A week after several crew members jumped into the Kansas scuffle between Cole Custer and Tyler Reddick, another scuffle involving crew members has taken center stage again. As a result, NASCAR has suspended a Team Penske crew member for collaring Denny Hamlin and throwing him to the ground following his scuffle with Penske driver Joey Logano.
Following Sunday’s First Data 500 at Martinsville, Logano and Hamlin first exchanged words, then shoves before crews stepped in to pull the drivers apart. But while other crew members appeared to be working to pull the drivers apart, Dave Nichols Jr., a tire technician for the No. 22 team, appeared to collar Hamlin and pull him to the ground before Hamlin’s crew converged on Nichols.
That move is what led to NASCAR suspending Nichols for the next race, as he was found in violation of Section 12.8.1.C, which addresses member-to-member confrontations with physical violence.
An argument can be made that the crews are doing nothing more than protecting their driver’s honor or respect. In some sense, that may be honorable. But unless the crews are working to break up a quarrel between drivers, their actions may only go to further escalate a situation into something it didn’t need to turn into.
Last week I brought up how some of those in the NASCAR community were talking about how the sport needs to implement a third-man rule much like the NHL. Let those drivers who were involved settle their dispute, be it with words or fists, and unless a crew member is working to de-escalate the situation they stay out of it or they risk a fine and/or a suspension.
There was no reason for Nichols to play the hero and collar Hamlin. His responsibility at that point was to help de-escalate the situation and make sure his driver didn’t get into too much trouble. His actions were over-the-top and unnecessary and made the No. 22 crew look bad.
The issue is between the drivers, not the crew. The drivers are the ones in control of what happens on the track; they’re the ones that know what truly goes down when it goes down. They are also the ones the fans have come to see and if there’s an issue, the fans want to see them handle the issue one-on-one.
Hopefully, the suspension of Nichols is actually seen as a deterrent to the other members on all the teams to not try anything unnecessary during a scuffle between drivers. Let them hash out their beef and be done with it.
Meanwhile, the crew’s job is to act in the best interests of their driver, team, and organization. Collaring a driver and throwing him to the ground is non-conducive to that. The call to suspend Nichols was a good call on NASCAR’s part, so the only thing left to do is to hope it’s enough of a deterrent lest the sanctioning body moves to harsher reprimands.
Team Penske driver Austin Cindric went back-to-back in the Xfinity Series on Saturday, winning the B&L Transport 170 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for his second-straight win in the series. Cindric’s performance was a dominant one, winning from the pole and leading 46 of the race’s 75 laps and taking the checkered by 3.78 seconds over runner-up Christopher Bell.
“It feels good, two in row and going for three at Bristol,” Cindric said in Victory Lane. “I’ll probably go crazy if I win there. Should be a lot of fun. This is great momentum for our group.”
Cindric also took his No. 22 Penske Ford Mustaing to Victory Lane at Watkins Glen a week ago, narrowly taking the checkered flag following a dramatic last-lap battle with AJ Allmendinger.
Allmendinger, Tyler Reddick, and Noah Gragson rounded out the top-five. Allmendinger’s third-place finish was bittersweet for his Kaulig Racing team, as it was the first time in three starts with Allmendinger in 2019 that they weren’t disqualified following post-race tech. He had taken Kaulig Racing to a third-place run in the July Daytona event and a runner-up last weekend at Watkins Glen, but both finishes were disallowed and Allmendinger was credited with last-place finishes in both events.
2018 Mid-Ohio winner Justin Allgaier finished sixth, while Chase Briscoe, Cole Custer, Justin Haley, and Brandon Jones rounded out the top-10. Former IndyCar driver and current IMSA regular Jack Hawksworth, who scored an IMSA class win at Mid-Ohio earlier this year, made his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut with Joe Gibbs Racing in their No. 18 Toyota. He paced one of the practice sessions before qualifying second for the race and winning the second stage. Hawksworth would go on to finish 15th.
“First off, thank you to Joe Gibbs Racing for having me and to Toyota for putting it together; and of course to my team AVS Racing, IMSA and Lexus for allowing me to go do this Xfinity stint,” he told NBCSN. “I was having a lot of fun out there. Some good battles over the beginning. The first stint, I was struggling with the rear tires a little bit. The second stint we made it a little bit better.
“I was comfortable on those restarts going for the lead and felt pretty good about it; but then I think we had a little issue on that second stop so that kind of put us back there. Got grass on the grille on one of those restarts, then kind of lost the brakes and that was kind of all she wrote.
“Little bit of a shame, but I had a great time and the iK9 car was great. I just want to thank everyone for having me here, and we’ll have to come back at some point and give it another shot.”
The race was slowed by six cautions for 17 laps, while eight drivers led for 10 times over the course of the event. The Xfinity Series visits Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday night for the Food City 300 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN. Monster Energy Cup regular Kyle Larson won the event in 2018.
Josef Newgarden again led the most laps at Iowa for the fourth time in the last five years. Only this time, he was able to seal the deal and take the checkered flag after leading 245 of the race’s 300 laps after the race was delayed due to thunderstorms in the area for four-and-a-half hours, pushing the start of the race to 11:45 p.m. ET.
The race was again delayed briefly on lap 55 for another shower, but the race was resumed shortly after, in which Newgarden was able to dominate and win at Iowa for the second time since 2016 when he led 282 laps in an Ed Carpenter Racing machine.
