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Tag: Tony Stewart

  • The Final Word – Post-race Kyle kissed the Bricks at Indianapolis, the rest could just kiss his…

    The Final Word – Post-race Kyle kissed the Bricks at Indianapolis, the rest could just kiss his…

    All we have heard all summer long is how great Kyle is at winning, how wonderful Kyle has been in making a comeback. Kyle, Kyle, Kyle. It is enough to make one channel their inner Jan Brady.

    What a wonderful race Kevin Harvick had. He led all those laps, yet the best he gets in the end was third. Joey Logano, he had a wonderful day going for him, but with about 10 to go, Kyle decided the race was his and won his first Brickyard 400.

    Okay, three wins in a row. Four of the past five, all in just the past nine events; 33rd of his career. Over those last five events, Busch has managed to pick up an average of 30 points per race on the driver sitting in 30th place in the standings, and today sits just 23 behind Justin Allgaier as he moves closer to being Chase eligible and making those wins count toward the standings. My bold prediction is that he will rocket from 32nd to at least second in the season standings come next Sunday at Pocono.

    Busch is having a season just as unbelievable as that of Tony Stewart. I mean, who can believe the crap Smoke has been putting up with this season? He starts fourth at Indianapolis, was up front the first half of the day, yet the heaping helping he was left with was not exactly a steaming pile of hospitality. Strategy gone bad, they said. Stewart pits when some thought he should have maintained track position. Shortly after, he pits again, giving up even more. He finished 28th, a spot behind Danica Patrick, who had a Top 15 day, was eighth when they re-started with eight to go.

    Jeff Gordon was in his final Brickyard, but he lost control trying to avoid a spinning Clint Bowyer. Contact with the outside wall left him limping to 42nd. Still, he is in no danger of dropping out of the Top 16 just yet. Bowyer has that final transfer spot, sitting 30 points ahead of Aric Almirola. He appeared to be driving a metallic pinata as Bowyer gained 32 positions on him.

    Mind you, after Pocono, when the four Busch wins trump whatever points he might have, as long as he sits amongst the Top 30, Bowyer will slip back to 17th. In reality, he goes into next weekend down by 20 to Kasey Kahne and Paul Menard, and 25 behind Ryan Newman, for the spot that will matter at the end of the day.

    As for Kyle, he has never won at Pocono. Of course, he had never won a Cup event at Indianapolis before, either. Busch is a husband, a new dad and appears to have returned a more mature version of his former self. Maybe even a more talented version, if that can be possible. Some might not like it, but the way things are going, they might have to be content with kissing his…championship ring at the end of the season.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Brickyard 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Brickyard 400

    With a brand new rules package yet again here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 22nd Annual Crown Royal presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at The Brickyard.

    Surprising:  Forget Game of Thrones, Kyle Busch pronounced the Brickyard 400 the ‘game of restarts’.

    “It was a game of restarts at the end and who was helping who. That’s what this package allowed for today and what this race track gives,” Busch, driver of the victorious No. 18 Skittles Toyota, said. “First I have to thank Joey Logano, then I have to thank Martin Truex – those two guys behind me on those three restarts – they are the ones that just helped propel my car a little bit ahead so when I got to turn one, I could keep the gas down and pull ahead and get up to the lead.”

    “I’m still in shock. It’s all gone by so fast. Every week you go on to the next one, but this is something spectacular. I always dreamed of wanting to race here let alone win here.”

    This was Busch’s fourth win of the season and his third win in a row. He delivered not only his first victory at the Brickyard, but also the first win for Toyota at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Busch now sits just 23 points out of the 30th position for Chase eligibility.

    Not Surprising:  There were a number of ‘seconds’ that were hard pills to swallow. Joey Logano started second, finished second and continued to be second in the points. And of all those seconds, Logano said simply, “Second sucks. There are no trophies for second.

    “Yeah, the worst part is the same guy beat me the last two times I’ve finished second.”

    Both Trevor Bayne and Aric Almirola suffered seconds of their own, both wrecking twice, once separately as well as wrecking into each other. Almirola finished 38th and Bayne finished 40th.

    “We worked at it from the drop of the green,” Bayne said after the race. “Today just wasn’t our day with the AdvoCare Ford. But it’s on to Pocono next week where hopefully we can run well like we did in the spring.”

    Probably the most interesting of the ‘seconds’ was the fact that Austin Dillon not only sped on pit road but that he sped again for the second time while serving his penalty. After his second bout of speeding, Dillon soldiered on to finish 25th in his No. 3 Dow/Mycogen Chevrolet.

    Surprising:  While Kyle Busch was sweeping the Xfinity and Brickyard races, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was doing some brushing off of his own.

    “If it could happen today, it most likely did. Gotta brush it off and get back at it next week @poconoraceway. We like that place!” Junior tweeted after the race.

    The driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet also had a little fun with his misfortune, when he spun through the grass, leading to his 22nd place finish.

    “Although it wasn’t part of the plan, the trip through the grass reminded me of tearing through the yard in our go-kart when we were kids.”

    Not Surprising:  Jeff Gordon, who suffered heavy damage to his No. 24 3M Chevrolet after trying to avoid a spinning Clint Bowyer, remained upbeat and thankful for all of the wonderful memories he had at the Brickyard.

    “Today was an unfortunate day,” Gordon said after finishing 42nd. “It seems like in recent years it’s been kind of feast or famine for us here. But I tell you what, from the first time I came here all the way through last year and even this year the fans have been amazing, the experiences have been amazing, the wins.

    “Everything has been incredible and I feel so fortunate to have just gotten an opportunity to race here. Certainly to have five wins here is just unbelievable as well.”

    Surprising:  The third and fourth place finishers were quite busy falling on their respective swords. Harvick blamed himself for losing the lead and Truex blamed himself for mistiming his pushing efforts, or lack thereof, for Harvick.

    “Yeah, we lost the lead there,” Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Budweiser Chevrolet said. “The No. 18 (Kyle Busch) and No. 22 (Joey Logano) got hooked up on the restart there and got by us in Turn 1. The No. 78 (Martin Truex, Jr.) and I didn’t really get together and weren’t able to keep the lead.

