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Tag: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400

  • The White Zone: The current penalty structure inadvertently incentivizes cheating

    The White Zone: The current penalty structure inadvertently incentivizes cheating

    “The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading…” and I need to unload on the deterrent system NASCAR has for the penalty structure and how it inadvertently incentivizes cheating.

    This past Wednesday, NASCAR made changes to the penalty structure to give it more teeth and discourage attempts of cheating.

    Among the changes included adding a stiffer penalty for cars that fail LIS inspection and are deemed “encumbered.”

    “The changes are made to assure that we have a level playing field and make sure that there’s not a carrot out there for the team to have excessive violations when it comes to lug nuts and the LIS post-race measurements,” Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, told NASCAR.com. “As we worked with those penalties during the season we realized we probably needed to have a little bit more in place as Chase time rolled around.

    “The Chase obviously changes a lot of scenarios for both NASCAR and the teams; it’s ramped up the intensity and there is a lot of scrutiny, as there is every week on everything (involving) technical infractions. This is really just a matter of us putting something in place so that should something happen, we have a means to effectively deal with it.”

    A few hours after the checkered flag flew on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, it was announced that the winning No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson had failed post-race LIS inspection.

    However, and this is where we get to my biggest problem with the penalty structure, the 78 car was not considered “encumbered” so he therefor gets to keep the win and the benefits of said win.

    If you don’t understand all that technical babble, it basically translates to, “The 78 car was illegal, but not too illegal. So Truex gets to keep the benefits of his win.”

    These teams have inadvertently been given license to cheat, but not too much that it’ll really bite them. Sure a 10 or 15-point penalty might bite Johnson in the ass when the checkered flag flies at Dover, but a points penalty means nothing in the case of Truex. It doesn’t matter if you take away all his points. His win means he’s locked into the next round.

    In essence, NASCAR has inadvertently incentivized cheating.

    Think about it. With the current wording of the rulebook, especially in regards to LIS failure, a team is essentially rewarded for finding ways to make a car illegal enough to fail inspection, but not enough to have the benefits of the win taken away.

    If you don’t believe me, here’s a tweet from producer Tyler Burnett of the Motor Racing Network.

    I’m not accusing the 78 team of cheating and I have no proof that they are. I only presented the above tweet to show how their LIS failure could be interpreted as “cheating.” However, they don’t help their case of not being perceived as “cheating” when Truex was explicitly told to swerve and this is the second straight week the 78 car has failed post-race inspection.

    It was bound to happen one of these years. NASCAR has always been hesitant to take away wins because they want the at track audience to know who won when they saw it.

    Maybe that made sense when newspapers were the main source of news, but the date this piece was published is September 18th, 2016. We now live in the internet age where communication with other people is almost instantaneous. And while I do still value the work of newspapers, news can be broken within seconds of an event happening via Twitter.

    I’ll be very damn interested in what Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice-president and chief racing development officer, has to say about this tomorrow in his appearance on “The Morning Drive” because I’d love to know how “encumbered” could be interpreted as anything other than “his car wasn’t illegal enough.”

    My plane is about to take off, so I must wrap this up.

    THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS PIECE ARE SOLELY THOSE OF TUCKER WHITE. THEY MAY OR MAY NOT REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF SPEEDWAYMEDIA.COM.

  • Good Day Goes Sour for Jimmie Johnson

    Good Day Goes Sour for Jimmie Johnson

    Jimmie Johnson showed the world that he was ready to fight for his seventh championship this season with a dominant drive in the Windy City, and then it turned sour.

    The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was on pit road when the caution flew for the first time on lap 49. He beat race leader Martin Truex Jr. to the start/finish line to stay on the lead lap. As an added bonus, he opted not to pit under the caution and assumed the race lead.

    For the next 130 laps, Johnson had the field in check. He led a race-high of 118 laps and only lost the lead when he pitted during cycles of green flag pit stops. A caution in between didn’t throw him off his game and he just kept on trucking.

    It was nearing the final quarter of the race, however, when he lost control of the race to teammate Chase Elliott on lap 182.

