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Tag: Matt Kenseth

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Kansas STP 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Kansas STP 400

    In a week where those impacted by the Boston Marathon bombing were remembered, here is what was surprising and not surprising as NASCAR’s elite visited Kansas Motor Speedway for the 3rd annual STP 400.

    Surprising:  The heartland of Kansas witnessed a driver rebirth of sorts with Matt Kenseth following his own yellow brick road to Victory Lane. And the man behind the wheel of the No. 20 Home Depot/Husky Tools Toyota proclaimed that for him this win was a “dream come true.”

    “You don’t know if or when you’ll ever win again,” Kenseth said. “I’m so thankful to have another win.”

    “This is a dream come true to drive this stuff.”

    Surprisingly, Kenseth, unlike his other Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, dominated the race, starting from the pole and leading the most laps, 163 to be exact.

    Even more surprising, however, was that Kenseth’s dream run came crashing down after a severe penalty was levied on the No. 20 car and team due to having a connecting rod in the engine failing to meet the minimum weight.

    Kenseth’s crew chief Jason Ratcliff was fined $200,000 and suspended for six races, JGR lost 50 owner points and Kenseth lost 50 driver points.

    JGR will of course appeal.

    Not Surprising:  The Kansas curse continued for Kyle Busch, who spun in the early laps and then crashed so hard with Joey Logano that he had to drive his car to the garage backwards before abandoning it to the scrap heap.

    “Absolutely no grip for me,” Busch said. “Spun twice on our own.”

    “Just don’t know what to do with Kansas.”

    Surprising:  Jeff Gordon started dead last in the 43rd position, his worst starting position ever in his career. Yet surprisingly and in spite of having to take the wave around after being trapped in the pits under caution, Gordon was able to battle back for a 13th place finish.

    “We weren’t the best car, but we made some great improvements throughout the weekend,” the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, said. “We were able to make our way up through there.”

    “All in all I thought it was a great effort.”

    Not Surprising:  With a team that not only has Boston roots, but one that has also faced a week of difficulties and penalties, it was not a surprise that Brad Keselowski had to dig deep for the Kansas race.

    The driver of the Blue Deuce also had to overcome a great deal of adversity on the track, from early damage to getting lapped. Yet, he persevered to attain a top ten finish, scoring a sixth place in a most eventful race and week.

    “We got ‘Boston Strong’ on the back of this car and that was a good inspiration for this weekend,” Keselowski said. “That was a gritty effort by the 2 team.”

    “A day where you can fight through adversity like we did today and get a solid finish, that kind of is a win.”

    Surprising:  Kasey Kahne surprisingly had his head in the clouds, or at least was wishing for a cloud to come out to assist him in getting around Kenseth at the end of the race. The driver of the No. 5 Farmers Insurance 85th Anniversary Chevrolet finished a close second.

    ”We tightened up a little bit on that final run,” Kahne said. “I just did everything I could.”

    “I needed clouds.”

    Not Surprising:   While this driver may have been disappointed with his continuing runner up finishes, Martin Truex Jr. was well pleased with his fourth place finish at Kansas.

    “Got a lot of questions last week about being second and how I seemed so disappointed and all that,” the driver of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, said. “This is the complete opposite.”

    “All in all, I’m very happy with fourth place.”

    Surprising:  Two drivers who returned to Cup competition, Sam Hornish Jr. and Elliott Sadler, had surprisingly bad days at the race track, finishing 37th and 40th respectively.

    Hornish Jr. hit Marcos Ambrose so hard during his wreck that he bit the inside of his lip and broke the tach off with his knee.

    “I couldn’t see anything,” Hornish Jr. said. “I just wish we could have done a little better.”

    Sadler, behind the wheel of the No. 81 ALERT Energy Gum Toyota, got loose into turn three and never recovered.

    “The car was kind of darting around on me too quick,” Sadler said. “Just ended a lot shorter than I wanted to.”

    Not Surprising:  While those returning to Cup competition did not fare well, old five time continued his not surprising top-five finishing ways. Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowes/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet, finished fourth and maintained his top dog spot in the point standings.

    “Everybody worked real hard to get the car right and we had a great race car,” Johnson said. “At times I felt like I had a shot to win but we just didn’t have enough for Matt and Kasey.”

    “A very solid performance for our Kobalt Tools Chevrolet.”

    Surprising:  Danica Patrick endured trash on the track, as well as some trash talking after the race. Patrick’s race was spoiled by some litter that stuck to her grille, causing her water temps to rise and necessitating an unexpected trip to the pits.

    “We had a tire rub at one point and issues with the splitter from some contact we made,” the driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, said. “The trash on the grille was what really hurt us today.”

    But the trash talking after the race was even more interesting after the rookie complained about competitor David Gilliland racing her inappropriately.

    “He tries to take me out every time,” Patrick complained of Gilliland. “I’m coming after him if he does it again.”

    Gilliland in return issued this statement aimed at Patrick through his PR rep, “Shut up and race.”

    Not Surprising:  One Kansas boy, Clint Bowyer, who hails from Emporia, finished nicely in the fifth position at his home track.

    “We needed a turnaround after last week,” Bowyer said. “Certainly you want to win it at home but a good top-five finish is a great way to get things bounced back with our 5-hour Energy Toyota.”

    Surprising:  There were some surprising names amongst the top-ten finishers in the STP 400, including Jamie McMurray in seventh, Aric Almirola in eighth, and Paul Menard in tenth.

    “I honestly thought we had one of the better cars,” McMurray said. “Good job by our team.”

    “It was a good day for us,” Almirola said. “That’s two top-10s two weeks in a row and I’m proud of that.”

    “We’ve got some of the best pits stops in the business,” Menard said. “We always end pretty good.”

    Not Surprising:  In spite of getting trapped in the pits during a caution, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is still trying to maintain a positive attitude as he faced yet another week of not quite getting the finish he wanted or expected. The driver of the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet finished 15th.

    “We were a lap down and hard to take the wave around,” Junior said. “That put us to the back behind a whole bunch of lead-lap cars and there was no time left.”

    “It’ll come around,” Earnhardt, Jr. continued. “We’ve just got to keep working and stay positive.”

  • Winning Engine From Matt Kenseth’s Kansas Car Illegal

    Winning Engine From Matt Kenseth’s Kansas Car Illegal

    Major news is breaking in the racing world today after the connecting rod in the engine of Kenseth’s winning Kansas car was found to be illegal following the race. The engine is supplied by Toyota Racing Development but Joe Gibbs Racing will be held accountable in the eyes of NASCAR. I expect major penalties much like we saw with Penske Racing following the NRA 500 at Texas; possibly even harsher due to the fact the team raced with it and won.

    NASCAR is even very strict when it comes to the engines of these cars. If you remember a few years back, a tremendous fine was handed to Carl Long when he showed up to Charlotte with an over sized motor and the penalty basically ended his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. He was suspended for eight weeks, fined $200,000 and lost 200 pts (equivalent of about 50 today) for having an engine that was 0.17 cubic inches over limit.

