Hamlin Ends Toyota’s Drought

Races at Martinsville are a battle of survival. Cautions breed cautions and problems turn into bigger problems.

Denny Hamlin has joined the list of those have figured out how to avoid those problems at this
half-mile Virginia track.

Hamlin kept his car clean and rebounded from a pit road penalty to win the STP 500, holding off Brad Keselowski in the final laps despite a tap from the Miller Lite Ford on the final turn.
After sliding to the checkered flag, Hamlin gave the crowd in his home state quite a treat with a near full lap burnout after his fifth career Martinsville victory.

(Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

Hamlin snapped a winless streak that stretched back to last May. The FedEx driver passed his teammate Matt Kenseth with 28 laps to go and just had a slightly better car than Keselowski in the end. He used a unique strategy of letting cars go by him on the exit of pit road to get a spot on the inside line of the restarts. He did so with 62 laps to go restarting fifth.

Hamlin had another one of those “uncontrolled tire” violations on pit road which put him at the back on lap 172. He would rebound on one of his favorite tracks.

Jeff Gordon took the lead from Matt Kenseth on lap 443. After a debris caution with 39 laps to go, Kenseth’s JGR crew got him out first once again, and Gordon was too fast entering pit road. It was a devastating penalty that Gordon took the blame for. Kenseth went by Tony Stewart with 30 to go after the #14 stayed out on the caution. Gordon drove through the field and ended up ninth.

Joey Logano finished third followed by Matt Kenseth and David Ragan. Joe Gibbs Racing had three of the top five finishers.

The usual Martinsville contenders had their share of issues on Sunday.

Jimmie Johnson had a horrible day and it started with contact involving Keselowski in the opening laps of the 500-mile race, doing some damage to the Penske Ford. Johnson was fighting a tight car at the time and fell back in the field. That led to one of those heated Jimmie and Chad Knaus radio disagreements that we know so well. Johnson never recovered and finished 35th.

(Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. looked fast early, but had a vibration on lap 74 and was forced to pit under caution. Earnhardt finally won a grandfather clock last season, but would not add another one on this day as he broke his shifter on lap 95. The lever needed to be replaced and Junior finished 36th after being involved in a big midpack wreck on lap 228.

“We got a real bad vibration in the car about 30 laps in and it just kept breaking the shifter and the top of the transmission,” Junior told Fox Sports 1 describing his issues. Earnhardt had a torque wrench in the car helping him shift at the time of his accident.

Kevin Harvick’s streak of eight straight finishes in the top two came to an end as he faded late to eighth place.

Joey Logano spun on lap 219 after getting together with Michael Annett. Logano was not happy with Annett and gave him a few bumps to let him know. Logano led 108 laps early on in the race after qualifying on the pole. After the third place finish, he has finished in the top ten of every race this season. Logano also won his first career Truck Series race on Saturday.

Danica Patrick was good on the long green flag runs and had a great day finishing seventh. Patrick came back from a lap down and benefited from crew chief Daniel Knost’s success with Kurt Busch last year at this track. Her previous best finish of the season was 16th. Her career-high was sixth at Atlanta in 2014.

Chase Elliott did not have the Sprint Cup debut he wanted finishing 38th. Elliott suffered front and rear damage early on when he plowed into Brett Moffitt and was never competitive, but the 19-year old did gain some valuable seat time. Elliott’s crew had to fix the radiator and replace the power steering after a ton of contact for the driver of the NAPA Chevrolet. Hendrick cars are always strong at Martinsville and that was the logic to letting Elliott make his debut there, despite it being a rough drive.

Super sub Regan Smith filled in for Kyle Larson who fainted during an autograph session on Saturday. Smith also was the replacement driver for Stewart-Haas when Kurt Busch was suspended for the first three races of the season. Despite a spin, Smith ended up 16th.

