Head2Head: Better past two months: Stewart or Hornaday? (NASCAR.com)
October 31, 2011
What a fall it has been for Tony Stewart and Ron Hornaday.
Stewart began the Chase for the Sprint Cup essentially in last place with no bonus points due to no victories on the season. Hornaday was no better, sitting ninth in Truck Series points, 68 behind points leader Austin Dillon with nine races remaining. Yet, due to an impressive September and October, both drivers find themselves in the forefront of the title discussion with two (Hornaday) and three (Stewart) races remaining.
But while both drivers have been lights-out the past couple months, whose run has been more impressive? Bill Kimm and Dave Rodman have their picks. Read theirs and weigh in with yours in the comments below. And don’t forget to vote in the poll at the right.
More impressive two months: Stewart or Hornaday?
STEWART HORNADAY
Brad Keselowski was the most remarkable story entering the eighth annual Chase for the Sprint Cup. But seven races into NASCAR’s “playoff,” Tony Stewart, the only driver to win titles in each of the most recent championship formats, without question has been the most impressive over the past two months.
Closely aligned with crew chief Darian Grubb, Stewart, who won Cup championships in 2002 under the season-long points format and in 2005, the 10-race Chase format, is the biggest challenge to championship favorite Carl Edwards.
Stewart knows about winning championships, in multiple formats and divisions, so he has to be considered legitimate. And that’s a stunning turnaround.
Right before the Richmond Chase cutoff, Stewart said his Stewart-Haas Racing team didn’t deserve a spot in the 12-man playoff. Stewart, who can be a challenge for the media—but on a positive note as he makes reporters bring their “A game”—has been the key fixture. No doubt Stewart, who’s won at least one race in each of his 13 Cup seasons, is just as challenging to work with day in and day out.
But Stewart started the Chase by breaking a 33-race winless streak at Chicagoland Speedway. Since then he’s won twice more and two other top-10 finishes equal an average Chase finish of 8.3.
Edwards’ teammate, Matt Kenseth, says Stewart’s been lucky to win and he’s not running as well as Edwards. But there’s no question Stewart putting himself in position to win this championship is very impressive.
• Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COMThe opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
When the Truck Series made its annual visit to Atlanta, Ron Hornaday was nowhere to be found in the championship conversation. It’s not that his season was horrible, it’s just he wasn’t dominating like in the past and found himself 68 points out of first.
But when the calendar flipped to September, Hornaday flipped the switch as well, and is now 15 points away from title No. 5.
Hornaday played the fuel game perfectly at Atlanta to score his second victory of the season and cut 20 points off his deficit. But a couple of days later, team owner Kevin Harvick announced he would be shutting his Truck team down at the end of the season. Hornaday all of a sudden found himself without a ride.
Heartbroken, but determined, Hornaday posted a 10th at Chicagoland and a fourth at New Hampshire. Following that race, Harvick made another bold move, putting Hornaday in the No. 2 truck in an effort to lock up the owner’s championship.
This would catapult KHI and Hornaday not just into the owner points battle, but the driver points battle as well. Hornaday won at Kentucky, dominated at Las Vegas, and finished second at Talladega and Martinsville. Hornaday has gone from forgotten champion to title contender in seven races.
Nothing against Tony Stewart’s impressive three Chase victories, but when all seemed lost for Hornaday, he put the adversity behind him and found a gear not many thought was possible this late in the season. Both drivers have shined, but Hornaday just a little brighter.
• Bill Kimm, NASCAR.COMThe opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
Stepping up Stewart/Hornaday results (Sept./Oct.) Atlanta31 Richmond7n/aChicago110New Hampshire14Dover/Kentucky251Kansas15n/aCharlotte/Las Vegas81Talladega72Martinsville12Average Finish</b>7.5</b>3.0</b>
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Menzer: Did Smoke make the Chase a two-man race? (NASCAR.com)
October 31, 2011
Is it down to a two-man race now in the Chase for the Sprint Cup? If it is—or even if it isn’t—can Brian Vickers manage to stay out of their way, and everyone else’s?
Those were the burning questions lingering after Tony Stewart’s rousing win Sunday in the wild and wooly Tums 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
Stewart’s victory—his third in seven outings during this Chase—pulled him to within eight points of leader Carl Edwards, who rallied for a ninth-place finish Sunday in part because of Vickers’ penchant to bring out the caution by banging into people, or at least attempting to do so. Edwards gained several valuable positions toward the end of the race as a result of the slew of restarts, and Vickers arguably contributed to Stewart’s win as well while hurting five-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson’s ultimately futile run at Victory Lane.
But whether or not Vickers, a non-Chaser, should have been black-flagged by NASCAR and parked for the afternoon is a discussion for another day. (Well, OK, let’s just get it out of the way and say that, yes, it was ridiculous and it should have happened).
