Tag: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

Crunching The Numbers: Charlotte All Star Weekend

After tackling “The Lady in Black” at Darlington last weekend, NASCAR heads home for a two week home stand at Charlotte Motor Speedway, with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series taking center stage during All Star Weekend.

Sprint Cup Series

With 11 points paying races behind them, the Sprint Cup Series heads into one of the wildest races of the year as the Sprint All Star Race is upon us once again. The non-points race that is all for the trophy, bragging rights, and a nice payday of a possible two million dollars for the winner, leads to some brash moves by drivers to get to the front and take the checkers. Since the drivers don’t have to worry about points, the phrase “Bring me the trophy or bring me the steering wheel” perfectly explains a driver’s mindset heading into this race. To add to the drama, the race will have a new format that makes running up front an even more important factor and this race should be a great one not to be missed when these drivers strap in and go for the win on Saturday night.

Driver	Races	Win	Top 5	Top 10	Pole	Avg. Start	Avg. Finish
Joey Logano	2	0	1	2	0	11.5	5.5
Matt Kenseth	12	1	5	9	2	9.3	6.3
Jimmie Johnson	11	3	7	7	1	9.1	6.6
Marcos Ambrose	1	0	0	1	0	18.0	7.0
Tony Stewart	14	1	8	9	0	11.1	7.7
Dale Earnhardt Jr	13	1	4	10	0	14.2	8.3
Ryan Newman	11	1	3	7	1	8.8	9.3
Jeff Gordon	19	3	6	9	0	8.6	9.5
Kevin Harvick	12	1	2	3	0	8.6	10.5
Kurt Busch	11	1	4	6	0	8.1	10.8

Who To Watch: While any of the drivers who run the Sprint All Star Race have a chance to win, a few stick out above the rest and the driver with the highest average finish among All Star Race participants may surprise you. That driver is Joey Logano, who has an average finish of 5.5 in two starts. Following close in Logano’s steps are last weekend’s winner at Darlington, Matt Kenseth, and five time Sprint Cup champion, Jimmie Johnson. Kenseth has one win, five top fives, nine top tens, one pole, and an average finish of 6.3 in 12 starts. Johnson is close behind with three wins, seven top fives, seven top tens, one pole, and an average finish of 6.6 in 11 starts.

Although not in the top ten of drivers with the best average finish in the Sprint All Star Race, Kyle Busch is another driver to keep an eye on this weekend. Busch has two top fives, three top tens, three poles, and an average finish of 12.4 in seven starts. However, Busch does have four DNF’s in those seven starts. As long as Busch can keep his car in one piece, he could capture his first win in the Sprint All Star Race this weekend.

Camping World Truck Series

The Camping World Truck Series heads into Charlotte this weekend for Friday night’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200, ending a nearly month long hiatus in the schedule. Several Sprint Cup Series regulars will be running the race along with the Truck Series regulars, which driver will come out on top? After 200 miles, we’ll have our answer.

Driver	Races	Win	Top 5	Top 10	Pole	Laps Led	Avg. Start	Avg. Finish
Kyle Busch	7	4	5	6	2	335	5.4	3.6
Ron Hornaday, Jr.	8	2	6	6	0	170	7.6	6.8
Jeb Burton	1	0	0	1	0	0	21.0	8.0
Justin Lofton	3	1	1	1	0	44	17.3	9.7
Matt Crafton	10	1	2	7	0	29	12.6	9.8
Ty Dillon	1	0	1	1	1	25	1.0	10.0
James Buescher	4	0	2	2	0	26	7.8	10.5
Joey Coulter	2	0	0	1	0	0	13.0	11.5
Dakoda Armstrong	1	0	0	0	0	0	24.0	13.0
Todd Bodine	9	0	4	4	0	18	14.4	14.0

Who To Watch: Sprint Cup regular Kyle Busch could have another one of his weekend sweeps if the statistics are to be believed on his career in the Truck Series at Charlotte. In seven starts, Busch has four wins, five top fives, six top tens, two poles, 335 laps led, and an average finish of 3.6. Multi-time Truck Series champion, Ron Hornaday, falls in behind Busch with two wins, six top fives, six top tens, 170 laps led, and an average finish of 6.8 in eight starts. Others to keep an eye on include: Jeb Burton, making his second Charlotte start after finishing in the top ten in his first start last year; Justin Lofton, who has one win, one top five, one top ten, 44 laps led, and an average finish of 9.7 in three starts; and Matt Crafton, who won the last race in the Truck Series before this weekend and has an average finish of 9.8 and one win in 10 starts.

May 15, 2013

Matt Kenseth: The Man To Beat In 2013

Yes, Jimmie Johnson has a considerable margin over the field right now (44pts) but Matt Kenseth who sits 3rd in the standings has put up performances as good as if not better than the 5-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. Through just 11 races, he’s led 781 laps which is already more than 9 of his 13 previous Cup seasons including his 2003 championship run. Kenseth’s three victories already matches his 2011 and 2012 totals and don’t be surprised if he wins well over five races before 2013 is finished. It’s astonishing that Matt has competed for the win and led laps in most of the races so far this year and with a brand new team; that’s very impressive. They’ve ran well at short tracks, plate tracks, cookie cutters and one milers proving that they will be a threat everywhere and anywhere they go this year.

In the Daytona 500, no one could touch his No.20 that led the pack for nearly half the race and it looked like he would win his 3rd Daytona 500 with little challenge from behind. That is before his TRD engine let go with about 50 laps remaining. He ran inside the top 10 the whole race at Phoenix, won Las Vegas, crashed out of Bristol while running 2nd and after leading 85 laps, finished in the top 10 again at Cali, led a career high 96 laps at Martinsville, finished 12th at Texas, led over half the race at Kansas in route to the victory, finished 7th at Richmond after leading 140 laps, dominated 3/4ths of the Talladega event before being shuffled back to 8th in the closing laps, and now he is a winner of the Southern 500. We can’t forget about how he’s been qualifying either. Matt holds a lot of records for being the deepest starting position of a race winner and he isn’t known for winning very many poles. So far this season, he’s started inside the top 10 seven times and has won the pole twice.

