Preseason Driver Rankings: #7 Kevin Harvick

02/25/2012 By 1 Comment

Kevin Harvick
No. 29 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevy
Team: Richard Childress Racing
Crew Chief: Shane Wilson

2011 Stats
Wins: 4
Top-5s: 9
Top-10s: 19
Poles: 0
DNF: 1
Average Start: 18.8
Average Finish: 11.5
Races Led: 17
Laps Led: 403
% Laps Completed: 98.1%
Points Finish: 3rd

2011 in a Nutshell
For most drivers winning four races and finishing third in points would be cause for celebration. Except Kevin Harvick isn’t most drivers. And despite turning in another fine season which saw him once again challenge for the series crown, it wasn’t enough. Frustrated with the lack of communication between he and crew chief Gil Martin, not to mention the numerous races where the 29 team struggled to find speed, sweeping changes were made almost immediately after the checkered flag waved at Homestead. Enter Shane Wilson whose job it will be to lead Harvick to that elusive first series crown and find the consistency which eluded the 29 bunch throughout 2011.

Reasons to Believe
He has consecutive third-place finishes in the standings along with seven combined wins the last two years … Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, Kevin Harvick is the primary focus at Richard Childress Racing. Everything and anything that can be done to help him win the championship will be done … New crew chief Shane Wilson has worked with Harvick in the past, which should make the transition seamless … Intermediate tracks, which used to be an Achilles heel for this team, are now some of their best tracks as evident by their wins the last couple of years at Michigan, Auto Club Speedway and Charlotte … No surprise considering he drives for Richard Childress, Harvick is an ace on the plate tracks … Harvick has had success on flat one-mile ovals, road courses, superspeedways, mile-and-a-half’s, and pretty much everything in-between … This team is great at salvaging a bad day where they’re just off and turning it into a good day with a solid result … No driver is better in the closing laps than Harvick.

Reasons to Doubt
He is just an atrocious qualifier who has little to no desire to get better … Doesn’t communicate well with his team, especially when his car isn’t where he wants it. Instead of offering feedback, Harvick tends to just rant … Gets in stretches where he’s virtually invisible … The “Championship or bust” mantra could easily backfire … This team is consistent but isn’t consistent enough as they need to string together more consecutive top-10 finishes … Being the crew chief for Kevin Harvick comes with an extremely short shelf life … Harvick used to be great at Bristol, but his results have fallen off noticeably the last few years … Did a team which finished third these last two years really need a change atop it’s pit box?

Area of Strength: Homestead
The easy answer is Daytona and Talladega, but let’s instead highlight a lesser known strength of Kevin Harvick. If he finds himself is in the thick of the championship fight going into the last race of the year at Homestead, the competition should be concerned. Despite being winless there, the South Florida track is one of Harvick’s best, as he’s finished in the top-10 nine times in 11 races, and has an average finish of 7.9.

Area of Weakness: Winning in the Chase
In 2010 and ’11 Kevin Harvick had no problems winning during the regular season. But once the Chase starts, his winning ways go by the wayside. At least it’s been that way since 2006, the last time Harvick has posted a victory in a Chase race.

Best-case Scenario For 2012
After coming close the last two years, Kevin Harvick clears the final hurdle and wins his first championship and the first for Richard Childress since 1994.

Worst-case Scenario For 2012
The pressure to win the championship becomes too much for a team that at times still has chemistry issues. The result is a considerable drop in wins, top-fives and top-10s, with the team barely missing out on the Chase.

In Their Words
“I think if we could combine the two Chases (2010 and ’11), that would make a great Chase. We were very consistent in 2010. We were very inconsistent in 2011. We had speed in 2010, we didn’t have the speed we had in 2010 that we had in 2011. I think you need a combination of those two things. You have to have the capabilities in your cars of speed like Stewart had last year so that you can have a couple of bad races so you can go out and knock out a couple of wins. I think if you have that speed in your car and that capability no matter how bad a day you have a couple of races you can go out and overcome consistency with wins.”
–Kevin Harvick

Predicted Number of Wins: 1

The Racing Geek’s Final Thought
For a team which finished the year third overall, there sure were a lot of changes on the flagship team for Richard Childress Racing. If the gamble proves to be correct, and a change in leadership is what the 29 team needed, then Harvick should again be in the thick of the championship picture. If not, and he and Shane Wilson fail to gel, then a step back is almost certain.

Filed Under: 2012, Harvick, NASCAR, Preseason Rankings, Sub-Feature

RCR Is Up Front and Center at Talladega

10/25/2011 By Leave a Comment

Four times a year the Sprint Cup Series rolls into Daytona and Talladega. Every time they do so, the eternal question is, “Do I ride around in the back in an effort to stay out of trouble and try to move towards the front late?” or “Do I stay up near the front and do my damndest to avoid the many pratfalls that go along with running in a large pack of cars at 200 mph?”

Yesterday, each team who had an entry in the 43-car field made their respective choice.

For race-winner Clint Bowyer and his Richard Childress Racing team the answer was a simple one.

Bowyer and the other three teams owned by Richard Childress are paid to race, compete, and if everything goes right, hopefully win. It’s a mantra and attitude that comes from the bossman himself.

“You can’t just push somebody, you got to go up there and try to win the race, explained “Childress. “That’s what you’re in this business for, to race hard and put on a show for the fans.”

At one time, Childress did more than just own racecars, he also raced them. All told, he started 285 Cup races through the course of 12 years.

Although he competed on a minuscule budget and relied on secondhand parts, Childress never believed in giving anything less than 100%. Simply put: If you started a race, it was your job every single lap to fight for every last position possible.

Under no circumstances are you to lay back and take it easy.

When the day came for Childress to step out from behind the wheel to focus his attention on just being an owner, that attitude became the foundation for an organization that would go on to win six Sprint Cup championships.

This is why every time there is a Cup race at the twin tracks of Daytona and Talladega, the cars bearing Richard Childress’ name always run up front and never, ever choose to play it safe and run in the back.

That’s not how they do things at RCR.

To do otherwise, goes against his principles, even if being conservative may lead to greater glory down the road.

Coming into the weekend, Childress’ lead driver Kevin Harvick was sitting in a prime position to claim his first Sprint Cup title and Childress’ first since 1994.

Through the first five Chase races, all tracks which Harvick typically struggles on, he somehow found himself second in the series standings. Only five points behind leader Carl Edwards.

Thus far his strategy of making it through the first-half of the Chase unscathed and using the last five races, which not so coincidently are all tracks he historically has had success, was working perfectly.

Sunday at Talladega, in the Good Sam Club 500, was where Harvick was going to make his move up the championship leaderboard and assert himself as the favorite.

The 2.66-mile superspeedway was a place he’s performed well previously; winning there last spring and finishing second and fifth in subsequent races.

Per the mantra of his team, the plan Sunday was for Harvick to never lay back.

For much of yesterday afternoon things were unfolding just as expected, with another good finish well within in his grasp.

However, fate had other ideas.

On lap 105 a multi-car wreck was triggered when AJ Allmendinger was turned sideways coming through the tri-oval. In the resulting melee, Harvick’s No. 29 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet was severely wounded. A probable good result and the likely points lead that went with it, was instead turned into nothing more than a pipedream.

Despite the accompanying 32nd-place finish and falling 46 points behind Edwards, there was no regret afterwards.

“It’s unfortunate that Kevin got in that crash,” said Childress. “He was doing what we all talked about doing, running up front. It just happened he got hung up in it.

“We may have been able to ride in the back and wait it out. That just isn’t what we wanted to do.”

Even Harvick, frustration and all, had no regrets about what the day’s game plan included.

“We wanted to be in the front,” said a dejected Harvick. “We thought that was the safer place to be in case the thing went green. I thought I was around a pretty good group of cars there.

“I don’t know what happened. It is just one of those deals.”