Meanwhile, there was Stewart’s late charge to the front, aided by some adroit pit calls by crew chief Darian Grubb. Not to mention Stewart’s bold proclamation afterward that he’s in it to win it and Edwards better be looking over his shoulder to check where Stewart’s No. 14 Chevrolet is during the final three races of the season.
“He’d better be worried, that’s all I’m going to say,” Stewart said after the race. “He’s not going to have an easy three weeks.”
All hail Darian
Stewart was quick and effusive in his praise of Grubb following Sunday’s latest Chase triumph. For a crew chief apparently under the gun heading into the Chase—rumored to be in trouble as Stewart’s 12-year streak of having won at least one race seemed in serious jeopardy—it was another shot of sweet vindication.
With only the races at Texas, Phoenix and Homestead-Miami Speedway, Grubb is bubbling over with as much confidence and momentum as his driver. And why not? They not only have the three victories to offset mediocre performances at Dover and Kansas earlier in the Chase, but also are about to visit three tracks they like very much.
“We all have the attitude that we feel we should be leading right now. We made the mistakes that gave up those points there in the third, fourth and fifth race,” said Grubb, with the reference to the fifth race in the Chase being the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where he and Stewart were left unhappy despite an eighth-place finish because they earlier had led 94 laps in the event. “We’re ready to get back in this game and show everybody what we’ve got left.”
Oh, they’re already back in the game—thanks in large part to the resilient, hard-working, affable Grubb, who especially enjoyed Sunday’s win at Martinsville because the .533-mile track is only 22 miles removed from where he grew up in Floyd, Va.
“The first 200 laps, Darian was making changes,” Stewart said of the No. 14 team’s day at Martinsville. “We just couldn’t get the car to respond to anything. He made some good changes the whole last half of the race that got us in the ballpark. Then he had two awesome pit calls with pit strategy that got us track position.
“The first time I screwed up and gave it away thinking I had a flat tire [forcing him to pit when he had been leading, only to learn he didn’t have a flat]. Then at the end of the day, he got us that track position back with another great call. That is what truly gave us the shot to have that opportunity at the end of the day.
“For a guy that grew up 22 miles from here, he had more than an All-Star day. He made the right calls that gave us that opportunity, kept making changes. … When you win with the obstacles that we overcame, that’s what makes winning races like this so special.”
Two-man race?
So is the Chase down to a two-man race? While conventional logic may dictate that it’s too early to say and none of the other 10 Chasers have even so much as been mathematically eliminated as yet, a strong argument could be made for it.
Both Stewart and Edwards have strong records at the tracks they will visit the rest of the way, making it highly unlikely that either will slip much. The likelihood that both will stumble somewhere over these final three, thus possibly enabling someone else to inch markedly closer, is even more of a long shot.
Certainly two candidates who remain in the running at this juncture are Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski, who are 21 and 27 points, respectively, off the pace set by Edwards.
But in 19 career starts at Texas Motor Speedway, Stewart has one win and a 13.2 average finish; in 13 career starts there, Edwards has three wins and a 16.5 average finish. At Phoenix, Stewart weighs in with one win and an 11.5 average finish in 19 starts vs. one win and a 13.0 average finish for Edwards in 14 starts.
Homestead could be the great equalizer—should Stewart continue to make small gains at the other two venues. Edwards absolutely loves the 1.5-mile layout, owning two wins, four top-five and six top-10 finishes in seven career starts. His average finish there is a remarkable 5.2. Stewart is no slouch at the place, either, with two wins and a 12.4 average finish in 12 career starts.
Another factor is that the Phoenix track has been repaved and reconfigured, and lurks as a true wild card over these final weeks.
But no one is teeming with more confidence and more momentum than the No. 14 team of Stewart and Grubb. And they want everyone—but especially Edwards—to know it.
“It’s funny to us because we never lose that feeling that we can win the championship. It’s just that the media doesn’t pay attention to it,” Grubb said. “We work as hard every week. We’re doing 80-hour work weeks every week. It doesn’t matter whether we finish 34th or first. I’m proud of the guys for doing that. Everybody shows up for work every day with their game face on no matter what circumstances they’re going through and we get the job done.”
Thus, with three to go, it could be down to two. And one might have the edge over the other.
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
Sprint Cup Series Standings 1.—Carl Edwards2273Leader 2 .+2Tony Stewart2265-83 .+2Kevin Harvick2252-214 .-1Brad Keselowski2246-275 .-3Matt Kenseth2237-366 .+1Jimmie Johnson2230-437 .-1Kyle Busch2216-578 .—Kurt Busch2215-589 .—Dale Earnhardt Jr.2200-7310 .—Jeff Gordon2197-7611 .—Denny Hamlin2193-8012 .—Ryan Newman2184-89
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Martinsville considered great race after 18 wrecks
October 31, 2011
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—(AP)—Two weeks, two races and two very contrasting versions of NASCAR.
