Tag: Stewart Haas Racing

Tony Stewart: Its nice to get off to a good start this year

[media-credit name=”Credit: By Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”232″][/media-credit]Tony Stewart had become known for going on these awesome summer stretches, winning races from the summer on. However, so far this season, he has two wins in the first five races.

“It’s been nice to get off to a good start this year the way we have,” Stewart says. “I’m really excited about the start that we’ve got going. We’ve been strong everywhere we’ve been.”

So far this season, Stewart sits fourth in points, despite finishing outside the top 15 twice this season to open the year.

“We’ve had top 10 cars and top five cars every race this year after that,” Stewart continues. “So really, really proud of what (crew chief) Steve (Addington) and all our guy sat Stewart-Haas Racing have done.”

If you look back to last season when he won five races late in the year, he has now won seven of the last 15 races. The last time a driver did that was Jimmie Johnson in 2009-10.

“Gene Haas is a big factor in that,” Stewart says. “Gene has always give us the flexibility and the tools to do what we think needs to be done at the shop.”

Stewart adds that whenever he has asked Haas for something, Haas has delivered.

“There’s been some key pieces that we’ve needed in the shop and he’s been behind it a hundred per cent,” he continues. “That gives all of our guys the confidence that we’re doing everything that we can to give ourselves the best opportunity to be successful.”

The team has been able to get better, as Stewart notes, due to how Addington has adjusted to the team.

“A lot of times when crew chiefs change race teams, they bring the whole team with them,” he explains. “Steve came by himself to our organization and had to learn a whole different group of guys to work with. I think he’s settled in quickly and really gets along good with our guys, learned our system really quick. He brings so much to the table. We’ve learned a lot from him. He’s made great adjustments through the off-season and those results are showing right now.”

Addington adds to that by saying that Stewart has a group of dedicated guys at the shop.

“It’s just racers, guys that want to work,” Addington says. “There’s a lot of smart people that give you support. You can ask a question and somebody will have you an answer really fast. Getting in there, getting to know personalities, things like that, you learn how to work and deal with each person.”

This weekend, Stewart goes to a track where he has had success before as he won the race last fall at Martinsville. In 26 races, he has had three wins, nine top fives and 14 top 10s.

March 28, 2012
Ryan Newman Quietly Having Good Season in Owner’s Shadow

[media-credit id=24 align=”alignright” width=”226″][/media-credit]While the spotlight may be on Tony Stewart, his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Ryan Newman is quietly having a good season so far as he sits 12^th in points.

“We didn’t have the car that we had at Daytona last year but at Phoenix, I put ourselves in a bad situation by crashing the primary car,” he says. “Then we got crashed going for fifth in the race with 50-some laps to go. I think our cars have been good. We’ve got the monkey off our back, so to speak, at Vegas with a lucky chance to get up there in fourth and with the No. 17 (Matt Kenseth) and the No. 5 (Kasey Kahne) having their situation.

At the end of the 500 laps at Bristol Motor Speedway, Newman came home in the 12^th position to match his spot in points.

“I’m just really proud of the guys,” he says. “They’ve worked really hard. It’s obviously been a very hectic start to the season with some rain delays and west coast trips and things like that. But they’ve done an excellent job.”

While teams are continuing to look for advantage, NASCAR has thoughts of closing that up by releasing the EFI data to race teams. Newman says that in the past, it’s been easy for NASCAR to keep it simple and old school.

“The EFI opens up a lot of doors,” he says. “They’ve given us a couple of channels to be able to review when it comes to brake-pressure and throttle position. It’s nice to see those things to compare, but like you said; it does have a catch-22 side to it and that’s the fact that if it is a secret, then it’s no longer; and if it is an advantage, it may not be anymore.”

Newman says that drivers can look at the data to see the differences, but putting it to practical use, it may not be as easy.

“I can look at Tony Stewart’s curve and try to match it and I can’t do it with my race car or with the line I’m running or whatever,” he says. “It’s not so much as simple as that as it is as it is that it just gives us an idea of what to maybe change or try at different race tracks. And obviously, that’s going to change as we go into the second race after we can look at some data; it’s all new to us right now. So, it’s an interesting perspective on a change when it comes to technology.”

As Newman heads to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, it will be another chance to emerge from the boss’ shadow. It won’t be easy as Newman’s average finish at California is 14.4. However, Newman may choose to keep himself hidden as that way it gives him the chance to sneak up and pounce on the competition.

March 20, 2012

Tony Stewart Smokes The Competition in Las Vegas

[media-credit id=22 align=”alignright” width=”200″][/media-credit]Last year, Stewart dominated and came close to winning, but found himself at the bad end of a penalty late in the race. This year, he dominated once again and was able to close the deal, holding Jimmie Johnson off coming to the checkered flag.

“I don’t know if we had the dominate car today, but we were so strong on the restarts,” he says. “I had to go. I knew that when Matt and Greg had better tires than us, I knew we’d be able to hold them off for a little bit. I didn’t know we could hold them off till the end.”

The win marks the first for Stewart at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, now leaving him with only two tracks on NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule he hasn’t won at – Darlington and Kentucky. It also marks the first win for Stewart with new crew chief Steve Addington.

“We talked three times before the race,” Stewart says of Addington. “He is very thorough with us, he explains the changes, he wants your input. He’s been very good at getting to know these guys.”

Addington says that for him, it allowed him to take a lot of pressure off of himself.

