Daytona winner Trevor Bayne charms hometown fans (PA SportsTicker)
February 28, 2011
By BETH RUCKER AP Sports Writer
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP)—Trevor Bayne is finally getting a chance to take in all the excitement of winning the Daytona 500 just over a week ago.
The 20-year-old Knoxville native returned home on Monday for the first time since winning the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20 for a rally sponsored by the city and Bristol Motor Speedway.
Bayne doesn’t think the victory will completely sink in until he gets a chance to watch a recording of the race.
He’s been wearing his championship ring on his finger every night so that when he wakes up the next morning he’ll know his victory wasn’t a dream.
A few hundred fans turned out for the Knoxville rally, which was relocated last week from the city’s Market Square to the much larger Civic Coliseum after a big response from fans.
Head2Head: Does Phoenix Int’l Raceway need to be repaved? (NASCAR.com)
February 28, 2011
Jeff Gordon hadn’t even left the track yet and the bulldozers were already hard at work. Immediately following the Cup race, Phoenix International Raceway began it’s repaving project.
The 20-year old surface is being repaved, and will have a new look when NASCAR returns in November with variable banking added and the dogleg being extended. After a successful race weekend, does PIR really need all these changes? David Caraviello and Bill Kimm have their thoughts—read theirs and weigh in with yours in the comments below. And don’t forget to vote for whose argument you agree with more in the poll at the right.
Does Phoenix International Raceway need to be repaved?
YES NO
Excuse Bill Kimm. He simply doesn’t know. As the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, the Arizona Hiking Club, or any random Gila monster can tell you, the Sonoran Desert is an inhospitable place. Those of us who’ve served our time there—and I have the empty sunscreen tubes and water bottles to prove it—know the Valley of the Sun is an often-blistering locale that can test the limits of any living thing.
Asphalt may not be living, but it comes close in the way it breathes and bends and gets beaten by the elements. After two decades of baking in the sun, the pavement at Phoenix is due for a break. So before any Daytona-like gouges sprout in a surface that’s already patched up like an old pair of jeans, break out the jackhammers and get to work on a new coat of asphalt that will extend the life of one of NASCAR’s best tracks.
I understand that repaving makes some people jumpy. But let’s be honest—we in NASCAR see Phoenix at its most temperate, not during the rest of the year when it’s hot enough to make horned lizards spontaneously combust. What kind of toll does that take on a track surface? Turn your oven to about 200 degrees, stick a brick in there, and check on it again in 10 months.
So don’t be afraid of repaving PIR. A new surface, a tighter dogleg, and a wider groove will be the result. Don’t believe me? Hike out there and take a look. Just bring plenty of sunscreen and water. And watch out for the Gila monsters.
• David Caraviello, NASCAR.COMThe opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
I get that tracks need to be repaved—it’s a necessary evil in motorsports. But I live by the motto: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” And the racing that I saw Sunday at Phoenix shows the track is anything but broken.
What a fantastic race. The Cup race Sunday had phenomenal action in the beginning—as Phoenix almost always offers, and then when the field thinned out, some great side-by-side action along with exciting position battles. Pave Phoenix and all that goes away.
When NASCAR returns in November, for the penultimate race of the season by the way, it’s all a crap shoot. The drivers and teams won’t know how the tires will react; won’t know how the cars will handle; heck, they are even changing the layout of the track meaning PIR will look nothing like it did Sunday.
The sad thing is, the track is in great shape. Phoenix has character. There is a style to Phoenix that isn’t seen anywhere else on the circuit. The track has spent 20 years building up its personality—and now that’s all gone.
And I’m not alone. Jimmie Johnson and others in the garage have voiced their concern about repaving the 1-mile facility.
Repaving is part of this sport, there’s no getting around it. But why not wait until its necessary? Right now Phoenix is gambling. How much will the racing change? I guess we will all find out right before crowning this year’s champions.
• Bill Kimm, NASCAR.COMThe opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
In The Pits: NASCAR off to a fast start (PA SportsTicker)
February 28, 2011
By JENNA FRYER AP Auto Racing Writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)—The joke in NASCAR has long been that most races are scripted to satisfy the suits in the scoring tower high above the track. If it were true – and, to be clear, it’s not – then NASCAR needs to give its writers a raise.
