Fryer’s Five: Johnson delivers gut check (Yahoo! Sports)
September 28, 2009
Remember when Carl Edwards won at Atlanta last October, but had his victory celebration spoiled when he learned Jimmie Johnson finished second? The crestfallen Edwards looked as if he’d just been punched in the gut. No matter what he did to take care of his own championship chances, he couldn’t do enough to neutralize Johnson.
Now, 10 other drivers know exactly how Edwards felt that day.
Nobody had anything for Johnson at Dover International Speedway, where the three-time defending champion befuddled the competition with yet another win on the concrete oval. Johnson led 271 laps on Sunday, turned the usually competitive double-file restarts into exhibitions of his own dominance and literally pulled away to his fourth win of the season.
It deflated the other 11 contenders in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
“I’m pretty sure that dude’s Superman,” Mark Martin said.
More From Jenna Fryer Hamlins title hopes hinge on Dover Sep 25, 2009 Fryers Five: Chase opener offers plenty of insight Sep 21, 2009
“They’re strong everywhere. There’s no weakness to their race team at all,” Denny Hamlin added.
After a fourth-place finish in the Chase opener at New Hampshire, Johnson used his Dover win to put the competition on the ropes. Through just two rounds of the 10-race Chase, he’s second in the standings, just 10 points behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Martin.
And he’s headed next to Kansas Speedway, where he’s the defending race winner and has five top-10 finishes in seven career starts.
It’s got to be maddening to begin a race thinking you are properly prepared, give everything you have for three-plus hours and not even dent Johnson’s apparently Teflon armor. The Chasers on Sunday certainly got an up-close look at Johnson’s plan to win a record fourth-straight title, and they had to feel much the same way Edwards did last fall at Atlanta.
Fear. That’s what Johnson wanted to elicit from his competition Sunday.
“I certainly hope that our performance today scares some people, and affects them in a way that benefits us,” he said.
1. Is Martin the best hope to dethrone Johnson?
The 2007 version of the Chase was arguably the best in terms of a captivating competition. Johnson and Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon battled through the first eight rounds, until Johnson finally delivered the knockout punch by winning his fourth consecutive Chase race at Phoenix.
He wrapped up his second title a week later in the finale at Homestead, using a 5.0 average finish to deny Gordon a fifth championship.
Where did Gordon slip that season? He’s still wondering after posting a 5.1 average finish over the 10 races.
“I’ll be honest with you, I’ll take a 5.1 average for the rest of my career in the Chase,” Gordon said that day. “I’m pretty sure that will win a few championships.”
He’s probably right. But for two weeks now, Martin has insisted it won’t take a pace remotely close to that to win the title this season.
Martin was adamant there will be room for error over these 10 races. He had not changed his tune on Sunday, when he finished second to his teammate.
For those counting at home, Martin has finished first and second so far in the Chase and has an average finish of 1.5. And he’s only leading the standings by a meager 10 points.
The guy has been nearly perfect and he’s barely leading the Chase. Yet he still thinks there’s plenty to come over the remaining eight races in a wide-open title hunt.
“It’s just two races,” he said. “And I think a first and second is a pretty good way to come out of the gate. But we’ve got eight more to go, and all kinds of things can happen. I still say that there’s 12 in it, and 12 can win. It might be a challenge for a couple of the teams that are toward the back right now, but you just don’t have any concept, I guess, of how much racing eight races is.
“It’s a lot of racing. A lot of things can happen.”
Although technically true, it doesn’t really apply to Johnson when you consider his success rate. Spot Double J a decent lead, and it’s likely lights out for everyone else.
If you don’t want Johnson to win again this year, then it’s probably best to throw your support behind Martin. That’s not to dismiss any of the other contenders, but with his fast start to the Chase, he might be the only one capable of competing at the same pace as Johnson.
2. Kurt Busch is clearly not going to let Pat Tryson’s departure sabotage his season.
With sincere apologies to Busch and Tryson, I was clearly wrong on this one.
I was certain the No. 2 team had zero chance to challenge for the title. Tryson is leaving in eight weeks to crew chief Martin Truex Jr. at Michael Waltrip Racing, and the move led Penske Racing officials to ban him from the shop every day but Tuesday.
I couldn’t have been the only person wondering how in the world a team can win a championship under those constraints.
Well, they may ultimately not have enough to challenge Johnson or Martin or even Juan Pablo Montoya. But Busch and Tryson have proved through the first two races that they aren’t going down without a fight.
Busch followed his sixth-place finish at New Hampshire with a fifth at Dover, and he led considerable laps in each event. He was out front for 99 laps on Sunday, second only to Johnson.
He’s now fourth in the standings, 75 points behind leader Martin.
“It was a nice solid day for us,” Busch said.
Solid enough to back up what Tryson has been saying all along: Just because he’s leaving doesn’t mean he’ll mail it in the rest of the season. But would you blame the guy if he did? After all, he was told not to bother going into work on days he’d typically spend 10-plus hours at the race shop.
Although he’s not revealing the exact reasons behind his decision to leave, Tryson has been adamant that his departure has nothing to do with Busch. That’s easy to say, but convincing skeptics is a whole different matter.
Running up front goes a long way toward silencing the cynics.
3. Try explaining how Dover is not like Daytona to Joey Logano.
The rookie experienced the wildest ride of his young career just 32 laps into Sunday’s race, rolling his car seven times down the back straightaway at Dover.
“I’m still shaking,” Logano said some 15 minutes later.
