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  • Hamlin fastest in first practice at Bristol

    Hamlin fastest in first practice at Bristol

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Denny Hamlin topped the chart in first Sprint Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 14.913 and a speed of 128.666 mph.

    Martin Truex Jr. was second in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 14.944 and a speed of 128.399 mph. Brad Keselowski was third in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a time of 14.947 and a speed of 128.374 mph. Jimmie Johnson was fourth in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 14.970 and a speed of 128.176 mph. Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-five in his No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 15.018 and a speed of 127.767 mph.

    Kevin Harvick was sixth in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was seventh in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet. Kyle Busch was eighth in his No. 18 JGR Toyota. AJ Allmendinger was ninth in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet. Carl Edwards rounded out the top-10 in his No. 19 JGR Toyota.

    Casey Mears, who finished 17th in his No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 121.472 mph.

    The Sprint Cup Series will be back on track this afternoon at 4:15 for pole qualifying.

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  • Blaney Says ‘There’s Really Been No Rivalry’ with Elliott

    Blaney Says ‘There’s Really Been No Rivalry’ with Elliott

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Despite being neck and neck in the Rookie of the Year battle, Ryan Blaney says there’s no rivalry going on with Chase Elliott.

    Speaking before the media during his press conference this morning, the driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford was asked if there’s a rivalry in the making with the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with the two of them controlling the rookie battle after seven races of the 2016 Sprint Cup Series season.

    “There’s really been no rivalry between us,” Blaney said. “It’s been pretty fun to race with Chase every single weekend. I haven’t really had the opportunity to do that, ever. We never really raced together every single weekend. Even growing up in late models, we were never around each other that much. So it’s nice to do that and have fun with your friends on the race track.

    “They do a great job over there (Hendrick Motorsports), so it’s been fun and we’re just trying to get our cars better. But you notice where they’re running. I like to know where my teammates are running and where some friends of mine are running on the race track. But at the same time, you have to go back and worry about your own deal and try to make your car better. It’s great that they’re running good, but we have to make sure our car is better and just worry about our program.”

    Elliott currently leads the rookie battle with 87 points. Blaney sits in second place, 13 points back.

    During the availability, he also addressed working on his conditioning with the longer races in the Sprint Cup Series.

    “I feel like I haven’t really changed that much, to be honest with you, as far as preparation or anything like that,” Blaney added. “I got a small taste of it last year running half the schedule and we were able to do a handful of 500-mile races. We did the (Coca-Cola) 600 in Charlotte, so not a lot of that has changed. I feel like the biggest thing is it’s not really physical for me, it’s more mental and trying to keep mentally focused for 500 miles. I think that’s what most of the drivers fight and that’s something I’ve been trying to work on and make better. That’s helped out a lot. I had a great opportunity to kind of train with DeAngelo Williams, who plays for the (Pittsburgh) Steelers now, but he was in Charlotte and I was hanging out with him a little bit and he kind of told me his preparation and what he does mentally.”

  • Rusty Wallace to Give Command on Sunday

    Rusty Wallace to Give Command on Sunday

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Rusty Wallace will deliver “the most famous words in motorsports” for Sunday’s race at Thunder Valley.

    Speaking at the corporate headquarters in Abingdon, Virginia, Steven C. Smith, president and CEO of Food City, announced that the NASCAR Hall of Famer will give the command to fire engines for this Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

    “Over the years, Rusty has always been one of the greatest supporters of Food City and our racing program,” Smith said. “As the driver who boasts the most Food City 500 wins (six), we thought it appropriate to recognize his tremendous contributions to our company and the sport by naming him Grand Marshal for the 25th running of the Food City 500.”

    In 44 career starts at Bristol, the 1989 Sprint Cup Series champion amassed nine wins (including four season sweeps), 22 top fives (50 percent) and 29 top-10s (65.91 percent),a 9.6 finishing average and 3723 total laps led. In 14 of those 44 starts, he led more than 100 laps and he also led at least one lap in 29 starts at Bristol.

    Wallace’s last two wins at Thunder Valley came in a season sweep of the races in 2000. He started sixth and led 86 laps on his way to winning in the spring. In the summer, he started on the pole and led 279 laps on his way to winning.