“Let me thank the fans that stayed. I’m sorry it took so long but I’m glad we got it in tonight,” said Newgarden. “My guys were awesome on the Hitachi car. Team Penske. Team Chevy. I can’t thank them enough. We had three fast cars. I wanted to be the fastest. We succeeded tonight.
“The car was great. You had to be good in traffic. And we were pumped for the guys. They worked really hard. It was nice to have it under the lights. I think if the weather didn’t come, we weren’t going to be under the lights.”
Defending series champion Scott Dixon finished in second while defending event champion James Hinchcliffe finished third. Newgarden’s Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud finished fourth after starting on the pole. Spencer Pigot finished fifth, while Alexander Rossi, Zach Veach, Graham Rahal, Sebastien Bourdais, and Tony Kanaan rounded out the top-10.
Will Power, driving the third Team Penske car, started second and led 49 laps before experiencing difficulties that left him one lap down in 15th.
“I went a bit wide getting onto pit road and then you get into the marbles,” said Power. “Once you get your tires dirty it is impossible to drive and I really had no chance. It was an unfortunate end to a pretty strong day for the No. 12 Verizon Chevy team. We jumped out to the lead early before Josef got around us. He was pretty strong tonight but we definitely had a podium night tonight before the pit road penalty.”
The race was slowed five times for 45 laps, including a yellow on lap one for a yellow start. The second yellow came out on lap 18 when the No. 31 of Sage Karam made contact in Turn 4. Rain slowed the race on lap 51 before the red flag flew on lap 55. The fourth caution flew on lap 187 for 12 laps when Karam and the No. 30 of Takuma Sato made contact in Turn 4. The fifth and final caution flew on lap 264 for 10 laps when the No. 20 of Ed Carpenter brought out the caution in Turn 2.
There were seven lead changes among five drivers, while the race ran one hour and 56 minutes.
The series next visits Mid-Ohio on July 28 for the Honda Indy 200, which will air on NBC and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network at 3:30 p.m. ET. Rossi dominated last year’s event, but considering the race has seen six different winners in six races, it’s likely that there could be a different winner in 2019.
Team Penske Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race Report
Track: Martinsville Speedway
Race: STP 500
Date: March 24, 2019
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No. 2 REESE/Draw-Tite Ford Mustang – Brad Keselowski
Start: 3rd
Stage 1: 1st
Stage 2: 1st
Finish: 1st
Status: Running
Laps Completed: 500/500
Laps Led: 446
Driver Point Standings (behind first): 5th (-37)
Notes:
Brad Keselowski delivered the most dominating performances of his NASCAR career Sunday afternoon on the way to winning the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Keselowski led twice for 446 of 500 laps and crossed the finish line .594 seconds ahead of Chase Elliott. The win was Keselowski’s second of the 2019 season and second in 19 races at Martinsville. The driver of the REESE/Draw-Tire Ford claimed his fourth top-five finish in six races this season. He is fifth in MENCS driver standings, 37 points behind the leader.
Keselowski started third in the 500-lap race and grabbed the lead from teammate Joey Logano on lap 6. He led the next 319 laps, winning both Stage 1 and Stage 2 – his first stage wins of the 2019 season. The only time Keselowski lost the lead was on lap 325 when Chase Elliott passed him.
He was running second when the sixth caution slowed the pace on lap 373. A round of pit stops for the leaders followed one lap later, and excellent pit work by the REESE/Draw-Tite team gave Keselowski the lead, which he never relinquished.
But as the race entered its final stretch, Elliott and others in the top-five had one more chance.
The seventh and final caution waved on lap 447 setting up one final round of pit stops on lap 448. Once again the No. 2 crew was flawless on pit lane, keeping their driver in the lead. Keselowski survived the restart on lap 455 and steadily inched away from Elliott over the stretch run to the checkered flag, beating his rival to the checkered flag by two car lengths (officially measured at .594 seconds).
The No. 2 REESE/Draw-Tire pit crew pitched the equivalent of a perfect game Sunday afternoon at Martinsville. They made six pit stops during the 500-lap race and kept Keselowski in the lead after every visit to the pit lane.
Quote: “The Draw-Tite Ford Mustang was really strong. It’s just a great day for our team, awesome execution on pit road and big credit to Doug Yates and all the engine guys. Today was just one of those days you dream of as a race car driver. Chase Elliott was really strong. He passed me with about 200 to go and I watched him and studied him and knew what I had to do to hold him off and we were able to pull it off that last run.”
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No. 12 Menards/Libman Ford Mustang – Ryan Blaney
Start: 18th
Stage 1: 5th
Stage 2: 2nd
Finish: 4th
Status: Running
Laps Completed: 500/500
Laps Led: 0
Driver Point Standings (behind first): 8th (-70)
Notes:
· Ryan Blaney capped-off another solid weekend with a fourth-place finish in Sunday’s Cup Series race at the Martinsville Speedway. Driving the No. 12 Menards/Libman Ford Mustang, the High Point, N.C. native claimed his second top-five at the .526-mile Virginia speedway and third consecutive top-five of 2019. He gained two positions in the MENCS driver standings, moving up to eighth-place, 70 points behind the leader.
