Biffle holds off Edwards to win Las Vegas Nationwide race
Sat 28th, February 2009
Las Vegas, NV (Sports Network) - Greg Biffle survived a crash-filled Sam's Town 300 and held off his Roush Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards in an overtime finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Saturday to end a 76-race winless streak in the Nationwide Series.
After leading 46 consecutive laps, Biffle ran out of fuel and coasted into the pits on lap 146. He fell one lap behind after his stop. Biffle, however, rebounded quickly and was back in front when his other Roush Fenway teammate David Ragan crashed while he held the lead during a round of green-flag stops on lap 169.
A wreck involving Mike Bliss and Denny Hamlin in the closing laps setup the green-white-checkered finish. Hamlin cut a tire, which slowed his progress. Bliss then slammed into the back of Hamlin, putting him into the wall.
On the final restart, Edwards moved ahead of Jason Leffler for second after Leffler ran out of fuel. Edwards then challenged Biffle for the lead, but could not make the winning pass during the final two laps.
"I ran out of gas on the restart going into turn one," Biffle said. "I think they said (Leffler) ran out of gas also. I just kept it on the bottom, and the fuel pressure came back. I tried to block Carl going down the back, but I couldn't do it. So I just stayed on the throttle on the outside and my car was just so good. I was able to pass him back."
Biffle, who led a race-high 86 laps, beat Edwards to the finish line by 0.391 seconds for his 19th career Nationwide victory, but his first since February 25, 2006 at California.
Despite a cut tire just before the 100-lap mark, which put him a lap down, Edwards moved back into winning contention in the late-stages. His second- place finish gave Roush Fenway a one-two finish at Las Vegas.
"I drove in there as deep as I thought was reasonable, and Jason Hedlesky, my spotter, was telling me, 'He's still there, he's still there,' and I'm thinking, 'he's got me'," Edwards said. "I wanted to keep my leg in it, but I thought I would wreck him. So I did the best I could."
Brian Vickers finished third, followed by Leffler and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Rookie drivers Michael McDowell, Brendan Gaughan, a Las Vegas native, Justin Allgaier and Scott Lagasse Jr. were sixth through ninth, respectively. Jeff Burton completed the top-10.
Edwards moved into the lead in the series championship standings. He now holds a 48-point advantage over Vickers after the first three races of the season.
The almost three-hour event featured 12 cautions for a track record 60 laps.
Two of this year's favorites to win the series title were involved in crashes that now have them behind in the early season point standings.
Kyle Busch made hard contact into the wall on lap 22. Busch dove beneath Kevin Harvick in an attempt to take the lead from him, but Busch lost control of his car as it skidded up the track and bounced off the wall.
"It was just a mistake on my part battling for the lead that early in the race," Busch said, "It was 100 percent my fault trying to race for the lead."
Busch ended up finishing 39th and dropped to fifth in points (-109).
Scott Speed's day at Las Vegas ended early when he rammed into Busch's car. Speed, in his first career Nationwide start, led the opening two laps before Harvick passed him for the top position. He won the pole earlier in the day, becoming the ninth driver in the series to qualify first in his debut.
The incident forced NASCAR to halt the race 10 minutes for track clean-up efforts.
Mike Bliss and Brad Keselowski made contact on the seventh lap. Bliss got turned sideways, while Keselowski suffered damage to the left front panel on his car.
Keselowski's troubles continued on lap 16 when he cut a tire and slammed into the wall. He returned 35 laps later and finished 27th.
"I don't know what I could have done differently," Keselowski said. "It's just the way these cars are. This is a great Chevrolet and it's tore up. We've had three great race cars this season and just can't seem to close the deal."
After finishing third in the Nationwide championship standings last year, Keselowski currently sits 22nd in points (-244).
The race was stopped for another 10 minutes on lap 92 to clean up the mess from Robert Richardson Jr.'s badly damaged car. D.J. Kennington bumped Richardson from behind, sending him into the wall. Rookie Michael Annett also was involved in the incident.