    With the new Generation 6 car, NASCAR has been more than willing to drop the hammer on these teams and I don’t think it pleases them one bit to find out after someone won the race with an illegal car. The winning car, the second place finisher and a randomly selected one get taken back to the R&D Center each week. This week, that was Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne and Bobby Labonte. The No.5 and No.47 passed NASCAR’s scrutiny with no issues. The advantage of lighter connecting rods could be that the engine will respond quicker and can turn a higher RPM.

    At this time, it is unclear if the team manipulated the connecting rods or exactly how much it was under the minimum weight. NASCAR officials have yet to confirm or deny the violation but they will most likely update the situation later today. This is very surprising to me and caught a lot of people off guard considering we usually hear things like this on Monday or Tuesday.

    *As a result of this violation, NASCAR has assessed the following penalties:

    ·         Crew chief Jason Ratcliff has been fined $200,000 and suspended from NASCAR until the completion of the next six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship points events (a period of time that also includes the non-points NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race) and placed on probation until Dec. 31.

    ·         Car owner Joe Gibbs has lost 50 championship car owner points; the first place finish from April 21 at Kansas Speedway will not earn bonus points toward the accumulated aggregate car owner points total after the completion of the first 26 events of the current season and will not be credited towards the eligibility for a car owner Wild Card position; has had the owner’s license for the No. 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car suspended until the completion of the next six championship points events, therefore being ineligible to receive championship car owner points during that period of time.

    ·         Driver Matt Kenseth has lost 50 championship driver points; the Coors Light Pole award from April 19 at Kansas Speedway will not be allowed for eligibility into the 2014 Sprint Unlimited; the first place finish from April 21 at Kansas Speedway will not earn bonus points toward the accumulated aggregate driver points total after the completion of the first 26 events of the current season and will not be credited towards the eligibility for a driver Wild Card position.

    ·         The loss of five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Manufacturer Championship points.

    *credit NASCAR.

    You can follow my twitter account, @ndegroot89 for more updates as this drama with the No.20 team unfolds.

  • The Good, Bad & The Ugly For JGR at Kansas

    The Good, Bad & The Ugly For JGR at Kansas

    Joe Gibbs Racing had a very up and down day at Kansas with one car getting sprayed by champagne while the other three sat in the garage torn up. They fielded a fourth car for this race and that was the No.81 driven by NASCAR Nationwide Series championship contender, Elliott Sadler. Here is a rundown of how the day went for all four drivers and for most of them, it wasn’t pretty.

    Kyle Busch #18

    Kyle rocketed up to 3rd early in the event and he looked fast. What looked like a promising race for last week’s winners quickly took a turn for the worse just five laps into the race. The rear end went around on Busch coming out of turn 2 sending the car skidding sideways down the backstretch. Kyle got away with no damage and restarted at the back of the pack. He fought his way back through the field with a visibly loose car and was looking fast again until lap 105 when things went very, very wrong. The No.18 went spinning for the second time but Kyle was unable to escape this incident unharmed. He slid down the track directly into the path of former teammate, Joey Logano and the two slammed into each other in a savage collision ending both of their days in an instant. The Kansas curse continues for Busch who has never finished better than 7th at this track. This weekend, Kyle wrecked two Sprint Cup cars and a Camping World Series truck and posted DNF’s in both races. He walked away very frustrated finishing 38th in the STP 400 falling to 7th in the standings.

    Elliott Sadler #81

    Elliott started the race in 24th and dropped back rapidly. For the first 80 laps or so, he struggled with the car falling back into the 30’s. Remember, this is Sadler’s first appearance driving the Gen-6 so I would imagine that it was very difficult for him to get a feel for these wicked fast machines. On lap 85, his day was cut short when he lost control in turn 4 sending his ALERT Energy Gum Toyota Camry into the wall tail first. He brought the car back to the garage with the rear end all crunched and the crew opted not to make repairs considering he wasn’t running for points. With their day over, No.81 posted a disappointing 40th place finish. Sadler will get a chance at redemption in his next shot at driving the #81 when NASCAR visits Talladega.

    Brian Vickers #11

    Brian was coming off a solid top 10 at Texas and hoped to make some noise at Kansas in a substitution role for Denny Hamlin. He started 16th and like Sadler, Brian struggled with the handling of his race car causing him to drop back into the 20’s. We didn’t hear much about Vickers until lap 175 but it was for all the wrong reasons. The No.11 smacked the wall off of turn 2 sending Brian spinning down the back stretch. He was able to keep it from nosing into the inside wall and continued the race. The suspension was damaged though and his ill handling car became even more uncontrollable. NASCAR warned the team to pick up the speed or they would be parked but the No.11 was able to soldier on and finish the race. Brian Vickers limped the car home 31st, 10 laps behind the leader in what may be his final start in the No.11 pending what doctors tell Hamlin this week.

    Matt Kenseth #20

    After reading the race summaries from the other three, a fan who didn’t know any better would look at Matt and wonder what happened to ruin his day. On the contrary, Kenseth had what I would call a fairly decent race. He started on pole and led the first 100 laps or so before falling back due to varying race strategies. With 52 to go, Matt reclaimed the top spot and never looked back. Well, I shouldn’t say he never looked back considering Kasey Kahne filled up his rear view mirror harassing Kenseth for the final 20 laps or so. The two battled hard a lot like they did at Las Vegas with Kenseth prevailing in the end winning his 26th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race. He’s now won the last two events at Kansas and finds himself 8th in the standings.

    Even with the victory, it was certainly a tough day for Joe Gibbs Racing who lost half their fleet before even half the race was completed. “The Coach” probably didn’t know what to think when he walked back to the garage covered in confetti only to see his other three cars sitting there severely damaged. Everyone looked at Matt to join JGR and become a mentor to the other drivers in the stable and he’s done more than that so far winning two races and out-performing his teammates on a regular basis. The 2003 NSCS champ looks posed to be in contention for the Cup this year and who knows how many more wins he’ll rack up before the season is done.

  • Kenseth Wins From Pole in Second Straight STP 400

    Kenseth Wins From Pole in Second Straight STP 400

    Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) STP 400 at Kansas Speedway was won by polesitter Matt Kenseth. This was Kenseth’s second win and the fourth top ten finish for Kenseth since joining Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR). Kenseth lead four times for 163 laps.

    Kenseth held off a hard charging Kasey Kahne by 0.150 seconds in the 3 hour race. “It’s funny, we had a big time softball game last week and we were talking about it a little bit. He’s (Kasey Kahne) finished second to us a couple times. Man, I really thought he had me and our car started getting loose into turn three and I got really loose getting into three with about five (laps) to go. I actually did it twice in a row and thought we were going to get beat.”

    Second Place Kasey Kahne stated that his car felt good all weekend and that they only made a few small changes. Kahne credited the track as being “really fast for our cars.” This was Kahne’s sixth top ten finish in 12 races at Kansas and his fifth top ten in 2013. “I felt really good. I thought we were pretty decent yesterday in practice, so today we started 28th and just had to really had to take our time. I felt the cars were really edgy at the start and took a while. But as the race went on we made some good adjustments, the track rubbered in pretty nicely and we made our way up to the front. It was a good race for us. We were very close at the end battling with Matt. Felt like Vegas all over again. Just kinda of felt like really similar to that in how I could catch him but couldn’t really do anything once I got close. It made my car a little bit looser.”