· Blaney started 18th in the 500-lap event and drove his way inside the top-10 within the first 50 laps of the race. He reported the handling of his Ford Mustang was pretty good, especially on entry to the turns and through the center.
· The first round of pit stops came under caution on lap 69. Blaney and crew chief Jeremy Bullins decided on four tires, fuel and no adjustments to see if the handling would remain consistent. When racing resumed, the driver of the No. 12 Menards/Libman Ford continued to move forward, scoring a fifth-place finish when Stage 1 concluded on lap 130. Solid service by the No. 12 pit crew during the stage caution moved Blaney up to fourth position when the race went green on lap 141.
· Stage 2 went green from start to finish and Blaney took full advantage of the long green-flag run. He muscled his way into the top-three, passing both Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott before the segment concluded on lap 260. Blaney was reeling in race leader and Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski, but lapped traffic prevented a serious challenge, forcing him to settle for second-place.
· Blaney, Bullins and the No. 12 crew make very slight air pressure adjustments throughout the third and final stage of the race. The No. 12 Menards/Libman Ford got stronger as the race went along, and the long stretches of green flag racing worked to his advantage. A pit stop on lap 316 under the sixth caution saw the Menards/Libman crew go back on a previous small air pressure adjustment that made the car too tight on the short run.
· Falling back as far as sixth on pit road, Blaney drove his way back into the top-four positions with less than 100 laps to go. His final pit stop came under the seventh and final caution on lap 448. Bullins made the call to add additional air pressure to the right side tires on the No. 12 Ford Mustang.
· Unfortunately, the adjustment didn’t quite work out. The race went green on lap 455 and Blaney reported his car was the tightest it had been all day. As the remaining laps continued to trickle away, the No. 12 Mustang gradually began to come perform better but it was too late to mount a serious challenge for the win, leaving him with a fourth-place finish.
Quote: “I needed long runs. I thought a 120-lap run to the finish was going to be perfect. The last three weeks have been pretty smooth for us. We just have to keep having weekends like this and maybe we’ll be able to win one of these things. Our Menards/Libman Ford was just starting to come to us in the last stage when the caution came out. I just needed more than 50 laps.”
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No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang – Joey Logano
Start: 1st
Stage 1: 7th
Stage 2: 10th
Finish: 19th
Status: Running
Laps Completed: 500/500
Laps Led: 5
Point Standings (behind first): 4th (-28)
Notes:
· Joey Logano started Sunday’s STP 500 from the pole position in the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang. Logano led the opening five laps before relinquishing the lead to teammate Brad Keselowski while battling a Mustang that lacked entry security and center turn. Logano would drop outside the top-five, running as low as sixth before a caution on lap 65. On the ensuing round of pit stops on lap 67, the No. 22 team made a four-tire stop plus air pressure adjustments.
· Despite the adjustment, Logano continued to battle a lack of rear security and the ability to turn, causing him to slip back to seventh position. When Stage 1 concluded on lap 130, Logano reported that he was in need of a big adjustment. The team elected to give him two rounds of wedge in the right rear of the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford during a round of pit stops under the stage caution on lap 134.
· When the race went back green, Logano reported that the wedge adjustment fixed the corner entry security issue, but that he still needed more help rotating the center, especially late in the run. He finished 10th when Stage 2 concluded on lap 260 and the team made a major chassis adjustment during the stage caution on lap 265. Crew chief Todd Gordon changed four tires and added a spring rubber to right-rear of the No. 22 Ford Mustang.
· The adjustments helped the Shell-Pennzoil Ford on the short run. Logano was able to run laps comparable to race leader Brad Keselowski. A caution flag at lap 313 brought the leaders to pit road for service one lap later. Logano needed better center-turn, plus help with being too loose on exit. The team made an air pressure adjustment along with four fresh tires, sending Logano out in eighth position when the race went green on lap 319.
· But later in the run Logano began to drop back in the running order. He was running in 15th position before the sixth caution brought the leaders to pit road on lap 374 for another round of stops. Once again the team made major changes (plus repairs to the right-front wheel opening after a minor scrape against the wall). The No. 22 Mustang was still too free on takeoff and grew really tight during the remainder of the run.
· Logano continued to struggle with the handling on the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford during the third and final stage, with the driver describing the handling as simply too tight during the entire run. He was credited with a 19th-place, finishing outside the top-10 for only the second time in the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.
Quote: “We struggled today finding the balance on our Shell-Pennzoil Mustang. We’d fire off really loose and then the car would just build tight, I never really had a spot in the run where the handling would come to me. It gives us a couple things to work on before we come back here in the fall.”
Joey Logano wins the first west coast race in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
“I said we’re going to do donuts on that giant infield logo after the race, and we were able to do it,” Logano shared after winning for the first time in his career at Las Vegas.
With over 3,300 green flag passes and 47 green flag passes for the lead, NASCAR’s new aero package saw much more competitive racing. The leaders could not get further than a couple seconds out front before being reeled back in, and a lot of draft was being manipulated. Logano shared that it really was more of a mental game.
“What a great race. Brad and I were so evenly matched, and you just can’t drive away (with the lead). In the last five or six laps, Brad was catching me so quick, and I got stuck behind a lapped car. Man, it was so close. Lots of fun – my heart’s still running hard.”
