Tag: Ryan Truex

  • Four Takeaways From Canadian Tire Motorsport Park

    Four Takeaways From Canadian Tire Motorsport Park

    1. Austin Cindric gets first career win – Cindric had a dominant race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. He led twice for 32 laps. After the various pit stop strategies, Cindric caught Kaz Grala on the last lap and bumped him out of the way on the last lap for his first ever career win and is locked into the 2017 playoffs.
    2. Noah Gragson comes up short – Gragson scored his career best finish of the season at Canada this past weekend. He made a daring four-wide move late in the going and moved up to third. He eventually settled for second after Grala’s spin on the last lap. He sits ninth in the playoff standings but will most likely need a win to get into the playoffs.
    3. Championship contenders Christopher Bell and Matt Crafton have engine woes – Bell and Crafton had a forgettable day at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park after finishing 26th and 25th, respectively. Bell finished once in the top 10 during Stage 1 but never could rebound after that. On lap 44, he missed a shift and caused the engine to blow. During the same caution, Crafton’s engine also expired and was done for the day. Needless to say, both drivers can forget that this ever happened.
    4. Ryan Truex continues his strong season – Truex made some noise at Canada this past weekend. In Stage 1 he finished seventh and won the second stage after staying out. Truex was able to capitalize on staying out by finishing fifth. He now has five top fives and nine top 10s of the season and sits somewhat comfortably sixth in the playoffs picture.
  • Four Takeaways From Saturday’s Truck Race At Michigan

    Four Takeaways From Saturday’s Truck Race At Michigan

    1. Darrell Wallace Jr. gets a breakthrough win at Michigan – 2017 has been an up and down year for Wallace Jr. After the XFINITY race at Pocono, the No. 6 XFINITY team was shut down due to lack of funding. However, he’s been filling in rides since then. He’s raced four races for Aric Almirola when he was injured from Pocono to Kentucky with a best finish of 11th at Kentucky. Wallace Jr. then received an opportunity to drive for MDM Motorsports at Michigan. He was able to make the most of it scoring his sixth career win in the Truck Series.
    2. Christopher Bell extends points lead – Bell continues his strong season by finishing second in Saturday’s race, giving him his ninth top five of the year and extending his points lead to 37. He’ll head to Bristol Motor Speedway Wednesday night looking for his fifth win of the season.
    3. Johnny Sauter has a rough day at Michigan – Sauter had a rough outing in this past weekend’s race. However, on the bright side, he was able to score some playoff points by finishing fifth in Stage 1. Problems continued as Sauter had to pit for a flat tire, thus ending his shot for a second win in 2017. He wound up finishing 18th and losing more points to Christopher Bell. Sauter will have to turn his season around at Bristol this Wednesday if he wants to retake the points lead from Bell.
    4. Three races remain until the playoffs – Three races, three wild cards until the 2017 playoffs begin at Loudon in September. This week the drivers will head to Bristol, then to Canada after a couple of weeks off with the final race at Chicago before the playoffs start. Christopher Bell, John Hunter Nemechek, Johnny Sauter, Matt Crafton and Kaz Grala are all locked in by securing wins throughout the season. However, the door is wide open after fifth as Chase Briscoe, Ryan Truex and Ben Rhodes sit on the bubble. Also, Grant Enfinger, Noah Gragson, Austin Cindric and Justin Haley are currently out at the moment. The season has provided some exciting and thrilling action so we could see three new winners in the next three races.
  • Camping World Truck Series Preview – Iowa

    Camping World Truck Series Preview – Iowa

    The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Iowa Speedway this Friday night for race number nine of the 2017 season.

    Currently, there are 34 trucks on the preliminary entry list. In the last five races, there have been three different winners. Erik Jones, who is not entered, is the only repeat winner with victories in 2014 and 2015.

    Here are some of the drivers to keep an eye on during Friday night’s M&M’s 200.

    Matt Crafton – Crafton has one win at Iowa which came in 2011. However, in the last three races at Iowa, he has two top fives and three top 10 finishes, with 33 laps led. Crafton ranks number one among active drivers at Iowa Speedway. He has not won yet this season but looks to turn that around at Iowa.

    John Hunter Nemechek – Nemechek is coming off his first win of the season last week. In the last three races at Iowa, Nemechek has one top 10 and one pole, along with 53 laps led. His average finish 15.0, but a win carries momentum into the next race. Keep an eye on Nemechek once again this week.

    Christopher Bell – Bell is having a strong season so far. In Iowa, he has competed in the last two races with a finish of ninth or better. He has one top five and two top ten finishes. Bell is always a threat week in and week out.

