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  • For Joey Logano, Monster Mile Nationwide Win Feels Like the First Time

    For Joey Logano, Monster Mile Nationwide Win Feels Like the First Time

    While Joey Logano’s victory in the Nationwide race at Dover was his third straight Dover win, the driver of the No. 22 Hertz Ford for Penske Racing was fixated on firsts instead.

    “There were a lot of firsts for me today,” Logano said in the media center after the race. “Winning for Hertz, winning for the No. 22 Nationwide team, and winning for Ford were all firsts.”

    “And finally and most importantly, winning for Roger (Penske, team owner) was a first,” Logano continued. “That’s the coolest part of this win.”

    “There is a huge list of great race car drivers that have won for Roger Penske,” Logano said. “It’s cool to have my name put on that list too.”

    In spite of battling Cup drivers Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne, both of whom had cars good enough to contend for the win, Logano was confident that he had  Miles the Monster under his control.

    “This is one of those race tracks that I feel like I know what it takes to win and what I need in a race car,” Logano said. “I was able to get Jeremy (Bullins, crew chief) the feedback he needed to give that car to me.”

    Logano admitted that he didn’t quite have that confidence, however, the night before the race.

    “Last night, I felt like we still weren’t there,” Logano said. “We had decent speed in our car but I felt like we were a second place car and not quite good enough to win.”

    “Jeremy and all the 22 team did a great job changing about everything on it,” Logano continued. “They got the car a little bit better.”

    In the end, the race was won in the pits by a gutsy call from the crew chief according to Logano.

    “Really the winning call was on that last pit stop,” Logano said. “Jeremy made an audible and decided to do two tires to beat out a lot of those guys.”

    “To give us that track position was the biggest thing.”

    Crew chief Jeremy Bullins could not agree more with his driver and race winner.

    “Obviously he’s really good here to win three in a row at any track,” Bullins said. “He obviously knows how to get around here.”

    “And he’s right,” Bullins continued. “We changed just about everything.”

    “I thought we were better today but wasn’t sure if we were good enough to win,” Bullins said. “We went back and forth in track position.”

    “In the end we were racing the 5 and the 54, who had been up front all day,” Bullins continued. “As soon as we saw they were taking four, we called it off and took two.”

    “The guys did a good job.”

    Logano may have had another first in mind, that of beating that 54 car, driven by fellow Cup competitor Kyle Busch.

    “It feels good, especially since this year he (Kyle Busch) has been winning everything,” Logano said. “To finally beat that 54 car, that was the team I worked with for the last seven years or so since my Nationwide debut really felt good.”

    “To beat them means a lot to me after they have been winning so much this year,” Logano continued. “I wanted to beat them really bad and to get here in Victory Lane, you have to beat everyone.”

    “They had a strong car again today but my man Jeremy made the right call for us.”

    The victory was also Logano’s 19th in 114 NASCAR Nationwide Series races and his fourth top-10 finish for the season.

    Following closely behind Logano was Brian Vickers in the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Vickers finished second and had the best finish of his season to date.

    “The guys did a good job,” Vickers said. “But we just needed a little bit more right, one spot more right.”

    “Obviously we wanted to get a win and get this Dollar General in Victory Lane,” Vickers continued. “But we were able to give $1.63 million dollars to Autism Speaks from the customers and Dollar General.”

    “It’s phenomenal for them,” Vickers said. “And to show their generosity for a top-10 finish today, all Dollar General customers get 10 percent off on Monday.”

    Vickers also credited his crew chief with gutsy calls on the pit box, just as Logano had done with his crew chief.

    “That was a great call on Kevin’s (Kidd, crew chief) part,” Vickers said. “It was a last minute call and it was one thousand percent the right call to keep track position.”

    “We were close to even with Logano there at the end of the race,” Vickers continued. “He was probably a little better on the short run and we were a little bit better on the long run.”

    Vickers admitted that he was “pleased but not satisfied” with his runner up status.

    “On one hand, I’m very excited – it was a great points day for the Dollar General team,” Vickers said. “But on the other hand – we wanted to win.”

    “We were so close.”

    This was Vickers fifth top-10 finish in six races at the Monster Mile. It was his sixth top-10 finish of the season.

    Another Cup regular, Matt Kenseth, rounded out the top three in the 32nd annual 5-Hour Energy 200. Kenseth posted his 11th top-10 finish in 19 races at Dover International Speedway.

    “We had a decent GameStop Toyota and made it better there at the end,” Kenseth said. “Got two tires and was able to make up some ground.”

    “I stalled it one time coming out of the pits and so we got ourselves behind,” Kenseth continued. “So, it was just hard to come back from that.”

    Even though he was disappointed, Kenseth did have some fun at the Monster Mile.

    “It was fun to go out and get 200 laps,” Kenseth said. “We were ten laps away from getting a win.”

    “So that was fun.”

    Trevor Bayne also had a decent day behind the wheel of the No. 6 Ford Ecoboost Mustang, finishing fourth. And he too accomplished that top-5 finish with a gutsy call in the pits.

    “Yeah, that two-tire stop got us in the game there,” Bayne said. “We needed that to get some track position.”

    “I was really proud of these guys and the car that they gave me,” Bayne continued. “We have had some bad runs but now we got a couple good ones in a row and we need to keep it going.”

    “Top-fives are what we gotta knock out every weekend and eventually that will lead to Victory Lane.”

    Kyle Busch, who had been so strong in his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing for much of the race, did pull off a fifth place finish. Unfortunately for him, pit strategy did not play to his favor, ruining a possible Dover sweep.