NASCAR could not have dreamed a better opening two weeks to the season – the youngest winner in Daytona 500 history followed by the end of elder statesman Jeff Gordon’s 66-race losing streak.
The competition has been stellar, with the first two races boasting record lead changes. The 28 on Sunday at Phoenix were the most in a race there in almost 11 years.
The crowds were good – Phoenix, which seats 55,000, was officially listed as a sellout – and overnight ratings from Sunday show Fox has drawn more viewers both weeks.
More important, though, is the buzz since 20-year-old Trevor Bayne’s upset Feb. 20 to win the showcase race. It did wonders in attracting onlookers, including hot young Hollywood actress Emmy Rossum, who sang the national anthem at Phoenix.
“NASCAR is epic,” the 24-year-old posted on her Twitter page after the race, adding that her lap around the track with Bayne and her time in Carl Edwards’ pit was one “of the coolest experiences of my life.”
Now NASCAR has Gordon, a 20-year veteran and four-time champion, back in Victory Lane after a drought that stretched almost two years, an outcome that sits well with the sport’s aging fan base. The fresh-faced Bayne, meanwhile, attracted the coveted 18-to-34-year-old audience.
Either way, it’s got the series headed in the right direction after several sagging seasons.
“It’s the kind of excitement that causes you to wonder what will happen next week in Las Vegas,” NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said Monday.
Indeed, things could really get interesting this weekend when the Busch Brothers return to their home track ranked first and second in the Sprint Cup Series standings. Kyle Busch rolls into Sin City as the points leader, with a three-point cushion over older brother, Kurt.
They are the only two drivers to nab top-10 finishes in both of the season-opening races. Kyle finished second Sunday to Gordon, preventing him from sweeping the weekend at Phoenix after wins in the Nationwide and Trucks Series. Kurt won the first two exhibition races at Daytona and was in position late to win the 500 before settling for fifth.
Both view Las Vegas Motor Speedway as the Holy Grail on the NASCAR circuit – Kyle won there in 2009, Kurt’s best finish was third in 2005 – and nobody doubts they’d run each other over to get to Victory Lane.
The only thing that could possibly push NASCAR’s rebound further along is a win by Dale Earnhardt Jr., but his fans have to be pleased with his season so far. Granted, it’s only two races in and far too early to determine if his pairing with new crew chief Steve Letarte will be a success, but NASCAR’s most popular driver has shown signs of life even as his winless streak hit 95 races on Sunday.
He led nine laps at Daytona and was in position to make a late push for the victory until a flat tire sabotaged his strategy. But his 10th-place finish Sunday was his best at Phoenix since 2008, and gives him momentum heading into Las Vegas, where he qualified fourth last year and finished 16th.
“It’s the best I’ve run around here in a long time,” he said, referring to Sunday’s race. “I do want to run better. Definitely not jumping up and down over what we did, but this is a step in the right direction. This is a leap in the right direction for me over the last several trips at Phoenix.”
It’s up to the fans to decide if the first two weeks are enough to keep them interested for 34 more races. And while there are still issues to be ironed out – the middle sections of races can lull some viewers to sleep, and Fox’s abbreviated post-race shows leave most unsatisfied – NASCAR finally appears to be doing something right.
Menzer: Offseason changes at HMS paying dividends early (NASCAR.com)
February 28, 2011
If the Sprint Cup Series season really began last weekend at Phoenix International Raceway as so many seem to believe, Rick Hendrick already has the competition squirming.
Much of the talk a week earlier prior to the Daytona 500—the official season opener on the Cup schedule but a race so unique, especially this season, that last Sunday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 at PIR felt more like a “regular” race—centered around everyone else. Kurt Busch won the Shootout and one of the two 150-mile Duel qualifying races in the No. 22 Dodge he drives for Penske Racing. Jeff Burton won the other Duel in the No. 31 Chevrolet he drives for Richard Childress Racing.
Sure, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole in the No. 88 Chevy he wheels for the venerable Mr. Hendrick, but then he promptly wrecked it during the next practice and had to go to the back of the field for the start of the subsequent race.
Meanwhile, the Fords of Roush Fenway Racing were the talk of the Daytona garage because of their high-performing, low-cooling new engines. The Hendrick Motorsports cars, including those of five-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, four-time champion Jeff Gordon and accomplished veteran Mark Martin, flew largely unnoticed under the Daytona radar.
No one was really saying it. But plenty thought it.