    Johnny Sauter – Sauter has been decent in his recent Iowa outings. In the past five races, he has one top five and two top finishes. In his championship season last year, Sauter finished 10th in the 2016 race. Sauter might just sneak a win out on Friday night.

    Ben Rhodes – Rhodes only has one start at Iowa coming in 2016, earning a fourth place finish.

    Drivers To Watch:

    Ryan Truex -Truex has been strong as of late. This season he has placed two top fives and six top 10 finishes, although, Truex has never competed in the Truck Series at Iowa.

    Brandon Jones – Jones is competing in the Truck Series once again this weekend. He has competed in two races at Iowa with the best finish of second in 2015.

    Chase Briscoe – Briscoe has been oh so close this season regarding victory lane. The driver of the No. 29 Brad Keselowski Racing F-150 has finished second in the last two races. In 2016, Briscoe competed at Iowa in the ARCA Racing Series and notched a win at the track.

    Noah Gragson – Iowa might be a breakthrough point for Gragson. During his K&N Pro Series days, Gragson has a finish of third, second and sixth, respectively.

    Coverage starts on Friday morning with the first of two practices beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET on Fox Sports 1. Qualifying is slated for 6:05 p.m. ET Friday evening. Race coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. on FS1 and the Motor Racing Network with the green flag scheduled for 8:47 p.m.

     

  • The View From My Recliner – Smoke is on Fire!

    The View From My Recliner – Smoke is on Fire!

    In the middle of what should have been an amazing weekend for Tony Stewart, Smoke has shown that he is had enough and Homestead can’t get here soon enough for him.

    Coming off his solid run in Michigan, Stewart was running in the top-five in practice at Sonoma when he came up on slower cars heading into turn 11 and it set off the fireworks. Later in practice, Jamie McMurray cut him off and received the one-finger salute from the three-time champion.

    After practice, Stewart said to the gathered media, “I’m ready to go run stuff that makes me happy and driving a Sprint Cup car does not make me happy right now. A lot of things have changed. The atmosphere has changed. There is so much stuff in the garage area that has changed that it was time for me to make a change with it.

    “I’ve dedicated 18 years of my life to this series and it’s done great by me,” Stewart said. “I’ve made a great living doing it, but at the same time, there are other things in life I want to do other than be at a NASCAR track three days a week for 38 weekends out of 52 weeks a year. There are just other things I want to do now.”

    Reading Stewart’s quotes to the media makes me wonder about the shape NASCAR is in as a sport. One thing that Stewart has said was when he was coming up, drivers learned from Mark Martin, didn’t cross Dale Earnhardt and would get a lecture from Rusty Wallace if they didn’t obey the unofficial rules of practice or the race.

    Folks, please take notice. NASCAR is a better place with Tony Stewart in the race car and in the garage. Tony Stewart basically said yesterday he can’t wait to be done with NASCAR. That is sad.

    The state of NASCAR is up in the air.

    The majority of competitive NASCAR team owners are in their 60s and 70s,  Who is the next group of racers who want to own teams? How many drivers are in cars because they bring sponsorship with them? Paul Menard, Brian Scott and Danica Patrick are drivers who are either funded by family companies or just a marketing machine and probably not in their rides without the sponsorship they bring to the table.

    The XFINITY Series can’t develop the next group of drivers because they will run with the funding Cup drivers bring with them to theXFINITY Series rather than take a chance on a good young driver like Ryan Truex, Corey LaJoie and Brandon McReynolds.

    Attendance is down everywhere and television ratings are down, where is the opportunity to grow the sport?

    The television contract with Fox Sports 1 and NBC Sports Network put more races on cable networks that are building an audience from scratch and people are too fickle or lazy to go searching  for what channel it is on.

    A couple comments from a post-practice interview yesterday, really made me question where does NASCAR go from here? Think about it, if Tony Stewart doesn’t want to be in Sprint Cup racing, why would anyone else want to watch it?

     

  • Truex Brothers Both Bridesmaids at Daytona

    Truex Brothers Both Bridesmaids at Daytona

    Martin Truex Jr. and his younger brother Ryan have shared many racing highs and lows over the years. But this weekend the two shared a major accomplishment, finishing runner-up in their respective races at Daytona International Speedway.

    Ryan Truex went first with his bridesmaid finish for the Daytona race weekend.  The younger Truex, in his No. 81 Toyota Osaka Parts Distributor Toyota for Hattori Racing, finished just behind veteran Johnny Sauter in the Truck race on Friday.

    “Yeah God, if that wreck wouldn’t have happened, I think we had him,” Ryan Truex said after his race on Friday. “The bottom was just the place to be all day. It seemed like you could hook up and bump draft to the front.”

    “It just all came down to who could bump draft the best without locking up and staying out there,” Truex continued. “So, you just had to make the right moves and be there at the end.”

