Plenty of Drama In First Chase Race

BY JOSH SABO – (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Each week the drama is magnified in the Chase.

It might be an early spin by a contender, contact between champions on a restart, or a late caution with ten laps to go. Every instance has implications on who wins the championship, and things can change in an instant.

Denny Hamlin made some drama of his own in Chicago.

He may have a torn ACL, but don’t tell Hamlin he can’t win the championship on one leg.

Despite a spin on lap 2, Hamlin won the first race of the 2015 Chase at Chicagoland Speedway, holding off his teammate Carl Edwards. But for much of the race, Hamlin was playing catchup.

A.J. Allmendinger got a slight bump from Hamlin going into turn four on just the second lap of the race and was sent spinning. Hamlin also got loose, spun out, but did not do any major damage to his #11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry. Hamlin made it even more difficult on himself when drove around on flat tires and did not stop to change them right after the incident. On lap 75 Hamlin was running 29^th, one lap down, and on the verge on going down another lap to leader Kyle Busch.

“I thought we were still going to be fine,” Hamlin said. “I chose not to go fast(after the spin). I knew we were making a decision to go a lap down by making sure we preserved the car when I spun out.”

Even when he got to the front after taking the wave around and getting some good work in the pits, Hamlin thought he was in trouble when he decided to stay out while many of the other front runners stopped for tires before the final restart. But he found enough clean air to pull away at the end and claim his sixth career Chase win, and the 9^th win in the last 12 races for the red hot Joe Gibbs Racing.

The evolution of the Chase is about making gains throughout the weekend and Hamlin and his team did just that. Hamlin started 29^th, the worst qualifying position of any of the sixteen Chase contenders, after qualifying was rained out Friday. The car was way off in the first practice, but got better on Saturday. It was the second time in his career that Hamlin had a knee injury, raced through it and won a race.

The list of Hamlin injuries is long. He had left knee surgery from another basketball injury in 2010. He broke his back in a crash at Auto Club Speedway in March 2013. One year later, he missed the race at Fontana with an eye injury, and earlier this year Erik Jones replaced him during a lengthy rain delay at Bristol when he was suffering from neck spasms. Hamlin is known for his toughness and he is determined to fight through this and not just compete in the playoffs. He wants his first title.

Chase drivers ended up finishing in eight of the top ten positions, but the defending champion Kevin Harvick had a nightmare of a day.

Harvick made contact with Jimmie Johnson on a restart on lap 135, and after cutting down a tire, the 2014 champ hit the wall and did serious damage to his Budweiser/Jimmy Johns Chevrolet. Harvick would rejoin the race, but finished 42^nd and now sits last in the Chase standings.

After seeming calm in his postrace interview with NBC, Harvick was then shown coming out of his motorhome in the infield to talk to Johnson. He punched Johnson in the chest and had to be held back by an associate and his wife Delana as Johnson walked away. Harvick was visibly upset with what may be an incident that derails his chances of winning back-to-back Sprint Cup championships.

If you saw the accident on the restart you probably have your own opinion on who was at fault or like me, you chalk it up to a racing incident that may have happened a bit too early in the race. Logano made contact with Johnson’s Chevrolet sending him down underneath the white line on the track. Johnson had to get back up onto the track going into turn one so he forced himself into Harvick’s car, causing the tire damage.

“(Johnson and Logano) must have gotten together and had a good run up,” Harvick told NBC before the infield altercation with Johnson, who finished 11th. “But I just held my ground and he just slammed into the side of the door like I wasn’t even there. I guess he just figured that he’d come up the race track.”

I never try to criticize drivers too much for postrace words or pushing and shoving, because I can’t imagine the range of emotions. But Harvick didn’t come off very well. Am I surprised? Not at all. Neither was Johnson.

“I assume he would try to find it is my fault,” said Johnson. “I just simply needed the lane to get back on the racetrack. By no means was I trying to do anything different.”

Harvick claimed his spotter told him they were four-wide, meaning that Harvick had no room to give Johnson to let him back onto the track. But after looking at the replay that simply was not the case. I agree with Brian Vickers and Parker Kligerman on the NBC Sports Network postrace when they both thought that Harvick should have given more room at that time of the race.

