Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Emory Healthcare 500
The Atlanta Motor Speedway will play host to the Sprint Cup Series this weekend, putting on the series’ Labor Day weekend event for the second time. The Emory Healthcare 500 will be the track’s lone event in 2011, similar to the one race a year the series now runs at Darlington.
The penultimate event in the Race to the Chase, drivers like Jamie McMurray and Mark Martin are going to be going all in to try and take a playoff spot away from vulnerable drivers like Clint Bowyer. Their cunning will likely have a great affect on the finishing order, and should affect your fantasy picks as well.
So who’s going to be worth a look at Atlanta?
I’m going to make this interesting and say that Carl Edwards breaks his winless streak this weekend. (How many times have I picked Carl this year with no luck?) He’s won one in four at Atlanta, and in a way, team owner Jack Roush’s tragic plane accident has been the best thing to happen to that team – they’ve been stepping up their game in a way unlike they’ve been running all season. We all know he’s overdue.
As for a sleeper pick, look out for A.J. Allmendinger. He’s been unassumingly consistent at Atlanta, never finishing outside the top 20 at the track in five starts. His best finish, a sixth place, came this spring. Allmendinger’s average finish of 14.6 is sixth best of all active drivers.
Three more, for those who need them:
Jimmie Johnson’s average finish at Atlanta, a 10.2, tops all other drivers. He’s won one in six at the Georgia track, with nine top five finishes in 18 starts. He’s led laps in six of the past eight Atlanta events, including both 2007 races, a year where he swept the two Cup events at the track.
Jeff Gordon has four wins and 23 top-10s in 36 career Atlanta starts, equivalent to a top-five season (at least) in NASCAR’s top level these days. It’s been nearly seven years since his last Atlanta win, but consistency – no finishes outside the top 20 in his past 10 Atlanta events – suggests he knows what it takes to deliver a strong finish this weekend.
Finally, Jamie McMurray has never been a strong Atlanta driver – 16 starts with only four top-10s and no finish better than sixth – but the momentum coming off a great Bristol finish may have him making a surprise run at the Chase. Remember Jeremy Mayfield’s surprise ascent in 2004? Jamie Mac might be able to duplicate the feat if he can pull it together the next two weeks.
Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500
The Sprint Cup Series returns to the tricky triangle of Pocono Raceway this week for the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500. One of the most grueling races on the schedule, Pocono provides one of the greatest tests of endurance for any race driver two weekends every year.
Pocono provided us with plenty of drama in its first race this year, which saw Joey Logano make some disparaging remarks about the Harvick family and Kasey Kahne nearly exit the speedway completely in his car. It’ll be hard to top that kind of intensity this weekend, but the boys will sure try.
So, who looks good this weekend at Pocono?
Obviously, Denny Hamlin is the top pick, and is certainly my choice. Hamlin’s successes at Pocono are widely known, but here they are anyway: four wins, seven top-10s, and an average finish of 8.6 in nine career starts, tops of all active drivers. Sounds like a pretty obvious pick to me, based on his history.
My dark horse for the weekend is Jamie McMurray. Coming off a huge win in last weekend’s Brickyard 400, McMurray sports a new paint scheme this weekend, with Axe Twist coming on board to sponsor. McMurray’s never been a great Pocono driver, with an average finish of 21.7 and only three top-10s in 15 starts, but that’s not to say that a team that has proven its ability to win big races on big tracks can’t find a little magic this weekend.
Three more, just because:
Jimmie Johnson is the second best active Pocono driver in terms of average finish, with a astout 9.5. Johnson led laps in four of the past five Pocono races, for an average finish of 6.8 over that span. His only two Pocono wins came in a 2004 sweep of the track, but you can bet that a middling Indy finish will only add fuel to the fire for him to get back to victory lane.
Tony Stewart came up with a solid top five at Indy last week, something he’s done at Pocono in eight out of 23 attempts. Stewart’s first points-paying win as an owner-driver came at the track last year, and since that race he’s also had finishes of tenth and third. He says he’s been looking for a little more out of his team, and Pocono seems to be the place to find it: no Stewart-Haas car has ever finished outside the top 15.
Finally, Kevin Harvick has improved over the years at Pocono, going from run-of-the-mill midpack finishes earlier in his career to solid top-10s and top-15s in more recent years. His two finishes of fourth in the past four Pocono races, including one earlier this year, are his career bests; he’ll look to improve on them this weekend.
For once, it’s time to focus on the little picture
Thanks to Jamie McMurray for reminding all of us where our focus should be.
Fundamentally, racing is about winning, about being first to the finish line, about taking home a gaudy trophy, about grabbing bragging rights from 42 other drivers.
If that seems pretty basic, contrast it with the cautionary phrase from crew chief to driver that’s often heard during a heated battle on the racetrack: “Big picture, big picture.”
What that means, of course, is, “Keep your eyes on the bigger prize.” In other words, weigh the potential risk of trying to win a race against the impact a wreck might have on a run at the series championship.
Since the introduction of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup for the 2004 season, our perception of the sport has undergone a paradigm shift. We have learned to view almost everything that happens on the racetrack through the filter of its effect on the standings.