Logano was running nose-to-tail with Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart when Stewart hit the back of him, sending Logano sliding down the concrete and into the grass. His Toyota then shot back across the track and ran nose first into the wall. That’s where Reed Sorenson ran into the side of him, and that contact lifted Logano’s car up for its numerous barrel rolls.
“It just really scared the heck out of me,” Logano said. “It started rolling and I was in there like, ‘Damn, please make this thing stop.’ And it wouldn’t. It just kept going and going. I’m just happy it landed on its wheels. It was the wildest ride I’ve ever been on.
“You can’t go on a roller coaster any worse than that.”
It was honest emotion from the 19-year-old Logano, who has had an up-and-down first full season at NASCAR’s top level.
He crashed out of the season-opening Daytona 500, when he became the youngest driver to participate in NASCAR’s biggest race of the season. But that was nothing compared to Sunday, and if his words didn’t convey that, his ashen face certainly did.
No one expects to see a wreck like that at Dover – the flipping and rolling is usually at Daytona or Talladega, the two tracks where restrictor plates bunch up the field and spectacular accidents are common. So the fact that Logano’s frightening wreck came at Dover was a bit of a surprise.
Once again, praise NASCAR’s safety developments for helping him walk away unscathed. That won’t help Logano sleep any better this week, though.
The best thing for him will be at Kansas on Friday, when he gets the chance to get back in his car and tick off some laps. It’s a lot like getting back on a horse, and hopefully Logano will fall right back into his rhythm.
4. That accident rattled Stewart, too.
Not much unnerves the two-time NASCAR champion, but he was clearly unsettled after seeing his old car tumble along Dover. That his contact triggered the wreck wasn’t lost on Stewart, either.
“I’ve never felt sicker in my life than when we hit Joey like that. We hit him a ton,” Stewart said. “I didn’t see it coming, that was the worst part. He had to check up, something happened in front of him to make him have to do that and I don’t know what it was. When he did, we drilled him in a spot where we were supposed to be wide-open on the race track.”
Damage from the accident dropped Stewart as low as 37th, and he made a heck of a rebound to finish ninth. Still, he wasn’t thrilled. Although he moved up to fifth in the standings, he lost ground to Martin and is now 106 points out.
“I can’t say I’m satisfied because I still lost points,” Stewart said. “That’s how competitive this Chase is. I got a top 10 and I’m not happy with it.”
After leading the points for 13 weeks heading into the Chase, Stewart was expected to be a serious contender for the title and become the first owner/driver since Alan Kulwicki in 1992 to win the championship. But he’s had a rough start, finishing 14th at New Hampshire to fall to sixth in the standings.
In the Chase opener, Stewart also had to overcome a broken axle cap that dropped him deep into the field. Both comebacks have showed the resolve of his Stewart-Haas Racing team, but they haven’t gotten Stewart off to the start he’d hoped.
Still, he had praise for crew chief Darian Grubb and his crew for their tenaciousness. To get his Dover rebound, the team had to patch a hole in the nose of his Chevrolet.
“I think that happened on Lap [32] and we had almost the whole day still left,” Stewart said. “We had to be smart. Darian and those guys did an awesome job. They just kept chiseling away.”
5. That was probably “just racing” between Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski in the Nationwide race.
But it quickly became clear that there’s no love lost between those two.
They got tangled on the track late in Saturday’s race when Keselowski had a run on the inside of Hamlin and Hamlin moved down low to block the potential pass. Keselowski hooked the corner of Hamlin’s car, starting an accident that wrecked Hamlin but allowed Keselowski to scoot by for a third-place finish.
Tempers flared on pit road afterward. Hamlin approached Keselowski at his car and clearly had a finger in Keselowski’s chest as he apparently lectured the young star. There seemed to be a slight shove before a female public relations representative for Keselowski stepped in front of her driver and pushed Hamlin back. Crew members quickly separated the two.
There is a history between these two. They had an incident in the Nationwide Series last year at Charlotte that left Hamlin fuming. “You throw a rock, I’m going to throw a concrete block back,” he said. So it’s not too surprising that Hamlin pursued Keselowski after the Dover race.
Later, in his post-race comments, Hamlin also took a slight shot at Keselowski boss Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was friends with Hamlin before Hamlin made it big in NASCAR. The two have since had some sort of falling out.
“He obviously needs some sort of guidance on what he needs to do to make it,” Hamlin sniped, seemingly accusing Earnhardt of not properly nurturing the JR Motorsports driver.
What was a bit surprising – aside from Keselowski allowing a woman to get involved in the scuffle – was how cavalier Keselowski was in taking any responsibility for his role in the accident. Was it just one of those racing deals where neither can be absolved of blame? Probably. But Keselowski, the younger driver who has yet to step into his pending full-time Cup Series job, should have shown Hamlin a bit more respect than he did in his post-race comments.
“He left a hole to pass him … he just tried to take advantage of me,” Keselowski said of Hamlin. “I’m not going to be pushed around. He tried to take advantage of me. I had to make a decision whether to let him or not, and the rest is history.”
And that attitude is perhaps what is behind Hamlin’s beef with Keselowski.
There have been whispers for some time that Keselowski’s ego has swollen a bit, in part because of his backing from Earnhardt and Rick Hendrick, as well as the last-lap Cup victory at Talladega that made him a very hot commodity.
Nobody is saying Hamlin deserves to be bowed to or is some sort of revered veteran who younger drivers need to hold in high regard. But this is his fourth full season, and he has made the Chase in all four. That’s worth a little respect – particularly from the unproven – both on and off the track.
