Tag: Trevor Bayne

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Phoenix Quicken Loans 500

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Phoenix Quicken Loans 500

    From a rain delayed and a rain-shortened race in the Valley of the Sun, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 28th annual Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

    Surprising:  Two rookie crew chiefs had to make the tough calls that saw one of their drivers win the race and the other make the Chase.

    “We kind of knew that once past halfway we’d see a couple more cautions,” Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s rookie crew chief Greg Ives said after scoring the victory. “So that rain started to pop up again and we’re on two long green-flag runs there, and we just saw it coming.  We didn’t know if it was going to happen before we pitted or after, but we knew at some point it was going to happen, and we elected to kind of pit, be one of the first few to pit.”

    “I think somebody got us one lap early, and our pit selection at pit stall 33 there allowed us to, when the caution came out, finish our pit stop and cross the start-finish line and allowed us to be scored the leader.”

    Cole Pearn, Martin Truex Jr.’s rookie crew chief, called his driver to pit road when an unfortunate caution came out shortly thereafter. Truex was able to finish 14th, which was just good enough to secure his spot in the Championship four.

    “I was real concerned until I looked at the scoreboard, and I was like, okay, we’re going to be fine.  We’re going to be back on the lead lap if we get going here, and really the only guy we were racing was one car ahead of us, so we felt okay about it,” Truex said. “It’s definitely obviously an exciting day for everybody at Furniture Row Racing and me and just super proud of my team for the season we’ve been able to put together.”

    Not Surprising:  It was lucky 13 for Chevrolet as they secured their 13th consecutive Manufacturer’s Championship thanks to Dale Junior’s win.

    “Winning the Manufacturers’ Championship is one of the goals we set at the beginning of every season,” Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports said. “This award is the result of great teamwork by the owners, drivers, crew chiefs, crews and technical partners. Special thanks to the Chevrolet powertrain team, along with the engine shops at Hendrick Motorsports and Earnhardt-Childress Racing for delivering the right combination of power, fuel economy, and reliability throughout the entire season.”

    “Congratulations to everyone who has made this special achievement possible for Chevrolet.”

    Surprising:  The Sunoco Rookie of the Year race is surprisingly close with just one race remaining.   Brett Moffitt currently has 196 points while Matt DiBenedetto sits at 192 points in the rookie battle.

    DiBenedetto was the highest finishing rookie at Phoenix, finishing 28th while Moffitt finished 36th.

    Not Surprising:  Joey Logano was not the only driver who was hoping to see a restart before the rains came to end the race.

    “I think it would have been pretty interesting to see what Joey did on that restart, I will say that,” four-time champion and 2015 championship contender Jeff Gordon said. “But I didn’t want to get caught up in whatever was going to happen.”

    “I was going to do whatever I had to do try to win the race if I had a chance to restart,” Logano said after being bumped out of the battle for the Sprint Cup. “I guess it just wasn’t in the cards.”

    Surprising: Even after finishing runner-up at a track where he has so often dominated, Kevin Harvick was still trying to figure out whether he was on the right side or the wrong side.

    “We made great adjustments overnight and got that little bit of balance that we were looking for from practice. “Just the way that the caution fell, I didn’t get all my distance back on the racetrack under green and Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) was able to beat us out,” Harvick said. “But hey, you lose some and you win some like that.”

    “Sometimes you’re on the right side of it, and sometimes you’re on the wrong side of it. Today we were on the wrong side of it, but in the big picture we’re on the right side because we’re racing for a championship next week.”

    “So, I’m just really proud of everybody on our team.”

    Not Surprising:  Roush Fenway Racing had another bad day at the track in Phoenix. Greg Biffle was the highest RFR driver, finishing 25th.  Both Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. struggled as well, with Bayne suffering a pit road speeding penalty to finish 34th and Stenhouse involved in an incident with Joey Gase, limping home to a 41st place run.

    “That was disappointing,” Stenhouse said after the race.  “We had a decent run here earlier in the spring and I think we could have had a decent finish.  We will put this behind us and head to Homestead for the final race of the year. We’ve struggled this year, but my guys have never given up.”

    Surprising:  The Busch brothers were prime examples of making little mistakes, however, the end result was far from similar.

    Kurt Busch made a little mistake, jumping the initial start, for which he was penalized and had to serve a pass-through penalty. Busch recovered to finish seventh, but it was not enough to advance him to the final four.

    “I don’t even think it was a penalty,” Kurt Busch said after the race. “It’s not even a call in my mind.”

    “We had a great season. We won two races, sat on three poles,” Busch continued. “We did everything possible to put polish on a season like that and get out there with elbow grease and work hard at it. There is some tarnish that is sitting there, polish and polish and that is all I kept doing this whole year.”

    Brother Kyle Busch also made a little mistake, but his ended up being not so costly. Busch pitted too close to the wall and lost several positions, however, bounced back to finish fourth and advance to the final four.

    “I had a little mishap on pit road, just overshot my marks a little bit, being a little bit slick and got my guys too close to the wall, but past that we had a really good race car,” Kyle Busch said. “The M&Ms Camry was fast.  I felt like we had a good top-three, top-four race car and long runs seemed to be our friends and we got some of those tonight, so couldn’t be more pleased to finish where we did and be more pleased to go to Homestead.

