Fryer’s Five: New Hampshire (Yahoo! Sports)
June 29, 2009
Just a few hours before Joey Logano’s road course debut, team president J.D. Gibbs was heaping praise on his rookie driver for the on-the-job training he’s done this season.
A rough start to the season had many questioning the wisdom of Joe Gibbs Racing’s decision to promote Logano into Tony Stewart’s open Sprint Cup Series seat after just six months in the Nationwide Series. The car, the competition and the tracks seemed overwhelming to the young phenom, who had five finishes of 30th or worse in the first eight races of the year.
Had JGR officials known that testing would be banned this season, Gibbs admitted they might have reconsidered the decision to move Logano into the No. 20 Toyota. Reduced seat time guaranteed a rocky ride through the first part of the schedule, and all Gibbs wanted to see out of Logano was steady improvement.
He was delivering on that goal long before Sunday’s breakthrough victory in the rain-shortened Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The turnaround started in the ninth race of the season, at Talladega of all places, where Logano weathered a frantic finish for the first top-10 of his career.
Logano matched that ninth-place finish two weeks later at Darlington, where he led 19 laps and earned high praise from his predecessor, and again in the Coca-Cola 600 to grab three top-10 finishes in four races. It marked an upswing for Logano that had JGR officials anxiously awaiting the second half of the schedule, when he’d be returning to tracks for the second time this season – presumably with enough experience to give him a fighting chance.
Of course, Gibbs couldn’t have forecast Sunday’s win, which will draw criticism for how it was earned.
An earlier spin meant Logano didn’t have to pit at the same time as the front-runners, so crew chief Greg Zipadelli kept him out on the track to assume the lead as rain closed in on the track. Since Logano won’t make the Chase for the championship, but is still inside the critical top 35 mark, it was a gamble Zipadelli could afford to make because they had nothing to lose: If the rain came fast enough, the race would be stopped while Logano was leading. And if it rained hard enough, NASCAR would call it without resuming the action.
Zipadelli played it exactly right, and it paid off with a win at the track both driver and crew chief (Connecticut natives, both) consider home.
“You take ‘em any way you can get ‘em,” Stewart said of the win by his old team. “That’s as much strategy as shocks and springs and everything else. They still had to work to get themselves in that position, so they did a good job.”
There will still be people who will forever say Logano backed into the win, and they’re right. But the record book won’t reflect it. All the stats will show is a young kid who was making steady progress as he closed in on the victory.
Five things from the NASCAR weekend:
1. Jeremy Mayfield readied for his day in court: The stalemate between NASCAR and the first driver suspended under the toughened drug policy ramped up with both sides filing a mountain of paperwork in federal court.
Among the documents was Mayfield’s affidavit that he’s never used methamphetamines, doesn’t know how he failed his May 1 drug test and said he does not “understand how or why this is happening to me or my family.” He also revealed he’s laid off 10 employees from Mayfield Motorsports, can’t find any companies willing to work with him and has been reduced to borrowing money from family and selling assets to meet his living expenses.
Next up is Wednesday’s showdown in court, where Mayfield is hoping a judge will lift his indefinite suspension so he can rush down to Daytona in time for this weekend’s Coke Zero 400. His chances are maybe 50-50, but even if he is reinstated, what are his reasonable expectations?
He had a shell of a race team before he was forced to let people go, and tight finances had kept the No. 41 away from the track the last five weeks. Even when he was fully operational, Mayfield had only qualified for five of 11 races and had a season-best finish of 32nd.
Since his May 9 suspension, I’ve wondered many times if Mayfield would have been better off just accepting the NASCAR suspension and completing the “path to reinstatement.” I say that in all due respect to his right to defend himself from what he insists is a flawed test result.
It’s likely his reinstatement would have taken six months or longer, and, unless he wins Wednesday in court, his legal fight might take the same amount of time. But fighting NASCAR is also a lot more expensive, and Mayfield is admittedly struggling right now with finances. And no matter the outcome at this point, it’s unlikely sponsors are going to be lined up outside his race shop if he’s ever eligible to race again.
His prospects might have been a lot better had he just quietly faded back, continued sending the No. 41 to the track with a substitute driver and earned his return to NASCAR. Instead, he may go broke trying to get back. And if and when he does, he may not find the environment to be as pleasant as he remembered.
2. The Scott Speed show continues to be a disaster for Red Bull Racing: Speed and fellow Red Bull driver Brian Vickers were not teammates in Saturday’s Nationwide Series race, and neither had any allegiance to the other as they were running fifth and sixth in the final laps.
But by wrecking Vickers on the final lap, Speed again slowed Red Bull’s overall development. It’s tough enough that the former Formula One driver has struggled in his rookie season, failed to make three races – including the road course at Sonoma, where he should have shined – and is ranked 36th in owner points.
Now throw in a feud with Vickers, and Red Bull has an absolute nightmare on its hands.
Speed may be the golden boy of the ownership in Austria, but Vickers is the current key to Red Bull’s success. He’s helped the team make steady progress in its two-plus seasons, weathering a horrendous first year and a complete overhaul in team management along the way.
He’s inched closer and closer to giving Red Bull its first NASCAR points win, and if he had a second team to lean on, Vickers would maybe even be a Chase contender. Instead, Speed has slowed the progress of the No. 83 team and now doesn’t seem willing to play well with the star of the race team.
