Bowyer’s Atlanta performance means easier night at Richmond
Clint Bowyer and his No. 33 crew could have panicked Sunday night.
As night fell over Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bowyer’s car developed a loose handling condition. After a lengthy pit stop under caution on Lap 202, the No. 33 Chevrolet was 21st, the last car on the lead lap, with all three drivers trying to knock Bowyer out of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup—Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray and Mark Martin—ahead of him.
A determined drive by Bowyer, coupled with quick work by his pit crew in the last third of the race, produced a seventh-place finish and ample breathing space entering Saturday’s final event of series’ regular season at Richmond.
“That is absolutely what we needed,” a relieved Bowyer said after the race. “Man, I’ll tell you, it was a hard-fought battle. The guys kept digging and kept digging. It was good in the daytime. As soon as it went to night, it got really, really loose—just way down on grip.
“They kept adjusting on it and never gave up. The guys in the pits, they got us back up there where we needed to be. I’m real proud of them. … Not what we wanted, but darn sure what we needed.”
As far as the Chase goes, Bowyer’s gritty performance went a long way toward removing suspense from race No. 26, which typically is a gut-wrencher for those on the Chase bubble. Last year, the battle for the last Chase position between Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch wasn’t settled until the final lap, when Vickers finished sixth to Busch’s eighth and earned the spot by eight points.
Entering Richmond this year, 10 drivers already are locked into the Chase. Greg Biffle, in 11th place, needs a 42nd-place finish to secure his berth, so as soon as the first start-and-park parks, he’s in. Bowyer, in 12th, leads Newman by 117 points and McMurray by 128 and needs no more than a 28th-place finish to eliminate Newman and clinch the final spot.
The good news for Bowyer is that Richmond is one of his best tracks. In nine starts there, he has a victory and seven other finishes of 12th or better. His worst result, in last year’s spring race, is 18th. Barring a catastrophe in the form of a blown engine or crippling wreck, Bowyer should earn his place in the Chase.
No doubt Bowyer will have trouble sleeping as the weekend approaches, but by keeping his head and finishing in the top 10 at Atlanta, he made his job much easier.
The lack of drama as to Chase qualifiers will return our focus to the race itself, and that’s not a bad thing. For those already locked in, a win is the only thing that can change their seeding for the Chase.
“We’ll just go for it,” said Carl Edwards, runner-up to Tony Stewart on Sunday night. “We’ll probably just go there and go for the win and don’t have too much to be concerned about, other than that particular race. So for me, it will just be a fun race.”
If it’s half the show Edwards, Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne staged while battling for the lead for a dozen laps late in Sunday night’s race, fans won’t pay much attention to the Chase implications for the three drivers still in limbo.
After all, a checkers-or-wreckers, all-star race approach is what fans hope to see when they shell out good money for a race ticket.
Tony Stewart breaks the ice with first 2010 win
HAMPTON, Ga.—Tony Stewart announced Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway that he’ll be a player in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Stewart won for the third time at Atlanta and for the 38th time in his career when he beat Carl Edwards to the checkered flag in the Emory Healthcare 500. The victory broke a 31-race winless streak for the two-time Cup champion.
Jimmie Johnson came home third, followed by Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch.
Edwards led Stewart out of the pits after the seventh caution of the race on Lap 295 of 325. Stewart surged to the lead after a restart on Lap 301, but a quick caution for debris on Lap 302—after contact between Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch—set up a restart on Lap 308.
Stewart led the rest of the way and crossed the stripe 1.316 seconds ahead of Edwards.
Clint Bowyer, 12th in the standings and seventh Sunday, held serve by finishing ahead of his three closest pursuers for the final Chase spot—Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray and Mark Martin. Bowyer now leads 13th-place Newman (eighth Sunday) by 117 points.
Polesitter Denny Hamlin led seven times early for 74 laps but his engine blew on Lap 143 and he finished 43rd.
“I was just pacing myself out there, having fun and racing with Tony and those guys,” Hamlin said. “We’ve really got a strong race team, and if we can just keep it together, we can really win this championship legitimately. We’ve just got to keep it together, and we’ll be all right.”
Hamlin nevertheless clinched a position in the Chase, as the top 10 in the standings are now locked in.
Greg Biffle fell short in his attempt to lock into the Chase when contact from Newman’s Chevy sent Biffle’s Ford sideways into the Turn 3 wall. Biffle slid across the track and took out Elliott Sadler. Though Biffle returned to the track after extensive repairs, he finished 36th, 80 laps down.
Biffle is 11th in points, 161 ahead of Newman, and can lock up a spot in the Chase with a finish better than 43rd next Saturday at Richmond.
Series points leader Kevin Harvick had one of the fastest cars in the field, but Harvick’s Chevy was crippled on Lap 255 when his left front tire exploded and shredded the fender. He finished 33rd.
McMurray holds off Kyle Busch for Nationwide win
HAMPTON, Ga.—Jamie McMurray held off Kyle Busch and stopped Busch one spot short of a historic win Saturday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Driving JR Motorsports’ No. 88 Chevrolet, McMurray asserted his superiority over the final 40 of 195 laps to win the Nationwide Series Great Clips 300 at the 1.54-mile racetrack. The victory, the eighth of McMurray’s Nationwide career, was his first since November 2004 at Darlington.