    He finished his career tied with Dale Earnhardt and Cale Yarborough for second on the all-time wins list at Bristol behind Darrell Waltrip and his 12 wins.

     

  • 2016 Food City 500 Preview

    2016 Food City 500 Preview

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– “In my Tennessee mountain home, life’s as peaceful as a baby’s sigh. In my Tennessee mountain home, the sound of roaring thunder sings in fields nearby.”

    This week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to my part of the country – Bristol, Tennessee – to run the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The 500-lap race on the .533 mile (.858 km) concrete short track will be the eighth race of the 2016 season.

    I have no problem saying that Bristol is my single favorite track on the entire schedule. What’s not to love about it? It’s got the bumping and banging that we all love about short track racing and it’s got actual racing. It’s also my home track being just a 90-minute drive from where I live in Knoxville.

    Inevitably, there will be someone out there moaning about how it’s not like it used to be. Those people are right. Bristol is not like it used to be. It’s better! I will argue the point until the day I die that Bristol today is far superior to the Bristol of yesteryear, but that’s an argument for another day.

    There are two ways to approach Bristol; the classic against the wall on the straights and dive to the bottom in the turns and the current ride against the wall all the way around. The latter became more prevalent back in August of 2012 and is now the main way to get around the concrete short track.

    Passing becomes a challenge at Bristol as it is at most short tracks. In the past when the only way around Bristol was the bottom, you had to forcibly move a guy out of the way or wait for him to make a mistake. Now, you either move the guy in front out of the way and into the wall or you dive bomb under the car in front. This carries a lot of risks because you have to slow down the car a lot more so as to not slam the wall and it allows the car behind to get by you very easily. If you can keep the car you passed behind through the whole process, then you can move on and focus on the next car.

    We’ve seen on many occasions over the years at Thunder Valley that tempers do flare. Controlling the beast inside is key to doing well at Bristol.

    Now let’s get to the drivers to watch this weekend.

    We start off with the odds-on favorite to win this weekend at 6/1 (Vegas Insider), one Kyle Thomas Busch.

    In 21 career starts at Bristol, the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has amassed five wins, eight top fives (38.10 percent) and 13 top-10’s (61.91 percent) for an average finish of 12th.

    He’s also riding a hot streak of two straight wins at Martinsville and Texas coupled with two straight weekend sweeps.

    Now here’s where the numbers aren’t in his favor.

    Since the introduction of the Gen-6 car, he’s finished second, 11th, 29th, 36th and eighth for a 17.2 average finish. That’s 43.3 percent worse than his career average.

    He’s also not won at Bristol in Cup since 2011.

    He does, however, tend to be up front near the lead at Bristol. In his last five starts, he’s led 56, zero, 73, eight and 192 laps.

    So while I expect him to be in victory lane at Bristol in the XFINITY Series, Sunday will be more of a toss-up. Given the run he’s on as of late, I would be wrong to discount him on Sunday.

    The next driver on my list at 7/1 is Joseph Thomas Logano.

    In 14 career starts at Bristol, the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford has amassed two wins, three top fives (21.43 percent) and four top-10’s (28.57 percent) for an 18.6 finishing average. While that doesn’t sound all that great, all those top fives and three of those top-10s have come during his time with Penske. In his time with Penske, he’s finished 17th, fifth, 20th, first, 40th and first for an average finish of 14th. That’s 24.73 percent better than his career average.

    Interestingly, none of them have come in the spring race at Bristol.

    He’s no stranger to being in the lead at Thunder Valley with a career total of 408 laps led. The only other track where he’s led more is Martinsville. The last time we visited Bristol, he led 176 laps on his way to scoring the victory.

    I expect to see Logano fighting for the win on Sunday.

    The next driver to watch at 7/1 is Kevin Michael Harvick.

    In 30 career starts at Bristol, the driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet has amassed one win, 10 top fives (33.3 percent) and 13 top-10s (43.3 percent) for a 14.6 career finishing average.