    Third Place went to five time champion Jimmie Johnson. Johnson posted his 12th top 10 finish in 14 races at Kansas Speedway and maintained his points lead by 37 points over Kahne. “We had a strong performance, solid on pit road. I think Chad’s strategy today was flawless. About two stops from the end we started to get a little tight , and it was the first time I was tight so we probably didn’t react as much as we should have, just trying to  be cautious because the car was so loose at other times in the race. And it just lacked a little bit there at the end,” said Johnson.

    Fourth Place was Martin Truex Jr. “I was so loose going into turn three all day with that wind. I tried everything and the only thing I could do was creep in there nice and straight to the white line. Otherwise, it would just try to spin out. I think some of it was the wind and I think a lot of it is just that it’s a lot warmer today than it was all weekend in practice, ” revealed Truex Jr.

    Fifth Place was Clint Bowyer who says the keys were in track position. “This track is slick, it’s treacherous. You have to stay in track position. I was proud of Brian Pattie, his strategy and the way he called the race was great. Kept us up front for the most part. All those restarts were crazy. It got pretty wild there for me. I slipped up and got loose in and about got into Biffle and ruined our day. All in all, top five finish at home for our 5 hour energy Toyota – I will take it and go on.”

    Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the highest finishing rookie in 11th.  Stenhouse commented, “It was fun. We started up front, ran up front, lost our track position and then got it back and was able to lead some laps. We pitted under green and it really got us when the caution came out, but, all in all, I think we can take a lot of positives from this weekend. We were fast in practice, fast in qualifying and made the car better through the race and that’s what it’s all about is making your car better throughout the race and I think we did that today. The Zest Ford Fusion was the one to beat there at the end, but we didn’t have the track position to finish it off.”

    The race had eight caution flags for 40 laps with eight leaders and 13 lead changes.  The most notable being an incident involving Kyle Busch and Joey Logano. “I watched the 18. He was spinning out and I saw it the whole time. I saw he got loose and thought, ‘Ok he’s gonna come back across,’ and he didn’t. It looked like he was gonna stay up there because he kind of slapped the wall with the right side after he hit it the first time, so I’m like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna gun it and get by him here,’ and as soon as I committed to that I saw him start coming back down. At that point you’re just lined up to him and hit him a ton. I’m fine. It’s just unfortunate for the AAA guys. They deserve better than that. We were working hard on getting our car better. We weren’t gonna gain many points this weekend, but we were gonna try to rally for the best possible finish we could get out of it. But it’s not good for us “

    Kyle Busch commented, “Spun twice on our own. Just don’t know what to do with Kansas.” When asked about the lack of grip on the surface, Busch responded, “Yeah, absolutely no grip, for me anyways. But, you know you are running third and doing fine, car a little tight and you spin out. I don’t know what to do with that and then we’re back in traffic all day. Traffic is way worse. Just trying to get back up to the front and making some gains, but car just snaps out from under you in every corner.”

    Post race inspection is all clear there were no issues.

    Unofficial Race Results
    STP 400, Kansas Speedway
    http://www.speedwaymedia.com/cup/race.php?race=8
    =========================================
    Pos. St. No. Driver Make Points
    =========================================
    1 1 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota 48
    2 27 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 42
    3 21 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 42
    4 7 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 41
    5 10 15 Clint Bowyer Toyota 39
    6 33 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 38
    7 14 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 37
    8 6 43 Aric Almirola Ford 36
    9 8 55 Mark Martin Toyota 35
    10 12 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet 34
    11 3 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. # Ford 34
    12 17 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 32
    13 43 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 31
    14 9 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 31
    15 13 78 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 29
    16 23 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 29
    17 2 99 Carl Edwards Ford 28
    18 20 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 26
    19 11 16 Greg Biffle Ford 25
    20 15 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford 24
    21 18 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 23
    22 41 51 Regan Smith(i) Chevrolet 0
    23 28 38 David Gilliland Ford 21
    24 34 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota 20
    25 25 10 Danica Patrick # Chevrolet 19
    26 36 35 Josh Wise(i) Ford 0
    27 19 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Chevrolet 17
    28 31 83 David Reutimann Toyota 16
    29 39 33 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 15
    30 26 34 David Ragan Ford 14
    31 16 11 Brian Vickers(i) Toyota 0
    32 38 30 David Stremme Toyota 13
    33 37 32 Timmy Hill # Ford 11
    34 30 13 Casey Mears Ford 10
    35 40 36 JJ Yeley Chevrolet 9
    36 32 93 Travis Kvapil Toyota 8
    37 4 12 Sam Hornish, Jr.(i) Ford 0
    38 5 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 6
    39 22 22 Joey Logano Ford 5
    40 24 81 Elliott Sadler(i) Toyota 0
    41 35 19 Mike Bliss(i) Toyota 0
    42 29 98 Michael McDowell Ford 2
    43 42 7 Dave Blaney Chevrolet 1
  • Kenseth captures the STP 400 pole at Kansas; Breaks up Ford front row

    Kenseth captures the STP 400 pole at Kansas; Breaks up Ford front row

    On a very difficult day that was cold and windy the boys of summer came to play at Kansas.

    Cars of every make and every team carried a remembrance of those injured or lost in the Boston Marathon Bombings. From Swan Racing and Stewart Haas to Hendrick Motorsports the decals varied from ribbons to the logo of Boston Red Sox. Missouri driver, Carl Edwards reflected on the tragedy, “I know I can speak for all of Roush Fenway Racing in saying that our thoughts are with everyone there that’s not only suffered, but all the confusion that’s going on. I don’t think anyone really understands exactly what’s happened yet, and without sounding cliché what Roush is doing is trying to do something to help. Steve Newmark and Jack Roush put together a program where Jack is gonna donate some money to a cause up there to try and help with whatever they need help with, and then we also pledged $100 for every lap that one of the Roush Fenway leads at the race track this weekend.”

    The sentiments were echoed by Jimmie Johnson whose Hendrick Motorsports team has a close tie to the tragedy, “I would assume everybody has seen the press release, but last night the shooting that took place unfortunately has some attachment to Hendrick Motorsports. Someone in the engine shop it was his brother, Andrew Collier’s brother, Sean was tragically killed last night. Still a lot of questions going on obviously if anybody has had a chance to watch the new today there still is a lot of chaos taking place in Boston. Trying to gather all that is going on, but a very sad time. My thoughts and prayers are with the Collier family. I certainly know that it is the same thing for all of Hendrick Motorsports. We are one big family and it’s sad and unfortunate to see a fellow teammate and his family going through such a tough time.”

