Historical day for NASCAR
August 2, 2009
Saturday was a historic day for NASCAR at both the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series races. The festivities began in Iowa at Rusty’s little track in a cornfield in what was being called an “Inaugural” race for the Nationwide series. Well, actually, Indy Car has raced there a couple of times already, but it was the first time that NASCAR darkened the tunnels of the 7/8ths mile circuit.
The best part of the day was watching Brad Keselowski hold off a charging Kyle Busch, who’s been more annoying than usual lately. Busch’s JGR crew brought Busch in for two tires late in the race, but Tony Eury Sr. was calling the shots for Keselowski who kept the youngster out on the track. Eury’s gamble paid off, and Brad drove hard in the end to hold of Busch.
Here are some highlights:
More NASCAR history was made in Nashville where Ron Hornaday posted his fifth straight victory. The Harvick-owned truck squad is on fire, and are in a class of their own. The win gave Ron his first Nasville Speedway guitar. And no, he didn’t pull a Kyle Busch and slam the gorgeous Gibson guitar on the asphalt. Nope. Mr. Hornaday has something Kyle Busch doesn’t. It’s called “class”.
I can’t believe it, he’s driving away from me
July 11, 2009
The NASCAR Nationwide Series is in Joliet this weekend with the Cup boys at Chicagoland Speedway, and ran their 300 miler under the lights on Friday night. The story of the race could be summed up by a radio transmission by Kyle Bush late in the race when he said, “I can’t believe it, he’s driving away from me!”
And Logano did drive away from second-place Kyle Bush, posting his fastest laps of the day as the race came to a close on old tires. It was an incredible driving performance and a testament to the driving talents of this kid, and the incredible car that the Joe Gibbs Racing team put together.
Logano was driving the same car that he won with at Kansas, a car that seems to have some “special sauce” in it for the 1-1/2″ cookie-cutter ovals.
Logano will try for the double tomorrow in the Cup race but will have his work cut out for him as he starts 24th, deep in the field.
Kyle Busch was less than ecstatic in self again in post race interviews, in fact, he looked as if someone had taken away his birthday. This guy doesn’t like to finish second, and seems to especially hate losing to “Sliced Bread”. Busch told ESPN, “I guess it’s a good *points* day for us” in an overly-sarcastic tone. I love Busch’s drive to win, but sometimes he needs to suck it up and show a bit of class when he loses. We get it, Kyle. You hate to lose.
Kansas City Star: Tire gamble pays off for Logano
Ok, let’s see that again - Tony vs. Kyle at the Coke Zero 400
July 9, 2009
The epic ending of Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona was one for the ages deserves a second look. Normally I’m not a fan of these crash-and-burn NASCAR finishes, but this one got me and everyone at the cookout up out of their lawn chairs!
Here’s the video:
Tony Stewart leads the field to green tonite at Daytona
July 4, 2009
NASCAR has had a string of bad weather luck, with dark clouds following the tour around the US. Weather nixed qualifying again this week at Daytona which means Tony Stewart inheirits the pole position based on points.
FloridaToday.com: Rain spoils Daytona qualifying
Tony very well could win this race from the pole, but due to the double-file restart rule that is now in effect, I think that just about *anyone* in the field could win this restrictor plate race. Dale Earnhardt is due for a win, and a win for him would be a storybook comeback tonight. But look out for Matt Kenseth, the fastest Ford (the only fast Ford) and the winner at Daytona earlier this year.
Clint Bowyer has the hot hand after winning the Nationwide race last night, but might not have the Cup car he needs
Top Picks: Tony Stewart, Dale Jr., Mark Martin
Mark Martin might just snooker the whole field. The veteran has been strong all year, and this race track owes him one.
Dark Horse Pick: Juan Pablo Montoya
If JPM can get enough help, he could win this race. He’s running inside the top 12 in the Chase standings, and is having a pretty goodyear. Could this be a break-out win for JPM?
Long Shot Pick: Brad Keselowski
Brad’s crazy win at ‘Dega was a huge boost to Brad’s career, and shows he’s a force to be reckoned with, especially at restrictor plate races. He didn’t post good times on practice, but I still think I’ll keep an eye on this kid.
The Coke Zero 400 airs later tonite at 8 p.m. ET on TNT.
Zipadelli & Logano steal Cup win at New Hampshire
June 28, 2009
Greg Zipadelli rolled the dice and called a perfect weather-race to bring Joey Logano in first today at the rain shortened Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The win is rookie’s first in Sprint Cup compeition.
Everything went Logano’s way in an odd sort of way. Logano had some early problems that put him out of sequence, a turn of events that may have assisted in his win. Logano actually was the cause of the nine of eleven total caution periods in the race when he had a tire failure. Ed Hinton of ESPN.com points out that Logano was the fortunate recipient of the Lucky Dog not once, but twice. But the tire failure actually put the Home Depot team on an alternate strategy that played out perfectly under the conditions.
RACE NOTES
Jeff Gordon falls short
Gordon ran up front all day, and probably would have won the race had the rain held off for another five or six laps. Lady Luck didn’t shine down on Jeff today.
Tony Stewart’s strong run
The Stewart-Haas team really has the #14 car hooked up, and Tony was the fastest car on the track for a lot of the race. He ended up snake bitten by his former crew chief, but still a good day for Tony.
