Knaus outsmarts everyone – again (Yahoo! Sports)

February 28, 2010

LAS VEGAS – In searching for an excuse why Jimmie Johnson dominates, the haters are quick to scream that his crew chief Chad Knaus is a cheater.

It’s time to put that talk to bed.

Cheating is not what won the 48 team four championships in a row; it’s not what has had them competing for a title in each of Johnson’s eight going on nine Cup seasons; and it’s not what put them in victory lane Sunday for the second week in a row and the 49th time overall.

More From Jay Hart Danicas first stint gets an Incomplete Feb 27, 2010 Storylines: Las Vegas Feb 27, 2010

When everyone else opted to take two tires on the final pit stop of Sunday’s Shelby American at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Knaus made the call to take four. It was a typical Knaus move and one that perfectly explains why Johnson perpetually is in a league of his own.

By not running with the pack, the 48 team gives themselves the chance to be ahead of it. Once that decision is made, it’s up to them to perform, and as we’ve seen, they usually do. Knaus made the call Sunday, the pit crew changed the four tires in less than 12 seconds to send their driver back on the track in fourth, and Johnson took care of the rest, passing Jeff Gordon with 18 laps to go.

Afterward, Johnson was asked the question that’s become as routine as him winning: How lucky can one guy get?

“If people are trying to find a way not to accept the quality of this race team, that’s cool,” Johnson said. “We’ll just come back this week and take the trophy again.”

Johnson acknowledged that his was a “smart-ass” remark, but who’s going to argue that he won’t?

For most of the day, Gordon dominated, leading 219 of the 267 laps. With a little more than 30 laps to go, a caution came out, setting up the leaders for one final stop. Originally, crew chief Steve Letarte ordered Gordon not to pit but changed his mind at the last second, calling for a two-tire stop. Behind him, Johnson was taking four.

On the restart, Johnson bolted from fourth to second almost immediately, setting up a two-car duel to the finish. Gordon held off his teammate for a stretch but couldn’t indefinitely.

“I knew we were a sitting duck,” Gordon said. “It was just a matter of time because two vs. four.

“When you’re leading, that’s the toughest position to be in – to make that call,” he explained. “If we won the race, we’d look like geniuses, Steve would have. The fact that we lost the race, now Chad looks like the genius.

“I talked to Steve briefly after the race. He’s pretty upset obviously. I think he just felt like more people were going to take two tires.”

Had they – had Johnson – Gordon is confident he would have won. So are Johnson and Knaus, which is why they made the decision they did. All afternoon they were stuck behind Gordon and Matt Kenseth, unable to make any gains because the cars were so equal. So when the opportunity to break from the pack arose, they took it.

“If you’re prepared and a situation arises that you can take advantage of a top-five or a victory, I don’t think that’s luck,” Knaus said. “If we’d had been out there today and wrecked on Lap 5 because we were midway in the pack, that’s not luck; that’s because we qualified so poorly that we were somewhere where we shouldn’t have been.”

Knaus pointed to last year’s Chase race at Texas when Johnson qualified poorly, then got caught in a wreck on Lap 2.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of luck,” he said. “There’s opportunities that arise throughout the race. If you’re prepared to capitalize on them, then good for you.”

Undoubtedly some will view Knaus as being arrogant when really he’s more proud. He’s the one, after all, who has put in the work and dedicated his life to figuring out how to get his driver to the checkered flag before everyone else. So if you’re looking for an explanation of Johnson’s dominance, there it is, and there’s nothing unseemly about it.

Jay Hart is the NASCAR editor for Yahoo! Sports. Send Jay a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

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Montoya and McMurray at odds after wreck

February 28, 2010

LAS VEGAS (AP)—When Juan Pablo Montoya raced in Formula One, his teammate was often his enemy.

Jamie McMurray might not be his top adversary, but the two certainly won’t be going to dinner anytime soon.

McMurray’s mid-race mistake Sunday wrecked Montoya, who responded with a scathing rant against his new Earnhardt Ganassi Racing teammate.

“Jamie plain and simple just wrecked us,” Montoya fumed at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “Every time I am around him, he wants to run the (crap) out of me. He is just trying to prove to people he can drive a race car and I guess he isn’t doing too many favors on this team.”