Could it be all that internal shuffling of the four Hendrick teams at the end of last season was a little too much? Could this be the year Hendrick Motorsports finally proved human and therefore truly vulnerable?
Um, those questions appear to have been answered in Phoenix, where Gordon broke a 66-race winless streak to lead a parade of Hendrick cars in a relentless march toward the front. Not only did Gordon win in only his second race with new crew chief Alan Gustafson, but all four Hendrick cars finished in the top 13—including Johnson in third, Earnhardt Jr. in 10th and Martin in 13th, respectively.
Vindication?
The ink wasn’t dry on Johnson’s $5.778 million check for winning a fifth consecutive championship before Hendrick was tinkering with his teams. Sure, he left well enough alone on Johnson’s No. 48 team—although he and crew chief Chad Knaus did agree on making a pit-crew swap with the No. 24 team that was made in the middle of a race toward the end of the season permanent. Those who know Knaus know that changes always can and will be made to that group, depending on how they’re performing.
For the other three Hendrick teams, the changes made immediately after Johnson’s triumphant return from the postseason awards banquet in Las Vegas were less subtle than merely swapping out a tire changer or two. Gordon’s long-time crew chief, Steve Letarte, became Earnhardt’s crew chief; Alan Gustafson, who had been with Martin, became Gordon’s new pit boss; and Lance McGrew, who had been with Earnhardt, went to Martin.
Furthermore, after years of working in the same building together with the No. 48 guys, Gordon’s No. 24 team swapped shops within the sprawling Hendrick complex with Earnhardt’s No. 88 crew. The sweeping changes were bold and somewhat unexpected, at least in their wide scope. And Hendrick knew it would open himself and his organization to great scrutiny.
So far, they are more than holding up to that close inspection.
“You know, when you make a decision like that, it’s up to the people to make it work,” Hendrick told the media after Gordon’s immensely popular win Sunday at PIR. “But this organization is really one team of four cars. People say that sometimes and don’t really mean it—but these guys work shoulder to shoulder. I think the chemistry of it and when you look at the DNA of all of them, it made sense.
“Dale needed Steve because [Letarte] is a real rah-rah guy that stays with him all during the race. I looked at Lance as a technician and that’s what Mark is, and they have won together [in the Nationwide Series]. And then as for Alan and Jeff, Jeff has always had tremendous respect for Alan and has always talked about having Alan.”
Long way to go
Maybe so, but Gordon also held Letarte in high regard and still does. They are close friends. He left no doubt at any point that the crew chief swaps were an execution of Hendrick’s vision, not his. But he also readily admitted that he always has been intrigued by the thought of possibly working with Gustafson.
“It all happened pretty quick,” Gordon said. “And I’ve always admired Alan, always respected him.”
It was fitting that Gordon had to make a late-race pass of Kyle Busch to win at Phoenix. It was when Gustafson was serving as Kyle’s crew chief at Hendrick that Gordon first started gaining serious respect for what Gustafson could do.
“I remember having conversations with Alan about things that they were doing and I liked the way he talked about things. I liked the ideas that he had and the things that they were doing,” Gordon said.
“And I liked him even more, because this is a young Kyle Busch we’re talking about. That’s what we always said around Hendrick Motorsports: that’s a young Kyle Busch. Young Kyle Busch was a handful. I could remember every weekend, they would be fast and he would hit the wall and they would spend most of their time fixing the car in practice. To see Alan go through that, knowing they are building fast race cars, but to be able to handle himself the way he handled those situations with a young Kyle Busch, was impressive.”
Busch was the odd man out at Hendrick when Earnhardt came on board as a driver in 2008, and headed over to Joe Gibbs Racing while Gustafson stayed behind to work with Martin. It has not been lost on anyone that Gustafson won four races in three seasons with the young Busch, won five races with the elder statesman Martin in 2009—and now he’s off to a rousing start with Gordon.
So he’s won with the young and the old, and now with the perfectly in-between. Gordon, at 39, is 13 years older than Busch and 13 years younger than the 52-year-old Martin.
“It’s him,” Gordon insisted of Gustafson.
Gustafson shrugged off the idea of that.
“To me, to say you’ve won with Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin, I think you’re pretty lucky. You know what I mean?” Gustafson said. “If I would have won with somebody who has never won, I think that’s probably a bigger accomplishment.
