Busch said. “But the fact of the matter is that we did in our first three days together at the track.”

    “It was an uneventful race, but an eventful weekend.”

    Surprising:  With the shuffling of Kurt Busch to Furniture Row and Regan Smith to Dale Earnhardt Junior’s seat, there was one surprising opening for a driver that needed a second chance.

    A.J. Allmendinger, returning from suspension after completing NASCAR’s Road to Recovery program, took the wheel of the No. 51 Phoenix Construction Chevrolet and finished 24th at Charlotte under the lights.

    “I have a lot of unfinished business,” the ‘Dinger said. “I have a lot of things I want to accomplish still.”

    “It’s not going to be easy,” Allmendinger continued. “I’m going to have to do a lot of work for it, but I’m willing to do it.”

    Not Surprising:  Michael Waltrip Racing had another stellar day at the race track. One MWR driver, Clint Bowyer, was in Victory Lane while the other two MWR drivers both had top-ten runs.

    Mark Martin, in the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota, finished sixth and Martin Truex, Jr., behind the wheel of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, finished tenth.

    “We started racing in 2007 and here we are in 2012 racing for a championship,” Michael Waltrip, team owner, said. “There are a few things that have happened to me over my racing career that are really special and this is one of those.”

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Dover AAA 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Dover AAA 400

    [media-credit id=26 align=”alignright” width=”233″][/media-credit]As all at the Monster Mile mourned the passing of Chris Economaki, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the third Chase race, the 43rd annual AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway.

    Surprising:  While Chevrolet has been dominant at the Monster Mile in the past, particularly with Jimmie Johnson behind the wheel, and Toyota strong in qualifying this race with Denny Hamlin on the pole, it was surprising that neither manufacturer ended up in Victory Lane.

    Instead the lone representative of the Dodge brand took the checkered flag, waved the American flag, and even did a stellar burnout in spite of being almost out of fuel.

    “Dodge has really performed with us,” Roger Penske, the ‘captain’ of the victorious No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Penske team, said. “They committed to us three or four years ago as we became the only team.”

    “The greatest thing we could do would be to bring a championship to Dodge this year,” Penske continued. “At the moment, we represent them.”

    “They’re partners,” Penske said. “We’re going to do our best.”

    Penske’s driver Brad Keselowski not only score the win for Dodge, but also got his first win at the Monster Mile. Even more important, Keselowski grabbed the points lead in the Chase standings and is now five points ahead of Jimmie Johnson.

    Not Surprising:  One driver that had to have a good run in order to even stay with spitting distance of the Chase contenders pulled it off and tamed the monster for a second place finish.

    “I thought it was a solid effort,” Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet, said. “Our car was pretty good right from the start.”

    “It was a great finish to come home second,” Gordon continued. “This is nice to follow up what we had last week.”

    “We’re running good,” Gordon said. “We got seven more weeks to get it done.”

    Surprising:  For a track known as the ‘Monster Mile’, it was surprising that the monster was in the fuel tank and not on the race track itself.

    There were just five cautions total in the race, most for debris, and the final laps were nail biters to see who would make it on fuel rather than who would wreck or have other on-track incidents.

    Even five-time champ Jimmie Johnson, behind the wheel of the No. 48 Lowes/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet, had to back it down because of his fear of running out of Sunoco, finishing fourth instead of first just to be sure about that pesky fuel mileage.

    “Well, for starters, we’re not very good at fuel mileage races,” Johnson said. “So, when I heard that, I’m like, man, we’re in big trouble.”

    “And Chad asked me to start saving fuel,” Johnson continued. “It’s tough; it really is.”

    “I wished we could have raced for it,” Johnson said. “But it is what it is.”

    “You’ve got to be good on all fronts and we did a decent job today.”

    Not Surprising:  They say that races can be won or lost in the pits and that proved true for many drivers trapped a lap down after a cycle of pit stops gone awry with a caution. But for one Chase contender, Kasey Kahne, his entire race was impacted by what happened on pit road.

    “We don’t know why I had to pit the first time, but the car just started shaking really bad,” the driver of the No. 5 Farmer’s Insurance Chevrolet, said. “Right before it did that, we were fast, we finally got our laps back that we lost early and we were coming.”

    Then the No. 5 team made a critical mistake on the stop with a lug nut and Kahne again had to visit pit road, losing track position and precious time.

    “We were sitting really good because we had just pitted and topped off on fuel,” Kahne said. “It’s too bad whatever it was.”

    “We’ll figure it out and hopefully we don’t have it happen again.”

    Kahne finished the race in 15th and fell to sixth position in the point standings, 32 points behind the leader.

    Surprising:  Although the non-Chase Fords fared surprisingly well, with Carl Edwards finishing fifth in his No. 99 Fastenal Ford, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., in his new Ford Cup ride finishing 12th, the Chase Fords of Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth had surprisingly bad days at the Monster Mile.

    In fact, Biffle and Kenseth had such surprisingly bad days, finishing 16th and 35th respectively, that they both fell to the basement in the Chase point standings, facing an incredibly uphill battle to get back into the championship hunt.

    “It’s tough,” Biffle, driver of the No. 16 Scotch-Brite Ford Fusion said, after contending with a loose wheel and having a meltdown of epic proportions on his scanner. “We were in great position, but that really kind of takes us out of the title hunt.”