Jenna Fryer covers NASCAR for The Associated Press and is a regular contributor to Yahoo! Sports. Send Jenna a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Bowyer puts RCR's 29 car in Victory Lane at Dover (NASCAR.com)
September 28, 2009
Clint Bowyer was on a mission Saturday—to rejuvenate the Nationwide Series program of Richard Childress Racing's No. 29 Chevrolet.
Mission accomplished. After passing pole-sitter Kyle Busch for the lead on Lap 118 at Dover International Speedway, Bowyer led the final 83 laps of the Dover 200 and beat Mike Bliss to the finish line by 1.319 seconds to win his second Nationwide race of the season and the eighth of his career.
On a day that didn't fulfill the promise of rain until the race was over, Busch, who came home fourth and widened his series lead to 211 points over fifth-place finisher Carl Edwards, wasn't the lightning rod for controversy this time. That distinction went to third-place finisher Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin, who spun into the wall on Lap 190 after contact from Keselowski's Chevrolet.
Brad Keselowski finished third… NASCAR.com – Sep 28, 3:20 pm EDT Brad Keselowski finished third… NASCAR.com – Sep 28, 3:20 pm EDT
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After the race, Hamlin confronted Keselowski on pit road, but crew members broke up the shoving match before it could escalate.
"I wanted to talk to him," Hamlin said. "He obviously needs some sort of guidance on what he needs to do to make it."
Keselowski blamed Hamlin for the accident.
"I was just there. I was underneath him," Keselowski said. "Earlier in the day when he got underneath me in the same scenario I gave him room. I paid him a favor and I expected the same favor to be returned. He didn't. I held my ground."
The incident between Keselowski and Hamlin brought out the fourth and final caution of the race. Keselowski was attempting to pass Hamlin to the inside when the contact occurred.
"Oh, the 88 [Keselowski], he just [stinks] real bad," Hamlin said after driving his damaged Toyota to the garage. "He just ran into us."
Keselowski countered after the race during a radio interview: "He cut us off. That's what he always does."
Hamlin heard the remark and asked, "Did you say I cut you off?"
Keselowski retorted, "You always do," and the drivers traded insults until Tony Eury Jr., who works with Keselowski's JR Motorsports team on which his father (Tony Eury Sr.) serves a crew chief, stepped in to defuse the situation.
It took the attention away from Bowyer's win. Bowyer won the series championship last season, but scaled back his schedule this year. It was his ninth Nationwide race of the season.
Team owner Richard Childress asked Bowyer to replace Stephen Leicht in the No. 29 and run a three-race stretch starting at Dover to establish a baseline of consistency for the car.
Brad Keselowski finished third… NASCAR.com – Sep 26, 11:30 pm EDT
"Clint's just a master on these concrete tracks," Childress said.
Bowyer has shared driving duties with Leicht and Jeff Burton this season.
"Stephen's a wonderful race car driver—he's done a good job for us this year," Bowyer said. "This is tough times. We haven't been where we wanted to be with this car. We needed to get this car running better, and Dover is one of my best race tracks, so it is fitting for me to get in that car and race this race.
"I hated that he didn't get his chance, but he will. We need to get this thing running better for him, so he has an equal opportunity of developing as a young driver and showing his talent."
Bowyer's crew chief, Doug Randolph, said the team made adjustments to correct a tight handling condition in Bowyer's car during the first cycle of green-flag pit stops and, from that point on, Bowyer was the class of the field.
Busch dominated the first 100 laps despite communication issues with his crew. He could hear instruction over the radio, but no one could hear what Busch was saying.
Busch, who led a 109 laps, refused to blame the radio woes for his finish.
"I think it was just a set of mismatched tires, unfortunately there," he said. "The tires just threw us for a loop. Unfortunately, we didn't adjust right to what we had with the tires."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Nationwide Series Standings Pos.+/-DriverPointsBehind 1.—Kyle Busch4,549—2.—Carl Edwards4,338-2113.—Brad Keselowski4,252-2974.—Jason Leffler3,749-8005.+1Steve Wallace3,259-1,2906.-1Justin Allgaier3,240-1,3097.—Jason Keller3,125-1,4248.+1Mike Bliss3,120-1,4299.-1Brendan Gaughan3,063-1,48610.—Michael McDowell2,978-1,571
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Stewart, Edwards rally to keep alive title aspirations (NASCAR.com)
September 28, 2009
If either Tony Stewart or Carl Edwards happen to be holding the Sprint Cup trophy at the end of this season, they may look at Sunday's AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway as a pivotal point. Both drivers showed patience after early misfortune could have put a stake in their championship hopes, and both wound up with finishes that keep them in contention.
Involved in the accident that caused Joey Logano to flip more than seven times, Stewart rallied to finish ninth. Struggling all day with a car that didn't have the speed to match the leaders, Edwards persevered for 11th. And both cases, each driver may have gotten the most from the least on a day when trouble seemed to lurk around every corner.
Stewart is now fifth in the points, 106 behind Mark Martin. Edwards is 11th, 153 out—but with eight races remaining, anything can (and probably will) happen.
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"I can't say I'm satisfied because I still lost points," Stewart said. "That's how competitive this Chase is, too—I got a top-10 and I'm not happy with it. I'm proud of the effort from the team, really proud of that. We dodged another bullet."
Edwards concurred.