    “And we were and unfortunately, it just didn’t end up in our favor.”

    The elder Truex brother Martin finished second to Denny Hamlin just two days later in the Daytona 500.  He ran runner-up by just 0.010 seconds, the closest margin of victory ever in the history of the Great American race.

    “It was really amazing what we were able to do all day and really just control the race the way we did,” Truex Jr. said after Sunday’s race.  “The last lap, we were in great position behind Matt (Kenseth).  Felt like if Matt would have stayed in front of us, maybe he would have probably held off Denny (Hamlin).”

    “Matt went up to try to block his run, Denny cut inside, made it three-wide.  Just side drafted me off of turn four all the way to the line.  I felt like I had enough momentum to keep him behind me.  I did that all the way up until that last couple feet.  He just shot out that last couple inches on me right before the line.”

    “Circumstances didn’t work out quite as well as they should have.  I could have done a little bit different coming to the line.”

    “It is what it is.”

    Although both Truex brothers fell one position short of claiming victory, both overcame great odds to even take the checkered flags in their respective runner-up positions. Ryan literally was without a ride of any kind weeks before the race and Martin had to go to a backup car after wrecking his primary in the second Duels race.

    “I didn’t have a ride a few weeks ago, and Hattori Racing called me and wanted me to come drive for them,” Ryan Truex said. “So you can’t give up. It’s easy to get down on yourself.  It’s easy to quit. You just have to keep going.”

    “I’m at the track every weekend talking to whoever will talk to you, and you don’t say no to an opportunity. That’s what we did this weekend, and it worked out for us.”

    Older brother Martin also had to face some adversity prior to finishing second, having to race an untested backup car under the bright lights of Daytona.

    “It’s been a tough season down here,” Truex said. “Our guys worked really, really hard.  I think our backup car was the best car we had. In a way, it was a blessing to get in that wreck the other day.”

    Although they may have just missed Victory Lane, both Truex brothers felt their near win positioned them for even better opportunities in the future.

    “At first, it just looked like Daytona would be our only race but the more we got to talking, the more we were going to try to run a full season,” Ryan Truex said after his successful run. “Obviously, we have a few races to fill out, but this finish helps out a lot.”

    “I hope that was enough for us to go full-time, and like I said, we’ve got a little bit we’ve still got to get sorted out for some races, but we’ll be in Atlanta and we’ll be at Martinsville, and we’re second in points right now, I think, so if we can continue that streak, we’ll be good to go.”

    Big brother Martin echoed his brother’s thoughts, especially regarding the upcoming race in Atlanta and the 2016 season overall.

    “It’s always really nice when you come out of this race with a good day,” Truex said. “You start off with that momentum. You’re not 30 points behind. You don’t have to build another racecar.”

    “So there’s a lot of things that are positive about starting the season off right. Obviously, we’re looking forward to Atlanta, absolutely. I think it’s going to be an incredible race.  Lower downforce on the racecars than last year. I think the cars are going to be a real handful.  It’s going to be exciting.”

    “I’m looking forward honestly to just kicking off that part of the season, getting to work, seeing how our cars are, where we stack up to the competition, then compete for wins, try to get back to where we were last year.”

    “The anticipation is high and going into the rest of the season with a little bit of momentum is always a good feeling.”

    And while both Truex brothers would have loved to have been in the bride rather than bridesmaid positions, they acknowledge that it was indeed a huge weekend for the entire Truex family.

    “Really proud of Ryan for what’s he’s done,” Martin said. “He’s had a rough go of racing the last couple years, trying to get a solid opportunity.”

    “These days with it being hard to find funding, he’s been kind of shunned by a lot of teams he’s drove for, did a good job for, because he couldn’t find that backing. So, it was great to see him persevere through those times and find a truck to drive.”

    “And it was great to see him back and excited about the opportunity. Obviously, he did a great job. He’s a great driver.”

    “It’s great to see my brother back on the track.”

  • The Least Successful Sprint Cup Driver of 2014 is…

    The Least Successful Sprint Cup Driver of 2014 is…

    For some, 2014 was a damn good year. Kevin Harvick won five and the title. Brad Keselowski led the way with six victories, with Joey Logano also a five-time victor. The Hendrick power trio of Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson all had four apiece, as all six listed here with 20 or more Top Tens while winning 28 of the 36 events. Unfortunately, this is not about those who did well.

    There were those who put on the fire suits, got to be among the big boys, but when it came time to go they might have been best suited to go down the road instead of the track. Instead of being competitors, they were lucky to be participants, saddled in entries that had no hope of being anywhere near the front. However, this is all about misery, no bright spots allowed. To be eligible as our least successful driver one would have had to have attempted to qualify in at least 15 races and average a finish of 30th or worst.