In the afterglow of his Brickyard 400 victory, McMurray reminded us that the little picture can be just as satisfying as the big one—if not more so. McMurray has won NASCAR’s two most prestigious races in the same season—the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400. Despite three other second-place finishes, he’s 16th in points and a long shot to make the Chase.
So what?
“I don’t even really care where we’re at in points,” McMurray said. “I think you show up every week, do your job. If you make the Chase, that’s wonderful. Everyone wants to make the Chase. Getting to win the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 means more to me this year than making the Chase.
“This year or in 10 years, the guy that won that race one time everybody will talk about. The guy that finished third in the points—nobody cares. I would really like to be in the Chase, but I have no focus on that at all.”
Even if McMurray fails to make the Chase, no one will say he hasn’t had an exceptional season. If reports are accurate, his performance this year will earn a significant contract extension and strengthen his bonds with sponsors Bass Pro Shops and McDonalds. For McMurray, it’s more about winning the day than winning the season.
NASCAR could benefit from that perspective, too, when it comes to possible changes to the playoff format in the Cup series. In a series of meetings with drivers and owners, NASCAR has floated enough trial balloons to lift the pagoda out of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield. In recent weeks, we’ve been teased more often than a beehive hairdo.
In a news conference before Sunday’s race at Indy, NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France repeated that the sanctioning body is considering significant changes to the Chase. Moments later France added, “Not changing the Chase is definitely a viable option.”
The bottom line is that changes to the Chase—whether in the form of eliminations or resetting points once or more during the final 10 races—may be a short-term fix for TV ratings but may not promote the long-term growth of the sport.
Toward that end, we all need to look at the little picture and start with the essential element in the sport—a single race. A baseball season is 162 games long, and every win or loss affects the standings, yet each game has an integrity and intricacy of its own.
Each game contains enough subtlety of strategy and intrigue to captivate its audience. Each game is an event that thrives on its own merit. The same is true of a stock car race—if only we think that way.
McMurray reminded us Sunday that—as basic as it seems–the core element of the sport is the burning desire to win a race, and it would behoove us to pay attention.
McMurray wins Indy; Ganassi claims triple
Jamie McMurray celebrates his Brickyard 400 win. (Dan Helrigel/IMS)
“Honestly, I’m in shock right now.”
— Jamie McMurray
Team owner Chip Ganassi claimed NASCAR’s version of the Triple Crown on Sunday as his driver, Jamie McMurray, won the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. With the win Ganassi became the first car owner to win the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400 in the same year.
“I’m the luckiest guy on the planet,” Ganassi said. “You wouldn’t dare to dream this. You wouldn’t dare to dream this kind of year.”
McMurray became just the third driver in NASCAR history to win the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in the same year. The last driver was Jimmie Johnson in 2006. Dale Jarrett was the first driver in 1996.
Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 IndyCar Series race earlier this year in Ganassi’s Target car.
McMurray took the lead from Kevin Harvick on the final restart with 11 laps to go and went on to win the race by 1.391-seconds.
“I’m running the last 10 laps of this thing and just praying every lap there isn’t going to be a caution and that my car was going to have the grip I need,” McMurray recalled. “It is remarkable to be put in this position. Honestly, I’m in shock right now.”
Harvick had just taken the lead when the caution came out on lap 167 to set up a double-file restart and an 11-lap shootout.
After the race Harvick, who finished second, said his car didn’t show the muster it had to pass McMurray before the caution.
“I got tight going into turn one there in the middle and just had to wait on my car and Jaime was able to carry the momentum around on the outside,” Harvick said. “The first restart my car actually took off and we were able to get by him but my car never acted like that again but it was a good day for our Shell-Pennzoil Chevy and everybody did a great job just putting us in position. I felt like we had a top-five car but we didn’t have a winning car and we had a chance to win there at the end but just came up a little short.”
Harvick, Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer and Tony Stewart rounded out the top-five finishers as Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch filled in the rest of the top-ten positions.
Kyle Busch was involved in a seven-car accident in turn two on the opening lap of the race. However, he sustained only minimal damage to his No. 18 Toyota and drove his car up through the field through the race.
“I don’t know what happened there on the opening lap,” Busch said after the race. “I just lost it, I guess. It just went around. I had trouble every restart really trying to get going, especially through (turns) one and two. I had trouble getting going on restarts. All in all, we came back and bounced back solidly, so that was good. We needed a good run — it’s been a while.”
Mark Martin finished 11th and was the only Hendrick Motorsports driver to finish inside of the top-20 at Indianapolis. Jeff Gordon, who was looking for his fifth Brickyard 400 victory, finished 23rd after battling with a tight-handling car throughout the race.
Jimmie Johnson, who was running for a third-consecutive Indy victory and the fourth of his career, started off the race strong and ran in the top-five for the first 47 laps of the race. Johnson was tenth when the caution came out on lap 66. On lap 69, Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus decided to keep Johnson on pit road for a long stop to make adjustments to the car, leaving Johnson to restart 22nd on lap 70.
Johnson continued to drop after the stop and spent more time on pit road during the fourth caution of the race on lap 120 to change shocks. He would later go a lap down while on pit road.
Johnson later finished 22nd, but made it back to the lead lap.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was running the top-15 before he was involved in a crash with Juan Pablo Montoya. Earnhardt was an innocent bystander when Montoya got loose off of turn 4 on lap 147.