"That's the best possible finish we could've hoped for with this race car," he said. "I'm really proud of my guys on pit road. They did a good job. [Crew chief Bob Osborne] made good calls, but our mousetrap just wasn't good enough [Sunday]. Matt [Kenseth] was good, so we'll go back and learn from that. It's frustrating, but not as bad as it could've been, you know?"
Both drivers were coming off a less-than-stellar effort at New Hampshire—Stewart finished 14th and Edwards three places worse—and were in desperate need of some positive momentum coming to the Monster Mile. However, poor qualifying runs relegated Stewart to start 22nd and Edwards 30th, leaving both deep in the pack, a situation that would play a factor early on.
Already feeling poorly from the pain of his broken foot, Edwards asked his crew for Advil before the first pit stop. Perhaps it was foreshadowing of the headaches the No. 99 would face all day. On that stop, the team realized the left end plate of Edwards' rear wing was damaged or missing, a major reason why he was having issues getting through traffic.
But while Edwards' team was busy trying to solve their issues, Stewart suddenly had problems of his own. On Lap 32, Logano checked up to avoid Bobby Labonte and Stewart drilled him in the back bumper, setting off a six-car, chain-reaction accident that required a red flag to clear the resulting debris. When the race resumed, both Edwards and Stewart ducked into the pits for repairs—Stewart to get work done to the nose and right-rear quarter panel, Edwards to get a replacement end plate.
"I saw the piece of metal they put on the front and I don't know how big the hole is underneath it, but they said it was pretty good size," Stewart said. "I'm pretty proud of the effort they made to get it right. Once they got the hole patched up, it was good."
But that left Edwards 35th and Stewart 37th on a day when track position was a precious commodity. Both drivers made up some ground on the ensuing restart and long green-flag run—Stewart worked his way back to 18th and Edwards advanced to 25th—as the spotters preached patience on the radio.
"You've got to have patience here," Stewart said. "Four hundred miles is a long day here. I think that happened on Lap 32 and we had almost the whole day still left. We had to be smart.
"[Crew chief Darian Grubb] and those guys did an awesome job. They just kept chiseling away. Every time we could get a long run, we could make up ground. We weren't a short-run car. We needed 20 laps to get going every run. Halfway through a fuel run to the end, we could make up time on the field."
At the halfway point, Stewart had worked his way to just outside the top 10, but Edwards was still struggling. He nearly went a lap down to leader and eventual winner Jimmie Johnson before David Stremme hit the wall on Lap 273, bringing out the caution. And after pitting, he was 15th "and racing my guts out for it, too."
But Stewart's car began to respond, particularly on long runs, and he found himself in the top five for the first time all race with 60 laps remaining.
"It's just the setup," he said. "It's not that we try to make it that way, it's just the way it ends up. We'd rather have it fast on the front of the run so if you don't have those long runs, you're going to be quick every time."
When Sam Hornish Jr. spun and hit the wall with 31 laps to go, both Stewart and Edwards traded track position for fresh tires, a move that ultimately paid off handsomely. While Stewart worked his way back into the top 10, Edwards passed six cars in the final green-flag run.
"The strategy worked out," Edwards said.
However, given the choice, Edwards would have rather chosen to run up front all afternoon rather than the alternative with which he was faced.
"I like coming here and running top-two or -three," he said. "That's a lot more fun, a lot easier. … I've got a lot of respect for all the guys I was racing with. They did a really good job. Everybody did a really good job, I thought."
Sprint Cup Series Standings Pos.+/-DriverPointsBehind 1.—Mark Martin5,400— 2.—Jimmie Johnson5,390-103.+1Juan Montoya5,335-654.+1Kurt Busch5,325-755.+1Tony Stewart5,294-1066.-3Denny Hamlin5,292-1087.—Ryan Newman5,290-1108.+2Jeff Gordon5,278-1229.—Greg Biffle5,262-13810.-2Brian Vickers5,249-15111.—Carl Edwards5,247-15312.—Kasey Kahne5,211-189
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Johnson dominates with his 5th victory at Dover
September 28, 2009
DOVER, Del. (AP)—Jimmie Johnson says winning a Chase race gives his No. 48 team direction. If the last three seasons are his map, all roads lead toward another Sprint Cup championship.
Johnson has the Chase for the championship victory. All he needs now is that points lead.
Johnson thumped the competition in the second Chase for the championship race, sweeping the season races at Dover International Speedway to accelerate his bid for an unprecedented fourth straight championship.
“I certainly hope that our performance today scares some people and affects them in a way that benefits us,” Johnson said.