McMurray, the Daytona 500 winner, took responsibility for the incident that wrecked both EGR cars and collected pole-sitter Kurt Busch. McMurray wound up 34th, while Montoya was 37th and dropped three spots in the standings to 26th.

“I just got loose underneath him,” McMurray said. “Certainly, anyone that you’re going to try to race as clean as possible, he would be that guy. I’m sorry to him and his team. I got up in there and he turned in just a little bit earlier than I was expecting and then my car got really loose on entry.”

But McMurray shrugged off any anger Montoya spewed at his new teammate. Montoya is in his fourth season with Ganassi, while McMurray is back with Ganassi after four years at Roush Fenway Racing.

“You guys probably shouldn’t put a lot of stock into what he said when you ask somebody something immediately after getting crashed,” he said. “They typically don’t have nice things to say.”

Montoya also was frustrated at his spot in the standings. A qualifier last year for the 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, he lost three spots in the standings and dropped to 26th. He blew a motor last week at California.

“For the Chase, this doesn’t help,” Montoya said. “It is painful.”

JUNIOR’s GAINS: Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s 16th-place finish wasn’t very pretty considering his three Hendrick Motorsports teammates were inside the top five.

But team owner Rick Hendrick was pleased with the progress from the No. 88 team, which is currently 15th in the standings.

“We had a couple of bobbles in the pits with the pit crew,” Hendrick said. “It seems like every time the car is good, the pit crew screws up. If the pit crew is on, the car, something break. So I feel they’ve made a ton of improvement. I think we’re going to have a really good year. I’m looking forward to Atlanta.”

Earnhardt is coming off a horrendous 2009 season that saw him go winless and finish 25th in the final standings. Hendrick made an offseason commitment to get Earnhardt on pace with the other HMS cars, and Hendrick doesn’t think the early results are indicative of how much progress has been made.

Earnhardt broke an axle last week at California and finished 32nd.

START AND PARK POLICE: NASCAR is apparently keeping an eye on teams who enter races with no intention of trying to finish the events.

The practice, which is called “start-and-park,” has teams going to the track prepared well enough to qualify for the 43-car field. But the driver then pulls off the track shortly after the start of the race because the owner doesn’t want to pay for tires or a pit crew.

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said Sunday that the sanctioning body will now inspect the first car that drops out of the race and wasn’t involved in an accident. It should force teams to attempt to run as many laps as possible to avoid NASCAR inspecting its motor.

LOGANO LOOKS GOOD: Joey Logano had his third straight solid run of his sophomore season, finishing sixth Sunday.

He’s eighth in the Sprint Cup standings, and the highest ranked Joe Gibbs Racing driver. After struggling out of the gate in his rookie season, Logano now has two top-10s and a low finish of 20th in the season-opening Daytona 500.

“Another great run,” he said. “I’m excited about that. To have two great runs like that, it’s exciting coming into the season.”

But he’s got cautious optimism as he heads into Atlanta, home of sponsor Home Depot.

“Next week will probably be a tough one,” he said. “Atlanta is one where we struggled a lot last year. If we run good there, that’s going to really say something to me. I expected to run really good here, especially after last weekend.”

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Johnson reels in Gordon to win at Las Vegas

February 28, 2010

LAS VEGAS (AP)—Jimmie Johnson has won his second straight race by passing teammate Jeff Gordon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Gordon dominated Sunday’s race by leading 218 of the 267 laps, but he took just two tires on the final pit stop and it cost him the victory.