    That means no Danica Patrick to be found here. Even failing to qualify twice and finishing outside the Top 40 four times could not get Landon Cassill included, thanks to a fourth place finish at Talladega in the fall. In fact, even a single Top Ten excludes one from inclusion, and so we take Travis Kvapil and Michael McDowell out of the mix.

    Ryan Truex was a contender to be the top pretender. It went sour fast in B.K. Racing’s No. 83 Toyota when he failed to qualify at Daytona. In fact, in attempting to make 26 of the first 27 races of the season, they missed three, finished 20th at the second Pocono race, with 30th in a Martinsville race the next best. After seven times outside the Top 40, they parted company after Chicago. Still, not bad enough for us.

    The car was not parked, as J.J. Yeley was blessed to take it over. He already had some adventures driving the No. 44 Chevy of Johnathan Cohen. They withdrew four times, failed to qualify for four more, and were in the bottom 10 the other six. Three with Frank Stoddard left him outside the Top 30 every time, and in nine outings driving the illustrious No. 83 Yeley did manage to finish 29th once. Still, bad but not bad enough.

    Joe Nemechek attempted the first dozen Cup races of 2014. Driving mostly for Jay Robinson in the No. 66 Toyota, but also for himself, he missed four of them, was 40th or worse in three, with a 31st in Kansas the best of the bunch. Later in the year, he came up empty at both Daytona and Talladega, with a 30th at Watkins Glen by far his best outcome in his final nine attempts. Still, not futile enough.

    I am not sure what motivates a professional driver to take a ride that most likely will not be successful, despite his best efforts. A love for the sport, a willingness to help an outfit get started, an opportunity to pick up a few bucks with minimal effort, or all of the above. Randy Humphrey, a former partner of Phil Parsons and then Mark Smith, formed his own operation a year ago, hiring veteran crew chief Peter Sospenzo on the box and Dave Blaney behind the wheel.

    They went to the track in hopes of getting their No. 77 Ford into Daytona, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Bristol to open the season. Each time the car was back in the trailer when the green flag waved. In fact, they withdrew before qualifying at Daytona, did the same at Fontana and Martinsville, though they made the race at Texas, finishing 41st, before winding up dead last at Darlington.

    That proved to be better than the results at Richmond, Talladega, Kansas, and Charlotte, when they were left heading down the road a day or two early. Thirty-third at Dover was the high water mark for the car, as they followed up that effort coming in dead last at Pocono. I am not sure what they paid to sponsor the entry at Daytona but Plinker Arms, a firearm production company, might have better advertised their product by using it to put this entry out of its misery. Such are the trails and tribulations of starting up a new team.

    After all that excitement, Blaney moved over to Tommy Baldwin’s No. 37 Chevy, where he was 26th at the second run at Pocono, 33rd at Michigan, then concluded his Cup campaign last at Bristol. When the season was over, he had four withdrawals prior to qualifying and seven failed qualifying attempts, to go with three finishes of dead last in seven attempts. Combined with results of 26th, 33rd (twice), and 41st in the other four, Dave Blaney is our least successful Cup driver of 2014.

    While the 52-year-old Blaney has no plans to run Cup in 2015, he will be keeping busy racing dirt this season and working with his 21-year-old son Ryan. The kid will race some Cup this year with the Wood Brothers and hopes to add to his two victory total in the Xfinity Series with Team Penske. Maybe the least successful Cup driver of 2014, but arguably its most successful father. I think Dave Blaney might be more than content with that distinction.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Pure Michigan 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Pure Michigan 400

    With an impassioned driver’s meeting speech by Carl Edwards urging safety and throttling back during cautions at such a high-speed track, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 45th annual Pure Michigan 400.

    Surprising: Drivers were apparently in full throttle preparation for Bristol, with tempers surprisingly abounding at the two-mile track in the Irish hills. Six time champion Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman exchanged words after the race, as did Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Denny Hamlin.

    “Just old Ryan Newman stuff,” Johnson said after his heated conversation with the driver of the No. 31 WIX Filters Chevrolet. “Anybody that has watched the sport long enough or has been in a race car out there understands the frustration of racing Ryan.”

    Racing frustrations also abounded between the drivers of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota and the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet.

    “I felt like he crowded me off of (Turn) 4 in the middle part of the race,” Hamlin said. “We’re trying to make the best we can do down 50 horsepower.”

    “I’m going to eventually let him go, but I’m not some lapped car that you can just shove to the high side and I’m going to back off.”

    “I ran him up the track a little bit early in the race,” Earnhardt said. “He didn’t like it too much. I’ve been run up the track, too. I don’t like it either, but I didn’t want him hanging on my quarter panel all the way down the front straightaway and ended up three- or four-wide.”