    “It was a great race car,” Busch said simply. “Just real unfortunate that I messed up pit strategy there, you know.”

    “Got us too far back,” Busch continued. “I tried to make some big moves there and a couple of them worked.”

    “But a couple of them didn’t,” Busch said. “It is what it is.”

    Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 32 Vizio/Hulu Chevrolet, was the top finishing rookie, scoring the tenth spot.

    “We started out the first half of the race good through one and two,” Larson said. “We were really good there at the end but we lost a spot or two on every pit stop.”

    “Track position was key today,” Larson continued. “Three top-10s in a row is great and I’m looking forward to Iowa.”

     

  • Matty’s Picks 2013 – Vol. 10 FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks – Dover International Speedway – June 2, 2013

    Matty’s Picks 2013 – Vol. 10 FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks – Dover International Speedway – June 2, 2013

    The Monster Mile is up next this season, and if Sunday’s race is anything like the previous twelve races this season, we’re in for a show. Sunday’s FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks also marks the midway point of the regular season for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and just one year ago, nine of the top-10 drivers in the points standings leaving this June race at The Monster Mile ended up in the field of twelve in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

    On the horizon this week at Dover, five-time champ Jimmie Johnson looks to unseat legends Bobby Allison and Richard Petty at the top of the all-time win list at Dover International Speedway. He is the defending race winner and scored his seventh win at the Monster Mile in Delaware’s capital city.

    Sunday also marks the return of key personnel from the Penske camp at a time when defending series champ, Brad Kesolowski needs them the most.

    Last Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 marked Bad Brad’s first DNF since the 2012 Daytona 500, and sitting tenth in points with not a win to his name yet in 2013, this team needs to get moving to punch their ticket to the big dance at the end of the year. Crew chief Paul Wolfe and other members of Penske Racing will make their return to the pit box this weekend, following their suspension stemming from the April 13th race at Texas. It’s been only two points races since Wolfe was ousted by NASCAR, but in those two races, Kesolowski finished 32nd at Darlington and 36th last week at Charlotte. There couldn’t be a better time for Wolfe’s return and Brad has done his part so far this weekend for a solid finish, qualifying the Blue Deuce in 8th for tomorrow’s FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks.

    I was off last week and with nothing to recap, we’ll roll on to my pick’s for Dover.

    Dover Picks

    Winner Pick
    Had I written this column on Wednesday, it would have been tough to pass up Jimmie Johnson’s immaculate record at The Monster Mile, but it’s Saturday and Johnson hasn’t won a race at Dover after starting outside the top-10 since completing the season-sweep at Dover in the fall race in 2002. Jimmie is not my pick this week.

    There is no other driver hotter than Matt Kenseth right now, and as a two-time Dover winner, there is nothing to shake a stick at about this team this weekend. He’s notched eight top-5 finishes in eight of his last ten starts at The Monster Mile, his win in 2011 included in that number. Considering the top four starting spots for tomorrow’s FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks are Toyotas, I think I’ve gone with the right manufacturer for the win tomorrow. Kenseth is also racing for Joe Gibbs Racing in today’s NASCAR Nationwide Series’ 5-Hour Energy 200, gaining valuable seat time at a track as difficult as any to master. This guy is hot and he’s returning to a place he likes and has won before.

    Dark Horse Pick

    I’m not sure if a guy with “Concrete Carl” as one of his many nicknames can be considered a Dark Horse, but he’s flown under the radar all season, despite sitting second in points. The current odds show Carl at 12 to 1, but I think those are fantastic odds given the fact he boasts the series’ best average finish (8.3) at Dover. He has been one of the best on these surfaces between the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup series, and in the fall, Edwards finished fifth despite the horrific 2012 season he was having. Concrete Carl is a contender this week and he will roll off 18th tomorrow at The Monster Mile.

    That’s all for this week, so until we head to the Tricky Triangle, you stay classy NASCAR NATION!

  • Penske Crew Chiefs Paul Wolfe and Todd Gordon Back on Track

    Penske Crew Chiefs Paul Wolfe and Todd Gordon Back on Track

    Both Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano have their crew chiefs back, Paul Wolfe and Todd Gordon respectively. And all impacted by the Penske suspension could not be happier to be back on track.

    “For me, personally it was tough,” Wolfe, crew chief of the No. 2 Miller Lite for Penske Racing said. “It was tougher to deal with then what I thought it would be.”

    The three week suspension was also tough for Todd Gordon, crew chief for the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford.

    “It was difficult,” Gordon said. “It was tough to sit there and not see it.”

    “There was definitely a disconnect,” Gordon continued. “That is why NASCAR implements the penalties they do, to make sure there is a penalty to it.”

    Both crew chiefs described the biggest challenge as being unable to use their sensory input to help the cars and drivers, in addition to all the other data collected.

    “I am a hands on kind of guy and for me to be able to watch the car in practice and see how it runs around other cars is important for me,” Wolfe said. “Visually, to see that and to make decisions on what changes to make is important.”

    “It obviously was not the same.”

    Gordon echoed Wolfe’s sentiments, describing how important physically being at the track really is for a crew chief.

    “I would say the biggest thing is being able to actually touch it, feel it, smell it and see it,” Gordon said. “All the sensory stuff you don’t get from pictures and radios as you are listening to scanners and things like that.”

    “You can’t see the splitter and how hard you are wearing on it and what the wear pattern looks like,” Gordon continued. “You can’t see tires.”

    “There is so much of that information that I have lost the last three weeks that it will be good to be back and get that info.”

    The Penske teams, however, have had very different experiences at track without their crew chiefs. The Blue Deuce has struggled without crew chief Wolfe while Logano and company have done quite well even with Gordon away from the top of the box.

