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The Final Word – Kyle Busch sweeps Bristol to claim his 180th NASCAR victory

Bristol is where the legends win. Darrell Waltrip won a dozen times there. Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt, and Rusty Wallace each had nine. Then there is Kyle Busch, who’s victory on Saturday night pushed him to six, one more than his brother Kurt and David Pearson. Each one in the Hall of Fame, or will be. No exceptions.

As far as races go, Bristol provided a decent amount of excitement. It was not one for the ages, but few are. Rowdy claimed his 40th career Cup win, to go with his wins in the junior and truck series on the weekend at the same locale. I guess I should be all a quiver that he pushed his career totals to 91 XFINITY and 49 Camping World victories. That is 180 when all three are combined, just 20 short of Richard Petty’s record in Grand National and Cup. Do the records compare? Let the debate begin.

Erik Jones is 21-years-old, with 15 wins in the two secondary series but still looking for his first Cup victory. His second place finish Saturday night was fine, but he still needs that victory if he is to make the Chase. With the exception of one other car, he earned it. Busch just earned it more.

At this time of the year, when all but three playoff positions are written in stone, it has come down to winning. No one is going to catch those hanging on to those three spots except by a win. The best Jones could do was move past Joey Logano into 18th on the ladder and that is just not good enough. Unless Logano, Jones, or someone still winless comes through at Darlington or Richmond, our list of contenders for the championship has been set.

However, Saturday night was a good night for racing, a good points day for some racers. Very good for the younger Busch and Jones, pretty good for Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, and Matt Kenseth. For the latter, he moves three points ahead of Jamie McMurray into 15th, but with Clint Bowyer still 58 points behind him, McMurray has nothing to worry about. Well, unless the wrong guy wins one of these next two races. The gap between McMurray and Chase Elliott sitting in 14th is just 11 points. Should one of those not yet in come up with a win, then things could get pretty darn exciting, but only then.

Brad Keselowski had a tire go down six laps in, and that was the last we saw of him last Saturday. Austin Dillon broke loose and got into a wreck during the second stage to end his day. Still, each is locked in the Chase, so the impact was minimal.

Winning the next race, however, can help make a career. Win the Daytona 500, and you become somebody. Just ask Michael Waltrip and Sterling Marlin. Win the World 600, and you have passed the test in the longest race on the schedule. Win the Brickyard 400, and you get to kiss the masonry at the finish line.

Coming up is the fourth jewel among NASCAR’s iconic events. One you will be remembered for even if it is the only checkered flag you ever get. Darlington and the Southern 500. Kenseth won it in 2013. Regan Smith has just one Cup win, but it was there in 2011. No one else currently not locked into the Chase has claimed the prize. Now would be the time to make a little history in South Carolina. Action resumes on Sunday, September 3.

August 21, 2017
McMurray: ‘Everyone wants the chance to get in a really good car and Alex has done…a phenomenal job’

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Speaking from experience as having started as a substitute driver, Jamie McMurray said every driver “wants the chance to get in a really good car” and that Alex Bowman is doing “a phenomenal job.”

Talking to the media during a teleconference on Friday morning, the driver of the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet was asked what a driver like Bowman is going through in a substitute role for a big name driver such as Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“Well, if you are a driver that is trying to make it in the sport there is no better position to be put in than to get in a car like that, because you know that you have an opportunity, maybe not to win, but you are in a car that is capable of winning and running up front and showing guys what you can do if you are in the right equipment,” McMurray said.

“Everyone wants the chance to get in a really good car and Alex has done, I think, a phenomenal job at jumping right in and having a lot of speed and racing well. The flip side of that is if you get in that car and you don’t run well, then you lose your opportunity at maybe ever getting that shot again. I think that Alex has, even though he hasn’t pulled off a win, he has had really good speed and I think to me what sticks out the most is he is not even really in a car every week. If you were in a truck every week or a XFINITY car week in and week out and then you were filling in that would be one thing. But he hasn’t really been racing that much this year.

“To jump in and do what he has done at a track like Loudon which is one style or racing and then to go to a place like Michigan, that is completely different he has just done an awesome job. I know that probably for him the phone is not ringing as much as he wants it to, but he is going to get an opportunity because to me he has really shown that he is capable of it.”