“The car was really good,” Earnhardt said. “Right in the middle of the race, it got real tight, then we fixed it. I felt like we were pretty good coming up through there. Right at the end, I felt like we had a good car, a good top-ten car. Montoya got in the fence there and just kind of pulled down and stopped in front of us. I was side-by-side with somebody (Marcos Ambrose).
“I didn’t even see him hit the wall, I didn’t even know there was a car in the wall until he came across the No. 47 (Ambrose) hood and there he was, I ran right in the back of him. Nowhere to go.”
After leading a race-high 86 laps, Juan Pablo Montoya lost the lead on pit road on Lap 140. Six laps later, he lost control of his car and was involved in an accident that ended his day. (Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images)
Montoya would head straight to the garage and would go on to finish 32nd after leading 86 laps. Earnhardt did receive major damage to his left front, but continued and finished 27th, two laps down.
Montoya had the dominate car for the second year in a row only to finish outside of the top-ten. Last year, Montoya led 116 laps but picked up a pit road speeding penalty from NASCAR in the closing laps to finish 11th.
It was a call for four tires for the then race leader Montoya, as his teammate and a handful of other cars took two tires that put Montoya further back in the pack.
“Bad call,” Montoya’s crew chief Brian Pattie said. “Crew chief error. We should have taken two tires.”
Notes: The 16 laps led by McMurray were the second-least amount led by an eventual Brickyard 400. Jarrett led only 11 laps in his 1996 victory. … The race saw 14 lead changes among 10 drivers. … The race had six cautions for 25 laps. Four of those cautions were for debris, on laps 16, 67, 118 and 139. The other two were for accidents, one on the first lap and the other on lap 147. … Harvick leads Gordon by 184 points heading into Pocono with six races left until the chase cutoff at Richmond.
Ganassi looking for third prestigious trophy
INDIANAPOLIS—Back in May, team owner Chip Ganassi had two of racing’s most prestigious trophies side by side—the Harley J. Earl Trophy for Jamie McMurray’s Daytona 500 win in February and the Borg-Warner Trophy for Dario Franchitti’s victory in the Indianapolis 500.
Ganassi would like to add a third piece of hardware to the collection. Though the trophy that goes to Sunday’s Brickyard 400 winner doesn’t have the history—or even a specific name—of the other two, the Brickyard 400 is arguably NASCAR’s second most prestigious race behind only Daytona.
The chances of Ganassi completing the unprecedented triple aren’t that remote. McMurray and teammate Juan Pablo Montoya both have the speed to win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as they showed Friday by topping the speed charts in the second practice session for Sunday’s race.
Chip Ganassi would love to add a Brickyard 400 trophy to the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 trophies his drivers won earlier this year. (Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Montoya ran 179.756 mph in qualifying trim. McMurray was a fraction behind at 179.526 mph.
“I’m blessed that I’ve got people that like some of these tracks, I can tell you,” Ganassi said. “All these drivers like particular kinds of tracks—there are so few that are good at all of them—and fortunately, at these ones that have the big races, our drivers seem to step up to the plate, and they seem to like those places.”
No driver has ever won both the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400. Montoya, who triumphed in the 2000 Indy 500, came close last year when he ran away from the rest of the field in the NASCAR race. A pit-road speeding penalty, however, quashed an exceptional run.
“With last year’s performance that Juan had—and Jamie likes the place—we’re looking forward to it this weekend,” Ganassi said.
Not that Ganassi feels the vaunted Brickyard owes him a win.
“I wouldn’t say it owes me one,” he said. “The minute you start thinking racing owes you something, I think you’re in trouble. But I think our cars are good there, and the drivers like the place, so we’re just going to go in and approach it like we do every other race. It’s still going to take however many pits stops and passing and qualifying and all the normal things you do at every race.
“I’m certainly not looking forward to it because I feel like it owes me something. I’m not looking at that at all. But the fact that Indianapolis is where it all started for racing and where it started for me, it would certainly be great to win and have a little extra satisfaction.”
Even without a victory Sunday, Ganassi can’t be dissatisfied with the season so far. One of the most special moments didn’t occur on the racetrack at all, but when McMurray flew surreptitiously to Indianapolis to celebrate the Indy 500 win with his owner the day after the race.
“That was the surprise of my season so far,” Ganassi said. “Winning the race at Indy and then blasting down to Charlotte to see him (McMurray) finish second (in the Coca-Cola 600), to witness that, and then we flew all night to get back to Indy for the pictures in the morning. So there I am at 8 or 9 o’clock in the morning, after being up till 2 or 3 or something the night before.
“To have him pop his head around the corner, I’ll tell you what, that was a pretty neat surprise that all these people had planned that I didn’t know anything about. It was pretty special to have those two trophies next to each other and the two guys there who earned those trophies next to each other.”
Ganassi, of course, hopes there’s another special moment in store on Sunday.
McMurray edges sleepy Johnson for Chicagoland pole
JOLIET, Ill.—In one season, Jamie McMurray has doubled the number of his Coors Light Pole Awards in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.
He picked up his third of the season and the sixth of his career Friday at Chicagoland Speedway, where he sped around the 1.5-mile track in 29.421 seconds (183.542 mph) to edge four-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson (183.281) for the pole by .042 seconds.