“I thank Mr. Hendrick for putting me in position to work with drivers of that caliber. There are a lot of people who are going to work their whole lives and never have opportunities like that. I think it’s awesome that I’ve got those chances and to work with Kyle and Mark and now Jeff. They are three Hall of Fame drivers, arguably three of the best ever to drive these cars, and I’m just ecstatic that I’ve had those opportunities.”
Meanwhile, it has left Hendrick smiling at the thought of a hungrier, reinvigorated Gordon challenging Johnson for his own fifth championship while the rest of his HMS gang scrambles to make certain they aren’t left far behind. He also knows one race does not make a season.
That’s a warning to the rest of the garage. It means he won’t allow himself or anyone within the Hendrick organization to remain complacent.
“It’s early,” Hendrick told the assembled media at PIR. “By summer, you might be telling me I made a terrible mistake.”
Perhaps, but it’s doubtful.
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
Sprint Cup Series Standings 1.+6Kyle Busch80Leader 2.+2Kurt Busch77-33.+9Tony Stewart69-114.+6A.J. Allmendinger69-115.+21Jeff Gordon65-15
Gordon ends winless streak at 66 races (PA SportsTicker)
February 28, 2011
By JOHN MARSHALL AP Sports Writer
AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) – Jeff Gordon’s car was solid, he was able to overcame a slew of obstacles and led the most laps around at Phoenix International Raceway. Regardless of whether he won the race or not, he was going to be pleased with his weekend.
To actually grab those checkers, ending the longest winless streak of his career, well, it couldn’t have gotten much better than that.
Gordon overcame several potentially troublesome incidents and passed Kyle Busch with eight laps left, ending his winless streak at 66 races with a persevering victory Sunday.
“It hasn’t been fun, I can tell you that much,” Gordon said of the previous two years. “Today, that’s what made this victory so special. We battled, we raced them and it was so cool to experience.”
Gordon joins a running list of drivers to end long winless streaks at PIR. Ryan Newman ended his checkerless drought at 77 races at PIR’s spring race last year and Carl Edwards stopped his at 70 races without a win in the fall.
A four-time series champion, Gordon was mired in a drought that seemed inexplicable for one of NASCAR’s most successful and popular drivers. Even in ending it, it wasn’t easy.
Coming off a disappointing Daytona 500, Gordon struggled in qualifying and started 20th. Early in the race, he was knocked into the wall by Edwards and later had to avoid a massive wreck that led to a 14-minute red flag. He also had to pull behind another car to shake loose a piece of debris from his grill and fight his way back to the front after a slow pit stop late in the race.
Gordon still managed to lead a race-high 138 laps and was able to pull alongside then bump Busch out of the way to win for the first time since April 2009 at Texas. It was his 83rd career victory, tying him with Cale Yarborough for fifth all-time.
“He was on a mission today, that’s for sure,” said Busch, who held on for second to fall just short of winning all three NASCAR races in the same weekend for the second time in his career.
“When Jeff Gordon has a good car and he’s got the opportunity to beat you, he’s going to beat you, there’s no doubt about that. He’s my hero and I’ve always watched him and what he’s been able to accomplish over the years, so it’s no surprise that he beat us.”
Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Ryan Newman rounded out the top five in a 312-lap race around PIR’s mile oval, the last on the current surface.
The quirky old track will undergo a $10 million repaving and reconfiguration project before the fall race, a move that isn’t popular with many of the drivers.
The old bump-and-crack-filled surface held up well in its final weekend with a flurry of records.
Clint Bowyer set the qualifying mark in trucks on Friday, then Busch did it in the Nationwide on Saturday. Edwards set a new Sprint Cup qualifying record at the track, hitting 137.279 mph to barely edge Kurt Busch on a day when 15 drivers eclipsed the previous record set by Edwards in the fall.
Conditions were a little different for Sunday’s race.
A big storm came through the Valley of the Sun overnight, leaving a dusting of snow on the mountains above the track and washing away all the rubber that had built up on the track the previous two days. That meant a change in setups for all the teams, more grip for the tires and, fitting for the way the weekend went, more speed.
And it seemed the extra speed was hard to handle, leading to numerous early cautions, including one that took out Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne and another that sent Edwards on a lengthy trip to the garage.