    He remained near the front running in the top-five coming to the final round of green flag stops with around 30 to go. After he made his pit stop, he was black-flagged for speeding on pit road and assessed a pass-through penalty.

    He rejoined the race down a lap.

    A caution with five laps to go put him back on the lead lap and he came home 12th.

    “Yeah, very proud of this Lowe’s team, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports,” Johnson said. “We are digging. I’m just… I just can’t believe I got in trouble down there leaving the pits. I feel terrible for these guys. It should have been a top-five day, but I will back down on pit road even more and try not to make that mistake. Hats off to the team for our fast Lowe’s Chevrolet, I just screwed up.”

    The 118 laps he led were the most he led in a race this season.

    To add insult to injury, Johnson’s car failed post-race LIS inspection. Any penalty resulting from this will be announced on Wednesday.

    Johnson tentatively leaves Chicagoland eighth in points trailing Truex by 13 points.

  • Close, but No Cigar for Chase Elliott in Chicago

    Close, but No Cigar for Chase Elliott in Chicago

    After an ill-timed caution in the closing laps, Chase Elliott went from leading the race to out of position and lost another potential victory.

    The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet took control of the race from teammate Jimmie Johnson on lap 182. From that point on, he thoroughly commanded the race, only losing the lead during the final cycle of green flag pit stops.

    Martin Truex Jr. was hot on his tail in the closing laps but wasn’t gaining the ground needed to catch him. Even Truex admitted this in his post-race media availability.

    “I feel for Chase,” Truex said. “I know what he’s going through. He did a great job. I wasn’t going to catch him. I was catching him, but I was not catching him enough to pass him in five more laps. So I know what he’s going through. But obviously he did a good job and they were really fast today. We had to come from behind.

    “No, to answer your question straight up, I don’t think we were going to be able to pass him unless he got loose or made a mistake. We weren’t catching him quick enough. That last run, I got pretty loose for some reason, having trouble getting off the corner. I was really struggling to run him down.

    Then a shredded right rear tire from Michael McDowell’s car brought out the caution with five laps to go and changed the entire race.

    When asked what went through his mind when the caution flew just as he had the race locked up, he said “nothing is yours until it’s over. I mean that is part of life man. You are not dumb, we have all watched this stuff long enough we know these races don’t go green that long. We see more cautions come out at the end of these races than we do not. That is just part of it, you’ve got to expect it and be able to embrace it and move forward. I feel like we did a good job controlling the things that we could control today.”

    Elliott and all but three cars elected to pit, and Truex exited pit road first.

    “Well if one less guy had stayed out then we would have been fourth,” Elliott said. “You never know how things are going to play out. Obviously, you hate to lose a spot on pit road, but our guys did a good job all day. They were solid and those are the kind of days we have to have on pit road. We will take it as motivation and move forward.”

    Elliott was unable to make it past Joey Logano in the final two laps and had to settle for third.

    During his post-race media availability, he was asked if the outcome was easier to accept than it was at Michigan.

    “No, there is no easy outcome,” he said. “You know, it’s unfortunate. You hate to have it happen. As you get faced with these situations more than once, I think you learn. You learn from situation to situation. But like I said, I felt like we did a good job as a team today trying to control the things that we could control. And you can’t control when a caution is going to come out. Granted, you can expect one a lot of the time, but you can’t control when it’s going to happen, and you certainly can’t control how many guys are going to stay out on tires and try to make something happen at the end of a race. That’s just a part of life, part of racing.”

    Despite the missed opportunity, Elliott added to his eight top fives and 14 top-10 finishes on the 2016 season. He also leaves sixth in the standings just 11 points out of first-place.

  • It’s ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ for Truex

    It’s ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ for Truex

    Despite a flat right-rear tire early in the race, Martin Truex Jr. fought back to score the victory in the Windy City.

    Under clear blue skies, Kyle Busch led the field to the green flag at 2:49 p.m. He held the lead for the first 21 laps before Truex powered by to take it on lap 23. A round of green flag stops started on lap 48, but was cut short by a rogue tire that came from the stall of Aric Almirola and brought out the first caution of the race on lap 49. This was a major point in the race as Jimmie Johnson was on pit road when the caution flew, crossed the start/finish line before Truex and remained on the lead lap. Kevin Harvick, who worked his way from 38th to eighth, did not and was trapped a lap down.