McMurray is no stranger to the role of substitute driver. He came into the Sprint Cup Series as a substitute driver in the then No. 40 Dodge for Ganassi Racing after Sterling Marlin broke his neck in a wreck at Kansas Speedway in a season where he was near the top of the points standings for most of the season. He made his debut with a 26th place finish at Talladega Superspeedway. In his second career start the very next week, McMurray led a race high of 96 laps on his way to scoring his first career victory in Cup at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“I had raced my whole truck and Busch Series at the time, in cars that I think my Busch car had won like one or two races in seven or eight years,” he said. “It wasn’t necessarily a winning car, and then all of a sudden I got in Sterling’s car that had I think won a couple of races earlier that year and it had led the points up to that point, it was a really good car. So, there is a lot of pressure on you to run well because you know that you are in a car that is capable of winning. So, really nervous and then once we won in Charlotte it was like super relieving because not only is that a confidence builder for you, but I think in all the people that are around you.”

September 3, 2016
Remembering the Underbird

I still can’t imagine that it has been 23 years since we lost Alan Kulwicki in a plane crash as he was headed to Bristol Motor Speedway. The sight of the No. 7 hauler taking the lap around Bristol before leaving the track still brings a chill up my back.

Kulwicki did things his way. He brought engineering into NASCAR and now 23 years later, most crew chiefs are engineers. Future crew chief and owner, Ray Evernham, lasted six weeks with Kulwicki in 1992. Evernham later said, “The man was a genius. There’s no question. It’s not a matter of people just feeling like he was a genius. That man was a genius. But his personality paid for that. He was very impatient, very straightforward, very cut-to-the-bone.”

When Kulwicki started his own team he served as his own engineer and crew chief. Eventually, he hired Paul Andrews as the crew chief and the team also featured two future crew chiefs, Tony Gibson, the current crew chief for Kurt Busch at Stewart-Haas Racing and Brian Whitesell who succeeded Ray Evernham as the crew chief for Jeff Gordon.

In the early 1990s, very few people would say no to Junior Johnson. When Johnson was looking to replace Terry Labonte, he offered the seat to Kulwicki who said no because he wanted to run his own team. Kulwicki had another run-in with Johnson. In 1991, Johnson wanted to start a second team and offered Kulwicki $1 million to drive for him. The Wisconsin owner/driver turned him down thinking he had secured Maxwell House as a sponsor for his team. Johnson wound up taking the Maxwell House sponsorship and hired Sterling Marlin to drive the No. 22 Maxwell House Ford for Johnson and Kulwicki started the 1991 season without sponsorship.

Kulwicki would eventually secure Hooters to sponsor his car for one race in 1991 and it grew into a multi-year commitment. That commitment from Hooters and Kulwicki’s determination turned into magic in 1992. It was a season of consistency. He scored two victories and only had two finishes outside the top-20 all season. When the team rolled through the gates for the 1992 Hooters 500, Kulwicki was second in points, trailing Davey Allison by 30 points. He went to Ford and NASCAR to get approval to have Underbird on the car because he relished the underdog role.

During the race, points leader Allison was involved in a wreck with Ernie Irvan and fell out of contention. It became a battle between Bill Elliott and Kulwicki to determine the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup championship. Elliott won the Hooters 500, but Kulwicki managed a second place finish to capture the series championship.

The 1992 Hooters 500 is one for the NASCAR record books. It was Richard Petty’s final race, Jeff Gordon’s first race and the day the Underbird took Alan Kulwicki to the championship.

It was a championship he wouldn’t defend. After an appearance at the Hooters in Knoxville, Tennessee, Kulwicki was flying to Bristol when his plane crashed on final approach to the airport. Kulwicki was gone at the age of 38.

His legacy continues in the sport. Tony Gibson is still on a pit box, engineers are the life blood of Sprint Cup success for any team and now the Alan Kulwicki Driver Development Program is helping worthy drivers along the way to reaching their dream.

It’s been 23 years since NASCAR lost a true independent owner/driver who did it his way. Tony Stewart has won a championship since Kulwicki as an owner-driver, but Stewart also had the partnership with Gene Haas and support from Hendrick Motorsports. Kulwicki did it on his own.

I can still see the Hooters No. 7 taking the Polish Victory Lap waving to the fans and I will always wonder how much more he could have accomplished if he wasn’t taken so soon.

Rest in peace, Alan Kulwicki. You are still missed.

March 29, 2016
Surprising and Not Surprising: The Daytona 500

In spite of the unusual happenings that perpetually occur at Daytona, this year a six hour plus rain delay with tornado warnings, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 56^th running of the Great American Race.

Surprising: With so much focus pre-race on the return of the No. 3, formerly driven by Dale Earnhardt Sr. and now by rookie Austin Dillon, the son of the Intimidator and NASCAR’s most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. instead stole the show with his second Daytona 500 victory.

This was Junior’s 20^th victory in the Cup Series and, with the win, he joined Bill Elliott, Michael Waltrip, Sterling Marlin, Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson as two-time Daytona 500 winners.