The big one hit on Lap 67, when Brian Vickers got loose after bumping Matt Kenseth, triggering a chain-reaction wreck that involved 13 cars and brought out the red flag, not to mention several wreckers – the kind of aggressive racing not normally seen early in the season or early in races.
“They were driving like it was the last lap!” said Clint Bowyer, who was a part of the wreck. “Man, if we keep this up, we’ll only have four cars to end all these races.”
Gordon traded leads with Tony Stewart, Johnson and, eventually Busch after that. Gordon got Busch by pulling alongside him and bumping him out of the way, then stretched the lead to take the checkers for the first time in a long time.
The fans in the grandstands savored the moment, nearly all of them rising as he crossed the line, and Gordon had a raucous celebration in the pits with his crew, owner and teammate Mark Martin.
“We were the only one to beat Kyle Busch this weekend and he’s so tough to beat,” said Gordon, who also won at PIR in 2007. “What an awesome, awesome feeling to have a car like that.”
And to win like that, finally.
Daimler to take majority stake of Mercedes F1 team (PA SportsTicker)
February 28, 2011
FRANKFURT, GERMANY (AP) —Daimler AG will take a majority stake in the Mercedes GP Formula One team by acquiring the 24.9 percent owned by Brawn GP.
The German carmaker says the acquisition will result in the company owning 60 percent of the team, with the remaining 40 percent in the hands of Aabar Investments based in Abu Dhabi.
Mercedes bought out Brawn GP after it won the 2009 Formula One championship. The team’s drivers are seven-time champion Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. Ross Brawn remains the team chief.
Gordon gets belated return to victory lane (Yahoo! Sports)
February 28, 2011
AVONDALE, Ariz. – Standing in victory lane, celebrating his first trip there since April 5, 2009, Jeff Gordon was giddy, not just about snapping a 66-race winless drought, but because he passed Kyle Busch to do it.
Think about that for a moment – Jeff Gordon, the four-time champ who’s now won more races than all but five other drivers in the history of the sport, was jazzed about beating a 25-year-old, championship-less Kyle Busch.
This speaks as much to Busch’s talent – he did win two of the three races this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway, and finished second in the other – as it does to Gordon’s place in the sport right now. He’s no longer the active driver with the most championships, a distinction he’d held for the last 10 years; he’s not even among the handful of drivers mentioned as potential favorites to win the series title anymore.
More From Jay Hart Drivers hot after 13-car wreck Feb 27, 2011 Repaving Phoenix Intl presents a challenge Feb 27, 2011
Over the last few years, as Jimmie Johnson has caught up to and surpassed him in the championship department, Gordon’s greatness has transformed from something that “is” to something that “was.” At least, that’s what the win column would indicate.
In between his last win and this one, he recorded eight runner-up finishes, wound up third and ninth in the standings and was still very much a top-notch driver. Just not the top driver.
If that troubled his fans, imagine how it weighed on him.
“It hasn’t been fun, I’ll be honest with you,” Gordon said. “Going to the race track and being competitive and battling for wins, that’s been my whole motivation throughout my career. … I don’t love going out there and finishing 10th or 15th or 20th. I’ll be honest, it’s depressing. And I know that might not come across the right way, but when you’ve won 82 races and you’ve won for Hendrick Motorsports, that pressure is there and those expectations are there not only from the outside but from the inside.
“Today, man, that’s what made it so sweet. It’s not like we lucked into it. We battled and we worked and we out-raced him.”
The win, his 83rd to tie him for fifth-place all time with Cale Yarborough, was signature Gordon, circa 1998. Despite qualifying poorly and making early contact with the wall, he made short work getting to the front. He started 20th, drove into the top 10 by Lap 40 and took his first lead on Lap 77. He’d stay there for 138 of the final 235 laps.
But with 27 laps to go, Gordon found himself in third place, behind Tony Stewart and Busch. The winless streak, it appeared, would live another week.
Stewart took off on the final restart, Busch gave chase and quickly took the lead. Just 21 laps remained for Gordon to get by Stewart, who was on only two fresh tires, before Busch could drive away. Within two laps, Gordon did, then set out to catch Busch, who 24 hours earlier had led all 200 laps in a dominating Nationwide win.
Lap after lap, Gordon cut into Busch’s lead. With nine to go, Gordon had caught him. With eight left, he was on his bumper, nudging Busch just enough to his nose underneath and complete the pass. From there, Gordon checked out.