    “Then I lost the lead and Kyle had a faster pace than I wanted to go and spun the tires and then he was able to keep the lead. We lost a couple more spots because we got all jacked up once we started spinning the tires. All-in-all just really proud of everybody on the Jimmy John’s team, I just didn’t put it together there at the end.”

    “Yeah, just feel a little bad for Kevin (Harvick) there,” Truex, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet said. “I kind of screwed him. I was trying to push him, just mistimed it.

    “I feel bad I messed him up a bit there. I kind of messed Kyle (Busch) up on the last one too and he still won. I wasn’t getting good starts.”

    Harvick finished third while Truex finished right behind him in the fourth spot.

    Not Surprising:  There were a few unfortunate tire issues at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with both Sam Hornish Jr. and Kurt Busch suffering cut right rear tires early in the race. Both were able to recover, with Hornish rebounding to a 17th place finish and Busch scoring an 8th place run.

    “We ended up flattening the right rear tire,” Hornish, driver of the No. 9 Medallion Bank Ford Fusion, said. “We pitted and we stuck with it. The guys made good changes throughout the day and got our Medallion Bank Ford Fusion up there to 17th.”

    “We chiseled away on each green flag run and each restart, except for the last two,” Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet said. “And overall, I was pleased with the car’s performance. We were missing a little bit with leaning on the right front tire and not having the car bust loose on me; but overall, the Haas Automation Chevy was a good car.

    “Eighth is a little bit worse than what I thought we would have finished, but we weren’t a winning Chevrolet. All-in-all, these are those types of days that you really have to find something and learn from it and that way you can turn an eighth into a third into a shot to win.”

    Surprising:  No matter the manufacturer, whether Toyota, Chevrolet or Ford, drivers from each of the manufacturers spoke out about the new rules package unveiled at the Brickyard.

    “It just seemed like you couldn’t pass,” Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 Lilly Ford, said. “It was really hard to get up there and get a run on guys. It is difficult to try to get beside guys and it was really, really loose once you caught them. I would say the Kentucky package is way, way better and it put on a way better race than what that did.”

    “It’s terrible, that’s what I think,” Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, said of the new package. “You just can’t pass. Yeah, you can run up on the straightaway a little bit, but you can’t run through the corner with anything.”

    “It was really bad,” Kyle Larson, behind the wheel of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet said of the aero package. “There was lots of grip by yourself and then as soon as you get within like five car lengths of the guy in front of you, it’s no grip.

    “So, I don’t know. Restarts are intense. But, other than that, it’s pretty bad.”

    Not Surprising:  With a runner-up finish in the XFinity Series and a special paint scheme, the Brickyard was a place full of learning for young driver Ryan Blaney, who finished a respectable 12th.

    “I didn’t really sleep that much last night and I was thinking about turn 2 over and over,” the driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford, said. “I thought about it more than I should. You just learn from your mistakes and focus on today. There were some things that happened yesterday that I applied today and it worked out.”

    “It’s really cool to be part of this JDRF deal,” Blaney continued. “It’s my first year and it’s interesting to learn about type 1 diabetes and good for me to learn about all the kids who have it and battle it. It makes you appreciate things more. It was great to have a good finish for them.”

    Surprising:  While the temps were up, the heat seemed not to play the role or factor that it did in Sunday’s race as opposed to the race on Saturday where drivers were really spent and complaining.

    “It was a hot day but that is what we do,” Brad Keselowski said after finishing 10th in his No. 2 Miller Lite Ford. “That is part of being a race car driver.”

    Not Surprising: In spite of the stellar NASCAR Camping World Truck Series racing at Eldora Speedway last Wednesday, Tony Stewart, who looked like the Smoke of old at the start of the race, could not finish it off the way he wanted.

    The driver of No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet started the race in the fourth position but ended up 28th when the checkered flag flew.

    The Sprint Cup Series will now move on to the mountains in Pennsylvania for the Windows 10 400 race weekend, taking place at Pocono Raceway.

     

  • Stewart Boosts Team Morale with Fourth Place Start for Brickyard 400

    Stewart Boosts Team Morale with Fourth Place Start for Brickyard 400

    In a season that has given the No. 14 team little reason to celebrate, Tony Stewart clinched his best starting position of the year for the upcoming Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was the fastest in the first round of qualifying but had to settle for a spot on the second row, qualifying fourth in the final round.

    Stewart called the first round qualifying effort “a moral victory if nothing else, for us and the team. It’s been a rough season so far, so this is a great way to come to your home track and I wish this was the second round, not the first round. But at least we’re locked into the second round and that’s the main thing right now.”

    The second round did not go as well with Stewart characterizing the car as “a little bit freer than we were the first round,” but he was pleased with the team’s effort.

    “I’m excited about being in the top two rows right now; definitely happier about that than being mid-pack right now,” Stewart said.

    He also spoke about having the support of his fans, who were clearly ecstatic after his qualifying effort.

    “That is huge,” he stated. “Like I say when you come home that is what you want. They play as big of a part in this as anything when it comes to keeping your moral up.”

    Stewart was cautiously optimistic about Sunday’s race.

    “Well, I mean it could go and be a natural disaster tomorrow,” Stewart admitted. “It could all be for nothing. It’s the way you want to start the weekend for sure is to have two good runs in qualifying and have a decent starting spot. That is definitely what we were looking for today.”

    “I have said all year that it could change in a week and it doesn’t even mean that after this weekend it’s not going to go back to where it has been,” he continued. “But, for here we have a balance. We will just see if we can keep it that way all day tomorrow.”

    The three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion has two wins at his home track and seven top-five finishes. Stewart also has a fourth-best driver rating of 101.9 at Indianapolis. Everything considered, there’s no better place for him to turn a lackluster year into a winning season.