On top of all their on track dominance, the team is also winning off the track. NASCAR issued one of the largest penalties in history to Kenseth and JGR when a connecting rod from their winning Kansas engine was found to be 2.7 grams underweight. They stripped them of 50 championship points, fined them $200,000, suspended crew chief Jason Ratcliff for six races, suspended Joe Gibbs’ owner’s license, took the chase bonus points that he would get for the win away and refused to count the pole towards the 2014 Sprint Unlimited eligibility. Well, the team made a statement the following race winning the Richmond pole and then focused on appealing the harsh punishment. The nearly unprecedented penalty was reduced significantly by the panel and NASCAR was very displeased with the outcome.

“While we are disappointed in today’s outcome, we stand firmly behind our inspection process. In violations such as these, we have no other recourse in the reinforcement process than to penalize the team owner and team members. That’s how our system works…..You’re not going to agree with everything, and today is one we disagree with. We feel like when we write a penalty and write a rules violation, there needs to be something behind it.” -Kerry Tharp

JGR took on NASCAR and won, a rare accomplishment for anyone in the garage area and something not many can say. They came to Darlington just a few days later with their chests pumped out and a chip on their shoulder ready to take on the notorious Lady in Black. The win marks Kenseth’s first in the Southern 500 and was helped by some bad luck biting teammate Kyle Busch in the closing laps but it was nonetheless a monumental victory for the team. With their confidence at an all-time high and some bad fast racing machines underneath a championship caliber driver, Matt Kenseth and team looks to set the world on fire as NASCAR races into the summer months.

With the way they’ve been running, I would not discount Kenseth getting to 10 wins by the end of 2013. He has always been a formidable opponent and his Achilles heel (qualifying) no longer exists since he’s joined Joe Gibbs Racing. He’s amazingly consistent, can close the deal, is now able to start up front and does it with little drama or controversy. That last quality hasn’t been seen with a JGR driver since the days of Bobby Labonte. This already strong team has bolstered their lineup with one of the best drivers in the garage and I think this unshakable team will be the ones to beat as the season progresses. Right now, we have some pretenders mixed in with the real contenders but the cream will rise to the top as it always does. By the time we reach the season finale at Homestead, there will only be a few left standing to fight tooth and nail for the Cup. I can assure you that Matt Kenseth and Joe Gibbs Racing will be one of those few men left and in fact, they will probably be the one that everybody is chasing.

May 13, 2013
Matty’s Picks 2013 – Vol. 8 Darlington Raceway – Bojangles’ Southern 500 – May 11, 2013

Darlington Raceway needs no introduction this week. Its the 64th annual Bojangles’ Southern 500 and there’s a reason why the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has continued to come back to the track Too Tough To Tame year after year. It’s NASCAR’s oldest paved superspeedway, and over the years has become one of my favorite stops on the series. There’s something about the history, the heritage, and the excitement about the racing at Darlington that keeps me glued to the broadcast and puts Darlington on my bucket list.

Talladega Recap

Last weekend’s chaos at Talladega left me in rough shape, but the good news for me is that nobody saw David Ragan soaring to Victory Lane either. Scoring an unlikely win on the last lap of last week’s Aaron’s 499 with help from his teammate David Gilliland, was a shot in the arm for both David Ragan, Front Row Motorsports, and all the under-funded teams in the sport. It was a major confidence booster in the garage for teams not normally in the spotlight, being that the entire race was dominated by the big guns like Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson. It was a “David takes down Goliath” last week at Talladega, but don’t expect the same this week at Darlington.

As for my picks last week, I went with defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion, Brad Kesolowski to win last week. Bad Brad made it through the mayhem of each of the big wrecks, but unfortunately had no help for a charge to the front following the rain delay and wound up finishing 15th.

As for my Dark Horse, Danica Patrick, a late race accident on lap 182 ended her long day of drafting. She missed a big accident early and waited out the three-hour rain only to be caught up in a late race crash on the backstretch when several cars began crashing in front of her. The incident put her out of the race, finishing in 33rd.

Darlington Picks

Winner Pick
On Wednesday while previewing tonight’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 with Greg Depalma on the Prime Sports Network, I picked Kasey Kahne to win, before the cars even hit the track in South Carolina. It’s a pick I still like after Kahne showed decent speed in practice and qualified the No.5 Time Warner Cable Chevrolet in the fourth starting spot. He enters Saturday Night’s race coming off consecutive top 10’s at Darlington Raceway, leading laps in 3 of the last 4 at The Lady In Black. Flashback to 2011, Kahne dominated the Southern 500 in his No.4 Red Bull Toyota, leading a race-high 124 laps, but a late race incident involving oil dropped on the track, collected a slue of solid race cars including Kahne. NASCAR failed to throw a caution, despite many drivers reporting oil on the track, a call that was looked at as controversial in many drivers eyes. Kahne has completed all but one lap in his 10 races at Darlington, and he’s put himself in position to pick up his first win at the historic track through a solid qualifying run on Friday.

Dark Horse Pick
On Wednesday, I liked Ryan Newman’s chances at The Lady In Black, but throughout the weekend we haven’t seen much speed out of the No.39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet. I thought he was the guy to look at who has flown under the radar with solid finishes at Darlington, including 6 top 10’s in the last 8 races at Darlington. He traditionally has qualified very well in South Carolina, notching one pole and starting outside the top 12 just twice in 14 starts. He’s got some work to do if he’s to end up in Victory Lane, but needs a solid finish for not only his Chase hopes, but to keep Stewart-Haas racing on the radar as a major player in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

That’s all for this week, so until we head to Charlotte and All-Star Weekend, You Stay Classy NASCAR NATION!

