Greg Biffle

NASCAR – Biffle Takes the Checkered and the Points Lead at MIS – Hendrick Motor Failures Cause Concern

August 21, 2012 by Jay Tomchuk 1 Comment

Greg Biffle performs his celebration burnout at MIS after winning the Pure Michigan 400

Ford has not seen the checkered flag at MIS in 7 consecutive races. In real life terms that means 3 and a half years. The last time a Ford had been to winners circle was back in 2008, in the Michigan race after Dale Jr. started his winless streak. Greg Biffle decided that it was time for change. Running int he top 10 for most of the day the #16 Roush Ford car looked strong. As the final laps wore down it was beginning to look like another good day for the Chevy crowd. Then on lap 195 Jimmie Johnson lost his engine in spectacular fashion in a cloud of smoke. The restart had a Dodge (Kesolowski) , 2 Chevy’s (Dale Jr and Kasey Kahne) and a lone Ford filling the front 2 rows. All 4 cars had been fast all day, Kahne had recovered from an early spin in the Mark Martin wreck and everyone was itching for the win. When the checkered flag dropped and the cars roared across the line, the crowd actually fell silent for a moment as they waited for the outcome. It was the Ford of Biffle that took off into the clean air and no one could catch him. Biffle may not have led the most laps throughout the day, but he led the one that means the most as he crossed the line taking the checkered flag in the Pure Michigan 400, and ending the drought for Ford in their own back yard.

Biffle credits the jump he got on the restart to Dale Earnhardt Jr who started behind him in row 2 on the final restart that allowed him to earn his 18th career win.

“Junior gave me a huge push for that win,” Biffle said. “I have to thank him for that. I saw Brad laying back [on the restart] like always, and he got a little jump on me.”

“We’re going to make a run at the title,” Biffle promised. “I know they don’t talk about us a lot, but they will when we get to Vegas.”

Brad Kesolowski gave it everything he had but just could not catch the 16, especially since he was in a heated battle for 2nd with a hard charging Kasey Kahne. Finishing .417 seconds behind the leader Kesolowski was disappointed with his result at his home track.

“This is my home track,” said Keselowski, who has finished second in two consecutive Cup races. “I want to win here just as bad as I want to win a race in the Chase — probably more. There was a stretch where I felt like we were going to win it. I had some goosebumps going on.

“But it wasn’t meant to be, and I’m still very proud of the effort. … I just want to get that one more spot. I want to win races, and we’ve been running solid — and I’m proud of that — but we want that one more spot, too.”

Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top 5.

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Jimmie Johnson looking concerned after his engine failure in the final laps of the Pure Michigan 400

Hendrick Motorsport engine builders will be doing a lot of head scratching this week as they try to figure out how they lost 4 engines over the weekend. Two of those engines belonged to Jimmie Johnson in the #48. Having issues on Saturday they opted to swap their engine out and start from the rear of the field for Sunday’s start. They looked fast as they moved through the field and were in the top 10 by lap 97.

Then early in the race the #14 Stewart Haas entry driven by Tony Stewart started sounding rough, later to be determined that he lost a cylinder due to a valve spring breaking. With 4 of the Hendrick engine builders looking at the engine they patched it up and sent him back out for points but he was no longer a contender.

45 laps later it was the #24 car that suffered the same issue ending Jeff Gordon’s chances for a win and continuing the 4 time champion’s streak of bad luck that has been following him around throughout the season.

The last and final straw was right at the end of the race as the #48 lost their second engine of the weekend with only 5 laps to go in the race. In a cloud of smoke the 48 fell back through the field before pulling behind the wall in a rare DNF for their team.

“[I was] just running along there and, all of a sudden, dropped a cylinder,” Gordon said. “The No. 14 [Stewart] had that same issue. This is a tough place on engines. We rarely have these issues. … When you come to Michigan and you turn these kinds of sustained RPMs on this fast of a track, it’s always of concern here.”

“It’s just a bad day, not the norm, for sure,” said Stewart, who radioed that it felt like his car was running on seven cylinders early in the race. “We have the best engine department in the world, in my opinion. We had three engine tuners down there [in the garage] trying to get it fixed for us. [Sunday’s result] wasn’t for lack of effort.”

The failures were also a cause for concern in the 88 camp of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Crew chief Steve Letarte waited patiently for word on what the cause of the failure was as he watched his driver moving forward through the field.

“Without a doubt [I was worried],” Letarte said. “One doesn’t bother you. That’s part of racing. But when the 24 had their issue, the concern went up.

“I’m disappointed for the motor guys. I know they work tremendously hard. This is one of those places where, as fast as we’re running, it’s just hard on equipment. We’ll get back to the shop, look into them all, and I’m sure we’ll have good direction coming to the Chase.”

NASCAR – Ambrose Sets a Record Pace In Michigan – Tire Issues May Cause Problems

June 17, 2012 by Jay Tomchuk Leave a Comment

Marcos Ambrose crosses the finish line at 203.241mph making him the Fastest man in NASCAR since 1987, and setting a record breaking pace that no one else could catch.

They knew it was going to be a record breaking day. Everyone had seen the speeds in practice and all of the predictions were that the record would fall, repeatedly, until a new record was set. Marcos Ambrose was not the first driver to go faster than the previous record qualifying lap in Michigan yesterday, but he was definitely the last. Heading out under the bright sunshine, Ambrose went out and set a blistering pace of 203.241 mph (35.426 seconds) making him the fastest man in NASCAR since 1987 when Bill Elliot hit 203.827 mph at Talladega and put him on the pole for the Quicken Loans 400. Ambrose then had to sit patiently on pit road waiting as 16 other cars qualified after him, trying to knock him off the top.