“He kept telling me to relax and have fun and we’re going to win our races,” he says. “But I take it very personal every time that race goes on the track. I put more on than I thought I would with them winning the championship, for me. Everybody at Stewart-Haas has been great, doing what I asked, asking me what I wanted done. It’s just been about me putting pressure on myself.”

With 34 laps to go, Stewart made a daring three-wide pass on the restart to get by Brad Keselowski and take the lead. Stewart would lose the lead after coming down pit road for a splash of gas, but was able to get the lead back with on a later restart with 17 laps to go. He never looked back, holding on to the lead through the final two restarts.

“That’s what made today special,” he says. “We didn’t have to hold off the challenge once; we had to hold them off multiple times. It makes me feel like I’ve earned my keep.”

Jimmie Johnson came home second after having to start at the back of the field with a back-up car due to a wreck in practice.

“With everything we went through this weekend, we’ll take it,” he says. “But man, I want to win. We had a little more speed, but tony could get away on the restarts and through the gears. We’ll have to see what we’re doing, what I’m doing wrong.”

Greg Biffle would score a third place finish after making his way through the Roush-Fenway scramble on the backstretch after the restart. On the restart, Matt Kenseth spun the tires, which caused Carl Edwards to make a move on the inside of Matt on the apron to make it three wide. The group made it through turn one, before Kenseth made contact with Kasey Kahne, causing him to get into the wall.

“I just got down in there, Carl was on the top digging,” Biffle says. “I was just trying to ease up, giving him room – I didn’t see what happened back there.”

“Matt spun his tires just a little bit on the restart,” Edwards explains. “I went down on the apron, he gave us a lot of room. We just got all bunched up back there.”

“Carl just laid back and got by me three-wide,” Kenseth says. “They got by me through the middle of the corner and then they just got up in front of me and stopped.”

Ryan Newman finished fourth, followed by Edwards. Clint Bowyer finished sixth, followed by Paul Menard, Jamie McMurray and Trevor Bayne. Dale Earnhardt Jr. would round out of top 10 after leading the first 40 laps of the race.

“The racecar was really tight,” Earnhardt Jr. says. “I knew by the end of the race, it was going to be a really, really tight race track and we needed to free the car up. I didn’t give Stevie enough information throughout the day to tell him how tight it was. I didn’t keep up my end and gave up a lot of spots at the end of the race.”

Pole sitter Kasey Kahne finished 19^th after struggling with the handling of the car during the second half of the race.

Greg Biffle now leads the points, 10 points over Kevin Harvick. Denny Hamlin sits third in points, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth.

Unofficial Race Results
Kobalt Tools 400, Las Vegas Motor Speedway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Cup/race.php?race=3
=========================================
Pos.	St.	No.	Driver	Make	Points
=========================================
1	–	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	48
2	–	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	43
3	–	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	42
4	–	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	40
5	–	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	39
6	–	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	39
7	–	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	37
8	–	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	36
9	–	21	Trevor Bayne	Ford	0
10	–	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	35
11	–	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	34
12	–	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	33
13	–	9	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	31
14	–	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	30
15	–	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	29
16	–	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	28
17	–	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	27
18	–	55	Mark Martin	Toyota	26
19	–	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	25
20	–	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	24
21	–	34	David Ragan	Ford	24
22	–	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	23
23	–	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	21
24	–	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	20
25	–	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	19
26	–	47	Bobby Labonte	Toyota	18
27	–	13	Casey Mears	Ford	17
28	–	30	David Stremme	Toyota	16
29	–	36	Dave Blaney	Chevrolet	15
30	–	32	Ken Schrader	Ford	14
31	–	10	David Reutimann	Chevrolet	13
32	–	2	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	13
33	–	38	David Gilliland	Ford	11
34	–	33	Brendan Gaughan	Chevrolet	10
35	–	51	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	9
36	–	83	Landon Cassill	Toyota	8
37	–	22	A.J. Allmendinger	Dodge	8
38	–	98	Michael McDowell	Ford	6
39	–	93	Travis Kvapil	Toyota	5
40	–	26	Josh Wise *	Ford	4
41	–	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	0
42	–	37	Timmy Hill*	Ford	2
43	–	249	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	1

March 11, 2012

Tony Stewart Looks To Repeat Last Year’s Championship Success

[media-credit id=22 align=”alignright” width=”189″][/media-credit]After winning a championship, the conventional way of thinking is to keep the team the exact same way and take the same attack approach.

However, Tony Stewart went down a different route as at the end of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship season, he let crew chief Darian Grubb go. In exchange, he hired Steve Addington to become his crew chief for 2012.

Stewart felt the change was necessary after how they ran for the majority of the year.

“We kind of got in a slump last year and felt like we needed to make a change,” Stewart said during Texas Motor Speedway’s Media Day. “It’s definitely not uncommon in our sport to do that, but it seemed very odd to do it at the end of the year like that but we actually made the decision before the Chase started.”

Many people forgot that before the Chase started, Stewart’s average finish was 14.23 while he sat ninth in points with no wins. He was also saying that his team didn’t belong in the chase with the way they were running as he knew they wouldn’t be able to contend.

However, once they were in the Chase, it was like someone flipped a light switch as Stewart went on a terror, winning five of the 10 races and was crowned the champion.

