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Surprising and Not Surprising: Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500 at Atlanta

After a fast race, with an average speed of 155.865 mph and only three cautions, here was what was surprising and not surprising from the 57th Annual Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Surprising: After falling behind Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske for much of the last half of last season in performance, Hendrick Motorsports seems to have finally bounced back.

The team has won four of the last six Sprint Cup points races, beginning with the final NASCAR victory for the legendary Jeff Gordon at Martinsville and continuing on Sunday with a one-two finish at Atlanta.

Jimmie Johnson won his second straight Cup race and his fifth overall at the Georgia racetrack. More significantly, however, it was his 76th career Sprint Cup victory, tying “The Intimidator,” the late Dale Earnhardt Sr.

Finishing in second, fittingly, was Earnhardt Sr.’s namesake Dale Earnhardt Jr. After the race, Johnson paid his respects to the legendary “Man in Black.”

“Gosh, it’s hard to — I entered the sport just hoping I could win a race and keep a job for a few years, and to have 76 and tie Dale Earnhardt Sr. is something I’m very, very proud of,” said Johnson, whose 76th victory came 161 less races and nine less years in age before Earnhardt Sr.’s. “I didn’t have a chance to race against him, unfortunately, but today — there’s been a big void in my mind about not having that chance to race against him, and it was literally a handful of months away from having that opportunity.

“I didn’t have a chance to race against him, unfortunately, but today — there’s been a big void in my mind about not having that chance to race against him, and it was literally a handful of months away from having that opportunity.

“So to tie him today, for myself personally, it gives me a little something — it’s a little bit of attachment to the great Dale Earnhardt and something I’m very proud of.”

It wasn’t an easy win for the driver of the No. 48 Lowes Chevrolet. Short pitting and a strategy call by crew chief Chad Knaus got the El Cajon, California native out front in the late going by taking one less pit stop for tires than the rest of the field. After Ryan Newman blew a tire and spun with just two laps to go, a fast pit stop gave Johnson the fresh tires he needed to survive NASCAR Overtime. Overtime ended prematurely when a handful of drivers, most notably Aric Almirola, David Ragan and Ryan Blaney, had a major wreck in turn three. The yellow flag came out right as Johnson crossed the start-finish line and Earnhardt Jr. was able to nip Kyle Busch for second.

Not Surprising: After an off-season full of build-up for the new 2015 Sprint Cup aero package and softer tire compounds, it definitely produced a different kind of racing in its debut on Sunday.

Instead of follow-the-leader type racing brought on by “aero push” giving race leaders huge leads almost automatically as has been the case for years, cars could pass easier and even take the lead late in runs. The softer tire compound Goodyear brought to the track led to drivers really having to wrestle their cars around the track, slipping and sliding all the way. And all of this wasn’t due to multiple restarts either; with one of the longest green flag runs in years (208 laps or roughly 312 miles) and only two restarts the entire day, it was one of the more unique races in years.

Drivers continue to praise the lower downforce package after being introduced to similar concepts last season at Kentucky and Darlington.

“I loved the way the cars drive,” said ninth place finisher Brad Keselowski. “I understand that it takes more than my opinion to make the sport go round, but I thought it was awesome.”

“They just need to keep taking more [downforce],” said Carl Edwards, a long-time proponent of the lower downforce package. “This is real racing. We’re driving hard.

“You can see the guys out here just digging for everything they’re worth. I’m worn out. That’s a tough race and just a lot of fun.”

Possibly some of the strongest words in support of the lower downforce package came from the sport’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“I loved it,” the driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet said. “We were sliding around and driving the hell out of the car. I had a blast..

“Man, it was so much fun. And I post old pictures online all the time of the ‘80s and ‘90s and that’s when racing was racing. That’s when it was good. That’s what they saw today.”

Surprising: An odd sort of circumstances had Matt Kenseth go from being a front-runner in the race to not being scored for a couple of laps.

A lap 117 pit stop featured Kenseth’s fuel man (Listed by PitTalks.com to be named John Eicher) set the wedge adjustment wrench on the deck lid of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota while fueling the car. According to NASCAR rules, the fuel man cannot do two things at once while fueling the car, and Kenseth was hit with a drive-through penalty.

Kenseth’s crew chief Jason Ratcliff argued the penalty while not informing Kenseth of the black flag. Kenseth got a rare black flag with a white strip after not serving his penalty in a timely matter, which means that NASCAR no longer scores the car.

Kenseth eventually served his penalty and ended the day recovering to finish 19th.