    Not Surprising:  With his Chase hopes dashed, Brad Keselowski now has his hopes set on a high five.

    “It was a long day for everybody and to have it end like that wasn’t surprising.  We kept adjusting on it, but it’s a short race and who knows?  Maybe that last run we would have had something, but that’s not the way it played out,” the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford said. “The highest we can get is fifth in points now, so I’d like to pull that off and take advantage of that opportunity when we get to Homestead next week.”

    The NASCAR season will now finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway with four surprisingly distinct storylines. Two of the contenders have already been champions, one Kevin Harvick looking to go back to back and one Jeff Gordon looking to close out his career with his fifth championship.

    The other two drivers in the Sprint Cup hunt could write the surprising storylines of being first-time champs, with Kyle Busch hoping to play the role of comeback kid and Martin Truex Jr. as the little engine that could.

    The 17th Annual Ford EcoBoost 400 will run on Sunday, November 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, in Homestead, Florida. And in less than a week, the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion will be crowned.

  • Hot 20 – Gordon is a favorite to win at Martinsville, Truex and Kurt not so much

    Hot 20 – Gordon is a favorite to win at Martinsville, Truex and Kurt not so much

    The truth, sometimes it is a tough thing to nail down. Sometimes not. Truth is, Jeff Gordon should do well at Martinsville. In the past five events there, the retiring four-time NASCAR champ has a win and four Top Tens. Over the past dozen years, a span of 25 races, Gordon has failed to claim a Top Ten only three times. He finished 20th in the fall of 2010, 14th in the spring of 2012, and finished 12th in the fall of 2014. That leaves 22 Top Tens, 18 Top Fives, and five victories. You just cannot do better than that. The stats do not lie, and after taking ninth this spring, Gordon still has it. That is the truth.

    Sometimes, the truth is a little tougher to ascertain. A couple of years ago, a mysterious spin combined with a baffling call to the pits that briefly allowed a teammate to make the Chase caused controversy. Did Clint Bowyer intentionally spin his car? Bowyer denied it and Sprint Cup Series director John Darby is quoted as saying after the race that “I don’t think anybody realistically believes that was the case with the 15 car.” That tune changed quickly, as the truth appeared to be much more conspiratorial than NASCAR first thought. It cost Martin Truex Jr. a Chase position and his job, and he did nothing wrong. It cost Bowyer some credibility, it cost the team a major sponsor, $300,000 in fines and it possibly caused the eventual demise of Michael Waltrip Racing.

    Last weekend, did Kevin Harvick, with a car that was barely running, that was barely in the Chase, deliberately spin out Trevor Bayne to save his season at the cost of Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr.? No, says NASCAR. So, we have to accept that Harvick was telling the truth. I mean, not everyone lies to us in order to get out of a sticky situation.

    “I got out of the way, and I never even saw (Bayne) until he was by me.”
    Kevin Harvick 2015

    “I did not use performance enhancing substances as alleged in the notice of discipline…”
    Alex Rodriguez 2014

    “I had so much wheel, by the time I got to the gas, he was underneath me. I spun out.”
    Clint Bowyer 2013

    “I take these charges very seriously, and look forward to clearing my good name,”
    Michael Vick 2007

    “I’m not going to be the Alabama coach.”
    Nick Saban 2006

    “I have never had a single positive doping test, and I do not take performance-enhancing drugs.”
    Lance Armstrong 2004 (among others)

    “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”
    Bill Clinton 1998

    Sure, some may have misled us in the past, but would Kevin Harvick? Nah.

    Here are our Hot 20 over the past five events at Martinsville.

    1. JEFF GORDON – 5.4 AvFin – (1 WIN, 3 T5, 4 T10)
    Has averaged a Top Seven finish going back 45 races and 23 seasons. Expect good things.

    2. MATT KENSETH – 6.4 – (0-2-4)
    No pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, but should he come across Logano along the way…

    3. CLINT BOWYER – 6.8 – (0-2-4)
    Author of “The Secrets of My Success.” Harvick has a copy.

    4. DENNY HAMLIN – 8.8 – (1-1-3)
    You can take that damn roof hatch and…

    5. JOEY LOGANO – 9.8 – (0-3-3)
    Mr. Three-in-a-Row has never won at Martinsville, but his last three have been Top Fives.

    6. KYLE BUSCH – 11.2 – (0-1-1)
    Does not believe Gordon can win it all. Next we will hear how he does not like kittens.

    7. KEVIN HARVICK – 13.4 – (0-0-3)
    If Karma is on duty this weekend…

    8. GREG BIFFLE – 13.6 – (0-0-2)
    MWR refugee Brian Pattie to be his crew chief next season.

    9. DALE EARNHARDT JR. – 14.4 – (1-2-3)
    Best 21 finishes at Martinsville boasts a 6.3 average; his worst 10 finishes…27.7

    10. TONY STEWART – 14.5 – (0-1-1)
    What is probably no longer equates into what was.

    11. JIMMIE JOHNSON – 15.0 – (1-3-3)
    Used to own this place, but outside the Top 30 his last two attempts.

    12. CARL EDWARDS – 15.4
    Expected Harvick to get penalized after Talladega. He probably even expects a Top Ten Sunday.