“We ran well during the year; we just hadn’t got that win yet,” Stewart said. “It seemed that anything that could go wrong went wrong. But it seemed like when the Chase started we finally got all that bad luck behind us. We started strong at Chicago and Loudon was a track where Ryan (Newman) and I had run well there in the spring, so the first win at Chicago was kind of a surprise. We expected to run well at Loudon but I don’t think we would have planned or could have predicted we were going to get three more wins after that. It was a remarkable run.”

So far this season, Stewart hasn’t hit the magic stride yet as he finished 16^th at Daytona due to a late race spin and 22^nd at Phoenix due to a fuel pick-up issue.

The communication between him and Addington is still being tweaked, but going good so far.

“Like when I say, ‘it’s a little loose,’ he has to figure out how much a little means to me,” Stewart explained. “What is a little to me may be a lot bigger change to him. So it’s just figuring out when I say a little or a lot how much that actually is. I don’t think it will take really long. We worked really well together last weekend we just had some bad luck during the race. We had a solid day going.”

Despite it being early in the season, Stewart knows he needs to make a charge soon.

“There is really nothing to fall back on,” he said. “It’s nice knowing that we’ve got good notes; we’ve got good tracks coming up. Vegas was one last year where we had a dominant car and had a penalty with an air hose getting caught on the body work. It cost us a shot to win the race. It’s nice to go back to some of these tracks knowing we ran well at them. With this Chase format, you have 26 weeks just to get yourself in there so you can’t take it easy at the beginning of the year and think that you are going to waltz right into a spot in the Chase. You’ve got to get after it right away.”

Stewart went and selected Addington based on his time spent at Joe Gibbs Racing.

“I had known Steve through the (Joe) Gibbs (Racing) days when I was driving for (crew chief Greg) Zipadelli and (Steve) Addington was working for Kyle Busch,” Stewart said. “I had enjoyed working with him over there and when it came time to try and figure out who we wanted to look at I think it was a scenario where Steve was ready for a change and we were ready for a change. I think it was the right opportunity at the right time. I definitely knew Steve’s credentials because we had worked with him at Gibbs, so it seemed like a natural change for both of us.”

Stewart also looked to expand his organization further by continuing to look at Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) by hiring Greg Zipadelli to be the Competition Director at Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) and to crew chief for rookie Danica Patrick. Zipadelli was the crew chief for Stewart during Stewart’s entire time at JGR and won two championships with him.

It seemed like a natural selection for Stewart to hopefully bring success over to SHR. Beyond that, Zipadelli has helped Stewart transition from open-wheel to NASCAR so he was hoping that would choreograph over to helping Patrick.

March 9, 2012
Danica Patrick Suffers Crashes During Speedweeks, But Continues to Learn

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignnone” width=”270″][/media-credit]Coming into Speedweeks 2012, things were looking up for Danica Patrick as it was supposed to be a weekend of learning and a weekend where she could do well. Instead, the weekend became one that ended in a headach as in each of the three races she ran, she was involved in a wreck.

The crashes began on last Thursday afternoon with the Gatorade Duel. For the majority of the race, Patrick had stayed out of trouble, testing the waters and running as high as sixth at one point.

However, she wouldn’t make it to the finish. On the last lap, she hit the inside wall hard after contact from Aric Almirola on the final lap.

“I got valuable practice time,” she said afterwards. “But it is never a good feeling for me to not be able to drive the car back to the pits and something about me feels guilty when I see that Go Daddy is all broken up along the side.”

Patrick didn’t let that bring her down for long as the next day, she won the pole for the Nationwide Series DRIVE4COPD 300. She wanted to win the pole for crew chief Tony Eury Jr., as it meant the first Nationwide Series Daytona pole for him despite all the success he had with cousin Dale Earnhardt Jr. in that series.

“Tony builds really good cars and the guys that helped him do that, did a really good job,” she says “I’m really thrilled for Tony Jr.; this is something that he wanted. So for me to push the pedal and give that to him, it feels really good.”

The race wouldn’t go as planned as despite leading laps early, she would be taken out on lap 49 after contact from her teammate Cole Whitt.

“I don’t think it’s ever great when teammates come together,” Patrick said. “We’ll have to figure out what happened and move forward.”

Patrick quickly displayed her displeasure with Whitt over the radio, which Whitt responded by saying, “I wouldn’t expect her to be happy about it. I wouldn’t be happy about it either. I don’t know why anyone would expect her to be like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s great.’ ”

After her wreck in the Gatorade Duel, she would have to start at the back of the Daytona 500. Her race wouldn’t last long as she would be collected in a second lap incident that started when Elliot Sadler got into Jimmie Johnson. Her team would get the car fixed and she would go back out to run some laps.

“Any lap that I turn is progression,” she said. “That’s why I was proud of them for getting me on the track. Was there much to gain for me to get back on track? No. But there was experience as I got back up in pack.”

Patrick would finish in 38^thin her cup debut, but picked up valuable knowledge.

“I honestly I think I picked up a lot of tips and honestly, I wish the race would’ve been a single file line at the beginning like it was when I got back up there,” she said.

As the weekend went, Patrick learned more about the draft and that was most evident in the Nationwide Series. Before the incident with Whitt, she had led a portion of the race, first with help from Earnhardt Jr., and then with help from Tony Stewart.

The success she did have within the wrecks shows that she has picked up lessons since beginning in NASCAR in 2010. When she first started, she was barely running at a competitive pace.

