Tag: Texas Motor Speedway

Crafton Wins NCWTS WinStar World Casino & Resort 400

By Texas Motor Speedway

FORT WORTH, Texas (June 6, 2014) – Defending NASCAR Camping World Truck SerIes champion Matt Crafton led a career-best 118 laps to propel him to victory Friday evening in the WinStar World Casino & Resort 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.

After 26 previous starts and three near misses with runner-up finishes, Crafton (No. 88 Slim Jim/Menards Toyota) finally broke through for his first career victory at Texas Motor Speedway in dominant fashion.

Crafton led 118 of the 167 laps – the most he has led in a single race in his 14-year career – and cruised to a 13.302-second victory over runner-up, polesitter Justin Lofton (No. 20 NTS Motorsports Chevrolet). It was the fifth win of Crafton’s career and second of the season, marking the first time in his career he has recorded multiple wins in a single season.

The only drama remaining late in the race was whether Crafton would be able to go the final 61 laps without a pit stop. While other contenders were forced to pit for a splash of fuel inside of 10 laps remaining, Crafton stayed out, conserved fuel and watched a 3.8-second lead morph into his double-digit margin of victory that established a track record for the series. The previous mark was 11.817 seconds set by Dennis Setzer in this event in 2004.

Crafton, who started second, had a strong truck from the outset but it didn’t appear initially that he would coast to a victory. Ryan Blaney (No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford), who led 45 laps and finished fourth, and Ron Hornaday Jr. (No. 30 Ruud Chevrolet), who finished sixth, were his chief competition until 10 to go and they were forced to pit. Crafton took the lead from Blaney on Lap 112 and led the final 56 laps for the win over Lofton.

Joe Nemechek (No. 8 smokeandsear.com Toyota), with 42 combined NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series career starts at Texas Motor Speedway, was on a different sequence then the leaders and took third in his first truck series start at Texas.

The victory allowed Crafton to take the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship points lead. Crafton, who came into Texas one point behind Timothy Peters (No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota), exits with an 11-point lead over Johnny Sauter (No. 98 Nextant/Curb Records Toyota), who finished seventh.

The race weekend culminates at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday evening when the Verizon IndyCar Series competes in the Firestone 600. Race time is 7:30 p.m. CT.

Tickets for the Firestone 600 are available by visiting www.texasmotorspeedway.com or the Texas Motor Speedway ticket office at Gate 4 on race day. For additional information, contact the ticket office at (817) 215-8500.

June 6, 2014
NASCAR BTS: Kevin Henry Brings Penn State Roar to Pocono Raceway

This week’s NASCAR Behind the Scenes focuses on Kevin Henry, who after running Penn State University’s Beaver Stadium, is bringing his own brand of roar to Pocono Raceway, recently assuming the position of Senior Director of Facility Operations.

“My new job entails the event and lease operations of the track, dealing with security, guest relations, and all the guest management tools that we have to put in place for a big event,” Henry said. “I’m preparing for a three-race summer and trying to get my brain around this thing called auto racing.”

“It’s a lot of fun so far.”

While Henry is thrilled with the new role, he really did not come looking for it. In fact, the leadership at Pocono Raceway came calling on him.

“I was lucky enough that the folks here at Pocono Raceway reached out to me and found me and asked if I would apply and interview,” Henry said. “I made it through the process and was lucky enough to get the job.”

“But they found me; I didn’t really find them,” Henry continued. “So, that was the good part of that whole thing.”

Besides his Penn State roar, why did Henry think that Pocono sought him out?

“I think they wanted somebody more local and also I think they wanted to go outside the box a little bit and not go through the traditional auto sport folks they know,” Henry said. “They wanted to bring in fresh ideas and hopefully I can do that.”

“My background is in college athletics. I was facilities manager, event manager and equipment manager at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania. I was on the Beaver Stadium management team doing big, large-scale events on an annual basis there.”

“But also I’ve had the good fortune of working two NCAA Final Fours as a subcontractor for Turner Live events,” Henry continued. “So, big venues, big footprints, big events, they are all the same. It doesn’t matter if they are a football game or an auto race, the principles of access control to protecting the livelihood of the sanctioning body and the people that are there, it’s all the same no matter what.”

“The tools are very, very similar,” Henry said. “It’s just getting used to the circus that is auto racing when it comes to town. That’s the difference. It’s just a different circus than my past role.”

Henry was able to recently check out his first in-person NASCAR race, bundling it with the Final Four in Texas.

“Because I was there for the Final Four, it did line up well with the race in Texas,” Henry said. “I drove over there on Thursday morning just casually and not really with any agenda. I like driving around these large footprints and looking at wayfinding signs, looking at staffing, looking at the logistics that go into it. With a semi-trained eye, you pick out little things that you can apply back.”

“Everybody has a different way of doing things so that is interesting to see,” Henry continued. “To drive the infield and then watch Nationwide and Trucks moving into the garage, which was something I had yet to see.”

“All the parking and the logistics were so interesting,” Henry said. “That’s what I basically learned from Texas was the pre-race logistics that the fans don’t see.”

“I will get to other tracks as the season goes and get around to other venues to see whatever works. We’ll take advantage of that as the opportunities come.”

Henry did not, however get to check out the Pocono Raceway by his usual method of driving around the footprint as he did in Texas.