The response to NASCAR’s last two races, at Talladega and Martinsville, couldn’t be more contradictory.
Talladega, fans screamed, was horrible! The two-car tandem racing stunk up one of the most anticipated races of the year, and seasoned superspeedway fans blamed a clunker of a car and a no-good rules package for ruining their beloved race.
All was right in the NASCAR world a week later, though. Why? Because Martinsville was mayhem from the drop of the green flag.
Sunday’s race was marred by a season-high 18 cautions for a season-high 108 caution laps, making for a sloppy, choppy race that struggled to find any rhythm. Hey, look, there’s Brian Vickers causing a wreck! Oh, no, Carl Edwards is a lap down! Wait, now he’s back on the lead lap! Was that Vickers, again?
On and on it went, almost four hours, until, finally, Tony Stewart used a powerful pass on the outside of Jimmie Johnson to win his third race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Great finish, popular winner and a topsy-turvy championship race.
But was it a good race?
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said it was.
“I think this was a great day for NASCAR, and I think this kind of racing is exciting and people really yearn to see that style of racing,” he said. “Please, build some more short tracks, we need some more short tracks. All these 1.5-mile tracks. I know you can get more seats or whatever but they just don’t really turn everybody on, you know? So I think this was a good day for NASCAR.”
It’s a totally different tone than the one NASCAR’s most popular driver had a week earlier, after riding around at the back of the Talladega field with teammate Johnson until it was too late to make a charge to the front.
“Bored,” was how Earnhardt summarized Talladega in a sentiment shared by many.
So what’s the difference?
Both races had exciting finishes—Clint Bowyer used a last-lap pass of teammate Jeff Burton at Talladega to win his first race of the year—and both races wreaked havoc on the championship battle.
But Talladega lacked that spark everyone expects from NASCAR’s biggest and fastest track. Fans are used to 500 miles of hold-your-breath racing, where cars run in a 43-car pack and one small mistake can create the celebrated “big one” accident that wipes out half the field.
What they got, though, was a real life game of leap frog, where drivers worked in two-car tandems and took turns pushing one another. Some teams strategized and hung around the back of the pack all day, others made vows to work only with certain people on the track.
In the end, it just felt kind of flat.
Not Martinsville, though.
The paperclip-shaped track was the setting for Sunday’s demolition derby. Drivers used their cars as battering rams and left behind a long trail of broken parts and boiling tempers.
“People just have no regard,” said Denny Hamlin, a four-time Martinsville winner who presumably knows how to get around the track.
“I would get into guys and then I know it’s coming—I’m going to get slammed in the next corner. It’s just one of those things where it’s frustrating to watch because you see some of these cars getting torn up in accidents. Accidents happen and some of these drivers need to realize that.”
But taking a level-headed approach isn’t very fun! Just ask the many fans who will chalk the Martinsville wreck-fest up as one of the best races of the year.
So it’s the wrecking, then, and all the drama that goes with it, that fans really like, right?
NASCAR wasn’t pleased with how Talladega unfolded, and series officials will use the four months between now and the 2012 season opener at Daytona to examine ways to break up the two-car tandems. Although a Nov. 15 test at Daytona is for electronic fuel injection, there’s no doubt NASCAR will look at anything under the sun that might revert racing to the way it used to be at Daytona and Talladega.
It’s more than likely, though, that NASCAR wasn’t all that thrilled with how Martinsville unfolded, either. When Bobby Labonte and Kasey Kahne wrecked during that final three-lap period, the yellow never came, which Kahne took as a clear sign of exasperation from the NASCAR scoring tower.
“I think NASCAR was ticked off,” he said. “There was five cautions in, like, five laps. So they were like, `The heck with it, we’re not throwing a caution for this one.’ Even though we hit pretty hard. That was the hardest wreck I’ve ever been in where there wasn’t a caution.”
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F1 organizers aim to popularize racing in India
October 31, 2011
NEW DELHI (AP)—The organizers of the India’s first Formula One Grand Prix planto capitalize on the success of the inaugural race by holding localchampionships to popularize motor racing in the country.
The track at Buddh International Circuit was praised by officials anddrivers after Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel won Sunday’s race in front of a hugecrowd of more than 90,000 spectators.
“We will start organizing races by February next year in an effort to keepthe momentum. We will finalize a calendar by the end of November,” Jaypee Groupchief executive Sameer Gaur told The Associated Press on Monday. “The FIA hasbeen pleasantly surprised, they are very happy. If you see the garage, the pitlanes, the technical aspects, this circuit is really good.