“I’m pleased with some of the stuff that’s gotten better over the year – I can think of the first race here where I was struggling to keep up,” she said. “Then now you can drop the green flag in a Cup race and I’m just hanging out. I know the rules are different, but the level of comfort and proximity of cars next to each other and front and back, and obviously has been improved.”

Her improvement had Elliott Sadler call her the most improved driver in NASCAR’s top three divisions from the beginning of 2011 till now.

“That’s appreciated and I have worked really hard and I’m lucky I drive for a good team that has good resources,” she said when told that. “Tony Jr. is a really, good accomplished crew chief. On the Cup side, we haven’t seen a lot of the great people around me there too, and some really good experience teammates.

“That’s a nice pat on the back; I appreciated that. I still recognize that I have a lot to learn, but I’ve been able to do this in a nice way. I’ve had the backing from the beginning from Go Daddy and it’s been nice because instead of having to go out and show what I’m made of every week, got the most amount spots possible and be desperate. I’ve never had to feel like that. I’ve been able to sit back and observe, not step outside of my comfort zone, because I’ve had a plan since the beginning and so few drivers get that ability to plan long-term and have someone that’s there for them who will follow them wherever they go.”

One of the keys to Patrick being able to pick up as many as lessons as she has is that she doesn’t rest on her laurels. She knows that there is lots that she is going to have to learn.

Going into the Nationwide race, despite winning the pole, she knew it was going to be a challenge.

“It’s going to come down to bump drafting, and being good at that,” she says. “Good at swapping, good at keeping the engine cool, good at keeping in a pack, good at keeping connected, good at strategy so when you pit, you pit with your partner and you don’t get left alone at any point. There’s a lot of stuff that’s going to happen during the race that we’re going to have to manage, so it doesn’t change our strategy.”

Next week at Phoenix International Raceway marks her next challenge. She won’t be running the Sprint Cup race, but the Nationwide race will have its own challenges. Patrick has made three starts at Phoenix, with her best finish being 17^th, which she scored last spring.

This year is all about learning and getting ready for the full Sprint Cup schedule in 2013. Certainly the tricky oval in the dessert will teach her some more.

February 29, 2012
Speedweeks: Important Time For Tony Stewart and Danica Patrick

[media-credit id=22 align=”alignright” width=”194″][/media-credit]Last season, Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) had a dream year as they won their first championship with team co-owner Tony Stewart in a tie-breaker over Carl Edwards.

Now with Speedweeks 2012 having started, they hope to carry that momentum through this coming week.

While Stewart may now be a three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion, he has yet to find his way to victory lane in the Great American Race. Stewart does know how to race at Daytona as he has won a list of numerous other races, including three Coke Zero 400s, three Bud Shootouts, two Gatorade Duels and an IROC win. Beyond that, his six DRIVE4COPD 300 Nationwide wins, with the last four coming consecutively, are second only to Dale Earnhardt’s seven. The win have him tied for second on the all-time win list with Bobby Allison with 16 wins; Earnhardt holds the most wins at Daytona with 34.

With what Stewart has done, it’s almost a mirror image to what Earnhardt did. For 19 years, Earnhardt won almost everything there was at Daytona – except the Daytona 500. Then finally in 1998, he found his way to Daytona victory lane. Could this be the year for Tony Stewart? It’s very easily possible he could do it in his 13^th year as he finished second in the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night.

While vowing for the 500 win, he will also vow for his fifth Nationwide Daytona win in a row, driving the No. 33 Oreo/Ritz car for Delana Harvick, as he has done in years past. The only difference this year being that the car will be prepared by Richard Childress Racing, versus Kevin Harvick Incorporated.

The Nationwide race will be give him another opportunity to race alongside his employee, Danica Patrick.

Patrick will make her full transition to NASCAR this year as she plans to compete in the full Nationwide schedule this year for JR Motorsports, while running 10 Sprint Cup races for Stewart-Haas.

One of the 10 Cup races she has planned for this year is the Daytona 500, which she is locked in virtue of an owners’ points deal that Stewart made with Tommy Baldwin Racing. So when the green flag is dropped on Sunday, she will be in the starting grid making her first Sprint Cup star. She will also become the third woman to start the Daytona 500. Janet Gutherie started the 500 in 1977 and 1980 while Shawna Robinson competed in 2002.

“I want to be good at Daytona,” she said last Saturday. “I know there’s a lot of tracks on the schedule, but when it comes to choosing this one or another one I’ve been to, I’m coming to Daytona, because I want to be good here.”

If Patrick can finish in the top 10, she will become the highest finishing female in Daytona 500 history. It may seem like a tall order for her, however she does have some experience on her side.

Last February, she was criticized for how she drafted with drivers as they stated that she didn’t know the idea of dragging the brake. However, by the summer Nationwide race in July, she learned what she had to do and led the field working with Tony Stewart, and also worked with teammate Aric Almirola.

She has also continued to improve overall in the races that she has run, getting her highest finish of fourth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with fuel strategy after running just inside the top 10 all day.

According to her Nationwide Series crew chief Tony Eury Jr., they were really consistant but “the finishes haven’t shown it. It’s really easy for her to run in the top 15. If we can get everything right, we can run in the top 10 with this girl.”

When it comes to the Sprint Cup Series, she’ll be working with veteran crew chief Greg Zippidelli. Eury Jr. will continue to work with her on the Nationwide side.

