Waving the Checkers: New Hampshire (Yahoo! Sports)
June 29, 2009
Rain always complicates a race weekend, and the threat of rain late in an event can occupy a driver’s mind to the point that it can interfere with his ability to focus.
Why is this important?
Because 19-year-old Joey Logano won his first race under these circumstances Sunday in Loudon, N.H., and considering how inexperienced he is, I believe it is one heck of an accomplishment.
Logano is destined for more wins – many more in my opinion – but I expect those wins to come in a far more conventional fashion of out-running the second-place driver rather than out-distancing him on a tank of fuel.
In this case, the win was about following the command of your crew chief, trusting your engine specialist in calculating the mileage and depending on your fuel man to have delivered a full load of fuel on your last stop.
On top of this, Logano raced for the win on old tires, amongst cars on much fresher rubber (and much faster because of it), on a track where sliding out of the turns and into the outside retaining walls is commonplace.
This made it even more difficult for him to gauge how aggressively to work the accelerator on the slippery one-mile oval. Work it too hard and he could drift into the wall on corner exit; too little and you risk getting bumped from behind.
To say he had plenty of distraction would be an understatement. But even with all this going on, Joey Logano performed like a veteran.
If Joe Gibbs is correct in the assessment he gave following the race, that his hope is that the organization can ride the wave of this young man’s talent “for 20 years,” then it would be probable that Joey Logano will eventually win and lose races based on weather and fuel mileage, because both are significant elements of the sport.
There’s nothing wrong with winning a race this way, not even if it’s your very first.
Ricky Craven is Yahoo! Sports NASCAR analyst. Send Ricky a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Rain helps teenager Logano get first Cup win
June 29, 2009
LOUDON, N.H. (AP)—Joey Logano isn’t apologizing for getting a lucky win.
Especially when it’s his first one—and it made him the youngest winner in the history of the Sprint Cup series.
“Obviously, it’s not the way you want to win your first race, in the rain,” Logano said after taking Sunday’s shortened Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “But 20 years down the road, when you look in the record books, no one will know the difference. I’ll take them any way I can.”
For team owner Joe Gibbs, it was a little vindication for putting a raw, if talented rookie in the car that had been driven the previous 10 seasons by two-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart.
“We were really looking for just constant improvement, and that’s really what we’ve seen,” Gibbs said.
The teenager overcame a crash and a lost lap, then saved just enough fuel to earn his first Cup victory in only his 20th start.
Logano, not even allowed to begin his NASCAR career until he turned 18 in May 2008, added his latest victory to three wins in the second tier Nationwide Series.
“Well, I figured out this sport is a rollercoaster,” Logano said. “I go up and down, up and down, up and down. … One week you can win and the next week you can be 43rd.”
He was among a group of drivers who moved to the front of the field after getting out of sequence on fuel stops. He took the lead when Ryan Newman, trying to stay out as long as possible with rain threatening, ran out of gas on lap 264 of a scheduled 301.
Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon moved into second and was steadily cutting into the lead as Logano, with a nearly empty tank, conserved as much fuel as possible. But the rain began falling three laps later.
The competitors ran six more under caution before NASCAR put out a red flag in hopes of drying the track. But the rain began falling harder and the race was called after 273 laps.
Logano credited to crew chief Greg Zipadelli, who worked with Stewart throughout the years he spent at JGR and stayed when Stewart left this season to become an owner-driver.
“He went for it and I was just lucky enough to be in the seat,” Logano said. “He said to just stay out, rain’s in the area. So we started saving a little bit of fuel … It’s a dream come true, that’s for sure.”
Zipadelli, who guided Stewart to 33 Cup victories, seemed a little stunned.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “Obviously, everything at the end of the day went our way. You can’t control the weather. The only thing you can do is try to play it to our hand.”
Logano, 19 years, 1 month and 4 days old, broke the record set by Kyle Busch for the youngest winner. Busch, now 24, was 20 years, 4 months and 2 days when he won for the first time at California in September 2005.
Logano was first spotted as a 15-year-old by NASCAR star Mark Martin, who predicted greatness for the youngster. He been on the fast track ever since, winning races at every level and beating some of NASCAR’s top developmental drivers along the way.