    13. BRAD KESELOWSKI – 16.2 – (0-2-3)
    While his 2014 visits were a write-off, he was the runner-up last spring.

    14. ARIC ALMIROLA – 16.2 – (0-0-1)
    Raised in Daytona. I wonder where he got the racing bug?

    15. JAMIE MCMURRAY – 17.0 – (0-0-3)
    Looked decent last week, at least until he turned all smoky.

    16. PAUL MENARD – 17.6 – (0-0-1)
    Best non-Chaser last week, but Martinsville is really not his kind of place.

    17. DANICA PATRICK – 20.4 – (0-0-1)
    Never thought you would see her name on this list again this season, did you?

    18. KASEY KAHNE – 20.8 – (0-1-1)
    Best thing about Martinsville will be the trip home.

    19. KURT BUSCH – 21.2 – (1-1-1)
    Won in the spring last year, but has been outside the top dozen 16 of his past 17 starts here.

    20. CASEY MEARS – 22.6
    Had a pair of Top Tens at Martinsville in 2008. None since.

    22. MARTIN TRUEX JR. – 24.2 – (0-0-1)
    Was sixth in the spring. That ought to count for something.

  • The Final Word – Talladega was awesome, even if the finish was bloody awful

    The Final Word – Talladega was awesome, even if the finish was bloody awful

    There is a single word that I dearly would like to begin this article with. One word. However, due to my raising and the fact there are some rules that prohibit me from using that one word, I shall have to come up with a compromise.

    Fudge!

    Close enough. Sadly, for Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans, close does not cut it, even an inch or two. Joey Logano was just out in front at Talladega by a hair when a caution came out on the green-white-checkered restart to claim the sweep of this round of the Chase. He is in. Junior needed to win to continue his hunt but did not.

    Fudge!

    Junior had the dominant car and was the story throughout. He led, he smoked the tires coming in. Instead of two, he needed four. Later, he comes in, smokes the tires, and again needed four. When he managed to do it right, a crewman went over the wall too early. Instead of first, he was 27th. Back to the front he comes, comes in for a little gas and go, smokes the damn tires one more time, to sit fourth. He got to second, got close, closer than those tiny hairs atop my shiny bald pate, in fact, but close would not cut it at Talladega.

    Fudge!

    Now there is speculation that Kevin Harvick is the new Clint Bowyer. With his car doubtful if it could survive another two laps as its engine went south, Harvick checked his mirror as they re-started that final time. He no doubt saw Trevor Bayne go to the outside, then turned right. It was not a full turn, one that would have seen him actually change lanes, but rather just enough to catch the rear corner of that passing car, turning him into the fence, causing the wreck that ended the race. With the caution out, all Harvick had to do was slowly make the laps and secure his continuation in the Chase.

    Fudge!

    If NASCAR had held off throwing the caution on the 2.66-mile track for another mile, even half a mile, the result could have been different. They did not, waving it as they got into the first turn. Two miles to go before they returned to the scene of the carnage. Time and space to let them race, at least a little longer, but they did not allow that.

    Fudge!

    So, Martin Truex Jr. advances for Furniture Row. Jeff Gordon is the lone standard bearer for Rick Hendrick with Junior’s elimination. Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch has Joe Gibbs still with a pair, with Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin now both out. Logano and Brad Keselowski advance for Team Penske. I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I am. I really can’t. As for Stewart-Haas, Kurt Busch and Right-Turn Harvick go forth to Martinsville with dreams of a championship still dancing in their heads.

    Fudge!

    But let us leave the final word to Denny Hamlin. You know, the guy who came to Talladega with the biggest cushion over his Chase rivals. The guy with the roof hatch latch that broke, that tried to give him some Red Bull wings, so that his crew brought him in more than once to tape it down. If only they had added a few extra pieces that first time to the repair that failed and that sent him right back to the pits for another round and another lap. Hamlin’s day was so far up in flames it was apropos the car burned briefly after that G-W-C wreck. I was not in the car, I did not hear his radio, but I am betting his summation of the race went something like this…

    “Fudge! Fudge! Fudge!”

  • Talladega Lived Up To Its Strange Past

    Talladega Lived Up To Its Strange Past

    The championship playoff known as the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup has had more turns that a West Virginia mountain, but Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway took the cake. It all happened at the end of the race and it changed who would vie for the crown over the last three races before heading to Homestead and the final four. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the best car all day when he wasn’t botching pit stops.

    Earnhardt is probably the best driver at Talladega. He apparently inherited his father’s ability to see the air because he led the most laps and seemed to have no other driver he couldn’t pass. It was in the later stage of the race that Joey Logano got the lead and it was only just a matter of time before Earnhardt was going to pass him, except it didn’t happen due to some really strange circumstances. With only four laps to go, Jamie McMurray lost an engine bringing out only the second caution all day. That ensured there would be a green-white-checker finish, and with the new rule for this race, it was one and done. No matter what happened, during the final laps, the race would end. Then it got really weird.