May 11, 2013
Kurt Busch Wins the Pole for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 and Sets a Track Record at Darlington Raceway

Kurt Busch won the Coors Light Pole Award with a qualifying lap of 181.918 mph. His time set the track record previously held by Kasey Kahne in 2011 with a lap speed of 181.254. It is his 16^th pole in 446 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.

This is Busch’s second pole in 17 years at Darlington Raceway. In September 2001 he won the pole and became the youngest pole winner at the legendary track. He was 23 years and 29 days old at the time.

Jimmie Johnson qualified second giving him his seventh top-10 start in 2013. In 15 races at Darlington Raceway, Johnson has scored eight top-10 starts. That number includes his 2012 win which gave Hendrick Motorsports its 200^th NASCAR Sprint Cup victory.

Kyle Busch will begin the race from the third position. This is Busch’s fourth top-10 start at Darlington Raceway and his eighth top-10 start this season.

Kasey Kahne and Martin Truex Jr. will start the race in positions four and five, respectively. Denny Hamlin qualified in sixth place and will compete in his first full race since March.

Please visit nascar.com for the complete starting line-up. http://www.nascar.com/en_us/sprint-cup-series/standings/results/2013/bojangles-southern-500.html

NASCAR pre-race action starts at 6 p.m. on Fox for the 64^th annual Bojangles’ Southern 500 on Saturday, May 11^th. The green flag is scheduled to drop at approximately 7 p.m. The drivers will once again race under the lights for 501.3 miles (367 laps) to determine who will tame the ‘Lady in Black.’

May 10, 2013
Previewing The Bojangles Southern 500 At Darlington Raceway

This weekend, NASCAR heads to the track nicknamed “too tough to tame” and rightly so. Darlington Raceway is a 1 mile egg-shaped oval nestled in a small town in South Carolina and once a year, NASCAR awakens this legendary speedway and will adorn the lady with her signature black walls before the race is done. Darlington was NASCAR’s first paved speedway hosting its first event back in 1950 where 1956 USAC Stock Car Champion and Indy 500 competitor Johnny Mantz won in what would be his only Cup win. He was running off road tires starting the race 43rd and although Mantz was slow in time, everyone else tore up their tires as he rode around with his more durable ones and cruised to victory by over 9 laps. In fact, so many tires were being torn up that some crews raided the parking lots taking tires from cars owned by race fans.

This track has a quite a history and is one of the most psychically demanding venues on the schedule. The two sets of corners offer a unique challenge to drivers considering that they are very different from one another. As these brave racers roar around the track at over 180mph, they run literally inches away from the wall and most hit it at least once during the 500 mile race. Harold Brasington had a vision to design a speedway that would rival Indianapolis and at the team of its construction, stock car racing had never competed on such a circuit. Darlington quickly became an iconic track that every driver wanted to have on their resume. The Generation-6 racecar gets to take on The Lady in Black Saturday night and you can be assured that it will be wild as these drivers try to throw these cars around at 200mph while remaining on the edge of control and inches away from disaster.

Darlington Raceway Track Data

Track Size: 1.366-miles

Banking/Turns 1 & 2: 25 degrees

Banking/Turns 3 & 4: 23 degrees

Banking/Frontstretch: 6 degrees

Banking/Backstretch: 6 degrees

Frontstretch Length: 1,229 feet

Backstretch Length: 1,229 feet

Race Length: 367 laps / 501.3 miles

Capacity: 75,000

Track History & Records

Inaugural Race Winner: Johnny Mantz by 9 laps over Fireball Roberts

Most Wins By a Driver: David Pearson (10)

Most Wins By a Team: Hendrick Motorsports (14)

Most Wins By a Manufacturer: Chevrolet (40)

Youngest Race Winner: Kyle Busch at 23 years, 0 months and 8 days in May of 2008

Oldest Race Winner: Harry Gant at 51 years, 7 months and 22 days in September of 1991

Least Amount of Cautions: None in September of 1963 (Data from 1 event is missing)

Most Amount of Cautions: 17 in May of 2009 (Data from 1 event is missing)

– This will be the 110th NSCS race held at Darlington Raceway

– 700 drivers competed at Darlington and 45 of them have won at least once

– Richard Petty has made more starts at Darlington than any other driver with 65

Darlington Qualifying Stats

Track Record: Kasey Kahne with a lap time of 27.131 (181.254mph) in May of 2011

Youngest Pole Winner: Kurt Busch at 23 years, 0 months and 29 days in September of 2001

Oldest Pole Winner: David Pearson at 47 years, 8 months and 15 days in September of 1982

Inaugural Pole Winner: Curtis Turner with a speed 82.034mph in 1950

– 47 drivers have won poles at Darlington led by David Pearson with 12

– 36 of the 109 NSCS races at Darlington have been won from the front row: 19 from the pole and 17 from second-place (33.0%)

-94 of the 109 NSCS races at Darlington have been won from a top-10 starting position (86.2%)

– 6 of the 109 NSCS race sat Darlington have been won from a starting position outside the top 20 (5.6%)

– The deepest in the field that a race winner has started was 43rd by Johnny Mantz in 1950