February 21, 2012

Tony Stewart Wins Geico 400 Vaults to Second in Points

For a guy who did not think heading into the this race weekend that he had a chance at winning the championship Tony Stewart found himself leaving the Windy City only 7 points behind the new leader, Kevin Harvick. Stewart had enough gas while many of the stronger cars of the day and fellow chase participants were running out on the white flag lap. Harvick was behind by almost a second and Dale Earnhardt Jr. followed Stewart with Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski rounding out the top five. Eight of the top ten finishers were chase participants with Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin finishing seventh and ninth respectively.

Defending champion Jimmie Johnson and Kenseth, both who led part of the race today ran out of fuel.

Stewart said, “It is huge; I had a migraine all day yesterday so I am kinda glad we didn’t race. Man, this Office Depot/ Mobil One Chevy was awesome! All of our partners … we have had a rough year so this is a good way to start off the Chase.”

Stewart, who was winless up to today is headed to New Hampshire where he and his teammate had their best showing of the season earlier when they finished 1-2 with Newman taking the checkered flag. Stewart said, “The way we ran there in the spring, I am real excited about going to New Hampshire. So I am just excited and proud of everyone on our Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy team and they did an awesome job all weekend and Darien and these guys made some awesome calls and great pit stops by the crew. We just had a good day today.”

Stewart’s crew chief Darian Grubb said, “Boy does champagne feel good right now. It’s pretty sweet. It’s the way to start the Chase off, especially with the year we’ve had. We’ve had some really good cars, really fast cars and some bad luck and circumstances that kept us from winning races. To get our first win leading into the Chase feels really good.”

The new points leader and second place finisher Kevin Harvick said,”We worked real hard all weekend trying to be smart. The car was a bit of a struggle in the middle part of the race but in that last run we were one of the best cars on the track. My guys had great pit stops and worked really hard trying to get better so I really have to thank those guys for what they got us today and we had a good car and we were just real smart all weekend and did a good job and I am real happy with the team.”

Jeff Gordon ran out of fuel and dug himself a hole dropping from third to eleventh in points. Gordon said, “We were just off. We didn’t qualify good. That got us behind right there. It was just one of those days. You know. We had a right front tear apart. We actually got the car halfway decent there at the end. Then it came down to saving fuel and we obviously didn’t save enough fuel.”

Gordon noted that they need to have some improvements saying, “We have to qualify better; we can’t have days like we had today. That’s for sure.”

Official Race Results
Geico 400, Chicagoland Speedway

=========================================
Pos.	St.	No.	Driver	Make	Points
=========================================
1	26	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	47
2	30	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	42
3	19	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	41
4	5	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	41
5	6	2	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	40
6	3	22	Kurt Busch	Dodge	40
7	21	33	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	37
8	4	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	37
9	25	5	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	35
10	12	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	35
11	15	6	David Ragan	Ford	33
12	24	4	Kasey Kahne	Toyota	32
13	8	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	31
14	16	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	30
15	22	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	29
16	10	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	28
17	13	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	27
18	20	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	27
19	17	9	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	25
20	2	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	24
21	1	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	24
22	9	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	23
23	28	21	Trevor Bayne	Ford	0
24	23	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	20
25	42	32	Mike Bliss	Ford	0
26	7	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	18
27	18	43	A.J. Allmendinger	Ford	17
28	40	71	Andy Lally *	Ford	16
29	41	13	Casey Mears	Toyota	15
30	31	51	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	0
31	27	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	13
32	29	0	David Reutimann	Toyota	12
33	39	36	Dave Blaney	Chevrolet	11
34	32	38	J.J. Yeley	Ford	11
35	35	46	Scott Speed	Ford	0
36	38	34	David Gilliland	Ford	8
37	11	47	Bobby Labonte	Toyota	7
38	14	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	6
39	37	7	Robby Gordon	Dodge	5
40	36	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	0
41	34	30	David Stremme	Chevrolet	3
42	43	37	Josh Wise	Ford	0
43	33	66	Michael McDowell	Toyota	1

September 19, 2011

Surprising and Not Surprising: Pure Michigan 400

Irish eyes were smiling in the hills surrounding Michigan International Speedway, keeping the rain which had plagued the last two Cup races, at bay. Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 42^nd annual running of the Pure Michigan 400.

[media-credit name=”Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”255″][/media-credit]Surprising: Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion, could not have summed up the surprisingly bad day for his manufacturer and team any more succinctly.

With a surprisingly uncharacteristic engine failure, Edwards was Ford’s worst finisher at Michigan, a track where not only has Ford excelled but where Roush Fenway Racing has traditionally had free reign to play at the front of the field.

“I thought we would have a Ford in Victory Lane,” Edwards said. “I thought one way or another, we would win this thing.”

“It was a very tough race,” Edwards said. “We weren’t expecting a failure like that.”

Edwards lagged behind his Roush Fenway Racing teammates Matt Kenseth, who finished in 10^th in the No. 17 Kroger Ford Fusion; David Ragan, driving the No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion, who brought home a 12^th place finish; and pole sitter Greg Biffle, behind the wheel of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion, who finished a disappointing 20^th after leading the most laps in the race.

Biffle was as surprised by his disappointing finish as his teammate Edwards was of his finish and engine failure.

“I don’t know what happened,” Biffle said. “I have a feeling we kinda got a bum set of tires and then we got off on our adjustments. I really don’t know what happened.”