Not Surprising: Once again, Kevin Harvick led for most of the day but ended up not sealing the deal late in the running. After spinning his tires out on the final restart of the race, the driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet ended the day sixth.

It wasn’t for lack of trying, however. Before the final caution period, Harvick drove the wheels off his loose race car, sliding around and trying to make up an 11-second gap in the final forty laps.

“We had issues about the last three runs,” said Harvick after the race, it (the spring race at Atlanta) marking fifteen years since his very first Sprint Cup victory. “I had to start driving the car different. It just required a little bit different handling. We got way behind and the No. 48 was way out front and I had to drive the car really hard and got the right rear burned up.”

Surprising: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. started the year off right with a great day at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The 28-year-old recorded only his 12th top-10 in his so far underwhelming Sprint Cup career. The 10th place finish came after a strong day where Stenhouse never fell out of the top 15.

“I’m really happy with all the hard work that these guys put in,” said the two-time XFINITY Series champion. “It’s only one weekend. I hope to get consistent with that and I’m looking forward to going to Vegas next week.”

Not Surprising: Chase Elliott’s first Sprint Cup start at home track Atlanta wasn’t surprising, with an eighth place finish after a good day. It is the driver of the No. 24 NAPA Chevrolet’s first top-10 finish and a nice rebound after his bad day at Daytona last week.

What was surprising, however, was the somewhat bittersweet feeling Elliott had on Twitter after teammate and idol Jimmie Johnson won the race.

“Congrats on the W @JimmieJohnson, hurry up with VL…. #myridehome,” Elliott wrote on the social media platform shortly after leaving the media center post-race.

The Sprint Cup series heads to Las Vegas next week. Expect plenty of gambling with strategy after the finish of Sunday’s race and plenty of fanfare as defending Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch races at his home track for the first time since winning the championship. Race coverage for the Kobalt 400 begins at 3 p.m. Eastern on FOX.

February 29, 2016
Finley Factor: Hot Dogs on The Track! Debris Caution!
There really isn’t much else to write about the whole debris caution debacle at Auto Club Speedway, but I’ll try anyway.

As has been pointed out by plenty, NASCAR wasn’t trying to screw Kurt Busch out of a victory. If they were, why didn’t they throw the caution as soon as Brad Keselowski passed him on the racetrack, not giving him a chance to take back the lead in the last two turns?

I don’t doubt for a second that some of the debris calls are a little exaggerated. The caution that made me angry was the caution that set up the initial green-white-checkered, where apparently 43 of the world’s greatest drivers couldn’t avoid something that looked to be a soda can or something similar to it for two laps. Then, they called the caution after somebody hit it. It made no sense, and whoever reported the debris to David Hoots, NASCAR’s managing event director, should at least be reprimanded.

Here’s something I don’t think people understand. Hoots doesn’t just sit there in the control tower calling debris cautions. Every single debris caution thrown on Sunday had some manner of debris. The process of getting most debris cautions called is very simple-
1. Teams must report to NASCAR that there is debris on X part of the racetrack.
2. One of the many officials around the track will look closer and report if there is any substantial debris at that part of the racetrack.
3. David Hoots will make the call as to whether or not to “put it out.”
Sometimes, like when Kyle Larson’s bumper was laying on the racetrack during the first GWC, the debris is too obvious not to report. However, having listened to the official’s audio through Race View during most races this year, I’ve noticed that this typically is not the case.

Rather, it seems the vast majority of the debris cautions called are the result of teams reporting debris. There definitely is stuff on the racetrack. FOX doesn’t care to show it because it’s FOX and they are too busy trying to make a story out of nothing. And don’t say that “They can’t find it,” because how many cameras does FOX have at these racetracks now? How many bodies and how much money do they dump into the sport? That excuse is only a little better than the tracks saying, “We don’t have the money for an all-SAFER Barrier track,” after FOX/NBC dump a mountain of gold on their doorstep, while spending millions to get rid of their iconic symbols for no real good reason (Cough, Daytona, cough).

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that teams report the majority of these cautions and for some strange reason they seem to report it when it benefits them. With around 20 laps to go, I turned to the official’s radio out of curiosity. What I found was multiple teams reporting debris… constantly, especially those who were short on fuel. A few laps later, the track official in that area finally found something and Hoots called a caution.

Now, it seems to me that the teams seem to be giving NASCAR ample room to call for debris cautions. I’m not going to name names, but certain teams seem to do it, a lot, especially those that happen to have 1s or 2s on the side of their car. If we want to get rid of phantom debris cautions, it starts with the teams. Don’t lie or exaggerate and claim something’s there. It’s that simple.