Top 10 Best Driver Ratings at Darlington

1.) Jeff Gordon………………………… 111.8

2.) Greg Biffle………………………….. 110.5

3.) Denny Hamlin………………………. 109.5

4.) Jimmie Johnson…………………… 105.7

5.) Kyle Busch…………………………. 102.3

6.) Kasey Kahne………………………… 98.3

7.) Ryan Newman……………………….. 97.6

8.) Martin Truex Jr………………………. 95.2

9.) Carl Edwards………………………… 93.9

10.) Dale Earnhardt Jr…………………… 90.4

Best Average Finish Among Active Drivers

1.) Denny Hamlin——5.9

2.) Jimmie Johnson—9.1

3.) Brad Keselowski—-9.2

4.) Martin Truex Jr.—-11.3

5.) Jeff Gordon———11.8

Most Wins Among Active Drivers

1.) Jeff Gordon———7

2.) Jimmie Johnson—3

3.) Mark Martin——–2

4.) Greg Biffle———–2

5.) Jeff Burton———-2

Most Top 5’s Among Active Drivers

1.) Jeff Gordon———-18

2.) Mark Martin——–17

3.) Jeff Burton———-8

4.) Jimmie Johnson—-7

5.) Ryan Newman——-7

Most Top 10’s Among Active Drivers

1.) Mark Martin——26

2.) Jeff Gordon——-21

3.) Jeff Burton——–16

4.) Bobby Labonte—11

5.) Tony Stewart——11

Most Laps Led Among Active Drivers

1.) Jeff Gordon———–1,720

2.) Jeff Burton———–817

3.) Mark Martin———801

4.) Greg Biffle————713

5.) Jimmie Johnson—-543

Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton and Mark Martin have a ton of experience at Darlington and all three have also won at this track multiple times. Darlington is a place where you must race the track, not your competitors and veterans like those three are aces at doing that. Conserving your equipment for the end is key to staying in contention as the laps wind down. Jimmie Johnson has also had a lot of success at this legendary speedway winning three times with the most recent victory coming last year. In a 500 mile grueling race like the Southern 500, veterans have the advantage but that doesn’t mean the young guns have never made some noise. Kyle Busch won this race back in 2008 at just 23 years of age and in 2011, then 27 year old Regan Smith pulled off the upset taking Furniture Row Racing to victory lane for the first time.

The Lady in Black has never been very kind to 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup runner-up Clint Bowyer who has just one top 10 in 7 starts (9th) and four finishes of 23rd or worse. His former teammate Kevin Harvick has also struggled to find success at Darlington never winning and posting a top 10 result just once since 2004 and that was his 6th place finish in 2010. He rarely leads laps and an average finish of 18.8 shows just how difficult of a time he has had here. This track eats up tires and pushes drivers to the limit and sometimes over the edge. There have been post-race altercations in both events the past two years and a Busch brother was involved in each incident. Speeds are nearing the 200mph mark in the Gen-6 which is unprecedented at this 1.3 mile oval. It was purpose built for speeds around 100mph back in the 50’s and the high banked part of the track we race now was actually used as a runoff area. If there wasn’t enough incentive to win the Southern 500, this is the final opportunity for someone to win their way into the All-Star Race with the exception of the Sprint Showdown. It’s sure to be exciting as the best stock car racing has to offer takes on the track too tough to tame this Saturday night!

May 10, 2013
Treasure Hunters From Around The World Gathering At Darlington Raceway

Darlington Raceway, along with the Florence Visitors Bureau, and the Pee Dee Geocachers, have teamed up to give fans attending the Bojangles Southern 500 this weekend a unique opportunity to hunt for treasure located around the hallowed grounds of the Track To Tough To Tame.

Treasure hunting has been around almost since the beginning of time. Once upon a time a treasure hunters tools included tattered maps, shovels, a pick ax, or on rare occasions, a divining rod.

Those days are all but gone.

Today’s modern treasure hunters use cell phones, GPS tracking devices, the internet, and a technologically advanced method called Geocaching.

Geocaching started about 13 years ago as a high tech game of hiding, and seeking, containers called caches; or geocaches.

Caches can vary from small tubes containing paper logs, to large ammo boxes containing trinkets, or toys for trading. Some of these items have serial numbers which allows tracking on the internet.

Geocaching uses the internet to provide information and GPS coordinates to the location of caches all around the world.
Rumor has it that a geocacher actually found the elusive needle in the haystack.

What makes geocaching even simpler is that smart phones can access the internet from almost anywhere.
Enhancing your hunting experience is also just as simple. Located on the internet are several geocaching and GPS apps available for download to your smart phone, or tablet, at no cost.

Treasure hunters at this weekend’s Bojangles Southern 500 will be treated to geocaching at its finest.
When fans are ready to start hunting, they should check in at the booth located in front of the raceway museum.

There they will find GPS coordinates leading them to caches hidden around the speedway. These caches will contain a trivia question and information to help them find other caches.

The first 200 lucky fans that have the right combination of caches, and correct answers, will be rewarded with a one-of-a-kind Darlington Raceway commemorative coin.

So, if you’re heading out to the Darlington Raceway for the Bojangles Southern 500, and want to do some real treasure hunting, brush up on your Darlington trivia, charge your cell phone, and be sure to bring along family and friends, so no one misses this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Your treasure is waiting.

To purchase tickets for the Bojangles Southern 500, or to find out more information about this weekend’s festivities at the Darlington Raceway, log on to one of the following web sights.

www.darlingtonraceway.com
www.geocaching.com
www.visitflo.com

May 9, 2013

Crunching The Numbers: Darlington

With a weekend full of rain delays, wild wrecks, close finishes, and underdog winners at Talladega Superspeedway behind them, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series head to Darlington Raceway, NASCAR’s first superspeedway, for some night racing on Mother’s Day weekend at the track that is “Too Tough To Tame”.

Sprint Cup Series

Saturday night’s 64th Annual Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington, which has become a staple of Mother’s Day weekend in recent years, is one of the toughest races of the year in large part to the egg shaped nature of the track that gives crew chiefs fits when trying to perfect the setup of the car and the inevitable “Darlington Stripe” that drivers are sure to get during the duration of the event. The new Gen6 car will also make its Darlington debut this weekend and 500 miles on Saturday will tell the tale if early season success with the car will lead to Victory Lane or if we’ll see a new winner take the checkered flag.