Kevin Harvick has set the previous fastest speed of 202.037 mph, before Ambrose came on to the track, which was still good enough for the outside of row 1 in second place.

Greg Biffle has been the fastest car in practice and looked to have the best shot at it, but with a little wiggle through turn 3 Biffle lost some speed and brought his lap speed to 201.816 mph, which was good enough for third.

Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman, the previous MIS record holder, round out the top 5.

With all of the grip in the asphalt because of the repave the cars were setting record speeds throughout testing on Thursday and both practices on Friday. Drivers were not complaining about the speeds however, they were enjoying it. Many stated that the 200+mph speeds felt no different than running at 180mph because of the smooth track surface. The grip however was creating havoc with the tires. Goodyear noticed during testing and practice that the tires were blistering and tearing apart under track conditions and the speeds that were being reached.

Kevin Harvick climbing out of his car after his qualifying run.

“Our biggest concern right now is we’ve seen several of those situations through the garage,” Kevin Harvick said. “I don’t know that many people ran enough laps to really get to the blistering point. It’s either going to come down to the race track getting more rubber on it and the speeds slowing down, or it’s just going to come down to you slowing down and managing the pace to keep the tires on the car.”

Greg Stucker, competition director for Goodyear gave their reasoning behind the decision.

“We ran about 36.4 [seconds] in our test [in April],” Stucker said. “That was the fastest lap, and obviously, we’re running significantly faster than that now. We knew it would be faster but not quite as fast as it is.

“The blistering is definitely heat-related. It’s aggravated by particular setups. That’s why we’re seeing it predominately on some people and not at all on others.”

NASCAR mandated an extra practice session after the Nationwide race on Saturday night to give the teams a chance to test the new tire brought to the track and adjust their setups accordingly. The 1200 new tires were shipped from Charlotte and did not arrive at the track until Saturday afternoon leaving very little time to get in another testing session.

Some of the drivers were glad that Goodyear had made the call that they did citing the safety of the drivers. Carl Edwards feels that the decision was the right one and that everything will be just fine.

“I’m forecasting that we’ll be just fine and won’t have any issues. … What’s been done here is that we took a track and a tire that was very simple to drive, straightforward with tons of grip, and they took some of that grip away and put it in the drivers and crew chiefs’ hands and made the cars a little harder to drive.”

Other drivers such as Pole sitter Marcose Ambrose and fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. seemed to disagree.

“This ain’t cool,” Earnhardt said.

Ambrose added a bit more detail to his reasoning saying, “We were out there trying to save miles on the engine, so we never really busted off a good run. The tire is very different. It hasn’t got much grip. You are loose in, shake in the middle and then on the gas [you] spin yourself out. It feels unbalanced and a little bit wobbly — and you don’t want to be wobbly at 200 miles per hour. You want to feel like the car is underneath you.”

The new tires brought to the track were manufactured in 2006 when Goodyear had concerns about grip with the repave in Charlotte that season. The harder compound will reduce grip and therefor reduce speeds as well. This was proven in the final practice session last night. Greg Biffle set the top speed at 195.684mph.

As is usual with changes like these there have been mixed reviews about the decision with drivers and team owners falling on both sides of the discussion.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. thinks the decision to switch the tires “would be debated for a long time.”.

NASCAR – Kahne Takes The Checkered Flag in Charlotte For His First Win in the #5

May 28, 2012 by Jay Tomchuk Leave a Comment

Kasey Kahne takes a celebration drink after winning the Coca~Cola 600 at Charlotte Motorspeedway

600 grueling miles in almost 90 degree heat, saving equipment until the end, making changes to keep up with the track as the sun goes down, and strategy to gain track position at just the right time. Kasey Kahne had all that working for him. Kenny Francis made all the right changes to his car and stayed ahead of the track, while Kasey took care of his car, keeping it off the wall, saving his brakes, and finding the speed he needed right at the best time to find it, in the final 25 laps.

After a rough start to the 2012 season Kahne has had a solid run for the last 6 weeks finishing top 10. He never gave up despite the string of DNF’s early on, he kept any complaints he may have had to himself, and forged on. The end result of that patience it seems is a win at one of NASCAR’s marquee races.

“I never doubted myself,” said Kahne. “I was upset at some of the things that may have happened. I made a huge mistake at Phoenix and hit the wall there, but other than that, we were solid — we were fast.

“It was just a matter of getting past those [six] weeks and moving on and putting some solid races together.”

“I think the biggest thing for myself was just to figure out the cars, figure out how they drove,” Kahne said. “It’s been a little bit different for me. We’ve had speed. Even the last five, six races, we’ve been in the top 10, but not near as fast as Jimmie Johnson or a couple of those guys who have been winning races.”I just knew for myself, I needed to step up. Our team is solid. Our car is solid. Mr. Hendrick gives us everything we need to win races and run up front. [Sunday] night we were able to put it all together.”

Denny Hamlin did everything he could to chase down Kahne, even coming to within a second of him after the final restart, but Kahne could not be caught as he just kept pulling away right up to the checkered flag.

“As the track cooled off, it freed up for us — the car got better,” Hamlin said. “Ultimately, it gave us a shot to win. … The first 10 laps of the last run, we got to them [Kahne], but we wore our front tires trying to get around them.

“Everything was executed great [Sunday], the pit calls, getting on and off pit road, the pit crew themselves. We had a very, very solid day.”

Greg Biffle had been the dominant car all day, leading 204 laps, and looking like the car to beat, until Kahne got by and never looked back.