“After we sort out some technical issues, we will work further onlandscaping. We are in touch with FIA officials and are already getting feedbackon what can be done to improve the facility.”
The Jaypee Group, which has primary business interests in real estate, spentmore than $200 million in building the track complex and almost as much in otherexpenses after being granted the rights to the event for 10 years.
The group is also building a sports city around the Formula One track thatwill include an international-standard cricket stadium.
“Yes, the cricket stadium is next. But right now we plan to work further onthe racing track,” Gaur said.
Formula One Chief Executive Bernie Ecclestone has also praised the track,which is located 40 kilometers (25 miles) from New Delhi in the satellite townof Greater Noida.
“India should be very proud that a private enterprise has achieved this,”Ecclestone was quoted as saying in Monday’s The Times of India. “Everything issuper, it just needs a bit of polish. It needs to be tidied up, which does nottake time.”
Ecclestone said the race had been a success.
“I’d said before the weekend that we needed three things to make this racea success: good crowd, media support and a track that the drivers will enjoy. Ithink India has delivered on all counts,” he said.
Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar, an avid racing fan who waved thecheckered flag in the race, also praised the organizers.
“Wonderfully organized F1 event by Jaypee. A world class track withexcellent facilities for spectators. Truly, a memorable day for all of us,” hetweeted.
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Caraviello: Martinsville miracle keeps Edwards in Chase lead (NASCAR.com)
October 31, 2011
Carl Edwards and the No. 99 team had a tough day all the way around, but they recovered to score a ninth-place finish. (Getty Images)
Here it was, Carl Edwards’ nightmare scenario, cast in stark relief against a vivid blue sky and the brilliant fall foliage of southwest Virginia. Short of parking in the garage with the hood up, he could not have designed a worse predicament. His No. 99 car was running so poorly it was in danger of falling two laps down. His old nemesis, Jimmie Johnson, was roaring toward the front. What entering the day seemed a relatively comfortable points cushion was being whittled away little by little and lap by lap, to the point where it threatened to disappear completely at Martinsville Speedway.
Mind you, everyone crowded into this old track Sunday afternoon had an inkling it could happen, given Edwards’ pedestrian record at the half-mile facility and the somewhat tenuous nature of the Chase under the simplified points format implemented this year. But all the same, to see it unfold in real life was shocking. Here was Edwards, the best driver on the Sprint Cup circuit this season, lapped again and again and laboring like an also-ran while the contenders battled up front. At his absolute lowest, he was the last car a lap down, with five vehicles between him and the free pass position, and the head table at Las Vegas felt as far away as the moon.
Crew chief Bob Osborne tried to keep his driver’s spirits up. “We’ll make something of this, bud,” he said over the team radio.
“I’m not worried,” Edwards responded. “I just don’t understand how we’re so slow. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
It didn’t make much sense to those watching, either, particularly given that Edwards hadn’t finished any worse than 11th since August, and yet here he was running around like a start-and-parker in Chase money time. It became a matter of crisis control, of minimizing the damage, of getting every point they could get. They fell a lap down, they got the free pass, they fell a lap down again. They got buried by an epidemic of cautions that made gaining track position a struggle. The car wouldn’t turn. Lug nuts were dropped during a pit stop. All the No. 99 team lacked was a plague of locusts descending upon the pit box, all this while Johnson made a desperate attempt to get back in it, and Edwards’ teammate Matt Kenseth looked ready to seize the series lead by himself.
“We were so bad [with] probably 200 laps to go,” said Edwards, a Missouri native. “I was thinking, ‘OK, the [St. Louis] Cardinals didn’t give up the other night. That’s a little motivation. The Missouri Tigers didn’t give up the other night. That’s motivation.’ I became all right with the fact we were going to finish 20th or 25th. I was already thinking about Texas, everything we were going to do.”
Down to their last strike, the Cardinals won Game 6 to force a deciding matchup in the World Series, which they ultimately won. Down big to Texas A&M, the University of Missouri football team roared back to win in overtime. Edwards had already pulled off one such miracle comeback in this Chase, rallying from a lap down to finish fifth at Kansas, his home track. But Edwards is very, very good at Kansas. He’s not particularly good at Martinsville, where his average finish entering Sunday was 16.9. In his media session Friday, he set the bar at a top-10—if he could walk away with that and the points lead, he’d be content heading into next weekend’s event at Texas Motor Speedway, a track where he’s won three times and could very well put his boot heel on the neck of this championship race.
Sunday afternoon, though, with a chill wind blowing through a speedway that’s stood since 1947, Fort Worth looked like a mirage. “We’ll keep on trucking and get a good finish out of this thing,” Edwards said over the radio, but at the moment it felt like so much bravado. The car was at times so sluggish, Edwards let by drivers who were a lap behind him. With 100 laps to go, the No. 99 car was still a lap down. But Edwards and his team hung in there, they adjusted, they moved up in the free-pass pecking order when some other cars took the wave-around. And then with 92 laps remaining, they caught the break that may wind up saving a championship: Hermie Sadler hit the wall.