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: New Hampshire 5-Hour Energy 301

    Surprising and Not Surprising: New Hampshire 5-Hour Energy 301

    With the race running in temperatures hot enough to boil a lobster, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 23rd annual 5-Hour Energy 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

    Surprising:  Although Kyle Busch ended the race in Victory Lane, with a gutsy pass at the end and a great restart, he may owe a major debt of gratitude to young Alex Bowman, who survived a fire in his car exiting pit road only to wreck on the white flag lap, bringing out the very caution that Busch needed to win the race.

    “Today we may not have been the best car, we were early, but towards the end I’m not sure that we were,” Busch said. “We put ourselves in the right spot to be able to capitalize.  Sometimes in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series you got to be able to do that.  Today was one of those opportunities for us.”

    Not Surprising:  While a top-five finish is a source of pride for many drivers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was still frustrated with his continuing streak of top-five finishes at Loudon without a win to show for it.

    “Seem like I run in the top five or top 10 every damn time we come here,” the driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet said. “I’m always like the third, fourth, fifth best car. I’m never like the 2, the 18, the 4, the 11. That is very frustrating.”

    “But at the same time, you know, I got to say something about my ability and the team’s ability. I take a lot of pride in having a good, positive statistic like that. But it sure would be nice to hold the lobster and do all the fun stuff they do in Victory Lane.”

    Surprising:  Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano may have finished top-five, in second and fourth respectively, but they seemed on the opposite ends of the speed opinion poll.

    “We had a really fast car,” Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford, said. “I’m proud of my team for the effort. It feels good to have fast cars.”

    “We had a really fast car and led a lot of laps. I’m really proud of the team for bringing me two fast cars these past two weekends. It’s a joy to drive cars that fast.”

    “We had great execution with the Shell/Pennzoil Ford, just not enough speed,” Logano said of his No. 22 race car. “Todd made some great calls keeping us toward the front.  We were good on the restarts and got a few when we could there. When you’ve got four tires you try to make something happen, but we just didn’t have enough speed in our race car to go up there and race with those guys.”

    “We’ll find a little bit more speed before we come back.”

    Not Surprising:  In spite of a bit of a misstep on pit road, Kevin Harvick stood by his team, crediting them for strategy and overall performance for the weekend in his third place finish in the No. 4 ‘Freaky Fast’ Jimmy John’s/Budweiser Chevrolet.

    “I think we had the right strategy, just a little miscue on the last pit stop,” Harvick said. “Those guys have done great all year. They did great today.”

    “I just have to thank everybody at our Jimmy John’s/Budweiser Chevrolet for everything they do. We were off on Friday and we were able to really rebound and have a good Saturday and good racecar today. It’s encouraging.”

    Surprising:  Paul Menard, who had been having a good race run for the first half of the laps at least, had contact with Kasey Kahne, missed pit road, limped around the track and then spun getting onto pit road.

    Menard then capped it all off with no less than four pit road penalties on top of the less than stellar stop. The driver of the No. 27 Richmond/Menards Chevrolet took the checkered flag in the 25th position and on the lead lap.

    Not Surprising:  Although they raced one another hard at one point during the race, the young Dillon boy and the seasoned veteran on his last run, Gordon managed to both pronounce their top-ten days good.

    “It was a good day,” Dillon said. “The Dow Chevy was pretty solid. I can’t thank (crew chief) Slugger enough for sticking with me. We were not very good in practice. I learned a lot in the XFINITY car, I think, it laid over today, and it was probably one of our best races in the last two years.”

    “Honestly, that’s the kind of effort that this team has been putting in a lot lately,” Gordon said. “We haven’t been coming to the track in the position that we really feel like we could be like we were last year. We’ve got some catch-up to do there; but my gosh, one thing we’re not lacking is determination and just the ability to overcome adversity. I’m really proud of that.”

    “It was still a nice top 10.”

    Surprising:  There was no one hoping more for a caution than Danica Patrick, who had to pit for fuel with just six laps to go. She ran short after taking the wave-around being short on gas in order to get back on the lead lap.

    The trip down pit road so late in the race put the driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet a lap down to finish in the 24th position.

    “The call to take the wave-around was definitely the right decision to make there,” Patrick said. “We had to go for it and get our lap back so we could try to compete for a better finish.”

    “Days like these are tough and require a lot more effort and energy from everyone. It’s disappointing to end up as far back as we did, but I’m proud of my GoDaddy team for not giving up and working so hard today.”

    Not Surprising:  With fans taking refuge under the stands from the unusually hot weather in New Hampshire, it was no wonder that at least three drivers had to be attended to medically after the race. Michael Annett and Matt DiBenedetto were both helped to the infield care center and treated there for over an hour and a half for their heat-related conditions.

    AJ Allmendinger was also attended to in his hauler from a combination of heat and having strep throat all weekend.

    “I wasn’t at my best today either,” Dinger said. “I’ve been battling strep throat.  It was very hot today and I got frustrated at times because I wasn’t feeling good.  Brian (Burns, crew chief) and the guys did a good job. The pit crew was solid again. I will get a little bit better, but hopefully something we can build off of.”

    Surprising:  After two good race runs, Trevor Bayne had a surprisingly difficult time at New Hampshire, finishing a disappointing 32nd.

    “We fought hard all race,” Bayne said after the race. “Our AdvoCare Ford was just tight in the center throughout the day.”

    Not Surprising: Although he continued his less than stellar season, with a 20th place finish at Loudon, Tony Stewart does have a bright spot ahead for the upcoming week.

    He will get to step out of the car and into the role of track owner for the Mud Summer Classic at Eldora Speedway for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Wednesday.

     

  • Sonoma Raceway Sprint Cup Preview – Just the Facts

    Sonoma Raceway Sprint Cup Preview – Just the Facts

    With only 11 races remaining in the regular season, the action heats up as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series travels to Sonoma Raceway this weekend for some road course action in California.

    Did you Know?