Busch is tied with Sam Ard for the series’ single-season wins record with 10.
Carl Edwards ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth. Joey Logano, Jason Leffler, Ryan Newman, Paul Menard and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top 10. Series points leader Brad Keselowski finished 12th.
Harvick took four tires under caution on Lap 62, while Busch and most other contenders chose to restart on old rubber when the field came to green on Lap 65. After restarting 12th, Harvick passed McMurray for the lead on Lap 70.
By Lap 112, he had the rest of the field at least one lap down, after Busch and other drivers on old tires came to the pits under green. Harvick gave up the lead to Busch when he made a green-flag stop for tires and fuel on Lap 120.
Harvick left the pits eight seconds behind Busch but cut that margin in half before Ryan Newman spun Trevor Bayne on the backstretch to cause the third caution of the race and bunch the field. McMurray was first out of the pits under caution and led the field to a restart on Lap 153.
McMurray stayed out front until contact from Stenhouse sent Reed Sorenson’s Toyota hard into the outside wall on Lap 168. Keselowski and 11th-place finisher Josh Wise stayed on the track under the caution, but they quickly surrendered the top two spots when the field restarted.
McMurray surged to the front with Busch in pursuit, but Busch was unable to make up significant ground in the closing laps and finished .286 seconds back.
Hamlin knocks Newman off Atlanta pole
HAMPTON, Ga.—Late qualifier Denny Hamlin was the only driver between Ryan Newman and a record eighth Coors Light Pole Award at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
But Hamlin, the 31st driver to make a run during Saturday’s time trials for Sunday’s Emory Healthcare 500, knocked Newman, the third driver to qualify, off the pole with a lap at 187.380 mph to Newman’s 187.070 mph.
Hamlin won five races early in the season before suffering through an uneven, winless stretch over the past nine races. Even though two races remain before the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field is set Sept. 11 at Richmond, Hamlin said Saturday, “Our Chase starts now.”
“These next two weeks, we’re bringing everything we’ve got to the racetrack—the best stuff that we have—and see how we’re going to stack up against the competition,” said Hamlin, who won his first pole of the season and the eighth of his career.
“We’re not waiting for the Chase. We’re bringing what we have to see where we’re going to stack up competition-wise these next two weeks. We brought our best stuff here. We never qualify on the pole. We never qualify in the top 10, so this is a great step at a good time for our team.”
Newman edged Kyle Busch (187.063 mph) for the second starting spot. Carl Edwards (186.881 mph) will start fourth after posting the same speed as fifth-place qualifier Tony Stewart, who lost the position on an owner points tiebreaker.
Three drivers contesting the 12th and final Chase position will start in close proximity on Sunday. Thirteenth-place Jamie McMurray, who trails Clint Bowyer in 12th by 100 points, qualified 12th. Bowyer will start 14th, and Mark Martin, who trails McMurray by one point will roll off in the 17th spot.
Newman, who is 15th in the standings and 118 points behind Bowyer, remains tied with his mentor, Buddy Baker, for most Atlanta poles.
“I think we have a good race package as well,” Newman said. “All that being said, we’re second. We’ll start up front and hopefully finish up there.
“We can’t expect as a team to go out there and make up points in two races that we didn’t accomplish in the last 24. That being said, we’ll do the best job we possibly can. We’ll go out, and if we win the race, we win the race. If we finish in the top five in both of them, we still may not have enough points to make it into the Chase. So either way, we are searching for our best finish, no different than any other race.”
Series leader Kevin Harvick qualified 29th. Jason Leffler, Landon Cassill, Scott Riggs and Todd Bodine failed to qualify for the 43-car field.
When contemplating Nationwide solutions, NASCAR should look to Montreal
MONTREAL—Vive Montreal!
There’s no other city like it in NASCAR racing, and there’s no other race quite like the NAPA Auto Parts 200, which invariably reveals more twists and turns than the 14-corner road course that has hosted the Nationwide Series for four years.
“I’m going to find a nice steak, and I’m going to drink like hell and maybe French kiss a French girl,” promised race winner Boris Said. “I think my wife will let me—once—because it’s Montreal.”
Where else could you hear that sort of comment in a postrace news conference?
“This is one of the greatest places to go see a race—the town, the nightlife, the restaurants, the beautiful women,” Said added. “And then you’ve got this great racetrack 10 minutes from nice hotels.”
Make no mistake, the Nationwide race in Montreal is an event with a capital “E.” Sunday’s race drew more than 70,000 fans, easily 15,000 more than watched Dale Earnhardt Jr. win the Nationwide race at Daytona in July.
Based on crowd estimates, only four Nationwide races this year have surpassed Montreal in attendance: Danica Patrick’s debut race at Daytona in February, the April race at Talladega, and both races at Bristol.
It’s worth noting that all four were companion events to major Sprint Cup races at tracks that dwarf the seating capacity of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, which is located on a small island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River, to which most fans travel by subway.