Caution. Free pass. It’s morning in Columbia, Mo., again. Suddenly Edwards was 22nd, and granted a reprieve. Suddenly he was 19th. NASCAR at one point black-flagged Edwards for jumping a restart, but the driver argued that race control had ordered him to pull up past Jeff Burton in the restart line, and he and spotter Jason Hedlesky successfully won the case. “Whether or not there was a communication error, what was going on, I appreciate NASCAR looking at it and realizing they told me to do what they were black flagging me for,” Edwards said. “Not very often they rescind the black flag like that.”
It was an aggressive race, full of crashes and cautions and drivers hunting one another down, and over time all that silliness began to work in Edwards’ favor by thinning out the field. Edwards moved up to 16th, and then to 13th after Kenseth slid into Kyle Busch while both were on the cusp of the top 10, forcing each of those championship contenders in for repairs. Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman tangled. Brian Vickers spun to bring out a caution. Each time, the No. 99 inched up a little more. Edwards was nowhere near the finish, in which Tony Stewart overtook Johnson with three laps remaining. But when it all ended, Edwards had somehow come home in ninth.
“Unreal,” was his reaction.
And understandably so, given the desperate straits he had been in just 100 laps earlier, given that he had once been on the verge of falling two laps down. As the sun set behind old Martinsville Speedway, Edwards had not only salvaged one of the more impressive top-10s of his career, but he had retained the Chase lead, now an eight-point edge over Stewart. He had successfully negated any serious gains threatened by Johnson, who finished second and instead of cleaving 20 points off what had been a 50-point deficit, whittled away just seven. Even better, Edwards is now past the most serious road block he had remaining in this Chase, with the steaks, cowboy hats, and friendlier confines of Texas welcoming him next.
It was the kind of run that teams use to build momentum toward a championship, finding success and inspiration from an unlikely place. Stewart was full of moxie after his victory, throwing down the challenge to the series leader. “Carl Edwards had better be real worried. That’s all I’ve got to say,” he said. “He’s not going to sleep for the next three weeks.” And yet, if Edwards is capable of pulling off a miracle at Martinsville, where he’s been so average so many times, how potent might he be at a track where his record speaks for itself?
“We did not deserve to finish ninth,” Edwards said, as amazed as anyone at the outcome. “Proud of my guys for sticking with it. Bob did a good job of keeping me calm. Now we go to Texas. I’m excited about Texas.” Which ought to be frightening for everyone else.
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
Sprint Cup Series Standings 1.—Carl Edwards2273Leader 2 .+2Tony Stewart2265-83 .+2Kevin Harvick2252-214 .-1Brad Keselowski2246-275 .-3Matt Kenseth2237-366 .+1Jimmie Johnson2230-437 .-1Kyle Busch2216-578 .—Kurt Busch2215-589 .—Dale Earnhardt Jr.2200-7310 .—Jeff Gordon2197-7611 .—Denny Hamlin2193-8012 .—Ryan Newman2184-89
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Stewart gunning for Edwards after win (Yahoo! Sports)
October 31, 2011
The heat is now on … Carl Edwards.
The points leader dodged a scud missile when he left Martinsville Speedway with an uncanny 9th-place finish Sunday. For that, he can breathe a little easier knowing he survived his worst track in the Chase. But he can’t feel comfortable with Tony Stewart hot on his tail.
NASCAR’s most ornery driver is on the hunt and he’s making no bones about who his prey is. It’s Edwards, whose lead is down to just eight points after Stewart pulled off an improbable victory Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, vaulting him from fourth to second in the standings.
More From Jay Hart Smoke signals hes coming for top spot Oct 30, 2011 Win at all cost? Harvick yes, Edwards no Oct 28, 2011
“He better be worried, that’s all I’ve got to say,” Stewart declared after climbing out of his car in victory lane. “He’s not going to have an easy three weeks.”
If Edwards thought he was going to face a friendly, intra-team scrimmage for the 2011 championship, well, that’s not happening. Five hundred laps of short-track racing took care of that.
Sunday’s race at Martinsville was, in a word, chaotic. To recount who had run-ins with whom would require upping our bandwidth 10-fold. Since we can’t do that, I’ll summarize what went down this way: a demolition derby would have been jealous of Sunday’s race, which had almost as many leaders (12) as it did cautions (18).
First it was Jeff Gordon’s race to lose, then Kyle Busch’s, then Jimmie Johnson’s. You’ll note the absence of Stewart, who ran in the 20s for much of the day. Joining him mid-pack was Edwards, who’s never been very good at Martinsville and, knowing so, came in with a just-survive attitude.