NASCAR drivers race during the… AP – Sep 27, 7:40 pm EDT NASCAR drivers race during the… AP – Sep 27, 7:40 pm EDT
Jimmie Johnson makes a pit sto… AP – Sep 27, 7:36 pm EDT
Mark Martin drives on the way … AP – Sep 27, 7:23 pm EDT
Sam Hornish Jr. (77) skids on … AP – Sep 27, 7:18 pm EDT
Jimmie Johnson (48) races agai… AP – Sep 27, 7:12 pm EDT
Martin Truex Jr. (1) and Ellio… AP – Sep 27, 7:09 pm EDT
Jimmie Johnson, lower left, ce… AP – Sep 27, 7:07 pm EDT
Joey Logano's car flies th… AP – Sep 27, 6:58 pm EDT
Joey Logano's car flies th… AP – Sep 27, 6:52 pm EDT
Jimmie Johnson, lower left, ce… AP – Sep 27, 6:44 pm EDT
Jimmie Johnson, left, kisses h… AP – Sep 27, 6:39 pm EDT
Jimmie Johnson celebrates in v… AP – Sep 27, 6:36 pm EDT
Jimmie Johnson takes the check… AP – Sep 27, 6:24 pm EDT
Cars take the green flag for t… AP – Sep 27, 3:26 pm EDT
NASCAR driver Joey Logano, lef… AP – Sep 27, 3:08 pm EDT
NASCAR driver Joey Logano (20)… AP – Sep 27, 3:07 pm EDT
Driver Mark Martin sits in his… AP – Sep 26, 1:27 pm EDT
Driver Mark Martin climbs into… AP – Sep 26, 1:26 pm EDT
Driver Mark Martin gets ready … AP – Sep 26, 1:26 pm EDT
Driver Mark Martin smiles in t… AP – Sep 26, 1:25 pm EDT
Driver Jimmie Johnson helps pu… AP – Sep 25, 5:01 pm EDT
Driver Mark Martin drives his … AP – Sep 25, 5:00 pm EDT
Driver Jimmie Johnson climbs o… AP – Sep 25, 5:00 pm EDT
NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson d… AP – Sep 25, 4:59 pm EDT
NASCAR driver Tony Stewart smi… AP – Sep 25, 4:55 pm EDT
NASCAR driver Joey Logano stan… AP – Sep 25, 1:40 pm EDT
Driver Jeff Gordon climbs into… AP – Sep 25, 1:40 pm EDT
NASCAR driver Kurt Busch is sh… AP – Sep 25, 1:40 pm EDT
Driver Juan Pablo Montoya, of … AP – Sep 25, 1:40 pm EDT
NASCAR driver Mark Martin is s… AP – Sep 25, 1:39 pm EDT YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_last_index = 30; YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_lazy_images = 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Final Laps: Johnson
Final Laps: Johnson
Logano's wild rideVictory LaneMartin: 'A great result' More NASCAR Videos
Johnson sliced Mark Martin’s points lead with the victory—his fourth of the year and 44th overall—in the second of 10 races in the Chase. Martin holds a 10-point lead over Johnson heading into Week 3 at Kansas Speedway.
“We’re going to race our guts out no matter where we wind up, and no matter how they are,” Martin said. “That dude still is Superman in my book. Looked like it today.”
Johnson was pretty super on the concrete in the No. 48 Chevrolet. Johnson, who tire-tested in August at Dover, won from the pole. He led 298 laps when he won at Dover in May and added another 271 on the 1-mile concrete track Sunday. Johnson won for the fifth time at Dover.
“That’s right boys, maximum points! Thank you!” Johnson said over the radio.
No winner of the second Dover race has ever gone on to win the Cup championship. If any driver can reverse that trend, it’s Johnson. Much as he did in May, Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet was out in front for the majority of the 400-mile race.
Chase drivers took nine of the first 11 spots. Martin followed last week’s win at New Hampshire with a second-place finish. Juan Pablo Montoya was fourth and Kurt Busch fifth.
Matt Kenseth was the highest non-Chase driver at third.
Other Chase driver results saw Jeff Gordon finish sixth, Kasey Kahne was eighth, Tony Stewart ninth and Ryan Newman 10th. Carl Edwards was 11th, Greg Biffle 13th, Brian Vickers 18th and Denny Hamlin 22nd.
“It’s just two races,” Martin said. “I still say that there’s 12 in and 12 can win. It might be a challenge for a couple of the ones toward the end of the back.”
Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus also won their 15th Chase race. No one is better down the stretch and it’s the main reason why the No. 48 team is going for its record fourth straight title.
NASCAR drivers race during the… AP – Sep 27, 7:40 pm EDT
“Our team is pretty easily motivated,” Knaus said.
Easy to see why. Cale Yarborough is the only other driver to win three straight championships and Johnson can move past him with more winning performances like this one over the final eight races.
Johnson was so far in front, he had no idea Joe Gibbs Racing driver Joey Logano was involved in an early accident that saw his No. 20 barrel-roll eight times down the concrete and result in the race being red-flagged. It looked scary, but the teenage Logano walked away and was fine.
“It just goes to show how safe these cars are,” Logano said.
Johnson, who won for the first time since July at Indianapolis, crushed Kenseth and the rest of the contenders off the double-file restarts and was never seriously challenged.
Jimmie Johnson makes a pit sto… AP – Sep 27, 7:36 pm EDT
He’s in great position, but he’s still not in first. Even with the 10 bonus points for winning, Martin still holds a slim lead.
“It’s only been two races,” Martin said.
The 50-year-old Martin is the sentimental favorite for his first Cup championship and he’s in no rush to yield his spot atop the standings. His 1-2 finish in the first two Chase races proved he’ll be a major factor in his No. 5 car.
“I’m happy with the result,” Martin said. “We just missed it a little bit.”
It’s way too early in the Chase to rule out any driver as a contender, but the Hendrick powerhouse sure looks like it fields the teams to beat.
“They’re strong everywhere,” Hamlin said. “There’s no weakness to their race team at all.”
That’s just what owner Rick Hendrick’s Chase drivers—Johnson, Martin and Gordon—want to hear.
“I think a lot of people thought that Hendrick could be the team to beat,” Gordon said. “Right now, they certainly are.”
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Hamilton wins Singapore GP, Button extends lead (PA SportsTicker)
September 27, 2009
By CHRIS LINES AP Auto Racing Writer
SINGAPORE(AP)—McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton won the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, and Brawn GP driver Jenson Button extended his Formula One championship lead by one point.