“He’s tough,” Gordon explained of why he was so ecstatic with passing and beating Busch. “I respect his talent. … To me, there’s nothing cooler – maybe if that was with Jimmie [Johnson] – Jimmie and Kyle, to me that’s where they’re at on tough guys in this sport to beat.”
Gordon celebrated by doing a burnout down the frontstretch at PIR. It didn’t matter to the 55,000-plus in attendance that it was a less-than-spectacular (lame, in his words) effort. As he got a push from a wrecker back to victory lane – he’d blown his engine in the celebration – Gordon looked to his left and saw something he’d never seen before: every fan was on their feet.
He’s come a long way since he was the California kid getting booed because well, he was from California and his mustache wasn’t nearly as cool as Earnhardt’s. Maybe they were on their feet because he hasn’t been to victory lane in a while. Maybe it’s because it was someone other than Jimmie Johnson. Doesn’t matter. Entering his 19th season, Gordon’s won them over.
“I got out of [my car] down there in the grass and I looked up and, I mean, I didn’t see an empty spot,” Gordon said. “I was feeling the emotions, but to see [the fans] react like that. And then the push truck pushed me around and to see them all the way down doing that, I was like, I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced something like that. And that to me made it all worth it right there to have that feeling.”
Jay Hart is the NASCAR editor for Yahoo! Sports. Send Jay a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Lucas beats Top Fuel teammate at Winternationals (PA SportsTicker)
February 28, 2011
POMONA, CALIF. (AP) —Morgan Lucas defeated Shawn Langdon in a matchup of former high school classmates in the Top Fuel final Sunday at the season-opening NHRA Winternationals.
Robert Hight won the Funny Car final while Jason Line won in Pro Stock.
Lucas powered to a run of 3.835 seconds at 316.38 mph, while Langdon lost traction for a moment and slowed to a 4.047 at 313.73. The two Lucas Oil Racing teammates graduated in 2001 from Jurupa Valley High School in nearby Mira Loma, Calif.
“I’ve never been in the points lead in Top Fuel before, and I don’t really even know how to feel right now,” Lucas said. “Getting to race my teammate Shawn, who I went to high school with, this is just a dream come true, it really is.”
“We were really fortunate in 2009 to get three wins, then we went on a big drought last year in 2010,” Lucas said. “I think that is one of those things that makes you appreciate success. I think as a team we’re really going to appreciate this day and just enjoy it because, you know what, who knows when the next one is going to happen.”
In Funny Car, Hight used a quicker reaction time to defeat 2010 series runner-up Matt Hagan in a close final round. Hight powered his Ford Mustang to a 4.056-second run at 312.71 mph to edge Hagan’s Dodge Charger at the finish line, which posted a quicker but losing performance of 4.023 at 310.20. It was Hight’s first win since Denver 2010.
In Pro Stock, Line defeated Greg Stanfield to win for the 22nd time in his career and second time at the Winternationals. Line put together a run of 6.529 seconds at 211.89 mph in a Pontiac GXP, while Stanfield trailed with a 6.595 at 210.70, also in a GXP.
The NHRA season resumes March 10-13 in Gainesville, Fla.
Aumann: Gordon drinks it all in at PIR after victory drought (NASCAR.com)
February 28, 2011
During the final 20 laps Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, Jeff Gordon found a way to beat the driver perhaps closest to matching Gordon’s talent during his prime.
“We beat Kyle Busch! Are you kidding me? Pinch me, man! Pinch me!”
No one stays atop NASCAR’s throne forever. Richard Petty. David Pearson. Cale Yarborough. Bobby Allison. Bill Elliott. Darrell Waltrip. Rusty Wallace. Dale Earnhardt. Jeff Gordon. Jimmie Johnson.
And now perhaps Kyle Busch, with his 88 victories in NASCAR’s three major touring series, could be considered today’s heir apparent. So for Gordon to beat Busch at his best was like turning the clock back 15 years, when it was the Intimidator and the Golden Boy going toe-to toe, week-in and week-out.
“He’s tough,” Gordon said of his former Hendrick teammate. “I respect his talent, that team, and he’s aggressive. I think everybody knows, you don’t want to have to restart up against him. He’s just won a lot of stuff lately. And to be quite honest with you, to me, there’s nothing cooler.”