Driver	Races	Win	Top 5	Top 10	Pole	Laps Led	Avg. Start	Avg. Finish
Denny Hamlin	7	1	3	6	0	354	10.7	5.9
Jimmie Johnson	14	3	7	10	0	543	12.5	9.1
Brad Keselowski	4	0	1	2	0	0	16.2	9.2
Martin Truex, Jr.	7	0	1	3	0	98	24.3	11.3
Tony Stewart	20	0	4	11	0	20	17.1	11.8
Jeff Gordon	32	7	18	21	3	1720	6.7	11.8
Jeff Burton	30	2	8	16	0	817	20.7	12.3
Mark Martin	46	2	17	26	2	801	13.3	12.4
Ryan Newman	14	0	7	9	1	325	7.9	12.4
Carl Edwards	9	0	3	6	0	94	15.8	13.1

Who To Watch: This weekend, Denny Hamlin is scheduled to make a full time return to racing after getting out early at Talladega last weekend. Hamlin couldn’t have picked a better track to make his return at than Darlington because Hamlin leads all active drivers with the best average finish of 5.9 in seven starts at the track, along with one win, three top fives, six top tens, and 354 laps led. The next driver, Jimmie Johnson, is a full 3.2 position points behind with an average finish of 9.1 in 14 starts. However, Johnson does have more wins, top fives, top tens, and laps led than Hamlin with three wins, seven top fives, 10 top tens, and 543 laps led. Defending series champion, Brad Keselowski, will also be another to watch with his 9.2 average finish in four starts, which is comprised of one top five and two top tens.

One last driver to keep an eye on is Jeff Gordon, who is the wins leader among active drivers with seven wins in 32 starts. Gordon also has amassed 18 top fives, 21 top tens, three poles, 1720 laps led and an average finish of 11.8. Gordon will also be making his 700th career Sprint Cup Series start this weekend.

Nationwide Series

As has been commonplace for Nationwide and Cup Series companion weekends all season long, several Cup drivers will run the Nationwide race in order to learn information for the Cup race and to go all out to win the trophy and Friday night’s VFW Sport Clips Help A Hero 200 will be more of the same with the Cup regulars battling it out with the Nationwide regulars for supremacy at Darlington.

Driver	Races	Win	Top 5	Top 10	Pole	Laps Led	Avg. Start	Avg. Finish
Austin Dillon	1	0	1	1	0	0	3.0	5.0
Joey Logano	2	1	1	1	0	4	4.5	6.5
Sam Hornish, Jr.	2	0	1	1	0	3	10.0	7.5
Matt Kenseth	16	3	9	12	0	327	12.4	9.7
Justin Allgaier	4	0	2	2	0	31	11.0	9.8
Kasey Kahne	10	0	1	4	0	46	13.7	12.8
Reed Sorenson	4	0	0	2	0	0	20.5	13.0
Kyle Busch	8	1	3	4	1	273	5.1	13.5
Jeff Green	19	1	5	9	1	86	16.1	14.9
Trevor Bayne	1	0	0	0	0	0	9.0	16.0

Who To Watch: Heading into his second start at the track, Austin Dillon leads all drivers with the best average finish of 5.0 after his 5th place finish last year and his qualifying run that placed him in 3rd to start the race. Next in line is Joey Logano, with one win, one top five, one top ten, four laps led and an average finish of 6.5 in two starts. Others who should be good at Darlington include: Sam Hornish, Jr., who has one top five, one top ten, three laps led, and an average finish of 7.5 in two starts; Matt Kenseth, with three wins, nine top fives, twelve top tens, 327 laps led, and an average finish of 9.7 in 16 starts; and Justin Allgaier, with two top fives, two top tens, 31 laps led, and an average finish of 9.8 in four starts.

May 8, 2013

Bobby Labonte’s Career Is One of Trials, Triumphs and Raw Deals

Bobby Labonte made his 700th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) start at Talladega Superspeedway this past Sunday leading laps under green before being swept up in a late race wreck finishing 20th. Today is the champ’s 49th birthday and I thought a good way to celebrate it would be to remember all of his great NASCAR accomplishments. His Cup debut came back in 1991 driving the No.14 Slim Jim Oldsmobile for his father, Bob Labonte at Dover. He finished 34th after starting 33rd. He won the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) title that year and just about won it again in 1992 losing by 3 points to Joe Nemechek.

His big break came in 1993 getting a ride with Bill Davis Racing in the No.22. He finished a respectable 19th in the standings with a best finish of 7th and a pole at Richmond. In 1994, he had a career best result of 5th at Michigan and finished the season 21st in points. With Dale Jarrett leaving Joe Gibbs Racing, Bobby got a chance to pilot the No.18 in 1995. It was a match made in heaven and the true potential of Bobby Labonte was about to be witnessed. He won the Coke 600 and swept the Michigan races in route to a solid 10th place points finish leading nearly 300 laps and turning a lot of heads. People realized very quickly that this guy was the real deal as the success continued into 1996 and beyond.

Bobby had a decent season in ’96 but failed to win a race until the final event of the year at Atlanta Motor Speedway. His older brother Terry was trying to win the championship while Bobby starting on pole for the event. In one of the more memorable moments in NASCAR history, Bobby crossed the line winning his 4th NSCS race while Terry finished 5th winning his second championship. The two celebrated together and the family was ecstatic. A few years later, it was Bobby’s turn to hoist the hardware.

After winning 5 races and finishing runner-up to Dale Jarrett in 1999, Bobby was determined to win the Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) title. He won 4 more races in 2000 including the highly sought after Brickyard 400 trophy. He battled fiercely with 1989 NSCS champion Rusty Wallace for the victory and finally made his way by with 14 laps remaining. Bobby went on to win the title by a massive margin of 265 points over arguably the greatest stock car driver that ever lived, Dale Earnhardt. He was unable to defend his title in 2001 and what he is most remembered for that year has to be his scary crash at Talladega. Bobby was trying to work the high lane battling for the win with Dale Jr. on the final lap when Bobby Hamilton attempted to make a move underneath the No.18. The Bobby’s made contact and Labonte was sent over on his lid while 20 other cars piled into the massive wreck.