Hamilton started from the pole and protected his lead to finish 9.6 seconds ahead of Timo Glock, who equaled Toyota’s best Formula One result by finishing second. Fernando Alonso gave scandal-hit Renault a lift by finishing third for the French team’s first podium finish of the season.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel pursued Hamilton for much of the race, and closed the gap to just half a second after 37 of 61 laps. But his hopes of victory were dashed by a drive-through penalty for speeding in pit lane. He finished fourth.
Button worked his way up the field from 12th place to finish fifth, one place ahead of teammate and championship rival Rubens Barrichello. Button leads Barrichello by 15 points with three races to go.
“I’m really happy to get fifth, four points, pull one on Rubens and only lose one to Vettel, so really this has been a good race,” Button said.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber exited on lap 45 after a brake failure sent him spinning off the track, effectively ending the Australian’s slim championship hopes. Webber had been running in fourth in the early part of the race.
Brawn now holds a 42.5-point lead over Red Bull in the constructors’ championship and needs just 12 points over the final three races to take the crown in its inaugural season.
Vettel is 25 points behind Button, and has little chance of preventing one of the Brawn drivers from taking the championship. However, he was not conceding defeat quite yet.
“There’s always a chance,” Vettel said. “We try to push as hard as we can and try to win races. If not, at least finish second, if not, at least finish third. We want to do the best we can and see what happens.”
Barrichello is running out of chances to overtake Button, but was equally defiant.
“I’m not going to throw my towel in,” Barrichello said. “I will fight to the end.”
McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen was seventh and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica was eighth.
Hamilton’s only headache came early in the race when his KERS power-boost system failed. He had to reboot the system by pushing buttons on the steering wheel while driving a circuit of constant turns.
“Like I didn’t have enough things to think about in the car, pressing all those buttons, but it was fun,” Hamilton said.
Though Vettel loomed up during the second stint, Hamilton described the race as “pretty straightforward.”
“I was never really under serious pressure. When Vettel was behind me I knew I was five laps longer (fueled) and I just had to keep him behind.”
Williams driver Nico Rosberg was running second through the first stint of the race, but crossed the pit-lane exit line on his way out after his first stop, and had to serve a drive-through penalty that cost him a chance of any points. He finished 11th.
Force India’s Adrian Sutil was fined $20,000 for causing Nick Heidfeld to crash on lap 19, ending the BMW Sauber driver’s run of 42 straight race finishes. Sutil had spun out trying to pass Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari. The German immediately restarted and tried to turn his car around on the track, but ran its nose into Heidfeld’s path.
Alonso’s podium finish brought some smiles back to the Renault garage after a week when they dealt with the fallout of having staged a crash here last year. The team lost team principal Flavio Briatore to an indefinite ban, chief engineer Pat Symonds for five years and saw an exodus of major sponsors.
“I would like to dedicate it to Flavio, who I know would have watched the race on television,” Alonso said. “Part of the first success of the season is due to him.”
Glock’s second-place finish was a welcome return to form for Toyota – believed to be weighing its F1 future – whose early season strength dissipated during the European races.
“When you fall down and fight back again, its really important for the team,” said Glock, who equaled his personal best finish.
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Sauter wins in Las Vegas
September 27, 2009
LAS VEGAS (AP)—Johnny Sauter raced to his first career NASCAR Trucks Series victory, taking the lead from Matt Crafton with 16 laps left and holding on to win the Las Vegas 350 on Saturday night.
Crafton, who took over the lead following a caution period with 26 laps remaining, held on to finish second in the 146-lap race on the 1.5-mile oval.
Kyle Busch races around the tr… AP – Sep 19, 6:17 pm EDT Kyle Busch races around the tr… AP – Sep 19, 6:17 pm EDT
Ron Hornaday Jr. (33) and Kevi… AP – Sep 19, 6:10 pm EDT
Ron Hornaday Jr. (33) and Kevi… AP – Sep 19, 6:07 pm EDT
Rob Fuller slams into the wall… AP – Sep 19, 5:59 pm EDT
NASCAR Truck Series driver Kyl… AP – Sep 19, 5:51 pm EDT
Kyle Busch celebrates after wi… AP – Sep 19, 5:51 pm EDT
NASCAR Truck Series driver Rob… AP – Sep 19, 5:48 pm EDT
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“My truck just didn’t have the speed that Johnny Sauter’s did,” said Crafton, second in the standings—197 points behind Hornaday. “Wow, that truck was fast.”
Jason White was third, followed by pole-sitter Todd Bodine, Timothy Peters and points leader Ron Hornaday Jr. The 51-year-old Hornaday, who has six victories this year, led 33 laps before Sauter passed him on the 89th lap.
Mike Skinner was seventh, followed by Aric Almirola, Brian Ickler and Tayler Malsam.
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Bowyer wins Nationwide race at Dover
September 27, 2009
DOVER, Del. (AP)—Denny Hamlin’s day appeared over. His No. 20 Toyota was in the garage after Brad Keselowski spun him into the wall late in the Nationwide Series race.
Not so fast.
An angry Hamlin returned to pit road at the end of the Nationwide Series race and welcomed Keselowski with a forceful shove and a heated exchange. Keselowski’s public relations rep shoved Hamlin, and crews for both drivers quickly got involved in the brief skirmish.