    • The NSCS competes at Sonoma Raceway once each season. The first Cup race was held there in 1989.
    • Ricky Rudd won the first race on June 11, 1989 at a speed of 76.088 mph.
    • Rusty Wallace won the inaugural pole with a 90.041 mph lap.
    • Danica Patrick is the only female NSCS driver that has competed at Sonoma Raceway.
    • Dale Earnhardt won his only NASCAR road course race at Sonoma in 1995.
    • The last 10 races have produced 10 different winners:

    2005 – Tony Stewart
    2006 – Jeff Gordon
    2007 – Juan Pablo Montoya
    2008 – Kyle Busch
    2009 – Kasey Kahne
    2010 – Jimmie Johnson
    2011 – Kurt Busch
    2012 – Clint Bowyer
    2013 – Martin Truex Jr.
    2014 – Carl Edwards

    Winners and Losers:

    • Kurt Busch has the best driver rating at Sonoma (106.5) followed by Jeff Gordon (103.4) and Tony Stewart (98.8).
    • Gordon’s resume, however, may be the most impressive as he leads the series with nine road course wins, five at Sonoma and four at Watkins Glen. Although his last triumph was in 2006, this could be one of his best opportunities to bring home his first checkered flag of the season.
    He is the only driver with consecutive wins at this track, with three victories between the years 1998-2000. Gordon is also the lone competitor to win from the pole more than once (1998, 1999 and 2004) and he leads the series with 14 top-five finishes at Sonoma.
    • Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are at the other end of the spectrum. They have the dubious distinction of leading all active drivers with the most NSCS starts at Sonoma (15) with no wins to show for their efforts. A trip to Victory Lane would be huge for either driver but if their driver ratings at the track are any indication, Earnhardt (72.1) and Kenseth (75.4) are long shots at best.

    Milestones:

    • Brad Keselowski is set to make his 300th NSCS consecutive start on June 28 at Sonoma Raceway.
    • If Kevin Harvick places in the top-two this Sunday, he will accomplish something that only one other driver in NSCS history has done by capturing 11 top-two finishes in the first 16 races of the season. Bobby Allison did so in 1972.
    • Carl Edwards is tied with Dale Earnhardt Jr. with 24 series career wins. A win at Sonoma would tie him with Joe Weatherly and Denny Hamlin who are 29th on the all-time wins list with 25.

    Ten different drivers have secured their spot in the Chase with a victory this year. Will a new driver emerge victorious at Sonoma Raceway this weekend? Tune into the Toyota/Save Mart 350 on FOX Sports 1 Sunday, June 28 at 3 p.m. to find out.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Pocono Axalta We Paint Winners 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Pocono Axalta We Paint Winners 400

    In a peculiar race at Pocono, filled with shifting and unexpected bumps, here is what else was surprising and not surprising in the 34th annual Axalta We Paint Winners 400.

    Surprising:  Under picture-perfect skies, both blessings and curses abounded at the Tricky Triangle in the track’s first race of the season.

    “I just feel super blessed to be with this group of guys,” race winner Martin Truex Jr. said of his No. 78 Furniture Row race team. “They are super impressive and just proud to drive cars for them.”

    “We finally got it. That is all I can say we finally got it. Just can’t thank all my guys enough, Barney Visser, everybody at Furniture Row, everybody back in Denver for working so hard. This is a brand new racecar and they have been working really hard lately. Just proud of them and blessed to drive great racecars.”

    “It never gets any better than this.”

    This was Truex Jr.’s first victory of the season and one that ended a 69-race winless streak as well as qualifying him for the Chase.

    As much as Truex felt blessed to win, Jeff Gordon and Alan Gustafson on the flip side exchanged a tirade of uncharacteristic curses after disagreeing on pit strategy.  The curse-laden audio can be heard at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPeUz35cQRA&app=desktop.

    In spite of all that cursing, the Team 24 driver and crew chief duo managed to pull off a top-15 finish for the No. 24 Axalta/Penn State Chevrolet.

    Not Surprising:  Although many in the garage felt that he was the one to beat, Kevin Harvick finished second yet again, having had to deal with gear issues on the restarts and splitter issues as well.

    “Our Budweiser Chevy was really fast, but we were just terrible on the restarts getting going,” Harvick said. “We would lug really bad in third gear and just had to go into defense mode.”

    “We struggled in Turn 1 with the splitter on the ground. Things aren’t lining-up to win races right now.”

    Surprising:  Aric Almirola went from having one of the best finishes of the season in Dover to having one of his worst days at Pocono, finishing 43rd in his No. 43 Nathan’s Famous Ford with something malfunctioning in the motor of his race car.

    “It wouldn’t run anymore,” Almirola said. “It’s a shame.  It was not a good weekend for us. We struggled all weekend finding speed in our car and right there we came in and made a pretty aggressive adjustment on that pit stop. Trent (Owens, crew chief) changed a lot of stuff and just on that one lap of the restart it drove a lot better and I had my hopes up for a minute and then my hopes got crushed.”

    “We had some sort of motor issue. Every once in a while something like that happens.”

    This was Almirola’s first DNF of the season as well.

    Not Surprising:  Tony Stewart shared the best quote of the day. After received a penalty on pit road for an uncontrolled tire, Smoke came on the radio and said “They should start calling penalties on me for being an uncontrolled driver.”

    “I put us in a hole to start the weekend,” Stewart said, referring to his crash on Friday in practice that forced him to a backup racecar. “This whole Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops team dug in, worked hard all weekend and never gave up.”

    “I’m really proud of everybody and hate the finish doesn’t reflect that effort.”

    Stewart finished 21st at Pocono Raceway in his No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet.

    Surprising:  While Carl Edwards looked to be the strongest Toyota, starting on the outside pole, three other Toyotas managed to finish better than he did with his 15th place run. Matt Kenseth was the highest finisher of the manufacturer’s brand in the sixth place, with Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin finishing ninth and tenth respectively.

    “We had a really fast car – it was the fastest sixth-place car that I’ve ever had,” Kenseth, driver of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, said. “We ran much better than we finished.”

    “This is a bad track for me and we had a great car today.”

    “We didn’t start the race with what we needed with our M&M’s Crispy Camry,” Kyle Busch said. “But Adam (Stevens, crew chief) made some good adjustments to get us better. Track position was big, so Adam also made a good call to take two tires and get us some track position and we were able to hold onto it for a while.”