“It’s so frustrating,” Biffle said of his fourth place finish after having the event’s dominant car. “You’re driving your heart out, you’re wondering, ‘Am I doing something wrong? Come on, come on.’ You’re doing all you can do, but the car won’t do what you want it to do. You just take what it gives you, otherwise you wreck it. And I just about wrecked it a half a dozen times trying to get forward.”

Other notable finishers were Carl Edwards who charged from the back of the field towards the front gaining more than 20 positions to finish in in the top ten in 9th place. Dale Earnhardt Jr also did well, running in the top 15 for most of the race and climbing to as high as second on a call by his Crew Chief, Steve Latarte, to stay out on 12 lap tires when the leaders came in to the pits. The gained track position was what he needed to stay inside the top 10 to finish in 6th place. Good enough to stay within 18 points of the points leader Greg Biffle in 4th place overall.

NASCAR – Biffle Sets the Pace and Attempts to Tame the Lady in Black

May 12, 2012 by Jay Tomchuk Leave a Comment

Greg Biffle has the pole for the Bojangles Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

It was beginning to look like an all Hendrick front row with Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne ready to lead the field to the green flag, until Greg Biffle showed up. Jimmie Johnson had taken the provisional pole from his teammate Kasey Kahne but was worried that he had not done his best, that he had left some speed out there on the track. That speed was found by Greg Biffle as he grabbed the pole for the Bojangles Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

“This is what a race car driver looks forward to, showing up every weekend and having a really fast car to drive,” said Biffle, the Sprint Cup Series leader. “They’re making me look good so far.

“It was a pretty uneventful lap. The car just had a ton of grip — it stuck to the race track really, really well. I felt like I was a little bit light down in Turns 1 and 2 — I should have been a little bit quicker down there — but I got a lot out of it in 3 and 4, so it was a great lap.”

”I feel that special season already. I certainly think that we’re going to be tough in competition all year,” said Biffle.

Johnson seemed to know that more speed could be found… just not who was going to find it.

Jimmie Johnson felt he left some speed out on the track. Greg Biffle found it.

”I left a little speed out there and Greg certainly found it,” Johnson said. ”It would’ve been nice to have a Hendrick front row. But it was a very productive day.”

Jimmie Johnson is looking to get the 200th win for team owner Rick Hendrick this weekend. He has help at the front with his teammate Kasey Kahne, but Kahne is also hungry for a win. And let us not forget the 9 time fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. who has been Mr Hendrick’s most consistent performer all season long, and is coming into Darlington with a 6 race top 10 streak under his belt.

“It certainly weighs on the team,” Johnson said before Friday’s practice at Darlington Raceway. “I’m not frustrated yet. I don’t want to see opportunities slip away. I certainly want to get 200 behind us as does everyone at Hendrick Motorsports because it’s lingering around.”

Johnson and Kahne will be starting 2nde and 3rd respectively. Dale Jr looks to have his work cut out for him if he wants to break his streak and obtain the 200th win for his team. Starting back in 24th Jr has not shown a lot of speed this weekend. Running 19th in first practice and 18th in the second, the 88 car looks like it will need a lot of adjustments on the fly to get it where he wants it to be during the race.

Ryan Newman and Kyle Busch will round out the top 5 for the start of the race.

Danica Patrick makes her return to the Sprint Cup Schedule. It seems her team owner Tony Stewart used his well known sarcastic sense of humor as he chose which track Danica would be driving at this season. However you never really learn if you take the easy road, and Danica seems up to the challenge. The experience she gains at the tougher tracks in the schedule should translate to better finishes at the easier tracks in the long run.

“This is a tough place and everything they said about it is true,” Patrick said between practices. “This Lady in Black is very intimidating. I’m just trying to get comfortable with what the car needs me to do — where to brake, how heavy to brake and those kinds of things. I’ve got my Darlington stripes, officially. It’s all the way down the right side of the car. We got that one over with.

“I’ve got everything in my corner, I just need time. I just need to get comfortable. It’s definitely not going to be an easy, breezy night. Like Tony (Stewart) said, I’m probably going to hate him by the end of the weekend. Come the future, I’m going to be glad for it.”

Team Owner tony Stewart agrees.

“She understands the value of why we picked this as one of the races,” Stewart said. “I think she’s keeping the big picture in mind. I think she’s doing a really good job of taking it all in stride, not letting her position on the time sheet get her down, realizing that the whole weekend is a learning experience and trying to just get at that time.

“I want her just to run as many laps as possible. The more time she can spend on track, the more experience that she’s going to get. So the good thing is, running both divisions, she’s getting a ton of track time.”

That may be true, but there is a huge difference between the Nationwide cars and the Cup cars when it comes right down to it.

“When you get to about half-throttle in the Cup car, that’s what a Nationwide car feels like,”Jimmie Johnson said with a laugh. “There’s a lot left from that point down in a Cup car. As far as tracks go, this track in my opinion has the highest sensation of speed over any other track we go to. And it’s due to it being so narrow. But it will be an eye-opening experience. Fortunately, she’s been real fast in other cars so hopefully it doesn’t affect her too much. But we’ve all looked at this race on her schedule and know it’s going to be tough for her. And it certainly will. This is not an easy race track to get around, but she’s going to do it and we’ll see how it goes.”

NASCAR – Allmendinger Wins the Pole At Kansas, Engine Trouble for Logano Moves Him to the Back of the Field

April 22, 2012 by Jay Tomchuk Leave a Comment

A.J. Allmendinger gets his first pole driving for Penske Racing and his first since Phoenix in 2010.