The bottom line is that, as NASCAR wrestles with the intricate question of how to maintain a separate identity for the series and still put fans in the grandstands, the sanctioning body can look north of the border to the archetypical stand-alone event.
The Nationwide question is NASCAR’s most difficult, as the number of possible scenarios that have been floated to teams and track owners will attest. Should the participation of full-time Cup drivers in the Nationwide Series be limited to a certain number of races? Should Cup drivers be ineligible for the series championship?
Track owners chafe at both notions, because the presence of Cup drivers builds attendance. The championship issue applies to two drivers, Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski—the only two who are likely to do full-time double duty in 2011.
Races such as Montreal, however, could provide a de facto answer. If NASCAR can identify a sufficient number of markets that will support stand-alone Nationwide events and schedule races there, the logistics of competing in both series simultaneously become unmanageable.
Those markets are out there. Iowa Speedway (capacity 56,000) sold out its Nationwide race in late July. Kentucky Speedway drew 61,000 for its stand-alone event in June. An estimated 50,000 fans attended the inaugural race at Road America in Wisconsin, a conservative estimate by most accounts.
The problem won’t be solved effectively, though, until NASCAR addresses the competition side of the equation and provides Nationwide-only teams the means to run on equal footing against the derivatives of Sprint Cup powerhouses.
Said and No. 09 Ford owner Robby Benton struck a blow for the little guys at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, but those successes are all too rare. At the same time, Kyle Busch held on to third place in the Nationwide standings—without showing up.
If there’s a way to limit the impact of Cup operations on companion Nationwide programs, NASCAR needs to find it, particularly as the Nationwide Series introduces its new car full time next year and Cup data becomes more relevant to Nationwide performance.
If that doesn’t happen, about all we’ll be able to do is look at each other wistfully and say, “We’ll always have Montreal.”
Said edges Papis in photo finish at Montreal
MONTREAL—At long last, road-course ace Boris Said is a winner in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
Said won Sunday’s NAPA Auto Parts 200 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve when—with the two strongest cars out of contention—the always unpredictable event ended with Said beating Max Papis in a drag race to the finish line.
After leader Robby Gordon ran out of gas on a green-white-checkered-flag finish that sent the race three laps past its scheduled distance of 74 laps, Said lost the lead to Papis at the entrance to the final two corners. But Papis’ momentum sent him wide in Turn 14, and Said drew alongside at the top of the final straightaway.
Papis lost a fraction of a second when he hit the rev limiter in second gear but still had enough to race side by side with Said all the way to the finish line.
Said’s .012-second margin of victory was the closest ever on a road course in the Nationwide Series, the fifth closest overall in series history and the closest since 1998 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The victory was more than just a first for Said, 47. It was the first Nationwide win for car owner Robby Benton and the first for the new pairing of Said and crew chief Scott Zipadelli.
“I don’t think we had the fastest car today,” Said admitted, “but we definitely had the smartest race strategy with Scott Zipadelli as the crew chief—the first time I ever worked with him. We had great communication, he called a great race, and it was really about managing the racetrack, managing your brakes.
“I’m shocked … overwhelmed. I thought I was going to cry, but I didn’t. My wife would have made fun of me. But I was pretty happy.”
Local hero Jacques Villeneuve finished third, followed by Brad Keselowski, who extended his series lead to 365 points over hard-luck 20th-place finisher Carl Edwards. Paul Menard ran fifth, with Joey Logano, J.R. Fitzpatrick, Parker Kligerman, Justin Allgaier and Trevor Bayne completing the top 10.
The race that gave polesitter Marcos Ambrose another heartbreak (he retired with an electrical problem after leading 25 laps) turned on a bad break—literally—for defending winner Edwards, who led a race-high 29 laps before breaking the track bar on his No. 60 Ford as caution flew with eight laps left in regulation.
Edwards held a lead of almost three seconds over Gordon when Michael Annett slid into the Turn 4 wall to cause the fifth caution of the race, ending a green-flag run of 42 laps.
Two more late cautions forced overtime and prolonged the race enough to empty Gordon’s fuel tank. Gordon led the field to the green flag for a restart on Lap 76 but coasted to a stop before completing the circuit. He finished 14th.
But it was the drag race to the finish between Said and Papis that had the more than 70,000 fans on their feet.
“I was ahead, I was behind, I was ahead,” said Papis, who was driving Kevin Harvick’s No. 33 Chevrolet. “At the end of the day, this was an amazing race. I had a blast. It came down to a green-white-checker, and the thing I’m the most proud of … this is maybe the first time I’ve had the chance to really sit in a car that legitimately can win, and it came down to the last corner.
“For me, I’m really proud. I know it’s a second-place finish, but it’s equal to one of my best wins.”
Busch completes Bristol triple with Sprint Cup win
BRISTOL, Tenn.—Check off a major accomplishment from Kyle Busch’s bucket list.
Busch fended off strong challenges from David Reutimann and Jamie McMurray to win Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway and complete his unprecedented sweep of three NASCAR national touring events at the same track in the same week.