Not Surprising: After being ever so close to Victory Lane at both Pocono and Watkins Glen, it was no surprise that the driver of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota outran a five-time champ in a green-white-checkered finish to finally took the checkered flag and made his trademark celebratory bow.

This victory was Kyle Busch’s first at Michigan International Speedway. It was his fifth top-10 finish in 14 races at Michigan.

“Today the car was flawless,” Busch said. “We knew the restart would be treacherous but I got a good run on the top-side and I was able to take the lead off Turn Two and set our sights on the checkered flag from there.”

With his fourth victory of the season, including this win at the Irish hills, Busch was also the first driver to officially clinch his berth in the championship Chase. And with Edwards’ poor finish, Busch now sits alone at the top of the leader board.

“It feels awesome,” Busch said of his guaranteed Chase spot. “It gives us an added bonus to just go out there and race for wins. We certainly feel good about it.”

Surprising: Brad Keselowski, behind the wheel of the Blue Deuce for Penske Racing, continues to surprise all by starring in his own sequel, ‘Iron Man Part Three.’ Keselowski finished third in the Pure Michigan 400, his third straight top-three finish since breaking his ankle and wrenching his back in a testing crash.

This was Keselowski’s first top-10 finish in five races at Michigan. With his finish, Keselowski also moved ever so close to Chase contention, moving up two positions in the point standings to 12^th.

“It was a good effort,” Keselowski said. “It was a great day, with great execution and I’m proud of my team.”

“I think we’re in pretty good shape,” Keselowski said of his Chase chances. “I feel better every week.”

Not Surprising: With the Chase race heating up, it is no surprise that the driver of the No. 48 Lowes Chevrolet has found his groove, as well as his lucky horseshoe. Jimmie Johnson, who like Busch has also never won at Michigan, scored a career-best second place finish.

This was Johnson’s eighth top-10 finish in 20 races in the Irish hills. It is also his 15^th top-10 finish in the 2011 season to date.

“It was a great finish for the Lowe’s team,” Johnson said. “We had a tough start to the race on pit road and on the race track but we got that ironed out.”

“Good runs put so much confidence in the driver and the team,” Johnson continued. “It felt good to be racing with the leader and have a shot at it.”

Surprising: Although Stewart-Haas Racing had a surprisingly good day at Michigan, with Ryan Newman finishing fifth in his No. 39 Wix Filters Chevrolet, and team owner Tony Stewart also finishing top ten in his No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet, the latter seemed surprisingly depressed after the race.

“I don’t know what we got to do to get one balanced for a day but we haven’t figured it out yet,” Stewart said. “We were on both sides of the coin today between tight and loose.”

“I’ll be perfectly honest at this stage in the deal if we’re going to run this bad, it really doesn’t matter if we make the Chase or not,” Smoke continued. “Our stuff’s so bad right now we’re wasting one of those top 12 spots.”

Not Surprising: On the flip side, it was no surprise to see the Hendrick Motorsports gang have a good day on the sweeping turns of Michigan International Speedway. Following closely behind runner up Jimmie Johnson, HMS teammate Mark Martin finished fourth in the No. 5 Carquest/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet.

“It’s an incredible privilege to drive stuff like that,” Martin said. “We were right there and could see the lead and anytime you can see the lead, you feel like you have a crack at it. I feel very fortunate.”

HMS four-time champ Jeff Gordon also had a decent day at the office, finishing sixth in the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet, moving up another spot in the point standings to sixth as well. Gordon also made history, marking over 22,000 laps led in his career.

“All in all, a solid day for the Dupont Chevrolet,” Gordon said. “I loved the effort and the cars and team that we are bringing to the race track. It was a lot of fun out there.”

The final driver, piloting the No. 88 National Guard/Amp Energy Chevrolet for Mr. Hendrick, had a fairly good race as well. In spite of pit problems, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finished fourteenth, keeping himself solidly in the ninth spot in the Chase standings.

“I had some awesome runs and the car was really fast,” Junior said. “And then I put on some tires and I couldn’t drive the car. We had some bad stuff happen on pit road, but we drove it back up there.”

Surprising: With a starting spot of fourth, the driver of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota had high hopes for redemption in Michigan, as well as the hope of keeping his Chase chances alive. Surprisingly, in spite of Denny Hamlin’s new engine, he struggled throughout the race, hitting the wall and heading to the garage to repair significant right front suspension damage.

Hamlin finished the race in 35^th and lost two positions in the point standings, falling to a disappointing 14^th, barely hanging on to any chances of a Chase berth.

Not Surprising: Coming off his top-10 finish at the Glen, it was not surprising that A J Allmendinger almost pulled off another one at MIS. The driver of the No. 43 Best Buy Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports powered through the field from his 29^th place start to finish 11^th.

Surprising: On the flip side, the Dinger’s teammate Marcos Ambrose, winner of the Cup race at Watkins Glen last weekend and the Nationwide race in Montreal this weekend, had a surprisingly frustrating day.

The driver of the No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion started out strong but then was tagged from behind by Kevin Harvick while trying to pit, shoving his car head first into the pit wall, relegating him to a 27^th place finish.

“That was frustrating,” Ambrose said. “We had a good car and we were top-10 a lot of the day.”

“We just kept getting tighter and tighter,” Ambrose continued. “We had a hole in the grill. That really hurt us and we ended up turned around in the pit there at the end, so that hurt us too.”