To his embarrassment, Logano was dubbed “Sliced Bread,” as in, the greatest thing since.
The kid has struggled at times this season, but he has shown flashes of the kind of talent that gave Gibbs the confidence to put him in the No. 20 Toyota.
Joey Logano limps into the pit… AP – Jun 28, 7:38 pm EDT
“We know today we were fortunate,” Gibbs said. “And we know there will probably be some tough days out there for us. But I’m absolutely thrilled for Joey and his family and for us, all of us at Joe Gibbs Racing. We figure we can keep this going, ride this thing for about 20 years.”
It was a virtual home victory for Logano, who was raised in Middletown, Conn., and who made his first Cup start on the same 1.058-mile oval last September, struggling throughout the race and finishing 32nd.
But that was just a distant memory after Sunday.
“Today, this is cool,” Logano said. “This is where I watched my first Cup race, where I ran my first Cup race and where I won my first Cup race, so I could not have picked a better place.”
Gordon said Zipadelli made “a gutsy call” leaving Logano on track.
“I was trying to get him to use as much fuel on the caution laps as I could,” Gordon said, grinning. “I thought for sure he was going to run out of gas. But we’re here on pit road and it’s raining hard, so I guess it worked out for him.”
Kurt Busch, who won a rain-shortened event here last June, finished third, followed by David Reutimann and Stewart, the series leader by 69 points over Gordon.
The race was slowed by 11 caution flags for 47 laps. The ninth one was brought out when Logano spun in heavy traffic, hitting the wall in turn four on the 1.058-mile oval.
That cost Logano a lap, but he got it back on the next caution flag, earning the free pass as the first car a lap down.
“We got lucky, obviously,” he said. “The rain came at just the right time. But, yeah, it’s cool. A win’s a win in my book.”
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Rain give teenager Logano first Cup win
June 28, 2009
LOUDON, N.H. (AP)—Teenager Joey Logano became the youngest winner in the history of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series Sunday, winning the rain-shortened race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The precocious 19-year-old rookie came back from a crash that put him a lap down earlier in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 and won his first Cup race in his 20th start.
Logano was among a group of drivers who moved to the front of the field after getting out of sequence on fuel stops. The youngster took the lead when Ryan Newman, trying to stay on track as long as possible with rain threatening, ran out of gas on lap 264 in the event scheduled to go 301 laps.
Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon moved into second and was steadily cutting into the lead as Logano, with a nearly empty gas tank, conserved as much fuel as possible. But the rain began falling three laps later.
The competitors ran six slow laps under caution before NASCAR put out a red flag in hopes of drying the track. But the rain began falling harder and the race was called after 273 laps.
“I guess I’d rather be lucky than good right now,” Logano said as he waited for the decision. “Obviously, we didn’t have the car to win, but we’ve overcome a lot today: tires down and more issues than you can imagine.”
Logano, 19 years, one month and four days old, broke the record set by Kyle Busch for the youngest winner. Busch, now 24, was 20 years, four months and two days when he won for the first time at California in Sept. 2005.
Logano was first spotted as a 15-year-old by NASCAR star Mark Martin, who predicted greatness for the youngster. He been on the fast track ever since, winning races at every level and beating some of NASCAR’s top developmental drivers along the way.
To his embarrassment, Logano earned the nickname “Sliced Bread,” as in, “the greatest thing since … “
After two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart decided to leave Joe Gibbs Racing to become an owner-driver, Gibbs turned over the No. 20 Toyota that the Stewart had driven for the last 10 years to Logano. He also inherited veteran crew chief Greg Zipadelli, who worked with Stewart through that entire period.
“(Zipadelli) said to just stay out, rain’s in the area,” Logano said. “So we started saving a little bit of fuel … It’s a dream come true, that’s for sure.”
It was a virtual home victory for Logano, who was raised in Middletown, Conn.
Gordon was disappointed with the second-place finish.
“I felt like we had the best car,” Gordon said. “The guys got us out first on our last pit stop, but it just got us out ahead of the guys we were racing with.”