The Roush-Fenway Fords of Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. continue to struggle. Both spun and brought out separate cautions in the first 22 laps. Stenhouse spun again to bring out the sixth caution. He then brought out the eighth caution when he slammed the wall. Bayne was 18th and Greg Biffle finished 19th. Jack Roush’s team has just one top ten finish in six races this season.

Hamlin joins Logano, Johnson, Harvick and Keselowski as Chase qualifiers.

NASCAR gets its first weekend off next week for the Easter holiday.

(Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)

Strategy Pushes Keselowski To Cali Win

Brad Keselowski had four fresh tires and he refused to lose.

Keselowski passed Kurt Busch on the last lap of a second green-white-checkered finish and held on for his first career win in California, the track his owner Roger Penske built. Greg Biffle wrecked on the frontstretch on the white flag lap, but NASCAR kept the track green and it enabled Keselowski to drive by Busch with the superior speed and grip from four new Goodyears.

Busch dominated the weekend by claiming the pole position in qualifying and having the fastest laps in all three practice sessions. Busch went right between Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart on green-white-checkered attempt number one and took the lead before the caution came out for debris just before the white flag was set to wave.

The Haas Automation team, led by crew chief Tony Gibson could not believe it. Busch would have to hold off his teammate Kevin Harvick and Keselowski for two more laps. But it didn’t happen.

Keselowski’s previous best finish at Auto Club Speedway was 18^th. It was by far his worst track entering the weekend. That’s why crew chief Paul Wolfe made the call for four fresh tires on the final stop. Brad led just one lap, the last one.

“Paul made the call to come down pit road and put four tires on,” the 2013 Sprint Cup champion said in the media center.  “When he said that, I said, this can either go really good or really bad.  Didn’t know which one it was going to be.  Some guys stayed out, some guys took two tires, all different types of strategies on the restart.”

“We were able to find our way through the lanes and get to the front there, somehow end up in Victory Lane leading the last lap.  Kind of a racecar driver’s dream.  This is one we’re going to sit back and go ‘wow’ for a while.”

“Tires are worth a lot here, and once you put on a lap you can produce a lot of grip,” Wolfe said in victory lane.

Oh by the way, Harvick was there racing for the win again. After Busch hit the wall coming off the final turn, Harvick slid past to claim his eighth straight top two finish. Think about this again, Harvick has finished either first or second in the last EIGHT races. That’s impressive in this current Sprint Cup climate.

Harvick passed Busch on lap 6 but did not pull away from his Stewart-Haas teammate. Busch and Harvick were running 1-2 at the halfway point. Harvick passed Busch on lap 143 and got better in clean air. But Busch was the superior Chevrolet all day.

Matt Kenseth was also up front most of the race. But Kenseth broke an axel leaving his pit box on one of the final stops. Busch’s crew got him out first on that stop and he held off Harvick on the restart with 11 laps to go.

It looked like Busch was going to get the win in his second race of the season after being suspended for the first three races. But the late caution came out.

Busch wasn’t the only one who was displeased with the yellow at the time. Keselowski thought his chances of winning went out the window. He sat in sixth and thought his bad luck at Auto Club Speedway was going to continue. But Wolfe reasssured him that he had the advantage on the next restart. Once the green came back out, Brad was unaware of Biffle’s accident, and easily went past Busch and into the lead.

Now just five races into the season, owner Roger Penske has both his cars in the Chase.

“I think at the end of the day this is a game of knowing how to use your clubs,” Penske said.

“There’s no question that Brad knows how to do that.  He’s delivered for us before.  We know the competition is tough.  To think that we have this kind of a kickoff for the team is a tremendous opportunity.”

Busch ended up third, followed by Paul Menard, Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

(Above Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

Eyes of NASCAR Watching The Return of Kurt Busch

Another Kevin Harvick victory at Phoenix. They might as well rename it Kevin Harvick International Raceway.

So Harvick extends his streak of top two finishes to seven races, matching Richard Petty in 1975.

