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Surprising and Not Surprising: Texas AAA 500

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SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/NASCAR via Getty Images

After remembering the passing of racer Jim Sauter with a moment of silence, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 10th annual AAA Texas 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway.

Surprising: Brad Keselowski gave a whole new meaning to minding the gap after his on and off track real estate dispute with Jeff Gordon.

“Today something happened,” Keselowski said after finishing third. “There was a gap. It closed up. By the time it closed up, I was committed, and I stayed in it. That almost won me the race.”

“It hurt somebody else’s day. That’s a shame,” the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford said. “But the reality is there was a gap.”

“You know, I’m not Dale Earnhardt or Senna. I read how they raced, how great they were for this sport. They would sit here and tell you they would go for that same gap. I’m not them, but I’m inspired by that, and I’m going to race that way.”

Not Surprising: Team Hendrick continued flawlessly executing their strategy in the Eliminator Round of the Chase, sending their Chase busting team members into Victory Lane as a sort of protection for their Chaser brethren Jeff Gordon, who did not quite make it there after his Keselowski encounter.

Hendrick driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. became the Chase buster in Martinsville last weekend and this weekend it was another HMS Chase buster Jimmie Johnson who took his turn, honoring all Lowe’s employees who wear the red vest in his red No. 48.

“We are back on track,” Johnson said after winning his fourth of the year and his fourth at Texas Motor Speedway. “Unfortunately we didn’t find this stuff a month or two ago, but that is the way racing goes.”

With both HMS Chase busters in Victory Lane for the first two races in the Eliminator Round, the lone HMS Chaser Gordon has maintained his position in the top-4, a team feat especially impressive given Gordon’s 29th place run at Texas.

Surprising: While tire troubles may be a common driver mantra, it is not often that there are complaints about the sheer lack of number of tires available, so much so that NASCAR actually permitted teams to get an extra set of tires during this particular race.

“It’s kind of a sad situation when you run out of tires like that,” Newman, driver of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet said after finishing 15th. “I wish NASCAR had given us more tires. They gave us one set, but when they keep throwing cautions like that that were totally unnecessary, and there’s not debris on the race track and no reason to throw it. We need to keep racing. And it’s sad to see but that’s the way they’ve been playing it.”

Not Surprising: If you think that Alexander had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, just ask the Toyota drivers how they were feeling after Texas.

“We were a bag of everything today. Man we were so bad,” Kyle Busch said after his fourth place run. “I don’t know what happened to us from yesterday. We fought all day long.”

“We had a bad car,” Denny Hamlin, who finished tenth, said, echoing the theme. “We made the best of it. Other guys made mistakes. We weren’t really that good. Luckily other guys had problems. That’s what happened.”

“We went the wrong direction on adjustments during the middle part of the race,” Brian Vickers said after his 16th place run. “Billy Scott (crew chief) was able to get the car pretty good for the end of the race but with all those cautions we just got too tight.”

“We were okay when we were up front and had track position, but we had a problem in the pits and lost our track position,” Matt Kenseth said after finishing 25th. “The way my car drove — I was kind of afraid of how it would be in traffic. We got most of our track position back, stayed out on tires and just couldn’t get by Kurt (Busch) there — and got to the back again having to get tires. Then we got caught up in a restart deal that was three-four wide which did some damage, and we could just never overcome it.”

Surprising: Joey Logano was on a surprisingly odd salvage mission of his own, trying to make good after, of all things, a glue issue on pit road.

“We were able to salvage something decent out of tonight,” the driver of the No. 22 AAA Insurance Ford said. “We were a top five car and possibly a winning car if scenarios played out right.”

“I don’t know what happened with the glue on the pit stop and I haven’t gotten the full story yet but we had a hell of a time trying to put rear tires on the car,” Logano continued. “We lost all our track position with 30 to go and I came off the corner and the 9 hit me and popped my right rear and then we spun out. We put tires back on it and then just held on until the end and got something decent out of something that could have been way worse.”

In spite of his sticky situation, Logano did emerge the point’s leader by virtue of his five wins for the season, which broke the points tie with Denny Hamlin, who has but one win to date.