    “Those last two cautions didn’t help us, we just couldn’t get going on those last couple of restarts. We’ll take it and move on to Michigan.”

    “I thought we were a decent car – fifth to 10th place most of the day, but with our track position, we always took four tires,” Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota , said. “Some of those guys made it on fuel because of all the cautions so we continued to lose track position throughout the day, but we kind of battled back.”

    “We barely got inside the top-10 and at best I thought we could have improved four or five more spots, but overall a solid day. We didn’t tear up anything this week and now we can go and improve our program for next week.”

    Not Surprising:  While Ford has traditionally struggled at Pocono, Joey Logano still managed to be the best finishing Ford, bringing his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford to the checkered flag in the fourth position. His finish was especially noteworthy as he had to start from the back of the pack due to a rear gear change.

    “I’m happy with the way it ended,” Logano said. “We didn’t have a very fast Shell/Pennzoil Ford from the get-go when we unloaded here, but we kept fighting hard.”

    “This was one of those blue-collar days, just working hard all day on the car and on pit road the guys did a good job making my car faster and got to where we were a top-five car at the end.”

    Surprising:  Ryan Newman’s temper got the best of him after contact between himself and AJ Allmendinger on Lap 142. And he even vowed some revenge as a result of that contact.

    “It’s pretty obvious what happened,” Newman, driver of the No. 31 Grainger Chevrolet, said after finishing 39th. “The No. 47 (AJ Allmendinger) just ran out of talent.”

    “He has got one coming now.”

    Not Surprising:  While Trevor Bayne got some Pocono practice time in running and winning the ARCA Series race, the driver of the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford acknowledged that he was still in the learning mode for the Tricky Triangle.

    “We got through it and that was the main part for our first run here at Pocono,” Bayne said. “Overall, we kept a clean car and for the first time here I learned a ton.”

    “From where I started this week and getting to where we finished I think we made big gains.  We got back on the lead lap there at the end and we just needed to be a little bit better off turn three and we would have had something for a top-15 run.”

    Bayne finished the race in the 24th position.

    Surprising:  Forget girls just wanting to have fun, sometimes six time champions like Jimmie Johnson just want to do that as well even with a beat up race car, with some missing parts to boot. And while he had fun, Johnson also went on to finish third in his No. 48 Lowe’s/Jimmie Johnson Foundation Chevrolet.

    “A fun day,” Johnson said. “She is beat up and missing a left-front splitter too from the contact we had with the outside wall off of Turn 3 there.”

    “We overcame a lot and still got a third place finish out of it.  Wish we had a little bit more, but not a bad finish.”

    Not Surprising:  Both Chip Ganassi Racing drivers managed top-10 finishes at the Tricky Triangle, with Jamie McMurray coming in seventh and Kyle Larson finishing eighth.

    “It was a good race and a nice top 10,” Larson, the driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet, said after the race. “I thought that was probably about the speed we had maybe eighth to 11th or so.  So to get an eighth place is alright.”

    Surprising: Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 7 Accell Construction Chevrolet, managed a 26th place finish only to go home and have an accident there.

    “No joke got home and roscoe ran to the door and head butted me so hard because he couldn’t stop that I now have an actual black eye,” @AlexBRacing tweeted after the race.

    Not Surprising: At the end of the day and in spite of the competition, friendships develop in the garage area. And the best example of that was Dale Earnhardt Jr. who could not wait to get into Victory Lane to shake the hand of his friend and race winner Martin Truex Jr.

    “I’m just happy for him,” the driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet said after finishing 11th. “I know he’s been through a lot of stuff both inside the car and outside the car the last several years. He’s been able to get into a good opportunity with good people.”

    “He’s got a team that believes in him. And I was in the stall next to those guys during qualifying and how they are as a team and how they interact with each other really impressed me.”

    “So, Martin’s in a good situation. So, it’s real refreshing. I look forward to going over there (Victory Lane) and saying hey to him.”

    The Cup Series will race next weekend in the Irish Hills of Michigan for the Quicken Loans 400.

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Monster Mile FedEx 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Monster Mile FedEx 400

    The heat was on both on and off the track at the Monster Mile and here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 46th annual running of the FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks at Dover International speedway.

    Surprising:  It seemed that for many drivers, Miles the Monster not only bit them on the track but also in the pits. Carl Edwards had a terrible pit stop, with one of his pit crew members face planting after not being able to disengage the wrench from the back of the car. Edwards also suffered a pit road speeding penalty to add salt to the wound.

    “We had a couple problems on pit lane, but the biggest problem was my speeding,” Edwards said. “I didn’t realize I couldn’t speed in that segment so I was being a little aggressive and that cost us.”

    “I did not want to finish 19th today. I thought we had a top-three car, so just frustrating. But, once we got back there man it’s very hard to get track position.”

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. was also bitten by the Monster on pit road as he too got tagged for speeding. The driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet later tweeted “We worked hard as hell all day. The car was fast. I f’d up and sped on pit road. It happens. Passed a lot of cars and had fun considering.”

    Dale Junior ended the race in the 14th position.

    Not Surprising: Oops he did it again. In spite of qualifying 14th, Jimmie Johnson won again at Dover, scoring a perfect ten at that race track. And with that he became the only the fifth driver in NASCAR history to win ten races at a single track, joining Richard Petty, David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt.

    This was also Johnson’s fourth win of the season.

    “What a long hard fought day to get to the front,” the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Pro Services Chevrolet said. We did a great job hanging in there. My pit stops were awesome.”

    “It was just an awesome day at the race track.

    Surprising:  The Monster Mile has often been compared to Bristol on steroids, but the tracks also had something else in common with each other, that of tempers flaring. Martin Truex Jr., who again led the most laps yet finished in the sixth position, had a run in with Kasey Kahne, who finished fourth.

    “Martin was back behind me to get a run on me, obviously; the spotter said I was clear, so I just went to the bottom getting into (Turn) 1. I think he was a little upset. He gave me a bump after the race. But I don’t know. I didn’t really know what else to do other than to go there with guys on my outside, and stuff.”