A.J. Allmendinger has been here before, leading the field to the green flag, but this is his first in his new ride with Penske in the number 22 AAA sponsored ride. This is the 97th all time pole for Penske racing and after waching almost the entire field qualify before him, Allmendinger edged Kevin Harvick (175.747 mph) by .043 seconds at the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway to take the poole position at Kansas Motor Speedway. How does Allmendinger deal with the pressure of being new to a team who us used to success on the race track?

“More than anything, I put so much pressure on my shoulders to go out there and perform,” Allmendinger said. “They [his Penske team] are used to winning, running up front, getting poles. It’s good just to build momentum.

“So, hopefully, we have a solid 400 miles. It’s good, but we know the bigger picture’s on Sunday, and I’m happy to be part of the team.”

Kevin Harvick will sit on the outside of Allmendinger after qualifying second for the STP 400 in Kansas

Kevin Harvick will start beside him on the outside in position 2. Harvick had an excellent lap in the making but got “a little excited” as he entered the final 2 corners and lost a little bit of ground.

“That might have cost us the pole, but overall it’s been a great year for us qualifying-wise so far,” Harvick said. “The cars have been fast every week, and as soon as we put together a whole weekend without me making a mistake or things not going exactly right, I think everything’s going to come together nicely.

“So I’m pretty happy with the way everything’s gone so far this year.”

So what about the other big names in NASCAR? Teams that carry the big names in the sport, Roush and Hendrick have been the power houses in the sport for the past few seasons, and yet that strength hasn’t really been shown on the track so far this season.

Greg Biffle, the current points leader and last weeks winner in Texas, was asked about the pecking order of the team. After delivering his first win in 49 starts last weekened, who is the #1 driver in the Roush Stables? Carl Edwards did sign a multi million dollar contract to re-up with Roush for the next 4 season, and his team finished second in points in 2011 by being consistant, but only marked one win fo the season. So far this season Edwards has yet to lead a lap. But if he were to choose one racetrack this year to get that win and break his 40 race losing streak, Kansas would be where he wants it most.

Biffle is leading in the points and Edwards has yet to score a win in over 40 races. So who is at the top of the pecking order in the Roush Stables?

“There would be no bigger win on the circuit,” Edwards said. “If I had to choose between winning one race throughout the year, that would be the one I would pick. The amount of pride that I would have — winning that close to home and in front of so many people that are friends of mine and people that have helped me — that would be huge.”

But who is the number one driver in the Roush stables as they see it? Who is getting the better deal when it comes to equipment? Both Edwards and Biffle were very coy with their response to that question.

“No, I still think the No. 99 [Edwards] is the number one team at Roush,” Biffle said Friday, allowing the smile to play at the corners of his mouth. “I’m the underdog.”

Edwards disagrees. Based on current performance, he says it’s easy to identify the top team at Roush.

“Right now, Greg is the No. 1 team — the No. 16 team is — because they’re leading the points and winning races,” Edwards said.

Dale Jr feels that right now, he is the best driver in the Hendrick Stable, and he very confident about that feeling.

So what about the most consistant driver in the Hendrick stables ths season, Dale Earnhardt Jr.? Is there a pecking order at Hendrick Motorsports that decides who get the best equipment? How does he feel about his chances in the 2012 season?

Asked whether he thought Johnson was a better driver, Earnhardt was emphatic in his response.

“No, he’s a hell of a race car driver, but I feel like I’m the best,” Earnhardt said. “I think that’s the way you have to feel. I feel like I’m smarter than everybody, and I can drive better than everybody, and I know a lot of people ain’t going to agree with that, but I feel pretty strong about it.”

“There is a bit of a pecking order, and it really comes down to what you’ve done lately,” Earnhardt said Friday at Kansas. “I think that Jimmie and Jeff will always carry a certain role in that company that I will probably never achieve, just due to them being there that long and having that trust built up with Rick [Hendrick] and all the employees there — and their accomplishments, obviously.”

So on to the track we go in Kansas for the STP 400 to decide the winner, and who has done the most lately in the pecking order for both of these power house teams.

NASCAR – Biffle Wins in Texas After Passing Johnson During the Longest Green Flag Run Ever

April 15, 2012 by Jay Tomchuk 1 Comment

Greg Biffle took the checkered flag in Texas to win the Samsung Mobile 500

Saving equipment and saving fuel while trying to run down the leader sounds like an impossible task with impossible odds, but that is exactly what Greg Biffle had to do in order to take the checkered flag in Texas last night for the Samsung Mobile 500. Johnson had led a total of 156 laps when Biffle finally passed him with only 34 laps to go, taking advantage of the only mistake Johnson had made all night when he brushed the wall and lost momentum after the pass to extend his lead to where Johnson could not catch him.

“I just dug deep,” Biffle said. “I knew I had to do it and kept trying and trying and trying. I knew the team would forgive me if I wrecked it trying to beat him, so I gave it all I had.”

This is Biffle first win since Oct 3, 2010 at Kansas breaking a 49 race winless streak, and the first win with crew chief Matt Puccia.

“I could say it’s about time,” said Biffle, “But I’m just thankful to be able to drive these cars, as fast as they are. We knew it was a matter of time that we were going to win one soon — we’ve been running so good.”

“I was a little short on fuel, so I kind of lifted a little early and let the car roll down through the corners. When he started catching a little bit of traffic, that’s when I started going.”

“I just pushed as hard as I could, and I was driving the thing sideways around the corner trying to catch him. I could tell I was catching him, and he had a little trouble with traffic.”

In fact Jimmie Johnson, who took his 5th runner up finish of his career in Texas, was taking offense to the way the cars who were laps down were racing him near the end.