And it’s not as if the tactic to fall back until the closing laps then make a move towards the front was necessarily the right one.

Just ask the Hendrick Motorsports duo of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson. Both of whom who had fast cars but elected to play it safe. As such, when they weren’t able to weave their way around traffic late, they left the Alabama speed plant 25th and 26th-place respectfully in the final rundown.

For Earnhardt, it was disappointing because it may very well represent his last good chance to win a race in 2011 and snap a losing streak which dates back to June, 2008. While Johnson’s subpar day all but ensured his streak of championships will come to an end at five.

Although Richard Childress’ credo may not have paid dividends for Harvick, it did payoff for a pair of his teammates.

Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton teamed up from the drop of the green flag, deftly managed to avoid trouble and were never too far from the lead, combining to lead 51 laps. And after a late caution which led to a green-white-checkered restart, the two quickly pulled away to settle things for themselves.

It was then, with the checkered flag in sight, Bowyer who was pushing Burton, moved to the inside and squeezed by for the win.

For Bowyer, who will move to Michael Waltrip Racing for 2012, it was his first victory of the year in what has been a trying season.

Most importantly, it marked the 100th Sprint Cup victory for Richard Childress Racing.

Fittingly, it was earned in a manner befitting the patriarch of the team.

“These fans pay a lot of money,” said Childress in the post-race winner’s press conference. “All of our RCR cars race to give these fans a show. We didn’t sit in the back and ride till the last minute. Our cars ran all day long. We don’t get paid to ride in the back.

“I’m proud of every one of ‘em.”

 

If you would like to contact the author of this post, simply click here, and you can also follow The Racing Geek on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Bowyer, Burton, Childress, Harvick, NASCAR, Sub-Feature, Talladega

Lessons Learned At The Halfway Point

06/12/2011 By Leave a Comment

When the checkered flag waved on the STP 400 last Sunday at Kansas Speedway, it signaled the official halfway point of the 2011 Sprint Cup regular season. What a memorable first half it’s been.

Through 13 races we’ve had unexpected first-time winners in two of the sports biggest events, a legend finding lost glory, NASCAR’s favorite son returning to prominence, Carl Edwards flexing his muscles on the track, with Richard Childress wielding his fists off of it, Richard Petty Motorsports rising up from the ashes, Kyle Busch getting some form of comeuppance, Juan Pablo Montoya threatening legal action against Ryan Newman for punching him, midrace temper tantrums from Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr., which brought in sweeping changes for their respective teams, notable flops from drivers who were expected to contend (Jeff Burton, Joey Logano, Jamie McMurray), secret fines that weren’t so secret, Ford, Chevy, Dodge and Toyota all having won at least once, and a plethora of other happenings which has made this season a worthy sequel to the phenomenal year that we saw in 2010.

Here’s a look back at some of the lessons we’ve learned thus far in 2011.

●With an emphatic victory at Phoenix which snapped his 66-race winless streak, Jeff Gordon showed the racing community that he still knows how to win. The bad news, his bouts with inconsistency likely will prevent him from winning his fifth Sprint Cup title.

●Not only is Jeff Gordon’s former crew chief, Steve Letarte, proving to be a miracle worker; he’s also proving to be a much better crew chief than I gave him credit for this offseason.

●Instead of going out with a bang in his final season with Hendrick Motorsports, Mark Martin – zero wins, one top-five, and four top-10s – is going out with a whimper. It’s all but a certainty that in what is likely his final full season in Sprint Cup, the driver who has finished runner-up in the championship five times will be on the outside looking in for the second straight year when the Chase commences in September.

●Ford (particularly the Roush Fenway cars) is head and shoulders above everyone else. Counting the non-points All-Star Race, cars with a blue oval on their hood have won five events this season. On top of that, points leader Carl Edwards is the clear-cut championship favorite, while teammate Matt Kenseth, with victories at Texas and Dover, is also a fringe title contender.

●As a follow-up to the above point, the Ford FR9 is everything it was cracked up to be and more. Since working out the kinks last summer of their long developed and much-maligned power plant, Ford has seen cars bearing its name make eight trips to the winner’s circle, including Trevor Bayne’s much celebrated victory in the Daytona 500.

●Trevor Bayne, Regan Smith, and Brad Keselowski have all won this season, while Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne, and Clint Bowyer all are still looking for their first checkered flag of 2011.

●For fear of getting taken to the woodshed, you don’t mess with Richard Childress. A lesson Kyle Busch now knows all too well after the 65-year-old grandfather sent the 26-year-old cowering to the ground in a fetal position last Saturday in Kansas. Also, the expression “Here, hold my watch” has entered our lexicon as phrase that signals someone’s about to put a whuppin’ on somebody.

●The pipeline of young drivers climbing up through the ranks, which seemed dry just a season ago, is now oozing with talent. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Justin Allgaier, Cole Whitt and Austin Dillon have all shown that they have the talent to one day be winners at the Sprint Cup level. And that’s not even taking into account 20-year-old Trevor Bayne’s triumph in the Daytona 500. Even better for these youngsters is there are more opportunites to compete at the next level than there were a couple of years ago, when Cup team owners shied away from putting a young driver in one of their cars due to lack of sponsorship and the cost involved in repairing wrecked cars through the inevitable growing pains associated with moving up to NASCAR’s top series.

●There is no more schizophrenic team in all of NASCAR than Kurt Busch and his No. 22 team. One week they look like world-beater’s, the next they look like a team coming apart at the seams. For example, last week at Kansas Kurt Busch started on the pole. Yet, as soon as the green flag dropped, the volatile driver was on his radio complaining he had a 43rd-place car. And what happened? All he did was lead the most laps and would’ve likely won had the race had not turned into a game of fuel-mileage. Judging from some of Busch’s comments this season, you’d think he would be somewhere in the teens points-wise. Instead, with a team he rails against almost weekly, he’s sixth overall and has racked-up the third-most top-10 finishes.

●The curse of finishing second to Jimmie Johnson lives on. A year after finishing runner-up to Johnson in the championship standings, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards and Mark Martin all went winless and came nowhere close to the form they showed the previous year. Although he’s ran better as of late, and the expectation is he wins today at Pocono, the fact is Denny Hamlin has struggled for much of the year and is still is looking for his first victory of 2011.

●With just two top-10s and buried back in 27th in points, Jamie McMurray’s magical season of a year ago which saw him win a career-best three times, is looking more and more like a fluke.

●NASCAR’s revamping of how one qualifies for the Chase and implementing the two wildcard spots, is turning into a stroke of genius. The greater emphasis placed on winning has produced some outstanding racing with teams more willing to gamble and go all-out for victories than ever before. The ferocity will only get ratcheted up as the regular season dwindles down and the opening Chase race at Chicagoland gets closer and closer.

●Joey Logano may be all hype with little actual substance. The third-year driver, despite driving for the powerhouse known as Joe Gibbs Racing and having two-time championship crew chief Greg Zipadelli guiding the Home Depot team, Tony Stewart’s handpicked successor continues to languish in mediocrity.

This is just a sampling of the lessons we’ve learned halfway through the regular season. All of which brings us to some storylines I’m keeping an eye on as we enter the second half.

Crew Chief Roulette
Being a crew chief is a tenuous position with your job status always in constant flux. But with many a big-name driver – Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers, David Reutimann, Jamie McMurray, and the aforementioned Joey Logano – all struggling to find consistent success, perhaps none more so than in the next couple of months.

We saw the first shoe drop earlier this week when Michael Waltrip Racing announced Pat Tryson had been replaced as crew chief for Martin Truex Jr. Not a surprise, considering everyone knew the noose around Tryson’s neck was tightening following Truex’s meltdown a month ago at Richmond, all of which predicated an overhaul of his pit crew a few days later.