    “We really needed to finish in the top three here to be a factor, but now we’ll just work on being in the top 10.”

    “In two of three Chase races, something either fell off or broke, so obviously that’s not good,” Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 EcoBoost Ford Fusion, said. “This is probably the worst we’ve run here for as long as I can remember.”

    “From the first lap on the track to the last lap on the track, we were pretty much junk.”

    Not Surprising:   There is no doubt that Kyle Busch, who had yet another great race going, including leading the most laps until fuel mileage concerns forced him to pit road at the race end, has become the modern day racing equivalent of the biblical character Job.

    The driver of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota just cannot seem to catch a break, whether it is fuel mileage, engine failure or other strange on-track incidents. And, just like Job, Busch has done his share of vociferously and vehemently questioning the racing gods, as well as his team and manufacturer.

    “It’s frustrating,” Dave Rogers, Busch’s crew chief said. “I knew if it came down to a fuel mileage race that we were going to be in trouble.”

    “There was no doubt that we had the fastest car,” Rogers continued. “We played our best cards and we came up short.”

    Surprising:  Denny Hamlin, a physical force behind the wheel at any track, stepped up his mental game for a surprisingly good finish at the Monster Mile. The driver of the No. 11 Fed Ex Office Toyota Camry and pole sitter, finished top-ten, one of his best results at a track that admittedly is not his favorite.

    “Top-10 day on a race track like this and to battle for the win all day – I’m not going to complain,” Hamlin said. “We ran our ass off today.”

    “Like I said, there’s nothing we can’t handle on the race track,” Hamlin continued. “I think our performance today is a testament to where we’re heading.”

    Not Surprising:  Veteran Mark Martin, the ‘Energizer Bunny’ of the Cup Series, just keeps getting it done on the race track whenever he is behind the wheel of the No. 55 Aaron’s 2000th Store, Bronx, NY Toyota. Martin finished 3rd, announcing that, although not part of the Chase, he is still a contender.

    “I don’t know if everybody really noticed or not, but we had a rocket ship, super fast car,” Martin said in the media center after the race. “We were passing cars left and right.”

    “I have a fantastic race team,” Martin continued. “We were just having a blast.”

    Surprising:  In contrast to veteran Martin, three-time and reigning Cup champion Tony Stewart and his race team had a surprisingly challenging day. Smoke finished 20th in his No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet and teammate Ryan Newman, in the No. 39 US Army Chevrolet, finished right behind him in 21st.

    “We just got caught behind the eight-ball there,” Stewart said. “We got a lap down and the next run we pitted, came back out and the No. 36 crashes.”

    “It was just a domino effect,” Smoke continued. “As soon as we’d pit, the caution would come out again.”

    Not Surprising:  In addition to the stellar run of Mark Martin, the other two Michael Waltrip Racing cars, both in Chase contention, had decent, top-10 finishes at the Monster Mile. Martin Truex Jr. finished sixth and teammate Clint Bowyer finished ninth.

    “Well, it wasn’t pretty at the beginning,” Truex Jr., driving the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, said. “But it was pretty damn pretty at the end.”

    “It’s great a great finish for where we started,” Truex continued. “What a crazy day.”

    “When you have days like that, you just have to keep fighting and we kept fighting and came out with a good results.”

    Both Truex and Bowyer advanced two positions a piece in the point standings. Martin Truex Jr. is now eighth in points, 42 behind the leader, and Clint Bowyer is now fourth in points, 25 behind leader Keselowski.

    Surprising:  One racer, making her first start at the Monster Mile, expressed surprising comfort with the concept of a fuel mileage racing, in spite of finishing 38th in her No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet.

    “I’m so used to the concept of fuel mileage racing that I don’t have any problem with it,” Patrick said. “Even at the start of the run I’m saving fuel already and they told me not to.”

    “I was a little slow to start,” Patrick continued. “But we worked our way through it and made it better most every stop.”

    “That is a good starting place for next year when we get here and that is the point of these races.”

    Not Surprising:  While pronouncing the finish ‘decent’, it was not surprising that the crew chief for NASCAR’s most popular driver was not particularly thrilled with the 11th place finish of the No. 88 National Guard/Diet Mount Dew Chevrolet.

    “We had a good car and we are fine with what we had,” Steve Letarte, crew chief for Dale Earnhardt, Jr., said. “To come here and not be good in practice and have a good car and feel like we could run in the top-five – that’s heading in the right direction.”

    “We just need a little luck on our side.”

  • Brad Keselowski Tames Monster Mile for First Win and Points Lead

    [media-credit id=62 align=”alignright” width=”230″][/media-credit]Brad Keselowski, driving the No. 2 Miller Lite  Dodge for Penske Racing, not only tamed the Monster Mile with his first ever win at Dover International Speedway, but also took the points lead, now five points over Jimmie Johnson.

    This was Keselowski’s fifth win of the season and his ninth career win. He has now won two of the three races so far in the Chase.

    “I’m happy for our day here obviously,” Keselowski said. “We certainly were a lot stronger here than we were in the past.”

    “I may not have had the best car but hung around in that top five, just kept creeping around and when you do that, you put yourself in position for good things to happen.”

    “That’s what this 2 team has done the last few months.”