Just after the restart, Jeff Burton got loose coming out of turn four. Burton slid into the wall and collected Harvick's car in the process. Harvick suffered heavy damage to his car after running in the top-five during the first half of the race.
"(Burton) wasn't all that good, and he just got up there, and got himself in a bad spot and spun out," Harvick said. "Unfortunately we were the ones that hit him...We had a car capable of winning the race."
After lengthy repairs, Harvick returned to the track 54 laps down and settled for 29th-place finish.
Steve Wallace, David Green, Brandon Whitt and Stanton Barrett were also involved in the wreck.
The next Nationwide race is scheduled for Saturday, March 21 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Hometown Hero: Kyle Busch wins in Las Vegas
Sun 1st, March 2009
Las Vegas, NV (Sports Network) - Kyle Busch beat the odds at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday as he won the Shelby 427 after starting the race from the rear of the field due to an engine change. Busch, a native of Las Vegas, held off Richard Childress Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton in a three-lap shootout to the finish to capture his first win at his hometrack.
Although Busch won the pole Friday, he was forced to start in the back after his team replaced the motor in the No.18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Busch led two laps in the early going when teams pitted under green. He took command in the late stages when he passed Jeff Burton on lap 227. Busch gave up the top spot during a late round of stops, but grabbed it for the final time when he moved ahead of Bowyer with 17 laps to go.
"This is pretty cool," Busch said. "I didn't know exactly what it would mean. Coming to the checkered flag, there were knots in my stomach. This is probably as big as the Daytona 500. I said it wasn't going to be, but it is."
After patiently making his way through the field for the most of the race, Busch had to hold off the leaders on two late-race restarts. When he grabbed the lead from Bowyer, Paul Menard made contact with Greg Biffle and smacked the wall on lap 270. Then Jimmie Johnson got loose and spun with the back end of his car making contact with the wall 10 laps later. The 14th caution, a new track record, set up the three-lap shootout to the finish.
"The last 25, 30 laps, I was just as nervous as could be, Busch said. "Wasn't really all that great at hitting my marks. I was hitting them good enough, I guess. Fortunately we ran that many caution laps there at the end. That helped, too."
The victory was Busch's 13th in his Sprint Cup Series career and the first for JGR at Las Vegas.
Bowyer finished second, followed by Burton, David Reutimann, and Bobby Labonte.
"It feels like a win almost," Bowyer said. "(We) went a lap down, got real loose early, got that lap back, got run into on a restart, 15 wide, whatever we were, fixed that, got going back again."
While Busch and fellow Toyota drivers David Reutimann, Marcos Ambrose, Brian Vickers and Scott Speed made engine changes earlier in the weekend, Roush Fenway Racing experienced most of engine woes with their Fords in the 427-mile race.
On the seventh lap, Matt Kenseth's bid to become the first driver to win the first three NASCAR Cup Series races of the season quickly went up in smoke when he blew an engine. Kenseth began experiencing engine trouble during the first caution when his motor shut off.
"I think it's the first failure we've had in over three years," Kenseth said. "It's just unfortunate we didn't get to race."
Kenseth, who won at Daytona and California, finished 43rd at Las Vegas.
David Ragan, also from the Roush camp, had his day end early when his engine expired on lap 74.
"When your pushing the issue and trying to get all the power out of it, you're going to have things like this happen," Ragan said.
Mark Martin was running in the top-five on lap 122, but a blown engine forced the veteran driver out of the event.
"It was a very encouraging run, but very disappointing," Martin said.
Martin, who suffered engine failure for the second straight week, ended up with a 40th-place finish.
Two separate wrecks occurred just before the half-way point with Reed Sorenson slamming into the wall on lap 138, and Aric Almirola spinning and making contact with the wall on lap 144. Kasey Kahne and David Reutimann spun while trying to avoid Almirola.
Michael Waltrip and Denny Hamlin also got loose and made contact with the wall during the mid-stages.