    The race restarted on lap 56 with Johnson in the lead. Truex made an unscheduled stop for a flat right-rear tire on lap 70. He was running second at the time and rejoined the race in 21st.

    Green flag pit stops were the game play of the day as the next round of stops commenced on lap 103. Johnson pitted the next lap and handed the lead to Brad Keselowski. He pitted the next lap and the lead cycled back to Johnson.

    The second caution of the race flew on lap 119 for Brian Scott getting loose and spinning out in turn 4 as he was trying to get down onto pit road.

    After the race restarted on lap 126, it settled into “ride around until the next round of stops.” The next round of stops came at lap 172. Johnson pitted from the lead that lap, Keselowski pitted from the lead two laps later and the lead cycled back to Johnson.

    Chase Elliott took the race lead for the first time on lap 182 about 11 laps before debris on the backstretch brought out the third caution of the race on lap 193.

    Not much happened after the race went green on lap 199 until the final round of green flag stops began with 33 laps to go. The lead went as follows: Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman and back to Elliott.

    A shredded right-front tire on the No. 95 of Michael McDowell brought out the fourth caution of the race with five laps to go and forced overtime. Everyone except Blaney, Kasey Kahne and Carl Edwards pitted under the caution. Truex exited ahead of Elliott on pit road.

    The race restarted with two laps to go. Blaney was no match on older tires for Truex on newer tires. Truex made easy work of passing him on the backstretch and drove on to score the victory in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400.

    “Oh my goodness, I guess the racing gods don’t want us to lead too much,” Truex said. “What can I say about everyone at Furniture Row Racing, Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), Bass Pro Shops, Denver Mattresses – just everybody that makes this possible – Sprint, the fans have given us a ton of support, not only over the years but the last two has definitely helped us. This feels good.”

    It’s Truex’s sixth career victory in 396 Sprint Cup Series starts, third of 2016, first at Chicagoland Speedway, 13th top-10 finish of the season and third top-10 finish in 11 races at Chicagoland.

    “It’s just unbelievable,” he added. “Proud of the effort by my guys – that’s why you never give up and you fight until the end no matter what. We had just an unbelievable race car today and led a bunch in the beginning. We had that tire issue and I knew it wasn’t over and there was a long way to go. Guys kept their heads in it and kept it up at the end when it counted. It was a total team effort. I am more proud of these guys – more proud to drive their race cars. It’s just unbelievable to start the Chase this way. We have been so good all year long with winning a few weeks ago at Darlington and I felt like that gave us some momentum to just continue that this weekend.”

    Truex’s car failed post-race LIS inspection and any penalty resulting from this will be announced Wednesday.

    Joey Logano came home runner-up in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

    “It was awesome execution by the 22 team,” Logano said of his race. “From every angle. We had a very fast race car and were awesome on pit road. You want to talk about pressure, not just Chase pressure, but coming down at the end of the race to try to win, they executed and had an awesome pit stop and beat the 11 out and ultimately gives us a second place finish. I couldn’t be more proud of the team and the way we executed and attacked today. We will take this momentum and run with it the next nine weeks.”

    It’s his 19th top-10 finish in 2016 and fourth in eight races at Chicagoland.

    Elliott led 75 laps on his way to rounding out the podium in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

    Asked what was going through his mind when the caution came out when it appeared the race was his, he said “nothing is yours until it’s over. I mean that is part of life man. You are not dumb, we have all watched this stuff long enough we know these races don’t go green that long. We see more cautions come out at the end of these races than we do not. That is just part of it, you’ve got to expect it and be able to embrace it and move forward. I feel like we did a good job controlling the things that we could control today.

    “Like I said, there are some things you just can’t control with the amount of guys that stay out and where you line up on a restart,” he added. “We played the cards we were dealt and came up short.”

    Blaney led eight laps on his way to a fourth-place finish in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.