McMurray will start from the top spot in Saturday night’s LifeLock.com 400, the 19th Cup race of the season. Tony Stewart (182.877) qualified third, followed by Greg Biffle (182.673) and Sam Hornish Jr. (182.605).
Jeff Gordon, David Reutimann, Martin Truex Jr., Paul Menard and Juan Pablo Montoya will start the race from positions six through 10, respectively.
McMurray, the Daytona 500 winner, is 19th in the Cup standings and a long shot to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, but it’s not for lack of speed this season.
“The speed is the hardest thing to find, and I think that we’ll be fine (Saturday) night,” McMurray said. “We have the same car that we sat on the pole with at Darlington and ran second with. Just having that No. 1 pit stall is a big deal. Pit stops are so critical in keeping your track position that I think that will benefit us a little (Saturday) night.”
Johnson claimed the second spot despite driving on six hours’ sleep. His wife, Chandra, gave birth to their first child, a girl, on Wednesday.
“I did everything I could to put my head in the game,” Johnson said. “I came up here and had a great practice session, and I feel like we’ve got a very competitive car for the race. I haven’t qualified very well lately, so maybe six hours of sleep before qualifying is necessary over a couple of days to find the right rhythm and feel for qualifying.”
Stewart, who has won twice at Chicagoland, picked up a half-second from his practice time earlier in the day.
“I’ll take it,” he said. “It wasn’t a pretty lap, but it was fast. It gave us a good starting spot for tomorrow night and hopefully (will) get us another top five, maybe a win here.”
Michael McDowell, Dave Blaney, J.J. Yeley and Todd Bodine failed to qualify for the 43-car field.
Kurt Busch edges McMurray for Michigan pole
BROOKLYN, Mich.—The rivalry between team owners Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi may not be as intense in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing as it is in IndyCars—but it’s getting there.
Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray added fuel to the fire Friday at Michigan International Speedway, where Busch earned the Coors Light Pole Award in his No. 2 Penske Dodge, edging McMurray’s No. 1 Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet.
Benefitting from a relatively early draw (12th), Busch streaked around the 2-mile racetrack in 37.898 seconds (189.984 mph) to claim the top starting spot for Sunday’s Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400. McMurray, who was the first driver to make a qualifying attempt after rain delayed time trials, will start on the outside of the front row after turning a lap at 189.788 mph.
On May 30, Busch won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, with McMurray running second. A week later at Pocono, Penske’s Sam Hornish Jr. and EGR’s Juan Pablo Montoya ran 1-2 late in the Cup race.
“It’s always been a genuine rivalry between Ganassi and Penske,” Busch said. “The drivers (in NASCAR racing)—we don’t feel it as much, but with situations that keep coming up like this, and with Roger texting me or patting me on the back, saying, ‘Way to bring it home for the good guys,’ it makes you feel like the rivalry is there—for sure.
“It’s just coincidental that we were running good, and the Ganassi cars are running good, whether it’s my teammate and Montoya or myself and McMurray. It’s good to be on that competitive side, whereas we see the RCR (Richard Childress Racing) cars and the Gibbs cars running into each other a lot—that’s just coincidental as well. It’s just one of those fun times where things are going good for both of our programs.”
Jimmie Johnson (189.668 mph) qualified third, followed by Kasey Kahne (189.623 mph) and Jeff Burton (189.474 mph). Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, David Reutimann and Montoya will start from positions six through 10, respectively.
“We joked around a little bit on top of the hauler that Kurt … certainly, if we could get rid of him, we would have won Charlotte, and we’d be on the pole here,” McMurray said. “They’re just running really well right now. I think that’s great that we get to have that same competitiveness between the Penske and Ganassi teams that they’ve had in IndyCar racing for years.
“It’s exciting, I think, for the NASCAR team to be able to perform as well as we have, and the same thing for the Penske team. It’s great that we’re not just talking about Hendrick and Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Childress—that our names are included in that.”
Notes: Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch, first and second in the Cup standings, qualified 31st and 15th, respectively. … Dave Blaney, Michael Waltrip and Johnny Sauter failed to make the 43-car field. … Landon Cassill, 20, in his Cup debut, will start 35th in James Finch’s No. 09 Chevrolet.
Kurt Busch breaks out the broom at Charlotte
Kurt Busch became the seventh driver to win the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same year at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday. He also recorded his first top-five finish in the past eight races at the track.
“Yeah, this has been a dream come true, to be able to wrap up this special weekend, to put a bow on it with this Coca-Cola 600 win,” Kurt Busch said. It’s a prestigious race, a tough race, and most of all it’s a team race.
“This was a fantastic job by my guys that battled all day long to keep me up front. I don’t know what our worst running position was, but I can’t say it was worse than fifth or sixth maybe. Great pit stops, great calls by Steve Addington, Dave Winston, my guys.”
Jamie McMurray, whose car owner Chip Ganassi’s car won the Indianapolis 500 earlier today, finished second after leading 30 laps in the 600-mile event. McMurray trailed Kurt Busch at the line by 0.738-seconds.