    “Absolutely, it has been hard to watch the team struggle,” Wolfe said. “We have lost a lot of points over the last month and it started a little earlier than before I was gone.”

    “We had some issues at Richmond with some engine issues and lost points there,” Wolfe continued. “At Darlington, we felt like we had a competitive car but we had issues there with a loose wheel and getting caught up in a wreck.”

    Gordon, on the other hand, has witnessed his team perform well in spite of the suspension.

    “I think it is just a testament that everybody here steps up when they need to,” Gordon said. “It has gone well.”

    “We had good plans going into the race weekends and we implemented them well.”

    The two crew chiefs also got to play armchair quarterbacks and reflect on what they would have been differently if they had been at the track and in charge.

    “I can’t say there was anything I would have done different,” Wolfe said. “Obviously I guided a lot of the changes and what we did.”

    “Maybe I would have made different decision if I was there than what I did from being afar,” Wolfe continued. “Overall, it wasn’t like these guys went on their own agenda and did things that we wouldn’t have done.”

    “It was guided by me.”

    “Obviously you are still connected,” Gordon said. “You are still involved with how the race call goes and everything else.”

    “There were a couple things that I look back and say I wish I had more information quicker and could have piped in more to what was going on,” Gordon continued. “The guys we brought in did well and I would say for what we had I think guys did a phenomenal job.”

    The two crew chiefs also agreed that their drivers not only did a good job surviving the penalty period but are both in good places in spite of it all.

    “Brad and I spoke for awhile last night and he seems to be strong and in a good place right now,” Keselowski’s crew chief Wolfe said. “Obviously he seemed a little frustrated last weekend with that car and rightfully so.”

    “But he is in a good spot and is motivated.”

    “I think the greatest thing is Joey’s ability to stay focused, get involved, and stay working,” Logano’s crew chief Gordon said. “He hasn’t gotten frustrated with situations and has always continued to give good feedback and give good effort.”

    “It is easy to give up when things are frustrating but I think Joey’s mental endurance has been spot on.”

    While both crew chiefs accepted being in the penalty box and away from the track, they are especially grateful that the penalties were reduced.

    “I think we had a fair appeal process,” Wolfe said. “Our penalties were reduced some and we feel good about that.”

    “I don’t think they were necessarily picking on us,” Wolfe continued. “They just happened to find where we were working and didn’t agree with it.”

    Needless to say, Wolfe and Gordon are most looking forward to putting the whole penalty situation behind them, taking whatever lessons learned from the penalty, and moving on to some tough racing at the Monster Mile.

    “We are putting it in the rear-view mirror and taking it as a learning experience,” Wolfe said. “It isn’t a situation you want to be in but me personally, and I think as a company in general, we learned from that and we are looking forward.”

    “I definitely that this will make us stronger,” Gordon said. “I think it has allowed some people to see the different jobs of what has to happen.”

    “Everybody stepped up and it allowed everyone to be a little stronger player in the program,” Gordon continued. “It will be a good thing for us in the long run.”

    “You have to take bad situations and find the good in them.”

     

  • NASCAR BTS: Jason Trinchere’s Journey From Racer to Penske Engineer

    NASCAR BTS: Jason Trinchere’s Journey From Racer to Penske Engineer

    Many racers realize along the way that another career may be awaiting them other than being behind the wheel.  This week’s edition of NASCAR BTS goes behind the scenes with Jason Trinchere to learn more about his journey from short-track racer to design engineer at Penske Racing.

    Trinchere started his racing journey early, in fact from the time of his birth. And, as with so many racers, his father also was involved in the sport.

    “Ever since the time I was born, there was a race car or a go kart in our garage,” Trinchere said. “My dad started racing when he was in high school.”

    “When I was born, he stopped driving and became a car owner,” Trinchere continued. “So, he always had cars around the whole time I was growing up.”

    Trinchere caught the racing bug from his father and set off in go karts. Initially it was just for fun but the competition soon drew him in, hook, line and sinker.

    “When I was about ten or eleven years old, he sold his modified team and we started racing go karts,” Trinchere said. “It was mainly just for fun but then we started racing competitively.”

    “We had fun, raced dirt and had three championships,” Trinchere continued. “Then we started racing in the dirt asphalt division in the early ‘90s.”

    “So, I started driving those and that was the whole time I was in high school,” Trinchere said. “I didn’t even have my driver’s license when I started racing.”

    Although he loved being behind the wheel of a race car, Trinchere also enjoyed the mechanical and engineering side of the sport.

    “My dad was an auto mechanic so I learned that side of the business from him,” Trinchere said. “When I was in high school, I took machine shop in Vo Tech so I could make a lot of the components for our race cars.”

    “I wasn’t’ too sure of what I wanted to do and I was thinking of coming to the NASCAR Tech School but was concerned it was more for people not involved in racing,” Trinchere continued. “My dad talked me into studying engineering since I was the kid sitting at home playing with erector sets all the time.”

    After high school graduation, Trinchere had to make a critical decision about going to college and also what to do about his racing career. Ironically, he initially wanted to follow the path of his now team owner at Penske Racing.

    “When I came out of school, I wanted to go to Lehigh to follow in the footsteps of Roger Penske but the reality of how much college costs set in,” Trinchere said. “So, I went to community college to do my electives and take their associates classes in engineering.”

    “Then I transferred to Penn State Harrisburg campus,” Trinchere continued. “It was far enough to experience college life but close enough to home to go there and race.”

    Trinchere also happened to find his soul mate in the racing business.