While they raced just to stay on the lead lap, Busch and Johnson were battling to get back into the championship hunt. And for much of the race, it looked like they would, at least Busch anyway. He led the most laps (126) and at one point during the race was just 18 points back of Matt Kenseth, who’d assumed the in-race points lead as his teammate, Edwards, struggled.
Jimmie Johnson congratulates Tony Stewart in victory lane at Martinsville.(Getty Images)
For 463 of 500 laps, the big winner on the day looked to be Kenseth. Not only was he surviving one of his worst tracks but he was thriving, running in the top 10 the entire day. But then he and Busch made contact, cutting a tire on Kenseth’s No. 17. Moments later, Kenseth lost control of his car, collecting a handful of others, including Busch, wrecking both their title hopes.
“Obviously I didn’t make good decisions and we ended up in a bad spot,” Kenseth said. “I wish I could do some things over and try again, but we can’t do that. We raced hard all day. I thought we had pretty good track position at times and just couldn’t capitalize on it.”
With Kenseth out of the picture, Johnson had a glimmer of hope. Trailing by 50 points coming in, the five-time defending champ needed both Edwards and Kenseth to run into trouble if he was to have a chance at extending his unprecedented run, and it was happening. That is, until Edwards gradually started creeping up the leaderboard. At one point he was a lap down and even had a penalty levied against him for jumping a restart. NASCAR later rescinded that penalty, saving Edwards from falling into an insurmountable hole.
Given new life, Edwards pulled off a potentially championship-saving rally.
[Related: Vickers costs Johnson the victory at Martinsville]
“I had become okay with the fact that we were probably gonna finish 20th or 25th,” Edwards said. “I was thinking already about [next weekend’s race at] Texas and how we were gonna have to go there and everything we were gonna do. But my guys stuck with it and we got very, very fortunate. I’m just glad we can move on.”
But not without some new company.
Stewart has been left for dead several times this season. First, when he didn’t win a race during the regular season and characterized his spot in the Chase as nothing more than taking up room, then when he seemingly spoiled his hot start to the Chase (when he won the first two races) by going 25th-15th in the next two races to drop all the way to seventh in the standings.
It didn’t look like he’d make up any ground Sunday, especially with under 100 laps to go when he gave up the lead with an apparent flat tire. It wasn’t flat, but still Stewart went to pit road, dropping him all the way back to 23rd.
Over the next 80 laps he drove his way back toward the front and found himself in second with less than 10 to go. That’ where he would finish, or so it seemed because no one was catching Johnson. Then Brian Vickers decided to exact some revenge on Kenseth for an earlier incident. That brought out a caution with eight laps to go and, more importantly for Stewart, erased his deficit behind Johnson.
“You can thank Vickers for that, being a jackass,” Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus lamented over the team radio.
On the ensuing restart, Stewart started on the outside of Johnson. The two raced side-by-side during the first of a three-lap shootout, with Stewart nosing ahead of Johnson and eventually into the lead.
“When I was inside of Tony, I went down in the corner and thought that eight tires would be a lot better than four,” Johnson said, indicating that he thought about barreling through the corner and using Stewart’s car as a retaining wall. “I changed my mind. With where he is in the points, what’s going on, the fact we raced throughout the day today, he never touched me, I had a hard time doing that.”
Now it’s on to Texas, where Edwards finished third and Stewart 12th earlier this season. And though the Chase is more than just a two-man race – Kevin Harvick (4th on Sunday) is just 21 points back, Brad Keselowski 27 – Stewart is only focused on the man in front of him.
“It’s no disrespect to [Edwards],” Stewart said. “He’s a great competitor, he’s a great guy, he’s with a great organization that deserves their shot at that championship, too. We’ve had one of those up and down years and we’re having a run in this Chase now where we’re hungry. We’re hungry for this. I feel like our mindset into these next three weeks, we’ve been nice all year to a lot of guys, given guys a lot of breaks. We’re cashing tickets in these next three weeks.”
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Earnhardt has fun contributing to wild race
October 31, 2011
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP)—Dale Earnhardt Jr. was amped up. Literally.
From the start of Sunday’s race, when he was involved in the first of 18 cautions on the eighth lap, until the end, he when his battered car finished seventh, he had a blast.
“I was doing OK and I was just kind of hanging out and then I drank a couple of AMPs before the race started and probably was a little bit too excited,” he said. “That was the first 100 laps and I calmed down after a while but that first 100 laps it was just … it was fun.”
With only three races left in the season, Earnhardt offered no apologies, either.
“That right there was basically, hey, the season is running down and we are not going to be racing much longer and I am going to miss it so I came to the buffet and got everything I could eat,” he said. The most popular driver in the series has not gone 126 races without winning.