On Lap 429 of 500, Busch nosed past Reutimann after an intense 15-lap battle and pulled away to a Sprint Cup victory that fit quite nicely with his Wednesday win in the Camping World Truck Series and his Friday triumph in the Nationwide Series.
“Oh, Dave, thank you, guys,” Busch radioed to crew chief Dave Rogers moments before crossing the finish line. “I can’t believe it—swept the weekend at Bristol!”
The victory was Busch’s fourth at the .533-mile track, his third of the season and the 19th of his career. McMurray came home third, followed by Clint Bowyer and Kasey Kahne.
It was a statement race for Bowyer, who separated himself from Mark Martin in the battle for the final berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Bowyer overcame a pit-road speeding penalty to finish in the top five while Martin foundered to a 23rd-place result in a car that didn’t handle to his liking.
With two races left before the Chase field is set Sept. 11 at Richmond, Bowyer, 12th in the standings, leads McMurray, who supplanted Martin in 13th place, by 100 points. Martin is 14th, 101 points back.
The two drivers who are guaranteed at least a tie for top seeding when the Chase begins—Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin—had major issues in Saturday’s race.
After leading 175 laps, Johnson was fighting for position on Lap 262 when contact from Juan Pablo Montoya’s Chevrolet sent Johnson’s Chevy spinning down the backstretch and into the Turn 3 wall. The polesitter lost 66 laps during repairs and finished 35th.
Hamlin snapped a drive shaft near the midpoint of the race and lost 26 laps in the garage while his crew replaced it. He finished 34th. The only consolation for Johnson and Hamlin is that each has a series-best five victories, good for 50 bonus points to start the Chase.
Vickers reveals heart surgery in July, promises 2011 return
BRISTOL, Tenn.—Brian Vickers’ story took an unexpected turn Saturday when the Red Bull Racing driver revealed he had surgery July 12 to repair a small hole between the upper chambers of his heart.
Vickers, 26, who was sidelined from racing for the balance of the year after blood clots were discovered in his legs and lungs in mid-May, said he was diagnosed with a PFO (patent foramen ovale), a hole between the atria after a clot traveled from the right atrium to the left atrium of his heart and into one of the fingers of his left hand.
He opted for corrective surgery, and one day later had a stent placed in a vein in his left leg to counter May-Thurner syndrome, which leads to deep vein thrombosis because of compression of blood vessels in the leg. Doctors confirmed the diagnosis of May-Thurner syndrome during the July 12 procedure.
Despite the surgery, Vickers said he is on schedule to resume racing next season and expects to get back on track in January to begin preparation for the 2011 season.
The primary hurdle Vickers must clear in order to race again is the approval of his doctors. Typically, NASCAR relies on the medical opinion of a driver’s doctors and does not seek independent testing or verification.
Vickers is taking the blood thinners to treat the blood clots and will be off the medication before he races again.
“I’m on Coumadin and Plavix still, and I will be for the rest of the year, so I’m still out of the car,” Vickers said Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “But they gave me full clearance for next year. I will be back next season. I’ll be racing in January, and I’m really excited about it.
“They feel that I’m probably in the best shape I’ve ever been in my life. I’ve got two issues that I never knew about fixed. Both surgeries went extremely well, and it’s been a bit of fresh air for me to really kind of know what caused this, or part of (the cause)—it wasn’t just one thing.”
In fact, Vickers recovered from the surgery so quickly that, three weeks later, he was doing 40- to 60-mile bike rides at 10,000 feet in the mountains near Aspen, Colo.
Three teams or two?
On the assumption Vickers will return to the No. 83 Toyota next season, Red Bull faces a choice between adding a third team to accommodate the signing of Kasey Kahne for one year or replacing Scott Speed with Kahne and continuing to operate as a two-car team.
General manager Jay Frye has said the organization is still evaluating Speed’s performance and wants to see improvement. Speed entered Saturday night’s race 27th in the Sprint Cup standings, with a best finish of 10th at Atlanta in March and Daytona in July.
“As far as Kasey, I’m excited to work with him,” Vickers said. “As far as how all that goes down, I know what you know—honestly, I read about it online. I didn’t even know about it. Jay told me something was going to happen, but he didn’t tell me what, and then I read an article.
“That’s really a question for Red Bull and Jay Frye. I have no idea. But I’m going to be in the 83, and I’m really excited about it.”
NASCAR still debating Nationwide policy
Possible changes to eligibility requirements for the Nationwide Series title may be getting a second look, sources told Sporting News.
The sanctioning body had contemplated making full-time Sprint Cup drivers ineligible to win the Nationwide championship and had discussed that possibility with the relevant teams. Recently, however, there are indications the restrictions against Cup drivers may not happen, based on what NASCAR has been telling the teams that would be directly affected by such a policy.
NASCAR is still holding meetings on possible changes and hasn’t made a firm decision. Currently, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard are the only drivers doing full-time double duty. Edwards says he plans to run a full Nationwide schedule next year, even if he’s not eligible for the title.
“We’ve got a great shop and a bunch of people that work very hard,” Edwards said. “I kind of halfway committed to doing it a year ago, these two years, so (even if) NASCAR says that we can’t race for driver’s points, I still feel like I owe it to my guys and my sponsors and myself to follow through and do what I said I’d do.”