    “It was a long day for us for sure,” Blaney said. “We passed a lot of cars. We didn’t start good. We started 22nd and worked on the car all It paid off since we finished a little bit better than we were going to. That’s a true testament to this team. We didn’t start off great but worked on the car all day. Taking a risk like that. Sometimes they don’t pay off. This one did. It was a good run for us. Hopefully we can do something like that in the next 10 weeks.”

    Asked how difficult it was to stay out on old tires, Blaney said it “wasn’t difficult at all. We kind of made that decision before everyone else came and we had nothing to lose as far as points. I wish a couple more cars stayed out. You never know. Those guys were on me so fast. We had a really good car all day. We started way back in the field and made it up there pretty quickly. We got our car decent at the end. We gambled and I prefer to do that. I prefer to take a gamble to stay out and try to hold those guys off.”

    Keselowski led seven laps on his way to rounding out the top-five in his No. 2 Penske Ford.

    Denny Hamlin led two laps on his way to a sixth-place finish in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Kahne finished seventh in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet. Busch led 21 laps on his way to an eighth-place finish in his No. 18 JGR Toyota. Matt Kenseth finished ninth in his No. 20 JGR Toyota. Bowman led six laps on his way to rounding out the top-10 in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet.

    Jamie McMurray finished 11th, Jimmie Johnson led a race high of 118 laps on his way to a 12th place finish, Kurt Busch finished 13th, Austin Dillon finished 14th, Carl Edwards finished 15th, Tony Stewart finished 16th, Kyle Larson finished 18th, Harvick finished 20th and Chris Buescher rounded out the Chase drivers in 28th.

    Johnson’s car also failed post-race LIS inspection. Any penalty resulting from this will be announced on Wednesday.

    The race lasted two hours, 47 minutes and 24 seconds at an average speed of 145.161 mph. There were 17 lead changes among nine different drivers and four cautions for 22 laps.

    Truex leaves with a one point lead over Keselowski in the points standings.

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  • Johnson Fastest in First Practice at Chicagoland

    Johnson Fastest in First Practice at Chicagoland

    Jimmie Johnson posted the fastest time in the first Sprint Cup Series practice at Chicagoland Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 29.383 and a speed of 183.780 mph. Carl Edwards was second in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 29.460 and a speed of 183.299 mph. Denny Hamlin was third in his No. 11 JGR Toyota with a time of 29.520 and a speed of 182.927 mph. Brad Keselowski was fourth in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a time of 29.564 and a speed of 182.655 mph. Chase Elliott rounded out the top-five in his No. 24 HMS Chevrolet with a time of 29.578 and a speed of 182.568 mph.

    Alex Bowman was sixth in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet. Martin Truex Jr. was seventh in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. Kyle Larson was eighth in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Ryan Blaney was ninth in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford. Kyle Busch rounded out the top-10 in his No. 18 JGR Toyota.

    Austin Dillon was 11th, Kevin Harvick was 12th, Matt Kenseth was 13th, Kurt Busch was 15th, Joey Logano was 17th, Tony Stewart was 20th, Jamie McMurray was 21st and Chris Buescher rounded out the Chase drivers in 33rd.

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  • Sprint Cup Qualifying Rained Out at Chicagoland

    Sprint Cup Qualifying Rained Out at Chicagoland

    Qualifying for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race has been rained out.

    Kyle Busch will lead the field to the green flag for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway following rain washing out the first practice which led to qualifying this afternoon being canceled. This is in line with NASCAR’s custom of not sending cars out for qualifying if practice is rained out.

    The Sprint Cup Series will be back on track for their first practice session following the Camping World Truck Series pole qualifying. Their remaining two practice sessions start Saturday at 9:30 a.m.

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  • Johnson: ‘I’d rather be dominating and be on top’

    Johnson: ‘I’d rather be dominating and be on top’

    When asked if he relishes being the “underdog,” Jimmie Johnson said he’d rather be on top dominating.

    Speaking to the media on Chase Media Day at the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago, the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet responded to the question of liking the idea of being overlooked to prove everybody wrong.