Labonte was unharmed thankfully and soldiered on to a 6th place finish in the standings and winning the IROC title. 2002 was a tough year for the champ; in fact it was his worst showing since 1994 when he was with Davis. Although he won a race at Martinsville, he only managed to get a 16th place points finish posting just 7 top 10’s. 2003 was better for him making his way back into the top 10 in the standings (8th) and winning two more races. The 2003 finale at Homestead was a significant one for NASCAR being the final Winston Cup sponsored race. Bill Elliott looked to have it in the bag until a flat tire with half a lap to go handed the victory to Bobby Labonte. Bobby had now won at least 1 race every year for the past 9 which is obviously an impressive feat.

Unfortunately, we are nearing the 10 year anniversary of that win and Bobby has yet to visit victory lane since. He has come so close so many times but win number 22 eludes him. In 2004, Jimmie Johnson narrowly beat him off pit road at Darlington and even though he had a faster car, Labonte was unable to get around the No.48 who won the race. He also finished 2nd to Rusty Wallace that year at Martinsville on his way to a 12th place finish in the standings. 2005 ended up being the worst of Bobby’s career up to that point finishing 24th in the standings while his teammate Tony Stewart won the championship.

Photo Credit: Chuck Burton/AP

On a very strange night at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2005, Bobby almost won the Coke 600. It happened to be the 10 year anniversary of Bobby’s first ever NSCS win at that very track almost to the very day. The race had a record 22 cautions and went past midnight. Tempers flared between multiple drivers and big wrecks were the story until Joe Nemechek found himself leading with 10 to go. Suddenly, he crashed and Jimmie Johnson narrowly avoided him as he came back down the track. Bobby Labonte was now leading the race driving the FedEx paint scheme because Jason Leffler who was supposed to have that sponsor missed the race. The FOX commentators talked to Bobby under caution and you could tell that the tension was high and he was anxious to get going. The race became a 5 lap knock-down drag-out fight to the finish between Bobby Labonte and Jimmie Johnson who had much fresher tires and much faster car. Bobby held him off even when JJ made a move to the inside on the final lap. They drove off into turn 3 and it seemed Bobby might win until Johnson got alongside him running the high line. It was a drag race to the line and in a spectacular photo finish, Jimmie Johnson defeated Labonte by .027 hundredths. In frustration, Bobby kicked the side of his car knowing that he might never get a chance like that again.

At the conclusion of 2005, he left Gibbs and joined the legendary Petty Enterprises team trying to bring them back to their former glory. He almost did nearly winning Martinsville in a thrilling late race battle between Hamlin, Labonte and Johnson. He gave the team its best points finish in 7 years finishing 21st and improving to 18th in 2007. In 2008, Bobby signed a 4 year extension with Petty and this is the part where I start talking about raw deals. Right before Christmas, he was released from the team and they merged with Gillet-Evernham. A former champion of our sport who poured his heart and soul into that No.43 team sat there ride-less. Fortunately, he got a car in late January driving for Hall Of Fame Racing which teamed up with Yates. At Las Vegas, the car was blistering fast and Bobby battled for the lead with Kyle Busch late in the race. The caution flew, pit stops were made and bad luck bit Bobby once again. He was blocked in his pit stall costing him multiple spots forcing him to restart around 8th or 9th. He drove through the field and was actually 2 tenths quicker than race winner Kyle Busch on the final lap in traffic but he ran out of time finishing 5th.

Victory had been in Labonte’s reach yet again before slipping through his fingers at the last second. Later that year, he got screwed (for lack of a better term) by his team when they replaced him mid-season with Erik Darnell who brought sponsorship. Bobby ran for TRG finishing 10th at Talladega; the best finish ever for that team. In 2010, he joined them full-time and ran the 24 Hours of Daytona nearly winning that historic race before the car ran out of fuel 3 laps ahead of the 2nd place car costing them the win. May 16th, 2010 was a sad day for Bobby Labonte fans everywhere when he pulled into the garage on lap 65 at Dover International Speedway. He didn’t have a mechanical issue, he was start and parking. A former NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide and IROC champion was parking his car early in a race for a $75,000 pay day. He left the team soon after and drove for many different teams the remainder of the year. The teams included Robby Gordon, Phoenix Racing and Stavola-Labonte Racing which was c0-owned by his older brother. It was the first time he ever went a season without a top 10 with a best finish of 16th.

Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

In 2011, he joined JTG-Daugherty Racing where he remains to this day. In his very first race with them, he had another chance at victory lane. It wasn’t the Coke 600, Martinsville, Darlington or Las Vegas though…..it was the 53rd running of the Daytona 500. He shoved rookie Trevor Bayne far out in front of the field with half a lap to go but as he got ready to make his move to try to steal the win, the Fords of Carl Edwards and David Gilliland crashed the party pushing Bobby back to 4th as they raced to the line. He was visibly disappointed following the race after watching yet another win pass him by. In 2012, he had his best season in 4 years finishing 23rd in the standings. So far in 2013, Bobby has led 5 laps and posted a best finish of 15th at the Daytona 500.

From hoisting the championship trophy in three different series to start and parking, Bobby Labonte’s career has been full of many ups and downs. He has fought through all the adversity though and continues to race on hoping to one day win that 22nd NSCS race. There is a contingent of people out that that feel the need to criticize Bobby saying that he’s washed up and needs to retire but let me tell you how ignorant that statement really is. Since leaving Joe Gibbs Racing, Bobby has given teams such as Hall of Fame Racing, Petty Enterprises, TRG and JTG some of the best runs of their existence or in quite some time. If you put him in a top tier ride, he will perform. Champions don’t forget how to drive a racecar and this champion could be a contender again in faster equipment. He seems content though using his experience to try to help JTG build their program and there is nothing wrong with that. He is a great person and has proven that he belongs in NASCAR and should be allowed to race for as long as he pleases without anyone judging him or telling him what to do. NASCAR needs more drivers like Bobby Labonte and he deserves respect for what his done; not criticism. Lastly, I’d like to say congrats on your 700th start Bobby and good luck in final 26 races of 2013!