During a round of green-flag pit stops, Gordon overshot the entrance to pit road on lap 219. He blew a tire on the following lap. Gordon had to make several stops during the caution to repair his right-front panel caused by the blown tire. He rebounded for a sixth-place finish.
Biffle, Vickers, Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr. completed the top-10.
Gordon, the four-time Cup Series champion, moved atop the point standings. He holds an 18-point advantage over Bowyer. Kenseth dropped from first to third, trailing Gordon by 40 markers. With the victory, Busch moved up to sixth in points (-54).
The series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for next Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500.
Nationwide Series Breakdown: Sam's Town 300
Bryan Davis Keith
The Nationwide Series doesn’t tackle the high banks of Bristol until March 21. Apparently that message didn’t get through to the drivers Saturday. The Sam’s Town 300 opened with four wrecks in the first 28 laps, becoming a demolition derby that featured 12 cautions and two red flags while ending with only ten cars on the lead lap.
The race featured 17 lead changes as each leader tried to outdo each other and lose this race. In the end, it was Greg Biffle who overcame running himself out of gas under green to hold off a hard-charging Carl Edwards to score his first Nationwide Series win since 2006, a stretch of 76 races. Biffle nearly lost the lead coming to the white flag as Carl Edwards got a run under his Ford in Turn 3, but Biffle pinned Edwards on the low side of the track and maintained his lead. Brian Vickers, Jason Leffler and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top 5 in the finishing order.
Carl Edwards’ recovery to finish second after falling a lap down on Lap 101 with a blown tire moved him into the Series’ points lead, as previous leader Kyle Busch spun out racing for the lead on Lap 22 and triggering a multi-car wreck that destroyed both his No. 18 Toyota and that of pole-sitter Scott Speed. Edwards currently holds a 108 point lead over fourth place Brendan Gaughan, the next driver in the current NNS standings who is contesting the full Series schedule.
Who Should Have Won: Justin Allgaier Though a late race brush with the wall relegated him to an eighth place finish, Saturday’s race in Vegas was officially Justin Allgaier’s coming out party. The defending ARCA Re/Max Series champion put on a show throughout the second half of Saturday’s race, leading laps and making passes on the low side of Turn 3 and 4 that even Cup stars Kyle Busch and Jeff Burton were unable to complete. Even with late race damage, Allgaier was contending for a top 5 finish on the race’s final restart before being hit on the backstretch and knocked from the lead pack.
Worth Noting
The Good: The Nationwide Series rookie class delivered a convincing performance in the season’s third race. Of the five official rookie candidates, four finished in the top 10. Michael McDowell celebrated the birth of his first child with a sixth place. Brendan Gaughan drove a backup car to a seventh place run at his home town track. Justin Allgaier finished eighth after leading laps and contending for the win. And Scott Lagasse Jr. finished ninth in a backup of his own, scoring his second career-best finish in as many races. In a race that saw the best of the Cup Series struggle to stay under control on the high speed LVMS oval, 2009’s rookie class made a statement. Further, both Brendan Gaughan and Michael McDowell now find themselves in the top 10 in the Series’ standings.
The Bad: It was a bad day to be in the front of the pack, as contender after contender found trouble on Saturday. Scott Speed’s Nationwide Series debut started with a pole, but ended very early when he slammed into the side of Kyle Busch, who spun himself out trying to take the lead from Kevin Harvick on Lap 22. The wreck also caused a chain reaction that led to Brad Keselowski’s Chevrolet being slammed into the outside wall, leaving Keselowski to drive a wounded car to his third consecutive finish outside the top 20. Kevin Harvick had possibly the strongest car in the field, but he got collected when Jeff Burton’s car snapped lose and spun on Lap 104. David Ragan spun out by himself in Turn 4 just after taking the lead on Lap 170. And both Mike Bliss and Denny Hamlin were involved in a heavy wreck on Lap 197 when Hamlin cut a tire, leaving Bliss with nowhere to go but straight into Hamlin’s rear bumper.