He congratulated Logano and said Zipadelli made “a gutsy call” leaving the youngster on track.
“I was trying to get him to use as much fuel on the caution laps as I could,” Gordon said, grinning. “I thought for sure he was going to run out of gas. But we’re here on pit road and it’s raining hard, so I guess it worked out for him.”
Kurt Busch, who won a rain-shortened event here last June, finished third, followed by David Reutimann and Stewart, now part owner of his own team and the series leader by 69 points over Gordon.
The race was slowed by 11 caution flags for 47 laps. The ninth one was brought out when Logano spun in heavy traffic, hitting the wall in turn four on the 1.058-mile oval.
Jeff Gordon comes in for his l… AP – Jun 28, 6:23 pm EDT
That cost Logano a lap, but he got it back on the next caution flag, earning the free pass as the first car a lap down.
There were several other crashes in the race, the worst an eight-car wreck on lap 175 that took out contenders Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Burton and Brian Vickers.
It appeared that Dale Earnhardt Jr., in third at the time, spun his tires on a restart and Truex, right behind him, slowed and was hit from behind by Kyle Busch, igniting the melee.
An angry Truex waited on track for Busch, who eventually finished seventh, to drive past under caution and made as if to throw his helmet.
“I guess Kyle just decided he didn’t want to lift, so I was just an innocent victim today,” Truex said. “Someone spun the tires and our lane didn’t go. Kyle just lost his head like he usually does when something bad happens.”
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Multicar crash brings red flag at New Hampshire
June 28, 2009
LOUDON, N.H. (AP)—An eight-car crash on a midrace restart has roused tempers and taken out a couple of contenders at the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
As the field headed toward the first turn on the 175th of 301 scheduled laps, Martin Truex Jr. appeared to slow to avoid third-place Dale Earnhardt Jr., who spun his tires on the restart. Kyle Busch hit Truex from behind and the melee was on.
Before it was finished, Richard Childress Racing teammates Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Casey Mears were all involved, as were David Ragan, David Reutimann and Brian Vickers.
There were no injuries, but the race was red-flagged for just under 13 minutes while track workers cleaned up the mess.
Truex, who had been running among the top 10 throughout the race, was furious. Busch was able to continue and, as he drove past under caution, Truex motioned as if he was going to throw his helmet at the No. 18.
“I don’t know what Kyle was thinking out there,” Truex said after being checked out at the infield medical center. “But it’s just the way our season has been going.”
Some drivers blamed the crash on NASCAR’s new double-file restarts, which put the leaders side-by-side and nose-to-tail each time the green flag is waved. But Burton said, “We had crashes on single-file restarts, too. It’s just racing.”
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Earnhardt has strong race despite finishing 13th
June 28, 2009
LOUDON, N.H. (AP)—Dale Earnhardt Jr. had one of the most satisfying 13th-place finishes in his NASCAR career Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Gas strategies and a rain-shortened race probably cost the crowd favorite a better finish, but Earnhardt ran well throughout the day, spending most of the 273 laps in the top 10 and running quite a bit in the top five.
“We ran good today,” said Earnhardt, in only his sixth race with crew chief Lance McGrew. “I want to thank Lance and the team. … They did a good, man, giving me a good car. I had fun today. I hope we can keep this up.
“Being around fifth and looking at the top five, that was great,” he added. “Seeing the leaders most of the day in your windshield is better than where we have been.”
Earnhardt moved up one spot in the standings to 19th with nine races remaining until the start of the Chase for the championship, which will include only the top 12 drivers.
“We are inching so slowly up back in to where we need to run,” he said. “It is taking a while but, hopefully, we keep moving forward.”
Drivers apologetic after race resembling parade (PA SportsTicker)
June 28, 2009
By HANK KURZ Jr. AP Sports Writer
RICHMOND, Va.(AP)—Scott Dixon described the IndyCar Series race at Richmond International Raceway as “a bit of a procession, unfortunately,” and said the 300-lap event was frustrating because the lack of passing made it more closely resemble a parade.
And he made those comments Saturday night after ending up in Victory Lane.
Teammate and runner-up Dario Franchitti apologized to fans for an “awful, awful race,” while Graham Rahal said he only passed two cars all night while finishing third.