“Yeah, we had a great car,” McMurray said. “I was worried after Happy Hour. I didn’t feel like we had — our car had really good speed, it just didn’t drive very good. Bono did a great job at making the right adjustments. Put a similar setup in it that we ran in the All-Star Race. Really from the get-go the car was really good. They did a nice job on adjusting it all night long. I really felt like we had a 10th-place car at the beginning, made it about a fifth-place car. About a hundred laps to go, track position, we had the best car.
“It’s unfortunate that the caution came out. The car had so much speed in it that I was only having to drive about 90-percent, I was still able to run a 10th and a half or so quicker. The car just had really good speed in it tonight. They did a great job adjusting on it.”
Kurt’s younger brother Kyle Busch finished the race in third, overcoming an incident on pit road during a series of pit stops under caution on lap 167.
Mark Martin, who had been absent from the top-15 for much of the day, finished fourth to join defending Coca-Cola 600 race winner David Reutimann.
Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard, Ryan Newman and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top-ten finishers.
Hendrick Motorsports drivers held two of the top-ten spots. However, noticeably absent from the top-ten was Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Johnson would finish 37th after a pair of incidents. Earnhardt finished the race in 22nd after struggling with handling through much of the race.
Pole-sitter Newman led the field to the green flag to begin the Coca-Cola 600, which drew an unofficial attendance of 140,000. Newman continued to lead until lap 12 when Kurt Busch grabbed the lead from the U.S. Army sponsored driver. Newman would not regain the top-spot for the remainder of the race, finishing the event with 11 laps led.
The race featured a 61-lap green flag run before the caution of the day came out, because of a spin by Juan Pablo Montoya.
Marcos Ambrose brought out the second caution of the night 31 laps later, on lap 93. His car got loose in turn four, eventually causing him to spin and suffer severe damage to the rear end of his No. 47 Dodge.
On lap 168, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin got together on the front stretch. The incident caused Hamlin to dip his left-side tires into the infield grass, which damaged the front-left corner of his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Debris brought out the caution on lap 218. Hamlin received the “Lucky Dog” free pass to regain a spot on the lead lap of the race.
Johnson brought out another caution on lap 272. He would later be able to return to the track on lap 306.
Robby Gordon became the next victim to hit the Charlotte Motor Speedway wall. His accident brought out the sixth caution of the race on lap 300.
Just eight laps later, it was Greg Biffle into the wall to bring out the seventh caution. The damage he received from the incident was far too much to return to the track.
“I just couldn’t drive it,” Biffle said. “We got really loose in the corner and it just flat out got away from me. That pretty much did us in right there.”
Ambrose, in his second incident of the night, would bring out the eighth and final caution of the event on lap 376 when he crashed off of turn two, hitting the wall with enough force to lift all four tires off the ground. He would later be checked and released from the infield care center.
Notebook: McMurray part of remarkable Daytona/Indy double
CONCORD, N.C.—Jamie McMurray returned from the drivers’ meeting Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway just in time to see the finish of the Indianapolis 500.
When Ganassi Racing’s Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 Sunday afternoon, McMurray became part of an unprecedented double for team owner Chip Ganassi. McMurray won the Daytona 500 for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in February, and Franchitti’s win marked the first time a team owner had won both races in the same year.
“It’s remarkable,” McMurray said before driver introductions for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. “Honestly, all I could think of is that we almost won the Daytona 24-hour race also.”
Ganassi’s team of Max Papis, Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Justin Wilson finished second in the Rolex 24 at Daytona by 52 seconds.
“It’s amazing what Chip’s organization has been able to do this year,” McMurray said. “Certainly, the IRL side has never had a down year. The Cup side has had some down years, and right now, it’s doing really well. It’s really awesome what Chip has been able to put together.”
McMurray saw the start of the 500 before the drivers’ meeting but didn’t begin to get excited by the prospect of a Franchitti win until he returned to his motor home.
“I came back from the drivers’ meeting, and there were just a few laps left, and he was leading, and they didn’t know if he was going to be able to make it on fuel,” McMurray said. “Then, I think, to see Chip getting interviewed and walking down pit road—I’m just really happy for Chip. He’s become such a good friend of mine. He’s not only my owner, but we’ve become really good friends—really close. And I’m as happy for him as my owner as I am for him as my best friend. It’s really cool for him and this organization.”
Burton happy to have Harvick
Jeff Burton understands why Kevin Harvick re-signed with Richard Childress, and he’s happy not to be losing the Sprint Cup points leader as a teammate. Burton said he believes Harvick came to the realization that his best chance to win a championship was to stay put.
“Kevin’s good for our company,” Burton said. “If you start thinking about replacing Kevin Harvick, who are you going to replace him with that is better than him? He’s an extremely gifted racecar driver, and he’s been a really good teammate to me. The first year or so, it took us a little while to learn each other, but Kevin’s been a great teammate for me.
“He pushes our company to be better. I’m glad. I’m really, really glad that they worked that out. It’s my intention to be at RCR for a long, long time. And to be as good as I can be, I need good teammates. I need teammates that are going to push me, and I know that Kevin Harvick will push me. So I’m ecstatic that he’s coming back.”
Entering Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, Harvick led the Cup standings by 69 points over second-place Kyle Busch. Burton was in eighth.
Busy racing schedule for Geoff Bodine
In the midst of a news conference for the Legends Million, Geoff Bodine revealed he would attempt to make the field for next week’s Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway in a Chevrolet fielded by Tommy Baldwin.