    “That was the type of performance we needed to stay in this championship and we showed today that we’re going to continue to be there every week,” Paul Wolfe, crew chief for the race winning car, said. “This was another small step to the ten races and I’m proud to be able to come out of here in the points lead.”

    One driver that needed a great run actually got it at the Monster Mile. Jeff Gordon, behind the wheel of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, held on to finish in the runner up position.

    “I thought it was a solid effort,” Gordon said. “Our car was good right from the start.”

    Gordon admitted he had a car that was better on the long runs, but that actually helped when it came time to finish up the fuel mileage racing.

    “We struggled on the short runs,” Gordon said. “We started really struggling on the restarts and losing positions.”

    “But that played to our favor because we could come in and top off,” Gordon continued. “It gave us the opportunity not to have to save fuel.”

    “I thought me and Mark Martin were going to be battling for the win”, Gordon said. “We just got a little too tight at the end.”

    Although Gordon is still 48 points out in the Chase, he has moved forward into the tenth spot after race three of the Chase.

    “This is nice to follow up with what we had last week,” Gordon said. “We’re just taking a few steps in the Chase each week.”

    “It was a great day all around.”

    Wily veteran Mark Martin, behind the wheel of the No. 55 Aaron’s 2000th Store/Bronx NY Toyota, finished third for Michael Waltrip Racing.

    “I don’t know if everybody really noticed but we had a rocket ship,” Martin said. “Super fast car.”

    “We battled from behind all day,” Martin continued. “We were just passing cars left and right.”

    “It was a hard fought battle by a great race team,” Martin said. “I had a really, really fast race car.”

    “It feels really good, regardless of the points, to run good.”

    Jimmie Johnson, in the No. 48 Lowe’s /Kobalt Tools Chevrolet, not only lost the points lead but had to finish off the race in fuel saving mode, for fourth.

    “It’s a tough situation to be in, but I’m more focused on the big prize,” Johnson said. “I’m very happy we got to the finish line.”

    “We had clean air but I had to give it up because of saving fuel,” Johnson continued. “Today we were fourth, which is not bad.”

    Johnson acknowledged that it was difficult to let cars pass, especially those Chase competitors, just to have to save fuel.

    “It’s tough,” Johnson said. “But you have to race on all fronts and we had a decent day today.”

    Once known as ‘Concrete Carl’, the driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford finally had a good day on the concrete banks of the Monster Mile, finishing fifth.

    “That was a decent run for us,” Edwards said. “We had a lot of good luck.”

    “If I can’t be winning the race, I enjoy seeing the battle out there,” Edwards continued. “We’ve got some work to do and we have to keep working on these cars.”

    “We didn’t drop the ball and we had some fun,” Edwards said. “It’s fortunate we came home top five.”

    Some Chase contenders salvaged a fairly decent day; however others had dramatically difficult days. Among the latter was Matt Kenseth, who hit the wall twice and finished a miserable 35th in his No. 17 Ford EcoBoost Ford.

    “Today was a struggle,” Kenseth said. “This is probably the worst we’ve run here for as long as I can remember.”

    “From the first lap on the track to the last lap on the track, we were pretty much junk.”

    Kenseth had the distinction of being the worst finisher of the Chasers and fell into the basement position in 12th, now 72 points behind leader Keselowski.

    Other Chase contenders fared better than Kenseth, including Martin Truex Jr., who finished sixth; Denny Hamlin in eighth; Clint Bowyer in ninth; Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in eleventh; Kevin Harvick in the 13th spot, and Kasey Kahne who finished 15th.

    The remaining Chase drivers, Greg Biffle, who had a tire issue and a major meltdown, and Tony Stewart, who was just off all day, finished 16th and 20th respectively at Dover International Speedway.

    Unofficial Race Results
    AAA 400, Dover Int’l Speedway
    http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Cup/race.php?race=29
    =========================================
    Pos. St. No. Driver Make Points
    =========================================
    1 10 2 Brad Keselowski Dodge 47
    2 7 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 43
    3 26 55 Mark Martin Toyota 41
    4 11 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 41
    5 15 99 Carl Edwards Ford 39
    6 3 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 38
    7 5 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 39
    8 1 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 37
    9 2 15 Clint Bowyer Toyota 36
    10 14 20 Joey Logano Toyota 34
    11 25 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 33
    12 17 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 0
    13 13 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 31
    14 16 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota 30
    15 9 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 29
    16 6 16 Greg Biffle Ford 28
    17 18 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet 27
    18 27 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford 26
    19 21 43 Aric Almirola Ford 25
    20 24 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 24
    21 8 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 23
    22 19 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet 22
    23 28 51 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 21
    24 20 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 20
    25 4 22 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge 0
    26 35 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet 18
    27 39 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 17
    28 38 10 Danica Patrick Chevrolet 0
    29 33 93 Travis Kvapil Toyota 15
    30 31 34 David Ragan Ford 14
    31 30 13 Casey Mears Ford 13
    32 42 38 David Gilliland Ford 12
    33 41 32 T.J. Bell Ford 0
    34 40 36 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 10
    35 12 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 9
    36 22 83 Landon Cassill Toyota 8
    37 23 26 Josh Wise * Ford 7
    38 32 98 Michael McDowell Ford 6
    39 37 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota 0
    40 34 195 Scott Speed Ford 4
    41 43 37 Dave Blaney Chevrolet 3
    42 36 23 Scott Riggs Chevrolet 2
    43 29 191 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 0
  • NASCAR’s Confidence Factor

    NASCAR’s Confidence Factor

    [media-credit name=”Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”235″][/media-credit]While some still debate it, anyone involved with NASCAR knows not only is it a sport, but one that involves a unique mixture of physicality, good mechanics and a great deal of mental focus, as well as confidence.