    “He ran me down on the apron,” Truex said of Kahne. “So, I either had to let off or wreck all of us.”

    Kyle Busch, behind the wheel of the No. 18 Skittles Toyota, also was unhappy with Brian Scott and vice versa after an on-track incident that cost both of them good finishes.

    “I guess Brian (Scott) said his spotter didn’t say anything and he just chopped the corner and I was under him already and it just sucked me around,” Busch said. “I hate it. This is a shame. This isn’t what we need, and we weren’t going to win today, but it doesn’t help when you finish 40th.”

    The final dust up occurred between Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer, who also exchanged words after the race was over.

    “It was a bad day,” Hamlin said. “Bowyer just said he was sorry. He ran into the back of us and wrecked us. That was it.”

    Not Surprising:  The Monster Mile itself had some issues reminiscent of last year with parts of the track coming up, as well as a patch crumbling in Tony Stewart’s pits.

    And in typical Smoke style, he asked this of his team on his in-car audio about his crumbling pit staff, “Is that Andreas fault type s*it?”

    Surprising:  Trevor Bayne, who has been struggling recently had double trouble at Dover, wrecking as well as getting called to the hauler because he exited his car before safety workers arrived.

    “It is really unfortunate,” Bayne said. “I am not sure what else to say about it. I felt we were making progress on our race car. I don’t think we had a great car today by any means, but you never want to tear them up by any means. It really stinks.”

    Not Surprising: It seems that when Jimmie Johnson finishes first, there is one driver always right behind him. Kevin Harvick in his No. 4 Ditech Chevrolet took the runner-up spot yet again, pronouncing his run a ‘good solid day.’

    “We just struggled at the end of the race on restarts, really all day on the restarts,” Harvick said. “All in all, everybody did a great job, and I think when you look at Dover it’s been a good racetrack for us.  We’ve led laps and just haven’t quite finished it yet, but a good, solid day.”

    Surprising:  Sometimes even champions know that it is better to be lucky than good. And that pretty much described the day of the driver of the No. 24 3M Chevrolet Jeff Gordon.

    “We just aren’t good enough to be further up there,” Gordon said. “We have some work to do.  We fought hard today that is for sure.  I like the fight, but we have to get better than that.”

    Not Surprising:  As the drivers battled such a difficult track, it was no wonder that there were plenty of hoods up on pit road, including the cars of Matt Kenseth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Austin Dillon.

    “Not really sure, we broke something in the suspension and I’m not really sure what,” Kenseth said after his hood went up ending his day in the 39th position.

    Surprising:  Kyle Larson finally pulled off what he called the ‘first real kind of solid finish of the year’ as he took the checkered flag in the third position in his No. 42 Target Chevrolet.

    “Really good run for us, first top three of the year, first real kind of solid finish of the year,” Larson said. “Proud of my guys for the job they did to rebound from last week to bring a better car to the racetrack.”

    “That was just a nice solid day.”

    Not Surprising:  Paul Menard, in his usual quiet style, had a great run at the Monster Mile, finishing 8th in his No. 27 Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Chevrolet.

    “Good day, we made some really good adjustments,” Menard said. “Overall a good day. We just haven’t been finishing where we have been running. To come away from Dover with a top 10, we should have been top five, but our lane just didn’t go at the end.”

    Surprising: A group of drivers and NASCAR met prior to the Dover race to discuss how to improve racing, as well as how to keep those behind the wheel safe.

    “We’ve been trying to get all of our drivers together for about a year now, trying to get all of our ideas in one room together,” Denny Hamlin said Sunday morning at Dover. “NASCAR knew we were trying to form a line of communication, so they helped us start a driver council which gives us that forum to allow us to talk about things we want to talk about.”

    “I’m glad NASCAR wanted to do it and I think it gives us all a better opportunity to sit down and talk about why they make the decisions they make,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “We can talk about potential ideas to make sport better in a good, controlled atmosphere. It works really nice.

    Not Surprising: Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 43 Smithfield Ford scored his first top-five of the season. And though he was pleased with the finish, the Petty driver acknowledged that was one of his hardest fought runs to date.

    “I earned my money today that is for sure,” said Almirola. “This Smithfield Ford Fusion was tight early. Trent Owens and the guys made really good adjustments on the car and got it better and better. Finally, we weren’t the lucky dog, we raced and stayed on the lead lap, and when the caution came out, we got a chance to restart with the leaders. That was the big break for us.”

    “It was a great day for us, a really good points day for us,” Almirola continued. “I am proud of Trent and all the guys at Richard Petty Motorsports. They have been working their guts out trying to bring better cars to the race track week in and week out.”

    “All in all, it was a good day for us, and I am ready to go to Pocono.”

  • Johnson Looking for Number 10 as Gordon, Truex and Stewart Fight for First

    Johnson Looking for Number 10 as Gordon, Truex and Stewart Fight for First

    As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Dover International Speedway this weekend for the 13th points race of the season, 30-odd drivers are hoping to get lucky and snare the win that will catapult them into the Chase for the Sprint Cup. But for one driver, the stakes are even higher.

    Jimmie Johnson already has three wins this year, but a win at this particular track would be significant for an entirely different reason. He currently has nine wins at Dover, a track record, but one more victory would place him in an elite group of NASCAR drivers. Only four drivers have won 10 or more races at a single track and they are all members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

    Richard Petty won 15 races at Martinsville and North Wilkesboro, 13 at Richmond, 11 at Rockingham and 10 at Daytona. Darrell Waltrip won 12 events at Bristol, 11 at Martinsville and 10 at North Wilkesboro. Dale Earnhardt had 10 victories at Talladega and David Pearson claimed 10 checkered flags at Darlington.

    Johnson is the defending spring race winner and has the best driver rating of the top 16 at Dover, but he will also have some problems to overcome. On Wednesday NASCAR announced penalties for three Sprint Cup teams, including a written warning for the No. 48 team.

    This marked the second written warning in two consecutive races, making it a P1 penalty. As a result, the team will have one of the last two picks for pit stalls at Dover, regardless of how Johnson qualifies.