Bodine, 61, last started a Cup race in 2004 and last raced full time in the series in 1999. He has 18 Cup wins.
Bodine also will compete for a share of the $1 million purse in the Legends Million, scheduled for July 15-17 at Charlotte. The winner of the A-Main feature in the world’s most lucrative race for Legends Cars will earn $250,000.
Among those competing for the top prize will be Sprint Cup driver David Ragan.
“Overall, it should be a great weekend, and I’m glad to be part of it,” Ragan said Sunday. “Without the Legends car series, I wouldn’t be sitting here getting ready to start the Coca-Cola 600.”
McMurray wins pole for Southern 500
DARLINGTON, S.C.—Jamie McMurray won the Coors Light Pole Award in style Friday—with a track-record lap at 180.370 mph at Darlington Raceway.
McMurray toured the 1.366-mile speedway in 27.264 seconds to edge seven-time Darlington winner Jeff Gordon (180.323 mph) for the top starting spot in Saturday night’s Showtime Southern 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
Brian Vickers qualified third at 179.987 mph, David Reutimann fourth at 179.252 mph and Mark Martin fifth at 179.148 mph. Ryan Newman, Marcos Ambrose, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Kasey Kahne claimed starting positions six through 10, respectively.
The pole was the fifth of McMurray’s career and his second of the season, the first coming at Auto Club Speedway (Fontana, Calif.) five days after he won the season-opening Daytona 500. McMurray broke the track record of 179.514 mph set by Matt Kenseth last year.
Speeds have increased dramatically at Darlington since the track was repaved in early 2008. McMurray led Friday’s final practice session and had high expectations entering time trials.
“I think it almost puts more pressure on you when you’re the fastest guy in practice, to go out and back that up,” McMurray said. “This is one of those racetracks where you can’t be too aggressive, or you’ll get into the wall.
“I was pretty impressed with the amount of grip the car had through Turns 1 and 2, and Bono (crew chief Kevin Manion) had come on the radio right before I went out and said that everybody was getting through 1 and 2 pretty good but that they were losing it in 3 and 4. So I was maybe a little bit too conservative in Turns 3 and 4, but it was still enough.”
Not by much. McMurray’s time was just .007 seconds faster than that of Gordon.
“A couple of little things I felt like I could have done—I think the car was better than I was—so I think I could have done a couple of things that maybe could have gotten Jamie,” Gordon said. “When you’re that close, within (thousandths) of a second, you start looking at things you could do better.
“But I’m very pleased to be second.”
Notes: Four-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson will start 22nd; series points leader Kevin Harvick qualified 35th. … Kyle Busch scraped the wall during time trials, compounding hard contact during practice earlier in the day. His No. 18 team opted to go to a backup car for Saturday’s race and will start from the rear of the field. … Joe Nemechek, Casey Mears and Mike Bliss failed to qualify for the 43-car field.
Notebook: Harvick’s move catches McMurray by surprise
TALLADEGA, Ala.—Kevin Harvick won Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway by doing something runner-up Jamie McMurray didn’t expect.
Roughly a quarter-mile from the finish line in a race that went 12 laps beyond its posted distance, Harvick made the most of a third attempt at a green-white-checkered-flag finish. Having pushed McMurray for nearly two laps, Harvick dived to the inside. McMurray’s Chevrolet got loose and wiggled slightly—just enough to allow Harvick to pass and win the race by .011 seconds.
“I really thought that Kevin was going to go high,” McMurray said. “I felt like I was close enough to the yellow line (on the inside) that there was a lot more racetrack to the right, and it seemed like you could stall guys out more on the outside than you could the inside.
“And so I was really guarding against the outside, and when he went left, it really loosens the car up. It’s hard to explain to you guys that aren’t in cars, but when there’s someone directly behind you and they pull their car out of line really fast, it’s like you pull a parachute in your car. It literally feels like you lose 3 or 5 mph immediately, and when that happens, the car that’s doing the passing just has the momentum.
“Really, once he got underneath me, all I was doing was side drafting and hoping I could stall him out and just get him back to the start-finish line.”
Edwards happy with 11th
A Cup series-record 29 drivers led Sunday’s race at Talladega. The list did not include Carl Edwards, who has not led a lap in the past 12 Cup races, dating to the November race at Talladega last year.
Nevertheless, the driver of the No. 99 Ford was pleased with his 11th-place finish, given that he started the race with a vibration his Roush Fenway Racing team couldn’t diagnose in Friday’s practice. The vibration disappeared two laps into the race, and Edwards avoided trouble the rest of the way.
“We dodged some big wrecks and stayed out of trouble and were there at the end,” Edwards said. “Those last few laps can go any way, and even though 11th wasn’t as good as we could have been, it sure wasn’t that bad.”
Edwards improved two positions to 13th in the series standings, 15 points behind 12th-place Jeff Burton.
A wide-open race
Denny Hamlin, who finished fourth and gained two positions to ninth in the Cup standings, had an explanation for a record 88 lead changes among the 29 drivers.
“It was the biggest yo-yo effect that I’ve ever seen, as far as the front to the back to the middle,” Hamlin said. “You just couldn’t keep your track position. As hard as you tried to stay up front, there’s nothing you could do to stay up there.