    The mental aspect of the sport has been gaining increasing attention recently, especially as some of the drivers at the highest level acknowledge the use of sports psychologists and other confidence-building tools.

    Probably the most vocal about the mental side of the sport, especially having confidence, has been Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. Hamlin employed the skills of a sports psychologist after narrowly missing the championship in 2010.

    “I took for granted in 2010 that we were part of a championship battle,” Hamlin said. “We had an amazing season – a career season for myself – but you get so upset about not winning a championship.”

    “When you lose a championship and you follow it up the next year and your cars don’t run as well, then it’s very frustrating.”

    “From 2010 when we won eight, this year we won five and last year we won one – I didn’t forget how to drive for a year,” Hamlin said. “That part is tough to get over when you become irrelevant after a career year.”

    “Our focus is ourselves and knowing that if I’ve got the balance that I’ve got and the car that I need, we can win,” Hamlin continued. “That’s the mental side of it.”

    Fellow Chase competitor Martin Truex, Jr., who drives the No. 56 NAPA Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing, agreed with Hamlin as to the importance of confidence, especially in motivating the race team.

    “I obviously, definitely, think it’s a part of it,” Truex said. “But, there are times when you can love a race track and be as upbeat as you’ve ever been and still go in there and have a bad weekend.”

    “You know, having a good mental attitude is a good thing to keep the team rallied around you,” Truex continued. “Those guys really feed off the driver and it seems that the driver’s attitude can play a part in how the team is feeling and how they do their job throughout the weekend.”

    “I think everyone comes into the weekend, not matter where you go, optimistic,” Truex said. “But at the end of the day, if you can’t get your car to do what you want, it doesn’t matter how much you love the race track.”

    “For us, it’s just all about working hard and having a good attitude going in, being optimistic, being positive and just working hard and trying to get the results you’re looking for.”

    Four-time champion Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, affirms that confidence is key, especially for him since he is last in the Chase point standings.

    “It’s important for us to be aggressive and put pressure on them by being up front and running good,” Gordon said. “Right now we are not really on anybody’s radar.”

    “They know we run good and know we can win races and yet, they know we are really far back in points,” Gordon continued. “So right now it’s all on us to go do what we are capable of doing.”

    Cup driver Joey Logano, who currently drives for Joe Gibbs Racing but will move to Penske Racing in 2013, has many reasons to focus on improving his confidence, especially with all of the changes in his life and career.

    “I worked with a sports psychologist a few times, especially last year more than this year,” Logano said. “It’s a little bit easier with a lot more wins to keep your confidence up.”

    “I’ve learned a lot from last year; kind of learning yourself and what makes yourself work and how to handle certain situations with people and how to stay positive,” Logano continued. “I’ve learned a lot from that for sure.”

    “It’s the little things,” Logano said. “The people you surround yourself with and how you deal with conflict is so important to keep stress off yourself.”

    “My big thing is I always used to avoid controversy and now I hit it head on and then I’m done with it,” Logano continued. “It’s better that way.”

    The attention to the mental aspect of the sport, as well as the use of sports psychologist or other experts, transcends from the Cup garage to the Nationwide level as well.

    “It’s a really mental sport, probably 40% mental and 60% car,” Michael Annett, driver of the No. 43 for Richard Petty Motorsports, said. “There are times you can get so frustrated and lose time on the race track and the next lap, you make up time.”

    “The car didn’t change, but the mentality of the driver did,” Annett continued. “It’s how you bring it back so if you can maintain consistency, that’s your job.”

    “I’ve done some things like sports psychologists and the biggest thing you learn is that if you do lose focus, there are things you can do to get you back on track and back where you need to be,” Annett said. “Confidence comes with success obviously.”

    “Once you get it, it’s hard for other guys to take it away from you.”

    Perhaps rookie driver Danica Patrick had the most unique approach to the mental aspect of racing and having confidence in herself. Patrick drives in the Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports and is trying her hand at some Cup events for Tommy Baldwin Racing in preparation for next year.

    “Well I do believe in faking it until you believe it,” Patrick said. “That sort of mind frame or saying came about a few years ago.”

    “It’s easy to get down, it’s easy to not be happy or excited in the monotony of the same thing every weekend, and if things don’t go well, being upset and letting that get to you,” Patrick continued. “We just came up with that idea of fake it until you believe it.”

    “I encourage everyone to try it,” Patrick said. “If you just smile and are happy and joke, even if you are out of control and not even being honest about how excited you are about something, eventually at some point that day you will be happy.”

    “Then you are just having a good weekend and you don’t have to fake it anymore,” Patrick continued. “It’s common sense that if you say you don’t like something it’s not going to go as well.”

    “I’m just trying to apply that every weekend,” Patrick said. “I can’t say I’m completely successful.”