One year after a 26-car field produced what Danica Patrick described as a “carnagefest” on the shortest track on the series, with 103 laps of caution and a dozen accidents, the latest visit was quite the opposite. Twenty cars spent the night speeding single file around the D-shaped oval, with none of the drama fans are accustomed to seeing in NASCAR country.
On Tuesday, IndyCar Series officials and those of International Speedway Corp., which owns RIR, will meet to continue discussions about whether the series will return in 2010.
Track president Doug Fritz declined to speculate Sunday on how those talks will go, but did nothing to mask his disappointment with a race that was missing what fans come to see.
“I wish we had seen more passing and more lead changes and more side by side racing,” he said in a telephone interview. “We’d love to see better shows and from our perspective as it relates to the fans, we’re as disappointed as the fans are and as the drivers are, as well.”
Dixon suggested the cars in the series are part of the problem, and he and others spoke all weekend about how having them all engineered so similarly can stymie the competition.
It hasn’t stopped Dixon and Franchitti from Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe from Team Penske from dominating the series through eight races, but pit stops and fuel strategy seemed the only ways for cars to make gains Saturday night.
When Dixon passed Franchitti on pit road just before the midpoint of the race, he was followed back onto the track by Franchitti, Rahal and Andretti-Green Racing teammates Hideki Mutoh and Patrick. When the checkered flag flew 160 laps later, the top five was the same.
Terry Angstadt, president of the Indy Racing League’s commercial division, said his specialty isn’t the competition side of racing, but he’s heard the car issue discussed.
“There’s actually some things that can be done (to the cars) that (engineers) feel can help in promoting a little bit closer racing,” Angstadt said, referring to aerodynamics.
Angstadt, who has been working to add a date in Brazil to the series, said the series will go to Tuesday’s meetings hoping to return to Richmond next year, and for years to come.
“I’m hopeful that we’ll have good conversations,” he said. “We’re having it on Tuesday, so we’re going to know relatively soon if it’s going to work out, but we hope so.”
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Lap-by-Lap: Loudon (NASCAR.com)
June 28, 2009
| | | | Harvick: Lap-by-Lap
Lap 91—Jimmie Johnson is closing on the tail end of the field and will begin lapping cars soon. He leads by 2.1 seconds.
Lap 89—Greg Biffle is down to 24th after running as high as second.
Lap 85—David Stremme gets extremely loose but is able to save it. Jeff Burton has worked his way up to 11th.
Lap 83—David Reutimann is challenging Martin Truex Jr. for ninth. Dale Earnhardt Jr. putting pressure on Mark Martin for sixth.
Lap 75—Jamie McMurray is back in the race scored 28 laps down.
Lap 74—Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin are still looking for the right handling as they run 17th, 18th and 19th.
Lap 72—Matt Kenseth passes Clint Bowyer for 10th.
Lap 68—Joe Nemechek takes his car to the garage.
Lap 65—Tony Stewart comes hard on the inside to move to fourth and is challenging Kyle Busch for third.
Lap 64—A.J. Allmendinger takes his No. 44 Dodge to the garage.
Lap 63—GREEN FLAG: Jimmie Johnson brings the field to the green. 1. Jimmie Johnson 2. Jeff Gordon 3. Kyle Busch 4. Kurt Busch 5. Mark Martin
Lap 61—Greg Biffle in eighth is the first car to pit. Sixteen cars in all pit.
Lap 60—YELLOW FLAG NO. 5: Elliott Sadler, Michael Waltrip, Scott Speed and Robby Gordon get together with Waltrip hitting the wall. No free pass is given.
Lap 59—Jimmie Johnson has opened up a 1.4-second lead.
Lap 57—Martin Truex Jr. has worked his way up to ninth after starting 22nd.
Lap 56—Kurt Busch passes Mark Martin for fourth. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is up to eighth.
Lap 55—Jamie McMurray takes his No. 26 Ford to the garage. David Gilliland also takes his car to the garage.
Lap 53—Greg Biffle hits the wall hard in Turn 4 but keeps his car going.