    “I just wanted to get on by him because I was flying. We were hauling.”

    Not Surprising: Jeff Gordon went three for three for three, with his third win of the season, his third win at Michigan and a now three-win season, his first since 2011.

    “Well, I like to go fast. This place is really, really fast,” the driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet said. “Michigan has always been one of my favorites.”

    “Today I was able to drive this place the way I like to drive it, have success here again.”

    Surprising: It was a surprisingly rough weekend for Martin Truex, Jr., with his girlfriend Sherry Pollex undergoing surgery for ovarian cancer, his brother Ryan suffering a concussion in Michigan practice and his involvement a nine car pile-up that relegated him to a 36th place finish.

    “These two Michigan races turned out to be very long days,” the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet said. “It was hard to learn anything about this place back in June and it was the same story today.”

    “I just wish we could have finished one of these Michigan races with a clean car,” stated Truex. “You’re always curious to see how things would have played out and where you could have potentially finished.”

    Not Surprising: He may have been a bridesmaid yet again, in fact for the fourth time at Michigan, but Kevin Harvick deemed his second place run a success, especially in light of the upcoming Chase.

    “Yeah, I mean, we had a solid day,” Harvick said. “Just the 24 had more speed than we did all day. I felt like when Joey was out front, he could get away at the short run, we’d kind of even out.”

    “But all in all, it was a good day,” the driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet said. “The main focus for our team has been consistency heading into the Chase to make sure we can scramble and do the things we’ve done over the last month.”

    “Obviously you want to win, but all in all we had some different goals that are as important leading into the Chase.”

    Surprising: While Joey Logano joked in the media center after the race that he really did not want to relive his last few laps, he too like Harvick had the championship on his mind, laying down the gauntlet after his third place finish.

    “We can win a championship. I really feel we can do that,” the driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford said. “That’s the message I want to put out there. I want to put out for my team that we’re strong enough to do that. I think we showed that today.”

    Not Surprising: It was indeed a ‘hard week’ as Jeff Burton put it after being tapped to substitute for Tony Stewart, who decided to miss another race, grieving the contact with Kevin Ward Jr. which cost the young driver his life.

    “This was a hard week,” Burton said. “This was honestly one of the hardest weeks I’ve ever spent, coming here on Friday not knowing what to expect.”

    Burton’s No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet finished 37th after an electrical issue and a burning smell in the cockpit sent him to the garage.

    Surprising: It was a surprisingly bad day if your name was Kyle. Both Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson crashed, the first on lap four and the latter on lap 98.

    “I felt so good about my car those first few laps running the bottom, but then I was getting hung out on the straightaways,” Busch said “Then I just tried going to the top in (turns) three and four right away, and I got loose all the way through three and four. Every time I touched the gas it wanted to spin out, and finally it was too much gas and not enough save, and I wrecked.”

    Larson’s incident was far more frightening, however, as his No. 42 Target Chevrolet went up in flames after his hard impact.

    “I had no warning the right-front was going to blow,” Larson said. “Michigan is a fast track and into turn three is fast too. We are turning some really high speeds here so the hit was definitely a hard one.”

    “Yeah anytime you see flames you want to get out,” Larson continued, explaining his bailing out of his car in spite of NASCAR’s new ruling. “I have had fires and stuff, but that is the first time I have ever had fumes or smoke and stuff in the cockpit. That is the main reason why I wanted to get out.”

    Not Surprising: Once you get a win under your belt, as AJ Allmendinger did at Watkins Glen, those good finishes just seem to roll along. The Dinger finished top-15 at Michigan and officially clinched his spot in the Chase.

    “It’s really cool,” the driver of the No. 47 Kingsford Charcoal Chevrolet said of his Chase berth. “I thought we had a really good shot, but you never know until it’s official. So to have that is really good.”

    “More than anything I felt like this weekend made some gains so that gets a little excitement going into the next couple of race tracks to see if we can keep getting better. Overall the last few weeks has been really cool to share with the guys and come here and have a little energy and confidence. To come out here all weekend and show some speed has been really good.”

    Surprising: In spite of burning up a test session at Michigan International Speedway prior to the race weekend, Roush Fenway Racing continued to struggle at a track they once owned. Greg Biffle did manage a tenth place finish and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 15th, however, Carl Edwards had a disappointing end to his day, taking the checkered flag in 23rd.

    “You know, I guess it was a good day,” Biffle said. “We got a top-10. Really we wanted to run up in the top-five. We had a car to do that and that track position we would get loose around other cars. We still have to work on that with our race cars.”