    His stats are even less impressive when you use the sample size of the last six races. In the last six, he’s finished 14th, 38th, 39th, 11th, 38th and second for a 23.7 finishing average. That’s 62.33 percent worse than his career average.

    Why I bring him up is because even with the poor finishes, he still has a strong car that’s up front. In the last six races at Bristol, he’s led zero, seven, 28, 75, 184 and zero laps. That’s an average of 49 laps led per race. He was in control of this race a year ago before being caught up in a late-race wreck with David Ragan (who was subbing for Busch at the time).

    I expect Harvick to be a contender on Sunday.

    Next at 8/1 is Bradley Aaron Keselowski.

    In 12 career starts at Thunder Valley, the driver of the No. 2 Penske Ford has amassed two wins, four top fives (33.3 percent) and five top-10s (41.67 percent) for a 14.3 career average.

    For Keselowski, Bristol has been either hit or miss. That’s clear in his last six starts with finishes of third, 30th, 14th, second, 35th and sixth for a finishing average of 15th. That’s 4.90 percent worse than his career average.

    Unlike the others on this list, Keselowski is the one driver I’m iffy on. Granted, his record is comparable to Harvick’s. But Harvick has been bringing strong cars to Thunder Valley the last two years while Keselowski has been bringing cars that are just good at best.

    While I expect to see Keselowski get a top-10 finish, I don’t see him winning on Sunday.

    The final driver at 10/1 is Matthew Roy Kenseth.

    In 32 career starts at Thunder Valley, the driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota has amassed four wins, 13 top fives (40.63 percent) and 20 top-10’s (62.5 percent) for a 12.8 finishing average.

    In his last six starts at Bristol, he’s finished 35th, first, 13th, third, first and 42nd for a 15.8 finishing average. That’s 23.44 percent worse than his career average.

    In his last six starts, he’s led 85, 149, 165, 62, 47 and zero laps for a combined total of 508 laps. That’s 35.53 percent of the nearly one-thousand 500 laps (1430) that he’s led overall at Bristol.

    It’s also worth noting that this season has been anything but kind to Kenseth after eight races with only one top-10 finish.

    If there’s one track that’s been kind to him over his career, it’s Bristol. After the monsoon of last April, Kenseth had enough fuel to end a 53-race winless drought and scored the victory.

    I expect Kenseth to get it together sooner rather than later and there’s a good chance that he does it this Sunday at Thunder Valley.

    You can catch the Food City 500 this Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on FOX and on the radio via the Performance Racing Network and Sirius XM (subscription required for the latter). Since this is my home track, I’ll be on location starting today bringing you all the happenings from the media center and press box at Thunder Valley.

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Texas

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Texas

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Texas in the Rear-View

    Texas in the Rear-View

    It’s time to put a nice little bow on the events from this past weekend in Fort Worth, Texas.

    For those of you not familiar with the rear view, I just realized how wrong that could sound out of context. Every Monday after a Sprint Cup Series race, I give my take on the drivers who made headlines from the weekend’s events.

    Let’s start with one Kyle Thomas Busch.

    The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota didn’t have the best car on Sunday morning, but he showed why he’s the best re-starter in the business when he took control of the lead with 32 laps to go and won the race. Granted, he was also helped by the leader not stopping for tires and I’ll touch on that in a moment, but he found himself in the right place at the right time and scored his 36th career victory.

    Busch is on a roll with four straight combined wins in NASCAR’s top-three national touring series and I don’t expect that to slow down with the next stop on the schedule, Thunder Valley.

    Jimmie Johnson, who came into this past weekend with three straight wins at Texas, was a non-factor the whole night as he drove his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to a fourth-place finish. The highlight of his night was running into the rear-end of the eventual race winner on pit road under the first caution of the race.

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

    After the race, he said the damage was “really bad. So I’m really glad we finished as well as we did.” The fact that he finished as great as he did was incredible indeed. Most drivers in that position would have given up.

    Speaking of drivers in a predicament, Chase Elliott dropped to the rear of the field for a transmission change and still fought his way to a fifth-place finish. In vintage Elliott fashion, despite it being his career best finish, he’s still not satisfied.