Teammate Brad Keselowski put on a couple late run charges, even coming to the checkered flag. Out of Turn 4, he came up one spot short of going back to back to win two of the first three races of the season. Team Penske finished 1-2.
“It was a good battle,” Keselowski said. “We were both running really hard on the top. It seemed to come down to what the lapped cars were going to do. The lapped cars screwed the leader, and the second-place guy got a really good run. It happened over and over again. First, Joey got hosed by a lapped car, and I got by him. Then I got hosed by a lapped car, and he got by me. But it was definitely a good event.”
Kyle Busch was able to recover from a pit road speeding penalty and a six second deficit to the leaders to pass Kevin Harvick for third. Time ran out and Busch was three spots short of the weekend sweep across all three NASCAR touring series.
“I certainly screwed up our day coming to pit road,” Busch said disappointed after a green flag pit road speeding penalty during Stage 2. “Trying to make up time and just ruined it for us.”
Stage 1 winner Harvick finished fourth with Kurt Busch utilizing some late race pit road strategy rounded out the top five. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott and Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin completed the top 10.
Harvick Begins His West Coast Swing in Stage One
Harvick and Hamlin started side by side on the front row at the initial start of the race. Landon Cassill and Ty Dillon moved to the rear of the field after both a gear change and an engine change. Hamlin, inside, pulled out to a brief lead on the back stretch, but Harvick marched his way through Turns 3 and 4 to lead the first lap as the crossed the start finish line. Harvick ended up leading virtually all the laps, aside from the green flag pit stops cycle. Daniel Hemric started in the fifth position, but quickly dropped through the field and lost a lap deeper into the stage.
Unique penalties were handed out during green flag pit stops. Austin Dillon, who was running inside the top five most of the first stage was caught with too many crew members over the wall. The call came from NASCAR after two crew members retrieving tires from the tire changers fell over the wall after reaching too far for a tire. Kyle Larson, who also was running in the top 10, had a penalty with too many crew members over the wall. For his pit stop, the crew member also responsible for retrieving a tire swept their hand over the pit stall and made contact with pit surface. After some social media controversy, FOX Sports Bob Pockrass posted on Twitter the rule that states the following.
Ryan Blaney had an extra unscheduled pit stop for a tire that lost a valve stem on his original pit stop.
During the green flag pit stops, Joey Logano led for six laps before his pit stop. Daniel Suarez led his first career laps on a 1.5 mile oval before taking two tires to gain some track position. Harvick reclaimed the lead and led the final 19 laps to the green-checkered flag that signifies the end of the stage.
Team Penske Working Together During Stage Two
Keselowski led the field to the green on the restart, but because he elected to take two tires, he was quickly overtaken by Kyle Busch and Joey Logano, and the two battled for the lead for most of the stage.
Blaney visited pit road early, and quickly caught the leaders. At this time, he was three laps down and passed the leaders to get one of his laps back the old school way. Logano saw his speed, and the No. 22 team elected to pit for fresh tires. That brought all the lead lap cars to the pits.
As Busch came to pit road, he locked up the brakes and sped during the first segment. He immediately served his penalty per instructions from his crew chief before his car got up to full speed.
“There’s no f****** way…” Kyle dejectedly stated over the radio, knowing he had gone too fast during the first section.
William Byron played a similar strategy as Suarez in the first stage and led for 21 laps before his pit stop. Logano reclaimed the lead for the final 11 laps to win Stage 2.
Team Penske Puts on a Show in the Final Stage
A variety of strategies shuffled the running order as the green flag flew for the start of the final stage, including Kurt Busch staying out during the stage caution. Eventually, the two drivers that showed strength in the early parts of the final stage were Logano and Harvick. The two were at the front during the stage before the last set of pit stops.
The biggest trouble Harvick had was on pit road. Throughout the day, his team constantly gave him fast pit stops, but Harvick’s car had no traction as he left his pit stall. Comparing to the others, Harvick kept spinning his tires before being able to leave pit road.
After final pit stops, it became a four-way battle for the lead between Logano, Keselowski, Harvick and Kyle Busch. Keselowski was able to briefly get by Logano to lead a couple laps before Logano reclaimed the lead and won the second stage. Harvick closed the gap to start becoming involved, and Kyle Busch fought from over a six second deficit. However, time ran out for everyone as Logano crossed the line first after a close battle with teammate Keselowski.
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series continues their west coast swing next weekend in Phoenix, Arizona at ISM Raceway, Sunday, March 10 at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Race No. 2 of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is in the books. I had some observations of the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 that I wish to share with the class.
The package
Let’s just get something out of the way first: It wasn’t the “full” aerodynamic package that we’ll see next week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. So I’m not currently giving my “full” take on it as a whole.
With that said, however, I had some observations on this version of the 2019 package that was run at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and will be run in the final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The key things this package was designed to do, according to NASCAR, was tighten up the field and make passing the leader not such a Herculean task. And…It was hit and miss.
Behind the leader, passing was relatively easy. You’d have to set up earlier in the straight, because the cars have so much more drag, but if you had momentum going into the turn, you’re more likely to catch the leading car.
In terms of passing for the lead, there were still times when the lead car would pull away from the field; which is one of the biggest problems with the 1.5 mile track races. Unlike past races, however, reeling in and passing the leader wasn’t a Herculean task. Drivers like Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. cut down the gap to the lead car and, except in the case of Truex, passed the leader.