    Earlier, at Lap 172, when most pitted, Greg Biffle stayed out and gambled that he would have enough fuel to finish the race and steal a win. Biffle was so far ahead, it looked like his plan might work until the caution flag flew. That bunched up the field and Biffle now found himself back in a pack of superior cars. Biffle had to pit for fuel and his dream was over. He finished 20th.

    The two tries to finish the race were even stranger. When the first attempt at a finish started, cars getting together in the back of the field caused NASCAR to wave it off and said it wasn’t really an attempt. Stranger, the green light can be seen on the flag stand, but one more try was ordered. After a long caution period, another attempt was made—technically the first attempt. Before the cars could get to Turn 1, the big one finally happened. With Kevin Harvick not having enough power in his failing engine, he couldn’t get up to speed. Trevor Bayne tried to pass him on the outside, but once Bayne was almost by him, Harvick seemed to turn right, clip Bayne and create the only “big one” of the day. It involved the cars of Denny Hamlin, Michael McDowell, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Danica Patrick, Austin Dillon, Sam Hornish, Bayne, and Alex Bowman. Hamlin was eliminated from the Chase.

    Hamlin, Bayne, and Kenseth pointed fingers are Harvick since the only way he was going to get to the next round was to have an additional caution. NASCAR Vice Chair Mike Helton, after meeting with representatives from Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing said they could find no evidence that Harvick had done anything wrong unless something came up this week. Harvick denied any wrongdoing.

    So, after last week’s controversial win, Logano had another controversial win. It’s clear that Kenseth hasn’t gotten over that tap from Logano last week, as he threatened to beat him up when an early pit stop got dicey. Kenseth seemed to cool at the end after his day was over and no beating occurred. The final result showed Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Earnhardt, and Kenseth eliminated, with Logano, Edwards, Gordon, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., and Kyle Busch left to compete for the title.

    Much will be said about the last two races, but a few things are clear. Team Penske drivers Logano and Keselowski are always near the front and Logano has shown the skill to be at the front at the end of races. Jeff Gordon has speed, but will it continue? With his expertise on mile and a half tracks, he could be a factor. The rest are only dependent on what happens to those favorites, but after the last two weeks, you can’t count anything out.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising:  Richmond Federated Auto Parts 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Richmond Federated Auto Parts 400

    In the last race of the regular season and the one to set the Chase contenders here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 48th annual Federated Auto Parts 500 at Richmond International Raceway.

    Surprising:  One would think that a team owner standing in Victory Lane and one whose four drivers had qualified for the Chase would be a most happy camper.

    Indeed, Coach Joe Gibbs was pretty happy, but he also alluded to the anxiety that he will feel in the three weeks ahead as the first elimination round plays out.

    “Now the problem is, I think for the next three weeks I’ll be ready to throw up at any minute,” Gibbs said after the race. “That’s the bottom line.”

    Not Surprising:  While two teams, Richard Petty Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing, were shut out of NASCAR’s playoffs, the way their eliminations took place was not surprising.

    Having not shown much life all season, Roush Fenway drivers Greg Biffle, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Trevor Bayne not only finished well out of Chase contention but they also completed the regular season in disappointment.

    Biffle had the worst of the team’s days finishing 31st. Stenhouse and Bayne finished 16th and 23rd respectively.

    This was the first time in RFR’s history that one of their drivers failed to make the Chase since its inception.

    In contrast, Aric Almirola, who made the Chase last year with Richard Petty Motorsports, delivered one of the gutsiest performances, finishing fourth. And even with that, the driver of the famed No. 43 Smithfield Foods/Waffle House Ford still came up 17 points short, edged out of Chase contention by Clint Bowyer.

    “Disappointed for sure,” Almirola said. “I drove my heart out tonight. All year long, really.”

    “I feel like we’ve certainly overachieved this year. Our cars just haven’t had the speed, and we’ve managed a way to get good results, and really proud of this race team.”

    “Everybody has done so much to support us, and to come up short, it hurts. We were in it last year and we got a taste of what it was like to be in the Chase. This race team is a great race team and we wanted another shot at it, and we just came up short. Just wasn’t meant to be.”

    Surprising:  Forget about making the Chase, Jeff Gordon was just excited about finally having a top-10 car. The driver of the No. 24 3M Chevrolet was also excited about being able to work with his team to finally make good enough adjustments to end up with a seventh place finish.

    “Excited we finally had a solid night on pit road, on the racetrack, in the race car, communication,” Gordon said. “Everything was just really solid. That certainly gives us something to be excited about these next ten races.”

    “It’s nice to be in the Chase and take that relief and take that breath and now go reset and see what we can do over the next 10.”

    Not Surprising:  Kasey Kahne got himself turned around and ended up the odd man out in the Hendrick Motorsports Chase contingent. His HMS teammates, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, instead are all heading on to compete for the Cup without him.