Harvick was the only one who ended up wrecking and that gives him a pretty good reason to be upset. His car has been incredibly good this entire season at almost every track. He has won two races and finished second 10 times. Harvick knows that he can win this Chase and that he has come back from adversity before. But it sucks to be that one guy who has a bad race right out of the gate, so I’ll give him a pass for the heat of moment punch. I also applaud Johnson for walking away.

But we now we have a feud that is unlikely to be settled by the time the green flag falls at New Hampshire this Sunday.

Drama around every corner, just how NASCAR likes it.

 

Hendrick Still Confident Despite Struggles Before The Chase

The final race before the Chase was anti-climatic, but the final ten races should be quite the opposite. Just take a look back to 2014 for the evidence.

Matt Kenseth took the checkered flag for the fourth time this season at Richmond this past Saturday night. To no one’s surprise, Clint Boywer, Jeff Gordon, Paul Menard, and Ryan Newman remained in the top sixteen of the points standings to advance to NASCAR’s version of the playoffs, which gets underway this Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway.

By winning 11 of the first 25 races, Kenseth and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates (Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and Carl Edwards) are definitely ready for the Chase. So is Penske Racing with 2012 champ Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano and defending champ Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas. But what is going on with Hendrick Motorsports?

Jimmie Johnson is the top seed, but the last of his four wins came in late May. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has really struggled and seems to have no speed in qualifying, Jeff Gordon is having a very mediocre season and has yet to win a race, and Kasey Kahne did not qualify for the Chase.

“I don’t like the fact that we haven’t led laps,” Rick Hendrick told Fox Sports.

Hendrick has won 11 championships as a team owner.

“We’ve just fumbled the ball more than normal. But the true character of an organization and a team is how you fight back.”

That fight begins this week.

Gordon finished seventh in Richmond and made the Chase, but would likely say his final full-time season has been disappointing to this point. He was 42^nd at Indy and 41^st at Watkins Glen, and who could forget getting tangled up in a late crash that relegated him to 33^rd in the Daytona 500. He was third at Bristol in the spring, and also at Pocono in August.

“We’re behind. We know that,” Gordon said. “But there’s a lot of ways to make it to Homestead and there’s a lot that can happen and we’re working as hard as anybody to try to see what we can do better, learn from our competitors, and try to catch up.”

The Chase could be somewhat of a fresh start for the 4-time Champ who tremendously relieved to get in.

“We work hard together to try to improve for each of us, and if we continue to do that, we’ll make gains. There was a lot of pressure in this final season to make that Chase, so I’m glad we got that done.”

Earnhardt won the restrictor plate races at Talladega and Daytona in July, and probably should have won the Daytona 500, but laid back in the closing laps. Junior has been quietly racking up some great finishes in the past two months, but has not led a lap since that July 5^th win. I really believe he can win the title, but his qualifying must be better in the Chase. There are just some tracks that you cannot recover from a bad starting spot, especially when the frontrunners for Gibbs and Penske are almost guaranteed to be starting up front.

As has been the case with much of his career, Kahne just seems to have more bad luck than good. His best finish in the final ten races before the Chase was 12^th at Darlington. He managed just six top ten finishes on the season and besides the Daytona 500 and the first Phoenix race in March, was never a threat to win a race. He had a bizarre crash into the inside pit wall at Pocono and seemed rattled and never gained his confidence back after that.

“The main thing for me is trying to figure out how to get a car to turn again,” Kahne told NBC Sports after Richmond. “I’ve struggled all year to have front-turn and if I don’t have that, I can’t race. That’s how I have been my whole life.”

Kahne and crew chief Keith Rodden really need to use the final ten races as a time to gel going into next season or Kahne will start feeling the pressure from Rick Hendrick.

Johnson is obviously Hendrick’s best shot at the championship this year, but obviously that could all change. On Monday, Johnson signed a two-year contract extension with Hendrick and sponsor Lowes. His crew chief Chad Knaus is now under contract through 2018, despite rumors he might bolt for a television gig. Could the new deals create the environment needed to run down title number seven?

“Like it or not, whether we can to admit it or not, the summer months are always hard on us,” Johnson said.

“We feel like we are behind, we’re not building the mouse trap the way we need to and we are aggressively working on it. But the format is more forgiving, we are getting back on our best tracks and I would never count us out.”