    “It was a good solid top-15,” Stenhouse Jr. said. “We qualified 10th and finished 15th and ran right around 15th the whole time which is kind of a goal. Obviously we want to run top-10 and pass as many cars as we can but all in all we accomplished what we were looking to do.”

    “We were so loose I just couldn’t drive it,” Edwards said. “It looked like Greg (Biffle) had a good run and we had speed in qualifying so that gives us something to look forward to but we were just too loose today to be able to do anything.”

    Not Surprising: After some difficult runs recently, it was not surprising that Paul Menard scored a fourth place finish at an intermediate track where he tends to run well. The driver of the No. 27 Certainteed/Menards Chevrolet did in fact run well, finishing fourth.

    “Our cars are really good,” Menard said. “The RCR fab shop, the ECR engine shop they make really good race cars. This track kind of suits my driving style I guess. Sluggar (Labbe, crew chief) and I, Justin and James and everybody on the No. 27 car have a good baseline intermediate track package that seems to work good at these fast tracks.”

    “Definitely needed a good run the last three or four weeks have been pretty brutal,” Menard continued. “We definitely needed this.”

    As a result of the Michigan race and assuming that they all attempt to qualify for the remaining three races of the regular season, AJ Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin all scored their spot in the championship Chase.

     

  • The Final Word – Dover is over and now to Pocono where Jimmie has not won for an entire year!

    The Final Word – Dover is over and now to Pocono where Jimmie has not won for an entire year!

    Even a ball player could appreciate Jimmie Johnson’s average at Dover, having gone 9 for 25 for a sweet .360 average. Sunday, Johnson led much of the way to lock down his second of the season. Brad Keselowski, who has a win, finished second while Matt Kenseth, who does not, was third. That fact should not be cause to worry at the moment, as Kenseth still has more points than anyone, even without a victory to his credit. If this keeps up, he might not need one.

    Tony Stewart needs a win to make the Chase, but a seventh place result was as good as it got. Kevin Harvick has two wins, but a flat as they came to green after a caution removed him from the lead and contention. Kurt Busch, who has a win and precious little else, was one back of Harvick, in 18th. As for Danica Patrick, if 25th is a decent day, she was better than decent by two positions.

    Some teams you expect to be better, some not. Not much is expected from the BK Racing trio of Cole Whitt (27th), Ryan Truex (32nd), and Alex Bowman (40th) and we were not surprised. We thought Roush would be running better, but Carl Edwards (14th) was as good as it got for those boys as circumstances left Greg Biffle (38th) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr (41st) all torn up. Hendrick may have won, but Penske had the better average with Keselowski and Joey Logano both in the Top Ten.

    When is all clear not all clear? Ask Clint Bowyer or, better yet, ask Kyle Busch. Seeking the weekend Dover three-peat, Busch was charging to the outside of Bowyer, but that is not what his spotter told him. It was clear to us that Rowdy was looking to the outside, only to wind up squeezed into the fence and out of the race. He had definite evil intentions aimed at his rival, but the guy he really should have wanted was high up in the grandstands. Oops.

    When is debris not really debris? It is not if you run over a chunk of concrete and reduce it in size by blasting it to chunks and dust. Ask Jamie McMurray, who was the beneficiary of the gift of masonry Ryan Newman kicked up just in front of him from the newly formed pothole. McMurray clobbered it but good to split his splitter and send him fence-ward. Interestingly enough, he was 16th at the time, yet finished 13th.

    While I shall miss FOX, I believe TNT’s coverage of NASCAR is the superior. Should we discover Pocono to be boring, yet we continue to watch primarily due to the entertainment provided by the announcers, then we have found folks who know how to do their job.

    Why don’t the New York Yankees play three of four games a month against minor league teams on national television? The reason is that would be stupid, but enough about Kyle Busch.

    As long as there are less than 16 race winners, wins lock you into the Chase while being the best in points will still get you there. Welcome to a world where Kurt Busch can lead Matt Kenseth in the standings, where a single victory trumps having more points than anybody else. That means that by this time next week, anyone from the top 36 could find themselves in the Chase by simply winning this Sunday at Pocono. Nothing to it.