Track owners are all for the participation of Cup drivers in Nationwide events, because it helps put fans in the grandstands. And there’s an undeniable coattail effect, where Cup drivers can help raise sponsorship money that also provides opportunities to younger, less experienced drivers.
Fireworks in driver intros
Prerace driver introductions typically are a routine, humdrum affair. Not Saturday night.
Fresh from Friday’s Nationwide Series victory, in which he dumped Brad Keselowski to take the lead on Lap 219 of 250, Kyle Busch was greeted with boos as he walked down the gangway toward a waiting pickup truck.
“Aw, you’re so loving,” was Busch’s sarcastic response to the crowd.
Moments later, Keselowski strode down the gangway. “I’m Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 12 Penske Dodge,” he announced. “Kyle Busch is an ass.”
AJ Allmendinger subsequently told the crowd, “I just hope I’m ahead of Brad and Kyle when this stuff goes down tonight.”
Kyle Busch plays spin-to-win at Bristol
BRISTOL, Tenn.—After spinning his strongest challenger on Lap 219, Kyle Busch held off Jason Leffler and Elliott Sadler through a spate of cautions in the closing laps to win Friday night’s Food City 250 Nationwide Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Busch won his 10th Nationwide race of the year, tying the single-season record he already shared with Sam Ard. The victory was Busch’s 40th in the series, but it was not without controversy.
Keselowski and Busch battled ferociously for the lead during the final quarter of the race, and that heated contest produced the sixth caution of the event. On Lap 219, Busch slid past Keselowski for the lead off Turn 2 but bobbled slightly down the backstretch.
Busch clipped the wall after contact from Keselowski’s Dodge, and as the cars rolled through Turn 4, Busch spun his adversary in the corner, forcing Keselowski to pit to repair the damage to his car. Keselowski finished 14th.
In his postrace interview in victory lane, Busch twice acknowledged he purposely “dumped” Keselowski.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. rallied from a lap down to finish fourth. Carl Edwards ran fifth. Trevor Bayne, Clint Bowyer, Reed Sorenson, Parker Kligerman and Joey Logano completed the top 10.
Busch can complete an unprecedented sweep of three races at one track in NASCAR’s top three touring series with a victory in Saturday’s Sprint Cup Series Irwin Tools Night Race. Busch won Bristol’s Camping World Truck Series race Wednesday night.
Notebook: Pieces falling into place for JR Motorsports
BRISTOL, Tenn.—With the signing of Aric Almirola to drive the No. 88 Chevrolet next season JR Motorsports’ Nationwide Series program is coming sharply into focus.
Team co-owner Kelley Earnhardt said the team is close to filling out sponsorship for the No. 88 and will determine Danica Patrick’s races in the No. 7 Chevy after the IndyCar Series releases its schedule. Patrick is slated to drive approximately 13 races for JRM next year.
“We’re very close to wrapping up the sponsorship on the 88,” Earnhardt said Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “It looks like we’ll definitely have GT Vodka back on board for a 15-race program. Our Unilever folks, we’re real close with them on about 12 to 15 races. That will leave us short four or six or eight, however the math works out on the 88. We’ve still got time to put stuff together for that car.”
Almirola, who had a brief stint in the Sprint Cup Series, sharing a ride in the No. 8 Chevrolet with Mark Martin at Dale Earnhardt Inc., jumped at the chance to drive for JRM.
“It was really easy for me,” Almirola said. “I had several other opportunities, but this was the opportunity that I looked at that I felt like, being 26 years old, I could wait a few more years before going to Cup and still be OK.
“I felt like this was the place where I needed to be to be able to prove that I can win races and run for a championship at the next level. I’ve been fortunate enough to do that this year (in the Camping World Truck Series), and I didn’t want to go too fast, too quick and end up like I was a couple years ago (without a full-time ride).”
Earnhardt acknowledged that Patrick has had difficulty getting up to speed in her six Nationwide starts to date.
“I think she’s definitely had a difficult year getting used to these cars from where she’s came from (IndyCars),” Earnhardt said. “I think still everyone has to keep in (mind) that she’s ran six Nationwide races and pretty much six stock car races in her career. She’s still very fresh and new at this and still has a lot to learn about the way these cars work.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. will compete approximately six times in the No. 7 car next year. The allocation of the rest of the races is a work in progress, but Kelley Earnhardt said the organization has been pleased with the performance of Josh Wise in recent races.
“Josh has done very well for us and kept the car in the top 20 of the owner’s points and hasn’t put a scratch on our car, that I can recall,” she said.
The old switcheroo
It didn’t take Kevin Conway, the default Raybestos Rookie Of The Year winner in the Cup series, long to find a new home. A week after parting with Front Row Motorsports last Friday at Michigan—and taking sponsor ExtenZe with him—Conway landed in Robby Gordon’s No. 7 Toyota for Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol.
Gordon, who was initially entered in the No. 7, moved to his own No. 07 Camry, which originally was entered with driver TBA. Gordon qualified 37th, and Conway 40th.