May 8, 2013
NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Talladega

Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

1. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson finished fifth at Talladega in the rain-delayed Aaron’s 499 at Talladega. His lead in the Sprint Cup point standings is now 41 over Carl Edwards.

“What an ending!” Johnson said. “It reminded me a lot of former NASCAR driver Kimi Raikkonen’s NASCAR skills—it was a ‘wild Finnish.’”

2. Carl Edwards: Edwards finished third in the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega, losing the lead on the final lap as David Ragan grabbed an unlikely win. Edwards is second in the point standings, 41 out of first.

“Ragan came out of nowhere,” Edwards said. “And that’s probably where he’ll return.

“As one of NASCAR’s manliest of men, I’d like to comment on the NBA’s Jason Collins announcing that he’s gay. I think NASCAR is ready for a homosexual driver. She better be really hot, though.”

3. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt slipped through the chaos of a wreck six laps from the to salvage a 17th at Talladega. He moved up two places to third in the point standings to third, and trails Jimmie Johnson by 46.

“I was just happy to see the finish line,” Earnhardt said. “It was a war of attrition. That’s not to be confused with the “War Of Attrition,” which, according to many of my fans, was won by the South.”

4. Kasey Kahne: Kahne was taken out at Talladega when Kyle Busch sent him spinning on lap 44, triggering the ‘Big One’ that eliminated 13 cars from contention. Kahne finished 42nd and fell one place in the point standings to fourth, 46 out of first.

“Busch used to drive the No. 5 car,” Kahne said. “And, as of lap 44 at Talladega, so did I.”

5. Clint Bowyer: Bowyer suffered significant damage in a big crash six laps from the end at Talladega, but managed to wheel the No. 15 Toyota to an 18-place finish. He is fourth in the point standings, 67 behind Jimmie Johnson.

“Brad Keselowski wasn’t too happy with the way the cars lined up on the final restart,” Bowyer said. “So he took to Twitter to whine. I hear he changed his Twitter handle to “sshole.” Sunday’s result must have left a sour taste in his mouth. That gives him the ‘tart’ of a champion?”

6. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski finished fifth in the rain-interrupted Aaron’s 499 at Talladega, posting his fourth top 5 of the year. The defending Sprint Cup champion is fifth in the point standings, 69 out of first.

“For a while,” Keselowski said, “it appeared the race would be much like our rear housing at Texas—‘shortened.’

“NASCAR denied our appeal for penalties incurred for illegal parts at Texas. And they surely didn’t Tweet their response. Oh no. It came on paper, and it was called a ‘cheat sheet.’”

7. Kyle Busch: Busch triggered a huge lap 44 wreck in the Aaron’s 499 when he tried to move around the No. 5 Chevy of Kasey Kahne. The pileup wiped out 13 cars, including Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, and Tony Stewart. Busch eventually finished 37th and is now ninth in the point standings, 98 out of first.

“Kurt may be the older brother,” Busch said, “but now, several drivers are calling me the ‘Big One.”

8. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth led 142 of 192 laps on the day, and led at the green-white-checkered finish, but finished eighth after the Front Row Motorsports duo of David Ragan and David Gilliland zoomed to the front.

“I’ve been a lame duck,” Kenseth said, “and I’ve been intimidated by the Aflac duck. On Sunday, I was a sitting duck there at the end.

“Former Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron drove the pace car for Sunday’s race. There was talk that his girlfriend, Katherine Webb, would drive the pace car. That fell through, because David Gilliland refuses to follow a woman.”

9. Aric Almirola: Almirola finished 10th at Talladega in the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford. He is now seventh in the Sprint Cup standings, 90 out of first.

“You just never know what’s going to happen at Talladega,” Almirola said. “There were a lot of ‘unknowns,’ like the parts used by Penske and Joe Gibbs.

10. David Ragan: Ragan, pushed by Front Row Motorsports teammate David Gilliland, won the Aaron’s 499 in improbable fashion, outgunning Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, and Matt Kenseth in an exciting green-white-checkered finish.

“Just call Gilliand and I the ‘Aero-Dynamic Duo,’” Ragan said. “I haven’t got that big of a ‘push’ since Jack Roush showed me the door.

“FRM is a small-time operation with nothing near the budget of the large teams. Not only did we accomplish the Talladega sweep with inferior equipment, we did it with legal equipment.”

May 7, 2013
The Front Row Motorsports Story: Giving Up Wasn’t An Option

Front Row Motorsports (FRM) has competed in 511 NASCAR sanctioned events over the last eight years and on Sunday night with the sun setting in the background; they did what many found inconceivable winning a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race in an FRM 1-2 finish! It’s an amazing example of David versus Goliath (In this case, two David’s) and NASCAR hasn’t seen an upset like this in quite some time. We all know what happened late Sunday night at Talladega Superspeedway but do you know the rest of the story? Do you know about all the adversity and the failures this team faced and had to persevere through to get to this moment of triumph? Well, you’re about to.

Bob Jenkins is the owner of Front Row Motorsports and funds his cars mostly through the money he makes from his many restaurant franchises that he owns such as Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s and A&W. He teamed up with Jimmy Means to form Means-Jenkins Racing in 2004 before Bob took full ownership the following year. With Stanton Barrett as his driver, Jenkins made his NSCS debut as the sole owner of a team at Bristol in 2005. Stanton started the race 23rd but did not finish bringing home a 41st place result. The team came from very humble beginnings and looked to be one of those little teams that would just fade away over time. Let me tell you this, Bob Jenkins had no intentions of going anywhere except for victory lane. The team battled through some unimaginable odds and kept fighting no matter how bleak the outcome looked.