“I wish I could say that the first thing I did was drive the Pocono footprint but the harshness of the winter kind of prevented me from doing that,” Henry said. “The snow got on the ground early and stayed until a few weeks ago. So, I’ve been driving that footprint every day this week and for the weeks to come to catch up.”

Henry will bring his PSU expertise to tackle any of the challenges at Pocono Raceway, which he feels will be more than applicable to the track known as the ‘Tricky Triangle.’

“I think really the challenges are the same no matter what big venue you’re working with,” Henry said. “It’s dealing with the staff, making sure they’re energized over a long period of time, to greet our guests, greet the sanctioning bodies, and greet anyone that touches this footprint.”

“Making sure that they have the tools to make good decisions and tell us what’s going on out in the world so that we can make good decisions is my number one focus,” Henry continued. “I don’t touch our fans because I’ll be in a room somewhere or going from point A to point B for a meeting so our workforce has that interaction. We have to give them the tools to interact the way we want them to so our guests come back again and again and again.”

“We do have a mix of volunteers, paid hourly staff, contractors and so the challenge is communication, like it is in every workplace,” Henry said. “So, we set up a system as to how we’re going to educate them, like a handbook they can carry in their back pocket or a brief sheet of what’s going on that day or whether it is the production notes of what changes from race weekend to race weekend.”

“We get redundant and go over and over and over the five or six key points,” Henry continued. “We don’t want to overwhelm with information because we want to focus in on the key elements, which are safe, clean and friendly.”

“If you’re safe, they will come back. If it’s clean and they have a good experience, they are going to come back. And if everybody is friendly, smiling and asking how they can help, they are going to come back.”

Henry admitted that one of these elements does indeed worry him enough to disturb his sleep.

“Safety is one of the things that keeps me up at night, wondering if you have enough or if they are going to be where they need to be when the time comes,” Henry said. “But it’s a multi-layered approach. We try to run a unified command program, with State, federal and local authorities with assets in the right place at the right time, whether weather assets, law enforcement assets, or fire and EMS assets.”

“You want to plan for the worst and hope you never use that plan. Plans are for every contingency that we can think of right now.”

Friendliness is another key element that Henry hopes will translate from Penn State University to Pocono Raceway.

“You have to stress that friendliness with your staff, like stressing the little things like making eye contact with the fans,” Henry said. “Once you get within ten feet, you make eye contact with people and within five feet you say ‘hello’ or ‘how may I help you.’ That’s an old, and I might get this wrong but, I found it in an old Marriott handbook of training.”

“Yeah, we’re a sports industry and a racing industry but we are a hospitality industry, which we try to stress and apply.”

“We won’t do anything too much different from Penn State to Pocono,” Henry said. “A lot of things that we do in college football are unique to college football, like the pomp and circumstance of the band or a large video board.”

“So, the entertainment is different here at Pocono,” Henry conclude. “We will integrate as much as we can but it is very much different.”

Henry’s first test of his Penn State roar at Pocono Raceway will come the weekend of June 5^th to 8^th with the first NASCAR race of the season, the Pocono 400.

April 29, 2014

The Final Word – That was no pass in the grass at Texas

Sometimes when you mess with the bull, you get the horns. This past weekend, there was one ornery Texas Longhorn who made his displeasure known.

First to be gored were those fans who mosied on down to Dallas for a Sunday race. If they had no Plan B, the race was run on Monday while they were on the return trip home to Poughkeepsie. Rain took care of business on the scheduled day, and I wonder how many were like me and did not plan on a “what if” strategy. Fortunately, I did not need it, but some sure did this past Sunday.

When a roper misses, it often is forgotten in a week. Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecked riding a bull instead, and when he poked his nose down to the inside in the opening laps, he went where no car should ever go. It was his version of “the Crash in the Grass”, as his front end dug in to shatter his car before it even got thrown for a hard hit along the outside fence. The fact it then burst into flames was just a final touch of the torch, so to speak. Ten laps of caution to open, two laps of green, then a trip to the garage and an early flight home for Junior, dead last in 43rd.

Jimmie Johnson was like a rodeo barrel man. You know, that nice guy with the painted up smiley face who keeps the kids entertained while poking his head out of the barrel to tease the bull. Then the bull decides to hook the barrel and flip it high into the air, or just toss a piece of a deteriorating tire from Junior’s dying beast into Johnson’s windshield. It bent the bar meant to support the glass and even tore Jimmie a new one in the front end where not even the old one would have been located. His crew fixed him up, but he never got back to the lead lap, having to settle for 25th.

It is good that Kevin Harvick won at Phoenix, as four of the seven rodeos have seen him shoved face deep in the dirt. A broken hub left him 41st in Las Vegas, a lost oil line meant 39th at Bristol, then a blown tire left him 36th in California. Once again, his bronco came snorting out of the gate in Texas, twisted, turned, and then suddenly dropped dead. Harvick lasted more than twice as long as Earnhardt, which is saying nothing, when his engine quit. He was 42nd, and the only race he was part of was to see which of the two got back to North Carolina the quickest.

Joey Logano thought he was also bound for heart break. With the white flag on the horizon, he was heading to the line when the left rear on Kurt Busch’s car let go to shred the quarter-panel to pieces. Out came the caution, four Goodyears went on Joey’s ride, but Jeff Gordon took two to start in front for the green-white-checker. That drama did not last long, as the Connecticut Yankee stormed back in front to win for the fourth time of his career and picked himself up a Chase place.