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

    I really wish the guy wouldn’t be so hard on himself. The sky is the limit for the son of 1988 Sprint Cup Series champion Bill Elliott and he’s going to win at some point this season.

    Now we get to Martin Truex Jr. The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota led 142 of the 334 laps, but opting to stay out on the second to last caution of the race was what ultimately cost him the victory.

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

    He said afterward that the original plan was to stay out, but Cole Pearn, Truex’s crew chief, called him in at the last second. Truex opted to stay out because he “didn’t want to hit the cone.”

    “It’s just the way it goes,” Truex added. “Had we went green that next restart, we did OK. We got the lead and we drove away. We just kept getting yellows and caution laps and the tires just kept getting more air in them and more air in them. By the time we finally got moving there, we just didn’t have the grip everybody else had. Just sliding around. It’s frustrating, but that’s racing. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”

    Growing up as a Jeff Gordon fan, I know what it’s like to see my driver dominate a race like Truex did and staying out cost him the win like at Martinsville in 2012. So I can feel his pain.

    I saw him dominate in this fashion for four straight races last season and he finally made it to victory lane in the fourth at Pocono Raceway. If he continues to have great cars like this, he’ll be back in victory lane in no time.

    The last driver I’ll touch on is Kasey Kahne. After a frustrating season to date, the driver of the No. 5 HMS Chevrolet finished eighth and gave Hendrick 40 percent of the top-10 finishers.

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

    I’m not going to touch on what happened between Kahne and Greg Biffle right now because I’ll be doing a separate piece on that later today, but I will say he took full blame for what happened.

    That about sums up the events in Texas. This week, NASCAR heads to our Tennessee mountain home of Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City 500. This race is in my backyard being 90 minutes from Knoxville, so I’ll be on location this weekend bringing you all the happenings from Thunder Valley.

     

  • Loose Wheel Robs Edwards of Chance at Victory

    Loose Wheel Robs Edwards of Chance at Victory

    A missing lug nut cost Carl Edwards a chance at victory in the Lone Star State.

    After starting on the pole, the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led a good chunk of the front-half of the Duck Commander 500. After leading 124 laps and coming off a fast stop, he was in position for a duel to the finish with Martin Truex Jr.

    But prior to the restart, he felt a vibration and opted to ignore it. After the race restarted on lap 222, he started to slow down and made an unscheduled stop because of a loose wheel.

    “I felt a problem right away,” Edwards said. “My mistake was I should have pulled to pit immediately. I was still in denial, (thinking) ‘Maybe I’m imagining something…maybe something got stuck on the tire.’ Then I realized, ‘This was not good.”‘

    He rejoined the race in 19th one lap down.

    Thanks to the misfortunes of others, he was able to salvage his race and bring his car home to a seventh-place finish. But that was little, if any, consolation to him as teammate Kyle Busch stole the race from Truex in the closing laps and scored the victory. He jokingly said he was “about done being happy for Kyle.”

    “Nah. It’s awesome for JGR,” he said. “Our car is fast. That’s what it’s about. We run like that long enough and we’ll be fine. It was fun.

    “It’s just racing. Look, I’m as disappointed as anybody but there’s nothing we can do about what happened. If we race like that regularly, we’re going to be great.”

    For the most part, Texas Motor Speedway has been kind to Edwards over the years. In 23 career starts at the 1.5-mile circuit, he’s finished in the top-10 in over half his starts and in the top-five in just over a quarter of his starts. His 124 laps led were the first laps he’s led at Texas since 2013.

    Despite the respectable numbers he’s put up, he’s yet to win at Texas in eight years.

    “It’s been a good track for me,” Edwards added. “We’re doing great. We had the fastest qualifier, led the second-most laps. We were going for it tonight. It just didn’t work out.”

    Edwards leaves Texas sitting fourth in the points 18 back of teammate Busch.

    The next stop on the schedule is Bristol Motor Speedway, a track which he’s had some great runs at in the last two years.

  • Multi-Car Wreck on the Backstretch Collects Over a Dozen Cars

    Multi-Car Wreck on the Backstretch Collects Over a Dozen Cars

    A spin on the backstretch turned into a multi-car wreck in the closing stages of the Sprint Cup Series race in the Lone Star State.

