Daily NASCAR

by Holly Cain

Filed under: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Daytona Int’l Speedway, NASCAR

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — In a test of survival as much as pure horsepower or tactical brilliance, Kevin Harvick held off Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon to win NASCAR’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Almost two-thirds of the field were eliminated from contention in a 19-car pile-up with 12 laps remaining that red-flagged the race for 19 minutes and 34 seconds just after the clock struck midnight on the East Coast.

And just as the few survivors from that “Big One” were coming to the white flag to settle it among themselves on the final lap, Penske racing teammates Sam Hornish and Kurt Bush collided with Elliot Sadler to force extra time — a green-white-checkered finish.

Harvick, the Sprint Cup points leader, took the lead from his Richard Childress racing teammate Clint Bowyer on the ensuing restart, and held off a furious charge by Kahne and Gordon, who was looking for his first win in over a year. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton rounded out the top five. And even after Harvick took the checkered flag, cars were wrecking behind him.

“Every time I looked up it seemed like a crash was going on,” said Kahne, whose runner-up finish was a career best here.

“I’m starting to get used to the fact that every race we go to is basically bumper cars at 190 mph,” added Gordon, who moved into second place in the points standings.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Go to the original story

I don’t care who you are, if you didn’t think the end of the race at Loudon was good, then you aren’t a race fan.  There, I said it. 

As a whole, I realize this probably wasn’t the most exciting race of the season, but the last 15 laps were awesome.  We saw Jeff Burton make a rare mistake, and two bump-and-runs for the win.

It all started on lap 289.  Burton got into turn three too deep, slid up the track, and got into Kyle Busch’s left rear.  At the time, the two were racing for third, and both had led laps.  Busch ended up 11th, with Burton one spot back in twelfth.  Apparently the New Kyle Buschwas driving today, as he was surprisingly calm after the race with his comments.  Don’t forget though, these two crossed paths a few weeks ago at Charlotte, in an incident that ended with Burton yelling at Busch on pit road after the race.  This burgeoning feud is far from over.

Just a few short laps later, Kurt Busch pulled the classic bump-and-run on Jimmie Johnson to take the race lead.  Busch got under Johnson into turn three, and he made just enough contact to send Johnson up the track and scoot by.  The elder Busch was able to get away for a few laps, but Johnson ran him back down, and pulled the same maneuver on Busch!  Johnson would go on to win his second straight race.

In his post race press conference, Jimmie told reporters that after Busch got into him, he only had one thing in mind: ”wreck his ass.”

We’ve now had two straight weeks  where a number of drivers were upset after the race.  Last week, the common theme was Jeff Gordon.  This week, Clint Bowyer was mad at Juan Pablo Montoya, Montoya was mad at Reed Sorenson, and so on.  The drivers have shown that the gloves are off, and anything can and will happen during these races.  And if you think these guys are going to forget what has happened over the last two weeks, think again.  It might not happen right away, but scores will be settled.

And you know what?  There ain’t a damn thing wrong with it.

TheNASCARInsiders.com

Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!

Go to the original story

by Holly Cain

Filed under: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Chase for the Sprint Cup, NASCAR

LOUDON, N.H. — So much for the talk of seasoned scores to settle and high drama.

For the fifth time this season and second consecutive week, four-time Sprint Cup Series champ Jimmie Johnson won the trophy in what’s becoming NASCAR’s recurring theme.

Far from the retaliatory free-for-all everyone predicted after a series of run-ins in last week’s race, Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway came down to the final three laps and a test of wills between two champions — Johnson and 2004 champ Kurt Busch, who nudged Johnson out of the lead with seven laps remaining and then had the favor returned with three laps left.

Tony Stewart, Busch, Jeff Gordon and points leader Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five.

”I was pretty pissed off there for a minute there, I thought he took one from us,” Johnson radioed to his crew after taking the checkered flag.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Go to the original story

by Holly Cain

Filed under: Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, NASCAR

Say this much for NASCAR this season: if fans aren’t intrigued enough by the racing, stay tuned for the post-race action on pit road and in the garage.

Earlier this season it was “fightin’ words” between Hendrick teammates and four-time champs Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, then Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin went at it in the All-Star race.

Two weeks ago, the normally mild-mannered veteran Jeff Burton confronted Busch during a post-race interview.
And Sunday, four hours of racing at Pocono, Pa. created an unlikely drama complete with verbal cheap shots aimed at a driver’s wife.

An understandably upset 20-year old Joey Logano was angry at being wrecked by driver Kevin Harvick and not only confronted Harvick but also took a jab at Harvick’s wife DeLana in an television interview saying, “his wife wears the firesuit in the family and tells him what to do.”

As it turns out, not only does DeLana Harvick wear a firesuit she knows a great marketing opportunity.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Go to the original story

There is absolutely no doubt about how important pit stops are to a race.  Like I’ve said here before, a team can’t win the race on pit road, but they certainly can lose it.  A perfect example of this happened last weekend at Darlington.  Jeff Burton brought the field to pit road as the leader with only a few laps remaining.  His crew chief, Todd Berrier, called for the crew to bolt on two tires to keep their track position, and hopefully win the race.  A mistake during the pit stop though, and the subsequent penalty, killed any chance for a win and saw Burton finish eighth.

In case you missed what I’m talking about, watch the doomed pit stop here.  Front tire changer Dan Blizzard struggles just a touch with his on pattern (tightening the lugnuts) and the jackman drops the jack too early.  If you watch very closely, you will see that jackman Adam North is watching Blizzard like a hawk.  North is waiting for him to make his normal move showing that he’s finished with the lugnuts, which signals North to drop the jack.  During his on pattern, Blizzard’s body makes just a small shift in position and North takes that shift as the sign that his front changer is finished.  Blizzard isn’t done though and Burton, who is leaving on the drop of the jack, runs over the air hose which results in a penalty.

The normal rule they teach guys on two tire pit stops is for the jackman to drop the jack once the tire changer is at the right headlight.  That gives the changer enough time to get out of the way of the car leaving the stall.  As a crew works together and becomes more familiar with each other though, those tolerances become much smaller.

Let me show you an example of a very tight two tire stop.  This video is of Kyle Busch’s crew, posted to Twitter by JGR Coach Mike Lepp (@mlepp).  In the video you will see front changer Nick Odell hit his fifth nut, and make just a small move to leave before jackman Jeff Fender drops the jack.  Odell is well short of the right headlight.  And the result is Busch leaving the stall quickly, missing Odell by only a few inches.

As you can see from the two examples, the margin for error is very small.  A normal two tire stop, which the #31 CAT guys have executed to perfection hundreds of times before, goes awry.  Why?  The answer lies in the familiarity among the crew. 

The jackman sees his changers hit lugnuts everyday.  And the majority of the time, they are very good.  In this case, both front guys and the jackman were part of the winning crew from the 2009 Pit Crew Challenge.  We aren’t talking about amateur or inexperienced guys here.  They are among the best at what they do.  What can happen though, is the jackman (or any other crew member for that matter) can get lulled into a false sense of security.  He’s used to seeing the same thing, over and over, from his guys.  This time, a small hiccup changed the normal rhythm.  Add to that a little pressure with the race on the line, and you have a small mistake that costs a team the win.

So who’s ready to be a pit crew guy?

TheNASCARInsiders.com

Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!

Go to the original story