    “I think the main thing for me is just figuring out how to get a car to turn again,” Kahne said. “I’ve struggled all year to have front turn, and if I don’t have that, I can’t race. That’s how I’ve been my whole life.”

    “We’ll just work on trying to get the cars the way I need them to, and if we can’t, we’ll keep running about 15th.”

    Surprising:  While two of his drivers, Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch, head to Chase competition, Tony Stewart achieved a milestone that he would no doubt like to forget. The driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet finished 29th, four laps down.

    Stewart’s 29th place finish was only his fifth outside of the top-25 in 33 career Cup starts at Richmond International Raceway.

    Not Surprising:  Although one’s injuries were much fresher than the other, two drivers with physical challenges managed to not only finish the Richmond race well but also find their spots in the Chase.

    Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Crispy/American Heritage Chocolate Toyota, continued his miraculous comeback with a runner-up position at Richmond. Busch is also seeded in the second place in the Chase, even after missing 11 races due to injuries sustained in the Daytona XFINITY Series race at the beginning of the season.

    Just after tearing another ACL, Denny Hamlin also struggled through his injury to get into the Chase, seeded in the 11th position. The driver of the No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota finished sixth in the Richmond race.

    “Well, I think it’ll be a lot better next week,” Hamlin said. “Just three days out, really, four nights out, from when it happened, and anybody that’s had it happen before knows that the first week is pretty tough.”

    “I think I’ll start to rehab and everything this week and try to get it stronger and make sure we’re ready to make a Chase run.”

    Surprising:  Paul Menard summed up the sentiments of several of the drivers who made the Chase but had a bad race at Richmond. The driver of the No. 27 Libman/Menards Chevrolet finished 26th in the race and is seeded 15th in the Chase.

    “We don’t know whether to be happy or sad, it was such a bad race for us,” Menard said. “Obviously very excited to be in the Chase. It was a goal that we set at the beginning of the year. Everybody at RCR and the 27 guys and ECR, they work hard.  We’ve had a lot of good runs this year. Tonight just wasn’t one of them, but we did what we had to do.”

    Kevin Harvick, another driver who made the Chase but struggled at Richmond, finished an uncharacteristic 14th. And Martin Truex Jr. finished 32nd after hitting oil from another driver’s car on Lap 39.

    Harvick is seeded fifth in the Chase, with Truex Jr. following in the 10th spot.

    Not Surprising:  With his usual enthusiasm, Clint Bowyer bounded into this year’s Chase, saving the day at least for now, for Michael Waltrip Racing, which will fold at the end of 2015.

    “Well, I mean, just to go through the year we’ve had, I mean, a lot of ups and downs here, a lot of downs,” Bowyer said. “We did this, now we’re in the Chase!  Pressure is off, go cat go! Let’s go out and have some fun.”

    Surprising:  Michael McDowell went from sharing the invocation before the start of the race to being called to the NASCAR hauler after hitting the safety vehicle during a caution on Lap 288.

    McDowell made heavy contact with the right rear of his No. 95 Leavine Family Racing Ford. McDowell was unhurt, as were the safety workers in the truck.

    “I’m not really sure what happened,” McDowell said. “I’m embarrassed for my team. My mistake. Luckily no one was hurt.”

    Not Surprising:  Kim Lopez, the first woman and Latina to flag races at the highest level, got a tip of the cap as she threw her final checkered flag. Lopez is headed for a new role and challenge in the NASCAR  R&D Center.

  • 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.

     

  • 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.

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Kentucky Quaker State 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Kentucky Quaker State 400

    After dealing with inclement weather, qualifying cancellation due to rain, weepers on the track and a new aero package, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the Quaker State 400 Presented by Advance Auto Parts at Kentucky Speedway.

    Surprising:  The Chase season has not even officially started, yet one driver has already secured his spot, at least mathematically.

    Last year’s champ Kevin Harvick has clinched his place in the Chase to pursue a back to backer after his eighth-place finish at Kentucky.

    “I’m really proud of everyone on our Budweiser/Jimmy John’s team for the work they did this weekend getting ready for this new package,” Harvick said after scoring his third top-10 in five career Sprint Cup starts at Kentucky and his 16th top-10 this season.

    “We were definitely sliding around more often on restarts, but as you got going the cars just kind of got spread out and I thought the gaps were a little bit bigger. Definitely a lot of information to take away from this and looking forward to Indy in a couple of weeks to see what we take away from there.”

    And with his multiple wins, all the driver of the No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet has to do is start the remainder of the races to ensure that he will compete once again for the Cup.

    Not Surprising:  Although many drivers are still focusing on getting that elusive win to qualify for the Chase for NASCAR’s championship, at least one driver is points racing to the max, pedaling as hard as he possibly can to earn his chance at the prize.

    “That right there is what we have to do,” Kyle Busch said about points racing from Victory Lane, winning his second race of the season after being out due to significant injuries to his leg and foot sustained early in the race year. “Just to score as many points as we possibly can and score those wins, that’s what’s going to get us where we need to be.

    “We led the most laps and we won the race so that’s all you can score. We’ll just continue to push on and drive and try to strive through our deficit and get ourselves in position to be in the top-30.”