Not Surprising: Although the driver of the No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet qualified poorly and started 35^th, it was no surprise to see him drive as hard as he could to a top-ten finish. With Clint Bowyer’s 8^th place finish at Michigan, he has managed to hang on to the 11^th spot in the Chase standings.

“It was a good, hard fought battle all day long,” Bowyer said of his race. “From where we started, starting 35^th, getting up there in the top ten, we had a good car all day long.”

“We gained but not near enough. We’re running out of time but if we keep digging, who knows what’s going to happen.”

August 21, 2011
Surprising and Not Surprising: Brickyard 400 at Indy

With Big Machine Records as the presenting sponsor, the Indy pre-race festivities were destined to feature artists such as Reba McIntire and Rascal Flatts performing ‘America the Beautiful’ and the national anthem respectively, as well as CEO Scott Borchetta waving the green flag for the race start.

[media-credit name=”Adam Lovelace” align=”alignright” width=”245″][/media-credit]Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 18^th annual Brickyard 400 presented by BigMachineRecords.com:

Surprising: In spite of leading the race at the halfway point, clicking off a position a lap in the final twelve laps of the race, and being the only car assured of finishing the race with enough fuel, it was surprising that the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, Jeff Gordon did not win the race.

Gordon did, however, come in a solid second, improving his point standings to being just 52 points behind leader Carl Edwards. This was Gordon’s 14^th top 10 finish in 18 races at Indianapolis Speedway and his ninth top-10 finish in 2011.

“Oh my goodness what a day,” Gordon said. “I am so proud of this Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet team. I mean they were just flawless.”

“It was all we could do to put pressure on those guys and hope they would run out,” Gordon said of his battle with those in danger of running out of fuel. “I passed all of them but one.”

Not Surprising: It was not surprising that the one that Gordon could not get past was a driver with a family history as storied as the Brickyard itself. Dedicating the win to his father John, Paul Menard, driver of the No. 27 NIBCO/Menards Chevrolet won his first ever NASCAR race at the track where he had been coming with his family since he was a youngster.

“You know I’ve been coming here since I was a kid and my Daddy has been trying to win this race for 35 years,” Menard said. “So this is for my Dad.”

“I can’t believe we won Indy,” Menard continued. “This is just a really special place for my family and myself.”

Menard made a little history at the Brickyard himself, becoming the first driver to win his first career race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This is also the first Indy win in a Menard’s sponsored race car.

This is Menard’s sixth top-10 finish in 2011 and his first top-10 finish in five races at Indy. He also became the fourth different first-time winner for the 2011 NASCAR season.

Surprising: One of the biggest surprises of the day was how many drivers pitted under green for fuel directly after a restart towards the end of the race. One of those drivers who did just that was NASCAR’s favorite son Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in his No. 88 Amp Energy/National Guard Chevrolet.

Junior’s fuel strategy did not, however, play to his advantage. He finished 16^th and dropped one more position in the point standings to tenth, just barely maintaining Chase contention status.

“You don’t want to be hanging around out there on the race track when everybody else is already inside a fuel window,” Earnhardt, Jr. said. “So, yeah I can understand why it turned out like it did.”

Not Surprising: Since the Brickyard is considered one of the ‘big’ races on the NASCAR schedule, it was not surprising that two drivers who have won ‘big’ races in the past had good runs. Regan Smith, behind the wheel of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet and winner of the Darlington Showtime Southern 500, scored the third place finish and Jamie McMurray, Daytona 500 and defending winner of the Brickyard 400 last year, took fourth in his No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet.

“It was a great run for the Furniture Row Chevy and my guys worked their butts off all weekend,” Smith said. “This is not a great track for me, so I am happy and if I couldn’t win, the guy in Victory lane is my best friend on the circuit and I can’t wait to congratulate him.”

“We got a little bit lucky today,” McMurray said. “We’ve had a tough year and a lot of things go wrong and a lot of bad luck. So, it’s very nice to have good luck and a good finish.”

Surprising: In spite of an uncertain future for 2012, with his ride for Rick Hendrick ending at the end of the season, Mark Martin in his No. 5 Quaker State/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet pulled off a surprisingly good top-10 finish.

Martin took the checkered flag at the Brickyard in eighth place, advancing his point standings by two spots up to the 18^th position.

Not Surprising: It was not surprising that the winner of the final Nationwide race at Lucas Oil Raceway continued his great weekend run over at the Brickyard. Brad Keselowski, behind the wheel of the Blue Deuce, finished top-10.

“It was kind of an up-and-down day for the Miller Lite Dodge,” Keselowski said of his ninth place run. “At the three-quarter part of the race, I thought we were going to win the Brickyard.”

“It just didn’t quite work out, but we made our car faster throughout the day and I was proud of that.”

Surprising: Even Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota, surprised himself by battling not only track position and fuel strategy but also a tussle with Tony Stewart in the pits to attain a top-10 finish.

“I definitely had no idea that the day would be so ugly, but yet come out of it smelling like a rose I guess,” Busch said. “We worked our butts of this whole weekend trying to get something out of nothing.”

Not Surprising: In spite of a crew chief change, Jeff Burton, RCR veteran and NASCAR statesman, continued his downward spiral. Burton finished 35^th in his No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet.

“We had a little miscommunication on pit road,” Burton said. “The radios blanked out and I couldn’t hear him (Burton’s new crew chief Luke Lambert). I drove by pit road and it just put us in a hole the rest of the day.”

“We were fast but we just had a lot of crap go on.”