NASCAR definitely deserves a lot of blame, and I usually am on the side of the teams, but I don’t feel many give the teams any criticism when it comes to this.

Martinsville Preview (Now with 31 percent less tasty hot dogs)

Favorite (Once again, outside of Kevin Harvick)

Jeff Gordon leads almost every category among active drivers in stats at Martinsville. Hopefully he isn’t like last week’s favorite Kurt Busch, who lost the race on the last lap.

One to Watch

Chase Elliott will probably be making his Cup debut at this race. Hopefully he isn’t like last week’s one to watch Kyle Larson, where the only thing to watch was where his rear end was going to land…. literally.

Dark Horse

This is one of A.J. Allmendinger’s better racetracks, where he has finished in the top 15 in all but three of his last 11 starts here. Hopefully he isn’t like last week’s dark horse Paul Menard, who actually had a really good race. Never mind.

Because I’ve been super busy with college stuff, I didn’t find the time to write the second half of the Factor this week. Instead, here are a few random thoughts of mine.

-The top (and only) five differences between Roush Fenway Racing and BK Racing in Cup, because both have no idea what they are doing and are killing driver’s careers:
1. Roush runs Fords.
2. Roush has more money.
3. Roush has a third car.
4. Roush used to be a great team.
5. Roush actually pays people.
-With Brett Moffitt being declared eligible for Rookie of the Year honors, there goes the only thing BK Racing and Jeb Burton had going for it this year, which is a shame because Ward, Jeb’s father, is the man.

-David Ragan needs to learn not to block people on lap 20.

-Chris Buescher spent most of the day ahead of all three Roush drivers and finished 20^thin Front Row Motorsports equipment. He had never even climbed into a Sprint Cup car until Friday.

-No doubt, if you ask me, Brian Vickers’ full time Cup career in decent equipment will probably be over as soon as he leaves Michael Waltrip Racing. I just don’t see any team really taking a risk on a driver who didn’t light the world last season and constantly has medical problems. I can definitely see him in a good XFINITY Series car, though. He’s a lot like Regan Smith, in that both are decent to good drivers who have helped build Cup teams from the bottom to decent teams (Furniture Row and Red Bull), but there’s just no room for them in Cup any longer.

-Brad Keselowski wrote a blog a week ago about how big of an “ass” Kyle Busch is, or at least was, off the track. Kyle hasn’t driven like an “ass” since Texas in 2011. Brad has wrecked half the field in the last five years. What is worse, being an “ass” off the track or on the track? Judging by how many friends Brad has in the garage area, I think he does well in both categories anyway.

-Auto Club was an awful, boring race for the first 180 laps, or what felt like 10 hours. I can’t wait for Martinsville. And, I’ll go buy five lottery tickets if what’s in the title of this article actually happens.
March 27, 2015
On the Edge with Ed – Fontana Edition

Kurt Busch. Much has been said about the 2004 champion in this early season but after being back from his suspension Busch has been all business. His first week back in his car, Busch finished fifth at Phoenix. Although behind teammate Kevin Harvick, who won the race, Busch was pretty happy.

When they unloaded in Fontana, Busch was fast and so was Harvick and it was no surprise when they shared the front row after qualifying, just two hundredths of a second apart.

After qualifying Busch said, “The adrenalin is going at a good pace right now and I got a good feeling from yesterday when I visited the Haas headquarters to see the employees and the different customers that came by and to feel the love from them was extra-special.”

Busch continued to say, “And to deliver for Gene Haas today here in Southern California is special. He’s based his company here and it’s great to come to this track and produce a pole in just our second week back. It really shows the strength of the team and how we need to capitalize on it now.”

During the race in Fontana Harvick and Busch led 99 of the 209 laps with Busch leading a race high 65 laps. At the end of the race, as cautions for wrecks, almost wrecks and debris caused numerous restarts; it seemed that it was between Busch and Harvick to settle it. Until Brad Keselowski showed up and stole the win as Greg Biffle’s car spun down the front stretch. In the past NASCAR seemed to throw a caution flag when this happened but Biffle got his car rolling and out of the way as the leaders came through the back stretch. Keselowski’s pass on the white flag lap was a heartbreaker for Busch but he took it in stride.

“It was a fantastic day,” Busch said post race, “The Haas Automation Chevy was fast. Thanks to Monster Energy, Mobil 1, State Water Heaters, all our great sponsors. It was a solid day. I don’t know what we could have done different. We just got pinned in by the yellows and the sequence at the end on which tires we needed to have to optimize how many laps were left. We had two tires; Keselowski had four. We didn’t need that extra yellow at the end and I just got out muscled by Keselowski.”