    “When I went to college, I didn’t have the time to race in one place, so I started going to upstate New York and raced at Oswego and all different kinds of tracks,” Trinchere said. “At that time, when I was finishing college, my girlfriend (who is my wife now) was also involved in racing as her dad raced at Selinsgrove Speedway in Pennsylvania.”

    “So, imagine that, I met my wife through racing as well.”

    Trinchere and his wife decided that they needed to consider heading south to Charlotte and the heart of racing country to make both of their dreams come true.

    “I got a phone call from Dave McCarty, who at that time was the crew chief at Spears Motorsports for David Starr,” Trinchere said. “So, I followed up on that opportunity and he liked the fact that I was a racer with a degree in engineering.”

    “Being a Truck team, they didn’t want to hire a Cup engineer because a kid coming out of college was much cheaper,” Trinchere continued with a chuckle. “We moved down, bought a house (the same one we are living in now) and went racing.”

    “I worked at Spears and the next year Aric Almirola came in as the driver,” Trinchere continued. “I learned a lot there with David Starr, Aric Almirola and Dennis Setzer.”

    “It was a very small team with about twelve employees,” Trinchere said. “It was a neat opportunity to go to a little team and run against the big boys and do well.”

    “That made me feel good.”

    Trinchere left Spears to go to CJN Racing with Jason Keller as the driver. But shortly thereafter, he headed to DEI where he stayed even through the merger with Chip Ganassi Racing.

    “I went to DEI to be the Nationwide engineer when they ran a car, which was only part-time,” Trinchere said. “We had Trevor Bayne and Jesus Hernandez as the drivers.”

    “I was also support engineer for the 01 Cup car when Regan Smith was driving it,” Trinchere continued. “Then I switched over to Martin Truex’s car.”

    “It was a very busy year, going to a third of the Cup races and the rest of the East races.”

    “At the end of the season, there were talks and then the merger with Chip Ganassi occurred,” Trinchere said. “Before Homestead they came around and told us what time the meeting was, all but me.”

    “I didn’t know if that was good or bad,” Trinchere continued. “But I learned that people with meetings were let go and people who didn’t have a meeting were being kept.”

    “That was a little bit of a hard time.”

    Post-merger, Trinchere worked for both the 1 and 42 teams.

    “It worked out pretty well working for Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya,” Trinchere said. “I did a program called ‘Dart Fish’ at the track where I would record qualifying runs.”

    “I did that for a year and at the end of the season, the engineering manager asked if I could do anything else to help the team and I was moved over to the design engineering team,” Trinchere continued. “It was fun to have the direct impact of what happened at the track.”

    Trinchere had a very eventful New Year, however, as he was offered and accepted a job at Penske Racing.

    “Within three days of sending my resume in, I had an interview,” Trinchere said. “I’m doing the same stuff as a design engineer.”

    “Their group is a little larger and uses different software but I am working with the 2 and 22, “Trinchere continued. “It’s been exciting but scary changing jobs, especially after five years.”

    “So, this is the next chapter for me.”

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Bojangles’ Southern 500

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Bojangles’ Southern 500

    On what has become a Mother’s day weekend tradition at the historic Darlington Raceway, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 64th annual Bojangles’ Southern 500.

    Surprising:  While bad news often comes in threes, Matt Kenseth had the opposite experience, with only good news in threes for this Joe Gibbs Racing team member. Kenseth scored his third Sprint Cup win of the season and advanced one spot to third in the point standings.

    Not only was it a stellar evening for JGR with Kenseth in Victory Lane, but teammate Denny Hamlin gutted out a surprisingly good full-race performance after returning from his back injury. Hamlin finished in the runner up position, scoring his seventh top-10 at Darlington and his second top-10 finish for the season.

    “I think our whole team, we’ve just got a great team from top to bottom,” J.D. Gibbs, President of Joe Gibbs Racing, said. “Gosh, I couldn’t feel much better about our year so far.”

    Not Surprising:  For the other member of the Joe Gibbs Race team, however, three times was nowhere near a charm. JGR driver Kyle Busch, who was the dominant driver all evening long, in fact leading 265 laps, tussled with competitor Kasey Kahne for the third time this season to finish a disappointing sixth in the race.

    “He’s pretty tore up that they’re racing hard and Kasey Kahne tore up another car,” Dave Rogers, crew chief of the No. 18 Doublemint Toyota, said. “This is the third time we’ve been involved in an incident with Kasey and all of us over here have a ton of respect for that program.”

    “Well, he needs to quit,” Kasey Kahne, recipient of the three incidents with Busch, said simply. “Three times this year. I mean he’s got to just race me.”

    Surprising:  While enjoying a much celebrated 700th career start, Jeff Gordon, at the tender age of 41 years, also managed to set yet another record. Gordon posted his 300th top-five finish, becoming only the fourth driver to accomplish this feat, along with NASCAR legends David Pearson, Bobby Allison and Richard Petty.

    “Well, we all wanted this 700th start to be a memorable one,” the driver of the No. 24 Cromax Pro Chevrolet said. “I’m very proud of this.”

    Not Surprising:  As so often happens, David Ragan experienced the highs and lows of the sport, from his previous week’s win at Talladega to overheating and struggling to finish 39th at Darlington at this weekend’s race.

    “Yeah, that’s how it goes sometimes,” the driver of the No. 34 Peanut Patch Boiled Peanuts Ford said. “That’s a character-building weekend for sure.”

    “You’ve just got to work hard and stay focused and keep the right attitude.”

    Surprising:  In spite of decent race finishes for two of the Roush Fenway drivers, with Carl Edwards taking the checkered flag in seventh and Greg Biffle in 13th, both expressed the feeling that they are lacking something so far this season.