     

    SWEET SIXTEEN
    1 Jimmie Johnson – 2 WINS – 436 Points
    2 Joey Logano – 2 WINS – 414
    3 Kevin Harvick – 2 WINS – 373
    4 Jeff Gordon -1 WIN – 461
    5 Carl Edwards -1 WIN – 438
    6 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 1 WIN – 429
    7 Kyle Busch – 1 WIN – 411
    8 Brad Keselowski – 1 WIN – 404
    9 Denny Hamlin – 1 WIN – 379
    10 Kurt Busch – 1 WIN – 241
    11 Matt Kenseth – 463 POINTS
    12 Kyle Larson – 377
    13 Ryan Newman – 374
    14 Brian Vickers – 366
    15 Paul Menard – 362
    16 Austin Dillon – 358

    CONTENDERS AND PRETENDERS

    17 Greg Biffle – 357
    18 Clint Bowyer – 350
    19 Kasey Kahne – 349
    20 Aric Almirola – 344
    21 A.J. Allmendinger – 337
    22 Tony Stewart – 336
    23 Marcos Ambrose – 331
    24 Jamie McMurray – 317
    25 Casey Mears – 301
    26 Martin Truex, Jr. – 289
    27 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 261
    28 Danica Patrick – 239
    29 Justin Allgaier – 223
    30 Michael Annett – 188

    PARTICIPANTS
    31 Cole Whitt – 181
    32 David Gilliland – 175
    33 Reed Sorenson – 165
    34 David Ragan – 158
    35 Alex Bowman – 156
    36 Josh Wise – 149

     

  • Alex Bowman: ‘Just a Normal 21 Year Old Turning Laps for a Living’

    Alex Bowman: ‘Just a Normal 21 Year Old Turning Laps for a Living’

    Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 23 Dr. Pepper Toyota for BK Racing, may be competing for Rookie of the Year honors in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but he describes himself as “just a normal 21 year old who gets to turn laps for a living.”

    Bowman, who hails from Tucson, Arizona, started his lap turning career on short tracks in his home state, graduating at the age of seven to driving quarter midgets. The young racer than progressed to USAC and at age 17, moved to stock car racing, first in the Pro Cup Series in 2010 and then in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 2011, where he won the Rookie of the Year honors.

    Bowman moved to the ARCA Racing Series for two years and then made his Nationwide Series debut at Chicagoland Speedway where he finished 17th. He ran full-time in Nationwide in 2013 and got the call to move up to NASCAR’s elite series for the 2014 season.

    “As far as getting this deal, I got a phone call from Rick Carpenter that he wanted to talk and sat down with him and Mike and Ron Devine and I worked on it for a couple months,” Bowman said. “And we were able to put it together and go from there.”

    While Bowman is enjoying competing at the highest level of the sport, he is also enjoying being a part of one of the biggest rookie crops to grace the Cup Series.

    “It’s great as far as being in one of the largest classes of rookies,” Bowman said “You’ve seen some rookie classes ride around all year in the past but there is none of that this year.”

    “You’ve seen the class this year put on a heck of a show so far,” Bowman continued. “So I feel good about being a part of such a big class.”

    Bowman’s crew chief Dave Winston is also a rookie, and yes the pair have indeed made their share of rookie mistakes, from issues over the radio to issues on pit road.

    “My crew chief Dave, it’s his first year being a crew chief,” Bowman said. “So, we’ve both made our share of mistakes and we are both learning.”

    “It’s really funny when he tries to talk on the radio and he has never really talked on the radio before,” Bowman continued. “So, it’s these little short bursts of words that scramble together.”

    “I think we’re working together really well,” Bowman said. “He’s definitely a good crew chief and he has a really positive attitude, which goes throughout the whole team. It’s a big difference versus what I had last year. I’m really happy with how the guys gets along and how everybody works together.”

    “My biggest rookie mistake is that I’ve spun on pit road a couple of times,” Bowman admitted. “On pit road at Daytona and Kansas as well I spun. So, I need to work on that a little bit. So, that’s our biggest thing.”

    While Bowman has yet to spin at Dover, he admitted that he has yet to really master the Monster Mile.

    “It’s gone alright so far here at Dover,” Bowman said. “We unloaded okay but as practice went on, we made some changes and got going in the right direction. We weren’t too bad in the first practice but we will see how practices go and how we will be during the race.”

    Bowman has the utmost respect for Dover as he turns laps around the Monster Mile. But he cannot quite say that it is one of his favorite tracks just yet.

    “It’s one of the toughest places we go,” Bowman said. “It’s real physical. It’s a lot of fun but at the same time when you have a bad race car it’s a really long day.”

    “I like it more than a lot of places but at the same time, if you have a bad race car you’re probably going to hate it.”

    “If we get out of here with a top-30, that would be good,” Bowman said. “I’d be pretty happy with that.”

    While Bowman dreams, as do most rookie drivers, of winning races and competing for future championships, he has one unique hobby that sets him apart from his fellow Cup competitors.

    “I guess I’m not really a typical race car driver in that I don’t hang out with anybody in the sport or anything like that,” Bowman said. “Most of my friends have no clue about racing. I hang out with a lot of car people but not a lot of race car people.”

    “All my cars most of the garage would look at and be like, that’s stupid,” Bowman continued. “I’m into like the low cars. Everything I own is really low or really fast.”