The Ugly: John Wes Townley has officially become the Nationwide Series’ new Kyle Krisiloff. Though his Zaxby’s sponsorship is still providing needed funding, Townley continues to wreck nearly everything he drives. After destroying his primary car in practice on Friday, Townley needed only 26 laps before losing control of yet another one of his Fords, making hard contact with the wall and finishing 38th. Maybe Townley’s struggles in the Nationwide cars are a product of being rushed out of the ARCA ranks instead of simply being overrated, but either way it was a very ugly weekend for the RAB Racing outfit.
Underdog Performer of the Race: Andy Ponstein Though Morgan Shepherd and Kenny Hendrick each scored top 15 finishes, my nod for this week’s underdog goes to Andy Ponstein and the Stott Classic Racing operation. Granted, Ponstein finished 20 laps down in 23rd, but the team’s efforts this weekend were notable for two reasons. First, it was the first Nationwide Series race that Ponstein managed to complete since finishing 27th at Nazareth in 2004. Second, it marked the first race for the Stott team since qualifying for Chicago last July. After running a limited start and park effort in 2008, seeing this team run the distance was a pleasant surprise. If this is a sign of things to come, I hope to see Ponstein and the No. 02 at Bristol.
The Final Word
With all the attrition and pit road mistakes that turned Saturday’s 300 miler into a true endurance marathon, it’s perhaps hard to draw any sure conclusions from race three of the season. However, there are two that come immediately to mind.
One, this year’s NNS rookie class is something special. And the funny thing is even though there are two “rookie” candidates that have been full-time Cup drivers in the 2009 class, it doesn’t appear that either of them are going to win the ROTY title. Justin Allgaier’s performance in this race was to put it lightly impressive. Having never seen the reconfigured Las Vegas Motor Speedway prior to this weekend, Allgaier had no problems establishing an aggressive pace and momentum in running his race. More impressive, Allgaier made a large number of his passes at the front of the field using the lower groove on the race track, a tactic that even the vaunted Kyle Busch couldn’t make work. Allgaier served notice Saturday, and both Brendan Gaughan and Michael McDowell are going to have to deliver this year if they want the rookie crown.
Two, after all but conceding the Nationwide Series title to either Busch or Carl Edwards after last weekend’s race, I am going to eat some crow. The chances for a points race in this series this year are there, and perhaps better than I gave them credit for. Kyle Busch was the class of the field on Saturday, but his over-aggression on the race track left him with a 39th place finish reminiscent of a green rookie rather than a title contender. Carl Edwards scored yet another top 5 finish (12 consecutive dating back to Fontana in September of 2008), but earned it after facing adversity on the track for the first time this season. Both of these heavyweights appeared far more vulnerable than they did one week ago, while other Nationwide teams moved into contention, as Jason Leffler proved capable of challenging the Roush Fords at the front of the Vegas field and Brendan Gaughan scored his second consecutive top 10 on an intermediate oval. Gaughan’s RWI equipment is proving stout on the track, and he has previous experience chasing a championship (he nearly won the Truck title in 2003).
Greg Biffle may have won Saturday, but between Gaughan’s newfound consistency, Leffler’s stout performance and Justin Allgaier coming into his own with a Penske Racing team hitting on all eight cylinders, Bristol may prove to be even more chaotic and unpredictable than it typically is.
Packing in over 80,000 fans and providing an exciting race, a trip to Las Vegas re-energized the Nationwide Series. Go figure.
Shame it’s going to be three weeks before the trip to Thunder Valley.
Frontstretch.com
Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud: Shelby 427
Matt McLaughlin
The Key Moment: On lap 269 Kyle Busch nudged aside Clint Bowyer to take the lead. Busch, who had won the pole for the race, was forced to start out back after blowing an engine in practice so the accomplishment is much more impressive than it will appear in the record books.
In a Nutshell: NASCAR wraps up its early season visit to the mild, mild west with another less than compelling race.
Dramatic Moment: Saturday’s Nationwide race might have been the most unpredictable event in recent NASCAR history. Sunday’s race? Well at least it wasn’t as bad as Fontana last week and more people were on hand to catch the mediocrity.