    The qualifying for the Sprint Cup cars went off with only one casualty. That casualty was Jeff Gordon. Gordon lost the rear of the car coming out of two and hit the wall with both ends of the car. The No.24 team immediately pulled down the backup car. Gordon, would take the champions provisional to start tail end of the field.

    “I was committed. We have been tight, and I wasn’t tight. It felt great coming to the green and I was pretty happy with it through (turns) three and four and I got down into (turns) one and two and I arced it in there just the way I wanted to and got to the yellow line and started picking up the throttle and it just slowly came around. For a second I thought I was going to save it. I lit the tires up to keep it from hitting too hard and now we have a car and an engine that are pretty much done and it’s been a while since I wrecked qualifying.” Gordon said.

    The pole was won by Matt Kenseth with a time of 28.145 seconds/191.864 mph around the 1.5 track.  This was Kenseth’s ninth career pole and the first of the 2013 season.

    The outside front row belongs to Columbia, Missouri native Carl Edwards with a time of 28.162 seconds/191.748 mph.

    The top-4 qualifiers broke the track record in qualifying.

    Joe Nemecheck was the lone car to not qualify for the race.

    Starting Lineup
    STP 400, Kansas Speedway
    http://www.speedwaymedia.com/cup/qual.php?race=8
    ===========================================
    Pos. No. Driver Make Speed Time
    ===========================================
    1 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota 191.864 28.145
    2 99 Carl Edwards Ford 191.748 28.162
    3 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. # Ford 191.734 28.164
    4 12 Sam Hornish, Jr.(i) Ford 191.401 28.213
    5 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 190.853 28.294
    6 43 Aric Almirola Ford 190.779 28.305
    7 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 190.651 28.324
    8 55 Mark Martin Toyota 190.282 28.379
    9 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 190.221 28.388
    10 15 Clint Bowyer Toyota 190.134 28.401
    11 16 Greg Biffle Ford 190.067 28.411
    12 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet 189.78 28.454
    13 78 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 189.534 28.491
    14 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 189.221 28.538
    15 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford 189.195 28.542
    16 11 Brian Vickers(i) Toyota 189.182 28.544
    17 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 189.155 28.548
    18 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 189.023 28.568
    19 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Chevrolet 188.758 28.608
    20 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 188.679 28.62
    21 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 188.442 28.656
    22 22 Joey Logano Ford 188.317 28.675
    23 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 188.311 28.676
    24 81 Elliott Sadler(i) Toyota 187.996 28.724
    25 10 Danica Patrick # Chevrolet 187.774 28.758
    26 34 David Ragan Ford 187.441 28.809
    27 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 187.37 28.82
    28 38 David Gilliland Ford 187.279 28.834
    29 98 Michael McDowell Ford 187.272 28.835
    30 13 Casey Mears Ford 186.922 28.889
    31 83 David Reutimann Toyota 186.909 28.891
    32 93 Travis Kvapil Toyota 186.728 28.919
    33 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 186.657 28.93
    34 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota 186.561 28.945
    35 19 Mike Bliss(i) Toyota 186.528 28.95
    36 35 Josh Wise(i) Ford 186.419 28.967
    37 32 Timmy Hill # Ford 185.688 Owner Points
    38 30 David Stremme Toyota 185.65 Owner Points
    39 33 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 185.274 Owner Points
    40 36 JJ Yeley Chevrolet 185.185 Owner Points
    41 51 Regan Smith(i) Chevrolet 184.818 Owner Points
    42 7 Dave Blaney Chevrolet 183.811 Owner Points
    43 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 0 Owner Points
  • Previewing The STP 400 at Kansas Speedway

    Previewing The STP 400 at Kansas Speedway

    NASCAR roars into Kansas Speedway this weekend for the 8th race of the 2013 season. It seems like we are saying this at every track this year but once again, you can expect record speeds by the Gen-6 this weekend. Kansas was repaved last summer and we all remember the wild show it put on in the fall.

    Sixteen cars posted DNF’s and fourteen cautions flew in the crash marred event that Matt Kenseth ended up winning by just four tenths over Martin Truex Jr. The 12-year old track has featured fourteen races producing ten different winners.

    The 1.5 mile venue is owned by the International Speedway Corporation (ISC) and seats 81,687 people. It’s classified as a “D-Shaped Tri-Oval” much like its sister track, Chicagoland Speedway. Here are some stats and facts that you should know as we gear up for this mid-western throw-down!

    Kansas Speedway Track Facts

    Track Size: 1.5-miles

    Banking/Turns 1 & 2: 17-20 degrees

    Banking/Turns 3 & 4: 17-20 degrees

    Banking/Frontstretch: 10 degrees

    Banking/Backstretch: 5 degrees

    Frontstretch Length:  2,685 feet

    Backstretch Length:  2,207 feet

    Race Length: 267 laps / 400 miles

    Capacity: 81,687

     

    Kansas Speedway Stats

    Inaugural Race Winner: Jeff Gordon by .413 tenths over Ryan Newman

    Only Driver to Sweep the Weekend: Joe Nemechek winning both the NNS and NSCS events in 2004

    Most Wins By a Driver: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle who have all won twice

    Most Wins By a Team: Roush Fenway Racing and Hendrick Motorsports who each have 4

    Most Wins By a Manufactuer: Chevrolet has won 7 of the 14 events (Ford-4, Dodge-2, Toyota-1)

    Youngest Kansas Winner: Ryan Newman at 25 years, 9 months and 27 days in October of 2003

    Oldest Kansas Winner: Mark Martin at 46 years, 9 months and 0 days in October of 2005

    Pole Sitters: Only twice has a pole sitter won from the pole (Joe Nemechek-2004, Jimmie Johnson-2008)

    Starting Positions By Winners: 2 from the pole, 4 from 2nd-5th, 2 from 6th-101th, 4 from 11th-20th, 2 from 21st or worse

    Worst Starting Position By Race Winner: 25th by Brad Keselowski in 2011

    Youngest Kansas Pole Winner: Jason Leffler at 26 years, 0 months and 14 days in September of 2001

    Oldest Kansas Pole Winner: Mark Martin who was 50 years, 8 months and 25 days in October of 2009

    Most Starts Without a Win: 14 by Bobby Labonte, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Kurt Busch

    Track Qualifying Record: Kasey Kahne at a 28.219 (191.360mph) in October of 2012

    Track Race Record: Denny Hamlin-144.122 mph (02:46:44) in April of 2012

    Least Amount of Cautions: 3 in April of 2012

    Most Amount of Cautions: 14 in October of 2012

    Average Number of Cautions: 7

     

    Top 10 Driver Ratings at Kansas

    1.) Jimmie Johnson…………………… 119.5

    2.) Greg Biffle………………………….. 113.0

    3.) Matt Kenseth………………………. 106.4

    4.) Jeff Gordon………………………… 101.5

    5.) Tony Stewart……………………….. 100.8

    6.) Carl Edwards………………………… 95.1

    7.) Mark Martin…………………………… 91.3

    8.) Kevin Harvick……………………….. 90.6

    9.) Martin Truex Jr…………………….. 90.5

    10.) Brad Keselowski……………………. 90.1

     