Lap 52—Jamie McMurray back on pit road for an extended stop for repairs.
Lap 50—LEAD CHANGE: Jimmie Johnson pulls away on the outside and takes the lead.
Lap 49—GREEN FLAG/LEAD CHANGE: Jeff Gordon brings the field to the green. 1. Jeff Gordon 2. Jimmie Johnson 3. Kyle Busch 4. Greg Biffle 5. Mark Martin
Lap 48—LEAD CHANGE: David Gilliland stays out and earns five important bonus points while Elliott Sadler, Joe Nemechek and John Andretti pit.
Lap 47—LEAD CHANGE: Elliott Sadler, Joe Nemechek, David Gilliland and John Andretti stay out while everyone else hits pit road. Sadler credited with the lead. • Jimmie Johnson with two tires and a track bar adjustment • Kurt Busch with two tires • Jeff Gordon with two tires • Carl Edwards with a four-tire stop
Lap 46—YELLOW FLAG NO. 4: The competition caution is out and the field slows. No free pass is given.
Lap 44—Jimmie Johnson has moved up to fifth. Mark Martin up to ninth.
Lap 41—David Reutimann passes Ryan Newman for eighth.
Lap 37—The top-seven are running single-file with space between each one of them.
Lap 34—Jimmie Johnson down to seventh on the restart. Kyle Busch has moved up to fourth.
Lap 33—Dave Blaney and Tony Raines take their cars to the garage.
Lap 32—LEAD CHANGE: Kurt Busch gets a great start on the outside and takes the lead.
Lap 31—GREEN FLAG: Jeff Gordon brings the field to the green. 1. Jeff Gordon 2. Kurt Busch 3. Jimmie Johnson 4. Carl Edwards 5. Greg Biffle
Lap 30—The competition caution has now been moved to Lap 45.
Lap 29—Kevin Harvick, Scott Speed, David Gilliland, Jamie McMurray and A.J. Allmendinger the cars to pit.
Lap 27—YELLOW FLAG NO. 3: A.J. Allmendinger spins around bringing out the caution. Jamie McMurray gets the free pass.
Lap 25—GREEN FLAG: Jeff Gordon brings the field to the green. 1. Jeff Gordon 2. Kurt Busch 3. Greg Biffle 4. Jimmie Johnson 5. Carl Edwards
Lap 23—Denny Hamlin, Elliott Sadler, Robby Gordon and A.J. Allmendinger among the handful of cars to pit. Hamlin's crew pull a spring rubber.
Lap 21—YELLOW FLAG NO. 2: Jamie McMurray gets bumped by Kevin Harvick in Turn 4 and smacks the wall. No free pass is given.
Lap 20—LEAD CHANGE: Outside line proves fast again as Jeff Gordon takes the lead in Turn 4.
Lap 19—GREEN FLAG: Kurt Busch brings the field to the green. 1. Kurt Busch 2. Jeff Gordon 3. Greg Biffle 4. Jimmie Johnson 5. Carl Edwards
Lap 18—Michael Waltrip too fast exiting pit road and will start at the tail end of the longest line.
Lap 17—No fuel is allowed to be put in the car but some cars make stops anyway. Tony Stewart gives up sixth to come in. Martin Truex Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano, Elliott Sadler, David Stremme and Michael Waltrip among the 17 cars to pit.
Lap 16—YELLOW FLAG NO. 1: Patrick Carpentier smacks the wall in Turn 4 bringing out the caution. No free pass is given.
Lap 14—Kurt Busch has opened up a 1.1-second lead on Greg Biffle. The top-four of Busch, Biffle, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have pulled away from the field.
Lap 13—Ryan Newman has fallen to eighth. Juan Montoya up to seventh.
Lap 11—Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart are battling for fifth.
Lap 8—Greg Biffle passes Jeff Gordon for second.
Lap 7—LEAD CHANGE: Kurt Busch is finally able to get around Jeff Gordon for the lead. Tony Stewart is complaining of a very loose race car.
Lap 5—Kurt Busch continues to challenge Jeff Gordon but he just can't get around him. Greg Biffle is closing on the two leaders.