The possibility of ticking people off never entered his head, he said.
“I mean everybody that I think I ran over even got me back accidentally in one shape or form today,” he said. “I don’t know if they think we are all even, but I ain’t really worried about it. If they want to come at me, come at me. But I had fun today and this is short track racing and we don’t do as much short track racing anymore, so when you see this kind of thing, you are like `Whoa! What’s going on?’ because we run on these mile-and-a-halfs and you don’t see that kind of crap. And if we ran on these things more often this would kind of be more acceptable.”
The big winner after 18 cautions and 108 caution laps, both season highs?
“I think this was a great day for NASCAR and I think this kind of racing is exciting and people really yearn to see that style of racing, not all the time obviously, but a little more often that what we have,” he said. “Please, build some more short tracks, we need some more short tracks. All these 1.5 mile tracks. I know you can get more seats or whatever but they just don’t really turn everybody on, you know? So I think this was a good day for NASCAR.”
EARLY SIGNS OF MAYHEM: Jimmie Johnson knew he was in for a long day.
“Oh, yeah. From lap one or two I could just tell it was going to be one of those days,” he said, because of all the beating and banging, and the first caution on the eighth lap.
Johnson weathered it almost unscathed for most of the day, but when a final caution caused a restart with three laps to go, couldn’t hold his lead over Tony Stewart on fresher tires.
The day was a good one for A.J. Allmendinger, who led twice for 19 laps and finished 11th.
“It was unbelievable. It was insane,” he said of the physicality on the track. “That’s the way NASCAR is now. Everybody is desperate. We’ve got to fight for everything we can get out there. Sponsors, points, money, etc., so everybody is trying to get everything.”
He said the time and year and venue also contributed to the way the race went, too.
“It’s the end of the year. It just seems like … this year is tiring. Everybody is tired and you put that combination together at a place like Martinsville, things are gonna happen.”
VICKERS ALERT: Brian Vickers was probably the least popular driver Sunday.
He spun three times before the race was 100 laps old, tangled with Matt Kenseth, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Jamie McMurray and drew criticism from Jimmie Johnson when it was all over.
McMurray was on the outside of Vickers when Vickers, who had already spun three times, hit the curb and clipped him in Turn 3, sending him sliding backwards and hard in the outside wall.
The car was badly damaged, and when Vickers came back around, McMurray tried to turn into his back bumper, missed and hit the wall again. He then parked the car, his day finished.
McMurray said he was trying to block Vickers, but realized he couldn’t.
“I moved back up the track and I just feel like he let off the brake and went ahead and sent me for a ride,” he said, describing the contact as “a cheap shot. I just didn’t appreciate it.”
Vickers’ spin on lap 493 brought out the last caution, and might have cost Johnson the win.
“The last three or four (cautions) seemed to be the same cars over and over and I just wish that wasn’t the case,” Johnson said. “We would have been just fine.”
END QUOTE: “When things get tough, you have to watch out for that guy, and he really put one on them.”—Jeff Gordon on Tony Stewart, and his winning pass of Johnson with three laps to go.
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Jason Line wins Pro Stock title (PA SportsTicker)
October 30, 2011
LAS VEGAS (AP) —Jason Line won his second Pro Stock championship Sunday when he advanced to the semifinals of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“At this point in my life, I’ll appreciate this one more,” Line said. “I understand better now how hard it is to achieve that. Five years ago when I won the first, I was naive and didn’t realize how hard it is.”
FORT WORTH, TX – APRIL 07: NH… Getty Images – Apr 7, 10:47 pm EDT NASCAR Gallery
Del Worsham (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car), Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) won the pro categories in the NHRA Big O Tires Nationals.
Line, a 42-year-old Minnesota native, will start the season finale in two weeks at Pomona, Calif., with an insurmountable 199-point lead over KB Racing teammate and reigning champion Greg Anderson.
Line relished his first championship since 2006 but wanted to win the Las Vegas event title Sunday as well. But his day ended when he left the starting line too early in the semis and drew a red-light disqualification. However, Anderson also false-started in the other semifinal race.
“It feels unbelievable,” Line said. “It’s a great day. It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t have finished it in true championship style but it is what it is and I’m not giving the (championship) jacket back or the trophy.”
Line, who will receive a $250,000 bonus from NHRA, worked as an engine tuner for Joe Gibbs Racing in NASCAR and helped Bobby Labonte win the 2000 Sprint Cup championship. Before moving to North Carolina and shifting to stock-car racing, Line was a successful drag racer and won the 1993 NHRA Stock Eliminator championship.
“My dad said I was crazy when I told him I was leaving Gibbs,” Line said. “It was the best job I had ever had. Now it’s the second best job I’ve ever had.”
Las Vegas businessman Ken Black started the Pro Stock team in 1999 and hired Anderson to run it, serve as crew chief and be the primary driver. Line began working part time for Black while still at Gibbs.