Busch also added, “It was fantastic to drive and the way that everybody chipped in on building the car, the pit sequence we just got hung out on the yellows at the end. When do you pit to put four tires on, when do you pit to put two tires on? That last restart I just didn’t get the job done.”

There was much discussion post race about the fact that NASCAR did not put out a yellow and freeze the field when Biffle spun, but even if they did, it appeared that Keselowski would have been the winner, but it was close. For the previous caution, when it was Busch leading and Harvick in second, Busch simply said on his radio, “WWE,” in reference to a pro wrestling analogy.

Richard Buck, NASCAR’s managing director of Sprint Cup Series said via Fox Sports, “We got multiple reports over the radio and confirmed it. There was a piece of material, something, in the racing groove and so we went ahead and called a caution. And by the time that we had called the caution, somebody had hit it.

“He continued, “I don’t have it back yet (the piece of debris). I don’t have the piece back yet, but we always ask the safety and cleanup crews to return that stuff to us. But there were multiple reports.”

I believe the piece of debris was off of Kyle Larson’s Target Chevrolet that resulted from contact as the cars jockeyed for position on a restart. I don’t believe there was a call from anyone just to keep Busch from victory lane in Fontana. It was just bad racing luck after running a great race all day. It always troubles me when fans think that NASCAR did this for excitement. The piece of debris was clearly shown on television monitors. NASCAR made the right call as far as I am concerned.

Busch is returning to the scene of his only victory last year this weekend at Martinsville Speedway. I think that he will get his victory this season; that team has not missed a beat since his late return.

March 26, 2015
Finley Factor: Be Quick or Be Dead

So if you haven’t heard, Kevin Harvick is on a pretty decent run.

The defending Champion has finished first or second the last seven straight races. The only drivers able to keep up with him this season have been Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano, and even then both have had problems, with Johnson having a miserable Las Vegas and Logano seemingly hitting a metaphoric wall and fading back in the last quarter of most races.

At 39 Harvick still has around five more years before his decline as a driver (And who knows about that; Mark Martin and Harry Gant were still championship contending drivers in their fifties), and I doubt that Stewart-Haas Racing, with multiple solid sponsors and the best chassis/engine provider in the game with Hendrick Motorsports, will decline like Roush Fenway Racing has the last three seasons.

Rodney Childers has also proven to be one of the best crew chiefs in the game, maybe even better right now than Chad Knaus, who is probably entering the twilight of his career (Modern crew chiefs generally have a shorter career than drivers, with a notable exception in Jimmy Fennig). Childers has proven to be an excellent team builder; Michael Waltrip Racing flat out sucked before Childers came over in 2009 and helped to develop the team into an elite team over the next four seasons before leaving after 2013. It speaks volumes that MWR once again became completely rudderless as an organization when Childers left, not even being able to lure Greg Biffle from Roush last season, which really speaks volumes. I promise that if MWR actually is able to develop Brett Mofitt into a great driver, he isn’t going to win a championship with MWR.

Childers also, as noted by Darrell Waltrip last Sunday, basically built the No. 4 team from the ground up in the 2013-2014 off-season, then won a championship the first year in. Think about that for a second. Football isn’t like racing, but that is kind of like starting a new expansion team with Pete Carroll as the coach, like Childers, a relative new face who turned the Seahawks into a powerhouse, and installing Matt Ryan, like Harvick, a mid-career player who has played well but has never truly had the team to win it all, as the QB.

And then, come February, you turn the television on and you see Ryan hoisting the Lombardi after winning the Super Bowl, after one year.

History says that no, Harvick and the 4 team won’t continue this amazing run. Someday he’s going to lose an engine or get stuck on pit road or get caught up in a wreck. Then we get to see just how good this team really is. The best players, regardless of sport, will perform when it’s pouring, not just raining. Can he join the ranks of drivers and teams such as his boss Tony Stewart in 2011, where he went from saying “We shouldn’t be in the Chase” to hoisting the Cup in just three months’ time? We shall see.

Fontana Preview

Favorite (Outside of Kevin Harvick)

I’ve gotta go with K. Busch……. Wait, you’re telling me Kyle is still out with his injuries? I already know that, I’m talking about the other K. Busch. Kurt showed he hasn’t lost a step last Sunday, and with Kyle on the shelf he is the best here in the Gen 6, with an average finish of fourth in the last two races here.