Oblivious to the post-race melee, Clint Bowyer celebrated his second victory of the season Saturday on the concrete at Dover International Speedway.
“Clint’s just a master on these concrete tracks,” owner Richard Childress said.
Everyone wanted to know after the race what went down between Hamlin and Keselowski.
The brief, but heated, confrontation was sparked with 11 laps left in the 200-lap race when Hamlin was tapped from behind by Keselowski’s No. 88 and spun sideways into the wall. Keselowski, who finished third, was trying to pass Hamlin on the inside.
“I was just there. I was underneath him,” Keselowski said. “Earlier in the day when he got underneath me in the same scenario I gave him room. I paid him a favor and I expected the same favor to be returned. He didn’t. I held my ground.”
Hamlin, a Chase driver in the Cup series, didn’t see it that way.
“I wanted to talk to him,” Hamlin said. “He obviously needs some sort of guidance on what he needs to do to make it. He’s got a ton of talent, I am not going to take that away from him, he’s a good driver. If he can harness it, he’ll win a lot more races.”
Tony Eury Jr., the son of Keselowski’s crew chief, ended it after he intervened and had a brief chat with Hamlin.
It took the attention away from Bowyer’s win. He took the lead with 83 laps left and won in only his ninth Nationwide race of the season. Bowyer won the series championship last season, but scaled back his schedule this year.
“Dover is one of my best racetracks so it’s probably fitting I was able to get in this car and race this race,” he said.
Mike Bliss was second. Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards rounded out the top five.
Busch, who failed to make the Chase in the Cup series, kept his overall lead in the points standings. He also became the second driver in the second-tier series to ever lead 2,000 laps in a season. He led 109 laps at Dover.
Busch dominated the first 100 laps despite communication issues with his crew. He could hear instruction over the radio, but no one could hear what Busch was saying.
He refused to blame the radio woes for his finish.
“I think it was just a set of mismatched tires, unfortunately there,” he said. “The tires just threw us for a loop. Unfortunately, we didn’t adjust right to what we had with the tires.”
Bowyer replaced Stephen Leicht in the No. 29 Chevrolet as part of a three-race commitment for Childress.
“I hate that he didn’t his chance, but he will,” Bowyer said. “We need to get this thing running better for him so he has an equal opportunity of developing as a young driver and showing his talent.”
He’ll be back in the car when he returns home to Kansas. Bowyer, from Emporia, Kan., was excited to get another shot at Victory Lane with the car at Kansas Speedway.
“I knew how strong it was in practice and I was pretty cautious passing people,” Bowyer said.
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Don’t bet on NASCAR gambling at Dover
September 27, 2009
DOVER, Del. (AP)—Gentleman, stop your wagering. The idea of putting $5 to win on the No. 5 has gone bust at Dover.
This could have been the weekend when gamblers and sports fans wagered on the NASCAR race at the Dover Downs casino and walked over to the Dover International Speedway to see if they picked a winner or should tear up their ticket.
Those plans are now on hold.
After an expensive court battle, plans by state leaders and casino operators to offer betting on single games in multiple sports were struck down. Delaware can only offer betting on at least three NFL games per wager, called parlay bets.
The only NASCAR action Sunday at the newly opened Race & Sports Book will be on the big-screen TVs.
“We’re a small state with a small population and we need all the help we can get,” Dover Motorsports president Denis McGlynn said Saturday. “I think the sports betting could have had the ability to draw new people into NASCAR just to give them some other reason to watch.”
The sports betting parlor, which likely would have been stuffed with bettors on a Friday night, instead had plenty of good seats available to stop in for a burger, beer and good view of the Phillies game.
Sports betting in Delaware officially got under way on Sept. 10. Sports wagers made at the state’s three racetrack casinos totaled only $257,870 during the first week of the betting lottery.
State officials are appealing the ruling by the federal appeals court and are still hoping to offer more popular single-game bets, and wagering on a variety of sports.
“I have hopes. Not sure they’re realistic,” McGlynn said.
NASCAR did not take a public stance on the issue, but the sport has held races in Las Vegas for years.
“To the extent that our fans would like it and enjoy it, I think it’s a good thing,” NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said.
The casino will have live table games by next summer, though not in time for the first Cup weekend at Dover. That race, which was traditionally run the last weekend in May or early June, was moved to May 16 in 2010.
“At least we’re still first in the Northeast, so we’re happy about that,” McGlynn said.
The sports betting issue isn’t the only roadblock at Dover. The five-year improvement project that started in 2006 has come to a halt as funds have dried up.
Most of the major projects, most notably an expanded pit road on the Monster Mile, have been completed. The new garage that would also incorporate rooftop viewing for fans has not been started. Same with new ticket and merchandise sales buildings.
The Cup garage at Dover is perhaps the tightest and most dangerous in the series.
“With the economy the way it is and the finance industry being so slow to lend money, we’ve got to wait a little while,” McGlynn said. “Maybe another year or two, but we’re going to do it.”
Even with a sagging economy, track officials still expect over 100,000 fans on Sunday.
“We’re not that bad off,” McGlynn said.
TIRE TEST: Jimmie Johnson took the pole at Dover and Juan Pablo Montoya joined him on the front row.
Some Chase drivers think they know why.
A tire test.
Johnson and Montoya were among a handful of drivers who participated in a Goodyear tire test in August on the concrete track.
“Having an hour and a half or two hours of practice to get ready to qualify, you’re scrambling to get going,” Greg Biffle said. “It’s obvious that the guy that wasn’t scrambling to get going was the 48. They were at the top of the sheet from the onset, but they were the ones that did the tire test. They’re going to be set up for that tire a lot better than the rest of the teams are.”