But from my view the real story of the weekend in the desert was Kurt Busch.

A week earlier Busch was reinstated by NASCAR after no charges were filed in his domestic assault case stemming from a September incident with his former girlfriend Patricia Driscoll in Dover, Delaware. Busch qualified eighth, was a contender up front throughout, and finished fifth in his first points race of the 2015 season. Busch needed to get back on the track, whether fans and media agreed with it or not.

That being said, I believe this is Kurt’s last chance with NASCAR.

I am surprised he was reinstated so quickly, but I am sure NASCAR had conversations with Tony Stewart and Gene Haas who wanted to get Busch back behind the wheel when they found out no charges would be filed. Stewart and Haas are business owners. They want the best results possible for their team so it can continue to thrive and make money.

Regan Smith did an adequate job filling in, but he’s not as competitive as Busch, and he’s not a former Sprint Cup champion. That was evident by the race Busch ran on Sunday. Busch shook off all the talk and all the controversy and competed. It reminded me of last spring in Martinsville when Busch won his only race of 2014.

I don’t know Kurt Busch personally. But I do know he has some issues, just like we all do. No one is perfect, but some people are better at disguising their problems than others. I think Busch has a hard time doing that at times. I mean the guy went off on Dr. Jerry Punch, who for years was the most respected reporter in motorsports. He also verbally abused Bob Pockrass of the Sporting News, now with ESPN, in 2012 which led to a suspension. Busch was on probation that season for almost hitting a member of Ryan Newman’s pit crew after getting in an accident with the driver.

That fire and anger, when used properly, can lead to incredible motivation and a competitive spirit that cannot be matched. Sometimes it shows in very negative ways. It cannot show anymore.

Busch is not guilty in the eyes of the law, but he put NASCAR in that wretched conversation of domestic violence along with the NFL. That could not have made NASCAR happy. Especially with issues they’ve had with Busch previously. And considering they have female fans just like the NFL.

Everyone knows Busch’s reputation. That doesn’t mean he can’t be successful and race for another 10 years. He’s only 36. He’s a talented driver. He raced in last year’s Indianapolis 500 and finished sixth in his first open wheel race ever. But there can be no more distractions away from the driver’s seat. I think Busch realize’s the seriousness of this situation and where he stands. It’s time for him to take accountability and represent the sport in a professional manner. We’re all watching Kurt.

(Above photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images Sport).

No Longshot Winner in Vegas This Year

I’m not sure how much gambling Kevin Harvick did this weekend, but the defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion is on quite a run.

Harvick won the Kobalt Tools 400 in Las Vegas and collected his sixth consecutive TOP TWO finish going back to last season. That’s the most by a Sprint Cup driver since Jeff Gordon did it in 1996. Harvick has won three of the last six Sprint Cup races. He was a 9/2 favorite to win the race at the Vegas sports book and no one had anything for him on Sunday.

“It’s just fun, and for me, I’ve been fortunate to be around it a long time, and I know (crew chief) Rodney Childers has been around it a long time, too, because you see how emotional these guys are,” Harvick said after his first career win in Sin City.

Harvick passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the outside with 67 laps to go and ended up first after Brad Keselowski pitted in front of him with 17 laps to go. His Stewart-Haas crew is the class of NASCAR right now.

“You have to continuously find motivation, and these guys have all bought into each other.”

This Vegas trip was all business for Rodney Childers, Harvick’s crew chief who went back to the hotel Friday night and looked at pictures of the Jimmy John’s Chevrolet after qualifying 18th. He saw that the car was too low to the ground and once he recognized it, Harvick was blistering fast the rest of the weekend.

“When everybody is having fun, it doesn’t seem like a job, and you just end up working that much harder,” said Childers at the post race press conference.

“These guys have worked over this winter, and this is one that was on our list.  We felt like coming here last year, this was a track that Kevin had never won at.  He said that it would mean the world to him to come here and win.”