Lap 3—Tony Stewart down to seventh as Carl Edwards passes him.
Lap 2—Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch are battling for the lead. Tony Stewart has dropped to fifth.
Lap 1—LEAD CHANGE: Jeff Gordon gets a great start on the outside and takes the lead. Kurt Busch, also on the outside, moves to second.
2:16 p.m.—GREEN FLAG: Tony Stewart brings the field to the green as the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 is under way.
2:12 p.m.—The cars are on the track taking their warmup laps.
2:07 p.m.—Pete Dingeman, sweepstakes winner for Lenox, gives the command: "Gentlemen, start your engines!"
2:01 p.m.—Miss New Hampshire Lindsey Graham performs the national anthem.
2 p.m.—President and CEO of Motor Reaching Outreach, Billy Mauldin, delievers the Invocation.
1:30 p.m.—Countdown to Green is under way on TNT.
1:25 p.m.—There will be a competition caution at Lap 35 due to heavy rain last night at the track.
1:05 p.m. ET — It's currently cloudy at New Hampshire Motor Speedway but rain is in the forecast. Fortunately, there isn't expected to be much so hopefully all 300 laps will be run.
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Dixon outruns Franchitti for win at Richmond (PA SportsTicker)
June 28, 2009
By HANK KURZ Jr. AP Sports Writer
RICHMOND, Va.(AP)—Scott Dixon grabbed the lead from teammate Dario Franchitti in the only spot he could have – on pit road – and made a bit of history on Saturday night.
Dixon won for the 19th time in the IndyCar Series, tying Sam Hornish Jr.’s career victories record, and said the night could have been a turning point in the season.
While he and Franchitti gave Target Chip Ganassi Racing a 1-2 finish, the other dynamic team – Team Penske – had a miserable night in which neither Ryan Briscoe, the points leader at the start, or Helio Castroneves finished. Castroneves wound up 17th, Briscoe 19th.
“Any time you can make a gain on the Penskes, you’ve got to take that and try to run with it,” said Dixon, who earned his series-best third win of the season. “Tonight was a big gain for us and could be a pivotal point of the season.”
The result was better than the show that produced it, however, as the smallest oval in the IndyCar Series allowed for one-groove racing and almost no passing all night long.
“You just had to keep trying to follow the car in front of you,” Dixon said.
Franchitti, who started first and led most of the first half of the race, found out how frustrating it had been for others to be behind Dixon.
“Once Scott got ahead, we tried our best to pass him, but we couldn’t get it done,” Franchitti said. “Nobody could pass. … Everybody was out there hanging on.”
Franchitti, who won this race and the series championship two years ago before a brief dalliance with NASCAR, moved past Briscoe and into the points lead, one ahead of Dixon.
But he knew it wasn’t pretty.
“I have to apologize to the fans because that was an awful, awful race,” he said.
But the front-runners stayed there with patience and a bit of good fortune.
Twice they held out just long enough – watching most of the field head down pit road as the field zipped by under a green flag – and got the yellow flags that made it pay off, allowing them to make stops without losing ground.
Graham Rahal also benefited from the fortunate timing, while it took the chance of dueling for the victory away from Andretti-Green Racing teammates Hideki Mutoh and Danica Patrick.
Patrick and Mutoh would likely have been poised to battle for the victory after out-of- sequence stops much later in the race, but needed green flag racing over the last 80 laps to allow them to be in position to assume the top spots when the leaders were forced to pit.
It didn’t happen.
Castroneves scraped the wall on lap 247 of 300, bringing out the last caution.
Rahal finished a season-best third, followed by Mutoh and Patrick.
The race was a rare disappointment for Team Penske as Briscoe spun out on just the 27th circuit, and Castroneves scraped the wall running in the top seven with 53 laps to go.
“I am not sure exactly what happened,” Briscoe said. “It took me totally by surprise.”
Castroneves said he had nowhere to go when the car in front of him suddenly slowed.
The finish was all about timing during the race, and the inability to pass.
Dixon grabbed the lead on pit road after Mike Conway crashed on the 137th circuit. He was followed back onto the track by Franchitti, Rahal, Mutoh and Patrick.