    Exiting turn 2 with 47 laps to go in the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Austin Dillon was tapped from behind by Jimmie Johnson and sent sliding into the wall. After touching it with the right-rear corner, the driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet overcorrected and turned back into the outside wall.

    His car then slid down the track where it was clipped by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He continued down and tapped the inside wall.

    Because Dillon was running toward the front when he spun, his car came down just as the rest of the field was hauling the mail down the backstretch. As a result, a number of cars spun out in a chain-reaction, trying to avoid the lifeless No. 3 car.

    “I haven’t seen (the replay) yet,” Dillon said after being released from the infield care center. “We were on older tires and I was trying to get all I could there. It’s part of trying to win a race. We put ourselves in a position to be out front, thinking that two laps wouldn’t mean much, but it did. That’s part of it. The good Lord kept me safe tonight and gave me a good race car. You have to be gracious in defeat. We’ll come back next week with another fast car and hopefully we can do the same thing we did today, and that’s run up front.

    “It tore up a bunch of race cars. We had a good car. I just wish we could re-do it. But heck, we’re learning. We had another fast race car. We’ll go on from here. I don’t know why they put us a lap down for a speeding penalty. Usually, a speeding penalty is like the tail end of the longest line. So, that lost us some more spots there at the end. But, we’ll take it and go home.”

    “Tonight wasn’t our night,” Ryan Newman said. “We started off the run tight and as more rubber was laid down, we got loose. There weren’t a lot of cautions, so we made green-flag pit stops and fell a lap down to the leader. With most of the stops under green, we didn’t have many opportunities to get our lap back, especially after we got caught up in a wreck towards the end of the race. The right-side of the car was tore up but not enough to take us out of the race. The Caterpillar team never gave up, that’s something to be proud of.”

    In total, 13 cars were caught in or sustained damage from the wreck. The cars involved were Michael Annett, Trevor Bayne, Clint Bowyer, Dillon, Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Paul Menard, Newman, David Ragan, Brian Scott, Regan Smith, Stenhouse and Brian Vickers.

    The damage was fatal to Bowyer’s and Vickers’s cars as they were unable to finish the race.

    “It was a long day,” Vickers said. “That wreck just finally ended it for us. It’s unfortunate. I was really proud of the effort by the guys all weekend. We never really had the car we wanted. We fought hard for it. It was great having TaxAct Military Files Free on the car. We just didn’t have it tonight. We worked hard on it. The guys kept making it a little better we just couldn’t get what we needed. It just wasn’t our night.”

    “It looked like at first I thought he (Dillon) was gonna come down the track and then it looked like he was gonna stay up on the top,” Stenhouse said. “I kind of committed to turning underneath thinking he was gonna stay at the top, then all of a sudden he came down and I got as much brake as I could and avoided him as much as I could. We just barely clipped him ever so slightly and it got us too much damage.”

    Landon Cassill, who was caught right in the eye of the storm, managed to snake his way through the gaggle of cars and emerge without a scratch on his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford.

  • Dominant Drive by Truex not Enough to Win

    Dominant Drive by Truex not Enough to Win

    Despite having the strongest car in the race, Martin Truex Jr. was not able to take his car to victory lane in the Lone Star State.

    The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota seemed poised to score his fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, but two late race cautions and almost everyone behind him opting to pit led to him losing the lead with 32 laps to go and finishing sixth.

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

    He led 142 of the 334 laps and was in control until the sixth caution of the race flew with 47 laps to go. When he opted to stay out, everybody expected Austin Dillon to pit.

    “It’s just the way it goes,” he said. “Had we went green that next restart, we did OK. We got the lead and we drove away. We just kept getting yellows and caution laps and the tires just kept getting more air in them and more air in them. By the time we finally got moving there, we just didn’t have the grip everybody else had. Just sliding around.

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

    Despite the disappointment of coming up short, Truex leaves Texas 11th in points trailing Kyle Busch by 72.

  • Rowdy is on a Roll in Texas

    Rowdy is on a Roll in Texas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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