    “We struggled a lot and ended coming back to seventh so I’m proud of our effort,” Edwards, behind the wheel of the No. 99 Geek Squad Ford, said. “But we’re just missing something.”

    “It’s a little disappointing,” Biffle, driver of the No. 16 Meguiar’s Ford, said. “We still don’t have the grip that we need.”

    “We’re missing it ever since the season started with this car.”

    Not Surprising:   All good things must come to an end and so it was not surprising that Aric Almirola’s streak of top-tens came crashing down at Darlington. The driver of the No. 43 Smithfield Ford finished 20th at the track ‘Too Tough to Tame.’

    “That’s not the result we wanted at all,” Almirola said. “We fought hard, but just weren’t quite good enough.”

    “That was a tough night.”

    Surprising:  The struggles of Tony Stewart surprisingly continued at Darlington and the trip to Victory Lane that he so badly wanted at a track where he had never won eluded the former champion yet again.

    Stewart was poised to get a good finish, in fact starting eighth on a restart with under 60 laps to go. But the Lady reached out and grabbed the driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, putting that old Darlington stripe right down the side of his race car.

    Stewart finished a disappointing 15th when the checkered flag finally flew.

    “Darlington is such a tough track to get a handle on,” Stewart said. “You don’t see a lot of guys who have a lot of success there.”

    Not Surprising:  In spite of scoring a pole run, with a track record to boot, and a record number of laps led for his team, Kurt Busch still did not get the finish he wanted at Darlington.

    The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Serta Chevrolet ran strong all night but slipped at the end after getting hit by the No. 13 of Casey Mears. Busch finished 14th in the Bojangles’ Southern 500.

    “We could not keep up with the changing conditions of the track,” Busch said. “We made a number of chassis and air pressure adjustments but couldn’t get the car hooked up.”

    “We let it slip away and that’s disappointing,” Busch continued. “But we won the pole, led laps, ran up front for a good portion of the race and came away with a respectable finish.”

    Surprising:  Penske Racing had a surprisingly bad day, especially for reigning champ Brad Keselowski, who had never finished outside the top 15 in his four starts at Darlington. The driver of the Blue Deuce was caught up in an accident and finished 32nd.

    While teammate Joey Logano has had an admittedly up and down relationship with the track, with two top-10 finishes and two finishes outside the top-25, he struggled as well. The driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford finished in the same position as his car number, 22nd.

    Not Surprising:  Although the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Emerald Green Chevrolet admitted that the track is tough, his love affair with Darlington continued, especially after scoring another top-five finish. Johnson now leads the point standings by more than a full race worth.

    “It was just a great 500 miles here at Darlington,” Jimmie Johnson said. “I love this place.”

    “I wish we could race here three or four times a year.”

    Surprising:  It was a bit surprising that there were just enough cars at Darlington for a full 43 car field. For the first time in quite a long time, no one was sent home unhappy after qualifying for this Southern 500.

    Not Surprising:  Juan Pablo Montoya’s focus on execution continued at the ‘Lady in Black’. He and his No. 42 Target Chevrolet team had a great run, finishing eighth.

    “Well, we didn’t unload as good as we wanted, but we got it really good,” Montoya said. “I keep telling the guys we have got to execute.”

    “If every person here does their best, we are going to be looking like heroes here.”

  • Comparing the JGR & Penske Racing Penalties: Did NASCAR Make The Right Call?

    Comparing the JGR & Penske Racing Penalties: Did NASCAR Make The Right Call?

    In the past two weeks we’ve seen two big teams get hammered by NASCAR for illegal parts. The administration certainly isn’t messing around this year, if you are found in violation of their rules no matter what the circumstances surrounding it are, you will be punished harshly. I fully agree with the Penske penalties but I do not agree with how hard they came down on JGR and Matt Kenseth. If anyone should have received a larger punishment, it should be the No.2 and No.22 because they purposely tried to get a performance advantage by manipulating the rear ends of their racecars. The No.20 issue was simply a mistake on the part of TRD and there was no malicious intent whatsoever.

    During pre-race inspection at Texas, officials found that Penske Racing had messed with the rear end housings of their cars attempting to get them to skew which was outlawed by NASCAR at the start of this year. Both the No.2 and the No.22 barely made it to the grid in time for the race and Brad Keselowski was very vocal following the event. He was quoted saying,

    “I have one good thing to say, that’s my team and effort they put in today in fighting back with the absolute bulls— that’s been the last seven days in this garage area. The things I’ve seen over the last seven days have me questioning everything that I believe in, and I’m not happy about it. I don’t have anything positive to say and I probably should just leave it at that. There’s so much stuff going on…you have no f—— idea what’s going on, And that’s not your fault and that’s not a slam on you. I could tell you there’s nobody, no team in this garage with the integrity of the 2 team. And the way we’ve been treated over the last seven days is absolutely shameful. I feel like we’ve been targeted over the last seven days more than I’ve ever seen a team targeted. But my guys kept their heads on straight and they showcased why they are a winning team and championship team. We’re not going to take it. We’re not going to be treated this way.”

    NASCAR surprisingly did not penalize Keselowski for those incensed comments but they weren’t bashful about dropping the hammer on the team for their rear end housing infraction. They suspended the crew chiefs, the car chiefs, team engineers and the team manager for six weeks. They also fined the crew chiefs $100,000, took 25 points away from Brad and Joey and placed all the team personal that they suspended on probation until December 31st, 2013. What these guys did was play in the gray area and ended up stepping on NASCAR’s toes. They aren’t bad, they aren’t cheaters, they are just doing their job. Every team from all eras has always tried to find an advantage by playing in iffy territory. It’s nothing new and every team does it, some just do it better than others. When you mess around in the danger zone, you’re eventually going to get bit and that’s what happened here. I have no remorse for them and feel the penalties are fully justified.