    With the two wins, Busch just has to continue to inch his way forward in the point standings, as he did after this race, moving two spots to where he currently sits in the 35th position.

    Surprising:  In spite of men down in the pits, with both Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon having contact with pit crew members during difficult stops, the teams and drivers impacted manned up to score top-10 finishes for Team Penske and Hendrick Motorsports respectively.

    “Yeah, he was about to be road kill for a second,” Keselowski, who rebounded to finish sixth in his No. 2 Miller Lite Ford after nearly running over his tire carrier, said after the race. “I’m glad he wasn’t.”

    “As usual in Kentucky it is never easy,” Gordon said after finishing seventh in his No. 24 AARP Member Advantages Chevrolet.  “The team did a really good job. We had to fight through a few handling issues and some restarts and pit road and a bunch of things, but there at the end everything kind of came together.

    “We got the car working really well, got a couple of good restarts and a good pit stop.  It was a solid evening.  It wasn’t a winning evening, but I’m still real proud of the effort.”

    Not Surprising:  At race end, it almost seemed like Avis should have been sponsoring the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford of Joey Logano, who scored a number two finishing spot.

    “We tried,” Logano said. “We cleared the 11 on the restart, which got us clean air and I thought we were in good shape. And then as tires started wearing the 18 was really good on the long run and he figured out the top before me.”

    “That’s the advantage you have as the second-place guy is you can go up there and play around more. I was just trying to keep the gap, so I didn’t want to take the penalty of losing three or four laps trying to figure out the top and he would have been closer, but he figured it out before me and got around me.”

    “We raced the heck out of each other, I tried hard, but I figured it out too late. Second always hurts.”

    Surprising:  Trevor Bayne seems to be on a roll after a dismal start to the season, finishing 13th in his No. 7 AdvoCare Ford at Kentucky, after a top-ten finish the week before at Daytona.

    “We had a better car than 13th, believe it or not, and we just got beat with some pit strategy there a couple of times,” Bayne said. “A couple got by us with tires and the 41 had four tires, the 48, 24 – we ran that whole last bit on two tires for a  long time, so I was glad we could hang on to what we did.”

    “It’s just fun to be able to race and make changes on our car and go for it.  We ran in the top 10 most of the night.  We’re making gains and we’ve got to keep rolling with it.”

    “Yeah, it’s going the right way. It wasn’t just a fluke to finish in the top 10 just once. We’re proving that we can be there every week and that’s what we have to do.”

    Bayne also is on a roll off the track, announcing to the world via Twitter that he and his wife are expecting a girl, #elliekatebayne.

    Not Surprising:  Carl Edwards had the most entertaining words to share on his in-car radio, saying that his Minions, who were on his car to promote the new Minion movie debut, were ‘no match’ for those M&Ms, referring to race winner Kyle Busch’s car sponsor.

    Edwards finished fourth in his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Minion Toyota.

    “Just an awesome race – I can’t thank Comcast XFINITY enough for having the Minions on board along with ARRIS, Stanley, Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), Subway,” Edwards said. “It was an awesome show. Just an awesome, fun day and I’m glad Kyle (Busch) got the win.”

    Surprising:  In spite of the dust-up with Danica Patrick due to brake issues and the bumps and colorful words that followed, Dale Earnhardt Jr. put it all in surprising perspective, paying tribute to his No. 88 Nationwide team via Twitter after the race.

    “Thanks for all the @nationwide88 guys working hard to try and fix our brake issues. Working on 1000 degree parts takes a lot of courage.”

    Earnhardt Jr. finished 21st, while Patrick finished an even more disappointing 34th. Both drivers dropped two spots in the point standings, with Jr. falling to fourth and Danica falling to 22nd.

    Not Surprising:  Denny Hamlin might just be the poster boy for the new rules package, rebounding to finish third in his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota.

    “What a fun race,” Hamlin said enthusiastically after the race. “For us to be able to come back from two laps down and really pass a ton of cars, that’s just encouraging to me that we’ve finally got something that we can really work on and pass guys when your balance is better.”

    Surprising: For Martin Truex Jr., the glass was half full and then half empty, running in the top five to top-ten for the first half of his race, but then falling off after damage to the car for a 17th place finish.

    “We had too many issues to overcome in the second half of the race,” Truex said. “We had problems with handling — the car kept on plowing through the corners, especially after taking a few hits to the right front. I gave it all I had, but when the car is aerodynamically handicapped it’s difficult to make anything happen.”

    “The good news is that we ran up front for plenty of laps and the bad news is that we didn’t stay up front. If we ran the entire race where we finished I would be much more disappointed. But for at least half the race we were up front.”

    Not Surprising: At a track that is grueling, bumpy and with drivers having limited practice time, it was no surprise that the rookies did not fare well. Brett Moffitt was the highest finishing rookie in the 32nd spot, with Alex Kennedy, Jeb Burton and Matt DiBenedetto finishing 40th, 41st and 42nd respectively.