Casey Mears took over for Max Papis in the No. 13 Toyota in a move that originally had been planned for Atlanta two weeks hence. Papis will concentrate his efforts on the truck series. Mears was the last car to make Saturday’s field.
Almirola, too, got an unexpected ride when David Reutimann began suffering from flu-like symptoms. Almirola drove Reutimann’s No. 00 Toyota for the majority of the first Cup practice session, making way for Reutimann for a few laps at the end of the session.
Reutimann practiced the car in Happy Hour and qualified fifth for Saturday’s race later in the afternoon.
New tire befuddles drivers
Based on a June 29-30 tire test involving Juan Pablo Montoya (Chevrolet), David Ragan (Ford), Scott Speed (Toyota) and Denny Hamlin (Toyota), Goodyear provided left- and right-side tires that had never been run before at Bristol.
Several drivers pointed to difficulties in adapting their setups to the new mold shape, construction and stagger of the tire combination.
“We’re getting used to that, because we rarely go back to the racetrack with the same set of tires,” Greg Biffle said. “I’m having trouble figuring that part out. This racetrack puts on great races. The last couple of races here were good, and now we’ve got a new tire, and it doesn’t seem like it has as much grip.
“It seems like, in my opinion, it’s going to be harder to run side-by-side. The tire is freer into the corner, which spells trouble for the guy on the bottom—and the guy on the top, if the guy spins out below you. … You can’t stand still, but you often wonder, when you have a great race, and you have no tire issues, why you’d come back with something different.”
Kurt Busch, who led 278 laps and finished third at Bristol in March, offered an explanation.
“A lot of teams were on the edge here in March,” Busch said. “There were a lot of tire blowouts on long green-flag runs. If you were to bring the same tire that was marginal in March, you’re definitely going to be on edge when it’s warmer in August.”
Bottom’s up: Johnson wins Bristol pole
BRISTOL, Tenn.—Qualifying hasn’t been an issue for Jimmie Johnson lately.
Finishing races has.
In Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Johnson will get another chance to convert a top-notch starting position into a strong finish—something he hasn’t been able to do in the past six races.
In Friday’s qualifying session, Johnson streaked around the .533-mile short track in his No. 48 Chevrolet to claim his first Coors Light Pole Award at Bristol and his first of the season in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. The pole was Johnson’s 24th in the Cup series.
Moments after Carl Edwards ran a lap in 15.608 seconds (122.937 mph) in the high groove, Johnson knocked him off the pole with a lap of 15.540 seconds (123.475 mph), running the bottom of the track. Edwards’ speed held up for second, barely ahead of third-place qualifier Joey Logano (122.764 mph).
“We spent a lot of time focused on the bottom of the racetrack,” said Johnson, who has averaged a 3.8 starting position over the past six races compared with a 21.3 average finish. “There was a lot of questioning and concern in my mind. I went on top of the transporter and watched all the guys go, and nobody made the bottom work until late, when the 20 (Logano) went out.
“That gave me hope, but we really couldn’t change directions at that point, because we’d set the car up to run the bottom for qualifying and felt like it would be foolish to change things.”
When Edwards saw Johnson running the bottom of the track, Edwards was convinced he was the pole winner.
“I couldn’t believe Jimmie got the pole running the bottom,” Edwards said. “I thought the top was faster. When I was watching his lap on the big screen, I thought, ‘Oh, he’s on the bottom; he’s screwed this up.’ And, lo and behold, he ran a really fast lap.”
Tony Stewart will start fourth, followed by David Reutimann, who missed most of Friday’s opening practice with flu-like symptoms but returned to claim his third top-five start of the season.
Johnson said his inability to capitalize on excellent qualifying efforts has been most glaring at intermediate speedways.
“If you look at the mile-and-a-half racetracks and above, I don’t think, in the summer months, we have had the package we need,” Johnson said. “I can burn off a fast lap, I can be fast in practice session, I can be fast in a qualifying effort, but when we get into the heart of the race—in a long run or a series of long runs—we seem to fade.
“We have time to figure some stuff out, and we have some good ideas.”
In the race for the final spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, 13th-place Mark Martin qualified 13th, and 12th-place Clint Bowyer will start 24th. Martin trails Bowyer by 35 points with three races left before the Chase field is set.
Dave Blaney, Joe Nemechek, Kevin Lepage, J.J. Yeley, Brian Keselowski and Mike Bliss failed to qualify for the 43-car field. Series points leader Kevin Harvick will start 28th.
France says no Chase for Nationwide Series
DALLAS—NASCAR is considering changes to the Nationwide Series that could make full-time Sprint Cup drivers ineligible to win the series championship, but a Chase format for NASCAR’s Triple-A division is not under consideration, said Brian France, chairman and CEO of the sanctioning body.
“We have four national divisions, and we’ve got to distinguish them,” France said Tuesday night at a Texas Motor Speedway 2011 schedule announcement. “I think making too many things that would not differentiate them wouldn’t be good.
“So I don’t think you’re going to see that—I know you’re not going to see that.”
The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup determines the champion of the NASCAR’s top series. The top 12 drivers after 26 races are eligible to win the championship. It is determined by their performance over the final 10 races of the season.