Surprising: With so many media pundits predicting a victory at Indy, it was surprising to see how badly Indy 500 champ Juan Pablo Montoya finished. JPM, piloting his No. 42 Target Chevrolet, finished 28^th.

“It sucks when you run good all day,” Montoya said. “We unloaded really bad but at the end, we were a really competitive car.”

“Right now it’s all about looking at the future.”

Not Surprising: After their one, two finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, it was not surprising to see the two drivers of Stewart Haas Racing have another fairly good day. Tony Stewart, piloting the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet overcame adversity on the track and on pit road to finish sixth.

Stewart’s teammate Ryan Newman, behind the wheel of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet, also had a decent day, finishing 12^th. Both drivers maintained their positions solidly in the top ten in the point standings.

“I just fought for everything I could get all day,” Stewart said. “We didn’t have the best car by any means.”

“Whatever you get here, you appreciate it because you had to earn it,” Stewart continued. “You don’t get anything free here.”

August 1, 2011
Surprising and Not Surprising: New Hampshire Lenox Industrial Tools 301

After a week of debate on whether or not NASCAR drivers were athletes, thanks to Golden Tate at the EPSYs, as well as which driver was in desperation mode to make the Chase, 43 NASCAR Sprint Cup cars took to the Magic Mile in Loudon, New Hampshire.

Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the Lenox Industrial Tools 301.

[media-credit id=43 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Surprising: Prior to the race, most of the drivers were praising the new tire that Goodyear had brought to the track. Yet, by the end of the race, several drivers had experienced surprisingly significant tire issues. One of those most affected was the point leader coming into the race, Kyle Busch.

Busch, behind the wheel of the unusually white No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, blew a tire and slammed into the wall at turn 3. Even worse than his 36^th place finish was his fall from the top of the Chase standings leader board, from first to fifth.

“We blew a tire,” Busch said. “There was too much brake heat.”

“I had a pretty fast car and we were getting there,” Busch continued. “But the tire wouldn’t take it.”

Not Surprising: With one driver dominating the race weekend, from winning his third straight Whelen Modified Series race to the Coors Light pole, it was not surprising to find Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 US Army Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, in Victory Lane.

And following right behind him, sporting a big smile, was his team owner and teammate Tony Stewart, who brought his No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, to the checkered flag in second place.

This was the first time that Stewart-Haas Racing had finished 1-2. They had also started the race in the same order in which they finished.

“I’m just really proud of this US Army team and all the people that help out,” Newman said. “It’s a big deal for us.”

“We had a great weekend at Stewart-Haas Racing and I’m really proud of everybody’s effort.”

“It was a perfect day for the organization for sure,” Stewart said. “This is big for everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing.”

Surprising: In contrast to their Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch’s problems, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano both had surprisingly good days, even with the beating and banging going on at the Magic Mile.

Hamlin, driving the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota, and Logano, behind the wheel of the No. 20 Home Depot, came in third and fourth respectively.

“It was a pretty physical race in the sense that guys were really banging into each other,” Hamlin said. “I was banging into guys.”

“It was one of those days where you just had to do the best you can to keep four fenders on it by the end of the day,” Hamlin continued. “We had three, but it was good enough to get us through and have a good comeback day finishing third.”

Not Surprising: Four-time champion Jeff Gordon, driving the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, proved he had the mettle to face adversity and still salvage a decent day at the track. Gordon battled electrical issues for much of the race, describing his warning lights as “lighting up like a Christmas tree” at one point.

Because Gordon had to turn his brake blowers off due to the electrical issues, he had a tire failure at the end of the race, rolling slowing across the line to finish 11^th.

“Oh my goodness,” Gordon said. “What didn’t happen today? It was a pretty crazy day for us.”

“We had a lot of obstacles thrown at us, but certainly we had a lot to smile about with how great our car was.”

Surprising: With all the radio communications possible between driver, crew chief and team nowadays, it was surprising to see one team writing out instructions to their driver on a piece of cardboard during the race.

Jamie McMurray, driving the No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker 1 Chevrolet, could not hear his crew so they resorted to old school style of communication. Even that did not help, however, and McMurray and company finished a tough 31^st.

Not Surprising: Similar to his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jimmie Johnson, in the No. 48 Lowes Chevrolet, had a bad day but took it and made it better. Johnson and company had a lug nut issue and then spun, but still recovered to finish fifth.

“We’ve been working and we’ve been patient as a group trying to mature guys and get stuff ready,” the five-time champion said. “But we can’t have these mistakes anymore.”

“We are way too close to the Chase and we need to be right.”

Surprising: While the Red Bull team has had it troubles, especially with the news that the team would be gone after the season, it was surprising to see teammates Kasey Kahne, in the No. 4 Red Bull Toyota, and Brian Vickers, in the No. 38 Red Bull Toyota, wreck into each other.

Kahne was able to finish the race in sixth but Vickers, who was most affected by the collision, could only recover to place 34^th.

Not Surprising: It was not surprising to see the driver of the No. 99 Ortho Home Defense Ford, Carl Edwards, play the fuel mileage game to regain the points lead with his 13^th place finish.

“We had fun,” Edwards said. “It is fitting we have Aflac for a sponsor because I feel like I was buying insurance at the end.”

“I was letting those guys go by one point at a time thinking that if we had a green-white-checkered, we could win this thing,” Edwards continued. “It is hard to back up like that but it worked.”

July 19, 2011