Jimmie Johns ran for his 5th second place finish in Texas after leading the most laps for the day with 156.

“Man, second sucks — I wish we could have won,” Johnson said. “I’m definitely disappointed but we had a great race car and there’s a lot to be proud of here. Our pit stops were just amazing all night long. We had a very, very fast race car and a little bit more respect through some lapped traffic … it could’ve been a little different.”

“When I caught lapped traffic, some guys that were multiple laps down didn’t show much respect for myself, the leader,” said Johnson. “Before I knew it, the No. 16 [Biffle] was there inside of me and got by.

“We ran with him for the next eight or 10 laps, and then I made a mistake into [Turn] 3 and hit the fence. At that point, I just needed to make sure I brought it home. A great night, all in all. I certainly wish we could be in Victory Lane, but we’ll try again next week.”

“We’ve been really close over the last five or six months,” said Johnson. “You look through last year, even through different points, leading a lot of races and didn’t execute at the end for whatever reason.

“It’s nice to be running well. It’s nice to be in this position. But I want to get back to our winning ways really soon.”

Johnson led Team Hendrick with the best finish but all 4 Hendrick cars finished inside the top 10. Gordon finished 4th, Kasey Kahne finished 7th and Dale Jr, who has been the most consistent Hendrick driver this season, finished in 10th and tied for 2nd place in overall points now with Matt Kenseth.

Kasey Kahne had his best finish of the season so far in 7th, and inside the top 10 with all of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates.

Kasey Kahne was sure that the 48 car was going to get the 200th win for Handrick Motorsports but is just was not in the cards.

“I thought Jimmie had it [Saturday] night,” Kahne said. “I wasn’t worried about it, I thought it was over. Every time I looked up there the No. 48 was leading. Then, I guess 15 [laps] to go I looked up and the No. 16 was leading. Then I thought ‘well maybe not.’

“Those guys have been working hard since before I got here. They’ve been trying to get that 200th. It would be great to get it soon. Any one of the four, we need to get it done and get past that.”

Jeff Gordon is also feeling the pressure for wanting to be the driver who scores that win for Rick Hendrick.

“I’m thinking about it all of the time, and Rick reminds us all the time that it would be nice to get that out of the way,” Jimmie Johnson said. “Man, we’ve been all around it and had a lot of shots at it, and unfortunately just haven’t been able to pull it off.”

Jeff Gordon is feeling the pressure of getting the 200th win for the Hendrick Motorsports team.

“It’s on all of our minds. It’s pressure. We know that Rick doesn’t come to every single race, and right now he’s coming to every race, because he doesn’t want to miss that 200th, and none of us want him to,” Gordon said.

“We’ll keep digging, we’ll keep trying. And we know it’s going to happen — I mean, our teams are just too good, and we’re running too good. We know it’s going to happen, it’s just when. It would be nice to kind of get that one out of the way, because it is somewhat becoming this heavy load that we’re carrying.”

Next week takes us to Kansas for the STP 400, starting at 12:30 pm on Sunday. Coverage will still be carried by Fox.

NASCAR – Martin Truex Sets The Pace in Texas for the Samsung Mobile 500

April 14, 2012 by Jay Tomchuk Leave a Comment

Martin Truex sets the pace for the 2012 Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway

For the second time in his racing career Martin Truex Jr will lead the field to the green flag at Texas Motor Speedway. He will be watching his rear view mirror closely however, as the defending race champion Matt Kenseth will be close on his tail starting from his best start ever in Texas, second. Truex in his No. 56 Toyota posted a lap at 190.369 mph (28.366 seconds) to edge defending race winner Matt Kenseth (190.148 mph) for the top starting spot.

Truex, who is tied for third in the Cup standings with Kenseth, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart, is looking to get his first win since Dover in 2007.

“That’s our main goal. This team’s good enough. We can get to Victory Lane. We’re going to do it soon. I feel good about this team. I’m just having so much fun coming to the race track and driving these cars.”

“We’re going to make them proud here pretty quick.”

Tony Stewart will be one to watch as he tries to move forward from his 29th place starting position.

Tony Stewart, who has won four of the past six races on 1.5-mile tracks, including the past three (he’s a two-time winner at Texas, most recently this past November) will be one to watch tonight as he makes his way forward from his 29th place starting position. Stewart brushed the wall in practice before qualifying and opted to go with his back up car. Suprisingly, the back up car seemed to respond to changes better than the primary car was.

With the pole secure, Truex will try to win his first race since June 2007, when he claimed his only Cup victory at Dover.

“That’s our main goal,” said Truex, who is tied for third in the Cup standings with Kenseth, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart. “This team’s good enough. We can get to Victory Lane. We’re going to do it soon. I feel good about this team. I’m just having so much fun coming to the race track and driving these cars.

“We’re going to make them proud here pretty quick.”

Stewart qualified 29th in a backup car after scraping the outside wall during the second lap of Friday’s 90-minute practice session. The accident may have been a blessing in disguise for the Stewart, who found the backup No. 14 Chevrolet more responsive to adjustments than his primary car.

“I just got loose and didn’t have enough race track to get it gathered up,” Stewart said of the brush with the wall. “We haven’t got a lot of laps on this one [the backup car], but I think we feel better with this one so far.

“It’s doing everything that we were trying to get the other one to do … The top-tier teams, their backup cars are just as good as their primary cars, so definitely no concerns.”

Dale Jr feels like hs is on the cusp of returning to his winning ways.

Dale Earnhardt Jr is looking good with his refound confidence that his fans remember. Sitting second in points over all and making it look easy, Jr says he is ready to win, and hopes it will be in Texas where he got his first ever Sprint Cup win.