    NASCAR next heads to the northeast for the New Hampshire 301 on Sunday, July 19 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Daytona Coke Zero 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Daytona Coke Zero 400

    With drivers wishing their teams good morning due to the night race that went into the wee hours of the next morning, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the Coke Zero 400 on the July 4th, 2015 holiday weekend.

    Surprising:  In spite of flying through the air, hitting the catch fence, rebounding back on the track, getting hit again and coming out of it all with a bruised tailbone and a bruise on his forearm, Austin Dillon was still able to keep his sense of humor.  The driver of the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet tweeted “What a friend lol” in response to Tim Dugger’s tweet “To all the ladies out there He’s fine. He ain’t gonna be such a romantic buckaroo for a while, but he’ll be fine.”

    And even after that jaw-dropping, horrifying crash, Dillon was able to pull off a top-10 finish, taking the checkered flag in the seventh spot.

    Not Surprising:  With Chevrolets, many of them Hendrick-powered, dominating seven of the top-10 finishing positions at Daytona, there was one Toyota driver who was just happy to be in the mix.

    “Our FedEx Ground Camry and battled with the best of them,” Denny Hamlin said after finishing third. “Those Hendrick guys, not only are their cars fast, but they’re good drivers and they work well together. It’s hard to break through with them.”

    “You can get help from those guys every now and then, but they do a good job of sticking together and their cars are so fast and you can’t clear them at the right times. I was just happy to kind of be in the mix of them there late in the going. Worked well with all those guys at one point or another and still a decent day for us.”

    Surprising:  In spite of a disappointing season to date, as well as having to go to a backup car for the race, Trevor Bayne did the Ford and Roush Fenway Racing teams proud, finding his restrictor plate magic once again to finish in the ninth position.

    “Our AdvoCare Ford was really fast tonight,” Bayne said after the race.  “Despite getting into the wall avoiding that wreck off of Turn 4 our car ran really well, especially past halfway. We were able to get up front and run inside the top three with everyone and show that we belonged up there.”

    “We’re happy to come home ninth despite getting collected in that wreck at the line. I definitely needed that AdvoCare spark tonight. I want to thank my whole team though for their work this weekend, especially since we had to go to a backup car after Friday. Now it’s on to Kentucky.”

    Not Surprising:  At least the fans who noshed to keep themselves awake during the race were not alone.

    “Yeah, for sure when you’re under caution, you can feel the weight of the day kind of on you, on your eyes,” Jimmie Johnson, who finished runner-up, said after the race. “And then just sitting around waiting for it, there was a whole feeling, I think, throughout the industry that about 8:00, 8:30 the deal was over, so mentally I started shutting down and thinking, okay, I’m staying the night, what am I doing, trying to coordinate family things, and then all of a sudden it’s drying and the dryers are on the track.

    Being in the sport as long as I have, you learn how to turn it off and turn it on,” the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Patriotic Chevrolet said. “I did overeat, so I haven’t figured that part out.  It’s hard to sit out there for so many hours and not eat too much, but everything else went pretty well.”

    Surprising:  Jeff Gordon was racing his last Daytona race and ended up with his best finish there in quite some time, taking the checkered flag in the sixth position, yet he still is glad to put it in his rear view mirror and thankful that there is just one plate race left for him to survive.

    Oh, my gosh chaos it was crazy,” the driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet said. “I’m so glad Austin Dillon is okay.  That was a crazy one.  You knew it was going to be crazy.  Right from the start I thought it was a wild race.  A lot of action and crazy stuff going on.”

    “We were pushing like crazy, just wide open.  It is literally like a video game out there these days, except for it’s real life.  It’s crazy.  It’s really crazy.”

    “I love Daytona.  This place has been amazing for me.  I can’t believe this is my final race here, but after going through that experience I’m glad I only have one more restrictor plate race left.”

    Not Surprising:  Clint Bowyer, who finished tenth, had a front row seat for the big wreck at the end and in ‘Bowyeresque’ style described it all as only he can.

    “He (Austin Dillon) went over me,” the driver of the No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota said. “I went under him and thank God the seas kind of opened a little bit. It’s just Daytona — it’s wild. I got up there and got in position.”

    “The 3 (Austin Dillon) I think checked up. I don’t know the reason why but I was right behind Austin – they checked and he was already shooting up and I hit him and it just went right over the top of me and that was scary.”

    “I haven’t seen the whole wreck but I damn sure lived it through the windshield there for a second. This is entertainment. It’s certainly dangerous as hell, but its part of the sport.”

    “Our old hot rod wasn’t quite what it needed to be, but it was a decent day.”

    Surprising:  Carl Edwards went for broke but, unfortunately, ended up pretty broken. The driver of the No. 19 Subway Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing was involved in two separate accidents that led to his 41st place finish.

    “We went for it in this race and basically wrecked twice,” Edwards said. “The second one, I thought I had it saved a couple times and it just wasn’t meant to be. That’s just this style of racing.”

    “For us, this was just a checkers or wreckers type of race and we were going to go for it.
    Not Surprising:  Restrictor plate tracks are often the great equalizers so it was not surprising to see some names not usually at the top of the leaderboard have good finishes. For example, Casey Mears finished 11th and Landon Cassill finished a strong 13th.