While things went well for Logano, team mate Brad Keselowski was out near the front almost the entire day. However, while Logano got his four feel goods in the pits, Keselowski was earning himself a speeding penalty to vacate his spot beside Joey at the re-start to finish 15th. Sometimes the bull just sits back and lets you kick your own butt.

In tallying up the standings, the first to be considered are the seven race winners before we worry about points. Too bad, as Jeff Gordon has no wins but more points than anyone else. He was consistently up front on Monday, to finish second, just ahead of Kyle Busch, Brian Vickers, and Kyle Larson.

Texas was tough on some, mild on others. Matt Kenseth remains winless yet his seventh place result on Monday leaves him just four points back of Gordon. Danica Patrick was a barrel racer in the midst of the bull riding, finishing 27th to sit 29th in the standings. Nobody sits behind her other than those you would have bet on to be back there.

Austin Dillon is 12th, four spots ahead of Larson in the rookie race. Despite all the talk about the good crop of first year drivers this season, only those two will matter. Frankly, none of the others are in equipment worthy of challenging, with only Justin Allgaier (28th) joining the other two ahead of the “Danica line.” It should be interesting to see how they, and their teams, will fare the rest of the season. One point of measure might indeed be the Danica line.

As for Harvick and Kurt Busch, they need to stay within the Top 30 over-all to make their wins work for them. With more than a 30 point bulge over the 31st place David Gilliland, they both still look safe for the next few weeks. That Texas bull was bad, but nothing those two cowboys cannot recover from.

They replace the critter with the lady this Saturday night, as Darlington and the Southern 500 is next on the dance card. Seven different drivers have won this season. Seven different drivers have won at Darlington since Greg Biffle won back to back in 2005-06. Jeff Gordon has won seven times there, the last in 2007. If he drove the No. 7, picking the winner for Saturday night would have been a no brainer. Still, if he brings flowers maybe the Lady in Black will be kind to him one more time.

One more thing. When rain washed away Sunday’s date, fans wondered if they would get a chance to see the Monday attempt. Thanks to TSN2, I could and did. Thanks! Here is a look at the standings, with the priority given to our seven winners…

	Driver	Races	Win	Points
1	Carl Edwards	7	1	247
2	Joey Logano	7	1	235
3	Kyle Busch	7	1	231
4	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	7	1	228
5	Brad Keselowski	7	1	218
6	Kurt Busch	7	1	151
7	Kevin Harvick	7	1	138
8	Jeff Gordon	7	0	259
9	Matt Kenseth	7	0	255
10	Jimmie Johnson	7	0	228
11	Brian Vickers	7	0	205
12	Paul Menard	7	0	203
13	Ryan Newman	7	0	202
14	Austin Dillon	7	0	202
15	Denny Hamlin	6	0	197
16	Tony Stewart	7	0	189
31				107

April 8, 2014

Surprising and Not Surprising: Texas Duck Commander 500

In a rain-filled race day fit only for the ducks, so much so that the race was postponed from Sunday to Monday, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 18^th Annual Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Surprising: He may have finished second in the race, but Jeff Gordon achieved the top spot in the point standings, a position that he surprisingly has not held since 2009.

And with his runner up status, the consistent driver of the No. 24 No. 24 Axalta/Texas A&M School of Engineering Chevrolet scored his 12^th top-10 finish at Texas and his fifth top-10 finish for the season.

“It was a great second‑place finish for me,” Gordon said. “I knew it was going to be hard to hold those guys off.”

“Looked out my mirror, those guys were racing hard behind me,” Gordon continued. “At that point I was thinking, I just want to finish.”

“I feel very fortunate to have finished second.”

Not Surprising: It was after all the Duck Commander 500 race, so it was not at all surprising for the seventh winner in seven races to capitalize on that duck theme.

“Obviously these wins are so important this year to get into the Chase and to have both Team Penske cars with a win already is big, so we feel good about that,” Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford, said after celebrating his first victory of the season. “You kind of start getting your ducks in a row for Chase time and making sure you get everything ready for then.”

“You feel a little bit more comfortable now that we have won than what we would have been.”

This was Logano’s first ever win at Texas Motor Speedway and he also became the youngest winner in TMS history at the tender age of 23 years, 10 months and 14 days.

Surprising: Brian Vickers had a surprisingly good run, in fact the best of his season in fourth place. The driver of the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota also climbed four places in the point standings to crack the top-10 in points, currently sitting in the ninth position, 54 points behind leader Jeff Gordon.

“Really proud of everyone on this Aaron’s Dream Machine team,” Vickers said. “Just really proud of the effort. We probably didn’t have a car to win, but we made the most of it.”

“We’ll learn from this and we’ll move on to the next race and we gave it our best there at the end.”

Not Surprising: The ‘Kyle and Kyle’ show continued its run at Texas, with Kyle Busch battling young Rookie of the Year contender Kyle Larson yet again for a top-five finish.

Busch, who scored third place in his No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, posted his eighth top-10 finish in 18 races at Texas while Larson, behind the wheel of his No. 42 Target Chevrolet, finished fifth as the highest finishing ROTY candidate.

“It was a good afternoon for us,” Busch said. “Just drove the hell out of it there those last two laps and got all she could and come home third. Good, deserving finish for us here today.”