“We’re getting closer. I feel like we’re getting closer,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t really know what the measuring stick is, but hopefully it’s real close. I’m ready to win. I’m ready to go to Victory Lane. I’ve been working with these guys, and they’re working so hard. They’re giving me really, really good cars. They deserve to win races. I think the team deserves it. Ready to make that happen. We’re just going to keep trying. We’re getting closer, though. That’s the bright spot.”

But don’t count out the Roushketeers either. Matt Kenseth comes to Texas as the defending race champion, and Gerg Biffle is leading the overall points battle. Carl Edwards sits just outside the top 10 in eleventh position, and is still chomping at the bit after losing the championship to Tony Stewart after tying in points.

The three current Roushketeers were not only among the most consistent drivers last year, they were the strongest. All three swept the top five and all of them finished the AAA Texas 500 within three spots of their spring effort. Just as important, the group carried that momentum over from previous seasons, which gives them a balance of recent momentum and career strength.

Kenseth may very well be the strongest of the three at Texas. His victory in this race last year was the second on this track during his career, but the first since 2002. He wasn’t simply logging laps in the intervening years, however; the driver of the No. 17 earned four runner-up finishes from 2006 through 2010, as well as another two third-place results. In his last 13 attempts, he has amassed nine top-fives and finished worse than 12th only once. Moreover, he’s earned these results despite a variety of circumstances that include green-white-checkered finishes, fuel mileage races and rain-delayed events.

NASCAR – Hamlin Takes the Pole For California – Knaus Still Penalized But Johnson’s Points Restored

March 24, 2012 by Jay Tomchuk 2 Comments

Danny Hamlin captures the pole for the second time at Fontana and the 10th of his Career.

Denny Hamlin watched his teammates Joey Logano and Kyle Busch each take the provisional pole ahead of him, studied the line they took around the track, and opted to go his own way. Watching his teammates and most of the field take the high line, he took the low line after thinking that the wind may cause him some speed loss. Opting for the bottom line proved to be the best decision he could have made getting him around the 2 mile track in just 38.626 seconds (186.403 mph) to claim his second Coors Light pole award at Fontana and the 10th of his career.

“Everyone had a different way of doing it,” Hamlin said. “It seemed like there were some guys who were five lanes up and some who just worked their way down. We were one of the few cars that ran all the way on the bottom.”

“That’s where we practiced, and I didn’t want to change that. I’d done all my qualifying runs early in the day and practiced race runs on the bottom. Really, I think I would have been less efficient running the top, even though it might have been faster. My safest route was to take the bottom, and I just took what it gave us.”

Mark Martin will start 3rd on the grid after tying Kyle Busch in speed. The tie was decided by points position from the 2011 season.

Kyle Busch and Mark Martin tied for the next position with a speed of 185.534 mph, with Kyle Busch getting the advantage because of his higher points finish from the 2011 season.

“I’ve never run 1 and 2 up in the third lane like that,” Busch said. “I think Joey kind of started the trend there, and a lot of people picked up it and started running some really good times. And lo, and behold, one of the only guys that runs the bottom — Denny — beats you.”

Greg Biffle and Kasey Kahne also tied for 4th spot (185.510 mph) with Biffle getting the same advantage for points position from the 2011 season.

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Kevin harvick comes into Fontana as the defending champion at this track. Sitting second in points and having finished 11th or better in the first 4 races, Harvick sees this as a chance to show that his team is also still able to contend for a Championship this year.

Crew Chief Shane Wilson plans to use this weekend to work out the kinks.

“We just have to work out some kinks,” crew chief Shane Wilson said. “You’re trying to perform at the highest level, so you’re always going to nitpick yourself and try to do it better than the 99 [car of Carl Edwards] or the 14 [car of Tony Stewart]. You’re always driving to be better. That never stops.”

Kevin Harvick hopes to turn his season around at Auto Club Speedway

“Our deal is, we’re not new together,” Wilson said. “We’ve raced together in the past, and we’re friends, and we work for the same company. It’s not like we’re coming in from a different company. You had meetings and know what the other people are thinking. I feel like that’s one of the reasons they did it, because there wasn’t going to be a long period like that. We’re more working on our notebook with Kevin … and getting used to a few little things with his car here. All in all, that’s already right where it needs to be.”

“That was our goal coming into the year, to get our car speed up,” Wilson said. “Calling the races and me and him working together is gong to come pretty quick, because me and him have worked together in the past. Him and Gil obviously had a good thing going, but we’ve done what we wanted to do so far as far as getting our cars faster, where we’re competitive and can race with the guys we’re going to need to at the end of the year. It’s a long season, but we’re still trying to accomplish that goal of getting our cars faster, and we feel like we’re hitting on it so far. We’ve got to keep it up.”

Harvick agrees.

“I think all the guys on the team would say we aren’t really crisp, I guess you would say, as far as the first four weeks,” Harvick said. “I haven’t done everything right from the driver’s seat. We’ve made some mistakes in all areas, I would say. Once we feel like we’re in a rhythm, and have all the bugs and kinks worked out of everything, I think it will be even better. The good thing about it is the speed has been in the car at every race track we’ve been to, and that’s really what we were looking for. Speed in the race cars. We can fix and tweak the small things outside of that. It’s been pretty comfortable so far, and hopefully we can keep it rolling and make it better every week.”

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Jimmie Johnson had his points penalty from the Daytona 500 reversed this week. Chad Knaus fine of $100 000 still remains but he will not be suspended from the pit box.