Now it should be noted that the tire falloff, which was significant at Atlanta, probably played a great factor in being able to catch the leader.
Bottom line: We got a taste of what this package offers, but next week at Las Vegas will be a greater indication of what we’ll see this season. Furthermore, it wasn’t a bad race. Cars could pass one another and catching and passing the leader wasn’t an insurmountable challenge.
Bad luck for Ryan Preece
Late in the afternoon, Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece were running top 10 and looked in great shape to finish top 10.
With 54 laps to go, however, Ryan Preece plowed into the back of BJ McLeod as he was leaving pit road and his day ended behind the wall in 35th.
Preece said afterwards that he was looking down at his tachometer when McLeod dived down into his pit box in front of him.
Buescher brought his car home ninth.
Now one rather good afternoon isn’t necessarily an indicator of future success, but it shows that the JTG Daugherty Racing duo might be people to watch next week.
The flu doesn’t keep Keselowski down
Yesterday, Brad Keselowski sat out most of final practice, due to flu symptoms. Team Penske development driver Austin Cindric was on standby if he couldn’t race.
He did, however, and won.
Keselowski wasn’t the dominant car (that belongs to Kyle Larson). He didn’t even finish top 10 in either stage. He was even caught a lap down by the aforementioned pit road incident (he took the wave-around to get it back).
What he did do, however, was reel in teammate Joey Logano and pass him for the lead with 32 to go. Even as his tires fell off and the handling went away, he held off a charge by Martin Truex Jr. with two laps to go to win at Atlanta.
If he had any lingering side effects, he hid it well.
It was his 60th combined victory across all series and disciplines of racing as a Team Penske driver, which puts him ahead of Mark Donahue as the winningest driver in team history.
“I think any win means a lot, but that’s a big number. Now I get to wear that yellow Mark Donohue helmet.”
Vegas wasn’t so lucky for half of the Playoff contenders as Brad Keselowski claimed the jackpot in the Playoff opener in the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series at the inaugural South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, securing his spot in the second round of the Playoffs.
“I didn’t think it was ever gonna end,” Brad commented about the multiple yellow flag conditions toward the end of the race, which included one red flag for over 10 minutes. “I was worried about running out of gas there at the end. I know the fans can hear on this microphone and I want to say thank you to everyone who braved 100-degree heat all day. You guys are the real heroes. I get paid to do this. You guys pay to watch and thank you for doing that. Thank you for coming out today and tolerating the heat. We’re so glad to be able to win and get in Victory Lane again with the Autotrader Ford. What a special day for 500 wins for Penske, three in a row here, first win in the Playoffs. There are too many storylines for me to get it all right, but we’re very thankful and very proud for all of them.”
Kyle Larson led multiple times throughout the final stage but finished second in his DC Solar Vegas Strong Chevrolet with Chip Ganassi Racing.
“The restarts, a couple of them worked out for me and a couple of them didn’t,” Larson stated about the end of the race. “But, was happy to end up second there. Didn’t really expect to get to second there on that final restart, but it was pretty hectic. Just glad we had a good day after the tire issue we had early in the race. So, yeah, good points day.”
Martin Truex Jr. was the only driver of the “Big 3” that didn’t have major issues in the race and was able to put his No. 78 5-hour Energy Toyota in the third position.
“It took the race from us, no question,” Truex said with frustration about the multiple short runs toward the end of the race. “With 15 laps or so we could take the lead and drive away. We were actually a little too good on the long run, I wish maybe we could have gone the other direction a little bit and still been able to get the lead. If we were the leader, we could do okay, I could maintain, but when I was second or third or fourth, it just made me tight enough that I had to wait for the thing to come to me or wait for other guys to start getting off the bottom in front of me.
“All in all it was a great day for everybody on the Bass Pro/5-hour ENERGY Camry and all the guys did a phenomenal job this weekend. Thanks to all the guys back in Denver at the shop, it’s pretty cool to see the effort going into these last 10 – we’re going to get after them. We had a winning car, just didn’t work out for us today. Really proud of the effort.”
Alex Bowman surprised the crowd and ran as high as third in the race until a late race crash put him laps down. Photo by Rachel Myers for Speedway Media.
Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola and Kyle Busch completed the first seven positions and were all Playoff drivers. Daniel Suarez, Ryan Newman and Paul Menard completed the top 10. Other Playoff drivers finished as follows.
Austin Dillon (11th)
Alex Bowman (19th)
Kurt Busch (21st)
Jimmie Johnson (22nd)
Clint Bowyer (23rd)
Denny Hamlin (32nd)
Chase Elliott (36th)
Kevin Harvick (39th)
Erik Jones (40th)
Ross Chastain, who won yesterday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race, was knocking on the door of a top 10 finish, but a late race incident resulted in a 20th place finish with his No. 15 Xchange of America Chevrolet with Premium Motorsports.
Martin Truex Jr. Keeps the “Big 3” Strong, Wins Stage 1
While Eric Jones started on pole, he was not able to lead a lap as Joey Logano who started alongside him was able to get the advantage on the exit of Turn 4 and lead the opening 33 laps. Kevin Harvick began to hunt him down and lead a small number of laps, but the field started to take green flag pit stops. Toward the beginning of the first stage, Kyle Larson had tire issues and had to pit out of sequence, so his uphill battle started early in the race.
Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin both led one lap each during the cycles, but Regan Smith elected to stay out and lead the next 10 laps. Harvick reclaimed the lead for another 10 laps, but Martin Truex Jr. had a car that was strong on the long runs. He would get by on Lap 60 and secure the win in Stage 1. No cautions came out, and AJ Allmendinger was the beneficiary of the stage caution.
Keselowski Hunts for Three in a Row, Claims Stage 2
Ryan Blaney gets full service on his No. 12 PPG Ford at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Photo by Rachel Myers for Speedway Media.
While stage one was caution-free, Stage 2 was a new race with three yellow flag incidents. The first was for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in Turn 3 as he smacked the outside wall. He was able to come down pit road and service his No. 17 SunnyD Ford and continue in the South Point 400.
The second yellow was thrown as Ty Dillon crashed along the frontstretch. He was able to continue around the track, but as he drove along the apron of the backstretch, the tread on his front tire fell off as he received more damage to his car.
As the second stage began to close, Kevin Harvick suddenly popped his right-front tire in Turn 2 and collected the pole winner, Erik Jones. Both would be the first of many Playoff contenders to fall victim to the afternoon’s race. Harvick’s car caught fire along the outside wall of the backstretch but he was able to climb out under his own power. Jones’s car was unable to continue as he rested on the apron of Turn 3.
“I am not happy about anything right now,” Harvick proclaimed with extreme frustration since he had a 50 point Playoff cushion coming into today’s race but saw it evaporate before his eyes.
“We have to run well at Richmond and the Roval now,” Jones said as he is now on the outside looking in.
At the final restart of the second stage, Keselowski was able to hold off a hard charging field to win Stage 2. Darrell “Bubba” Wallace was the beneficiary of the Stage 2 caution.
Mayhem Unfolds in the Final Stage of the South Point 400
In the final stage of the first Playoff race of 2018, Las Vegas Motor Speedway began to claim more Playoff drivers. At the start, Jamie McMurray won the race off pit road and led the first five laps. Kyle Larson moved his Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet past his teammate to lead for the first time of the day. He soon battled with Keselowski for the top spot. As they battled, William Byron crashed in Turn 3, which was the first of seven yellow flags of the final stage.
The field took the green and the two main drivers talked about were Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. Keselowski seemed to have the strong short-run car, but Truex was able to find a new gear with a long-run setup and start hunting down the top spot around 10 laps into a run.
While completing Lap 212, Jamie McMurray appeared to lose a right rear tire as he entered Turn 3. Committed to the low line, his car slid all the way up the track with hard impact into the outside SAFER barrier wall. Playoff contender Chase Elliott was already set for the high line and was collected in the crash. Neither driver was able to continue in the race.
Kyle Busch drove through the speedy dry where Chase Elliott’s car rested and lost control, spinning into the infield grass. Although the right-front tire went flat during his spin, his car received minimal damage. His crew went to work on his Toyota to put their Playoff driver back out onto the track in competition.
NASCAR Officials pull the pit crew of Kurt Busch away from the car as the red flag is displayed. Photo by Rachel Myers for Speedway Media.
With 30 laps to go, the field took the green for the restart. Brad Keselowski’s crew put his No. 2 Ford in front alongside Martin Truex Jr. However going into Turn 1, Kyle Larson made a three-wide pass on the outside and after another circuit around, claimed the top spot. Truex dropped back to fourth as Logano was able to also get by for the third position.
On Lap 246, Denny Hamlin lost control of his Toyota in the same spot as teammate Kyle Busch just earlier. However, as he slid through the grass, his car took severe front-end damage, ending his day.
“Should’ve just finished 10th, 15th, or wherever we were running,” Hamlin said after a disappointing run at Vegas, sharing that he was trying to get “too much out of the car.”
As the field took the green for the restart, Keselowski had a strong restart and was able to claim the lead in the middle of Turns 1 and 2. There was a three-wide battle for third, but the yellow came out as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got loose on the exit of Turn 2. He slid to the inside of the track and hit the inside wall, similar to Chase Briscoe’s crash in yesterday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race. Stenhouse was able to climb out of his race car under his own power and was checked and released from the infield care center.
On a late restart, Jimmie Johnson got loose and pinched Clint Bowyer into the outside wall. Alex Bowman also hit the wall after a flat left front tire. The track stayed green for a few laps, but NASCAR eventually did throw another yellow flag on Lap 263 after debris was found on the track.
Brad Keselowski does his traditional victory celebration with the American flag. He also celebrated Team Penske’s 500th career victory. Photo by Rachel Myers for Speedway Media.
With yet another restart underway, Joey Logano made his way up into the second spot, but as Keselowski started to check out on the rest of the field, multiple cars crashed in Turn 4, including two more Playoff contenders, Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer. Michael McDowell, Ross Chastain, Matt DiBenedetto and David Ragan were also involved. With so much debris on the track, NASCAR put out the red flag for just over 10 minutes to clean up the track and set up the race for overtime.
On the first overtime attempt, Team Penske held three of the top four positions. Logano was caught sleeping on the restart, which gave Keselowski all the room he needed to give Roger Penske his 500th victory.
“That’s quite a number,” Keselowski exclaimed as his team celebrated Team Penske’s 500th victory, as well as their second-round pass into the Playoffs. “It’s really great to be a part of that and to get the last four to get us there, that’s one special time.”