    “It’s fun and is something that I’ve always been interested in,” Bowman said. That’s what all my friends do too.”

    “Other than that though I’m pretty much a normal 21 year old kid that gets to turn laps for a living.”

    Bowman will race with his other BK Racing teammates Ryan Truex and Cole Whitt. He will start in the 23rd position for the 45th annual FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks on Sunday, June 1st.

  • Ryan Truex’s New Cup Ride ‘Definitely a Surprise’

    Ryan Truex’s New Cup Ride ‘Definitely a Surprise’

    While Ryan Truex was thrilled about landing a full-time Cup ride in the No. 83 Toyota with BK Racing, he was also just plain taken by surprise by the opportunity that developed a month before the start of the 2014 season.

    “They had kind of been looking at bringing in younger drivers for a little while now,” Truex said. “Ron Devine (team owner) has always talked to me at the race track.”

    “They needed a driver for the off season to go test with them and luckily I was available,” Truex continued. “And it just snowballed from there to where we are now.”

    “I’m pinching myself a little bit,” Truex sad. “I don’t think it has fully set in yet.”

    “It has definitely been a surprise.”

    Prior to receiving the offer from BK Racing, Truex has been working with team Petty to trying to find funding to run some Nationwide races on a part-time basis.

    “So, this deal just came out of left field,” Truex said. “That’s usually what happens though and was a nice surprise.”

    “Everything worked, the stars all aligned and now we’ve got thirty days to get ready and the season starts.”

    Truex is stepping into the already formed 93 team, complete with crew chief Dale Ferguson, who we just recently met at the Daytona test.

    “So, I’m just basically stepping in,” Truex said. “Those guys all know each other and they know the system and how everything works.”

    “They’re just kind of plugging me in.”

    “I just met Dale a few weeks ago before the Daytona test,” Truex continued. “We seemed to get along pretty well and everybody on the team gets along really well.”

    “We gelled well and going forward I think it will be a good combination,” Truex said. “Dale knows the ins and outs of the team and the cars so it should be a pretty easy transition.”

    Truex is not only looking forward to having a full-time Cup ride but also to working with his teammate Alex Bowman, as well as competing in one of the most competitive rookie classes in recent history.

    “I think it will be good because Alex and I know each other a little bit and we’ve raced each other in Nationwide,” Truex said. “We’re both young and we’re both rookies.”

    “We’re eager to go out and do the things we need to do to be successful,” Truex continued. “We both have the same mindset.”

    “So, we should be able to feed off each other and make each other better.”

    “I think it’s the biggest rookie class since 2001,” Truex said. “The best thing about it is that everyone in it is a proven winner.”

    “And they’ve all climbed their way to the top, shown that they deserve to be there and they have done a great job in every kind of race car,” Truex continued. “I think it will be a battle until the end.”

    “There are some really heavy hitters in there, like Austin Dillon,” Truex said. “I think he will definitely be the point that we’ll all base ourselves off of.”

    “I think it will be really competitive.”

    While Truex is optimistic about the upcoming year, he is also realistic in his expectations going into the 2014 season.

    “BK Racing is still a young team in Sprint Cup,” Truex said. “They’ve gone through the growing pains and they know what they have to do to be successful.”

    “They are putting the right people and pieces in place to do it,” Truex continued. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t go out, run all the laps, stay on the lead lap and get a top-25 finish.”

    “If we do all that and don’t make any mistakes, there is no reason why we can’t do that.”

    While Truex is now experiencing the ‘high’ of a full-time Cup ride, he also has known the struggles of coming up through the ranks, from K&N East Champion to being a brand new rookie again.

    “The past few years, even just running part-time and struggling to find funding, it’s been pretty frustrating,” Truex said. “But you can’t let any negative thoughts set in.”

    “You’ve got to keep fighting for it and stay optimistic,” Truex continued. “I think it will be the same mindset this year.”

    “Every team has ups and downs and it’s the good teams and good drivers that can pull through,” Truex said. “You have to realize your mistakes and improve from them.”

    “That will be the biggest thing for me this year,” Truex continued. “You’ve got to have the right mindset and execute.”

    So, what will the youngest Truex brother think when he gets the chance to be on the sport’s biggest stage in the first race of the season, the Daytona 500?

    “That’s a good question,” Truex said. “I haven’t even thought about it.”

    “It still hasn’t set in yet that I’m running full-time,” Truex continued. “Places like Daytona and racing in the Daytona 500 with all that history and with people like Earnhardt and Petty, it’s pretty crazy.”

    “And it’s pretty crazy just to think that I’ve made it this far,” Truex said. “Driving in the Sprint Cup Series has been a goal since I started racing, and to start this next chapter with BK Racing makes it extra special.”

    “I am very excited for this opportunity.”