What They’ll Be Talking About Around the Water Cooler This Week
With the two tracks located so nearby geographically, why can Las Vegas draw more people for the Nationwide race than Fontana could for the Cup race and the Nationwide-Truck races combined? We’ll chat about this later in the week, gentle readers.
It can’t just be a coincidence. One of the chief charms of stock car racing is the unpredictability of the sport. What Sunday’s Cup race lacked in drama the Nationwide race served up in spades with cars in the lead pack spinning out on their own, missing pit road, running into each other, getting penalized on pit road for speeding and missing lug nuts and more simple twists of fate than a year’s worth of Bob Dylan concerts. Can it be a coincidence that the Nationwide cars still mimic the pre-COT entries in the Cup series? I don’t think so. Given that the Nationwide cars can now run the energy absorbing door foam and the anti-intrusion panels that were the two biggest safety innovations NASCAR tried to sell as the reason for the COT in the bigs, I’m more confused than ever why the Winged Blunders are competing on Sunday.
A couple more notes from Saturday’s bizarre Nationwide event:
A) Greg Biffle’s team ran him out of gas late in the race and Biffle fell almost two laps off the pace before rallying to win the event. It was just that sort of day.
B) Late race contact with the wall deprived him of a chance to contend for the win but apparently Roger Penske has found another diamond in the rough and we need to keep an eye on this Justin Allgaier kid.
C) Want any more evidence that Sunday’s Cup winner spent the winter in extensive charm school training? Not only did he not tee off on Junior after the wreck at Daytona on Saturday, he accepted full responsibility for the wreck in the Nationwide race that sidelined him early in the event. That’s not the Kyle Busch that NASCAR fans love to loath.
OK, color me confused. Why would a Cup race start with speedy dry all over the track in the entrance to pit road? That’s just sloppy.
Las Vegas might not have entered the list of NASCAR’s most cherished tracks yet, but give them this much, it’s been a long time since any race has had a cooler pace car than this weekend’s events. I know most consumers are in an uproar about fuel mileage and emissions which has Ford in trouble, so in the interests of helping out the home team I hereby offer a week’s paycheck for either one of those Shelby Super Snake Mustang pace cars. This is after all the first time I can remember when the pace car had more horsepower than the cars it paced.
With each passing day it seems more likely General Motors might be forced into some sort of controlled bankruptcy. Company officials are fighting the idea, claiming such a move would cost GM a huge amount of its reputation, prestige and pride. Here’s a news flash: a company that once produced the Pontiac Aztek and hump-backed diesel-powered Caddy Sevilles of the 80s doesn’t have a whole lot of reputation, pride and prestige left.
Last year, Dupont brought a total of 17,000 guests to hospitality events it hosted at every major Cup event all year long. This year the company will host just 2,000 guests at six Cup events, a further sign of the belt-tightening in corporate America as the recession drags on. Do you figure the bloom is off the NASCAR rose? Gather ye rosebuds while you may, Old time is still a flyin’, And this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying.
I don’t want to be left out in the annual writer’s contest to see who can come up with the most tortured NASCAR gambling analogy when the circuit visits Las Vegas so here’s my take. With the Car of Horror and the Chase, Brian France stepped up to the roulette wheel to wager the entire France family fortune. He bet the bouncing ball would land on a purple number.
Has anyone else ever noticed that when Mike Bliss is upset, he talks and sounds like he’s reciting a Bob Dylan song? Listen to his interview after getting wrecked out of the Vegas Nationwide race. It’s positively eerie.
Count another American legend as a victim of this recession. Crane Cams, long a fixture and cherished provider to the hot rodding community has apparently closed its doors leaving 200 skilled employees out of work. I bought a Crane cam for my first car, a 70 Cobra Jet Mustang, and have bought about a dozen bump sticks from them over the years. The Crane Cams decal on my toolbox will remain proudly in place.