    Best Average Finish at Kansas

    1.) Jimmie Johnson——-8.0

    2.) Greg Biffle————–9.5

    3.) Brad Keselowski——-9.8

    4.) Carl Edwards———–10.8

    5.) Jeff Gordon————-11.0

    6.) Tony Stewart———–11.7

    7.) Kevin Harvick———-12.9

    8.) Denny Hamlin———–14.0

    9.) Clint Bowyer————14.0

    10.) Kasey Kahne———–15.0

     

    Most Wins at Kansas Speedway

    1.) Jimmie Johnson——–2 (2008 & 2011)

    2.) Greg Biffle—————2 (2007 & 2010)

    3.) Tony Stewart———–2 (2006 & 2009)

    4.) Jeff Gordon————-2 (2001 & 2002)

    5.) Matt Kenseth———–1 (2012)

    6.) Denny Hamlin———1 (2012)

    7.) Brad Keselowski——1 (2011)

    8.) Mark Martin———–1 (2005)

    9.) Joe Nemechek——–1 (2004)

    10.) Ryan Newman——1 (2003)

     

    Most Top 5’s at Kansas Speedway

    1.) Jeff Gordon———8

    2.) Greg Biffle———–7

    3.) Tony Stewart——-6

    4.) Jimmie Johnson—5

    5.) Matt Kenseth——-5

    6.) Carl Edwards——-4

    7.) Denny Hamlin—–3

    8.) Ryan Newman——3

    9.) Martin Truex Jr.—-2

    10.) Kasey Kahne——-2

     

    Most Top 10’s at Kansas Speedway

    1.) Jimmie Johnson———11

    2.) Jeff Gordon————–10

    3.) Greg Biffle—————9

    4.) Tony Stewart———–9

    5.) Matt Kenseth———–8

    6.) Carl Edwards———–8

    7.) Kevin Harvick———6

    8.) Dale Earnhardt Jr.—-6

    9.) Kasey Kahne———-5

    10.) Mark Martin———5

    Considering all that, Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon look like the biggest threats to take the victory this weekend. Biffle has finished inside the top 10 in seven of the last eight races, Johnson is currently on an eight race top 10 streak at while Gordon has had some lackluster results the past three races. Another driver you have to watch out for but isn’t very high in most of the stats is Matt Kenseth. He won the first race at Kansas after the repave, is riding a streak of three straight top-5’s and hasn’t finished worse than 7th since 2009. A dark horse would have to be Martin Truex Jr. He doesn’t have a great record here but he did finish second in both races last year. Make sure you keep an eye on both him and Kenseth this weekend.

    Drivers you may want to stay away from include Kyle Busch, Marcos Ambrose and the 2005 winner of this race, Mark Martin. Ambrose has never led a lap at Kansas, has a best finish of 9th and a best starting position of 18th. Martin did win at Kansas but that is just about the only bright spot on his resume at the track. Martin finished 20th or worse in nearly half the races he’s participated in and has only broken inside the top-20 twice in his last five races.  Busch’s stats really surprised me and I had to look at a few times thinking no way are these his stats. His average finish of 21.0 is very low for him and in his whole career, Busch has posted two top 10’s and no top 5’s at the track. He hasn’t led very many laps either proving he’s never really a factor.

    I expect that this race will be very fast paced and will feature out of control race cars a lot like last fall’s event. The track has a lot of grip and you can expect to see bottom feeders as well as drivers riding the cushion just inches away from smacking the wall. I don’t think it will have wrecks every 10 laps like it did last year but I don’t see long runs forcing them to make green flag pit stops either.

    Busch has been great in 2013 and will have his best race to date at Kansas blowing his best finish of 7th out of the water but he won’t win.  I am going with a very hungry driver who is desperate to reach victory lane, Truex Jr. He will finally get that second career win this weekend at Kansas Speedway. Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne will be major factors throughout the race but I am going with Truex Jr. to steal the show Sunday!

    Feel free to post who you think will win the STP 400 below!

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Texas NRA 500

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Texas NRA 500

    From the agonizing delays in pre-race tech to the broom in Victory Lane, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 17th annual NRA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

    Surprising:  While it might have taken a surprising twenty years of trying, Norm Miller and Interstate Batteries, thanks to their driver Kyle Busch, finally made it to Victory Lane. This was Busch’s 26th win in 300 Cup Series races and surprisingly his first win at Texas Motor Speedway in the Cup Series.

    “For Interstate Batteries and Norm Miller to be in Victory Lane in Texas – there’s nothing better than putting him right here,” Busch said. “This feels good.”

    In addition to the sweep at Texas, winning the Nationwide and Cup races, Busch and company also had a surprisingly stellar night in the pits. In fact, for eight pit stops, the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota team led the way statistically with the least amount of time on pit road.

    “We had a great racecar, and we worked really hard all weekend, but without that pit crew – they’re the best in the business,” Busch said. “They know when it’s crunch time.”

    Not Surprising:  When a racer fails to win, especially after coming so close, it is not surprising that the end result is bitterness and disappointment. But for Martin Truex, Jr., the runner up run was almost unbearable, especially after losing the lead in the pits.

    “Shoulda, coulda, woulda,” the driver of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota said. “I’m just disappointed.”

    “The race was over when we got beat out of the pits,” Truex Jr. continued. “We’ve had a tough season and we had a car capable of winning.”

    “I’m just tired of finishing second,” Truex Jr. said. “This is getting old. It sucks.”

    Truex’s day got even worse when it was determined that his car flunked post-race inspection, being too low in the front. Any possible penalties issued by the sanctioning body may come early in the week.

    Surprising:  There was a surprising amount of drama prior to and after the race for team Penske. Both Keselowski and Logano had difficulty in pre-race tech, so much so that Logano almost did not make it out on the track for the start of the race.

    Yet both Penske drivers managed to score top-ten finishes in spite of it all, with Logano in fifth and Keselowski in ninth.

    “Shoot, I wasn’t even in the car yet,” Logano said. “It was a little too close for my comfort.”

    “If you would have told me I would have finished fifth today, I would have given you a hug.”

    Keselowski, however, had some harsh words for the sanctioning body after the race as a result of having to change the rear-end housing prior to the race.

    “The things I’ve seen over the last seven days have me questioning everything I believe in and I’m not happy about it,” the driver of the Blue Deuce said. “You have no (expletive) idea what’s going on.”

    “I feel like we’ve been targeted over the last seven days more than I’ve ever seen a team targeted,” Keselowski continued. “We’re not going to take it.”

    As with Truex Jr., NASCAR will most likely assess penalties later in the week.

    Not Surprising:  Roush Fenway Racing traditionally does well at Texas Motor Speedway, so it was not surprising to see both Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle have good runs, finishing third and fourth respectively. Both RFR drivers, however, faced some significant obstacles along the way to both finish top-five.

    Edwards had a mechanical issue with a cracked tailpipe and then had difficulties with his seat belts coming undone.