“We were really good today, pretty much good from the start,” Larson said. “Our Target Chevy was average on a short run, but long runs I thought we probably had the best car.”

“Just kept sticking with it, got it better and better each run,” Larson continued. “Put ourselves in position there on that last restart to get a good finish.”

Surprising: Two drivers were surprisingly up in smoke early in the race, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. hitting the grass and exploding in flames on lap 13 while Kevin Harvick’s engine expired in a huge puff of smoke just 27 laps into the race.

“Something happened with the engine right after that restart,” Harvick said. “The Jimmy John’s Chevrolet was really fast.”

“It’s frustrating. I don’t know what else I can say,” Harvick continued. “I didn’t get any indication that anything was going wrong.”

“We’ll take it back to the shop and figure out what happened. But that’s a disappointing end to the day.”

Earnhardt Jr.’s day also ended up in flames and smoke but for a very different reason.

“Just didn’t see the grass. Didn’t know the grass was down there,” Junior said. “With the way the A-post is on these cars you can’t really see that good to that angle. I just didn’t have a good visual of where the apron and the grass was and got down in there pretty good.”

“You can’t run through there the way they have these cars on the ground like that,” the driver of the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet said. “Just a mistake on my part. I just didn’t know I was that close to the grass, and made a mistake.”

Not Surprising: With rain in the air and the track changing throughout the race day, it was not surprising that gremlins in the flaps and hoods reared their ugly heads. In fact, because of the force of air from the jet dryers, at least four cars had hood flaps popping up, including the cars of Brad Keselowski, Ryan Newman, Danica Patrick and Justin Allgaier.

“I was definitely wondering what happened,” the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford said on seeing his hood flap pop up. “I knew it was the jet dryer that caused it, but it was one of those freak deals.”

Surprising: As much as the race fans wanted to see the sun, it was surprisingly not Tony Stewart’s friend as his car fared better in the gloomier conditions.

“We had a really good racecar for what the track conditions were most of this weekend,” the driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet said. “I think we showed that with getting the pole on Saturday and then leading all those laps at the first part of the race.”

“But the track changed a lot and the setup we had didn’t really change with it.”

In spite of handling struggles late in the race, Smoke led 74 laps and did manage to finish top-10 for the day, advancing one position up in points to fourteenth.

Not Surprising: Along with his heavy heart on the untimely death of his brother-in-law due to a sky-diving accident, Jimmie Johnson had heavy damage to match, unfortunately being the recipient of the mud and debris from his teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s foray into the grass and wall.

Johnson finished the race with a disappointing 25^th place run in his No. 48 Lowe’s Spring is Calling Chevrolet.

“It’s kind of surreal what happened,” the six-time champion said. “Junior hit the grass there and something off his car like a splitter or something just destroyed my windshield and then something hit the nose of the car too.”

“We were in a good position and were running decent lap times when the right rear blew,” Johnson continued. “It was a day of bad luck. We had a fast race car, so there was a little silk lining in it, but it was a terrible finish.”

Surprising: The third time was not a charm for Kurt Busch, previous race winner at Martinsville, who suffered not one, not two, but three tire failures in the Duck Commander 500 and finished 39^th.

“That was a very disappointing day after having a fast Haas Automation Chevrolet all weekend,” Daniel Knost, Busch’s crew chief, said. “We brought out a backup car after a wreck early in the weekend due to a tire issue.”

“We took a little too aggressive setup today, and it cost us,” Knost continued. “I hate that we had a day like this, but we’ll continue to learn and get better each week.”

Not Surprising: While Aric Almirola and his Eckrich sponsor granted wishes for a local veteran injured in Afghanistan, the driver of the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford, had his own wish for improvement in his point standings come true as well.

“The car was loose all day,” Almirola said. “Our intermediate track program is still not where we want it to be, but this was a good improvement.”

“We hung in the Top-15 all day, and hopefully, a 12th-place finish will help us in the points.”

Almirola and his team indeed moved up four spots in the points standings to 22^nd as he and his fellow Cup compatriots head into the night race this upcoming weekend at Darlington Raceway.

April 7, 2014
RACEDAY: Greg Biffle Shaking Cobwebs; Starts 4th Today

Anger and anguish describe Greg Biffle’s season-to-date, perfectly. The Roush Fenway Racing (RFR) veteran driver remains winless through 2014, and has only notched one top-10 finish in February at Daytona International Speedway. Now, after a dismal season beginning, Biffle is in desperate need of a good showing at Texas Motor Speedway to help keep his name on the ballot for a Chase berth.

“As a team we are looking to gain momentum, get back on track and get a good run at Texas,” Biffle explained prior to this weekend’s event. “A win is important for us at this stage in the game, but so is a top-five finish and to run competitively. I feel really good where we are at; leading laps at Martinsville was great for us. We just need to close the deal and (Texas) is one of our best tracks.”

Biffle, 44, has already visited victory lane in the lonestar state two prior times, including a triumph at this racetrack during the 2012 season – which was celebrated greatly, as it was crew chief Matt Puccia’s first win in the Sprint Cup Series.

“Texas has always been a good track for us,” Puccia expressed about running at Texas. “We got our first win as a team back in 2012 at Texas, so it is a very special place for me. It was my first Cup win, so it’s always a little more special going back to that race track.”