When Speed wrecked Sunday at New Hampshire to finish 36th, he flippantly brought up the previous day’s incident with Vickers.
“I think the car behind us got into us a little bit and it spun us out. Other than that I really can’t tell you,” he said. “Maybe Brian paid someone off for yesterday, I don’t know.”
Vickers is in the late stages of locking down a contract extension with Red Bull, where he appears happy and believes he has the best chance to compete for a championship. If he wants success soon, he should probably have a long talk with management about how handicapped he is by Speed’s current attitude.
3. The economy is wreaking havoc on NASCAR’s smaller two series: Manufacturer cutbacks, sponsorship woes and start-and-parks are well documented in the premier Sprint Cup Series. Less publicized are the issues in the Nationwide and Truck Series, which are getting pummeled by the weakened economy.
General Motors ended its support of both series earlier this month – funding was only reduced in the Cup series – and teams are dropping races from their schedules at an alarming rate.
Now JTG/Daugherty Racing said it won’t field a full-time Nationwide team for Michael McDowell beyond next week’s race in Daytona if it can’t find sponsorship.
“We had money to run half the races and we had to make a choice whether to spread those races out or front-load them and hope to get enough money to run the second half,” said owner Tad Geschickter, who indicated the team will occasionally compete the rest of the year.
The loss of a full-time Nationwide team came on the heels of the revelation that NASCAR had to cover the purse at the Milwaukee Mile because the track failed to pay up following its Nationwide and Truck Series races two weeks ago.
“Despite having a terrific day of NASCAR racing [at Milwaukee] there remain outstanding issues which concern NASCAR,” said spokesman Ramsey Poston. “As a matter of policy, I won’t get into the specifics of our business dealings. However, I can say we are working closely with the track management to resolve outstanding issues.”
Both series are still the pipeline to Cup racing, a place for crewmen to hone their experience, drivers to learn the ropes and new owners to ease into NASCAR.
It’s where Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are learning about NASCAR ownership, where Brad Keselowski currently sits as he waits for a Cup ride and where Dave Rogers has become a winning crew chief. Both series also provide an outlet for old-timers Ron Hornaday Jr. and Mike Skinner and Co. to race when their Cup careers have come to an end.
The Cup Series gets all the glory, but the other two deserve a nod of appreciation for their support. NASCAR will find a way to keep them both floating, but if their health continues to deteriorate, it will come at the expense of the big league.
4. Kyle Busch broke his losing streak, and picked up some new enemies in a 24-hour span: Busch had an up-and-down weekend in New Hampshire. He ended his Nationwide futility with a win in Saturday’s race. After two consecutive runner-up finishes, it was the breakthrough Busch hoped would carry over into the Cup Series, where’s he’s stuck in a seven-race slump.
Instead, he triggered an eight-car accident that once again had rivals spewing venom in his direction. Many of the drivers collected in the accident believed Busch was being impatient when, because Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun his tires on a restart and Martin Truex Jr. had to slow down to avoid hitting him, Busch tried to duck to the outside of Truex and ended up sending him into a spin.
“I guess everybody just learns to expect Kyle doing something stupid,” said Brian Vickers, one of the casualties. “Stupid is forever.”
But Busch deserves some credit for accepting responsibility for his role in the accident, and doing it post-race. His pattern of late had been to skip any interviews following a bad performance. He didn’t Sunday.
“I have to apologize to all those guys on the restart,” he said. “I got into Martin and I hate it for him and Jeff Burton and those guys. It was just hard racing on a restart. We were just battling for every spot out there today.”
Everyone is quick to knock Busch for his mistakes and immaturity. So when he does something right – standing up and taking blame – he’s earned a nod of approval.
5. Happy Birthday, guys: Excuse Burton and Truex if they aren’t in the mood to celebrate their Monday birthdays. Both got an early start when they were casualties of the eight-car accident triggered by Busch.
It was the punctuation on trying times for both drivers.
Burton is stuck in the companywide struggles at Richard Childress Racing, and has slipped from sixth to 15th in the standings over the last five weeks.
Truex is struggling for a second straight season after failing to adapt in the offseason merger between Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing. He’s got three top-10 finishes all season and is 24th in the standings.
Burton, however, is committed to RCR and being part of the process that will snap the slump that has knocked all four cars outside Chase consideration.
“I am going to tell you, I feel good about what we are doing with our team. I feel good about what we are doing with our cars,” Burton said. “I think we can still do this thing, I really do. We have our best stuff coming, and I think we can do it. If we run well enough, the points will take care of themselves. There’s still plenty of time. Nine races is an eternity in this sport.”
Truex, on the other hand, officially appears on his way out the door. He’s long been rumored to be in line to replace Michael Waltrip in the No. 55 Toyota, and Michael Waltrip Racing on Monday called a July 7 news conference that’s presumed to announce his hiring.
I’ve maintained since very early this season that Truex was headed to MWR, and Waltrip would be best served in a part-time driver role that allows him to expand on his broadcasting and corporate spokesman skills.
It’s the right move for Waltrip, who again on Sunday saw how improved his organization is when David Reutimann finished fourth.
Landing Truex will likely lock down Napa for several years, give Reutimann valuable feedback from a teammate and MWR another legitimate player in the Cup Series. Finally announcing it may also help Truex snap out of the on-track funk he’s seemed to be suffering through all season.
Jenna Fryer covers NASCAR for The Associated Press and is a regular contributor to Yahoo! Sports. Send Jenna a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