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race Unofficial Race Results for the Inaugural South Point 400 – Sunday, September 16, 2018 Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Las Vegas, NV
Joey Logano led 139 of 150 laps in a dominating win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in the Roseanne 300 at Auto Club Speedway. This is Logano’s 29th career victory in the Xfinity series, and third at Auto Club Speedway. He has never finished outside the top-10 and will start sixth for tomorrow’s NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series race.
“Anytime you have new tires and everyone else doesn’t, it’s fun. It’s when you have the old tires and everyone else has got the new tires, that’s not fun,” Logano laughed when asked about the late race pit cycles.
“I felt sure that we had a car quick enough. The worry more than anything was a crash happening in front of us.”
Logano was only one of two Cup drivers starting this race, with Austin Dillon who finished fourth. It was asked during the press conference about carrying over any notes or on-track experience into tomorrow’s race.
“You know there are some things that you can learn from this race, and you only come out here once a year. The cars are very different, Cup cars and Xfinity cars. There were a couple things to carry over, you know, running against the wall, which will help you for the first couple of laps. You have an advantage for the first five laps. You know where the track is a little better. The cars that were fast earlier in practice today are gonna be very fast tomorrow, and I don’t think the advantage you get from running this race is so large that you’re going to smoke everyone tomorrow because you had more laps, but it does allow you to feel more comfortable and feel the race track sooner.”
JR Motorsports finish second and third with Justin Allgaier and Elliott Sadler, respectively. Elliott extends his point lead to four points over teammate Tyler Reddick.
“We worked really hard today,” Allgaier joyfully stated after feeling a successful weekend. “Yesterday in practice, we had a really strong Hellman’s Chevrolet and unfortunately when the race started, not that it was bad by any means, but some of the balance things that we felt like we were good with practice, today with the conditions being a little different, we needed to work on it a little. Jason (Burdett) made a great call there to pit towards the end, put tires on and catch the 22 off sequence, which we were kinda hoping it would take a little longer to get up front to battle him.
“The 22 was the class of the field today, I think they had everybody. Our west coast swing has been great, two seconds and a third. We’ve been chopping away at it. I wish we had a win, but all in all, whenever you get up to the front like that, it’s a good day.”
Despite hitting the wall, Daniel Hemric fought throughout the day and finished in the fifth position.
“I’m proud of our effort, not just today but over the past three or four weeks,” Hemric shared during a post-race conference session. “We kinda raced around the fifth to ninth place all day, and the racing to get by there is more intense. It seems like whenever you try to side draft somebody or someone side drafts you, here come three more with runs. Just proud to get to our best running position of the day there, and maintain and come home with the top five. And I hit the wall!”
Most of the first stage was eventless until Matt Mills in the No. 15 spun in Turn 2. There weren’t enough laps to clean up the incident to go back green, so the end of the first stage finished under yellow.
During the second stage, the No. 42 Chevrolet of John Hunter Nemechek blew his right front tire on the frontstretch in the closing laps. He didn’t collide with the wall, but the rubber caused substantial damage to the sheet metal. He would finish three laps down in the 29th position after starting in a hopeful third position.
Christopher Bell, who started on the pole, took FOX’s Helmet Cam for a wild ride over the weekend, being involved in two separate incidents during the final stage. The first was a spin coming out of Turn 4 and sliding through the front stretch grass. Only a few laps later, Michael Annett pinched him coming out of Turn 4 as they ground against the outside wall along the front stretch.
A few late-race cautions built some unique strategies into the closing laps of the race. Dylan Lupton, who went to a backup car after crashing in qualifying earlier in the day, lost a motor, which ended a long day for his No. 28 team. A few laps later, another caution was put out for debris found in Turn 2. At this time, Logano was one of only a few takers to come to pit road for fresh tires. He restarted in 16th, charged to the front, and took the lead within five laps. However, the final caution came out with around 10 laps remaining for more debris on the front stretch. At this time, almost everyone came to pit road, shuffling all the strategies, except for Ryan Sieg who inherited the lead for the final restart. Sieg was no competition against the fresh tires, as the field charged past him on the opening lap, allowing Logano to cruise to his third career win at the 2-mile oval.
Positions 6-10 were Cole Custer, Tyler Reddick (highest finishing rookie), Matt Tifft, Ryan Preece and Ross Chastain. Kaz Grala crashed coming to the checkered flag and finished in the 14th position, but was checked and released from the infield care center shortly after the press conference was completed.
Ironically, Logano is a big fan of the television show Roseanne.
“I feel like I watched Roseanne a long time ago on like Nic at Nite,” Logano shared, as Brian Wilson, Logano’s crew chief, added, “He was watching the re-runs. I was watching the originals.”
Joey continued talking about the trophy and winning the race.
“You know, I was kinda hoping when we pulled in here and I saw the Roseanne 300 banner over the walkway, I was thinking of what the trophy was going to look like, so I hoped it would be a big picture of her face. It’s still cool.”
Elliott Sadler leads the series points over teammates Tyler Reddick and Justin Allgaier. The NASCAR Xfinity Series races next in Texas on Saturday, April 7, and tickets can be purchased through the speedway website.