The only reason he left Gibbs was for a promise to be able drive a 200-mph Pro Stocker. Line’s series-best six wins this year pushes his total to 28 since 2007. It is the sixth championship for Black.
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‘Smoke’ signals he’s coming for top spot (Yahoo! Sports)
October 30, 2011
Tony Stewart took the checkered flag at Martinsville, then hopped out of his car and issued a warning to Carl Edwards: “He better be worried.” With three races to go, it’s on.
Here is how the Chase field fared in Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway:
1. Carl Edwards – Finished 9th: Phew. That’s all Edwards can say after this race. He wasn’t very good for most of the 500 laps, fell a lap down, got a break when a caution came out, giving him the Lucky Dog to put him back on the lead lap. Then, on the ensuing restart, NASCAR originally black flagged him for passing too early only to rescind the penalty. All that and he wound up ninth. A championship-saving day? If he wins it, absolutely. (-)
More From Jay Hart Win at all cost? Harvick yes, Edwards no Oct 28, 2011 Johnson says Knaus made a foolish statement Oct 28, 2011
2. Tony Stewart – Finished 1st: Smoke has never been more fired up than he was after this victory. It looked like a cut tire with only a handful of laps to go would ruin his day. Instead, he rallied back, passed Jimmie Johnson on the final restart with three laps to go and is now hot on Edwards’ tail, a point he made clear in victory lane. (-8 points)
3. Kevin Harvick – Finished 4th: If not for the wreck at Talladega, Harvick would likely be the points leader. Another solid run – his sixth top-10 finish in seven Chase races – but it looks like it’s going to take wins to catch Edwards. (-21 points)
4. Brad Keselowski – Finished 17th: The Chase rookie was all over the place. Up one minute, down the next. He finished somewhere in the middle. The distance between him and first grew. He’s not out, but he’s certainly down. (-27 points)
5. Matt Kenseth – Finished 31st: For most of the race, it looked like Kenseth would be the big winner. He was actually the in-race points leader. Then he made contact with Kyle Busch on a late restart, ruining both of their days and championship hopes. Instead of leaving Martinsville the points leader, Kenseth is now likely out of the title hunt. (-36 points)
6. Jimmie Johnson – Finished 2nd: In a signal that this just isn’t his year – it has to happen once every half decade – Johnson got beat on a restart. Stewart got by him with three laps to go, relegating the five-time defending champ to second. Of course, there would have been no final restart for Stewart to pass him on if Brian Vickers had not brought out a caution when he retaliated against Matt Kenseth. (-43 points)
7. Kyle Busch – Finished 27th: A shot at the title was ripped from Busch’s hands when he got wrecked (unintentionally) by Kenseth. Busch led the most laps at Martinsville and was heading for a top-5 finish. He’s now unofficially out of the title hunt. (-57 points)
8. Kurt Busch – Finished 14th: Yet another contentious day for the elder Busch, who was involved in several incidents. (Who wasn’t?) (-58 points)
9. Dale Earnhardt Jr. – Finished 7th: Finally, a second top 10 for Junior in the Chase. Since opening the Chase with a third-place run at Chicagoland, Junior has gone 17th, 24th, 14th, 19th and 25th. (-73 points)
10. Jeff Gordon – Finished 3rd: For the second straight week, Gordon had a shot at the win. Last week he got snookered by team orders. This week, it was time. He ran up front early and had the best car on the track. But the handling didn’t last and he faded. It’s pretty much a metaphor for his season. (-76 points)
11. Ryan Newman – Finished 10th: Outran his boss for the first 26 races. The reverse has been true when it counts the most. (-80 points)
12. Denny Hamlin – Finished 5th: No, he won’t be racing for a title, but Hamlin should take solace in the fact that he’s running better now than he has all season. That’s three straight top-10 finishes. (-89 points)
Jay Hart is the NASCAR editor for Yahoo! Sports. Send Jay a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Stewart wins at Martinsville; closes in on Edwards
October 30, 2011
Fans wait out a rain delay before the Goody's 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup auto race at the Martinsville Speedway on Sunday.(AP Photo/Steve Helber)
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP)—Tony Stewart passed Jimmie Johnson on a restart with three laps to go Sunday and surged into contention for his third NASCAR Sprint Cup championship with three races left.
The victory was the third for Stewart in the first seven races of the 10-race playoffs.
Stewart moved from 19 points behind leader Carl Edwards and in fourth place to just eight points behind in second as several contenders got caught up in a season-high 18 caution flags.
Edwards struggled all day, but rallied to finish ninth and held on to a lead that he seemed likely to lose.
Others weren’t as lucky, chief among them Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski, who had late problems and were both passed by Stewart in the points race.
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