With the pressure to perform higher than ever and with the opportunity to sneak into the Chase now an option thanks to the wildcard, owners will not hesitate to make a change if they feel it will jumpstart their chances to get their driver into the playoffs. As with the stick-and-ball sports, it’s always easier to fire the manager than the players. The same theory holds true in NASCAR, where crew chiefs are often looked at as nothing more than scapegoats.

Wild Road To The Chase
The wildcard to getting a wildcard into the Chase is what happens at the two road courses the series visits each year, first later this month at Infineon and in August at Watkins Glen. Say Juan Pablo Montoya wins one or both of these races; the odds are it will be enough for him to snag a spot in the Chase. The same can be said for Marcos Ambrose, another expert road racer who has had a sneaky good year in his first season with Richard Petty Motorsports.

The King Is Dead, Long Live The King?
We say it every year, but it may apply more this year than any other, as there are some chinks in the armor of Jimmie Johnson and the 48 team. The vaunted pit crew which was overhauled in the offseason is still prone to the occasional blunder on pit road, and the magic wand which Chad Knaus often uses to make the Lowes Chevy stronger late in races seems to have run out of pixie dust. More than anything though, Johnson’s reign may come to an end not because of anything he or his team did or did’nt, but simply because the Roush Fenway camp is that much better. Particularly points leader Carl Edwards who, with the exception of Martinsville, has been stout week in and week out.

What’s Mark Going To Do?
Mark Martin has repeatedly said he has no plans to retire at the end of the year and that he plans to race somewhere in 2012. The question is for what team and in what series? No one wants to see one of the classiest and well respected drivers to ever turn a wheel put out to pasture, but the way things are unfolding there doesn’t look to be a ride for the 40-time Sprint Cup winner.

To be honest, I’m not sure Martin is set on enduring the 38-week grind known as the Sprint Cup Series. Look for an announcement sometime this summer that Martin will run a full Nationwide slate for Turner Motorsports with a handful of Cup races sprinkled in.

Danica Mania All The Time; But For Which Team?
Speaking of pending announcements, it’s all but a certainty that in the next month or two Danica Patrick will make it known she will be leaving IndyCar and will be making a fulltime move to NASCAR, where she will run the entire Nationwide schedule next year in preparation for move up to Sprint Cup in 2012. Like Martin, the question is which team will Patrick align herself with?

Conventional wisdom says she’d be foolish to leave Hendrick/JR Motorsports where she’s grown quite comfortable working with crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and where the equipment is always second to none. However, there are those who say it’s no guarantee that Patrick will continue her association with Rick Hendrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and that she, along with sponsor Go Daddy.com, will be taking her services elsewhere.

The Year of The Surprise
From Daytona to Kansas, 2011 has undoubtedly been the year of the surprise. Even after improbable winners at Daytona and Darlington, and an unlikely winner in Kansas, it’s hard to imagine we’ll see another unexpected race winner or amazing finish the rest of the year. One that will collectively make everyone go, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming.” However, with the way things have been going, there is always a chance. I’m not sure who it will be next, or when over the next 13 races it’s going to happen, but the way this season has gone, I think its fair to say expect the unexpected.

 

 

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Allgaier, Ambrose, Bayne, Busch, Danica Patrick, Edwards, Ford, Gibbs, Gordon, Hamlin, Harvick, Johnson, Kenseth, Letarte, Logano, Martin, McMurray, Montoya, NASCAR, Penske, Roush, Sub-Feature, Truex Jr., Tryson

Childress Did What Had To Be Done and So Did NASCAR

06/08/2011 By 6 Comments

Kyle Busch is one of those drivers you either love or you hate.

It’s no secret he has more than a few enemies in the garage thanks in large part to his infinity for using his bumper to get around a competitor. Also not helping matters both with fans and drivers alike is the brash manner in which he carries himself both on and off the track. Fair or not, the popular belief of the immensely talented 26-year-old driver is that of a cocky, snot-nose punk who someone needs to teach a lesson to.

Enter Professor Richard Childress. The owner of six Sprint Cup championships who had grown sick of fixing wrecked cars and trucks bearing his name courtesy of Mr. Busch.

When a prior direct warning from Childress to Busch went unheeded and in last Saturday’s Truck Series race at Kansas, Busch drove into the side of the Richard Childress Racing truck driven by Joey Coulter, the former owner-driver who built his vast empire from nothing, had reached his boiling point.

Childress deliberately and calculatingly sought Busch out and meted out a punishment he deemed worthy of the crime(s). No different than the Old West vigilante justice that used to be commonplace in NASCAR. Except this time around there were no tire irons or pistols involved. Just fists, nothing more.

The problem is no matter how much Busch may or may not have deserved the beating he got, and make no mistake in my opinion he got his comeuppance, Childress wasn’t the one who should have delved out the penalty.

It’s taken us a long time to get here, but NASCAR has evolved to the point where you can’t have car owners fighting drivers, no matter how in the right they may be.

Outside of WWE, where Vince McMahon regularly put the boots to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, there is no sport where this type of behavior would be permitted.

Which is why despite public sentiment firmly in his corner, NASCAR had no choice but to dole out a $150,000 fine to the legendary car owner.

Though there are those who disagree on both sides, this was a perfectly acceptable penalty the sanctioning body handed down yesterday. The monetary sum is steep enough where it will discourage this kind of behavior from continuing. $150,000 is nothing to sneeze at, as it is easily one of the largest fines in NASCAR’s history non-performance related.

More importantly, NASCAR didn’t come across as heavy-handed when they decided not to suspend Childress for any length of time. The powers that be understood the circumstances leading to Saturday’s confrontation, as well as the fact that the offender in question doesn’t have a reputation as a troublemaker.

Also, in the “boy’s have at it” era where raw emotion is supposed to be celebrated and not condemned, a suspension would be perceived as hypocritical. You and I both know that if this incident would have been caught on tape, NASCAR and its television partners would have replayed the skirmish ad nauseum in an effort to promote the no-holds barred attitude they want NASCAR to be conveyed as having.

If anything is to come out of this, it’s that Busch has learned that eventually you’re going to have to pay the piper for your actions. And sometimes the piper may be disguised as a 65-year-old man who tells his grandson to hold his watch before administrating a beating worthy of the UFC octagon.

For Childress it sends a loud and clear message to not only Busch but the whole garage that his Richard Childress Racing organization isn’t to be messed with. I guarantee you drivers will have second thoughts next time they decide to rough up a Childress owned car.

If all it took was cutting a check for $150k to get that message across, it will be a check Childress will write with a broad smile. After all, there’s a reason the statement he released yesterday didn’t include the words “sorry” or “apologize.”

Childress knew what he was doing, is accepting his punishment without appeal, and is ready to move on and we should do the same.

 

 

 

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Busch, Childress, Gibbs, Harvick, NASCAR, Sub-Feature

A Day Full of Heartache, Elation, Dismay and more

05/31/2011 By 1 Comment

It seemed only fitting that a driver once dubbed “Captain America,” driving a car sponsored by the National Guard on Memorial Day Weekend, was going to win the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. It was a story that writes itself and something one might see in a movie.

But this story didn’t have a happy ending for J.R. Hildebrand. Instead, with the checkered flag in sight and with a comfortable lead over second-place Dan Wheldon, the rookie pilot got a little too high in Turn 4 when trying to work around a lapped machine, and inexplicitly wrecked coming out of the corner.

This was an absolutely devastating and heartbreaking way to lose any race. To lose in this manner and in a race of the magnitude of the Indy 500 defies what any one driver should have to experience.

“I’m OK, but this is not really about me at this point. You always show up to try to win. My disappointment is for the team and for National Guard as a sponsor. It’s one of those things, as a driver, you never really know what you’re going to expect. We knew we had a fast race car. We knew if the race came to us, we may be in a position to sort of finish top three, top five.”