    “I need to find the good in it and the positive attitude will translate into better results I think.”

  • Denny Hamlin Scores First Ever Pole At Monster Mile

    Denny Hamlin Scores First Ever Pole At Monster Mile

    [media-credit name=”Gary Buchanan” align=”alignright” width=”216″][/media-credit]At a track that has been admittedly been monstrous in the past to him, Denny Hamlin pulled off the fastest qualifying lap of his Monster Mile career, scoring his first ever pole at Dover International Speedway.

    Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota grabbed the pole with a fast lap of 22.599 seconds at a speed of 159.299 mph. This is Hamlin’s third pole of the season but his first ever at Dover in 14 races at the Monster Mile.

    “That was an amazing run,” Hamlin said. “Definitely wasn’t what I expected, but it sure feels good to get a pole here.”

    “Our car was really strong in race trim and really wasn’t all that good in qualifying trim,” Hamlin continued. “Hopefully this is a good sign of things that will give us a strong run here on Sunday.”

    “Starting from the pole will help us in tuning our car throughout the day,” Hamlin said. “Obviously track position is going to be very, very crucial and we’ve got to do everything we can to keep that.”

    “We’ve got a car that’s very capable of staying in the front and hopefully we’ll have a shot to win.”

    Hamlin humbly credited his crew chief Darian Grubb for his pole winning qualifying effort.

    “I think there’s a lot of drivers out there that could be able to do what I do with the cars that Darian has been giving me the last few weeks,” Hamlin said. “I’m going to give him pretty much all the credit and ride his back as long as it will hold me.”

    The second and third qualifying positions belonged to Michael Waltrip Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex, Jr.

    “It was good,” Bowyer, driver of the No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota, said. “When you’re that close, it’s disappointing because you know just if you could have put the gas down that much more anywhere around the race track, you’d of had the pole.”

    “I will save that for another day.”

    Bowyer posted his 12th top-10 start of 2012 and his fifth in 14 races at the Monster Mile.

    “It’s a good day for us,” Martin Truex, Jr., driver of the No. 56 NAPA Toyota, said. “It’s been a good weekend so far.”

    “The NAPA Toyota was about perfect,” Martin Truex Jr. continued. “Had to lift off turn four and gave it to him.”

    “The car was awesome.”

    This was Truex’s sixth top-10 start at Dover International Speedway and his 13th in 29 races this season.

    Sam Hornish, Jr. sat on the pole briefly but was relegated to a fourth place qualifying run in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger.

    “The lap was OK,” Hornish said. “From inside the car, I thought that we put together a pretty solid lap.”

    “Our race runs yesterday didn’t have the speed that we needed, so I’m really happy that I qualified well.”

    Kyle Busch, in the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, rounded out the top-five in qualifying at Dover. Busch had his hands full, with the car wiggling during the lap.

    “I really don’t know what I did wrong,” Busch said. “It stepped out and I just had to catch it and wait and go after it the second lap.”

    “Just glad we were able to have a strong second lap.”

    While the qualifying lap may have been a bit squirrelly, Busch said he might just have the car to beat on race day.

    “I think we’ve definitely got a top-three car right now,” Busch said. “I think we’re one of those in the top elite.”

    Ten of the twelve Chase drivers qualified in the top-13 positions during the time trials, with Hamlin in first, Bowyer second, Truex Jr. third, Greg Biffle sixth, Jeff Gordon seventh, Kasey Kahne in ninth, Brad Keselowski in tenth, Jimmie Johnson in eleventh, Matt Kenseth in twelfth and Kevin Harvick in thirteenth.

    Chase drivers Tony Stewart qualified 24th and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. qualified 25th.

    Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., making his first Cup start in the No. 6 Cargill Ford, qualified 17th and Danica Patrick, in the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, qualified 38th.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: New Hampshire Sylvania 300

    Surprising and Not Surprising: New Hampshire Sylvania 300

    [media-credit name=”Noel Lanier” align=”alignright” width=”246″][/media-credit]From late-arriving pit crews to the second time around for the Cup Series at the mile track in Loudon, New Hampshire, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the second Chase race, the Sylvania 300.

    Surprising:  While being in Victory Lane is always special, it was a surprisingly big moment for the winner of the Sylvania 300, his team and his team owner.

    For Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota, it was truly a big moment as he delivered on his promise, via tweet, to win the race.

    And it was a major accomplishment for his team, who after overcoming mistakes of the previous race and during their qualifying lap at New Hampshire, rallied around each other and their driver to score the victory.

    But most of all, it was a huge moment for team owner Joe Gibbs, who achieved a milestone, his team’s 100th NASCAR Sprint Cup win, at the Magic Mile. The 100 wins were scored by Tony Stewart with 33, Denny Hamlin with 22, Bobby Labonte with 21, Kyle Busch with 20, Dale Jarrett with 2 and Joey Logano with 2 wins.

    Joe Gibbs Racing is now only one of six teams in NASCAR history to achieve the 100 victory mark.

    “It was a huge day for us,” Coach Gibbs said. “Bobby Labonte came into victory circle and I appreciated Bobby, Dale Jarrett, Jimmy Makar, everybody when we first started, Tony Stewart, so it took a lot of people down the road.”

    “But, certainly, gosh, thinking back on my 21 years – just doesn’t seem like it was that long ago and you realize that we’ve got a hundred wins.”