Jeff Jeff Gordon makes a pit stop d… AP – Feb 28, 4:12 pm EST Fans watch for NASCAR drivers … AP – Feb 26, 4:22 pm EST YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_last_index = 1; YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_lazy_images = [http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20100226/capt.96731fa37f2241db82185c033326bbff.nascar_las_vegas_auto_racing_nvib108.jpg?x=180&y=200&xc=88&yc=1&wc=235&hc=261&q=70&sig=cr45Pm3sxA744pO0pJ3FAg--]; YAHOO.util.Event.addListener(window,load,YAHOO.Sports.articleLazyLoadCarousel.init); 1 of 2 NASCAR Gallery function prev_photo() { if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index > 0) { goto_photo(YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index – 1); } else { goto_photo(YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_last_index); }}function next_photo() { if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index 0) { YAHOO.util.Dom.addClass(article_carousel_prev, prev); YAHOO.util.Dom.removeClass(article_carousel_prev, prev_disabled); } else { YAHOO.util.Dom.addClass(article_carousel_prev, prev_disabled); YAHOO.util.Dom.removeClass(article_carousel_prev, prev); } if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index < YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_last_index) { YAHOO.util.Dom.addClass(article_carousel_next, next); YAHOO.util.Dom.removeClass(article_carousel_next, next_disabled); } else { YAHOO.util.Dom.addClass(article_carousel_next, next_disabled); YAHOO.util.Dom.removeClass(article_carousel_next, next); }*/}function goto_photo(p) { if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos) { for(i = 0; i < YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos.length; i++) { if (i == p) { YAHOO.util.Dom.setStyle(YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos[i], display, ); } else { YAHOO.util.Dom.setStyle(YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos[i], display, none); } } if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_page) { YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_page.innerHTML =(p + 1); YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index = p; } } update_buttons();}YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_init = function () { YAHOO.util.Event.addListener(article_carousel_prev, click, prev_photo); YAHOO.util.Event.addListener(article_carousel_next, click, next_photo); YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index = 0; YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_page = YAHOO.util.Dom.get(carousel_page); YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos = YAHOO.util.Dom.getElementsByClassName(item, div, leadphoto); if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos) { goto_photo(0); }}YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_init();

Johnson took four tires and restarted in fourth, but rocketed onto Gordon’s bumper as soon as the race resumed. He chased Gordon for 17 laps, finally scooting past him with 17 to go.

Johnson then pulled away for his 49th career victory and fourth at Las Vegas. The four-time defending series champion also won last week in California.

Kevin Harvick finished second, while Gordon faded to third.

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Lap-by-Lap: Las Vegas (NASCAR.com)

February 28, 2010

| | Chat: 2 p.m. ET

2 p.m.—FOX's pre-race coverage of the Shelby American is under way.

1:40 p.m. ET—Rain delayed the start of the Nationwide race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday but weather won't be an issue Sunday for the Cup race. It's a sunny day in Las Vegas with temperatures in the 60s. Vegas native Kurt Busch is on the pole. Green scheduled to drop at 3:16 p.m. ET.

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Leading F1 teams confirm status as title favorites (PA SportsTicker)

February 28, 2010

By PAUL LOGOTHETIS AP Auto Racing Writer

BARCELONA, Spain(AP)—McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes GP confirmed their positions as front-runners for Formula One’s championship as preseason testing wrapped on Sunday.

Lewis Hamilton set a fastest time of 1 minute, 20.472 seconds for McLaren to edge Red Bull’s Mark Webber by just over two-hundreths of a second.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari was third ahead of Force India’s Adrian Sutil, with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel fifth. Michael Schumacher of Mercedes was sixth as the top drivers were separated by less than three-tenths of a second.

Rubens Barrichello of Williams and Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi finished within half a second of Hamilton.

Most teams practiced low-fuel runs for the best indicator on pace heading into the season-opener at Bahrain on March 14.

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Harvick wins Nationwide race at Las Vegas

February 28, 2010

LAS VEGAS (AP)—Kevin Harvick overcame a pair of horrendous pit stops to win the Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Harvick led 83 of the 200 laps Saturday, but had to rally after his crew cost him several spots on pit road.

“You look like a bunch of idiots on pit road,” he told his Kevin Harvick Inc. crew after their first slow stop.

Harvick had to methodically work his way back through the field, and found himself trailing leader Denny Hamlin late in the race. Once past Hamlin, Harvick coasted to his second career win at Las Vegas and 35th in the Nationwide Series.

“I get mad, and they know how I am and what I expect of them,” Harvick said in Victory Lane. “But I learned a long time ago you can only gripe about it for so long, and then you’ve got to go back and drive the car.”

Hamlin was second, followed by Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Brian Vickers.

Danica Patrick finished 36th in her third and final NASCAR race before she takes a four-month hiatus to return to IndyCar racing.

She wrecked about halfway through the race when she ran into the lapped car of Michael McDowell. She had just pitted and was on fresh tires, and McDowell said he misjudged her closing rate.

“I guess she was coming out on new tires, and the closing rate was so fast,” McDowell said. “I tried to give the outside, I saw her coming into it and I closed the door. It was completely 100 percent my fault. I hate it for everyone at JR Motorsports. Like I said, I take 100 percent responsibility.”