If there was ever a rookie mistake, this would certainly quantify as one. All Hildebrand had to do was slow down, keep his wheels out of the marbles which had accumulated at the top of the track and he would have been only the ninth rookie and the first since Helio Castroneves in 2001, to sip milk in Indy’s victory lane.

Sunday was just a continuation of a year in motorsports that has featured a surprise rookie winner in the Daytona 500 and a small team toppling the sports best in the prestigious Southern 500. So it’s only appropriate that a team led by a driver kicked to the curb in a one-off ride won the 100h running of the Indianapolis 500.

The beneficiary in all this last turn madness was the aforementioned Wheldon. Which in and of itself is a remarkable story.

After winning the 500 in 2005, Wheldon went on to win the IndyCar championship. But since then, he’s had a bit of a star-crossed career. Although he’s had his fair share of victories since then, and three times has finish fourth or better in the yearend standings, consistent success has been fleeting. As has stability.

Wheldon has been jettisoned by both Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Panther Racing in the last three years. Despite credentials as good as anyone’s in the garage, the Englishman didn’t have a ride entering 2011.

Enter former IndyCar driver turned car owner Bryan Herta. A former teammate of Wheldon’s when they drove for Michael Andretti, who owned a fledgling single-car team with just enough sponsorship to run Indy.

From his days at Andretti-Green Racing when he won the 500, to a fourth-place run with Ganassi, to a pair of back-to-back runner-up finishes while with Panther, if there is one thing Wheldon has shown, no matter the quality of equipment, it’s that he can wheel a car around the Mecca of racing known as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as good as anyone.

But to think he could win the 500 this year was a bit preposterous. I mean this is Indy after all, where upsets are infrequent and wins by the power teams of open-wheel racing is the norm.

This year the powerhouse team was the Chip Ganassi duo of Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. And from the outset of the 200 lap race it appeared it was business as usual for the pair of red cars, which have been quick throughout the month of May.

Dixon, from his starting position in the middle of the front row, led five times for a race-high 73 laps, while Franchitti was on the point five times for a total of 51 laps.

But poor pit strategy and fuel mileage ultimately doomed the twosome. Dixon came home fifth, whereas Franchitti limped home 12th.

“I feel really bad for my team,” said Franchitti, a two-time 500 winner. “I feel bad for myself right now, and I feel bad for Scott. It’s a good race, sad end. I’m disappointed with the result. I don’t second-guess these guys. I only have a very narrow view of what’s going on. They have the big picture.

“These guys have won me a lot of races and some championships, and I don’t second-guess them.”

Along with the dismal showing of Penske Racing, the other Indy superpower with a record 15 500 wins, which saw none of its three cars finish better than 14th, the door was wide-open for a long-shot winner to walk through. And as the laps clicked down and the 500 came down to who could stretch their fuel the most, there was the opportunistic Wheldon motoring to his second 500 win in six years.

“Right up until the point where I passed J.R. I didn’t have any emotions,” said Wheldon afterwards. “I was so focused. It was one of those races where it was so competitive that you had to be on your game. And the wind seemed to be getting under the front of my car. I was catching [Ana] Beatriz; I wasn’t focused on what had gone on in the front. When I saw him crash, I knew it wasn’t serious.

“There was a little smile on my face.”

Why shouldn’t Wheldon smile? In the span of a month he went from the unemployment line to victory lane.

###

Like his National Guard sponsored counterpart in the Indy 500, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leading heading into the final corners and appeared to have the race won, this time the Coca-Cola 600, firmly within his grasp. But like the IndyCar version of J.R., NASCAR’s JR didn’t win.

The fuel tank in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet ran dry coming out of Turn 4, handing the victory to Kevin Harvick.

Harvick’s win, his third of 2011, surmised a topsy-turvy race that featured a constant ebb and flow atop the leaderboard. The jockeying among drivers can be attributed to the changing track conditions normally associated with the longest race on the Sprint Cup calendar as well as the various tire and fuel strategies that played out over the 600-mile race, which frankly felt like 6,000 due to the 14 yellow flags that slowed the action.

From the drop of the green flag under the glare of the late afternoon sun, it was quickly apparent that just as they were a week ago in the All-Star Race, the fleet of Ford’s owned by Jack Roush were the cars to beat.

All-Star winner Carl Edwards took control early on, leading 61 of the first 75 laps. But the 99 team failed to keep up with the ever-changing track and finished 16th.

Keeping up with the track wasn’t an issue for Edwards’ teammate Matt Kenseth, who looked like he was destined to claim his second victory in the 600. The driver of the No. 17 Jeremiah Weed Ford Fusion ended up pacing the field for 103 laps and was running with the leaders before a late-race pit stop for fuel dropped him down the running order.

A good finish also eluded the third Roush car driven by Greg Biffle, who battled back from a myriad of issues early on, including a problem with his cooling device inside the cockpit, as well a speeding penalty on pit road which cost the 16 car a lap to the leaders.

At various points in the latter stages of the race it looked like any combination of the Roush cars, along with Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Marcos Ambrose, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne or Dale Earnhardt Jr. would go on to win.

Eventually though, the race came down to a green-white-checkered restart that saw Kahne leading with Earnhardt sitting in second. Earnhardt, who hasn’t won a Sprint Cup race in almost three years, got a terrific jump, while Kahne ran out of fuel setting off a mad scramble behind him.

The question then became did Earnhardt have enough fuel to get to the finish? An answer which became all too apparent when, just hundreds of feet from the start/finish line, the 88 car slowed to a crawl.

Like Dan Wheldon hours before him, Kevin Harvick had put himself in perfect position to capitalize.

“Today we were lucky,” acknowledged Harvick, who won for the 17th in his Sprint Cup career.

Not that Harvick should feel sheepish about his victory.

It takes luck to win just about any race on any level. There will be times like there were this past weekend in both the 500 and 600 where it’s better to be lucky than good. While you can never count on a rookie driver to wreck in Turn 4 or the leader to run out of gas in the final corner, when those opportunities do come your way, the onus is on you to take advantage of the situation.

But that’s a story for another time. The story on this night wasn’t about Harvick winning a race when he was a nonfactor throughout, or how luck plays a pivotal role in deciding who wins and who loses.

The story was Earnhardt, entrenched in a 104-race winless streak, coming oh so close, but once again falling just short.

The funny thing is Earnhardt doesn’t think his numerous close calls should be the focus. He would prefer if everyone instead focused on how far his team has come in a short amount of time after an offseason makeover. A makeover which included bringing aboard new crew chief Steve Letarte, who has done a remarkable job of raising his driver’s once sagging confidence.

It’s this turnaround for which Earnhardt is extremely proud.

“I know we are doing a good job,” said an upbeat Earnhardt in the garage. “I know we are unloading good cars. These guys just have to lift their heads up man, because we are doing a good thing. We’re building a good team and building good chemistry and they keep their heads up and we’ll keep proving. That’s what is important.

“If we let this bother us too much, we won’t improve as much as we should. We want to win races and we are getting close enough that a couple of them are about to fall in [our] lap and when we get that little extra stint, we’ll be in business.”

For those who might be disappointed that their favorite driver is has gone 0-104, Earnhardt has a message.

“To be honest, I know there will be disappointment about coming so close tonight,” said Earnhardt. “But our fans should be real happy about how we are performing and how we are showing up at the race track. How competitive we are. We’ve definitely improved things and we want to keep getting better and better.”

If there is one thing to take away from Sunday night, it’s that even though Dale Earnhardt Jr. hasn’t won a points race in 36 months, he’s back. Not necessarily all the way back, but the mediocrity that has consumed him these last few years is no more.

It’s no longer, “Is Earnhardt going to win again?”, but “When and how often?” Although it’s easy to get caught up in how long it’s been since he last won, don’t look past the fact this team is fourth in points, and with a little bit of luck could have easily won three, maybe four, races this season.

Kevin Harvick may have won the race Sunday, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his legion of supporters may have walked away the real winners.