Busch won Friday night’s Truck race. He never gave up the lead in Saturday’s Nationwide race. And when he wrestled the lead away from Tony Stewart on a restart with 21 laps to go Sunday, it seemed that Busch was destined to sweep all three races at Phoenix. But Gordon had other plans.
“I think he was on a mission [Sunday], that’s for sure. And when Jeff Gordon has a good car and he has the opportunity to beat you, he’s going to beat you,” Busch said. “There’s no doubt about that. He’s my hero and I’ve always watched him and what he’s been able to accomplish over the years. It’s no surprise that he beat us.”
Gordon should have won at least four times in 2010 but didn’t, for a variety of reasons. So given the chance in the second race of 2011, Gordon didn’t let the opportunity slip away.
“Man, what an awesome, awesome, feeling it is when you’ve got the car right like that,” Gordon said. “And they give you 20 [laps] to go and it’s your job to go get it done, you’ve got what you need to go do that and then you pull it off.”
Gordon passed Stewart for second on Lap 292, but was still more than a half-second behind Busch with the laps winding down. But as Gordon’s No. 24 Chevrolet began to reel in the No. 18 Toyota—chipping away precious hundredths of a second with every lap—the estimated 75,000 in attendance began to believe in something special, standing almost in wonder as the gap between the two cars closed.
And on Lap 304, eight laps from the checkered, Gordon found himself in a long-familiar spot. And unlike 2010, when it seemed like everything that could go wrong, did—he looked again like the driver who seemed at one time to be a shoo-in to join Petty and Pearson as the only drivers to win more than 100 Cup races in their careers.
“I thought, ‘Even if I catch him, what am I going to do with him?’ ” Gordon said. “We caught him, he got loose, I got underneath him and I didn’t know what to expect. I got into [Turn 1], he was right on my door. I got loose, got up into him, they said ‘clear’ and I went. Because I knew I’d need to get away from him as fast as I could.”
Busch could see Gordon coming and realized there was little he could do to halt Gordon’s charge.
“He was gaining on me really good and I knew he was going to get to me eventually and this place is so flat and it’s one groove that we all run the bottom,” Busch said. “He got so tucked up behind me in [Turns 3 and 4], he got me loose and I could not put the gas down. I mean, he was so far up underneath me that I could not go forward.
“So I was loose, and he was just waiting for the exit of the turn to turn underneath me and get alongside of me and then once we got down into Turn 1, we both drove off in there pretty deep and I had enough where I could slow down and kind of run on what I thought would be the second lane. And he just drifted up a little bit into me and knocked me out of the way.”
Busch admitted the bump didn’t matter to the eventual outcome.
“He had a fast enough car,” Busch said. “He could have done that, either way. He would have won if he didn’t do it, if he did do it. It has nothing to do with how he won.”
Once he got by Busch, Gordon continued to pull away, eventually winning by 1.137 seconds. It was a victory that finally tied him with Yarborough at 83 victories, one shy of Allison and Waltrip.
As the fans cheered and clapped and waved their hands, Gordon did perhaps the worst burnout in the history of PIR. But when you haven’t won in 66 races, you don’t care about style points.
“It’s been a long time, I know,” Gordon said. “I’m going to savor this one so much.
“I’ve been tweeting lately for the first time, and all of the stuff the people have been saying, the motivation has been unbelievably inspiring. And then to see that crowd stick around to see my really lame burnout—because I stink at them—they loved the show. Man, we hope we can give them some more shows like that this year. That was awesome.”
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
Sprint Cup Series Standings 1.+6Kyle Busch80Leader 2.+2Kurt Busch77-33.+9Tony Stewart69-114.+6A.J. Allmendinger69-115.+21Jeff Gordon65-15
Aggressive driving leads to early Phoenix wrecks
February 28, 2011
AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP)—Sprint Cup drivers normally don’t race each other too hard early in the season, particularly early in races.
That wasn’t the case at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday.
With cars bouncing off walls and each other, Phoenix looked a lot like Talladega for while. Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne was an early victim. Robbie Gordon spun and damaged his car, and Carl Edwards got knocked out for a while when Kyle Busch appeared to get loose and bumped him.
The big one came on Lap 67.
Matt Kenseth triggered it when he went up the track a little and made contact with Brian Vickers, knocking his car loose. Vickers tried to gather his car, but got sideways, setting off a chain-reaction wreck that sent cars careening into the walls on both sides of the track.