    Johnson reflected on racing at Dover, saying, “I’d have to say Dover is probably one of the most technical tracks we go to. Setup is key. Communication between driver and crew chief is key. At Dover, you have such loading characteristics, as you’re on the straightaway and kind of lunge off the corner, that you can draw some similarities between Dover and Charlotte. Dover isn’t easy, but it just suits my driving style and I love it.”

    One of Johnson’s chief competitors will be teammate Jeff Gordon whose last win was at Dover in September, giving him five victories at the Monster Mile, second to Johnson among active drivers. Gordon also joins Hall of Famers Petty (7), Bobby Allison (7) and Pearson (5), with five wins or more at Dover.

    Gordon spoke about the obstacles the 24 team would face this weekend.

    “We won the race in September here last year, but this is a different rules package with reduced horsepower,” he explained. “We’re going to be carrying more speed through the center of the corners this year, and the car will need to ‘rotate’ so you can get back in the gas quickly.”

    Martin Truex Jr. is second in the point standings and it’s hard to imagine there is anyone who wants a win more. He led the most laps in the previous two races at Kansas and Charlotte and has three top-five and 11 top-10 finishes this season, but victory has been elusive. He hopes to change that this weekend.

    Truex considers Dover his home track and it was the site of his first Sprint Cup win in 2007.

    “Dover has always been special to me,” said Truex.  “Even when we went through some hard times last year, we still managed to pull off strong results at Dover. There’s just something about that place that makes me feel both confident and comfortable.”

    Tony Stewart has only one top-10 finish this year and is barely hanging on in 30th place in the point standings, but one win could turn it all around. Although he has been successful at Dover, Stewart and the No. 14 team have found the track to be one of their most challenging venues on the circuit.

    “Dover is probably the track where we have struggled the most,” he said, “which certainly made the 2013 win that much sweeter. It was the one track that we always had to look at and say, ‘This is one that we have to figure out and do better if we’re going to have a shot at this.’ We have to survive there. What we did there that year helped us out for our next two races at Dover but, even with the win, we have some work to do.”

    Stewart has three wins at Dover including his last Sprint Cup victory in June 2013. That win broke a 30 race winless streak. As Stewart rolls into Dover this weekend, it seems only fitting that the three-time champ experience a little déjà vu as he seeks his next checkered flag.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Coke 600

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Coke 600

    With every driver well-versed on the name of the soldier memorialized on each car, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 56th annual Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    Surprising: While there was a plethora of doubling down at the Coke 600, most of the results were not so positive. Jeff Gordon, for one, did his own version of the double, piloting the pace car for the Indy 500 before the NASCAR race.

    “To come down that front straightaway the first time and hear that crowd cheering for the cars, the drivers, and this amazing event …to be able to hear that from inside the pace car with the windows down is just amazing,” Gordon said. “Not to mention that the pace car has to get after it pretty good out here because that last lap is 100 mph and through the corners, maintaining that is something.

    “So that was definitely cool. A huge thrill and a huge honor.”

    Unfortunately, Gordon did not have a positive result after his double down as he finished a disappointing 15th place in NASCAR’s longest race of the season with an ill-handling race car.

    Gordon’s teammate Jimmie Johnson also did his own version of the double, which was not positive twice over. The driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Patriotic Chevrolet spun twice to finish 40th at a track where he has traditionally performed so well.

    “We just had a really loose racecar,” Johnson said. “We came in with an aggressive mindset to bring an aggressive set-up in the car, drive aggressively and take chances. We said we were going to come in and swing for the fences. We did and I hit the fence.”

    The only successful double down was achieved by none other than Landon Cassill, who finished the Coke 600 in the 39th spot but then ran from Charlotte Motor Speedway to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

    Here is what Cassill tweeted in the wee hours of the morning after finishing his 14 mile run. “Made it! What a long day. 13.92mi 1:41:49 7:19/mi

    “Made it! What a long day. 13.92mi 1:41:49 7:19/mi avg bpm 155. Thanks @snapfitness and @NASCARHall for tagging along!”

    Not Surprising: The best quote of the long race day into night was, “Is the race over yet?” It was no wonder that Carl Edwards asked that question of his team in what seemed to be a never-ending fuel mileage race to the checkered flag.

    “This one feels different,” Edwards said after getting confirmation that the race was indeed over and he had won. “I don’t know how to explain it other than to just say that it’s a big relief, and more than that, it’s just a big opportunity.

    “Now we can go and just become better, and that’s what we need.”

    Surprising: While Kyle Busch returned to the track for the first points paying race after his injuries from a Daytona crash, teammate Denny Hamlin suffered his own medical issues in the car. Hamlin, who had played 36 holes of golf and a game of tennis prior to the race, suffered a bad headache and dehydration after the race.

    “Probably overdid it a little bit this weekend,” Hamlin said. “I think the dehydration led to a migraine and just felt nauseous the last 100 laps or so.”

    “I feel pretty good. All in all, I felt like that was a great race for us,” Busch said. “I admit I’ve probably got a little left foot soreness, but other than that, everything is pretty hunky‑dory.”

    Hamlin finished eighth while Busch finished 11th.

    Not Surprising: Given that it was the longest race of the season, it was no wonder that at least two engines expired, one of young Ryan Blaney in the Wood Brothers No. 21 and the other of David Ragan with Michael Waltrip Racing.

    “We were fighting hard to get back on the lead lap and looks like something happened engine related – we got really, really hot and something happened internally,” Ragan said. “Disappointed that we had a lot better race car, but saw some encouraging signs that we had some speed in qualifying and the race as well, but we just need to put a race all together.”

    “We, unfortunately, had an engine problem,” Blaney said. ”It was really unfortunate. It sputtered and started to go maybe half a lap before and then it really went up. I didn’t expect it to really explode like that.”

    Surprising: Greg Biffle celebrated his 450th start with a stellar finish, taking his No. 16 Ortho Ford to the finish line in the runner-up position.

    “I’m really excited for the team and the organization,” Biffle said. “We’ve been working really, really hard on our cars. It’s been well documented how bad we’ve been running, so it feels good.”