###

Odds & Ends

►Taking into account only the years when they had a car in the actual race, this year’s Indy 500 was the first time since 1992 that Roger Penske failed to have a car finish in the top-10.

►Her 10th-place run marked the sixth time in seven starts that Danica Patrick finished the Memorial Day Classic in the top-10.

►Despite slapping the wall three times, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished a respectable 11th in his Sprint Cup debut.

►David Ragan’s runner-up finish was his best career Sprint Cup result.

 

 

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Photo courtesy of the IZOD IndyCar Series/Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Filed Under: Charlotte, Childress, Dario Franchitti, Earnhardt Jr., Ganassi, Harvick, Hildebrand, Indianapolis, Indy 500, NASCAR, Penske, Roush, Thoughts, Wheldon

A Kevin/Kyle Rivalry Is Good For The Sport

05/12/2011 By Leave a Comment

There’s a lot that already has been said, can be said and will continue to be said about what went down between Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch last Saturday night at Darlington Raceway.

As is often the case when it involves drivers all but declaring open warfare on one another, there is a wide spectrum of opinions. Everything from Kyle Busch is a punk who should be suspended for spinning out another car on pit road, to Kevin Harvick should have expected some sort retaliation after the brazen way he went about intentionally dumping Busch last November in the season-finale at Homestead.

However, the following are facts everyone can agree upon:

►Harvick and Busch have open disdain for each other both professionally and personally.

►Each driver is a regular visitor to victory lane – Harvick’s won 16 Sprint Cup races in his career, while Busch has been to the winner’s circle 21 times.

►Along with Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson, both Harvick and Busch are regarded as favorites to win this year’s championship.

►The teams they respectively drive for, Richard Childress Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing, are two of the sports superpowers who continually turnout fast, race-winning machines. Meaning both Harvick and Busch are fixtures up front almost weekly.

►Neither is shy about speaking their mind and sharing their opinion publically. Harvick more so than Busch as Busch is trying to distance himself from the immaturity label that he’s so often been tagged with. To go along with this, neither is shy about using their bumper to pass another car if needed. In fact, both seem to relish the opportunity whenever the situation presents itself.

►Each is sponsored by a recognizable company who adamantly stands behind their respective driver and embraces their individuality, and shall we say, unique personality.

So when you look at the above facts, it was almost a foregone conclusion that over the course of time, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch would have a run-in or two somewhere along the way.

When it inevitably occurred, it would be the equivalent of throwing an open match into a room full of gasoline due to the personalities and circumstances involved.

As was the case at Darlington, when the two beat on each other for a couple of laps, which ultimately collected Harvick’s RCR teammate Clint Bowyer in its wake, and saw Busch intentionally hooking the rear of the No. 29 car and sending him into the wall.

From there, in the video SportsCenter has aired countless times, Harvick tried to corner Busch on pit road while the two were still strapped in their cars. When that proved unsuccessful, Harvick finally got out of his car only to see Busch drive away. But not before the 18 tapped the 29 and turned the unmanned car into the pit wall just as Harvick took a swipe at Busch.

Also not surprising about this whole ordeal is the reaction from NASCAR.

Yesterday, they announced that both drivers would be hit with a $25,000 fine and put on probation for the next four weeks. While on the surface that may seem like a big deal, and an effort to curb any retaliation that may result, in actuality it’s NASCAR’s way of shrugging their shoulders and saying, “Boys, will be boys.”

To the point, the sanctions handed down had nothing to with Busch intentionally spinning out Harvick heading into Turn 1. No, both drivers would have gotten away scot free if they hadn’t made contact on pit road. Understandably, a big no-no for obvious safety reasons because of the number of people in the pits post-race.

You know what? In this era of “Boys, have at it” I’m more than okay with the penalties and the message that was handed down. What happened on the track was fine, but carrying over the skirmish to pit road where an innocent bystander could easily be harmed is unacceptable.

What happened between Harvick and Busch is exactly what NASCAR had in mind when they laid out their new philosophy 15 months ago concerning driver conduct on the track.

While I often decry the premiere motorsports sanctioning body in North America for their inconsistent and often conflicting rulings, they have been remarkably consistent in letting drivers police themselves. Sometimes to the determent of the sport and the safety of its participants; i.e. what transpired last year between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski.

NASCAR was built on the backbone of great rivalries on the track, which frequently extended to fisticuffs and other dirty deeds off of the track.

Despite an era of unprecedented competitiveness, where more cars are contending for wins on a weekly basis than ever before, there has been one common complaint among fans both old and new. The great rivalries that once defined this sport – Pearson vs. Petty, Petty vs. Allison, The Allison’s vs. Yarborough, Yarborough vs. Waltrip, Waltrip vs. Petty, Waltrip vs. Everyone, Earnhardt vs. The Field – have all fallen by the wayside.

The perception among many fans is drivers are too buddy-buddy with one another. When flares of animosity do popup, they’re quickly extinguished due to overzealous sponsors putting pressure on car owners due to concerns that warring drivers might hurt their corporate image.

Longtime fans fondly recall the days when their favorite driver didn’t have to mind their P’s and Q’s and could openly vent their contempt for their counterparts.

Yes, I know drivers still occasionally express hatred towards a fellow competitor, which will occasionally extend to physical contact. Just as we saw last Friday when Ryan Newman popped Juan Pablo Montoya in the NASCAR hauler after the former Indy 500 champion intentionally wrecked Newman the week before at Richmond. Or as the “fight” between Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton last fall at Texas illustrates when Gordon charged Burton after the former thought the latter deliberately wrecked him.

But when was the last time two drivers, each considered one of the favorites to win the title, went at the way Harvick and Busch did Saturday? It’s been a while and certainly not to the level that we witnessed last weekend or even last November at Homestead.

Which in a way is why what happened between Harvick and Busch was so refreshing.

As good as things as things are right now in Sprint Cup with two young upstart drivers pulling off mega-upsets in the two biggest races, Jeff Gordon winning again, Dale Earnhardt Jr. contending again, a great rivalry extending into open bitterness has been the one thing missing.

Not anymore, as we have two championship-caliber drivers not afraid to lay the smack down on and off the track. Be it with their front bumper or barrage of words to each other in the garage. It’s been far too long since we’ve had drivers contending for the title who have such contempt for one another and make no bones about the fact that they will gladly wreck their rival if given the chance.

This is a great thing for the sport. If you don’t believe me, just look at how much publicity the Saturday’s altercation received by the mainstream media.

Although there is some concern that one may step over the line and a situation may arise like what happened last year when Carl Edwards turned Brad Keselowski into a human kite, for now let’s rejoice in what should be pure theatre and high drama as the season rolls into the summer months.

If either does step over the invisible line in what constitutes acceptable behavior on the track, let’s hope NASCAR has the cojones to lay a fitting punishment down on the offending party.

Until then, grab your favorite adult beverage, pull up a chair and enjoy the fireworks show which is surely just getting started.

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Busch, Darlington, Harvick, NASCAR, Sub-Feature

Monday’s Thoughts: Amid Chaos, Regan Smith Emerges

05/09/2011 By Leave a Comment

Let’s make this clear, the Kyle Busch – Kevin Harvick fracas was certainly the A1 story Saturday night. At the very least, this will be the first thing brought up by anyone who follows the sport, casually or otherwise when discussing the Showtime Southern 500.

While there is plenty to say about what happened between the two combatants. Busch and Harvick happen to be NASCAR’s better drivers, and both have a real chance to win the championship. Dare I say there was a far more important occurrence on Saturday evening?

Coming into this weekend Regan Smith had posted just one top-10 finish in 104 career starts — a seventh in the Daytona 500 this past February. For a variety of justifiable reasons, despite being full of promise and potential, he was not looked as a favorite to win.