France did outline the need to balance the participation of Cup drivers against the desire to highlight the accomplishments of full-time Nationwide competitors.
“I think you’re going to see some work in that area on our behalf to change the way we reward the Cup drivers who are involved in the Nationwide events,” France said. “We are not altogether certain of how. … Obviously, we’ve got a number of ideas—just which ones we’ll use, I’m not sure.”
Harvick’s gamble pays off with Michigan win
BROOKLYN, Mich.—When you have a comfortable points lead, you can afford to gamble.
That’s what Kevin Harvick did—successfully—in Sunday’s Carfax 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway.
Staying out on old tires under the final caution of the race, Harvick tracked down Denny Hamlin on Lap 190 of 200 and pulled away to beat Hamlin to the finish line by 1.731 seconds. Harvick extended his series lead to 293 points over Jeff Gordon and became the first driver to clinch a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
After NASCAR threw a yellow for debris on Lap 167, Harvick restarted second behind Tony Stewart on Lap 173. Hamlin, who restarted third, took the top spot from Stewart on Lap 178, with Harvick following. Running the top of the 2-mile track, Harvick passed Hamlin through Turns 3 and 4 after Hamlin’s Toyota began to lose grip on the bottom.
The victory was Harvick’s first at Michigan, his third of the season and the 14th of his career. Roush Fenway Racing drivers Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth claimed positions three through five. Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, Martin Truex Jr., Elliott Sadler and Joey Logano completed the top 10.
“The biggest concern I had was the tires,” Harvick said of the call to stay out.
“Once we got through those first three or four or five laps, the new tires kind of evened out. Our car was so good up on the top. We were a little off on the restarts, but what a great day. This hasn’t been the best track for us.”
Harvick’s pass of Hamlin represented a 20-point swing in bonus points to start the Chase. Harvick now has 30, 10 for each win, and prevented Hamlin from adding to his 50-point total. The bonus points will kick in after the Chase field is set Sept. 11 at Richmond.
Hamlin, who also stayed out during the final caution, said he wasn’t sure whether the strategy would serve him well until the last restart.
We didn’t know whether the guys with four tires were going to eat us up or not,” Hamlin said. “I think five laps into that (run) when me, Harvick and Tony started pulling away, I realized it was a three-car race for the win at that point.
“But really it just seemed like whoever could get their car up front was pretty strong. You lose one spot, next thing you know your car handles a little worse and you lose more. It’s a tough balance out there to try to get track position, but you got to have everything working right for you to get that track position. Once you get it, obviously the fastest car won today. So it was at least good to see that.”
In the race within a race, Mark Martin dealt a blow to his chances to qualify for the Chase in the opening laps. Racing in dirty air in close quarters with Edwards, Martin scraped the outside wall, damaged the right-front of his No. 5 Chevrolet and crippled the handling of the car.
Martin finished 28th and lost the 12th position in the standings to Clint Bowyer, who came home 13th. Martin trails Bowyer by 35 points with three races left before the Chase field is set.
Notes: Polesitter Kasey Kahne faded in the late stages of the race and finished 14th. … Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran 19th and dropped to 17th in the standings, 129 points behind Bowyer. … Edwards posted his sixth straight top-10 finish, as Roush Fenway Racing placed three cars in the top five for the first time this season.
Even in a 1-year deal, Kahne will help Red Bull
BROOKLYN, Mich.—Even though the structure of the deal is unprecedented, Red Bull Racing plans to take full advantage of Kasey Kahne’s one-year stay with the organization.
You can liken it to John Wall spending one season in the Kentucky basketball program or to a Major League Baseball team trading for a pitcher short term to bolster a playoff run.
“You look at the Texas Rangers this year,” Red Bull general manager Jay Frye said. “They went out and traded for Cliff Lee. They have no expectation, from what I’ve read, that they’re going to re-sign him for next year. But they know he can help them this year get to the playoffs and possibly a World Series.
“We think we have a good team, and if you bring a Kasey Kahne-type talent and put him with our team, and then we have a really good season next year like we fully expect to, that will help whoever the next person is come in and say, ‘Hey, this is a good team—I want to go drive for them.’ It’s a very unusual situation, but we couldn’t be more excited about it.”
Red Bull has had its share of unexpected reversals since driver Brian Vickers qualified for last year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. The team lost Vickers in mid-May when he was diagnosed with blood clots and began treatment with blood thinners. Vickers expects to return to the team for the 2011 Daytona 500.
Kahne recently signed his one-year deal with Red Bull as a bridge to driving the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in 2012. Mark Martin will complete his contract in the No. 5 next year.
AJ Allmendinger, Kahne’s teammate at Richard Petty Motorsports and a former Red Bull driver, believes Kahne will help the organization. Though Allmendinger and Kahne have had run-ins on the track—most recently at Pocono in June—Allmendinger acknowledges that his teammate is one of the elite wheel men in the sport.