However, Puccia doesn’t expect the track to be in the same condition as that win two seasons ago, and he also explained how much of a challenge this track will be on Sunday.

“The track its self is starting to show its age,” Puccia alluded to on Friday afternoon. “As a crew chief you have to deal with bumps and mechanical grip, while maintaining a good aero platform. It’s a challenge we are looking forward to tackling this weekend.”

Biffle qualified his No. 16 ‘Give Kids A Smile’ Ford in the fourth position, which marks his best starting position this season.

“I thought it was pretty good,” Biffle expressed about his qualifying run. “We definitely had a car that could have qualified on the front row, but I missed turn one by a little bit. I don’t know if it was enough to beat (Tony Stewart) or not on that last (segment), but we’re really happy that we’ve got a decent car we can work with this weekend.”

Biffle, who has 20 Cup Series starts in Forth Worth, Texas, has an average finish of 12.7 and is currently second in most laps led at the historic 1.5-mile speedway.

This weekend appears to be an intriguing opportunity for Biffle as he looks for his first appearance in victory lane this weekend that will all but clinch him a berth in the Chase.

April 6, 2014

Tony Stewart Wins Pole at Texas!

Tony Stewart won the Coors Light Pole award at the Texas Motor Speedway Saturday afternoon with a qualifying time 27.628 seconds or 195.454 miles per hour. He beat Brad Keselowski’s time of 27.636 at the last second as the third qualifying had expired. Stewart said, “I wasn’t sure I could on” the car was so fast. “This Chevy was fast today.” The pole was Stewart’s 15^th of his career and second at Texas.

Stewart-Haas Racing was fast as Kevin Harvick shattered the track record with a qualifying speed of 198.28 mph, the fastest average speed ever recorded at a 1.5 mile track for a NSCAR qualifying session. He was followed by Trevor Bayne, Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman in the first session. Toyota Racing and Joe Gibbs seemed to struggle for time as only Brian Vickers and Denny Hamlin had enough speed to move to that second round. Notable drivers that did not move on to the second round of qualifying (top 24 qualifiers only) were Kasey Kahne (32^nd), last year’s pole winner Kyle Busch (29^th) and Matt Kenseth (26^th). Kenseth said after that first session, “We missed the set-up and the track must have picked up speed after that rain shower earlier.”

The second session, which would only qualify the top twelve for the final session, was lead by the Ford of Greg Biffle who topped the charts at 196.235 mph. He was followed closely by the eventual pole winner Stewart, Harvick, Keselowski and his Penske team mate Joey Logano.

In the last session, which only lasts 5 minutes, Keselowski was quite fast until he was nipped by Stewart.

Line Up (per Nascar):

POS	Car No	Driver	Best Speed	Best Time	Behind

1	14	Tony Stewart	195.454	27.628
2	2	Brad Keselowski	195.419	27.633	–0.005
3	4	Kevin Harvick	195.298	27.65	–0.022
4	16	Greg Biffle	194.7	27.735	–0.107
5	99	Carl Edwards	194.637	27.744	–0.116
6	11	Denny Hamlin	194.623	27.746	–0.118
7	21	Trevor Bayne	194.503	27.763	–0.135
8	31	Ryan Newman	194.14	27.815	–0.187
9	9	M.Ambrose	194.056	27.827	–0.199
10	22	Joey Logano	193.743	27.872	–0.244
11	41	Kurt Busch	193.126	27.961	–0.333
12	24	Jeff Gordon	192.089	28.112	–0.484
13	27	Paul Menard	194.259	27.798	–0.170
14	42	Kyle Larson	194.084	27.823	–0.195
15	1	J. McMurray	194.021	27.832	–0.204
16	48	Jimmie Johnson	194.007	27.834	–0.206
17	43	Aric Almirola	193.59	27.894	–0.266
18	78	Martin Truex Jr	193.493	27.908	–0.280
19	88	Dale Earnhardt J	193.354	27.928	–0.300
20	3	Austin Dillon	193.154	27.957	–0.329
21	13	Casey Mears	193.154	27.957	–0.329
22	51	Justin Allgaier	192.981	27.982	–0.354
23	55	Brian Vickers	192.768	28.013	–0.385
24	10	Danica Patrick	192.761	28.014	–0.386
25	15	Clint Bowyer	194.988	27.694	–0.066
26	20	Matt Kenseth	194.637	27.744	–0.116
27	7	M. Annett	194.602	27.749	–0.121
28	95	M. McDowell	194.581	27.752	–0.124
29	18	Kyle Busch	194.539	27.758	–0.130
30	23	Alex Bowman	194.454	27.77	–0.142
31	17	R. Stenhouse Jr	194.44	27.772	–0.144
32	5	Kasey Kahne	194.028	27.831	–0.203
33	47	AJ Allmendinger	193.611	27.891	–0.263
34	35	D. Reutimann	192.954	27.986	–0.358
35	77	Dave Blaney	192.52	28.049	–0.421
36	30	P. Kligerman	192.219	28.093	–0.465
37	32	Travis Kvapil	192.171	28.1	–0.472
38	36	Reed Sorenson	191.748	28.162	–0.534
39	38	David Gilliland	191.625	28.18	–0.552
40	40	Landon Cassill	191.408	28.212	–0.584
41	98	Josh Wise	191.232	28.238	–0.610
42	26	Cole Whitt	189.036	28.566	–0.938
43	34	David Ragan	187.839	28.748	–1.120

David Ragan

Ford

To Bellac

187.839

28.748

–1.120

April 5, 2014

AJ Allmendinger Hunting Victories; Craving Chase Berth

AJ Allmendinger doesn’t have the greatest equipment on the racetrack, however, he’s doing the best he can with what he’s been provided.