The Hindenburg Award For Foul Fortune
The hype all this week concerned Matt Kenseth going for three straight wins. His race lasted two laps before the engine expired in the 17 car, leaving him dead last in the field.
Dale Earnhardt’s pit road follies continued Sunday with a pit road speeding penalty. The Earnhardt Nation is longing for the good old days when NASCAR would never dare penalize an Earnhardt for a rules infraction.
Pit road penalties and a late race wreck left Jimmie Johnson, who once had a dominant car, mired mid-pack, but what other driver would have been allowed to return to the track with the rear bumper supports dragging on the asphalt?
Tony Stewart’s Cinderella 2009 season hit a pumpkin moment with Stewart finishing 26th and Ryan Newman 25th. That’s not going to help them find full-time sponsorship for Newman’s car.
Carl Edwards was running in the top 5 when his engine started laying down in the final laps of the race. He wound up 17th in the final rundown.
The “Seven Come Fore Eleven” Award For Fine Fortune
You have to figure that Kyle Busch was that pencil necked geek in high school that was treated to regular scuba diving sessions in the toilet by bullies and turned down for more dates than the average guy, but he won a race in his home town despite his Ichabod Crane persona. It must be nice to tell every bully that ever victimized him and every girl that rejected his awkward advances, “Hey, I’m back and I’m a millionaire with a really hot girl friend even if she has the fashion sense of Charo. How do you like me now?” (With all due apologies to Toby Keith.)
Jeff Gordon locked up his brakes and blew a tire coming onto pit road late in the race (while apparently trying to avoid his teammate Jimmie Johnson’s out of control car). The flat tire tore up the 24s left front fender but Gordon soldiered on to a sixth place that leaves him first in this year’s points standings.
Jeff Burton had to pit early thinking he had a tire going flat but he led a lot of the race en route to a third place finish. For RCR, which has had to play Vernon Dent to the Three Stooges (Roush, Gibbs and Hendrick) this season, there has to be a sense of redemption especially with Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer running so well at times during the race.
Robert Yates Racing wasn’t sure they were going to meet the answering bell this season and Bobby Labonte was without a ride as late as January. For the team and driver to post a solid top 5 finish at Vegas after leading some laps is the sort of story-line usually reserved for Mickey Rooney movies. Sure they have Roush-Yates engines in Labonte’s car, but that didn’t help Kenseth and David Ragan much did it?
Worth Noting
* No driver has managed to post top 10 finishes in all of this year’s three points paying Cup events.
* The top 10 finishers at Vegas drove four Chevys, three Fords and three Toyotas. The top finishing Dodge pilot was Kasey Kahne in 11th.
* Joey Logano’s 13th place finish was the best by a rookie at Las Vegas. The finish easily eclipsed Logano’s previous best Cup result of 26th last week. Sweet
* David Reutimann’s fourth place finish easily eclipsed his previous best Cup finishes of ninth at Fontana and Richmond last year.
* It might seem in retrospect Kyle Busch won everything but the Powerball lottery last year but in fact Sunday’s victory was his first Cup triumph since Watkins Glen last August. On a brighter note, Busch has already won one race in each of this year’s top three touring series just three weeks into the season.
* Clint Bowyer’s second place finish was his best since he won at Richmond almost a year ago.
* Bobby Labonte’s fifth place finish was his best result since his fourth place result at Martinsville in the fall of 2006.
What’s the Points?
Jeff Gordon leads the points for the first time since the Atlanta fall race in 2007. Gordon is ahead of second place Clint Boywer by 18 points.
Previous points leader Matt Kenseth endured his 43rd place finish at Vegas to remain third in the points, 40 points behind Gordon and tied statistically with Roush teammate Greg Biffle.
Several drivers overcame early season misfortunes to enter the top 12 this week. Kyle Busch rode his race victory to gain twelve spots in the standings and is now sixth. Bobby Labonte also gained twelve spots and is now tenth in the standings. David Ruetimann gained seven spots to take over the fifth rung of the ladder. Kevin Harvick gained five spots to enter the top 12 in 11th position.
Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart each lost four spots in the standings Sunday and now find themselves seventh and eighth respectively. Michael Waltrip clings to the 12th spot in the standings, five points positions down and eight points ahead of Kasey Kahne. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, hey, hey, good-bye.
Three races into the season if you’re sweating the points already, you must have been toilet trained in your first month of life. Repeat that classic bit of Bill Murray wisdom from “Meatballs” with me….It just doesn’t matter!”
Overall Rating (On a scale of one to six beer cans with one being a stinker and a six pack an instant classic) We’ll give this one two cans of the generic stuff, served lukewarm by a bar tender who looks like her face belongs on the Ten Most Wanted List at the Post Office.
Next Up: The circuit returns to its spiritual cradle, the Southeast, for a race in Atlanta. And here’s the novel part. The race will actually start in the earlier hours of a Sunday afternoon. What a concept! NASCAR and FOX might be onto something here.
Frontstretch.com
Ten Points to Ponder: Shelby 427
Bryan Davis Keith
Kyle Busch Still the Driver to Beat
Daytona was just a minor hiccup, the No. 18 team is back with a vengeance in 2009. Las Vegas native Kyle Busch won the pole, only to have to start at the back after an engine change. Nonetheless, Busch methodically made his way back to the front to score his first career win at his hometown track, a win that he likened to being as big to him as the Daytona 500.
Throw the points out the window (though he’s leading those now too), Busch has had top three cars in each of the first three races. His crew chief Steve Addington proved yet again Sunday to be more than a match for his driver’s frustration whenever he’s not in front. And JGR’s engine program proved to be just as stout as ever, with Busch’s engine troubles in practice nothing more than an anomaly.
Barring something unforeseen, Busch will be the Cup favorite all the way to the Chase. Whether or not he’s matured enough to pursue a title will remain to be seen.
RCR Picking Up the Pace
After a very disappointing performance at Fontana had many questioning whether or not Richard Childress Racing had fallen back behind the curve with their intermediate program, this weekend’s race came to the rescue. Kevin Harvick was back to his dependable top 15 ways on Sunday afternoon, while Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton used differing pit strategies to get to the front and stay there. Bowyer and Burton raced close quarters for the final 20 laps, with Bowyer narrowly edging his teammate for a second place finish. Speaking of Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer…
Jeff Burton Has Got Hard Tires Figured Out
One more note in the RCR fold. Back in 2003, when Ryan Newman dominated the Cup Series in the second half of the season, it was largely because in addition to knowing how to calculate fuel mileage, the Rocket and his crew chief Matt Borland also knew to a science how far they could push Goodyear’s then-harder tires.
Fast forward to the present and Jeff Burton and crew chief Scott Miller have hit on something similar. Much as they used a no-tire pit strategy to win the Charlotte Cup race in October, Burton and his No. 31 crew elected to use tire strategy to get to the front of the field. Once Burton got to the front, he had no trouble staying up there, running in the top 5 for the entire second half of the race on older rubber.
Whether or not it’s a good thing for teams to be able to go as long as Burton did on older tires and remain competitive is debatable. However, as long as Goodyear continues to produce tires with little give-up, it seems that Burton will be a contender for a number of wins on intermediate circuits.
As for Bowyer…
Simple Math: Bowyer >>>>> Mears
He has got to have his former sponsor Jack Daniel’s wondering “why exactly did we agree to sign this Casey Mears guy?” Driving for a brand new team, Bowyer has scored two top 10 finishes and vaulted his way to second in points heading to Atlanta. Meanwhile, Casey Mears finished well off the pace Sunday in 30th, giving him a finishing average of 23.0 thus far in 2009.
Casey Mears underachieving? Some things never change.
David Gilliland Proving His Mettle
And while Mears quietly rides in the back of the pack in a high-caliber ride that he’s done nothing to earn, David Gilliland is quietly proving himself to be a worthy Cup driver after all. Back home on the West Coast, the former Yates Racing driver managed to race the TRG Motorsports No. 71 car into the races at Fontana and Vegas, and in Sin City posted a remarkable 14th place finish for the new operation. The team is still searching for sponsorship (and a long-term plan for their 2009 efforts). If the last two weeks are any indication, they’ve at least found a driver.