    Photo Credit: Sal Sigala Jr./Speedway Media
    Photo Credit: Sal Sigala Jr./Speedway Media

    When it comes to Joe Gibbs Racing and their ground shattering punishment, a large contingent of people out there including myself feel NASCAR went too far. A connecting rod was found to be approximately 2.7 grams underweight when NASCAR weighed it during the tear down of the race winning No.20 car from Kansas. The other 7 connecting rods were each a few grams to the good and perfectly legal. There are areas on a racecar that are considered sacred ground and not even the likes of Chad Knaus would dare mess with them. That’s the tires, the fueling system and the engine. As a result, NASCAR dropped the hammer hard in a penalty that ranks right up there as one of the biggest ever. Crew chief Jason Ratcliff was fined $200,000 and suspended for six races, an astonishing 50 points were taken away, Matt won’t get chase bonus points for the win and can’t use it as a WC either, the owners license of Joe Gibbs has been suspended for six weeks, the pole won’t count towards the 2014 Sprint Unlimited and Toyota loses 5 manufacturer points.

    One connecting rod 2.7 grams underweight gives no advantage and in fact, it throws the engine slightly out of balance which could hurt overall performance. It was an error made by TRD when creating the parts and nothing more. NASCAR doesn’t look at it that way though and although I don’t like it, I can understand that. If they started basing penalties on the exact person who was in the wrong, it would bring in an infinite number of variables and it could get very messy. This case in particular exemplifies one that would be a black and white but a lot of them wouldn’t be. In order to maintain consistency and integrity, they have to police each case basically using tunnel vision. They can’t factor in the all the details; just simply look at it and say this piece was in violation of this rule therefore we will issue the appropriate penalties. This is when the appeal committee comes in handy though. They are separate from the NASCAR officials who initially hand out punishments and they base their decisions after hearing the team’s explanation for why they were in violation of the rules. With this particular situation, I think JGR has a good chance to reduce the penalties. It’s actually a pretty solid system that NASCAR has put in place and works very well most of the time.

    I still firmly believe that TRD should have gotten more of a punishment though. Penske pushes the limits trying to gain an advantage and gets caught but their penalty is less than a team that had an issue with a manufacturer supplied part that didn’t even help performance of the car. That doesn’t make sense to me. It looks like they came down harder on JGR because they raced with the “illegal” part and won with it unlike Penske whose blunder was caught before the race even began. TRD took full blame for the error but the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the teams in the eyes of NASCAR. Matt Kenseth wasn’t pleased with how hard his team was hit and had this to say regarding the penalties:

    “I think the penalties are grossly unfair. I think it’s borderline shameful. There’s no argument the part was wrong. They weighed it and it was wrong. However, there is an argument that there certainly was no performance advantage. If you can find any unbiased, reputable, knowledgeable engine-builder and if they saw the facts, what all the rods weighed. The average weight of all the rods was well above the minimum — 2.5 (grams) above the minimum at least. There was one in there that was way heavy. There was no performance advantage, there was no intent, it was a mistake. JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) had no control over it. Certainly to crush Joe Gibbs like that — to say they can’t win an owner’s championship with the 20 this year is just, I can’t wrap my arms around that, it just blows me away. And the same with Jason Ratcliff (crew chief). I don’t feel bad for myself at all, but for Jason and Joe, I just couldn’t feel any worse. There’s no more reputable, honest hard-working guys with good reputations more so than those two — I feel really bad for them.”

    The Penske Racing appeal will be held May 1st at the NASCAR R&D Center and no one expects their punishment to be reduced in any way. They appealed not because they thought they could win, but because they wanted to have some time to find appropriate replacements for their soon to be sidelined seven high profile team members. JGR is also appealing the penalties issued to them and like I said before, they do have a fighting chance. The date of their appeal hasn’t been set yet but my guess would be that it would take place the week leading up to Talladega or possibly the week following it.

    I’m sure all of you out there have your own sentiments regarding these highly controversial incidents so feel free to voice your opinions below!

  • 2013 Sprint Cup Team Preview: Penske Racing

    2013 Sprint Cup Team Preview: Penske Racing

    Photo Credit: Streeter Lecka, Getty Images
    Photo Credit: Streeter Lecka, Getty Images

    We’re down to our final 2013 Sprint Cup team preview today and we’ll be previewing the efforts of the 2012 championship team of Penske Racing, which will be fielding Ford Fusions for 2012 Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano. Penske made the announcement to move over to Ford in 2012 after failing to come to an agreement with Dodge, which left the sport after the 2012 season.

    Brad Keselowski

    After a 2012 season that included five wins and a championship battle that saw Keselowski and crew chief Paul Wolfe go head to head against five time champion Jimmie Johnson and win the championship, the #2 Miller Lite team heads into the 2013 season looking to repeat as champions. However, for Keselowski to accomplish that, his team will have to adjust to running in the Ford camp and the new Gen6 car. With the team now getting engines from Roush-Yates engines instead of producing their own in house, that is another hurdle Keselowski will have to clear if he hopes to repeat. Considering the depth and knowledge at Penske Racing, clearing those hurdles to win races and make the Chase, as well as contending for the championship once again should be no problem for this team.