    “That was a huge deal for us.”

    Not Surprising:  Runner up for the second week in a row, Jimmie Johnson, continues to not only rack up the points, but count each one most carefully, right to the points lead.

    This was Johnson’s 15th top-10 finish in 22 races at the Magic Mile and his 19th top-10 finish for the season.

    “We had a great race car, just not an amazing car like the No. 11 had,” Johnson said. “To only leave seven points on the table in two races is pretty good.”

    “We missed the win last week and this week and we didn’t lead the most this weekend,” Johnson continued. “But it is probably seven points total.”

    “That’s not bad.”

    Surprising:  Brian Vickers did his own surprising Denny Hamlin impersonation, slicing and dicing his way from the back of the field after an engine change to a ninth place finish.

    “Really proud of the guys – everyone at MWR, Toyota, just this 55 crew,” said the driver of the No. 55 Freightliner/Jet Edge Toyota. “All the guys did a great job.”

    “We had a car good enough to go and race with them for a little while.”

    Not Surprising:  In spite of still being 45 points behind the leader and in the 12th Chase position, this driver continues to keep the faith, just like every other four-time past champion should.

    Jeff Gordon, in the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, started on the pole and finished 3rd at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

    “It was a really solid effort,” Jeff Gordon said. “It’s a shame what happened to us in Chicago last weekend because I think we would have back-to-back top fives.”

    “There is no doubt we can get ourselves back into this.”

    Surprising:  It was surprising just how badly the Ford camp performed, especially Chase competitors Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle, who finished 14th and 18th respectively.

    “We were just battling overall grip,” Biffle, pilot of the No. 16 3M/GE Appliances Ford, said. “We chattered the front tires. We chattered the rear tires.”

    “There at the end we chattered all four.”

    “On a long run, we had about a 10th place car, which is probably a little bit better than we usually do here,” Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Zest Ford Fusion, said. “But on short runs, we weren’t very good at all and then we got that caution there at the end and that didn’t work in our favor.”

    “We weren’t that great overall.”

    Not Surprising:   As has his season gone, so did the New Hampshire race play out. Kyle Busch had a great outside pole start go south with engine woes yet again.

    And while his crew chief Dave Rogers attempted to put the best spin on it, Busch was less then complimentary behind the wheel of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota.

    “Unfortunately, we picked up a ‘miss’ under the hood,” Rogers said. “We just stayed out there and rode it out, and got the best finish possible.”

    When told by his crew chief that he could not fix the car and to just ride it out, Busch said simply “Imagine that.”

    Surprising:  The two Michael Waltrip Racing teammates in the Chase had diametrically opposite experiences at the Magic Mile this past weekend. Clint Bowyer, in the No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota, finished fourth but Martin Truex Jr., in the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, finished 17th.

    “We had a solid race car,” Bowyer said. “But we needed a little bit more.”

    “There’s a lot of racing left,” Bowyer continued. “It was a solid finish and kept us in the game going to Dover.”

    Not Surprising:  While Stewart Haas Racing had a seemingly solid day, with Tony Stewart finishing seventh and teammate Ryan Newman finishing tenth, both were disappointed when the checkered flag flew.

    “It might’ve been a solid result, but we need to be better than that,” Stewart said simply.

    “It was just not what we wanted,” Newman said. “Two top-10s aren’t bad, but we’d like to get Aspen Dental a win, too.”

    Surprising:  Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 5 Farmer’s Insurance Chevrolet, had a surprisingly consistent run at the Magic Mile. He finished in the same place as his number, position five.

    “We had another consistent day,” Kahne said. “We have been pretty consistent so far so the first two are good for the Chase.”

    “Hopefully, we can keep it going and get a little faster if we want to catch those other guys,” Kahne continued. “That would be pretty cool.”

    Not Surprising:  With a thirteen place finish and an issue with his pit stop, it was no surprise that the Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was in a state of dislike.

    “I didn’t like the car in practice and didn’t really like it all weekend,” Junior said of his No. 88 AMP Energy/Diet Mountain Dew/National Guard Chevrolet. “We’ve got to get our stuff together to compete with these guys.”

    “This ain’t good enough.”

    Surprising:  Regan Smith, celebrating his 29th birthday and finishing 16th, got a real surprise. He found out that he was being replaced in his No. 78 Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet.

    “You just have to keep plugging away,” Smith said. “You need to figure out a way to make the best of the situation.”

    Not Surprising:  Brad Keselowski, scrappy as ever, could only talk about beating, banging, clawing and digging after his 6th place finish in the Blue Deuce.

    “There was a lot of clawing in the race,” Keselowski said. “We’d have liked to have been a little faster but we still had a decent day.”

    “Like my 2 crew does every week, they just keep digging and made something happen.”

    When asked about his position in the point standings, now just one point behind Jimmie Johnson, Keselowski was direct and to the point.

    “One point doesn’t seem too bad,” Keselowski said. “We’ll go to Dover and give ‘em hell.”

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Geico 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Geico 400

    [media-credit name=”Noel Lanier” align=”alignright” width=”235″][/media-credit]In the opening salvo of the 2012 Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the Geico 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

    Surprising:  The following words from his Chase video promo proved prophetic for the driver who likened his victory to a win in the opening round of a heavyweight fight for the championship.