One To Watch

Kyle Larson opened a lot of eyes in this race last year. The 2014 Rookie Of The Year almost won, if it wasn’t for the other Kyle blocking we’d be talking about defending race winner Kyle Larson. Larson is hungry for a victory, and with a second in Cup last season and his first Xfinity series win the same weekend, expect him to be a factor on Sunday.

The Dark Horse

Paul Menard has finished eighth and ninth here the last two seasons. Don’t expect a win, but do expect another under the radar top-10.

A brief correction from last week. For the rankings I posted, comparing all Cup drivers from 2013 and 2014’s first two full time seasons in the sport, I forgot to post, of all people, Kevin Harvick’s statline. Harvick, with three victories, 11 top-fives, and 24 top-10s, would be 10th in the ranking, with everybody below Kyle Busch being a rank below what they are in the article.

Harvick’s first two seasons are well known for being a roller coaster of emotions, from the grief in replacing the late Dale Earnhardt Sr., to triumph in winning three races including an emotional and iconic Atlanta win three weeks following Earnhardt’s death, to anger when he was suspended for the spring Martinsville race in 2002 after running into Coy Gibbs the day before in the Truck race after Gibbs wrecked him. Harvick, already on probation following an incident earlier in the year with Greg Biffle at Bristol, was suspended and relived by Kenny Wallace in the Cup Race.

Maybe, once he comes back from injury, there is hope for a Kyle Busch championship after all.

Speaking of Martinsville, they’ve changed hotdog brands once again. I’d be amazed if Jesse Jones hotdogs aren’t back at Martinsville by the start of the Cup race there on March 29. They’ve tried to change the hotdogs before and it has never worked out.

If they don’t, it really is a shame that a track like Martinsville, with two dates a year (And thus plenty of money from the new television deal), will screw with its long time partners (Jesse Jones had been at the Speedway before there even was a NASCAR, starting with a handshake deal in 1947) and race fans just to make more money. Money that I doubt any of the race teams will see, or if they do see it, it will most definitely be pennies on the dollar.

It seems like the France family, who majority own Martinsville Speedway owner ISC, either delight in moving races around or off the schedule for no real good reason (Somehow Darlington on Labor Day went from being too hot after years of it not being hot in 2004 to suddenly not being hot again in 2015) or messing around with what has been around for years. Instead of buying and then fixing Rockingham and making sure it had the resources to stay on the Cup schedule, it was decided that ISC needed a track in Kansas and Chicagoland, even though the Rockingham makeover would have been cheaper and would have led to better races, continuing the track’s history.

It isn’t just ISC, either. Atlanta looked horrible a couple of weeks ago, and Bruton Smith has been wanting that second Las Vegas date for years now. As far as I know, Bruton has three options to get that second Las Vegas date- replace the second Charlotte race, replace the second Loudon race, or replace Atlanta and move dates around to get Vegas later in the year. And because I know he won’t get rid of Loudon because, you know, that makes too much sense, it’s either the heart of NASCAR in Charlotte or the birthplace of stock car racing in Atlanta that will be hurt in this deal.

Then again, Smith could always just buy a track and pull it off the calendar, like he did to North Wilkesboro, which narrows it down to Dover and Pocono (We’ll find Martians before Smith buys Indianapolis). I’d love for it to be Pocono. Can we get rid of Pocono? That would be nice.

March 19, 2015
On the Edge with Ed

It’s time for me to get back to covering NASCAR as I have for the past 10 years. As an editor at www.speedwaymedia.com I spend a lot of time behind the scene trying to bring everyone quality coverage on all sorts of motorsports. I must note that coverage of the sport has changed significantly since I started in what was the last century. Many print publications have gone away and with those changes we have lost some incredible talent. I can recall when internet racing sites were frowned upon by the sanctioning body, not supported by the tracks or sponsors. So much has changed in how the fans interact with teams, sponsors and drivers. Who would have thought that you could actually get a message to a driver in just a few seconds by “tweeting” them? So I decided that I would start up a weekly column, “On the Edge.” I will not always cover the obvious. I may just recap, as I am this week because so much happened during 2015 Speedweeks in Daytona.

DAYTONA RECAP: The 2015 NASCAR season roared to life just a couple of weekends ago with the Sprint Unlimited. The non-points paying event is usually chaotic and this year’s edition was no exception. The field saw at least three significant wrecks that saw only 12 survive all 75 laps of the race. Matt Kenseth won the race but there were some disgruntled drivers after the race including Kevin Harvick who felt he was run over by Joey Logano. “He just drove us straight in the fence,” Harvick said post race. Everybody is trying to be aggressive, but you still have to know when and where you can do things. You can’t just drive somebody in the fence. Whether it is an all-star race or not, it doesn’t really matter, you can’t just take your head off and throw it on the floorboard and not use your brain. Like I told him last year that kind of stuff catches up with you. It caught up with him last year and you can only do things like that so long before it catches up with you.”