Jimmie Johnson breathed a huge sigh of relief this week when a NASCAR appointed arbitrator overturned some of the penalties levied after Crew Chief Chad Knaus was caught bringing illegal equipment to the track. The C-Posts in question were removed from the car before the car was set to the templates and that has been the main reason for the appeal, and the reason which allowed for the overturning of the driver and owner points.

“I don’t feel vindicated, because I feel like everything should have been overturned,” Johnson said Friday. “I’m pleased that things went away, but I don’t feel vindicated.”

NASCAR however, feels that their process has still been vindicated with the fines issues to Knaus still remaining.

“When we chose John Middlebrook as our Chief Appellate Officer, we chose him based on our experiences with him for several years, and his pragmatic approach to business, and his relationships with race teams and with NASCAR,” Helton said. “The reasons that we chose the current Chief Appellate Officer haven’t changed. Our opinion and our belief in our Chief Appellate Officer haven’t changed.”

“I think the decision made this week upholds what’s right and wrong when it comes to the inspection process and the things of the car,” Helton said, “because there were elements of the penalty that were upheld relative to parts of the car that did not conform to the rules.”

“The elements of the penalty that were upheld indicate that the inspection process, or the inspectors, did their job correctly,” NASCAR president Mike Helton said Friday at Auto Club Speedway. “I think the debate over the decision this week was more about the decision after that point and how we reacted to it, and that’s as much a bureaucratic decision as it is a competition decision. So we believe very strongly in our inspection process, and are very proud of it, so the inspection process is status quo as we go forward.”

NASCAR – Biffle Holds the Points Lead and Takes The Pole Heading Into Bristol

March 17, 2012 by Jay Tomchuk Leave a Comment

Greg Biffle out paced the field to take the Pole for Sunday's Food City 500

Greg Biffle has been the most consistent driver so far in the 2012 season. Having finished 3rd in each of the first three races, the Roush Ford #16 car and driver have been showing their potential for a win each and every time they head out onto the race track. Biffle posted a lap at 125.215 mph (15.324 seconds) in Friday’s time trials and was forced to watch as the 10 drivers who followed him in the qualifying order, each tried to knock him out of the top spot. AJ Allmendinger came the closest but fell .001 seconds short, as Biffle claimed the 10th pole award of his career and his first here at Bristol.

“I’ve got to pinch myself right now — I think I’m dreaming,” said Biffle.

What was it that gave Biffle the advantage? He credits some last minute changes made by crew chief Matt Puccia.

“We were just going back and forth on some front geometry,” Biffle said. “We were switching a few things back and forth for a little more turn versus a little less turn. We were adjusting that balance so that the car front-to-rear grip was equal.”

Those changes gave Biffle a 15-second ride he would be hard pressed to duplicate.

“I got in the gas fairly early [through Turns 1 and 2] and was a little worried about making the rest of the corner,” Biffle said. “It got loose up off of both ends because I went in the gas so early in the middle of the corner, just pushing the envelope as much as I could.

“If you asked me to do it again, I probably can’t. I was on the edge, and like I said, one one-thousandth of a second over the No. 22 car [Allmendinger] — that’s not a lot.”

A.J Allmendinger will start in the second spot on the grid after qualifying a mere .001 sec behind the pace set by Greg Biffle

A.J. Allmendinger came the closest to knocking Biffle out of the top spot falling only .001 of a second behind Biffle’s time. Allmendinger’s season start so far has been a far cry from the consistency that Biffle has shown. The driver of the #22 Penske Dodge has had a rough start in the first 3 races, finishing back in the field leaving him sitting in 29th in points.

“As soon as we got back from Vegas on Monday morning, they were working hard on it,” Allmendinger said. “They figured out the problem, and they went to Nashville [for testing] with [driver] Parker Kligerman and just ran miles after miles, making sure we didn’t have any problems with it brought that here to Bristol.

“I guess we’ll find out after Sunday if it’s completely solved, but I have confidence that it is.”

Starting in the third spot on the grid is Ryan Newman followed by Jeff Gordon and Brad Kesolowski to round out the top 5. Kesolowski’s 5th place start means that both of the Penske cars are starting in the top 5, the best qualifying effort by the team so far.

Jeff Gordon hopes that the changes made with the timing loops on pit road will benefit everyone equally.

NASCAR has also made some changes to the timing loops in the pits after seeing how drivers, Brad Kesolowski being the most obvious offender, managed to bypass the pit road speeds by racing from timing line to timing line without incurring a speeding penalty. The result was that while some drivers took advantage and others did not, there was a disparity that NASCAR felt needed to be addressed. Jeff Gordon agrees.

“You think back to the August race,” Gordon said Friday, “and how, just coming off pit road, if we were a couple of positions ahead of where we were what the outcome may have been.”

“It needed to be done,” he said. “There is no track that we should go to this day and age that there should be that big of an advantage in certain pit stalls. We all know track position is important, qualifying is important, and it still will be. We’re going to put a lot of effort into that. But it’s nice to know that no matter where we qualify, at least on pit road we should be able to have a much fairer pit stall location. We had such a great car here last time, and it truly was just lost coming off of pit road, and at no fault of my pit crew.”

“There’s nothing better than being captured on live television, and the announcers going ‘What is going on with pit road?'” Gordon said. “If I looked at Twitter and basically social media and every racing publication, every one of them was focused on it. I’m just surprised it took that long. It’s been happening here for a while. It’s just a shame it took that long. I’m glad that they finally did address it.”

Other drivers feel that it will address a safety issue that need to be fixed. When drivers are racing down pit road at twice the allowed speed limit, there is the potential for danger to

Denny Hamlin feels that the pit road timing fix will make things safer for everyone on pit road.

the pit crews of all the other teams. Denny Hamlin voiced his opinion on this issue.