Johnson looked unbeatable in the spring winning Texas and Kansas, finishing second at Bristol and Talladega, and placing third at Richmond. The team rallied from trouble in Kansas to get a fuel mileage win, but will Knaus gamble that much in the Chase? And will the same qualifying issues that plague Earnhardt also strike the #48?

The underlying theme is that the people at Hendrick know they’re struggling and they are not the team to beat heading into the Chase. Perhaps that will provide them the motivation they need. It could also make them more dangerous with less pressure than Johnson, Earnhardt, and Gordon have ever faced before.

“I don’t like to lose. I’m very competitive,” said Hendrick before the final regular season race.

“But you can do two things when you come under adversity: you can throw a tantrum, you can raise hell and you can bust it all up. You can change people, you can fire people. Or if you can see that you’re just this much (off) in this area, this much in this area..we’ve got to go to work. And they are working. I’m spending more time with them to make sure they know I have their back. Look, it’s not broken, It’s not a dead player. We’re off a little bit.”

When Hendrick talks, everyone in NASCAR listens. And while everyone is questioning the results going into the Chase, that doesn’t mean anyone who knows the sport is writing them off just yet.

“It ain’t over yet. So you go ahead and count us out.”

 (Above Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)

 

 

 

Throwback Weekend Goes To Edwards

BY JOSH SABO – (Photo by Kena Krutsinger/Getty Images)

Carl Edwards is the most physically fit driver in the NASCAR garage. In 2015, he has now won the two longest, most grueling races on the schedule.

Edwards won his second Sprint Cup race of the season on Sunday night winning the Bojangles Southern 500, a race that ended just before midnight on the East coast. Edwards also won the Coca-Cola 600 in May.

On a cool throwback Labor Day weekend for the sport, Edwards outlasted several other championship contenders that could have easily went to victory lane. Brad Keselowski was second followed by Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, and Kevin Harvick. All four of those drivers including Edwards, and Kyle Busch have cemented their status as teams to be reckoned with when the Chase begins on September 20^th.

“I feel like every race is different, and I never feel like a place owes me anything.  I feel like it’s an honor to drive here,” Edwards said.

Edwards’ win continues the Joe Gibbs Racing resurgence as they have now won 7 of the last 10 races, and 10 of the last 20.

“Tonight just was really special for a number of reasons, not just because it’s the Southern 500 but because of how well my crew worked on pit road, how well Darian called the race.  We came back, we didn’t quit.”

One of the reasons Gibbs has been so strong is great work in the pits. This has always been a staple of the Gibbs bunch, likely because a Super Bowl Champion football coach owns the team and great teamwork is essential.

Edwards beat Brad Keselowski off pit road and had the lead going into the final restart with eight laps to go. JGR teammate Denny Hamlin made a charge, but couldn’t get by Carl, who did his trademark back flip after the checkered flag.

Edwards also overcame some adversity and was able to rally from a flat tire that left him two laps down in the nearly five-hour race. With a race this long, having a great crew gives you the chance to come back.

Carl gave a ton of credit to his crew after the race.

“Well, I feel like my pit crew ought to be sitting up here doing interviews.  They won that race for us.  It was just amazing to come down third and to go out leading the race.  Darian, all the guys, nobody gave up tonight.  We were two laps down.  We fought back hard.  It’s a huge win for us.” 

The racing was pretty good throughout the night with the aero package similar to the one run at Kentucky earlier in the summer. The drivers loved the package because of the low down force and soft tires.

“Well, I hope that — I mean, I’m a pretty — I kind of shoot for the moon kind of guy, and I hope a race like tonight makes them think about the idea of running this even in the Chase.  Everybody has developed this package.  I believe it’s pretty obvious that it races really well and it’s really fun to do and it’s fun to watch.”

Even the fastest and best handling cars were sliding around like they were on a dirt track through the turns. Tires were at a premium all night long with teams putting on scuffs late in the going trying to preserve their new sticker tires for the stretch run. It was a nice blend of strategy and driving ability that we did not see at Indianapolis and Michigan.

Edwards knows his strength and physical fitness is good for the marathon races, but he knows it is also about the team and how a second here or there in the pits could be a major difference maker.