Harvick blew by Jimmie Johnson on lap 91 in turn one, but that was also because Johnson had a vibration and came into the pits with a loose wheel. He let Martin Truex Jr. lead a few laps near halfway before passing him on the outside and pulling away.

While everyone seemed to lose handling as the day wore on, the #4 car got better.

The NASCAR season is still young, but Harvick appears primed for another run at the championship.

“I have been absolutely terrified that we would never sit up here again, and I think that’s the motivation that he(Childers) and I have talked about, and just making sure that you don’t let everybody down.  You want to — you have to figure out ways to motivate yourself and motivate our team, and for us, it’s just that motivation of trying to be the best you can in every practice and be the best that you can in qualifying.”

Johnson led the race early, but the loose wheel put him one lap down and then he blew a tire on lap 169 and hit the wall hard on the front stretch. Johnson, who had tire issues in the Chase at the end of last season, finished 41st after cutting down two tires.

Martin Truex’s turnaround continues. After top ten finishes in each of the first two races, Truex finished second. He had just five top tens all of last season.

Las Vegas Top Five Finishers: 1. Kevin Harvick, 2. Martin Truex Jr., 3. Ryan Newman, 4. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 5. Denny Hamlin

Moment of the Race: Kasey Kahne and Carl Edwards got into each other while battling for third in the final 80 laps. Kahne bounced off the wall before the start/finish line and kept going. As Martin Truex tried to pass both cars low, Kahne forced Edwards to spin going into turn one. Edwards admitted fault for forcing Kahne into the wall, but the wreck took both out of the running after strong runs by each driver.

2015 Chase Qualifiers: Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, and Kevin Harvick

Gordon’s Last Vegas: Jeff Gordon’s eventful final season continued with his second pole of the season in Friday’s knockout qualifying. But contact with Danica Patrick in Saturday’s final practice caused damage that forced his team to bring out the backup car and put them at the back of the pack on Sunday. The two texted on Saturday night to find out what went happened and Patrick said everything is good between the two.

Gordon battled through the field again and he was in the 21st spot by the time NASCAR waved the competition caution at lap 25. But he was caught up behind Johnson when he hit the wall and then hit the back of Jeb Burton’s car. The front end damage did not help Gordon and he finished 18th.

XFinity Race: Austin Dillon’s Chevrolet was switched on all day Saturday, but he had to hold off a charge from Ryan Blaney after a restart with 23 laps to go to win the Boyd Gaming 300. Dillon earned his third career Xfinity Series win in the Rheem Chevrolet.

Kurt Busch Update: After not being charged with domestic assault, NASCAR sources will only say that Kurt Busch is taking the necessary steps to get back behind the wheel after his indefinite suspension before the Daytona 500. That’s all we know at this point.

Vickers Back: After missing the first two races recovering from open heart surgery in December, Brian Vickers finished 15th for Michael Waltrip Racing. You can tell Vickers is determined to reach success at the Sprint Cup level. Why else would he continue to come back from serious health scares.

(Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)

Best Paint Scheme: I really love that sky blue, yellow, and black Shell Pennzoil Ford of Joey Logano. This is one of the best paint schemes I have seen in quite some time. Its really sharp and you can always find it on the track. It is way better than Logano’s yellow Shell look in my opinion.

The Quest For Seven

The Atlanta Sprint Cup race is a marathon. At times it seems like lap 325 and mile 500 is never going to come. To Jimmie Johnson the day flew by.

Johnson held off a charge from Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the final restart with 13 laps to go to get his first win of 2015 and his fourth all-time win at Atlanta in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.

Johnson made a furious run to the front after starting in the back of the field. The 6-time champ was one of thirteen drivers that did not make a run in Friday’s qualifying because the cars did not pass inspection. Jeff Gordon called the process an embarrassment to the series. Five past Sprint Cup champions started outside the top 30 on the grid. This is the second straight race where NASCAR has had a qualifying controversy in 2015. Johnson started 37th, but his car was fast all day long.