“From the competitive standpoint, I don’t know what else you can ask for. Anybody can win this race. There’s no doubt about it. Any car can win this race and it’s just who’s going to put themselves in the position with 10 (laps) to go.”
Harvick slingshots by McMurray for Talladega victory
As they took the white flag on the third green-white-checkered, it was apparent that the battle for the win would be between Jamie McMurray and Kevin Harvick. The two paired up on the restart and worked together in the now famous two car draft to pull ahead of their competitors by almost one-third of a straightaway.
When they crossed the tri-oval on their way to the checkered flag, Harvick pulled to the inside of McMurray to edge him at the start-finish line by .011-of-a-second to take his first win since the 2007 Daytona 500—115 races ago.
“Well, obviously we were tight on fuel,” Harvick said. “We were able to save enough gas to get where we needed to be for all the green-white checkereds. Once we kind of got past that window, it was just all about timing, and the timing worked out exactly how we wanted it to work out. We knew coming into the tri-oval we needed to be second, and he moved to the right and I moved to the left, and that was it.”
McMurray finished second and fell short of winning his third consecutive restrictor plate race, after the won this year’s Daytona 500 and the fall race at Talladega.
“I thought I was really close (on fuel),” McMurray said. “I was paranoid. I worry a lot. I was pretty stressed out the whole time. I won the race here last year because we were able to stay out on fuel, and typically what goes around comes around, and I thought this would just be a great day to run out while you’re leading.”
McMurray’s teammate, Juan Pablo Montoya, finished third after restarting second on the final restart. Montoya, as well as the rest of the top-three finishers, were worried about fuel after going nearly 50 laps since their last pit stop for fuel.
“It (the race) was cool,” Montoya said. “You know, every restart it was a little bit different, you’re in a different position, and you’re always hoping that you had somebody good that you could push or you were always hoping that somebody would push you. The second restart when I had Jamie in front, I thought, oh, here we go, we cleared him and we were looking pretty good, and for some reason it just wasn’t enough.”
Denny Hamlin and Mark Martin rounded out the top-five finishers. Hamlin had a strong car throughout the race, leading a total of 17 laps in the event.
David Ragan, Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Mike Bliss rounding out the top-ten finishers.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who led eight laps during the race, finished 13th after coming into the event as a race favorite.
It was an historic day as far as NASCAR is concerned. Two records were broken during the event. There were 89 lead changes among 29 leaders. The previous record for lead changes was 75 recorded on May 1984 at Talladega. The previous record for race leaders was 28. The finish was also the eighth closest finish since the advent of electronic scoring.
Despite being involved in a lap 196 accident, Jimmie Johnson retained the Sprint Cup Series driver point lead over Harvick by 26 points. Johnson finished the race 31st after leading nine laps.
The race was originally scheduled for 188 laps, but went a total of 200 circuits after three green-white-checkered attempts.
Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Aaron’s 499
The Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway will mark the ninth race of this year’s Sprint Cup Series season, and one of the most difficult to predict in fantasy racing. Anybody who’s ever seen a superspeedway race knows that the “big one” is lurking around every corner, and can knock out many good cars in less time than it takes to change four tires and refuel.
Last year, Brad Keselowski turned Carl Edwards in the tri-oval on the final lap to secure his first career victory. It was a scary moment for Edwards, as his car wound up touching the catchfence in mid-air, injuring eight fans, and he hasn’t won since. Despite the safety improvements made to the cars, these sorts of wrecks are always possible, and are more common at the big tracks than anywhere else.
In other words, this weekend is a fantasy crapshoot. To that end, let’s have some fun.
Joey Logano is my pick for this weekend’s race. Keep in mind that we had a surprise winner in Keselowski last year, a definition that Logano would certainly fit. He led laps in both Talladega races last year, finishing 9th in the spring and 3rd in the fall. His team has also gotten it together this year, and they’re legitimate Chase contenders. Hey, it’s worth a shot.
My dark horse pick for the weekend is none other than Michael Waltrip. Competing in only his second race of the season, this will mark the first time in months that Prism Motorsports looks to actually complete the full race with one of its cars, the No. 55 Aaron’s Toyota. Waltrip drives for the race sponsor and has won at the track before. Again, it’s worth a shot, isn’t it?
Three more, all of whom will probably fall victim to bad luck because I picked them:
Hey, remember when Dale Earnhardt Jr. won four Talladega races in a row? He’s led laps in 18 of his 20 career Talladega starts, too. He was pretty strong at Daytona at the beginning of the year, and he’s pretty overdue for a win. His Talladega luck is also pretty good – of his five DNFs at the track, three were due to engine failures, and those were DEI powerplants, not the Hendrick ones he currently receives.
Picking at Talladega is all about luck. Jeff Burton seems to have some of that at Talladega. He’s led at least one lap in six of the past seven Talladega events, including in each of the past four, a span in which he has finished no worse than 12th. Burton has the patience to let the race come to him and the luck to avoid wrecks; only two of his five DNFs were due to accidents, and they came in 2005 and his 1994 track debut.
Finally, Jamie McMurray is currently one of the best restrictor-plate drivers on the circuit, winning the past two races under the format. Jamie Mac has led in six of his past nine Talladega starts. He does, however, have some poor luck at the track, crashing out in three of the past eight events. Choose wisely.