    Joey Logano

    After winning one race at Joe Gibbs Racing in 2012, Logano moves over to Penske Racing in 2013 to take over the #22  that was driven by AJ Allmendinger and Sam Hornish Jr in 2012. The young Logano is sure to thrive at Penske Racing under the leadership of team owner Roger Penske and being able to learn from 2012 champion, Keselowski. Logano will be sponsored by Pennzoil for the majority of the season and by new sponsor Hertz Rent-a Car, which will be featured on Logano’s car for the fall Charlotte race. Logano will be teamed up with crew chief Todd Gordon and barring any extended growing pains in establishing chemistry between the two, should be able to get this #22 car to Victory Lane and will be among the favorites to make the Chase.

  • As championship sets in, Keselowski prepares for new year

    As championship sets in, Keselowski prepares for new year

    Brad Keselowski’s defense of his 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship doesn’t begin until the green flag falls on the Daytona 500 in a little over a month. But during winter testing at Daytona he was already warming up.

    Photo Credit: David Yeazell
    Photo Credit: David Yeazell

    Keselowski was quick to call out his competitors in a ploy to get them to draft. He continued to speak in a champion’s manner about the future of the sport and the potential of NASCAR’s new car. And there was the fact that Keselowski wasn’t hiding the continual glow of his greatest accomplishment.

    “I am slowly soaking it in so I don’t have a great answer for you but to me it has been a lot of fun just seeing some of the doors that open up,” he said Thursday in Daytona on how life has been the last few months. “It is really a vague way of putting it but some of the doors that open up, whether it is people showing you more respect or opportunities to do different events you may never have had before.

    “To me that is the most fun and more honoring moments of being a champion. I am really looking forward to seeing how those open up. The great thing that separates winning a championship from winning a race is that you are a champion for a whole year. I feel like I won a race but you get to celebrate it for a whole year. That is a really good feeling.”

    The upcoming season will be just his fourth full year. It comes with Paul Wolfe still atop the pit box, the man who has led him to both a Nationwide and Cup title. However, the flagship Dodge banner is gone from the iconic organization as Penske begins their coalition with Ford.

    But Keselowski’s young career has taught him the importance of adaption and perseverance. The new make and model of his car will be another one of those lessons, one Keselowski confident his team will be able to do. Recently visiting the Ford team in Detroit, Keselowski said showed him that there are the necessary tools and resources to get the job done.

    In addition, we know about new teammate Joey Logano. And the story of how he came to join Penske and Keselowski’s involvement. The goal is for Logano and Keselowski to make each other better, which in turn will make the company better. There’s a lot of potential, attitude and youth of Logano believes Keselowski and he’s ready to see how it all plays out.

    “It is just a matter of putting the other pieces together with him. I feel like what I look for out of him is to do just that, make that car a contender week in and week out and if he is able to do that then I think it will make everyone at Penske stronger,” noted Keselowski.

    “That is in all categories whether it is increasing the level of funding because of sponsorship or the other side of it of pushing me to be a batter driver and be more engaged. I am hoping for all those things across the board and it might be something as simple as attracting more talent throughout the pit crews or what not.”

    Always with the company on mind and becoming better, Keselowski expects the same for his own team. Winning the championship last year doesn’t mean they’ll be content with however their 2013 campaign plays out.

    “If you win a championship you are going to come in the next year with extremely high expectations. I don’t think that will surprise anyone,” said Keselowski. “You have to look at our history, and we have been a second half team the last two or three seasons and I would expect nothing different this year.

    “If you look at the past and know that we are stronger the second half of the year and that is what we have done to be successful the last two seasons then that will carry you through any short comings at the start of the year. I am nervous that if we start strong we won’t be as good the second half.”

    They won five races last year – three of which came after late June – and went toe-to-toe with five-time champion Jimmie Johnson during the Chase. The Miller Lite team did things their own way. Planned and never shied away from their own strategy, notably through fuel mileage races.

    When they didn’t build the fastest cars they ran the perfect race and took what it gave them. More of the same is what Keselowski expects and should there be anything less, don’t expect Keselowski to defend it.

    “I feel like I don’t want to build in an excuse for our team so I am not going to say that if we don’t run well at the start of the year we have nothing to worry about,” Keselowski stated.

    “I am not going to build in that excuse. But I think you can apply things logistically and know we are the type of team that gets stronger throughout the year. That is probably the best way to be.”

  • Joey Logano Pumped Up, Upbeat and Ready to Go

    [media-credit id=62 align=”alignright” width=”227″][/media-credit]With his trademark smile in place, Joey Logano said he was “pumped up, upbeat and ready to go”, not only for the weekend racing at Dover, but for the next step in his career and life as well.

    Logano had an exciting start to his Monster Mile weekend as he was on one of the planes impacted in the incident on the runway at the Charlotte airport on the way to Dover, Delaware.

    “We were in our plane about to get ready to go and the other plane drove off the runway a little bit,” Logano said. “I figured the runway was the easy part, but I don’t know I never drove one.”

    In spite of being delayed, Logano finally made it to the race track, one where he has admittedly had his share of ups and downs. Logano’s high at Dover was winning his K&N Pro Series East championship in 2007 and his low at the Monster Mile was barrel-rolling his No. 20 Cup car seven times down the banking of one of the turns.

    But for the ever-upbeat Logano, he only remembers the ‘ups’ from all of his experiences at Dover.

    “I love this track,” Logano said passionately. “I think it’s mainly up when it comes to Dover.”

    “I think it’s a great track and a great place to race,” Logano continued. “It’s just fast.”

    “It’s one of those tracks where you really feel like you’re hauling the mail,” Logano said. “It puts on great racing and I’ve had great cars most every time I’ve been here.”