Namely, he drives for a team, Furniture Row Motorsports, which in seven years of existence and 136 prior races had never come close to winning. They don’t even have their own pit crew. They have to lease one from Stewart-Haas Racing.

All that aide, there was Smith and his lowly single-car team, on a night when cars from the stables of Jack Roush, Joe Gibbs and Team Red Bull dominated for almost the entire evening, holding the winner’s trophy in victory lane.

This isn’t supposed to happen in the granddaddy of them all, the Southern 500.

Historically this is a race dominated by the greats of the sports. Drivers who have the last name Pearson, Petty, Earnhardt or Gordon.

“This is so special,” beamed Smith. “We were looking at the names and faces on the trophy. You think about it; my face is going to be right there next to these guys and it’s going to be there forever. You can’t change that. It certainly means a lot to me.”

One of NASCAR’s four crown jewel races, and on the tricky and treacherous track dubbed “Too Tough to Tame,” this has never been a race where a little known driver with the last name of Smith finds a way to topple the current points leader. Who in this case was Carl Edwards, and with four fresh Goodyear tires underneath him, appeared destine to drive away with the victory.

Yet, thanks to a never give-up attitude, an unwavering belief in himself and his team, as well as a gutty gamble to forsake new tires with 10 laps to go, there was Smith trying furiously to hold off Edwards’ as the two charged towards the checkered flag.

To the point Smith was driving so hard off of Turn 2 on the white flag lap, his black Chevrolet jumped sideways on him and he slapped the outside retaining wall.

Like a veteran, Smith kept his cool and poise. Most importantly, he kept his foot firmly planted on the gas, was able to gather his car back up and still maintain his lead over Edwards’ No. 99 Aflac Ford.

Ultimately crossing the start/finish line ahead of Edwards and in the process picking up his first career victory of what has been a star-crossed career. A career which includes a overruled win at Talladega three years ago being taken away when it was deemed Smith went below the yellow out-of-bounds line to pass race-leader Tony Stewart.

A controversial decision which still rankles many in the garage, who feel Smith was robbed.

“I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t know if I was ever going to get it back,” Smith said referring to his near-miss at Talladega. “To get it back at Darlington, absolutely it’s vindication. Winning here to me means more to me than that win could have ever meant.

“I don’t think I’ll go to bed tonight thinking about Talladega, that’s for sure.”

On this night, David slayed Goliath. Doing so with old tires, an engine and chassis from another team, and with a pit crew he really can’t call his own. It’s not quite a slingshot, but it’s as close as it gets in NASCAR.

Even amid the jubilation of his accomplishment, Smith was able to recognize the improbability of the feat he just pulled off.

“You have the Daytona 500, the Southern 500, the Coke 600, and the Brickyard 400,” Smith said. Those are the four. “And to come here and beat a guy like Carl Edwards, it’s incredible.

“Cinderella story. Whatever is written about it, I’m perfectly fine with it. I don’t care, because we still get a trophy.”

If it felt like you were watching something from yesteryear, you weren’t the only one. Saturday night was like taking a trip back 30 years. To an era when it wasn’t considered implausible that a small single-car team could scrap together the resources to go racing with the hope that through the combination of hard work and a little luck, mixed with some talent they could achieve their dream.

The plight of the small team in today’s big money world of Sprint Cup racing isn’t new. It’s a common gripe among fans and competitors that only a few select organizations get to ascend to the top of the NASCAR Mountain. But twice this season, and in the irony of all ironies, in the two biggest races, it was a small team driving into victory lane.

All the while those larger, better funded operations stood there with their mouths agape wondering how team with a fraction of their budget had just taken it to them.

That’s why if you take away anything from this past weekend, it’s not what’s going to happen next in the Busch – Harvick soap opera. No matter how compelling it may be.

What deserves the spotlight is this: a driver looking for redemption paired with a small team based in Colorado of all places, and not North Carolina, the hub of NASCAR. Who together prevailed in the unlikeliest of fashions in a race they weren’t supposed to win.

Busch and Harvick have had their days in the sun, and they will continue to have many more. This moment belongs to Regan Smith and no one else. So I say let him enjoy it while it lasts.

 

 

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Busch, Darlington, Harvick, NASCAR, Regan Smith, Thoughts

Monday’s Thoughts: Talladega Fulfilled All Our Expectations

04/18/2011 By Leave a Comment

Twice a year the Sprint Cup Series rolls into Talladega. Each and every time you’re guaranteed three things: a high amount of lead changes; multiple wrecks, often involving a gaggle of cars; and of course controversy – lots of it and in heavy doses.

Sunday’s running of the Aaron’s 499 certainly didn’t disappoint. Jimmie Johnson tied the mark for the closest finish in NASCAR history since the advent of electric scoring. At the same time mangled cars and angry, frustrated drivers were scattered across the garage.

As was expected, two-car tandem racing ruled the day with drivers pairing off and working together around the 2.6 mile track.

From the drop of the green flag it quickly became apparent the four Hendrick Motorsports cars, which started in the first four positions, had a gameplan in place that plan involved Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin working as one unit and Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. doing the same.

A plan that worked to perfection, as the pairs stuck together all afternoon, all the while escaping the numerous incidents which engulfed many a driver.

When it was time to make a move toward the latter stages of the 188-lap race, there was Gordon and Martin, and Johnson and Earnhardt running up front and in prime position for the win.

But it was Johnson, with a strong push courtesy of Earnhardt, who made a bold move inside the duo of Gordon and Martin and dashed ahead of Clint Bowyer who was being pushed by Richard Childress teammate Kevin Harvick, and won by a margin of .002-seconds.

Despite posting his second straight runner-up finish, Bowyer wasn’t quite as enamored with his place in the record-setting finish, as he got little satisfaction in losing a race in the narrowest of margins.

“Hell, no, that sucks,” Bowyer said jokingly. “It’s never very good to know you made NASCAR history by losing. Sooner or later I need to start making history by winning.

“That guy’s won enough.”

It was a victory that without question wouldn’t have been achieved without the efforts of Earnhardt, who was credited with a fourth-place finish.

Even though he hadn’t won a race in 100 starts, the five-time Talladega winner dutifully played the role of loyal teammate all afternoon. He was in constant communication with Johnson throughout, and he even called for the two to swap positions late in the race even though he was leading, as they were faster with the 48 leading the way and Earnhardt doing the pushing.

This decision ultimately proved to be the difference maker.

“I can’t thank Junior enough,” said a grateful Johnson. “He made the decision that my car was faster leading. And the way these things are finishing up, the lead car is going to get the win.

Johnson showed his appreciation on pit road when he beckoned Earnhardt over and then proceeded to hand him the checkered flag. A gesture Earnhardt appreciated, but didn’t think he deserved as he attempted to hand the memento back.

“I handed it to him,” explained Johnson, “and he (Earnhardt) said, ‘Man, I don’t want that.’ I said, ‘Well, I have to give you something for the push and working with me.’ He said, ‘No, that’s what teammates do.’

“I smiled and I said, ‘Take the damn flag. I’ll give you the trophy, too.’

“He says, ‘No, I don’t want the trophy. I’ll take the flag, though.’”

Like he usually does and like he did yesterday, the five-time defending series champ came out on top and Earnhardt ended up hanging onto the keepsake.

At any rate, Johnson couldn’t stop expressing his gratitude towards his wingman. Knowing that without him, there was no way he would be credited with the win, the 54th of his career.

“Junior was more worried about the team having a good performance than anything,” Johnson said. “We worked together all day, and in the end he was responsible for this win. I can’t thank him enough.”

However this day was more than just one driver helping another.

Once again, there were a bevy of drivers upset with a rules package that gave them little choice but to run in pairs. As a result, the trailing car had almost zero visibility, which often led to drivers running over the top of one another.

One of those drivers swept up in one of the three multi-car wrecks was last week’s winner, Matt Kenseth. His day ended when Kyle Busch was tapped from behind by his Joe Gibbs teammate Joey Logano coming out of Turn 2.