Dale Jr.’s strong run doesn’t show in the results
Dale Jr. didn’t look to have car to win, but he could have easily finished in the top 5 if the weather hadn’t broken up the party. Dale and the team have to figure out how to do better on restarts.
Was the big wreck Kyle’s Bush’s fault?
Kyle Bush made another friend in Martin Truex Jr. today when contact between the two created a huge accident that took out multiple cars. The question is, “Was it Kyle’s fault?” Truex sure thought so. From my seat, it looked like a pretty dumb move on Kyle’s part to stick his nose in a hole between two cars just before the entrance of turn 1.
LINKS
ESPN: Logano scores unlikely win at Loudon
SI: Rain gives teenager Joey Logano first Cup win
Dirtmeister Kahne gets first NASCAR road course win
June 23, 2009
Anyone who ever witnessed Kasey Kahne run a winged sprint car on dirt knew that they were watching a future star in big time racing. I personally saw Kahne win the Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway two years in a row, a race that draw all the best winged 410’s on the west coast to northwest Washinton. But for a guy that is so at home in the dirt, Kasey Kahne sure put out quite a performance on Sunday at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.
Kahne held off Tony Stewart to win a veritable crashfest on the natural terrain roadcourse. A couple of drivers that were especially “crashy” on Sunday were Robby Gordon and Kyle Busch. I lost track of exactly how many incidents these two were involved in, but it was more than a couple.
The win for Kahne is his first under the Petty Enterprises banner, and it was nice to see the King celebrating in Victory Lane again.
USA Today has more: Kahne, Petty brew up winning Sprint Cup combination
Mark Martin best at saving fuel at Michigan
June 15, 2009
Mark Martin has again made Dale Jr. look bad, and won yet another Sprint Cup race in 2009. The old dude won a fuel mileage race at Michigan International (image that) today, beating his out-of-fuel teammate Jimmy Johnson and an out-of-fuel Greg Biffle in the closing laps.
The media has called the finish “exciting”.
I’m not sure how exciting the racing was. Michigan’s 400 miler is always a race to save fuel & Martin showed that he’s the Yoda of fuel saving.
Martin said, “I always come up short in these fuel-mileage races,” said Martin, whose victory was his third of the year. “But I saw the pace they wanted to run at the start and I began saving gas from the third lap.”
So from lap 3 to 200, Martin was saving fuel? Can you feel the excitement?
The Detroit Free Press has more on the fuel saving festivities.
Freep.com: Mark Martin wins at MIS after leaders run out of gas
The budget cuts will continue until morale improves
June 12, 2009
You knew this was coming. GM is considering cuts to their NASCAR program. I guess they figured out, after 15 years of failure, that the “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” philosophy isn’t really working for them.
Here’s the AP Story at ESPN.com:
GM to pare support of NASCAR teams
Associated Press
BROOKLYN, Mich. — General Motors is planning to cut back on its support of NASCAR teams in all of the sanctioning body’s professional series.
Chevrolet spokesman Terry Rhadigan says GM, which is reorganizing through bankruptcy, is discussing what he described as incremental cutbacks in support. He says cuts will be made soon and that the discussions are “indeed NASCAR-wide.”
Read the rest of the AP article
Roush-Fenway always a favorite at Michigan
June 12, 2009
The Sprint Cup series heads into the Irish Hills of Michigan this weekend, and that means one thing: Roush-Fenway has about a fifty-fifty chance of winning this weekend
Tom Jensen of Speed TV wrote today:
Every year since 2002, Roush-Fenway Racing has won at least one NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the 2-mile MIS oval, with drivers Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards each posting two wins here during that period.
MIS is Roush’s home track and a place where his team is awfully tough to beat. In last year’s LifeLock 400, Roush placed four cars in the top 10, although the team lost a fuel-mileage race to Dale Earnhardt Jr., who hasn’t won since. In the August 2008 MIS event, Edwards won the race as Roush took a whopping four of the top five positions.
Read the rest of the article here.
Ryan Newman gives Stewart-Haas first Cup pole at the 600
May 23, 2009
Ryan Newman did what he does best, putting his car on pole for the Coca-Cola 600. The Rocket’s 43rd pole position was the first for the Stewart-Haas team.
With Kyle Bush, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Jimmy Johnson rounding out the top five, there were few suprises in the first few rows. Junior starts deep in the field from the 27th spot.
It is exciting to In this 600 miler, the starting spot is not really of much importance. Be sure to drink a lot of Coca-Cola to stay awake for all 400 laps (unless you are a Jeff Gordon or Junior fan and prefer to imbibe in a Pepsi or Amp energy drink). But seriously, I want to see a show of hands: Who can watch all of this race without falling asleep at least once? After drinking a sixer of Corona and eating way too much BBQ on Sunday afternoon, only the strongest survive.
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Here’s a full report from GM Racing:
CHEVY PRESS NOTES - CHARLOTTE QUALIFYING
Concord, NC - Ryan Newman behind the wheel of his No. 39 U.S. Army Impala SS will lead the field to the green flag for the 50th running of the Coca Cola 600 Sunday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (LMS).
The 28.651-second/188.475 m.p.h. lap landed Newman the 44th pole of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career and his eighth pole at LMS.
Five Team Chevy drivers captured four of the top-five and five of the top-10 starting spots for the season’s longest race. Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS, will roll off third in the 43-car field for the 400-lap/600-mile race.
Mark Martin, No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg’s Impala SS, will start fourth with Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Impala SS, starting fifth.
Read more