    “No,” Johnson said plainly. “Hell, I’d rather be dominating and be on top and be the top pick. I don’t like where we’re at. We’re working hard. There’s a lot of optimism and a lot of great things happening. We just need to deliver consistently and execute at the track.

    The 2016 season for the six-time Sprint Cup Series champion is on pace to be his worst career season to date in terms of statistics. After 26 races, he’s amassed only two wins, seven top fives and 10 top-10 finishes. He’s on track to finish with the fewest top 10s in a season of his career, his 266 laps led have been the fewest of any season in his career, his finishing average for the season is teetering on being the lowest in his career and he finished a race in last place for the first time in his career this season with a 40th place finish at Watkins Glen International.

    It’s also been three years since his sixth championship, he’s yet to win the title in the elimination format of the Chase, has yet to advance past the second round, didn’t advance out of the first round last year and hasn’t won more than a single race in the Chase since 2013.

    Despite the stat of not making it past round 2 during the time of year that’s historically been his playground, Johnson isn’t worried.

    “Well, it’s only two years,” he said. “Everybody makes a big deal out of I haven’t won a championship in a while. I guess it’s 10 years since my first championship, so there’s only four years I’ve missed. I don’t think that’s too bad of a stat.”

  • Chase Elliott Says his Rookie Season has had Ups and Downs

    Chase Elliott Says his Rookie Season has had Ups and Downs

    Asked to describe his rookie season, Chase Elliott said it’s had ups and downs.

    Speaking to the media on Chase Media Day at the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago, the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was asked to size up his first year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

    “It’s had its ups and downs, for sure,” Elliott said. “I’m proud of some moments, not so proud of others. But, you know, we’ve given ourselves a couple opportunities to contend for a couple wins, which I think is good. Not so good to not be able to capitalize on those opportunities. As I’ve said before, that’s disappointing.

    “I think you have to look at the positives of the fact that we were able to, you know, be a contender some this year, which I think is good. Other weeks, we’ve had our struggles, like anybody else. But I think we’ve got to put the positives together and get ready for these next few weeks.”

    Elliott’s rookie season in the Sprint Cup Series has been above average in terms of stats. While he’s still searching for his first win, he’s amassed two poles, seven top fives and 13 top 10s in 26 starts. He’s been as high as sixth in points this season and starts the Chase 14th. His best race came back in Pocono in June where he led a race-high of 51 laps before he was caught behind a gaggle of cars on different pit strategies and finished fourth.

    When asked if he thought he’s exceeded expectations in his rookie season, he said “It’s hard to say or for me to judge. It’s not really for me to judge.

    “But for us, I’m definitely proud to be here. I’m excited about it. I think it’s a great opportunity. You know, we want to try to do the best job we can each week like we always say. But I’m proud of it nonetheless.”

  • Buescher: ‘We are going one round at a time right now’

    Buescher: ‘We are going one round at a time right now’

    Asked what his strategy is now that he’s in the Chase, Chris Buescher says he’s taking it one round at a time.

    Speaking to the media during Chase Media Day at the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago, the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford was asked what’s his plan of attack now that he’s in the Chase.

    “We are going one round at a time right now,” Buescher said. “We are trying to look ahead to the next three races. We have been so focused on getting into the Chase that now that we are here we haven’t thought too much past that. I feel like we are prepared to go into this next couple.”

    Buescher made his way into the Chase with a win in the rain-shortened Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway. In the five races since, he’s finished 30th, fifth, 35th, 17th and 24th for a 22.2 finishing average, which is four and a half spots better than his season finishing average.

    Despite the stats, the reigning 2015 NASCAR XFINITY Series champion believes he can make it into the second round of the Chase.

    “I think we can make it into the second round. Consistency was a huge part of our championship last year,” Buescher said referring to his 2015 championship in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. “We were able to get a couple wins and be right there with the guys we were racing every week. That was a big part of it. For this first three races, I definitely think consistency will play a really big part of it. You can’t have that one bad week and expect to recover in the two remaining. You really need to be smooth throughout all of it and make sure you are there after Dover. Then you can reevaluate and decide how you will treat the next couple of rounds.”