    “I didn’t start out wanting to be a race car driver,” Brad Keselowski said in the video. “I started out wanting to be a championship race car driver.”

    Also, just as he predicted in his Chase video, the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge for Penske Racing had to battle a championship veteran, none other than five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, for the race win.

    “Of course at every stop up the ranks there was some veteran that wanted to test me,” Keselowski continued in the video. “Someone I had to prove myself to.”

    “These days, well, not much has changed. I’m Brad Keselowski and this is my Chase.”

    Yes, at least so far in the championship battle, it most certainly is Keselowski’s Chase. With his win, Keselowski now leads the point standings for the first time in his career.

    Not Surprising:  With the Chase competition in full gear, it was not surprising that a bit of controversy played into the race finish.

    Runner up Jimmie Johnson, who has never won at Chicagoland, expressed concerns about Keselowski of blending prematurely, crossing the line a little bit too early after making his final pit stop in his opinion.

    “He did cut up early,” Johnson said. “It did impede my progress.”

    “But it didn’t affect the outcome, I don’t believe, “Johnson continued. “The way he made quick work in traffic and stretched it out on me, I’m not sure I would have held him off.”

    Although NASCAR reviewed the situation, the sanctioning body ruled that there was no foul. Johnson finished second, his ninth top-10 finish in 11 races at Chicagoland and his 18th top-10 finish in 2012.

    Johnson was also the lap leader of the race, leading a whopping 172 laps of the Geico 400. He kept Chase leader Keselowski in his sights, however, and is now just three points back.

    Surprising:  Both Roush Fenway drivers in the Chase had surprisingly bad days. Matt Kenseth, behind the wheel of the No. 17 Best Buy Ford, had the shock of his life and Greg Biffle, in the No. 16 3M Ford was shocked by how bad his final pit stop was.

    “A shock fell off, I guess,” Kenseth said. “I guess it didn’t get tight.”

    “We had a brake line get loose at Bristol and a shock fall off in this race, so obviously we have to get to the bottom of that.”

    “We were really good there at the end and we did our last stop and the car just went bad,” Biffle said. “It never fails, the last stop of the day we put our tires on and it went bad.”

    Kenseth finished 18th and fell three positions to 11th in the Chase standings, 26 back of the leader. Biffle finished a bit better in 13th but lost three positions to 8th in the Chase standings and is now 19 points behind the leader.

    Not Surprising:  The grunt of pain when this driver hit the wall hard said it all for his race, as well as being symbolic for much of his 2012 season.

    Even bringing back his old school mustache could not help Jeff Gordon as his throttle stuck, hurtling him into the safer barrier and relegating him to a 35th place finish. Gordon did not budge from the 12th position, however, is now a daunting 47 points away from the Chase points leader.

    “We were having a good day,” Gordon said. “We had a top-5 car and who knows what we could have done.”

    “We had a throttle stick,” Gordon said. “I left off and it didn’t come all the way back.

    “In this deal, you can’t afford issues like that.”

    Surprising:  Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had a surprising destination in mind as his goal for the rest of the Chase, especially having to start from the rear due to an engine issue and finishing eighth.

    “I was disappointed in myself for making that mistake with the engine and getting us that far back at the start of the race,” the driver of the No. 88 AMP Energy/7-Eleven/National Guard Chevrolet said. “We really couldn’t overcome the track position.”

    “We need to be in the media center after all these races as much as possible,” Junior said, noting his new destination goal. “Eighth is all right, but I know Brad is going to run well and Jimmie is obviously going to be tough.”

    “You can’t run eighth every week and win the championship.”

    Junior maintained his seventh position in the Chase standings and is 17 points back from leader Keselowski.

    Not Surprising:   Earnhardt Junior’s teammate Kasey Kahne was the Chase’s official biggest mover, gaining six positions to fifth in the standings with his third place finish.

    “The Farmers Insurance Chevrolet was good all day,” Kahne said. “The pit stops were awesome and I felt good about it.”

    While Kahne was happy about his finish, he also expressed some concerns about what he and his crew chief Kenny Francis will face in the next mile and a half track on the schedule.

    “We made a lot of adjustments and Kenny did a nice job, but we just couldn’t figure anything out to make the car better,” Kahne said. “So, I just feel like I was lacking today and hopefully we can talk about it this week and get it better for some of these other 1.5 mile tracks.”

    Surprising:  Michael Waltrip Racing, after blazing into the Chase with its two primary drivers Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex, Jr., were surprising non-factors for the win in the first race of the championship ten.

    Truex, Jr., driving the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, finished ninth and Bowyer, piloting the No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota, finished right behind him in tenth. They are sixth and ninth respectively in the point standings after the Chicagoland race.

    “It just wasn’t a good day,” Bowyer said simply. “I don’t know whether it was strategy or pit stops or what, but it seemed like we lost spots on pit road all day and it just cost us.”

    “You ain’t going to win a championship with decent days.”

    “We were horrible at the start,” Truex Jr. said. “We made lots and lots and lots and lots of changes – big changes and it just worked at the end.”

    “It wasn’t the way we wanted to start the Chase.”

    Not Surprising:  The driver that lost his spot in the twelve eligible to run for the Chase at Richmond could only wonder what could have been, especially after having a top-5 run at Chicagoland.