“I think so far up to this day it’s been a good season.” Allmendinger explained on Friday in the media center. “The switch over from Toyota last year to the RCR (Richard Childress Racing) alliance this year with Chevy for us has been tough. There is a lot of work that has gone into it.”

The JTG Daugherty Motorsports driver has yet to crash this season – which is important for an under-funded team. He’s finished inside the top 26 every race, with a season-best finish of eighth at Auto Club Speedway.

“I think we have raced really well on Sunday’s.” Allmendinger furthered commented. “Our cars have been fast. The first few weeks we had good runs but we just had some bad luck or just some things that happened (which) took us out of a really good finish.”

Allmendinger enters this weekend hoping to score his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) triumph at Texas Motor Speedway. He’s already had mild success in the lonestar state; he’s earned two top 10 finishes while averaging a finish of 21.6, in only 10 career starts.

“It’s six races in (the season).” Allmendinger expressed. “I don’t want to get too over excited about where we are at, but the direction where the team is headed (is great) and I feel like as we are gelling together I like what is in the future for us. It’s just kind of taking it one day at a time.”

NASCAR’s new Chase system focuses mainly on winning; therefore, finding yourself in victory lane almost guarantees you a spot in NASCAR’s playoffs. Allmendinger still firmly believes he can make the Chase if circumstances present themselves.

“A team like ours, you know the ultimate goal is to win.” Allmendinger explained. “That is why we show up every weekend, but we have got to set realistic goals as well. That is to continually keep getting better. This is a team that was 30^th, 31^st (in points) last year and we are 16^th in points right.”

“We have got to be a consistent top-20, top-15 team to get inside the top-10 and give ourselves shots to win races, to learn how to do that. That is something that, hopefully, we can continue each weekend and get better and kind of keep being in the mix at least and being competitive.”

Allmendinger, who was dismissed from NASCAR for drug related issues a few years back, has revived himself and is now in contention to possibly visit victory lane, and if the 34-year-old competitor can remain focus, the No. 47 team could assume and underdog role and possibly achieve their ultimate goal – making the Chase.

April 4, 2014

Hot 20 – Ducks and guns and controversy, it must mean we’re going to Texas

Last year, it was the NRA. This year the Texas race is brought to you courtesy of Duck Commander, representing the first family of Duck Dynasty. While some might be a touch torqued to have another gun-endorsing group as a sponsor, I find it less offensive than, say, Chick-Fil-A. The sponsor pays for name placement, but should not take over the identity of the event in total. I think any affair named exclusively after its sponsor of the moment does injustice to the event in the long-term. The Peach Bowl had tradition, the Chick-Fil-A Bowl was a joke. Its return to becoming the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl is an acceptable nod to both tradition and commercialism.

There is the case of Thai boxer Somboon Phantasi, also known as Samson Dutch Boy Gym, Samson 3-K Battery, Samson Toyota-Thailand and Samson Elite Gym, or whoever his sponsor happened to be at that moment. It could have been worse, but thankfully there was no Samson Chick-Fil-A. It is, or was, an honor to win such milestone events as the Daytona 500, the Southern 500, the Brickyard 400, the Firecracker 400, the World 600, the Dixie 500, the Volunteer 500, the Delaware 500, the Old Dominion 500, the Pocono 500, the Richmond 400, and the Talladega 500. These were races that had their own, distinct identity. Races a winning driver could refer to proudly in future years, events fans might actually know something about and appreciate. You could even have pride in taking the Viagra Daytona 500, though the sponsor name might not appear on the resume. Something like the Duck Commander Texas 500 has a nice ring to it. If you do not like the sponsor, just refer to it by its real name and all will be happy.

Our thoughts are with Jimmie Johnson and his wife Chandra, following the loss of her brother in a sky diving accident last Sunday. Jordan Janway was just 27 years old.

It is official. The troubles experienced by teams at Martinsville were not the fault of Goodyear but were, in fact, self inflicted. NASCAR will not be regulating tire pressures at Texas. Six different drivers have won this season, though a repeat of last spring would give Kyle Busch his second of 2014.

Tradition once gave the best on the season the championship in NASCAR. Even so, some might suggest that Matt Kenseth’s 2003 title was something of an upset considering the eight wins that season of Ryan Newman. With the new knockout format this year, the odds of an upset champion are even greater. It would not exactly be unique in sports should that happen. The Giants beat the up to then undefeated Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl, the Mets beat the Orioles in the 1969 World Series, and the USA eliminated the Soviet Union in Olympic hockey in 1980. Heading to Homestead, we will only know that one of four drivers will take the prize by the end of the day, and the season’s most dominant driver might not even be among them.

However, if we sought out “the” driver of 2014, gave race winners 22 additional points, up to 69 or 70, and eliminated the Chase, this is what our hot 20 would look like heading into Texas.