The drama just continued on the following day when it came time for the Sprint Cup cars to qualify, shoot-out style. There were multiple wrecks during the sessions and eventually team Hendrick made up the front row with Jeff Gordon taking the pole award and Jimmie Johnson taking second. Gordon had announced previously that this would be his final Daytona 500. With all the wrecked race cars many teams were unhappy with the format, including Martin Truex Jr. who said, “My thoughts are they need to do something different. I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem like it’s a good show. It’s not fun. It’s kind of chaos. I don’t know, seeing cars get tore up and other stuff. I’m not a fan of it, but hey, it is what it is. It’s fun at every other race track, it’s just plate tracks we need to figure something else out.”

On the Monday after qualifying things began to get bizarre as NASCAR announced that they were aware of the ruling in a civil matter regarding some domestic violence allegations against beleaguered Stewart-Haas driver Kurt Busch. The announcement was they were “waiting on the full findings from the commissioner and any actions by the Attorney General.” We fast forward to Friday afternoon, when the commissioners’ findings were released, and Kurt Busch is indefinitely suspended from NASCAR participation. By Saturday he has lost all appeals and he is erased from existence in souvenir haulers and on the team cars and gear. For the record, no actions were taken by the attorney general and I am old enough to know and understand, that the reality of what happened in the privacy of that motor coach lot, lies somewhere in between the testimonies of Busch and his ex-girlfriend.

We had on-track festivities that got out of hand, when Danica Patrick and Denny Hamlin had issues during a practice session and more importantly the qualifying race on Thursday that had Patrick nearly missing NASCAR’s big event. Patrick was clearly upset and got in Hamlin’s face after the race but as one would expect, nothing more came of it. More significantly both the Camping World Truck Series and newly named Xfinity Series races were wreck fests that saw Sprint Cup driver Kyle Busch sent to the hospital with a compound fracture to his right leg and a left broken foot. Daytona International Speedway president Joie Chitwood took responsibility for the track not having all track walls covered with the SAFER barrier and vowed to have it fixed immediately. No timetable for Busch’s return to his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team was discussed as this went to press.

JOEY LOGANO – In 2007 I had the pleasure of meeting a young up and coming star named Joey Logano at a local track on the outskirts of the Adirondack Mountains. He was just 17 years old and had already won three races in the NASCAR Busch North Series. He was an extremely personable young man and I recall that the customary pre-race autograph session was extended due to the large crowd that was present not only to watch him race, but to meet him. During the race Logano, who started on the pole due to him being the points leader, faded back to third or fourth place as he struggled to figure out the D shaped track. He had fought his way to third when the white flag was flying and as the leaders battled side by side coming off turn four they touched and began to spin out and Logano pounced, diving low in a remarkable fashion, keeping it on the track and taking the checkered flag. I recall looking at my friend who was with me in the pits and say, like others before me, ‘that kid is the real deal!’

In 2009 when Logano was a rookie with Joe Gibbs Racing I had an opportunity to speak with him about that race at the Adirondack Speedway. At the time Logano had a lot to say about Adirondack. “Adirondack was nowhere!” he said a bit loudly when I asked. “It’s one of a kind.” But he also recalled it took some time to learn how to get around the place. “That was one of the most frustrating places I have been to,” he said. “I remember we started practice there and I was off a little bit and I was mad. I mean you never stop turning. You turn the wheel here (motions to the left) and that’s it. You never get full throttle or anything. I was trying to get full throttle, I was over driving it. I came in and they’re like, ‘What’s the deal, Joey?’ and I said, ‘I don’t freaking know!’ I got out of the car and I was like, ‘I just don’t know. I don’t know what to tell you.’ I went and watched the other cars to see what the heck they were doing; I got back in the car and tried again. Qualifying rained out and I got the pole so I’m like, ‘I’m cool with that.’” Logano mentioned that Matt Kobyluck, a Busch Series East veteran, had the place figured out. “So did I by the end,” he explained. Logano’s last lap pass as the two leaders got tangled up with a lapped car coming to the checkered flag was one of the most exciting finishes of the NASCAR races held there. Logano said he looked fondly upon his days in the series and his interactions with the fans. “Of course it was all worthwhile with the fans, he said smiling. “They’re fans, real good fans. We had autograph sessions before every race. That was kind of cool, to meet the fans.”