    “The car was pretty fast,” Mears, driver of the No. 13 Geico Chevrolet said. “We were able to get to the front pretty quickly when it was time to go.  There at the end we were sitting in a really good position.  I was behind the No. 41 (Kurt Busch) pushing him pretty good.  We had kind of talked.”

    “I thought the No. 31 (Ryan Newman) might go with me.  I went up a little high and he didn’t go, but that happens it is the way these races go.  I think after all the carnage and everything that happened it would have been nice to be inside the top 10 or a little closer, but it’s a good day.  A lot of guys had bad days here.”

    “It was unbelievable,” Cassill, behind the wheel of the No. 40 Snap Fitness Chevrolet, said. “It’s just really tight racing.  I’m just so proud of my Hillman Racing team.  My Snap Fitness Chevy, we are so fast on these superspeedways and we can run up front and we have proven it.”

    “I’m proud of our finish.  These guys are just going to have to build another car and we will go to Talladega and be even faster.”

    Surprising: Team Penske had a disappointing showing at Daytona, with Joey Logano finishing 22nd and Brad Keselowski finishing 29th.

    “There isn’t much good to say about what happened here tonight,” Logano said after the race. “It is a product of the racing here. We got caught in the first crash which was way unfortunate after sitting around all day. We were five laps down and battled back to the lead lap, so that is something to be proud of but we couldn’t do much once we got there.”

    Not Surprising: Brian Scott summed it all up best with his two words when asked about what happened after crashing out and finishing 42nd.

    “Daytona happened,” Scott said simply.  The field was coming up to pass a lap down car and it looked like the No. 42 (Kyle Larson) got loose going around it getting in the middle, which happens with these Sprint Cup cars. They are so aero sensitive on the side.  Then from there it was Daytona.”

    “They were wrecking.  My spotter was doing a great job telling me where things were and it was one of those where we needed to gas up to get by cars that were sliding up.  As soon as we got past those Carl (Edwards) came up and we ran into the back of him.  It looked like he got jacked up on the windshield and then we were tore up.”

    “Our car wasn’t going to run to the end. It sounded like it maybe caught fire for a second.  But the bottom line is just a bad end to an already long weekend.  Not the way we wanted to end with our Shore Lodge Chevy SS.  I felt like we had a car that was capable of running up there in the top 10; top five early on.  I felt like we could get back up there.  Just trying to learn in the draft and be ready for the end, but the end came too soon.”

  • The Final Word – A Michigan Nickname is “Water Wonderland”…No Kidding

    The Final Word – A Michigan Nickname is “Water Wonderland”…No Kidding

    Rain. Just bloody lovely. Who, outside of California, really needed the wet stuff all that bad? When Alfred, Lord Tennyson said, “Bright and fierce and fickle is the South, And dark and true and tender is the North,” he obviously was not talking about the rains of Michigan. Those black clouds still managed to tease one driver into dreams of winning delights, just before breaking his heart.

    Three laps. That proved the difference between Kyle Larson having a great finish at Michigan and having the rain hold off, his car run low of fuel, and him having to hand it over to Kurt Busch. For Busch, he led for the final three under green, the final three under caution, and was the man of the hour when the red and checkered flags followed. Larson wound up 17th and left hoping to yet win his way into the Chase, Busch was left in a rain-soaked celebration for his second triumph of the season. Of course, if there was one who knew just how fickle life could be, that would be Mr. Busch.

    It could have been different. When brother Kyle lost control of his car early in the race, he just missed his sibling as his auto hit the fence to end his day dead last. To make a playoff run, he now needs to run an average of 17 points per race better than Justin Allgaier over the next eleven, as well as win one of them. It still can be done, but finishing two of his four runs thus far this season outside the Top 35 just won’t cut it.

    All in all, it was a miserable day, with rain coming early, coming often, and ending it more than 120 miles early. Kevin Harvick had the best car, but when he pulled out minus about three lug nuts on a front tire, his return to the pits dashed all hopes for this day, leaving him 29th. That was ten spots behind Jimmie Johnson, as our season leader needed to pit for a fender needing repair and that took him out of the hunt for the day. As for Greg Biffle, somebody told him to drive it like he stole it. Why in hell would he steal that piece of crap? He finished 36th.

    Not all was gloom and doom. A pair of Juniors did well, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. coming home second and third, just ahead of Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski. At least the Penske Fords could run.  It was a good day for Trevor Bayne, as he more than helped his bid to stick in the Top Thirty by finishing ninth. His was a Ford that also got there in the end. A pair of XFINITY drivers had decent days, with Ty Dillon (14th) and Ryan Blaney (20th) doing better than most.

    Rain last Sunday, no race this weekend, no rain in California. The latest figures I read show 54-million people, most of whom are in California, are suffering drought conditions. Mind you, it is not so bad in the San Francisco area, where NASCAR visits Sonoma June 28th, with reservoirs sitting at over 90 percent capacity and they are still receiving three-quarters of their normal rainfall.

    So, if it rains through the next race yet misses much of the rest of the state, that would not just be fickle. It would be downright cruel.