	Driver	Races	Wins	Points
1	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	6	1	249
2	Carl Edwards	6	1	239
3	Matt Kenseth	6	0	218
4	Jeff Gordon	6	0	216
5	Kyle Busch	6	1	211
6	Brad Keselowski	6	1	210
7	Jimmie Johnson	6	0	209
8	Joey Logano	6	0	187
9	Austin Dillon	6	0	179
10	Ryan Newman	6	0	174
11	Kurt Busch	6	1	168
12	Paul Menard	6	0	168
13	Denny Hamlin	5	0	165
14	Brian Vickers	6	0	165
15	Marcos Ambrose	6	0	162
16	Kevin Harvick	6	1	157
17	Tony Stewart	6	0	154
18	A.J. Allmendinger	6	0	152
19	Clint Bowyer	6	0	150
20	Greg Biffle	6	0	149

April 3, 2014

The Final Word – Kurt Busch breaks Johnson’s heart and Keselowski’s car at Martinsville

Winning races gets your name, and that of your sponsor out there. You run where they can see you, or you do something that causes the cameras to wander your way. If that is the goal, it was mission accomplished for Kurt Busch.

At the start, Kurt was in there somewhere but not yet up front. So, with 45 laps gone in a 500 lap event, he managed to find a way into the headlines. When Kasey Kahne turned left to head toward his pit stall, he cut in front of Brad Keselowski. That caused a minor bump. However, Kurt Busch saw room on Keselowski’s right and went for it. Unfortunately, Brad turned ever so slightly to his right and into Busch. Kurt thought he had ruined his chances for good things at Martinsville while Keselowski went to the garage for extensive repairs and a place to stew.

Thirty-odd laps later, Kurt was still not in front, but Keselowski was back on the track in what looked like a stripped down hot rod roadster. Needless to say, Brad was not happy. He tried to keep Kurt behind him when they met again. Kurt nudged Brad’s rear in return. Keselowski tried to brake check Busch, then they banged fenders, or whatever passed for a fender on the 2 car. Keselowski got downright cuddly as a kitten with Busch, if the critter was on catnip and some Colorado herbals. They met; they banged like William Hung, and kept this up until Kurt finally got away. Still not at the front, but he sure got lots of screen time for owner/sponsor Gene Haas. Not bad for being out in the weeds. As for Keselowski, he was the guy driving the No. 2…that white car with no fenders or hood. He was sponsored, was he not?

To maximize his exposure, Kurt’s crew managed to work on the car, got it better and better, and in the final laps he managed to slip past the most dominant car of the day. Jimmie Johnson finished second as his winless streak is now extended to nine whole races, going back to Texas last November. Busch won his first since October 2, 2011 at Dover, the 25th of his Cup career, and this puts him in a likely Chase place. Most important of all, anyone watching the race knew that Kurt Busch and Haas Automation were there.

I also noticed that Busch climbed onto the roof of his car in celebration. Isn’t that now illegal? As for Brad, he is making like Michael Buffer, calling to Kurt to get ready to rumble. Yet, when I rewatched the video, it was Brad’s slight right hand turn after hitting Kahne that caused the contact with Busch on pit row. A wrecked car, a ruined race, and now it is his fault…not that Keselowski would agree.

Carl Edwards was 13th, which gave Dale Earnhardt Jr a ten position jump on him on the track and moves Junior that many points ahead of Edwards on top in the over-all standings. The winless Matt Kenseth, with finishes this year ranging between fourth and 13th, is in second place, nine points back.

Busch is 20th, based strictly on points, and Kevin Harvick sits in 25th after finishing seventh at Martinsville. A Top 30 in the standings is needed for their wins to count toward making the Chase, but they hold 45 and 34 point cushions respectively in that department. As wins count more than points, they sit fifth and sixth in the standings.

Each week the media seems intent on telling us how much better Danica Patrick is each and every race over last year’s performance. She was 32nd on Sunday, and 12th in the spring race at Martinsville a year ago. She finished no better than 24th over the next eight races last year, so between now and Michigan all she needs to do is finish 23rd or better for this improvement talk to be taken seriously. It should be interesting to see how she does compared to the likes of Justin Allgaier, Michael Annett, and Cole Whitt over that span.

They go from the short track in Martinsville, Virginia to the 1.5-mile circuit in Fort Worth, Texas. Kyle Busch won there last spring, though Jimmie Johnson has won the past two fall events. Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, and Kasey Kahne are all currently outside our sweet 16 qualifying positions for the Chase, but all three know where Victory Lane can be found in Texas.

	Driver	Races	Wins	Points
1	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	6	1	227
2	Carl Edwards	6	1	217
3	Kyle Busch	6	1	189
4	Brad Keselowski	6	1	188
5	Kurt Busch	6	1	146
6	Kevin Harvick	6	1	135
7	Matt Kenseth	6	0	218
8	Jeff Gordon	6	0	216
9	Jimmie Johnson	6	0	209
10	Joey Logano	6	0	187
11	Austin Dillon	6	0	179
12	Ryan Newman	6	0	174
13	Paul Menard	6	0	168
14	Denny Hamlin	5	0	165
15	Brian Vickers	6	0	165
16	Marcos Ambrose	6	0	162

30	Reed Sorenson	6	0	101

March 31, 2014

Surprising and Not Surprising: Martinsville STP 500

With no practice due to a rainy weekend, the Cup drivers unleashed their pent up aggression on the short track of Martinsville. Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 65^th running of the STP 500.