Things looked bleak for Logano after a few disappointing years in the No. 20 car and he needed a new home. He found it at Penske where he is teamed up with 2013 Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski. Logano was one of the final four cars that were in the hunt for the Sprint Cup at Homestead last November after a breakout season for him. He had five wins and led almost 1,000 laps in 2014 and he began living up to the nick-name veteran Mark Martin had given him when he was a teenager, “sliced bread.”

One weekend into the 2015 season and Logano has secured himself in the final 16 cars that will go for the 2015 edition of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the new playoff system that started last season and eliminates participants from contention based on performance. He did that by winning the Daytona 500, the second youngest driver ever to win it. Something that is hard to believe since he’s been driving in the Sprint Cup Series for so long.

February 24, 2015
NOTES FROM THE NASCAR NATION: An Edict From King Richard

Richard Petty comes from a generation that believes honesty is always the best policy. This generation is famous for saying what they mean and meaning what they say. If you ask the King of stock car racing any question in the world his response may not necessarily be what you expected to hear, but you can count on the fact that it will be double dipped in honesty.

Such was the case back on February 10th when Richard Petty was making a personal appearance, north of our border, at the Canadian Motorsports Expo in Toronto.

During a scheduled Q & A session, covered by the “Toronto Star Wheels.ca” and “Raceline Radio,” the King was asked if he thought driver Danica Patrick was capable of winning a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Without a seconds worth of hesitation Petty quipped, “Only if everybody else stayed home.”

Anyone who has ever met Richard Petty already knows that this comment was not intended to be mean spirited. It was an honest answer to an honest question as well as another moment from the say what you mean and mean what you say generation.

Taking the issue to a more positive light, Petty did concede that Patrick’s presence in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing has created a positive impact on the sport and further commented.

“If she had been a male, nobody would ever know if she’d showed up at a race track. This is a female thing that’s driving her. There’s nothing wrong with that because it’s good public relations. More fans come out; people are more interested in it. She has helped draw attention to the sport, which helps everybody in the sport.”

Petty also conceded that the sport has changed tremendously over the years and NASCAR is no longer just about the racing. From NASCAR’s inception, back in the late 1940’s, to the early 1970’s, the racing was absolutely at the forefront. It was a proverbial case of man and machine being pushed to the limit to earn the right to visit victory lane. It was also a time when many of the top tier NASCAR teams, such as Petty Enterprises, were financially supported by America’s big three automakers.

However, the wind of change blew in the 1970’s and the concept of placing a corporate logo on the hood of a race car became mandatory. With that came the necessary process of the driver becoming involved with sponsor promotions, team public relations and personal appearances at race tracks to help ticket sales, along with the endless stream of press interviews.

The fact of the matter was that all of a sudden NASCAR driver’s commitments out of the car had practically overtaken their commitment to performance levels while inside of the car.

During his appearance in Toronto, Petty pointed out that the element of promoting the sports has moved to the forefront and said “the first thing you know is that the race is secondary, because all the rest of it is build up, build up, build up.”

The King even compared modern day NASCAR Sprint Cup racing to the NFL’s Super Bowl saying “it was a little more exciting watching the buildup than watching the game. The game just happened to break out in the middle of a good party. We’re not quite that far along but in order for us to do what we need to do on race day, the sponsorship and the fan stuff, we have to do all this other stuff.”

As many NASCAR fans are aware, this is not the first time someone named Petty publicly questioned Danica Patrick’s ability to win a race. Kyle Petty, former Sprint Cup driver turned television analyst, took the lady driver to task on national television in June of last year. Kyle Petty, like his famous father, is someone else who will always give an honest answer to any question.

Kyle Petty conceded that Danica Patrick is one of the most recognizable names in NASCAR racing and referred to her as a “marketing machine, someone who’s a hot commodity and rightfully so. I have to problem with that-more power to her,” he said.

Then, he tackled the issue of Patrick’s win potential in the Sprint Cup Series by saying, “Danica Patrick has been the perfect example of somebody who can qualify better than what she runs. She can go fast, but she can’t race. I think she’s come a long way, but she’s still not a race car driver and I don’t think she’s ever going to be a race car driver.”

Responding to that criticism, Patrick at first said she didn’t care what Kyle Petty thinks and then later thanked him for providing her with some additional “personal motivation.”