McDonald’s extends agreement with McMurray
Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray will be wearing McDonald’s colors more often after Earnhardt Ganassi Racing announced that McDonald’s has extended their original, one-race agreement with the No. 1 Sprint Cup Series team.
The relationship began at Las Vegas Motor Speedway earlier this season, two weeks after the Daytona 500. What was originally a one-race deal will expand to include multiple Sprint Cup Series races with McDonald’s on the hood, as well as associate sponsorship from the world’s largest fast food restaurant chain for the rest of the 2010 Sprint Cup Series season.
The new agreement will also use McMurray and the No. 1 Chevrolet crew in McDonald’s advertising and community initiatives.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled about working with McDonald’s,” McMurray said. “As I said in victory lane at Daytona, I love having a Big Mac after a big race, so I’m thrilled to have this opportunity. Personally, this is great for me to represent such an iconic brand. More importantly I believe this signing says a lot about the overall direction of our organization.”
John Lewicki, the Sr. Director of Alliance Marketing at McDonald’s, said that the new sponsorship agreement is a sign of McDonald’s attempts engage NASCAR fans.
“We could not be happier to be working with both the Earnhardt Ganassi team and Jamie McMurray,” Lewicki said. “The fact that Jamie is such a big McDonald’s fan and such a strong competitor on the track is going to offer us tremendous opportunities to engage with NASCAR fans in surprising and compelling ways throughout the season.”
McMurray has tallied 263 starts in the Sprint Cup Series since he started racing in NASCAR’s premier series in 2002. Over the years, McMurray has four wins (all from restrictor plate tracks), 31 top-five and 81 top-ten finishes. McMurray is one of only five active drivers that have recorded three or more Sprint Cup Series wins at restrictor plate tracks.
Notebook: Montoya has harsh words after early crash
LAS VEGAS—A Lap 93 accident involving teammates Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya took some of the blush off the rose at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.
McMurray’s No. 1 Chevrolet was running inside Montoya’s No. 42 as the cars sped through Turn 3 in Sunday’s Shelby American at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. McMurray’s Chevy twitched slightly, tapped Montoya’s car and turned it sideways. Both cars hit the outside wall and blocked the track in front of polesitter Kurt Busch, whose Dodge also sustained serious damage in the wreck.
McMurray, who won the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 14, took responsibility for the incident, which relegated him to a 34th-place finish and Montoya to 37th. Montoya, whose engine failed last week at Fontana, clearly was annoyed by his second straight subpar result.
“Jamie plain and simple just wrecked us,” Montoya said of his teammate, who moved from Roush Fenway Racing to EGR this season. “Every time I am around him, he wants to run the (expletive) out of me. I don’t know if it’s OK to say that, but I just did.
“On the restart (on Lap 93) I was inside of him. I think he got tight and never lifted. I didn’t hit the fence because … it was a miracle. Then I arced it into (Turn 3), and he just plain and simple just wrecked us. I’m sure on the radio it was ‘Oh, I didn’t mean that.’ He is just trying to prove to people he can drive a racecar, and I guess he isn’t doing too many favors on this team.”
Although McMurray hadn’t heard his teammate’s comments, he said it wouldn’t have surprised him if Montoya were upset.
“You guys (the media) probably shouldn’t put a lot of stock into what he said when you ask somebody something immediately after getting crashed,” McMurray said. “They typically don’t have nice things to say … it wouldn’t shock me that you’re upset in a situation like that. We both had really good cars today and unfortunately we crashed.
“I just got really loose and underneath him, and he turned in a little bit earlier than what I was expecting. And when it did, it made it even looser. And I just had to catch my car and unfortunately I got into him whenever I did that.”
Gordon’s no dummy
Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson battled through the last laps of the race for the lead, but Johnson prevailed and won the Shelby American at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
If you’re going to recruit a driver who’s going to beat your brains out, you might as well get a piece of the action.
That was Jeff Gordon’s facetious take on his recruitment of teammate Jimmie Johnson to Hendrick Motorsports. Gordon, who has a financial interest in Johnson’s No. 48 team, hasn’t won a title since Johnson began racing full time for HMS in 2002.
Gordon surrendered the lead to Johnson on Lap 251 of Sunday’s race and finished third and acknowledged wryly that there are times he has regretted discovering the four-time Cup champion.
“Today I do,” he said. “Five, 10 years from now, when I’m cashing in on it, I’m not. Somebody once told me that, if you’re going to get beat, make sure you’re getting a piece of it. That’s one positive to take out of it.”
Kenseth solid again
Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth race their Ford Fusions through Turn 4 of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Kenseth went on to finish 5th. Photo by Tyler Barrick/Autostock
Despite pitting out of sequence with what he thought was a loose wheel, fifth-place finisher Matt Kenseth posted his third top 10 of the season and his first top five with crew chief Todd Parrott, who took over from Drew Blickensderfer after the Daytona 500.
“It feels like we’re on the right track, but me pitting off-sequence there probably got us an adjustment or two behind, because we were more worried about getting back on the lead lap—at least I was—than saving enough gas to get our (pit) windows closer together,” Kenseth said.
“We probably didn’t adjust on it quite the way we needed to and didn’t have it exactly the way I wanted at the end, but overall it was a great day for us.”