Surprising: The closest that Hendrick Motorsports got to Victory Lane at Martinsville was the motor and chassis as Kurt Busch surprisingly took his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet to the checkered flag.

The win also marked significant milestones for driver and crew chief as this was Busch’s 25^th Cup win and his crew chief Daniel Knost’s first win as a crew chief.

Busch’s 83 start winless drought finally came to a close, with his last victory prior to this at the Monster Mile in the fall race of 2011.

“Every time you come to Martinsville you draw a line through it; like there’s no way I’ll be able to challenge those Hendrick guys,” Busch said. “The Stewart-Haas team gave me a team to do it.”

“It’s an unbelievable feeling to deliver.”

Not Surprising: While Brad Keselowski had some harsh words to say about the race winner, sarcastically ‘thanking Kurt’ after tangling with him early in the race and finishing 38^th, he kept his sense of humor when he took to Twitter after the race.

“I’m here,” Keselowski tweeted when a follower said that he would probably not be on social media for a while. “Laughing at all the hate tweets. #freeEntertainment.”

With that difficult finish, the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford dropped three spots to seventh in the point standings.

Surprising: Dale Earnhardt Jr. was surprisingly disappointed with not getting a clock, even though he finished third in his No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet and took the points lead away from Carl Edwards.

“Well, it was up and down,” Junior said of his race. “We ran out of tire there just trying to get by those lap guys that were giving me the top in the corner and I don’t need to be up there running.”

“That cost us a little bit.”

Junior and girlfriend Amy Reimann did, however, console themselves with a Martinsville hot dog as his “reward” for finishing third, tweeting a picture of the celebration from the plane.

This was Earnhardt Jr.’s 16th top-10 finish in 29 races at the track known as the ‘Paper Clip.’

Not Surprising: Martinsville made for some interesting milestones, including another new winner for the season and a record number of lead changes.

Kurt Busch became the sixth different winner in six races to date and there were a record 33 lead changes among 12 drivers, the most ever at Martinsville. The previous record for lead changes was 31, set in April of 2011.

Surprising: They may have been driving with heavy hearts due to the death of Miss Lynda Petty, the King’s late wife, but the two Richard Petty Motorsports drivers pulled off great finishes, with Marcos Ambrose in fifth and Aric Almirola in eighth.

In fact, this was only the fourth time that the two RPM teammates have finished in the top-10 together, but the second time in six races this season.

““We’ve had a really tough week. We lost Miss Lynda.” Ambrose, driver of the No. 9 DeWalt Ford said. “We really wanted to win for them bad out there, but we’ll take a top five.”

“I’m really proud of all the guys at Richard Petty Motorsports,” Almirola, driver of the No. 43 STP Ford, said. “If we keep running like this, we’ll get to Victory Lane.”

Not Surprising: The highest finishing Ford was Joey Logano, who deemed his drive in the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford “a battle.”

“This race is really hard, but we finished where we deserved to finish,” Logano said after finishing fourth. “That’s where we ran and that’s about all we had.”

“I wish we had a little more.”

Surprising: “That’s all I had,” are words that are eerily similar to Logano’s but are not typically heard from six-time champion Jimmie Johnson. But that was his summary of the race as well at one of his strongest tracks.

“I’d been loose in the final third of the race and was hanging on there,” Johnson, who finished runner up in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, said. “When (Kurt Busch) got back by me, I was hopefully that he’d wear his stuff out and I could get back by him. He did but I couldn’t hold him off.”

“I started to get looser and looser,” Johnson continued. “I ran the rear tires off the car.”

“That’s all I had.”

This was Johnson’s 22^nd top-10 finish in 25 races at Martinsville Speedway and his fourth top-10 finish in the 2014 season.

Not Surprising: While most drivers are focused on the wins, Jamie McMurray was thinking about points and shaking his head.

McMurray, behind the wheel of the No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet, was involved in an on-track incident with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Lap 199 that caused him to finish 42^nd and falling eleven spots in the point standings to 23^rd.

“I thought the No. 88 would be a little more patient with me. I had gotten by him in lap traffic. Then he got on my inside. When he got into me it was like it couldn’t get off and spun me around and just got into the wall there,” Jamie Mac said. “Really unfortunate had a good car, every race we’ve had good cars.”

“You just wish you weren’t racing for points because that is the hardest part to swallow is the point’s loss,” McMurray continued. “It’s fun to run well but that is what you will think about for the next five days.”

Surprising: After missing the previous race week due to metal in his eye and after vowing to make a comeback and win at a track where he has the third-best driver rating, it was most surprising to see Denny Hamlin finish a disappointing 19^th.

The driver of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota had ignition issues and then was just plain slow during the race.

“Just a frustrating day, especially when you know that this is a race track that I feel like I can make up a difference here and there,” Hamlin said. “We were a football field and then some away from the right set up today.”

Not Surprising: Austin Dillon, behind the wheel of the No. 3 Dow Chevrolet was the highest finishing rookie, finishing 15^th at the very demanding short track.

“I had some good runs there in my truck but it was totally different in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car,” Dillon said. “It’s one of those races where you have to fight to stay in it.”

“Things were definitely wild there.”

The Cup Series will move from the short track of Martinsville to the track in Texas where everything is big for the Duck Commander 500.

March 30, 2014