Yates Racing Carries the Ford Banner
Even though they released the aforementioned Gilliland, Yates Racing was as competitive Sunday as they’ve been in years. Bobby Labonte gave both Yates and Ask.com their money’s worth with a top 5 run, his best since a third place finish at Martinsville in October of 2006. Paul Menard, on the other hand, would have enjoyed a lead-lap, top 20 performance…had this race been 400 miles instead of 427. His late race wreck aside, Menard and his No. 98 team well complimented Labonte’s stellar day.
Surprisingly, Yates Racing was the leading team carrying the blue oval on Sunday, because…
Engine Woes Marring the Start to 2009
Thanks to Roush Fenway Racing’s struggles with their engine packages, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and David Ragan all failed to finish Sunday’s race (and both Greg Biffle and Jamie McMurray had scares with their motors as well). And while RFR’s problems were in the spotlight Sunday, theirs were just the latest to hit the Cup ranks.
After Michael Waltrip and Brian Vickers both faced engine trouble at Fontana last week, TRD officials were forced early in the Vegas weekend to change the motors in five of their race cars for Sunday’s Cup race. In addition, Hendrick Motorsports has had their share of failed engines, with Mark Martin blowing up two consecutive weekends and Dale Earnhardt Jr. losing one at Fontana.
There has been speculation as to what the specific cause of all these engine failures is, but one can’t help but wonder if this may be the first tangible impact of the testing “ban.” Sure, all of the Cup Series’ engine-builders tested the living daylights out of their products on dynos and in their shops during the off-season, but could a lack of track time coming into the 2009 season be impacting engine performance? There is no real substitute for race conditions, and the lack of it may well be the only thing to blame for the epidemic of engine failures seen so far this year.
Ryan Newman Can’t Catch a Break in 2009
One driver whose start to 2009 has been marred, but not by an engine failure, is none other than Ryan Newman. After having his pit crew drop his car off a jack on pit road (literally) at Daytona and failing to get a handle on a car that was dropping everything from pieces of the wing to a transponder at Fontana, Newman and his No. 39 crew finally were starting to get a handle on their new Impalas. After earning a Lucky Dog early in the running, Newman was running in the top 15, only to have to short pit with what appeared to be a loose wheel. When the yellow flag flew for Jeff Gordon’s blown tire about 20 laps later, Newman was trapped two laps down and finjshed there (in the 25th position). Sadly, despite this misfortune, the 25th place run in Las Vegas was the best of the season for Newman.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway Packs a Punch
Since LVMS went from a long flat-track to a high speed oval, it has proven to be a difficult circuit for even the best in the business to handle, and this weekend was no exception. Between the crash-filled Nationwide race and Sunday’s Cup show, a number of NASCAR’s biggest stars managed to wreck themselves. Kyle Busch spun himself out only 22 laps into the Nationwide race trying to take the lead from Kevin Harvick. Jeff Burton later in the running did almost exactly the same thing in Turn 4. Denny Hamlin ventured too high into the marbles, slamming the wall exiting Turn 3 on Sunday. And the defending Cup champ, Jimmie Johnson, spun himself around late in the race entering Turn 2, an accident that left Johnson with a 24th place run after leading the most laps Sunday.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway Packs ‘Em In
Bad economy? What bad economy? Just like always, Las Vegas Motor Speedway was hopping both Saturday and Sunday, with crowds estimated between 80,000 and 100,000 for the Nationwide race Saturday and considerably more for the Cup race on Sunday.
To put this in perspective, the Nationwide race this weekend drew about as many fans as attended the Truck, Nationwide and Cup races last weekend at Fontana. Combined.
A standing ovation for the efforts of Las Vegas Motor Speedway and for the race fans of Nevada for coming out in force all weekend.
Frontstretch.com