The red flag came out and so did the wreckers after 13 cars were involved, leading to a 14-minute delay while officials cleaned the mess up.
“We’re all smarter than this, we’re all better race car drivers than this,” said Clint Bowyer, who was collected in the wreck. “We’re driving like idiots. Everybody is taking two tires, four tires—everybody is on completely different agendas right there and we never could get going. It’s just stupid.”
Kenseth didn’t seem to hit Vickers hard, but it was enough to get his car loose. Kenseth thought he had given Vickers enough room and his crew agreed during a call on the radio.
Vickers saw it a different way.
“The 17 ran us into the wall, door slammed us into the corner coming out of Turn 2, just 67 laps into a very, very long race,” Vickers said. “I felt like it was unnecessary and I’m sure it will come back to him.”
Edwards and Busch have had some heated moments in the past, so Edwards initially wondered if the contact between them was intentional.
“I thought at first he was just frustrated and he turned left to get back and line and didn’t know I was there, but I watched the tape and I think he really did get loose,” said Edwards, who finished 28th after his crew got him back on the track. “He hit me hard and I was left with nothing.”
Busch said he felt bad after the bump.
“The car kind of got out from underneath on the backstretch and I made a mistake and got into Carl Edwards, completely destroying his day,” he said. “I can understand his frustration and I apologize to him first and foremost.”
BAYNE’S WEEKEND: Bayne had a rough post-Daytona weekend.
He had the brakes lock up on the first lap of Sprint Cup practice Friday, sending his car into the wall and forcing him to a backup. He had a solid run going after starting seventh in the Nationwide race, only to end up in the wall again after a tire blew, finishing 31st.
Bayne hit the wall for a third time on Lap 50 of Sunday’s race, spinning out after trying to squeeze in front of Travis Kvapil. He never returned and finished 40th.
“That tough coming off of our high at Daytona to come to this, but we’ve got a great race team behind us,” Bayne said. “We’ll be back at Vegas. I hate it ended this way this weekend, but we’ll be back.”
HENDRICK BOUNCES BACK: Hendrick Motorsports had a disappointing Daytona 500, leaving the team owner wondering what went wrong.
What a difference a week makes.
At Daytona, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon had lengthy trips to the garage, Mark Martin faded from contention and Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecked on the green-white-checkered restart.
Hendrick’s drivers didn’t qualify well at Phoenix—Gordon was best at 20th—but they made up for it on race day. Not only did Gordon win, ending his 66-race winless streak, Johnson wasn’t far behind in third, Earnhardt finished 10th after starting 25th, and Martin was 13th.
After an offseason that included a major restructuring among the four teams, this was a good sign they made the right moves.
“I think we needed to do something to rejuvenate our whole group,” team owner Rick Hendrick said. “I see every one of our guys stepping up.”
REPAVING PHOENIX: Watching out the window from the media center, Johnson was surprised to see a giant tractor drive up the backstretch and park at the start/finish line.
Phoenix International Raceway will undergo a $10 million repaving and reconfiguration project before the next race in the fall. The project’s expected to take six months, but race officials didn’t hesitate to show they’re ready to get started, wheeling a big-boomed tractor out to the front of the grandstand.
“Well, they’re not missing an opportunity, are they?” Johnson said. “Let’s see what happens.”
Nothing did.
The tractor stretched out, put its bucket on the pavement and the operator climbed out.
The real action didn’t come until later, when the tractor took its first chunk of the old asphalt out with a series of ground-shaking thuds. A small group of fans stuck around to watch, but Johnson was long gone.
CAR SWAP: Tony Stewart is going to swap cars with former Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton.
The drivers are expected to switch cars at Watkins Glen sometime this summer, an exhibition set up by a mutual sponsor of both drivers.
And it won’t be lookalikes to their race cars. Both drivers will have their race teams with them to tune up the cars.
Juan Pablo Montoya, now on the Sprint Cup circuit, made a similar swap with Jeff Gordon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2003.
PIT STOPS: Sunday’s race featured 28 lead changes, a new track record. … Johnson has 14 top-10s in 16 Sprint Cup races at Phoenix. … Kyle Busch is the early Sprint Cup points leader, three ahead of his brother, Kurt. … Chevys have won 10 of the last 11 Sprint Cup races at Phoenix. … Hendrick has the most wins all-time as an owner at Phoenix with nine.