“I think that there were a handful of boxes that had humungous advantages over others, and I think that that’s going to change that quite a bit,” Hamlin said. “I do think it is needed, because if you have a pit road speed — and Martinsville is another track where they need to add some lines — that speed is set at that mile-per-hour because that’s where they feel safe with those cars driving through pit road. Well, if we’re able to cheat it by 10 miles an hour, that’s cheating it 30-something percent. That’s beyond where they felt initially it was safe, so they need to keep us at that mile-per-hour they want us at and to do that, you need timing lines all over the place so people can’t cheat the line.”

Other names of note will be starting deep in the field. Dale Jr will start from the 18th position, Jimmie Johnson 22nd while Tony Stewart will start in 23rd.

NASCAR – Smoke Gets His First Win in Vegas, Holding Off Johnson at the Line

March 12, 2012 by Jay Tomchuk Leave a Comment

Tony Stewart raises the Wrench after winning the Kobalt Tools 400 in Las Vegas

Tony Stewart took on every restart like a man possessed. Every time the green flag flew, so did the #14 car, putting 4 to 5 car lengths between himself and the field. The numbers finally played into Stewart’s hands and his win was simply in the cards in Las Vegas. After taking the lead just after the mid point of the race Stewart looked impossible to beat and it turns out he was. Tony led the field for 127 laps including the most important final 34 laps of the race. Restarting 4 times at the head of the field Stewart powered away from the field easily and made everyone chase him again, just like the end of the 2010 season.

The numbers game seemed to play into Stewart’s hand in Vegas, his first win in 14 starts here, in the number 14 car, after having a win in each of his 14 seasons in NASCAR so far. Stewart, who is known for coming on strong at the end of the season, scored his earliest victory in any race season so far with this win.

“Man, I’m just finally glad to win one here,” said Stewart, “We were so close last year and had a dominant car.” referring to an incident last year when he dragged an air wrench out of the pit stall during a stop.

“I’m not sure we had the dominant car today, but we had an awful fast Chevy. Just glad to finally, finally get one at Vegas.”

Stewart’s restarts were a thing of beauty each and every time. Pulling away from the field like he was running from his dad after getting an F on his report card, he made it look easy.

“Every time the caution came out, I’m like, ‘Not again,’ ” Stewart said. “You wonder how many times you’re going to give them a chance at it on a restart there, and when they’re going to be able to capitalize on us.”

“But, that was our strong suit today. We were really strong on the restarts. Just proud of the Hendrick engine department; making great steam with it. That was the key to our restarts was the power that we had. We could go without spinning the tires, and we could get a really good lead into Turn 1 and just haul butt down the backstretch.”

Jimmie Johnson rides around during driver introductions

Jimmie Johnson finished second despite a strong charge at the end. He made it a race with his efforts but ended up finishing only .461 seconds behind the #14.

“They were awfully strong,” Johnson said of Stewart and the No. 14 team. “The last two restarts … second to the last restart, I just blew it. He got away from me. The next to the last start, I felt like I got a good one. He still cruised away.

“My only chance was to be at his outside through 1 and 2. Didn’t have that opportunity. He had the lane at that point. I drove my guts out, but just didn’t get it done.”

“I don’t know what the average speed was, but we’re flying around here,” Johnson said. “The faster you go, the more that clean air becomes a priority. Passing for the lead was tough. I worked my way all the way through the field. Took me forever to get by [Kenseth] on one of those runs for the lead itself.

“Luckily, we’re on a track with multiple grooves and we can move around, but the first car definitely has an advantage.”

Greg Biffle didn’t have the car to win, but in a sport that rewards consistency, having finished 3rd for 3 races in a row Biffle is now the points leader. It may be a consolation prize but it’s the first time he has held the points lead since 2005, and it has to feel good to be the man on top.

Biffle struggled with a loose car all day and Crew Chief Greg Erwin just didn’t seem to be able to get a handle on it.

Greg Biffle's #16 machine looked loose in practice, but Biffle piloted it up to a 3rd place finish

“My car just didn’t turn good enough,” Biffle explained. “That’s what I lacked. We fought loose, loose, loose in practice, kept working on it, working on it. Finally, at the end of the day, we got it to where it was pretty good.

“I was just too tight. Right from the green, I was too tight. We just kind of pecked at it, and we should have taken two, three rounds of wedge out [to change the weight distribution]. We took one out. I just was not aggressive enough.

“I should have taken two, three rounds out of it or raised the track bar a half-inch, maybe pulled rubber out of the left rear — I might have been up their tail pipe Tony Stewart at the end. We had a good run. Even then I don’t know if we had a car that was fast enough.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr looked really strong in the early stages of the race leading 70 laps and looking like the car to beat. As the race wore down however Jr seemed to lose his edge and once he fell back into traffic he was never able to regain the lead.

Dale Jr waves to the crowd during driver introductions

“We didn’t keep up with the race track,” said Earnhardt, who led a career-low 52 laps last year. “The car was really fast at the start of the race. I didn’t give that information to [crew chief] Steve [Letarte]. I don’t think I gave him a good enough understanding of where our race car was, even though it was really fast. The track got really tight on us at the end of the race — something that I should have had a handle on and should have known better and should have not let happen.”

“We just didn’t have our adjustments going throughout the day to keep up with the track as it tightened up on us. The [car] was really good all weekend. We had good speed. Hopefully, we can keep bringing cars like that to the race track, and we’ll get some opportunities to win.”

Next week it’s off to Bristol where the short track will decide who is left at the end, more than who has the best car.

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