The AGR teammates hoped their last green-flag stops – Mutoh on lap 214, Patrick on 226 – would set them up to assume the lead if the racing stayed green, but had no such luck.
Patrick, who had her fifth top-five finish in eight races, said her team will have to go back to work and figure out why it did so poorly in qualifying. She started 10th.
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Hornaday dominates Memphis truck race
June 28, 2009
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP)—Ron Hornaday dominated his second consecutive race and won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at the Memphis Motorsports Park.
Hornaday, the series points leader, won last week at Milwaukee in the same truck by leading 180 of 200 laps. He had a similar performance in the MemphisTravel.com 200 on Saturday night.
He started on the pole after a qualifying lap of 117.7 mph and led 175 of 201 laps on the 3/4 -mile oval.
“It’s a pretty dominant truck, for some reason,” Hornaday said. “I don’t know what we’re doing to it, but we’re going to go back and copy it somehow.”
A caution with five laps to go, caused when Dennis Setzer and Tayler Malsam got together, cut Hornaday’s commanding lead with a restart and a green-white-checker finish.
Brian Scott, who was running second, stayed with Hornaday through much of the first extra period lap, but Hornaday pulled away on the final sweep.
“I got a good jump on the restart,” Scott said. “I got to his bumper and drove into the corner right there with him. Unfortunately, I drove a little harder, and didn’t stick quite as well (in the turn).”
Scott, who was racing for the second week with a broken right wrist, finished second, 0.65 seconds behind Hornaday. David Starr finished third and Aric Almirola was fourth.
“I wasn’t going to get beat by the one-armed bandit,” Hornaday said referring to Scott’s cast on the broken wrist. “He was pretty good.”
Hornaday, who turned 51 last week when he won at Milwaukee, took the Chevrolet truck to the lead immediately and held it for the first 53 laps. He relinquished the advantage at that point when T.J. Bell opted not to take tires during a yellow flag pit stop.
Once the field got back up to speed, Hornaday regained the top spot, passing Bell within a half lap. Scott would take the lead after pit stops on Lap 115, and would hold that advantage until Hornaday passed him on lap 135 and stayed ahead the rest of the way. The pass was accomplished with the help of a slower car that got in the way of Scott as Hornaday made the pass.
“Lap-down trucks plagued us the whole last part of the race,” Scott said. “When we had the lead, I had no idea where they were going when I got to them.
“I might have been able to stay in front of Hornaday a while longer, but I don’t know if we could have beat him. He was awfully good.”
Hornaday entered the race with a 36-point lead in the series. He extended it to 76 points over Matt Crafton, who finished fifth.
“We’re clamping down,” Hornaday said. “We’re going out there and working extra hard, and we’re saving our parts. We’re just out there knowing what we have to do.”
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Coughlin wins $50,000 at NHRA event (PA SportsTicker)
June 28, 2009
NORWALK, OHIO(AP) —Jeg Coughlin beat Greg Anderson to win the $50,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge Saturday at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park.
It was the third win for Coughlin in the special bonus event for the eight quickest Pro Stock teams from the last year.
Coughlin, from Delaware, Ohio, covered the quarter-mile distance in 6.675 seconds at a top speed of 207.05 in his JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt. Anderson posted a 7.322 at 161.69 in his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP.
In other racing, Larry Dixon (Top Fuel), Mike Neff (Funny Car), Anderson (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle) claimed No. 1 qualifying positions for Sunday’s eliminations at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.
Dixon held top qualifying honors for the third time this season, and 34th of his career with a performance of 3.882 at 301.74 mph in his Alan Johnson Al-Anabi Racing dragster.
Neff earned his first No. 1 qualifying effort of the season, and third of his career with a performance of 419.0 at 279.93 mph in his Ford Drive One Mustang Funny Car.
Anderson raced to his 72nd career No. 1 and third of the season, driving his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP to a category-best time of 6.644 at 207.34.
Hines earned a 26th No. 1 qualifying position of his career in Pro Stock Motorcycle, setting a new track record with the quickest time of 6.944 at 192.28 mph on his Screamin Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson. The track record was held by Matt Smith (June 2007).
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