Patrick, who had climbed as high as third earlier in the race, was livid on the radio and uttered a few profanities immediately after the accident. She finally asked crew chief Tony Eury Jr. where to take her battered car. The hood folded like an accordion, she complained she couldn’t even see where she was going.

“It’s gonna be all right, babe,” Eury told her.

“I can barely see,” she replied.

Once back in the garage, she was biting in her assessment of the accident.

“I guess I should have noticed the tape on his left-rear bumper. I probably shouldn’t have been near his left-rear bumper,” she said. “Sure enough, he turned down and took us both out. What are you going to do? It was a real bummer because I was really hooked up out there because we had new tires on it and I was probably one of the quicker cars on the track.”

She also praised Harvick for pointing out the correct racing line to her early in the race.

“Kevin Harvick was great actually—leading the race he was telling me to go high with him,” she said. “That was cool and I was able to run up high and feel that line out. That’s really cool to see that—he’s leading the race and taking time to help me out. I learned for sure.”

Richard Childress Racing driver John Wes Townley issued a statement late in the race apologizing for a Thursday incident in which he was cited for underage possession of alcohol.

“I made a big mistake and feel terrible about it,” the 20-year-old said. “I have learned a valuable lesson and will do everything I can to make it up to those I have let down.”

He finished 15th.

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Townley cited for underage drinking

February 28, 2010

LAS VEGAS (AP)—Nationwide Series driver John Wes Townley has been cited for underage possession of alcohol.

Townley, who is 20, was cited Thursday.

He apologized to NASCAR and his Richard Childress Racing team in a statement issued late in Saturday’s race by his race team.

“I made a big mistake and feel terrible about it,” he said. “I have learned a valuable lesson and will do everything I can to make it up to those I have let down.”

Car owner Richard Childress said Townley made an error in judgment that will be handled internally at RCR.

“Drivers are human and make mistakes like everyone else. However, we do not condone his behavior,” Childress said.

Townley finished 15th in Saturday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

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Storylines: Las Vegas (Yahoo! Sports)

February 27, 2010

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LAS VEGAS – Welcome to “What Will They Do Weekend” – as in, what will a handful of drivers, most notably Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin, do in Sunday’s Shelby American at Las Vegas Motor Speedway?

Earnhardt’s second-place finish in the Daytona 500 is a distant memory after last weekend’s disappointing and slighting troubling performance at Auto Club Speedway where Junior was never a factor. That showing has rehashed the bad memories of 2009, leaving us to wonder if 2010 is going to be a turnaround year for NASCAR’s most popular driver.

Danica’s first stint gets an ‘Incomplete’ (Yahoo! Sports)

February 27, 2010

LAS VEGAS – The first chapter of Danica Patrick’s stock car experiment ended with her asking for directions back to the garage – her vision impaired by the folded-up hood blocking her view.

Danica Patrick ran into Michael McDowell on Lap 83 in the Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.Getty

Moments earlier, Patrick clipped Michael McDowell’s rear bumper, sending both drivers into a spin and, eventually, each other. Just 83 laps into the Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, her race was over.

As Patrick wheeled her battered race car back toward the garage, she unloaded on McDowell, wondering what he and his spotter were thinking getting in the way of a faster car, especially when his car already was busted up from an earlier incident.

Danica’s first NASCAR stint gets an ‘Incomplete’ (Yahoo! Sports)

February 27, 2010

LAS VEGAS – The first chapter of Danica Patrick’s stock car experiment ended with her asking for directions back to the garage – her vision impaired by the folded-up hood blocking her view.

Danica Patrick ran into Michael McDowell on Lap 83 in the Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.Getty

Knaus outsmarts everyone – again (Yahoo! Sports)

Montoya and McMurray at odds after wreck

Johnson reels in Gordon to win at Las Vegas

Lap-by-Lap: Las Vegas (NASCAR.com)

Leading F1 teams confirm status as title favorites (PA SportsTicker)

Harvick wins Nationwide race at Las Vegas

Townley cited for underage drinking

Storylines: Las Vegas (Yahoo! Sports)

Danica’s first stint gets an ‘Incomplete’ (Yahoo! Sports)

Danica’s first NASCAR stint gets an ‘Incomplete’ (Yahoo! Sports)

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