    “That’s a gift for us,” the driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford said after the race. “I know Martin (Truex, Jr.) is not happy with second, but I’m real happy with third.”

    Biffle also struggled, from starting towards the back with a 35th qualifying spot to a speeding penalty on lap 224 for too fast entering the pits.

    “It was a tough night,” Biffle said. “Our car definitely wasn’t as good as it was last year, but we battled back.”

    Surprising:  Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered his worst finish of the season in 29th after having an eventful evening. Junior struggled with seeing his pit sign, asking at one point for a deer spotlight on it, and then headed to the pits with a dead battery.

    That started the perfect storm of other issues, since without the engine running the driver of the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet sped and incurred a penalty. With that poor finish, Dale Jr. dropped three positions in the point standings, down to the sixth spot.

    “It has been rough but we had a really good car tonight,” Junior said. “Eventually things will turn back around for us.”

    Not Surprising:   While this driver may have surprised a military veteran prior to the race, Aric Almirola has been steadily gaining momentum on the track, so much so that his seventh place finish was not at all surprising.

    And with that good finish, the young driver gained two spots in the point standings, up to the 14th position.

    “We had a great car,” the driver of the No. 43 Petty race car said. “Todd Parrott and these guys gave me a great Eckrich Ford Fusion and I felt really good about it.”

    “It was a great day, a great points day for us.”

    Surprising:  While not surprising to see mechanical failures in a race as grueling as Texas, it was surprising to see two of the stronger cars in the race succumb to those issues. Both Kurt Busch, in the No. 78 Furniture Row/Serta Chevrolet, and Jeff Gordon, in the No. 24 Cromax Pro Chevrolet, had difficulties, resulting in 37th and 38th place finishes respectively.

    “I’m not sure maybe a burned wheel bearing or something,” Gordon said. “We’ll learn about what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

    “When you’re running solidly in the top-five and then to have a parts failure knock you out of contention, it’s frustrating,” Kurt Busch said. “We had a part on the fuel injection system break.”

    “What’s done is done and we have to put tonight behind us and focus on getting these problems rectified sooner than later.”

    Not Surprising:  While many drivers had difficulty in the pits, from a fire in Matt Kenseth’s pit to Tony Stewart’s newest perpendicular approach to his pit stall, it was not surprising that the most basic issue, that of pit box color, tripped up at least two drivers on pit road.

    Juan Pablo Montoya, who sports the traditional red and white colors, got a bit confused when he tried to pit in Dave Blaney’s stall, which also just so happened to be red and white for the evening.

    Montoya finished 20th and Blaney ended up in the 25th spot in the race.

    Surprising:  While both rookies, sporting similar cowboy hats and boots, had surprisingly challenging days at Texas, Danica Patrick again beat out her boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the rookie battle on the track.

    Patrick finished 28th while Stenhouse Jr., after cutting down a left-rear tire and spinning, finished 40th.

    “It was a tough night,” Patrick said. “The car was just kind of all over the place.”

    “It’s kind of tough to go straight when you lose a left-rear tire,” Stenhouse, Jr. said. “I felt like our car was pretty good, but it was just a tough break.”

    Not Surprising:  With Denny Hamlin at the track and on the pit box and a fast No. 11 FedEx Office/March of Dimes Toyota, it was certainly not surprising to see Brian Vickers, who is literally competing for a ride with each race, finish eighth.

    “It feels great,” Vickers said of his top-ten run. “We’re pleased but I wanted to win.”

    “I guess that’s what we are here for.”

     

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Texas

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Texas

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson took sixth in the NRA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday night and held on to the lead in the Sprint Cup point standings. He leads Brad Keselowski by nine points.

    “I think leaving Texas with the points lead is important,” Johnson said, “and a good sign that I’ll win my sixth Sprint Cup championship. Just call me ‘number 1 with a bullet.’”

    2. Kyle Busch: Busch completed the sweep at Texas, following his Friday Nationwide win with a Saturday triumph in the NRA 500. Busch beat Martin Truex, Jr. out of the pits on the race’s final caution and led the final 16 laps.

    “I led 171 laps on Saturday night,” Busch said, “or as they’re called at Texas Motor Speedway, ‘rounds.’

    “With Denny Hamlin out with a back injury, and Matt Kenseth his typical hum-drum self, Joe Gibbs Racing is truly in a Lone Star ‘state.’”

    3. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski finished ninth in the NRA 500 after scrambling to change the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge’s rear-end housing, which NASCAR had deemed illegal. After the race, Keselowski lashed out at NASCAR, claiming his team had been unfairly targeted in the garage area.

    “NASCAR can kiss my rear-end housing,” Keselowski said. “I apologize for my rant, but what better place than the NRA 500 to go ballistic on NASCAR. And what better place for NASCAR to wield its itchy trigger finger when it comes to accessing inspections.”

    4. Kasey Kahne: Kahne just missed his fifth top-10 finish of the year with an 11th in the NRA 500. He is seventh in the point standings, 37 out of first.

    “I’m not sure the NRA will be back as a sponsor for a race,” Kahne said. “But Mark Martin’s got a plan. Since he’s real tight with the rap community, he thinks there should be the ‘NWA 500.’ Of course, that’s pending NASCAR approval, as well as the construction of a track in Compton, California.”

    5. Joey Logano: Logano nearly missed the start of Saturday’s race, arriving late to the grid after a NASCAR inspection forced the No. 22 team to change the car’s rear-end housing. After starting at the back of the field, Logano worked his way to a fifth-place finish, and moved up two places to ninth in the point standings.

    “Starting at the back of the field?” Logano said. “That’s the real ‘rear-end housing.’

    “Luckily, though, the lengthy inspection process afforded me ample time to catch up on some reading, particularly some dated copies of Denny Hamlin Magazine. They’re called ‘back issues.’”

    6. Clint Bowyer: Bowyer finished 15th in the NRA 500, as Michael Waltrip Racing teammate Martin Truex, Jr. took the runner-up spot. Bowyer remained eighth in the point standings, and trails Jimmie Johnson by 61.

    “I support the 2nd Amendment,” Bowyer said. “And, I also support the ‘5th’ Amendment—5-Hour Energy shots for everyone!”

    7. Greg Biffle: A strong run at Texas for Roush Fenway Racing saw Biffle finish fourth, one spot behind teammate Carl Edwards. Biffle is now fourth in the Sprint Cup point standings, 30 out of first.

    “Did someone at Hendrick Motorsports rat out Penske Racing?” Biffle said. “Conspiracy theories abound, with many saying someone at Hendrick pointed NASCAR in the direction of the Penske car’s rear housings. And when Rick Hendrick says ‘jump,’ NASCAR asks the same thing as they do of the height of Penske rear-end housings—‘how high?’”

    8. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt lost battery power while running third on Saturday night, but didn’t realize it was a battery issue until later. Instead of switching to backup power, Earnhardt pitted, and after an unfortunate series of events, Earnhardt was penalized twice. He finished 29th, four laps down.

    “Luckily,” Earnhardt said, “I only shot myself in the foot. Unfortunately, I thought the problem was something else, and not the battery. That’s called ‘getting jumped’ to a conclusion.”