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CHARLOTTE, NC – Ryan Blaney, new driver of the No. 12 Menards Ford has had a great two seasons with Wood Brothers Racing. He not only made the Playoffs in his second season with the team, he won his first race at Pocono last year. He is one of the youngsters to watch in 2018, having moved over to the Team Penske stable. He talked with reporters during the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour at Charlotte’s uptown Convention Center.
“I’ve been so lucky to drive for some great teams over the past few years,” Blaney said. “With the Wood Brothers and now to drive a car full time for Roger Penske is a dream come true. Those are two of the most historic teams and names in the sport. I’ve been lucky enough to drive for them both.”
He made his debut in the No. 12 car at Kansas in 2014. Now as he returns to that car, and driving the Discount Tire Mustang in XFINITY Series races, the continuity cannot be denied. With the Wood’s close alliance with Team Penske, it may be more of same for the son of former driver Dave Blaney.
“It shouldn’t be a big adjustment at all,” Blaney said. “We have a lot of people over here that we had with the Woods last year and it’s really just a handful of people that are new. It will really be seamless, which is really what you want. You don’t want a huge change. I’m excited for the transition and it should be pretty simple.”
When asked about the Kyle Busch comments on the attention given to young drivers, Blaney was on point, turning it around and pointing to the established stars for the reason for all the attention.
“I have been really fortunate to get a lot of great chances from NASCAR to go do things outside of motorsports,” Blaney said. “NBC and NASCAR were a bit part of doing the Taken thing and the Cars voice and Logan Lucky. That was all really from NASCAR. I have always been very open to do a lot of things that they want me to do and it is not always stuff like that. You go do some markets where maybe you don’t think it will be a good market, but you do it anyway because it helps the sport and helps yourself. It is a win-win for everybody.
“I feel like if some drivers were more willing to do these things they would get asked more to do it. The reason I get asked to do it a lot is because I say yes a lot because I think it is good for the sport and myself. I can tell you personally that he (Busch) doesn’t like doing a lot of stuff so that is why they don’t ask him to do a lot of stuff. That kind of made me upset how he bashed that part of it. To each his own.
“If he doesn’t want to do anything, so be it. I just think it is really important to have not only young drivers but all NASCAR drivers trying to be pushing to get to new demographics of the world to get interested in our sport. Whether it is young fans or new fans that don’t pay attention to it who aren’t young. That is everybody, not just young drivers that will make people appeal to the sport. I think everybody should be more open to helping the sport out because that is how it is going to survive. I am trying to do the best I can at it and a lot of other drivers are helping too, just trying to get more and more every day.”
One of the great things about motorsports is the competition. The regular, race-to-race battle for the win is something that draws the fans in, be it a battle between drivers, sponsors, or manufacturers.
However, in the Verizon IndyCar Series, the best competition is between the drivers and sponsors. Manufacturers, not so much considering that at the moment, the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) in the sport are Chevrolet and Honda – hardly the basis of a legendary rivalry like Chevy and Ford or Foyt and Andretti.
One of the perks of bringing in another manufacturer has to do with the new universal aero-kit. It will be cost-effective in the sense that manufacturers can solely focus on the equipment and powertrains without worrying about aerodynamics. As a result, prospective manufacturers can consider entry into the sport without worrying about any extra growing pains. They can enter and expect to be on par with the rest of the competition.
This would bring much-needed parity to a sport that needs it. At the moment, Team Penske and Andretti-Herta Autosport are the two organizations that currently dominate IndyCar; with Penske’s Chevrolets competing with AHA’s Hondas. Those are the organizations that are always at the front every race; they’re what the prospective new fans see on a weekly basis.
They don’t see teams like Ed Carpenter Racing, A.J. Foyt Racing, or Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports, teams that have to fight harder to compete with those groups. They succeed every so often, although it’s usually more of an uphill battle as they don’t have as much focus or funds at their disposal. Adding more manufacturers would even out the sport’s playing field, and as a result, we’d see guys like Spencer Pigot and James Hinchcliffe contending for wins more often.
In 2017 10 races (out of 17) were won by Chevrolet; all Penske machines. The only other teams to score more than one win were Rahal-Letterman Racing (Graham Rahal’s Belle Isle sweep) and AHA (Takuma Sato won Indy, Alexander Rossi won Watkins Glen). Ganassi Racing earned just one win, a far cry from their Franchitti years of glory, while SPM and Dale Coyne Racing also earned singular wins. Those aren’t favorable, competitive numbers, and it’s no wonder why other manufacturers said, “no way,” when courted by IndyCar.
In American motorsports, brand loyalty is huge. In NASCAR, there’s the Chevy/Ford/Toyota debate that draws in a substantial portion of fans. During the entirety of his NASCAR career, Dale Earnhardt Jr. voiced his unending loyalty to Chevrolet, and the fans ate that up. When NASCAR first brought Toyota into the national fold in 2004, cries of outrage came from the older contingent of fans given Toyota’s birth as a foreign car company.
Point being? The manufacturer debate has always been full-speed in NASCAR. Why not IndyCar? Bring back Ford. Bring in Dodge. Bring in Toyota. Diversify the OEMs in IndyCar, and there could be a chance it could legitimately rival NASCAR’s mainstream status. Parity is key to the growth of a sport. Hopefully, with the universal aero kit cutting down team costs, we could see plenty of that in the near future.