“I know Kasey and I—we’ve had our ups and downs together when it comes to it—but just as a competitor and a teammate, I do think he’s one of the best out there,” Allmendinger said. “It’s definitely going to make that (Red Bull) race team better, but it’s interesting in terms of what’s going to happen. You know you’re only going to be there for a year. I don’t think you can build a ton of team chemistry, because you’re not staying—and you know that.
“I think it’s one of those things where it’s definitely more of a win for Red Bull, because they are struggling. You can really see that, when Brian had his illness, it hurt that race team really bad. They’ve been really struggling since then.
“Kasey’s one of the best out there, so he’s going to go in there and raise the game of that team. It’s just a matter of how much. Will he win races? Will he be in the Chase? We’ll have to wait and see next year. But he’s definitely going to be fast—that’s for sure.”
Frye would prefer to look at the positive side of the one-year contract.
“We understand what the deal is,” Frye said. “There’ll be no hard feelings next year in Miami when he gets out of the car. We know exactly what the program is. We think he’s going to do spectacular things for us, and we’re going to try to do spectacular things for him. It’s different. This model hasn’t happened before, but I still don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.”
There are unanswered questions. Will Kahne try to bring his RPM crew chief, Kenny Francis, with him to Red Bull? Frye says he feels no rush to settle personnel questions but expects to address the crew chief issue within 30-45 days.
Will Scott Speed, driver on the No. 82 Red Bull Toyota, perform well enough in the final 14 races to keep his job? Will Red Bull compete as a two-car or three-car team next year? Those are details that have to be settled.
Nevertheless, Frye says Kahne’s signing already has had a positive effect on the organization.
“It was amazing … when we announced the Kasey thing in the shop the other day—the applause, the instant morale boost within our company,” he said. “It’s August, and this isn’t going to happen until next year, but people had a little different bounce in their step. This announcement helps us get through the rest of the season. We’ve got something to work on. We’ve got a goal. We’ve got something to look forward to.
“He’ll help make us better. It’s invaluable. And hopefully we’ll maintain that going into 2012 with whoever his replacement will be—and wish him the best.”
Keselowski dominant in Michigan in new car
BROOKLYN, Mich.—Despite clutch problems that plagued him on pit road, Brad Keselowski dominated Saturday’s Carfax 250 Nationwide Series race at Michigan International Speedway.
“I don’t need no stinking clutch,” Keselowski said shortly after crossing the finish line 3.179 seconds ahead of second-place Carl Edwards.
No, he didn’t. Clutch or no clutch, Keselowski’s No. 22 Penske Racing Dodge was the class of the field, starting from the pole and leading 89 of the 125 laps, in the first race for NASCAR’s new Nationwide Series car on a downforce track.
Keselowski pulled away from Edwards after a Lap 117 restart, necessitated by the second caution of the race. Slow leaving the pits after a green-flag stop on Lap 105, Keselowski was running second, 3.4 seconds behind Edwards and closing, when the caution flag flew.
The caution bunched the field and gave Keselowski the opportunity to pass Edwards on the restart. Keselowski now leads second-place Edwards by 347 points in the series standings.
“The clutch problems just affect our pit stops, and at the end, it affected my (celebratory) burnout,” Keselowski said. “It still was an awesome racecar. When you’ve got cars this good, man, life is a lot easier.”
Kyle Busch finished third, followed by Justin Allgaier and Paul Menard. Joey Logano, Elliott Sadler, Reed Sorenson, rookie Colin Braun and Kevin Harvick completed the top 10. Danica Patrick came home 27th, four laps down, in her sixth race in the series and her first in the new car.
The Nationwide Series will use the new car in upcoming races at Richmond and Charlotte before its introduction as the full-time car in 2011. Saturday’s race dramatically increased Keselowski’s comfort level with his new Dodge Challenger.
“For me, I was nervous about this car for a lot of reasons,” Keselowski said. “I was nervous because, quite honestly, I haven’t run that well on the (Sprint) Cup side, and this chassis is based off the Cup car. I looked at it and thought, ‘Geez, if I haven’t run that well in the Cup car, what am I going to do when they bring it to the Nationwide side?’
“I was a little bit nervous about it from that standpoint, and obviously, the reliability of anything that’s new. So to be able to go out and win in that car, knowing it’s the same chassis as the Cup car—with some very subtle differences—is a huge boost of momentum that, hopefully I can carry over to (Sunday’s Cup race) as well.”
Edwards was aware that the second caution had deprived him of his best opportunity to win the race.
“Until that last caution, I thought, ‘Man, we might win this thing,’ ” Edwards said. “Then we had the caution, and Brad was able to just launch out front on that last run. It was just a battle for second then.
“But I could taste victory. I thought, ‘Man, this is going to work out—we’re going to steal one here today.’ But the best car ended up winning. Those guys did a good job.”
Keselowski and Edwards have a history of violent confrontations on the racetrack. In fact, both are on probation until the end of the year after a massive wreck on the last lap of a Nationwide race at Gateway International Raceway in July, where Edwards retaliated after Keselowski bumped him.
At Michigan, however, they raced hard but without contact. The ingredients were there for another melee, Keselowski said, but on Saturday it didn’t happen.
“The cake didn’t bake,” Keselowski said.