Biffle wondered why a Chase driver—especially a three-time defending champion like Johnson—was picked for the test.
Chase driver Ryan Newman said he didn’t think Johnson had an unfair advantage.
“We’ll get the advantage some day, and whether it’s at Dover or Charlotte or Phoenix or Martinsville, and hopefully we’ll show that we can do the same things,” he said. “It doesn’t mean they’re going to win the race.”
Johnson said the test helped his No. 48 team because they learned the tire helped the car turn more easily. He predicted loose cars on Sunday.
“I still think we need to test at the tracks we race at and on the tire it’s going to run on,” he said.
GOOD TO BE TRUE: Martin Truex Jr. purchased 100 tickets to Sunday’s race for select fans who were unable to renew their September race tickets due to hardships brought on by the economic downturn or other unforeseen circumstances.
Truex, of Mayetta, N.J., won his only career Cup race at Dover.
He celebrated with his 17-year-old brother, Ryan, after the younger Truex won the NASCAR Camping World East Series championship on Friday.
“I’m so proud of him not only from what he’s done (on Friday), but through the whole season,” Martin Truex Jr. said.
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Montagny, Sarrazin win at rainy Road Atlanta
September 27, 2009
BRASELTON, Ga. (AP)—Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin gave Peugeot itsfirst American Le Mans Series victory Saturday, winning the weather-shortenedPetit Le Mans.
Race officials, citing hazardous conditions because of a torrential rainthat fell at Road Atlanta just past the 4-hour mark, called the race at 8 hours,44 minutes.
Peugeot’s two diesel-powered factory prototype coupes finished 1-2, with thepole-sitting 908 HDi of Pedro Lamy and Nic Minassian in second. Allan McNish andDindo Capello were third in an Audi R15 TDI.
Marino Franchitti, Butch Leitzinger and Ben Devlin won the LMP2 division forDyson Racing, driving a Mazda-powered Lola B09/86 coupe. In GT2, RisiCompetizione’s Jaime Melo, Pierre Kaffer and Mika Salo won in a Ferrari F430 GT.
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Logano walks away from scary crash shaken but OK (NASCAR.com)
September 27, 2009
"It was the wildest ride I've ever been on."
Those were the words of Joey Logano, who walked away unscathed after rolling his car seven times in a six-car accident early in Sunday's AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway. Running behind Bobby Labonte and ahead of Tony Stewart—both former Joe Gibbs Racing drivers—Logano was the victim of close-quarters racing on Lap 32, one lap after the race restarted following a competition caution.
His No. 20 Toyota was demolished by the time it finally came to stop after tumbling down the Monster Mile's concrete banking, but other than some shakiness, Logano said he was fine.
"It just really scared the heck out of me," Logano said. "The biggest thing was, I was fine the whole time, [but] I'm not really sure what happened. The spotter was clearing me low. When I got down there, they checked up going into the corner and I got tagged from behind. I haven't seen a replay, and I'm not sure I want to see the replay.
"It started rolling, and I was in there, thinking, 'Man, just make this thing stop.' It wouldn't. It just kept going and going. It goes to show how safe these cars are. I was fine."
Heading into Turn 3, Labonte came down the track, forcing Logano to check up. An unintentional bump from Stewart sent the No. 20 Toyota sliding through the grass apron, then back up the banking, where Logano's car was hit first by Reed Sorenson.
"By the time I got to Joey, everything was pretty much out of our hands at that point," Sorenson said. "[Martin Truex Jr.] was pushing me into [Logano], pretty much, and I was trying to slow down as much as I could.
"It looked like the No. 96 [Labonte] got checked up somehow and the No. 20 checked up and I saw the No. 14 [Stewart] get into the No. 20. He was on the brakes pretty hard. I tried to go to the outside of him and tried to get around the wreck, and [Logano] came right back up the track in front of us."
Sorenson said he was glad to see Logano responding in the infield care center afterward.
"It was a pretty wild wreck," Sorenson said. "It's not something you can plan for, and you can't miss those kind of wrecks. It just kind of happened right in front of us. Joey's OK, I talked with him and I'm glad he's all right. He's just shaken up.
"It's one of those deals. It's a fast race track and as close as we're running out here, as soon as one person checks up, it's a chain reaction that can cause a little pileup."
Light is normally faster than sound, but for Truex, he heard the accident before he saw it unfold.
"I just heard the spotter yelling that they were spinning out," Truex said. "I was hoping they would be gone by the time I got there, and they weren't. You just can't slow down here. You go off in the corners so fast and they were wrecking right there before the middle of the corner.
"… It's just one of those things here when you're in the back of the pack. It happens on restarts."
Robby Gordon also was an eyewitness, as he wound up with radiator damage after piling into the aftermath.
"I saw [Logano] down on the bottom and he just shot across the track," Gordon said. "He must have gotten pushed to the bottom or something happened going into [Turn] 3. I went to the high side, trying to slow down, and unfortunately we got caught up in it.
It took NASCAR safety crews more than 23 minutes to clear the debris. During that time, Stewart was remorseful on his in-car radio.
"I hit him square and I checked up, but there was nothing I could do," Stewart said.
While making the walk from the care center to the garage area with his father, Logano was able to give fans a wan smile, as he continued to describe his wild ride.
"You can't go on a roller coaster any worse than that," Logano said.
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