“This two-car thing is really hard as a driver,” an exasperated Kenseth said standing beside his wrecked Ford Fusion. “If you’re the tail car, you can’t see anything. All you can see is the spoiler in front of you and going that fast and not being able to see is not the most comforting feeling.

“You catch people real fast and you have to have a lot of faith in the guy in front of you. You’re gonna spin people out because they make a quick move and you’re shoving them as hard as you can shove them doing 200 miles an hour. If they make a move too quick, they’re gonna crash. It’s a difficult environment to race in to say the least.”

Of course the guy who won had a different perspective of how the racing went.

There is some technique required now,” Johnson said. “Instead of just running wide-open all the time and just sitting there in a guy’s tire tracks, now there’s some work required and some skill. I think that this racing is fun, and certainly easy for me to say because I won, and probably if I crashed I would be bitching and moaning.

“But it was a good day. When you have this many lead changes for a Cup race, that’s a good thing.”

Another less talked about controversy is whether Johnson committed a NASCAR no-no when making his winning pass.

Video and still photographs suggest at the very least the left-side tires on the 48 were touching the yellow line, which at Talladega and Daytona is marked as out-of-bounds. If that were indeed the case, and the 48 did go below the yellow line to make a pass, Johnson’s victory should be forfeited and the win would then be given to Bowyer.

It’s not as if NASCAR is afraid to make such a call.

As recently as February in the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona, the sanctioning body took away an apparent win from Denny Hamlin when it was deemed he went below the yellow line right before the start-finish line. And three years ago on this very same track, Regan Smith was denied the win when it was declared that he went out-of-bounds, much in the same spot as Johnson, in attempt to get by race-leader Tony Stewart.

Post-race, NASCAR was quick to state that no penalty was forthcoming and Johnson’s pass was very much within the rule book.

“I have not seen the video yet, and I was not focused on where that yellow line was,” said Johnson. “I was more worried about causing a big pile up and luckily the 5 quit coming down and then the 24 pulled back up.

“There’s so much going on at the end of that thing coming to the stripe and I don’t know what anybody could have done differently. When you’re four-wide across a start-finish line, I think that’s a pretty damn good race.”

NASCAR’s ruling is supported by the fact nary a driver voiced a dissenting opinion. Kevin Harvick even took to Twitter in defense of Johnson.

“[D]ear people, the 48 did not go below the line, he won the damn race in Talladega fashion…roll on with it,” Harvick tweeted.

At the end of the day, what would a race at Talladega be without a little controversy? Not to mention a photo finish, and a pile of torn up racecars. With this year’s newest wrinkle being the driver who finished fourth walked away with the checkered flag.

If you would like to contact the author of this post, simply click here, and you can also follow The Racing Geek on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Bowyer, Earnhardt Jr., Harvick, Johnson, Kenseth, NASCAR, Talladega, Thoughts

Monday’s Thoughts: Kenseth Stomps The Competition

04/11/2011 By Leave a Comment

From Jeff Gordon snapping his 82-race winless streak at Phoenix to the continued efforts of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his quest to end his 100-race drought, the word ‘streak’ has been a popular one in 2011.

Just because he doesn’t have the accomplishments of Jeff Gordon or the pedigree of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth’s winless streak was often overlooked.

But Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway, the 2003 series champion made his presence felt in a big way. As he dominated the Samsung Mobile 500 and easily cruised to his first victory since February 2009, when he won at Auto Club Speedway, a span of 76 races.

“Yeah, it feels good to get back to Victory Lane,” said the driver who had four runner-up finishes since his last victory. “It’s been a long time. You talk about the second place finishes here (Kenseth finished second here last fall), and I got beaten at the end of a lot of these races. It’s great to finish second if you can’t win.

“But another way is like getting kicked in the gut. You have to come back. Like last fall you look at Jimmy, and you come back and look at the guys and you’re leading with two to go, three to go, five to go, and you don’t win, it’s always disappointing.

The only disappointment in this race was the lack of competition up front.

On a night where long stretches of green flag ruled the evening, Kenseth’s margin of victory was a cushy 8.3 seconds over second-place Clint Bowyer. The only thing in doubt was whether Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart, who had pitted out of sequence, could squeeze enough out of their fuel tanks to make it to the finish without pitting. But forced into fuel conservation mode wasn’t enough, as both Busch and Stewart came up short and handed the lead to Kenseth 13 laps from the finish.

It was then they started engraving Kenseth’s name on the trophy, because on this night there wasn’t a car in the country who could keep pace with the driver who was desperately in search of his 19th career win.

Like any driver in a prolonged slump who then finds himself back in the winner’s circle, it reminded Kenseth of just how special winning is and how precious each and every victory is.

“You know, I felt better the last six months. Everything’s been looking up. Certainly the previous 12 months before that was frustrating for me. As you start to get older and with the results — it’s been over two years since we won — you can’t help but think, ‘Is this the way it’s going to go? Are we going to keep trickling backwards?’

“It’s been a long time, and we’ve had a lot of fun going to the racetrack here the last two months the last year, and the first part of this year it feels like we’re back into a contending form.”

Not only was it Kenseth’s night, it was Ford’s as well. The Blue Oval Armada led 191 of 334 laps and placed five cars in the top-seven spots. Four of them being fielded by the powerful Roush Fenway organization, which is experiencing a resurgence after a couple of down years.

This has left longtime Ford team owner, Jack Roush, extremely proud of what he and his team have accomplished in the past year in overcoming their struggles.

“I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to do in 2011,” Roush said. “You know, we tuned up our engineering program with Ford’s help over the winter and we got a new Ford nose. Everybody got a new nose this year, but our new nose was better than our old nose, I think. And we’ve had our FR9 engine really up to speed.”

More than anything though, this night was about Matt Kenseth and his fight to break a winless streak which has hung around his neck like a noose, the last two years.

“I can’t say how proud I am to be here with Matt,” beamed Roush, “realizing that he’s not gotten the success that his effort has deserved in recent past.”

###

On a night when the winner appeared virtually decided from the outset, Clint Bowyer’s runner-up finish can be looked at as a best in class finish. One that wasn’t without adventure, as the Richard Childress driver mixed it up with the lapped car of Brian Vickers late and it resulted in him dancing sideways down the front stretch.

“I just forced the issue a little too much,” said the driver who’s won many a race on a dirt track. “Got loose underneath, having got into him, and almost ruined the night.

“Did you see that? It was dirt tracking at its best, in the middle of the straightaway.

“Not supposed to do that.”

No matter how he did, the end result shows Bowyer posting his best finish of the year, and a finish which moved him up to 12th in points. It also marked his third consecutive finish inside the top-10 and considering he stubbed his toe out of the gate and was struggling to show the form that had him winning two races the previous season, this would be constituted as a nice turnaround.

Even better is a stop next Sunday at Talladega, a track which the Kansas driver won on last fall, and where he will certainly be viewed at as one of the heavy favorites.

###

Due to a rice-and-bean dish mom cooked up for him Friday, Edwards’ stomach wasn’t up to the task of racing on the Texas high-banks. As someone whose mom’s cooking hasn’t always agreed with him, I know firsthand how the nauseous Carl Edwards was feeling Saturday night. What I can’t relate to is having to endure 500 miles of hard racing at 200 mph after a “questionable” meal.

It got the point that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was standing by in case a relief driver was needed. Not that Edwards was ever going to succumb to pulling himself out of the car, because that’s not who he is.

Instead, he gutted through the 3 hour and 21 minute race thanks to a concoction of medicine his crew passed to him and somehow finished third. A position which was good enough to move him back ahead of Kyle Busch atop the Sprint Cup standings.

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There was no late-race rally Saturday for the driver who entered the weekend having won back-to-back races. Thanks to a punctured radiator as well as not being able to get track position in a race where it was of the utmost importance, Kevin Harvick, for really the first time all year, turned in his first race where he was a complete non-factor.