“I’ll never take this for granted,” Junior said. “We’re two time Daytona champions.”

In addition to the coveted win at Daytona, Earnhardt Jr. had a big weekend overall. The team bearing his name, JR Motorsports, won the Nationwide Drive4COPD 300 race with driver Regan Smith at the wheel.

Not Surprising: In spite of several on-track incidents, the driver of the aforementioned No. 3 for Richard Childress Racing, did quite well for himself, starting from the pole and finishing ninth.

Austin Dillon was also the highest finishing rookie of the race, taking the early lead in a Sunoco Rookie of the year battle.

“That’s what this year is about — experience, trying to finish races and getting better each week,” Dillon said, “We have a long year ahead of us, I’d like to use some of this momentum going forward. I know it’s going to be a long, tough year, and hopefully we’ll be there at the end of these races and try to learn something.”

Surprising: Goodyear had a little scare early in the race when both Kyle Larson and Greg Biffle had tire problems, causing hard hits into the wall for the rookie and veteran racers.

Larson, in the No. 42 race car formerly driven by Juan Pablo Montoya, actually hit the wall twice in the opening laps, going a lap down and soldiering on to finish 38^th.

In spite of his blown tire early in the race, Biffle had a much better finish than Larson, taking the checkered flag in the eighth spot in his No. 16 3M Ford.

“It was a good night,” Biffle said. “We had a really strong car but the 88 was real fast. We just couldn’t hold him off.”

Not Surprising: With the combo platter of the rain delay, potential for additional weather coming in, and the pent up energy of the first race of the season, it was not surprising that there were a number of pit road incidents that created some major mayhem for several drivers.

Early in the race, Matt Kenseth had contact on pit road and ended up spinning to pit backwards in his box. Both Kyle Busch and Aric Almirola removed equipment out of their pit boxes and had to serve costly penalties.

And then there was one of the more controversial calls, with Kasey Kahne called for speeding, all of which he did in an effort not to get hit by Michael Annett who had lost control of his vehicle coming to his pit.

Surprising: After dominating most everything during Speedweeks, from the Sprint Unlimited to the second Duel race, it was a bit surprising that Denny Hamlin did not claim the big prize. He did, however, come home in the runner up position in his No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota, which was his best finish ever in the Daytona 500.

“I thought — the Duels and the Unlimited — I felt like our car didn’t have quite the speed,” Hamlin said. “It was a solid run for us and really it was a fun race.”

Not Surprising: Given the manufacturer change to Chevrolet and a new alliance with Richard Childress Racing, it was not surprising that Casey Mears and his GEICO No. 13 team had a great run in the Great American Race.

In fact, team GEICO finished in the top-10, getting their driver and crew chief Bootie Barker off to a great start for the season.

Surprising: The Labonte brothers, Bobby and Terry, not only made the race but had surprisingly good finishes, 15^th and 20^th respectively.

Brother Bobby extended his consecutive start street for the Great American Race to 22 while elder brother Terry most likely ran his last Daytona 500 competition.

Not Surprising: Because it was after all Daytona, there were several big crashes, collecting many good drivers, to no one’s surprise. One of those hard hits, however, impacted the only female in the field Danica Patrick.

“I think more than anything I am just upset because the GoDaddy car felt really good and it was the best car that I had all Speedweeks,” Patrick said. “I felt like everything was going pretty well, so it’s just upsetting.”

“It’s a bummer, but you know that is the excitement of speedway racing that anything can happen, and it was unfortunate that I was on the short end of the accident.”

Surprising: With a more than six hour rain delay, some of NASCAR’s finest were up to some surprising activities to pass the time away. In fact, several of the racer dads were busy with their children, from Jeff Gordon making Lego creations to Keelan Harvick suiting up in his dad Kevin’s fire suit.

Probably most novel, however, was David Ragan, still clad in his own fire suit, who went out to pick up pizza for his team during the break.

Not Surprising: While Junior reigned triumphant in Victory Lane, just like in the Olympics, there was some agony of defeat in this year’s running for the Great American Race.

Most agonizing were those drivers impacted by engine or fuel pick up woes, including Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex, Jr. and Tony Stewart.

“If it was going to blow up, I wish it would have blown up four hours ago,” Clint Bowyer said. “I could have been home watching. Just disappointing — the guys work so hard for this race. Everybody is out there having fun and we broke our toy.”

“It’s definitely a tough break for our team,” Martin Truex Jr. said. “I went to bed thinking this was my best chance to win the Daytona 500.”

The Cup Series moves on next to Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Arizona for The Profit on CNBC 500 on March 2^nd.

February 24, 2014