The win qualifies Johnson for the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff. Johnson is attempting to win his seventh title, which would tie him all-time with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

“It’s nice to know we’re locked into the Chase. There’s a lot of good things that come with it. We’re pumped, excited, and looking forward to going racing next week.”

Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano led the first 83 green flag laps and then Kevin Harvick took the lead coming off turn four on lap 87. Harvick was in seventh by lap 38 after starting 40th. After qualifying second, Harvick blew an engine in final practice Saturday. Harvick was great all day, especially chasing down Matt Kenseth on lap 148 after Kenseth briefly took the lead on pit stops.

But along came Jimmie Johnson.

Johnson passed Harvick on the outside lane on lap 198. This was after losing 13 spots in the pits early when his crew had to back him up to get around Carl Edwards and back on the track.

“I’m so excited this new team, we got new guys here, could understand what I was complaining about, what I didn’t like about my car,” Johnson said on FOX in victory lane.

“We got the restart we needed there at the end, cleared the 88 and off we went.”

Johnson’s team got him out front after the final green flag pit cycle with 30 laps to go. And then again with 25 laps to go. On lap 305, Johnson got by Kenseth on the restart and not even a lap later, Greg Biffle spun, collected seven cars and brought out the red flag with 20 laps to go. Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Ricky Stenhouse, and Kyle Larson were among the heavily damaged cars.

HAMPTON, GA – MARCH 01: The #24 3M Chevrolet of Jeff Gordon, is towed to the garage after an incident during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 1, 2015 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Another big four-car crash occurred on lap 257, when Denny Hamlin lost it, spun and collected Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon. Gordon’s car was totaled, making it two weeks in a row that he was taken out in a late race accident. Gordon also found an area of the inside backstretch wall that was not equipped with the SAFER barrier, something his car always seems to do.

“I found that one spot where’s no SAFER barrier. I can’t believe it, that’s amazing to me,” Gordon said sarcastically. “Hopefully soon that’ll get fixed.”

After a couple of nice days weather wise, rain moved in on Sunday morning. The start of the race was delayed 55 minutes while the track was dried. A slight mist was falling throughout much of the early going.

Atlanta Top Five Finishers: 1. Jimmie Johnson, 2. Kevin Harvick, 3. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 4. Joey Logano,
5. Matt Kenseth.

Moment of the Race: On the final restart with 13 laps to go, Dale Earnhardt Jr. knew he had to give Jimmie Johnson his best shot and he did pulling alongside the #48 on the backstretch. But Johnson pulled out in front going into turn four and never looked back on his way to clinching a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

2015 Chase Qualifiers: Joey Logano and Jimmie Johnson

Cold Affects the Gate: Grandstand attendance did not look good at all on a 40 degree day in Atlanta. I’m really not sure why NASCAR took this race from Labor Day weekend and threw it at the end of February. I don’t make the schedule, but it seems to me that the West Coast trip should start right after Daytona. Maybe give the teams a week off after Daytona and then have them make the trip out west. Its a real shame for Atlanta Motor Speedway that they only get one race and the weather was cold and rainy on raceday leading to a barely half full grandstand.

XFinity Race: Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano battled for the Xfinity Series win on Saturday with Harvick coming out on top for the third straight time at Atlanta.

Kyle Busch Update: On the FOX broadcast, Darrell Waltrip said he thinks 90 days is the minimum recovery time for Kyle Busch. It is possible we could see Busch back behind the wheel by late May or early June. Busch is out of the hospital and was watching the race at home on Sunday.

Stay Strong: A shout out to NASCAR on FOX reporter Steve Byrnes who continues to battle cancer. I love when FOX institutes Byrnes’ tweets during the race and I’ve always enjoyed his reporting and hosting. Keep fighting Steve and we’ll see you back at the track real soon.

(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)