Was this simply an off-weekend or was it a sign that this team’s program on the intermediate tracks still has a way to go before they can be viewed as serious title contenders?

Considering this team won at Auto Club Speedway just two weeks ago, a track similar to Texas, the evidence suggests this was just one of those weekends.

Something crew chief Gil Martin concurred with post-race.

“We’ve had a good race every race this year. Sooner or later you’re going to have a bad one. We’ll bounce back from it.”

This Sunday will be more to the 29’s liking as the series returns to Talladega. A track which saw Richard Childress Racing sweep both races at a year ago, including Harvick’s win in the spring event. A good run Sunday will quickly erase what was considered a lost weekend in the Lone Star State.

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Odds & Ends

● Dale Earnhardt Jr. followed up his strong runner-up finish at Martinsville nicely with a ninth-place run. The result moved him up two spots in the standings to sixth.

● In a clear sign of how wayward his season has gone, Jeff Burton’s 11th-place finish was his best of the year.

● Greg Biffle’s fourth-place finish was not only his best result of the year; it was also his first top-five of 2011.

● After recording zero top-10s through the first five races, Saturday night’s polesitter David Ragan has scored consecutive finishes of 8th and 7th the last two weeks.

● Saturday marked the Sprint Cup debut of Truck Series regular David Starr. Unfortunately though, it ended with the Texas native finding the outside wall, resulting in a 38th-place finish.
 

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Bowyer, Edwards, Ford, Gil Martin, Harvick, Kenseth, NASCAR, Roush, Texas, Thoughts

Kevin Harvick: Coffee Drinker

04/07/2011 By Leave a Comment

In the famous scene from the excellent film Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin is standing before a bunch of broken and beaten down salesmen, berating them about their inadequacies in the field. During this tirade, Jack Lemmon’s character gets up to pour a cup of coffee. It is then Baldwin directs Lemmon to put the coffee down, because “Coffee’s for closers only.”

If Kevin Harvick has proven anything in his 10-year career, it’s that he is a coffee drinker.

In the closing laps of a race with the checkered flag close to being unrolled, there may be no better driver than the one whom in 13 of 16 career victories, has made his final pass for the lead with less than 25 laps to go.

Maybe calling Kevin Harvick just a coffee drinker is a bit of a misnomer? It might be more accurate to say the guy guzzles triple espressos by the liter. Outside of Jimmie Johnson and Mariano Rivera, there might not be a better closer in all of sports.

If Harvick is near the front at the end of a race, the driver of the ominous black No. 29 Chevrolet is almost always going to find a way to win. Be it a superspeedway, intermediate track, a road course, or as last week’s victory on the half-mile at Martinsville Speedway demonstrated, a short track.

What makes him so good in the final laps opposed to other drivers who frequently wilt under the magnitude of trying to win a race in one of the most competitive racing series in the world?

Harvick doesn’t think there’s much to it. It’s just his style to save his stuff for when it matters the most.

“My dad always told me the pay window didn’t open until the checkered flag was flown, and we survived and raced off of what we won each week,” Harvick said after his win Sunday. “So if you tore your car up — my first year, I tore my late model up and we only got to run seven times because we wrecked it every other week. The second time we wrecked one time and we won the championship because we were always around at the end and would take advantage of other people’s mistakes.

“I guess it’s just the way I was taught to race. You have to be around at the end to win these races.”

This was never more evident than last Sunday in the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville.

Despite starting ninth, Harvick was in a freefall through the early portions of the race due to a loose car. By lap 50, he was running 25th and for the next 250 mid-pack is where he would stay. But as has become the norm, with about 200 laps to go, Harvick and crew chief Gil Martin hit on something and the black Chevrolet started making its move towards the front.

“It was just a crazy day for us,” explained Harvick. “We started the race and our car was really, really loose. We came in and made a lot of adjustments, made it a little bit better and we kept working on it and then we wrecked it. And after we wrecked it, it actually got going pretty good. But then we started changing huge swings at it.”

As if on cue, when the race came down to its conclusion, there was Harvick running third behind Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch. With the two leaders racing each other hard, it opened the door for Harvick, who made quick work of Busch and quickly set his sights on Earnhardt.

It made no difference to him that the sport’s most popular driver hadn’t won in almost 100 races and had the entire grandstands feverishly pulling for him. The only thing that matters is winning. If that means sending the fans home unhappy, so be it.

With four laps left to go, like he’s done many times in the final laps, he powered his way past the race leader and drove straight to victory lane. His second win in as many weeks, his 16th overall and for the fifth time in his last six wins, he did so by passing the leader with less than five laps to go.

“I know the fans want to see him win,” Harvick said afterwards. “I want to see him win. I want to see Dale Junior win. It would be great for the sport and I think today went a long ways to showing how competitive that they can be racing for wins, and that’s what we need. We all need him to win.

“But I’m not going to back down.”

However Kevin Harvick isn’t completely infallible when the race is on the line.

Last year in the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway, Harvick clearly had the superior car. But running second to Jimmie Johnson with two laps to go, Harvick pushed too hard and brushed the outside wall and had to settle for second.

Except like any great closer, he learned from his mistake and used it to ready himself for the next time he was in that situation.

And when he found himself in almost the exact same position two Sundays ago, on the same track, competing against the same driver for the win, Harvick used his newfound knowledge to seal the deal.

This time he pushed the 48 hard into Turn 3 and then perfectly executed a daring high-side pass heading into the corner.

“Last year taught me a lot about what patience [is] and the things I needed to do to beat a guy that doesn’t make mistakes, said Harvick then after his victory. “In order to do that, you can’t make mistakes yourself.

“This race one year ago is what helped us win today; by being patient, not taking yourself out of the race, having something there at the end until it was time to go.”

While beating Johnson in a single race in March may appear to be much ado about nothing in the grand scheme of things, for Harvick, beating the five-time champ on a track where he has dominated, had extra meaning.

Before Fontana, Johnson had been the one driver who Harvick hasn’t been able to vanquish late in a race. Not to mention in the standings, as he’s never finished higher than his rival in the yearend championship order.

Who’s to say we aren’t witnessing a changing of the guard of sorts? A driver and a team transforming into champions right before our eyes?

I’ve always maintained that if a driver was going to topple the Johnson Dynasty, he will need more than fast cars and a great pit crew. It was also going to take confidence and even more than that, the ability to excel in moments when a lot of drivers crumble. The same kind of mental toughness Harvick has exhibited in winning 13 times in the final 25 laps.

Armed with a new contract that will keep him at RCR for the foreseeable future, a new high-profile sponsor and backed by a team Harvick finally has full confidence. After years of dissension and open animosity, Harvick is full of swagger.

More importantly, as his late-race heroics the last two weeks can testify, he has the ability to be at his best in high-pressure situations.

This attitude is one which will serve Harvick well as he attempts to win his first Sprint Cup championship and team owner Richard Childress’ first since the late Dale Earnhardt won the last of his seven titles back in 1994.

The final 10 races of the season, the Chase for the Sprint Cup, are more than who has the fastest car and proving who can wheel a car the best.

There’s no better example of this than Denny Hamlin. Who a year ago dominated the Chase, but couldn’t handle the pressure of being the points leader going into the final race of the year, and crashed 25 laps into the event.

More than anything, the Chase is about having the mental fortitude to withstand the pressures that go along with contending for a championship. The same kind of mental toughness Harvick has exhibited in winning 13 times in the final 25 laps.

“Our team is championship material and we’ve proved that week in and week out,” Harvick said recently. “Last year and this year we know it. We can overcome a lot of things and hopefully keep putting race cars on the race track and hopefully we can be around at the end of the year to race for the championship again.”

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Childress, Harvick, NASCAR, Sub-Feature
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