    Logano will certainly see his fair share of the Monster Mile this weekend as he is doing double duty in the No. 18 Sports Clip Toyota in the Nationwide race and his familiar No. 20 Home Depot Toyota ride on the Cup side.

    How does the young driver balance all of that racing? Logano acknowledged the challenges but also expressed that there are great rewards in doing the Dover double.

    “It’s definitely a challenge,” Logano said. “Today’s the biggest challenge, running back and forth from car to car.”

    “The hardest part is when you practice the Cup car, qualify the Nationwide car and then come back and qualify the Cup car because they’re so different,” Logano continued. “You’ll run around a lot.”

    Logano said it is almost like having to keep a score card on each car in his head. And just so he does not get too confused by it all, he debriefs just as quickly as he can after each run in the two cars.

    “You have to keep track of what you did in this car and what changed in each car and then debrief with both of them,” Logano said. “That’s the challenging part.”

    “I try to debrief right then, so that way I did it and I can move on,” Logano continued. “But there are also great rewards in driving both cars because you can learn a lot in the Nationwide car that can come over and help your Cup program.”

    Logano definitely agreed with his Nationwide crew chief, Adam Stevens, in that the Monster Mile requires great aggression but can also prove most punishing if any mistakes are made.

    “Dover is an intense track,” Logano said. “You’ve got to take every opportunity you can.”

    “But when you start overheating your tires and overworking your car, it’s also a finesse track,” Logano said. “So, it’s a combination of both.”

    “It’s hard to do both but that’s what makes it fun and a cool track to race.”

    Logano said that he truly has learned from his racing experience at the Monster Mile, especially from his runs that did not go so well.

    “You learn that throughout your career, being put in certain situations,” Logano said. “You learn from your mistakes and you try to use them the best you can to make those changes.”

    “This is one of those tracks where you use a lot of your tools.”

    For Logano, Dover also feels a bit like coming home, which may just contribute to his comfort level at the Monster Mile.

    “The northeast tracks are a lot of fun for me,” Logano said. “This is where I’m from and I like being able to see everyone.”

    “I just like these tracks,” Logano said. “Dover is one of my favorites, and it might actually be my favorite.”

    “It feels like home.”

    Although Logano is feeling at home at Dover, he only has a few more races, eight to be exact, before he makes the next major change in his life. He will move from his home at Joe Gibbs Racing to his new home at Penske Racing in the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford.

    “We plan to finish off as hard as we can,” Logano said. “I got a really great team where I’m at and I’m going to a really great team.”

    “I’m fortunate to have two situations like that,” Logano continued. “But my life has become very busy lately, trying to learn a new team and get to know those guys and trying to finish off this year the best you can and try to get eight more wins.”

    “It’s definitely difficult but I’m very lucky and fortunate to be in a position like this.”

    Whether lucky or busy, do not call Joey Logano a ‘lame duck’.

    “There is no such thing as that at this level,” Logano said. “Each one of these races is equally as important as before Penske came along.”

    “This is all very, very important to me,” Logano continued. “This is all we work for.”

    Logano also admitted, with all of these changes, that this is probably the most interesting time in his young life and in his racing career.

    “It is interesting for sure,” Logano admitted. “There are a lot of new things and I look at things in a different way for sure.”

    “It’s cool.”

    “I don’t know if I can sum it up in one word, but it is exciting,” Logano said. “I’m pretty upbeat about it all.”

    “I’m ready for it,” Logano continued. “I’m pumped up to go do it and make a new step in my life.”

  • And Then There Were Three; Dodge Leaving NASCAR After 2012 Season

    And Then There Were Three; Dodge Leaving NASCAR After 2012 Season

    [media-credit name=”Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”286″][/media-credit]With the upcoming tire test in Martinsville for the 2013 season only a few short days away, it became evident when only three of the four manufacturers who represent NASCAR’s Sprint Cup that one would not be fielding a team next season. On Monday, Penske Racing President Tim Cindric added to the speculation that Dodge would probably not be returning to NASCAR, by announcing they would no longer be building engines for the manufacturer.

    With no one to build their engines, the obvious became even more obvious since the only team that has shown a recent interest in running a Dodge next season was Furniture Row Motorsports, which was still waiting for a response from the manufacturer as of Monday.

    Richard Petty Motorsports was rumored earlier in the season that a move back to Dodge could be a possibility since their current contract with Ford expires at the end of the 2012 season,and n ow with Dodge leaving the series those rumors can be laid to rest.

    The move should come as no surprise when you look at the cost of running a team in the series, and even more from a manufacturers standpoint since it is not only their brand name that is on the forefront, but also the performance from the cars they run in the series. Without a strong team backing the effort, it makes no sense to dump money into a program that would run mid pack at best, and possibly be a start and park team which would defeat the cause of giving the manufacturer the opportunity to showcase their product.

    A year or two off from the series would probably be in the best interest of the manufacturer, which would undoubtedly give Dodge the opportunity to reevaluate, and further research and examine the data they have at their disposal to possibly make another solid comeback. After all this isn’t the first time Dodge has left the series, and the last time they did it was for a 24 year absence which began in 1977. The manufacturer returned in 2001 with Ray Evernham racing, and since its return has won 50 races in that12 year time span, which includes 29 of them by Penske Racing alone.

    This season could also be the year that Dodge finally gets another championship which has eluded the manufacturer since 1975, when Richard Petty drove  his infamous No. 43 STP sponsored blue and white Dodge to 13 victories, and his sixth championship.

    How ironic would it be to see Brad Keselowski win his first championship under the Dodge banner, only to see him in a Ford next season since Penske has already announced the manufacturer change for 2013, and not see a Dodge back to defend it?