    9. Carl Edwards: Edwards posted his fourth top-5 result of the season with a third in the NRA 500. He improved two places to fifth in the point standings, and now trails Jimmie Johnson by 35.

    “I felt right at home at TMS,” Edwards said. “As NASCAR’s resident fitness freak, I feel quite comfortable showing my ‘guns.’ And what about these super fans here in Texas, all decked out in their sleeveless shirts. Obviously, they support the right to bare arms.”

    10. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth finished 12th at Texas as Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch won from the pole. Kenseth is now 11th in the point standings, 65 out of first.

    “We had a mishap in the pits in which a crew member’s foot caught fire,” Kenseth said. “God bless his sole, we extinguished it before any damage was done.”

  • Matty’s Picks 2013 – Vol. 5 Texas Motor Speedway – NRA 500 – April 13, 2013

    Matty’s Picks 2013 – Vol. 5 Texas Motor Speedway – NRA 500 – April 13, 2013

    Turn on the lights and turn up the heat this week as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races under the lights for the first time this season. Texas Motor Speedway needs no introduction as it has produced some of the fastest speeds and exciting finishes we’ve seen over the past few seasons.

    Remember back to last season, The Chase for the Sprint Cup was heating up between five-time champ, Jimmie Johnson and now defending champion, Brad Kesolowski. The fall race at Texas last year was firmly in the hands of the No. 48 team for the majority of the 335 laps run, but a late-race caution flag lined the two Championship contenders up side-by-side for a fantastic finish. The two collided with one another in the final laps, with Johnson emerging victorious from the awesome battle and Kesolowski landing in second.

    The 1.5/2 mile intermediate tracks are the ones NASCAR circled when designing the new Gen-6 car. They wanted to design a race car that would tighten the delta we’ve seen on the intermediate tracks with the Gen-5 race car over the course of the past five or so seasons. So far this season, we’ve seen a record number of green flag passes for the lead at Las Vegas with 31, and matched the track record of 41 at Auto Club Speedway. Based on these two important stats, I’m going to make the statement that the designers of the Gen-6 car have done their job and improved the passing on these traditional “cookie-cutter” tracks. Saturday night will be no different. Watch for track-record speeds and passing throughout the field.

    Martinsville Recap

    I went with the defending champ last week, and it was the five-time champ who dominated the STP Gas Booster 500. Against my better judgment, I picked against the recent history at Martinsville Speedway, and it came back to bite me in the end. I went against the history of the past 21 races at the paper-clip, being dominated by three drivers, Jimmie Johnson being one of them. Ford also hadn’t visited Victory Lane (or should I say the front stretch backdrop) in over a decade as well. It was ultimately Johnson and the Chevy’s that dominated last week. Never bet against the trends. Kesolowski finished sixth.

    I picked a Chevy for my dark horse pick last week, but I had no luck with Ryan Newman finishing 31st, as the Stewart-Haas camp continued their slow start last week at Martinsville.

    Texas Picks

    If you tuned into www.primesportsnetwork.com on Wednesday night, you heard Greg Dipalma and I preview Saturday Night’s NRA 500 from Texas Motor Speedway. There were a couple drivers I really liked because of where the odds opened up, Matt Kenseth at a 12 to 1 and Dale Earnhardt Jr. at 15 to 1. I made my picks on Wednesday evening based off historical finishes at TMS without the advantage of seeing any testing or practice speeds.

    There was one trend that was clear across the board, starting up front at Texas is very important. We highlighted some drivers who have not traditionally qualified well at Texas, and their tallies in the win column at Texas reflected the importance of starting up front. Six of the last eight races at Texas Motor Speedway have been won from a starting spot inside the top-5.

    Winner Pick

    I liked my pick on Wednesday, and I’m sticking with him again today. Matt Kenseth really likes Texas Motor Speedway, probably because he enters Saturday with a top-5 in each of the last five races at TMS. He boasts the series best average finish (6.2) in the last ten races at TMS and won the first Gen-6 race on a 1.5-mile track when he snubbed Kasey Khane from the win in Las Vegas. Fast forward to Thursday’s test sessions at TMS and look at the 7 fastest 10 consecutive lap averages, and you’ll find Matt Kenseth. Flip to the 5th best consecutive lap average, and you’ll find his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Kyle Busch. Despite Jimmie Johnson being fastest in both test sessions yesterday as far as 10 lap averages are concerned, Toyota claimed 3 of the top 5 10 consecutive lap averages on the day.

    Kenseth will be the 13th car on the track for qualifying later this evening and is my guy who will be there at the end this week.

    Dark Horse Pick

    I didn’t have a long shot pick on Wednesday, but since the cars have unloaded and been on track the past two days, one car has shown a ton of speed in testing. As I mentioned before, qualifying well might mean the difference between a win and a tenth place finish this week in Texas. The No.78 Furniture Row racing Chevy has been fast the past two days, winning the first test session and coming in runner-up in the second of the two test sessions yesterday. Kurt Busch followed up his season-high fourth place finish at Bristol with a top-5 at Auto Club Speedway, the other intermediate oval race this season. We’ve seen some speed out of this team so far this weekend, and Busch will look to shake the woes he had at Martinsville last week with a solid finish in the Lone Star State.

    That’s all for this week, so until Kansas, you stay classy NASCAR NATION!

  • Previewing the NRA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway

    Previewing the NRA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway

    NASCAR is getting ready for Race #7 on the schedule located at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. Will things finally settle down this weekend? I think so considering it is a large track with lots of room to race but you don’t have to look any further than the 2013 Auto Club 400 if you want a shoot a gaping hole in that theory. It seems like this year anything can and will happen. We’ve had Danica Patrick on pole for the Daytona 500, Tony Stewart going after Joey Logano, crews pushing and shoving, Edwards back in victory lane, Dale Jr. leading the standings, the race leaders taking each other out for the win, Denny Hamlin refusing to pay a fine and now having to sit out a few races due to a compression fracture in his lower back! Yea, you could say it’s been a wild season so far and we are only six races in by the way.

    The Gen-6 has proven it is a great car even after it raised a lot of concern following the rather lackluster Daytona 500 we had. It put on a great show at both Las Vegas and Fontana which were the targeted track layouts when designing this new car. They put a lot of emphasis on improving racing at intermediate tracks which I believe they have accomplished with flying colors. Not only did we have great finishes at both Vegas and Cali but we also set the record for most green flag passes at one while tying the record at the other.

    The next challenge for the Generation 6 is the night race at Texas Motor Speedway which is a track that is notorious for having things get wild and out of control very quickly. That’s kind of following the theme for us in 2013 so I guess it’s a great time to be heading to TMS! You can expect record speeds posted at this already blistering fast track which will really jack up the intensity as we get ready for the first Saturday night race of the season. Things always seem to get a little crazier at these NASCAR races every time the lights get turned on.