That now brings the question full circle. Can Danica Patrick win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series? Many observers of the sport will say the Petty’s are correct and we should not expect to see her parking a race car in victory lane.

Yet, you almost have to at least concede to the possibility. After all, NASCAR racing is a sport that often provides late race surprises. The upcoming Daytona 500 is a perfect example.

Last year, at Daytona, Danica Patrick made NASCAR history by becoming the first female to win a Sprint Cup pole. She spent much of the great American race running in the top ten and finished eighth.

Pessimists will be quick to point out that the 2013 Daytona 500 was the only top ten finish that Patrick scored during her rookie Cup season. Optimists will say that she clearly displayed a flair for Daytona style restrictor plate racing and is more than capable of being the next driver to pull off a last lap Daytona surprise.

If that unexpected win comes to pass, then expect to see King Richard Petty, complete with his famous grin, arriving at victory lane to shake her hand.

February 11, 2014
Dale Earnhardt Jr and Brad Keselowski at the NASCAR Hall of Fame

To promote the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, all of the eligible drivers have been making appearances at the NASCAR Hall of Fame to spend some time with their fans.

[media-credit name=”Ed Coombs” align=”alignright” width=”238″][/media-credit]Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski were the featured drivers this Tuesday for a fan question and answer session.

Miss Sprint Cup Monica Palumbo started things off with a round of trivia questions and prizes for the fans. After the crowd was warmed up, Keselowski took the stage with the Executive Director of the Hall, Winston Kelley.

He delighted the crowd with both his honesty and humor.

The biggest laugh came when Keselowski was asked, “What is the strangest thing you’ve ever been asked to autograph?”

His answer was “the baby in a bucket of beer.”

Yes, you read that right.

A woman once asked Keselowski to sign her baby that she had placed in a bucket of beer. He drew the line at autographing the baby, signed the child’s shirt instead and sent the satisfied fan on her way.

Keselowski answered the tough questions too.

He was asked what he thought about the actions that NASCAR had taken after Kyle Busch intentionally wrecked Ron Hornaday at Texas Motor Speedway.

“I feel pretty good about the way NASCAR handled the situation. I don’t think there’s any way that you can handle it that makes everyone happy because you can’t go back in time and fix it.”

He went on to describe the nature of racing as an evolution in progress. He used the ‘Boys have at it’ decree from NASCAR as an example of something that is constantly evolving to the next level until someone finally has to say, “Stop!”

Keselowski was also quite outspoken about NASCAR’s decision to switch to a fuel injection system next season.

Is he happy about the change?

“I’m not a big fan of it at all,” he said.

He went on to say that he thought the main impetus for the change was simply public relations.

Keselowski went into more detail when he talked with members of the media after the fan question and answer session ended.

“We’re not doing this because it’s better for the sport or better for the teams. I don’t even think we’re really going to save any gas.”

“It gives them something to promote,” he continued. “And we’re always looking for something to promote. But the honest answer is it does nothing for the sport except cost the team owners money.”

Keselowski knows that speaking his mind may get him in hot water with NASCAR.

“But that’s the honest part of it. I think it’s a disaster.”

After a short break, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the stage to answer questions.

Winston Kelley started things off by asking Earnhardt Jr. to name someone, in addition to his father, who he had looked up to while he was growing up or admired.

He answered with three names; Jimmie Means, Cale Yarborough and David Pearson.

“I always liked Jimmy Means a lot,” he said. “I just admired how hard he worked and how dedicated he was to what he was doing.”

“Cale Yarborough was a guy that I thought a lot of. I admired how he carried himself around the race track and how he handled his business.”

“I thought David Pearson was pretty cool but I didn’t get to know him that well as a driver. But watching old films and old footage and reading about him, he seemed like an interesting character.”

The questions from the fans ran the gamut from “What sports do you like?” to “What is the best way to pursue a career in racing?”

Quite a few of the fans simply stood up to proclaim that they were his biggest fan or to ask for an autograph.

We learned that he’s not particularly superstitious and doesn’t have any pre-race rituals.

“I just get up in the morning, put my clothes on and go to work,” he said laughing.

Then one young fan stood up and quietly asked, “Whenever you are racing do you feel your father watching over you or feel your father’s spirit when you are driving the car?”

Without hesitation, Dale Jr answered, “I think so. I think that you kind of carry that with you all the time and with everything you do.”

“I do feel like his spirit rides with me in the racecar and keeps me safe.”

A small ripple of applause spread throughout the crowd.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. may not be the most eloquent of speakers but at moments like these it’s easy to understand why his fans feel such a special connection to him.

November 9, 2011