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They pushed through every 40th place finish and kept their heads held high knowing that if they wanted it bad enough and if they worked hard enough, that one day they would succeed. In their first four years of competition, they posted 15 finishes of 40th or worse, 16 DNF’s and a best result of 20th in 34 races. The team also tried out Nationwide in 2008 finding no success. FRM ran their first full-time NSCS season in 2009 with John Andretti behind the wheel. Their best result was a 16th at Loudon in route to a 36th place points finish. In 2010, they expanded their operation running two full-time cars and a 3rd for 21 races. They also made the switch to Ford’s in preparation for the Daytona 500. Kevin Conway, Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland piloted their cars and all three drivers led laps during the year. The cars finished 33rd, 34th and 36th in the owners standing which may not sound great but with the top 35 rule (and a couple cars ahead of them disappearing before 2011), all three cars were automatically locked into the first five races of 2011 which was a huge accomplishment for FRM.

Without having to worry about qualifying, Front Row was able to focus on strengthening the team as a whole instead of searching for a way to go fast for two laps. The 2011 Daytona 500 didn’t start off well for them with 2 of their three cars getting swept up in an early wreck. The No.38 of David Gilliland was the only FRM driver left and he made his small team proud as he came roaring down the backstretch on the final lap running down the leaders at a high rate of speed. Bobby Labonte pushed leader Trevor Bayne into turn three but Gilliland and Edwards closed in fast overtaking Labonte and making it a Ford 1-2-3. David finished 3rd marking the first ever top 5 finish for FRM. Their best result prior to that race was a 14th back in 2010. Later on that same year at Talladega, Gilliland scored another top 10 finish ending up 9th. He capped off the year with a respectable 30th place finish in the standings which was FRM’s best at the time.

2011 was a big year for the team scoring their first top 5 and top 10 finishes and putting two cars out on the track almost every single week. At the July race in Daytona, Gilliland finished a solid 16th while Roush-Fenway Racing’s (RFR) David Ragan won his first ever race at the Cup level. Ragan and Jenkins had no idea at the time that their fates would intertwine just a few months later. Ragan was released from RFR at the end of 2011 and was rideless until the opportunity to drive the No.34 for Jenkins came about. In 2012, they had two cars run every race on the schedule and a 3rd ran all but six. Ragan had two impressive runs of 4th and 7th both coming at Talladega….perhaps an omen of what was to come less than a year later? In the off season, Inc. Magazine named Front Row Motorsports as No.800 on their list of the 5,000 fastest growing companies and this little team that was progressively getting bigger and bigger was starting to turn some heads.

NASCAR’s new Gen-6 car put a strain on all the smaller teams who had to spend a lot of money building new cars but FRM persevered once again and showed up to Daytona with three brand new Ford Fusions. On lap 139, disaster struck for the team as they looked on in horror as all three of their cars piled into a wreck in turn 1. They were all damaged beyond repair posting DNF’s and finishing 35th, 38th and 40th. It was a massive blow to this team that had worked so hard to construct these new cars hoping to build on the momentum gained from 2011 and 2012. If that wasn’t bad enough, they destroyed two more cars in wrecks at Phoenix the very next week.

Photo Credit: George Diaz/Orlando Sentinel

The team arrived at Talladega Superspeedway with an intense feeling of trepidation knowing that their fleet of cars could be wiped out in an instant just like they were in Daytona. They dodged the massive 16 car crash early on in the race and when rain struck with 60 to go, it looked like the race was over but after a 3 hour rain delay, they went back racing. A second big wreck erupted in front the three drivers with just a handful of laps remaining. Gilliland and Ragan dodged the flipping No.78 of Kurt Busch by taking their cars to the apron as the spinning car of Jeff Gordon threw mud and grass everywhere. Josh Wise on the other hand was surrounded by smoke and spinning racecars but he somehow emerged from the carnage unharmed. The race became a 2 lap scramble to the finish as darkness crept over the light-less track.

Ragan restarted 10th, Gilliland 11th and Wise 14th. Josh went up the track with flat tire in the first corner but was able to limp home to a 19th place finish; the best of his NSCS career. The two David’s took the snarling pack of racecars head-on as they cut their way through the center of it. They passed the likes of Gordon, Kenseth and Johnson as they charged to the front of the field. With the titans of the sport all around them, this little team did not back down and fought their way to 2nd and 3rd with half a lap to go. The No.99 of Carl Edwards was the only driver that stood in their way and in a heart stopping moment, Ragan got sideways at 190mph and just about put it in the fence but thankfully, kept it straight. He dove underneath Edwards with the pedal through the floor and the No.38 followed.

Gilliland shoved with all his might and as Edwards made contact with the right rear of Ragan’s Ford. David Ragan drove across the track blocking a wall of cars hell bent on taking the victory away from him as the field roared through the tri-oval. He drove back down to the yellow line and began to throw sparks as his No.34 scraped the track with left side. With cars slamming into each other behind him with sparks and debris flying, David Ragan stunned the racing community and won the race! David Gilliland brought home 2nd as the crowd screamed in utter shock and amazement at this spectacular showing by Front Row Motorsports. Bob Jenkins’ 8 year struggle to win in NASCAR was over, now it’s time to go do it again. He made it this far by being smart, calculated and not making any imprudent decisions along the way.

Their battle is by no means over though, this is just another step forward in a never ending fight to find success in NASCAR. FRM is a team that refused to give up and refused to walk away even when there seemed to be no hope of prospering in this cut-throat business of auto racing. Quitting is not in this team’s vocabulary and their determination is paying major dividends now. They would not bow to the pressure and they prevailed against the greatest stock car racing has to offer. Finally, their dreams of winning in NASCAR have come to fruition and I’d like to say congrats to David Ragan and Front Row Motorsports on their incredible victory at Talladega!

May 6, 2013