    It’s time to look at who the favorites are to take the win this weekend and which drivers should be worried about this race. Here are some stats that I’ll let you sink your teeth into before I give my opinion…

    Texas Motor Speedway Track Facts

    Track Size: 1.5-miles

    Banking/Turns 1 & 2: 24 degrees

    Banking/Turns 3 & 4: 24 degrees

    Banking/Frontstretch: 5 degrees

    Banking/Backstretch: 5 degrees

    Frontstretch Length:  2,250 feet

    Backstretch Length:  1,330 feet

    Race Length: 334 laps / 500 miles

     

    Top 10 Driver Ratings at Texas

    (Compiled from TMS races from 2005-2012)

    1.) Matt Kenseth———–106.6

    2.) Jimmie Johnson——-103.5

    3.) Greg Biffle—————103.4

    4.) Tony Stewart———–101.4

    5.) Kyle Busch————–98.7

    6.) Carl Edwards———–98.3

    7.) Denny Hamlin———93.3

    8.) Dale Earnhardt Jr—–92.7

    9.)Clint Bowyer———–92.5

    10.)Jeff Gordon———–91.9

     

    Most Top 5’s at Texas Among Active Drivers

    1.) Matt Kenseth———12

    2.) Jimmie Johnson—-9

    3.) Mark Martin———8

    4.) Jeff Gordon———-8

    5.) Greg Biffle————-7

    6.) Tony Stewart——–6

    7.) Carl Edwards——–5

    8.) Denny Hamlin——-5

    9.) Kyle Busch————5

    10.) Kasey Kahne——-4

     

    Most Top 10’s at Texas Among Active Drivers

    1.) Matt Kenseth———–15

    2.) Jimmie Johnson——14

    3.) Mark Martin———–13

    4.) Dale Earnhardt Jr.—12

    5.) Kurt Busch————-12

    6.) Tony Stewart———12

    7.) Jeff Gordon———–11

    8.) Greg Biffle————-11

    9.) Kevin Harvick——-10

    10.) Jeff Burton———–9

     

    Best Average Finishes Among Active Drivers

    1.) Matt Kenseth————-8.3

    2.) Jimmie Johnson ——–9.3

    3.) Denny Hamlin———–10.9

    4.) Kevin Harvick———–12.5

    5.) Tony Stewart————12.7

    6.) Clint Bowyer————12.8

    7.) Dale Earnhardt Jr.—-13.6

    8.) Mark Martin————13.9

    9.) Kurt Busch————–14.1

    10.) Kyle Busch————14.9

     

    Most Laps Led Among Active Drivers

    1.) Matt Kenseth————-772

    2.) Greg Biffle—————-732

    3.) Tony Stewart————727

    4.) Jeff Gordon————–584

    5.) Kyle Busch————–521

    6.) Carl Edwards———–493

    7.) Dale Earnhardt Jr.—-448

    8.) Jimmie Johnson——443

    9.) Kurt Busch————-235

    10.) Kasey Kahne——–218

     

    Victories at Texas Motor Speedway

    – Jeff Burton won the first ever NSCS race at Texas back in 1997 beating pole sitter, Dale Jarrett by 4.067 seconds in a Ford 1-2 finish; Bobby Labonte was 3rd

    – Carl Edwards holds the record for the most victories among active drivers with 3 (2005, 2008, 2008)

    – Six active drivers have won at Texas a total of two times (Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Burton Denny Hamlin)

    – Six active drivers have won at Texas once (Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton)

    – Bobby Labonte, Joe Nemechek, Dave Blaney and Kevin Harvick are the only active drivers to run over 20 races at Texas but have yet to win a race there

    – 11 of the 24 races at Texas Motor Speedway have been won by Ford drivers (Chevrolet has 8, Dodge 3 and Toyota 2)

    – Twice has a race at Texas been won from the pole, 15 times from the top 5, 18 times from the top 10, twice from positions 11th-20th, and 4 times from 21st or worse

    – 31st is the farthest back a winner has come from at Texas (Matt Kenseth in Spring, 2002)

     

    Texas Motor Speedway Race & Caution Stats

    – 8 is the average number of cautions at Texas Motor Speedway

    – 2 is the least amount of cautions in TMS history (Spring, 2012) while 12 is the most (Spring, 2000; Fall, 2006; Fall, 2007)

    – There has been a caution within the final 10 laps 5 times in the track’s 24 race history

    – Three times the race has gone beyond its scheduled distance due to a Green-White-Checker

    – In 24 NSCS races, Texas Motor Speedway has never had a shortened race

     

    After looking all this over, you can see that Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth look like the favorites to win this race and if you don’t go with those two, you probably want to keep your pick in the Roush stable with the dominance and power Ford has shown here. This race doesn’t usually feature many cautions so that means teams won’t get many opportunities to adjust an ill handling race car so keep that in mind. You need a driver that can adapt to the changing track conditions and can carry the car when he needs to. 5-time and 2x Daytona 500 champion Matt Kenseth both fit that description very well.

    Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle are both threats every time we show up to Texas so they would be good choices as well. Another driver to keep an eye on but doesn’t drive for the blue oval is Dale Earnhardt Jr. He scored his first ever NSCS win at Texas back in 2000 and has always been solid here. If you want to look at a driver that has never won at Texas but may be a good pick then Kyle Busch is your man. He has made the highlight reel at Texas A LOT in recent years but for all the wrong reasons. Taking out a title contender under caution, getting parked by NASCAR, flipping the bird at a NASCAR official and getting told to shut up by your crew chief while you were preaching your constitutional rights over the radio isn’t exactly what you want to be remembered for.

    Ryan Newman, Joey Logano, Brian Vickers and Paul Menard are drivers that have struggled here in the past and you may want to stay away from. All of them have an average finish worse than 20th and although Ryan has won at Texas, that was 10 years ago. Since that victory, he has posted seven finishes of 20th or worse. Menard has one bright spot in his TMS career which was a 5th back in 2011 but besides that, he has ran mostly mid-pack. Joey has finished 19th or worse in seven of his nine Texas Motor Speedway starts but I would be careful here. Logano seems much stronger in 2013 and may actually run very well. He has contended for the win in two of his last three races which is an awesome accomplishment for him as he tries to prove he deserves respect from his fellow racers. He needs to start bringing this winning cars back home in one piece though. Vickers will be filling in for Denny Hamlin in the #11 car and like Logano, be careful just writing this guy off because of his history. He has changed and is running for a top tier team now. Brian’s finishes at Texas have been far less than spectacular posting results around 20th or 25th most of the time with the occasional bright spot and a pole but that’s it.

    With the Gen-6 making its night race debut and how wild the 2013 season has been, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see Logano or Vickers pulling into victory lane this weekend. I expect this race to be a very interesting with a lot of passing, blistering speeds and not much wrecking until we get late into the event. You will probably see a bunch of comers and goers as well. I think Jimmie Johnson will continue to show some muscle but win #3 of the year won’t come this weekend. I see one of the Roush or Gibbs drivers taking the victory Saturday night and more specifically Matt Kenseth or Carl Edwards. I hope you enjoyed and feel free to post any comments you have below!