    Not Surprising: While Martin Truex Jr. has been knocking on the door of his first win of the season, having the fastest car in the last two races, fuel mileage bit him yet again, resulting in a fifth place finish.

    “We had a very fast car all night,” Truex said. “It really hurts knowing that you had the fastest car and didn’t win. I don’t know what to do about fuel mileage races. I’ve never ever in my entire career come out on the right end of them.”

    Surprising: Even with a third place finish, NASCAR’s most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. was disappointed by not winning a race near and dear to his heart.

    “We’ve got a win so it doesn’t really matter,” the driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet said. “We would like to win more races. I want to win this one. I don’t know how many more chances I will get at it.”

    Not Surprising: The fragmentation of the Stewart-Haas Race team continued, with Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch finishing ninth and 10th, while teammates Tony Stewart and Danica Patrick finished 21st and 22nd respectively.

    “It was a really frustrating night,” Patrick said. “The car just felt like it was dragging down the straightaways. It’s the most frustrating thing in the world when you see everyone drive past you, but we dug deep and did our best to get everything we could out of the car.”

    Surprising: Team Penske did not quite have the race that they wanted, with Brad Keselowski finishing seventh and Joey Logano finishing 13th. Both not only struggled with their cars, but Keselowski even struggled with the heat.

    “It was a long race. I hate to see it come down to fuel mileage, but that’s part of the game too,” Keselowski said. “It was hot. I burned my foot and didn’t feel good, but it’s a tough race. I gave it all I had and felt good about the effort we gave.”

    “The sun started going down and our car was not good. Nothing got better,” Logano said. “We went one way with something and went back the other way and nothing.

    “There was never one good thing about the car. Usually you at least get a good exit or a good center and I was just fighting way too much stuff.”

    Not Surprising: Brett Moffitt in his No. 34 CSX “Play It Safe” Ford was the highest finishing rookie, taking the final lap in the 31st spot.

    “It was a long race, that’s for sure,” Moffitt said. “In the middle of the race, we got the CSX Ford running pretty good. We just got stuck a couple laps down and could never get them back. Cautions weren’t falling in our favor, so we didn’t get any extra help there. But we learned a lot and we’re thankful to CSX for the support.”

    The Cup Series moves up the east coast to the Monster Mile for the next race, the 46th Annual FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway.

     

  • Hot 20 – A Dozen Drivers Seeking Another Miles the Monster Trophy this Sunday at Dover

    Hot 20 – A Dozen Drivers Seeking Another Miles the Monster Trophy this Sunday at Dover

    The trophy features Miles the Monster, a sharp-toothed, red-eyed stone creature hoisting the winner’s car in the air in an apparent prelude to dashing it into dust. Imagine what happens to the guy who finishes dead last.

    Jimmie Johnson has a lot of these trophies, courtesy of nine victories at Dover. It does not seem to matter the time of year or even the time of his career. He swept 2002 in his rookie season, as he did in 2009. Johnson has won half of the last six ran there, including last spring. I am going out on a limb here, but I got a feeling Jimmie might be considered the favorite on Sunday.

    It is not as if he does not share. Jeff Gordon has five of those trophies. There is a trio of them at both Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart’s homes. In fact, there are 11 other drivers who will be competing this weekend with a combined total of 22 to go along with the nine Jimmie has in his man-cave. Even Martin Truex, Jr. has one. He sure would love another.

    Hot 20 heading over to Dover…with past winners in CAPS…

    1. JIMMIE JOHNSON – 3 WINS – 393 Points
    Dover has been kind to him nine times…so how about 10?

    2. Kevin Harvick – 2 WINS – 473 Points
    Points are important, but wins more so. Just ask Truex.

    3. Joey Logano – 1 WIN – 407 Points
    Winning just a single race isn’t that big a deal, is it? When it is THAT race, it sure is.

    4. DALE EARNHARDT JR. – 1 WIN – 401 Points
    Loves Speedy Dry on oil, not so much on the top grove, on the fans, on your cereal…

    5. BRAD KESELOWSKI – 1 WIN – 381 Points
    Who’s her daddy? Brad is…of a baby girl. Congratulations!

    6. MATT KENSETH – 1 WIN – 372 Points
    You can join his pit crew in Kansas…sort of. Now, if you could just be Newman’s crew chief.

    7. KURT BUSCH – 1 WIN – 327 Points
    Still waiting for that final caution at Charlotte…that never came.

    8. Denny Hamlin – 1 WIN – 321 Points
    36 holes of golf and a game of tennis…not how to prepare for 600 miles.

    9. CARL EDWARDS – 1 WIN – 312 Points
    They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning…at least over the final 21 laps last week.

    10. MARTIN TRUEX JR. – 432 POINTS
    Best car in Charlotte, yet still winless.

    11. Jamie McMurray – 353 POINTS
    Interested only in winning the big ones, and July has both the Firecracker and Brickyard 400’s.

    12. JEFF GORDON – 346 POINTS
    Led the way at Indianapolis, so it was just too bad he was not also in the pace car at Charlotte.

    13. Kasey Kahne – 345 POINTS
    Last Sunday found Kasey having to do a lot of passing on a day when passing wasn’t easy.

    14. RYAN NEWMAN – 343 POINTS
    Last win was the 2013 Brickyard. Last race with his crew chief…Talladega.

    15. Aric Almirola – 339 POINTS
    Smithfield Foods sponsors Almirola and the IndyCar that caught fire prior to Sunday’s start.

    16. Paul Menard – 336 POINTS
    I hear his dad sponsors this team. Well, a big howdy to Mr. Pittsburgh Paints. Wrong one?

    17. Clint Bowyer – 296 POINTS
    Lt. Dale Bowyer…we and your grandson salute you.

    18. Danica Patrick – 292 POINTS
    Whose yoga photos would you prefer…Danica’s or Tony’s?

    19. GREG BIFFLE – 284 POINTS
    The only one even close to being the bearer of positive news for Roush-Fenway.

    20. A.J. Allmendinger – 274 POINTS
    Not saying he is bad at Dover, but anything in the Top 20 would represent a good day.