    “The day started off really good,” Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Doublemint Toyota, said. “We were following Jeff Gordon up to the front.”

    “We had a strong Doublemint Camry,” Busch continued. “Just didn’t quite have enough for the top-three today, but we got a fourth-place effort out of it.”

    Surprising:  In an unusual move, NASCAR actually reversed a penalty, however, it was still a very big setback for one young driver.

    Aric Almirola, in his No. 43 Farmland Ford Fusion, who was penalized by NASCAR for a loose tire, was later told by NASCAR that the call was a mistake, giving him his pass through penalty lap back. Almirola, who was having a good run, just could not recover and finished 17th.

    “That was very bizarre,” Almirola said. “To be running fourth and get a pass through penalty and lose a lap and then have them tell you that they are sorry and give you your lap back, but you are on the tail end of the lead lap so you go from running fourth to 23rd or 24th, that was pretty pathetic.”

    “They fixed it and gave us our lap back, but it was disappointing.”

    Not Surprising:  Denny Hamlin, after running out of fuel to finish 16th in his No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota, made the challenge of the post race.

    “This was just us making a big mistake with our fuel again,” Hamlin said. “It’s tough but we’re strong enough and fast enough this Chase that we can make up 15 points easily.”

    In fact, Hamlin expressed such confidence heading into the second Chase race at Loudon that he posted the following tweet @dennyhamlin.

    “This is 1 week of 10. We will win next week.”

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Chicagoland

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Chicagoland

    [media-credit name=”Noel Lanier” align=”alignright” width=”247″][/media-credit]Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski won the Geico 400, taking round 1 of the Chase For The Cup after holding off Jimmie Johnson at Chicagoland. Keselowski leads the point standings, three ahead of Johnson.

    “I’m aiming to be Roger Penske’s first Sprint Cup champion,” Keselowski said. “Nothing beats flying the checkered flag, except the ‘Jolly Roger.’

    “This could be the making of a great rivalry with Johnson. I took it to him; now I want to take it from him.”

    2. Jimmie Johnson: After starting from the pole, Johnson led a race-high 172 laps but couldn’t close the deal at Chicagoland, finishing second to Brad Keselowski’s late rush. Johnson now trails Keselowski by three in the Sprint Cup point standings.

    “Keselowski’s win had the makings of a ‘statement’ victory,” Johnson said. “Luckily for me, Keselowski doesn’t make statements, he makes ‘tweets.’ Kes has hundreds of thousands of followers; I’m not one of them. I only follow two people—Richard Petty and dale Earnhardt.”

    3. Tony Stewart: Stewart overcame a poor qualifying effort (29th), as well as an extra pit stop to correct a vibration, to finish a solid sixth in the Geico 400, a solid start to his defense of the 2011 Sprint Cup title. He trails Brad Keselowski by eight in the point standings.

    “The vibration was a potentially disastrous situation,” Stewart said, “but we handled it like champions. You could say we were ‘shaken, not stirred.”

    4. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin ran out of fuel late in the Geico 400, turning a likely top-10 finish into a 16th. The result dropped him from the top spot in the point standings to a tie for fourth, 15 behind Brad Keselowski.

    “What’s the bigger miscalculation?” Hamlin asked. “Me running out of gas, or people predicting me to come through when the pressure’s on? I had to make a late stop to ‘top off.’ For that reason, I’m ‘off the top.’”

    5. Kasey Kahne: Kahne finished third in the Geico 400, and leaped five spots in the point standings to fourth, where he is 15 points out of the lead.

    “I think my competitors are aware that I’ll be around until the end,” Kahne said. “Despite leaving a number of racing teams in my career, I think it’s apparent that I won’t ‘go away easily.’”

    6. Clint Bowyer: Bowyer led six laps at Chicagoland on his way to a tenth-place finish. He is now 15 points out of first in the point standings.

    “We could have used a dose of 5-Hour Energy,” Bowyer said, “because that was a ‘ho-hum’ finish.”

    7. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt qualified fourth, but started at the back of the field after an engine change, and salvaged a solid eighth in the Geico 400. He is 17 points behind Brad Keselowski in the point standings.

    “I guess it’s time I show what I’m made of,” Earnhardt said. “You’d think the name alone would be enough, but I guess I have to prove it as much on the track as I do in the merchandise trailers.”

    8. Martin Truex, Jr.: Truex posted his 15th top-10 finish of the year with a ninth at Chicagoland, but made up little ground to the Chasers in front of him. He is now ninth in the point standings, 21 out of first.

    “I need a win,” Truex said. “In other words, I need to get going. NASCAR just reinstated A.J. Allmendinger, so maybe he can recommend a good ‘stimulant’ to get me going.”

    9. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth finished 18th, one lap down to the leaders, after a broken shock ruined his quest for a victory run at Chicagoland. He

    “We’re certainly disappointed in our shock failure,” Kenseth said. “Such a finish is tough to swallow, and even harder to absorb.”

    10. Greg Biffle: Biffle finished 13th, tops among Roush Fenway’s three car team. After leading the point standings for much of the year, it was a disappointing start to the Chase for the 3M team.

    “We certainly weren’t on our game,” Biffle said. “I guess you could say for the start of the Chase we were ‘off and running.’”