“Well, Darian won us the Coke 600 with an amazing pit call.  He just did a great job.  But I do like the longer races.  I think growing up it was so cool to me that NASCAR raced these long events, these tough races, and I really enjoy them.  I’ve got a great team from CTS with Dean Golich as a trainer, Rob Hulett, the guys at Hulett House Gym, they help me a ton to try and stay in physical shape.  Darian does a really good job of trying to keep me calm.”

With the struggles at Roush Fenway Racing, Edwards’ decision to move on to Gibbs with a fourth team appears to be a slam-dunk. He wanted to be a championship contender. With the equipment and crew he has at his disposal, you have to put his name into the title conversation. He also historically performs well at the mile-and-a-half tracks during the ten race Chase.

He also has a championship winning crew chief in Darian Grubb. Carl would like to forget that Grubb beat him in 2011 with Tony Stewart, even though the two finished with the same amount of points and Stewart won virtue of total wins that season.

“He tied for a win, OK?” Carl said.

“I got the ring,” fired back Grubb.

 “No, here’s the deal.  Darian is a championship crew chief.  I’ve worked against him.  I’ve raced against him, and I’ve worked with him, and it’s like Coach (Joe Gibbs) said, there is nobody that calls a better race than Darian Grubb.  That’s it.  We’ve just got to go dig deep and give each other 100 percent and go get a championship together.  That would be so cool, especially after what he did to me in 2011.  It would mean a lot to win a championship with him.”

The Columbia, Missouri native has 7 top ten finishes in his last 8 races, with a 13^th at Indianapolis being his worst.

 

 

 

 

Bowyer Looking To Hold On To Chase Spot

BY JOSH SABO

(Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images)

Clint Bowyer has had some trouble staying on the track in recent weeks.

Despite a few spins and a story made public last week that he is a looking for a ride after Michael Waltrip Racing announced it will shut its doors after the 2015 season, Bowyer still sits 16^th in the Sprint Cup Chase Standings going into the Labor Day weekend race in Darlington.

After MWR teammate David Ragan and Jimmie Johnson got together after a restart with 133 laps to go in the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol, Bowyer was in the wrong place at the wrong time as Ragan’s Toyota came down on him and made contact. The #15 5-Hour Energy Toyota Camry did not suffer a lot of damage and was able to continue and rally for a fifth-place finish in the race won by Joey Logano.

“You hate to have that good of a car — have two good cars and the last person you want to get into and have trouble with is your teammate,” Bowyer told NBC Sports Network after the race.

“I’m sick to death about that. We had two top-five cars and MWR really needed that run. With that being said we desperately needed a solid run right there. I mean obviously you’re hungry for a win with this organization given everything it had and I drove my butt off, we just came up short.”

At Michigan, Bowyer was running near the top ten when he was tapped by Ryan Newman and went flying towards the inside backstretch wall. Despite repairs to the rear end of the car, crew chief Billy Scott and team could only muster a 41^st place finish in the Irish Hills.

Then rumors throughout the garage area over the last month became reality when Michael Waltrip Racing officially announced it will not field a full-time Sprint Cup team in 2016, making Bowyer a NASCAR free agent with 13 races to go in the season.

While Bowyer had just a 23-point cushion on Aric Almirola for the 16^th spot going into Bristol, he now leads the Richard Petty Motorsports driver by 35. Bowyer is ahead of Kasey Kahne by 37 points.

Bowyer cannot afford a bad finish in the next two races. He also could be bumped if a driver outside of the top 16 wins one of the next two races.

“This was a big night for us. We needed this,” Bowyer said. “Great night for us given everything that’s happened this week this was certainly what we needed as a group, as an organization to have two cars run in the top five. Sick with what happened with the 55 (Ragan). David has done such a good job of stepping in and filling in that seat and being a good teammate. We certainly didn’t want to see that.”

Bowyer has pledged to give his all to MWR for the rest of the year. But he knows he is now one of the hottest free agents out there for the 2016 season and new alliances can happen in a hurry.

“Absolutely, what I’m going to have in the future … will be another announcement and I’ll tell you as soon as possible. It’s as simple as that.”

“I’m confident in the sport, I love this sport and the sport has been good to me and my family — (I’ve) had a lot of great partners and a lot of great organizations that I’ve worked for, and I see no reason why somebody that works hard and wants it like I do … can’t have a job for as long as they want.”

Bowyer’s top five on Saturday was his second on the season to go along with 10 top tens.