Not Surprising: After the two past races where Austin Dillon scored Rookie of the Race honors, Kyle Larson emerged victorious in that regard, finishing seventh to Dillon’s 21st place run.

“I thought we practiced really well,” the driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet said. “When the race fired off, we weren’t very good. I thought we’d get better, but we didn’t. We got worse and worse and worse. We had a lot of late-race restarts to get up there to get a better finish.”

“Disappointing day, but okay to finish seventh where we did. Hopefully we can get some better runs in the last races.”

Surprising: In a somewhat surprisingly ironic twist, Kevin Harvick, who nudged along the Keselowski vs. Gordon post-race match up, did not want anything to do with retaliation, even after some harsh words for Matt Kenseth as a result of last weekend’s short track racing.

“I just raced,” Harvick said after Texas was completed. “I thought my car was fast enough to win the race and be in contention. Doing something crazy at that point in the race, then I never saw him (Matt Kenseth) towards the end of the race, so it wasn’t really our game plan to get into that situation any further than we needed to.”

“It’s like I said before the race, I know he didn’t do it on purpose, but in the end we still lost 33 points to the leader. We got to race as hard as we can to try to get that back.”

Not Surprising: Even with a swapped out crew chief, Kurt Busch was able to pull off a top-10 finish in his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet.

“It was great to have a shot at the win,” Busch said after taking the checkered flag in the eighth position. “Tony Gibson (new Crew Chief), the engineers did a great job reading my balance, and I was trying to pick up on their changes. So, it was nice to go out there and execute.”

“We used the last yellow to our advantage,” Busch continued. “The last two yellows for fresh tires, and worked our way from, I don’t know, 25th to eighth. All-in-all, a great first day. I love the team; I love the guys. We are going to be good. We just have to work out the details.”

Surprising: Jamie McMurray could not wait for the sun to go down on him, as when the darkness descended he ascended to the fifth finishing spot.

“We had an up and down day,” the driver of the No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet said. “Fortunately for us we were better when the sun went down. It was really slick at the beginning. We really struggled with the car, but when the sun went down the car started coming to us.”

Not Surprising: There is no quit in the No. 99 Aflac Ford team, who finished the race ninth after battling from the rear.

“We got super lucky there at the end and my guys never quit,” Carl Edwards said. “I am so proud of my guys. I have no idea where we are at in points but we certainly finished better than we should have tonight.”

“It was a great night when for awhile it didn’t look like it was going to be,” Edwards continued. “We get to move on to Phoenix now and we will know what we have to do there. We will take it.”

“My guys didn’t quit and I know they won’t quit and we are going to go next week and go for this thing.”

The Final Word – In Texas, the Racing is Just an Appetizer for the Excitement yet to Come

By
Ron Thornton
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Photo Credit: Matt Sullivan/NASCAR via Getty Images

Jimmie Johnson was a factor from beginning to end in Texas, claiming his fourth victory of the season. Okay, enough about the damn race. All the real excitement took place after they waved the checkered flag.

On a first attempt at a green-white-checkered restart, Johnson and Jeff Gordon started up front. A gap opened between the two and Brad Keselowski tried to punch his way through. There was some separation between the leaders, but not a hole big enough to fit a car, at least to begin with. As Gordon came down, Keselowski was there, but there still was not quite enough of a hole to fit a car through. The two hit, Brad slipped and scraped his way by, while Gordon wound up with a flat tire. Johnson won while Kevin Harvick managed to take the runner-up spot away from the third place Keselowski. As for Gordon, he went from second to finishing a lap down in 29th. Again, enough about the damn race.

As the boys and girl lined up on pit road to head toward the garage, Gordon pulled up beside Keselowski. As the teams already seemed to be in a scrum, Gordon calmly walked around it all in order to chat with his rival. I say calmly, but appearances can be deceiving. Okay, there was some steam pouring out of Jeff’s helmet as he came around.

As Keselowski emerged from his car, Gordon began jawing at him while Brad jawed right back, separated by some big boys from his crew. Just when it appeared that One Time might escape from the ruckus, Harvick came in from behind him, apparently said something about fighting his own fight, and pushed Brad back toward the maelstrom. It was enough to allow Gordon to grab Keselowski’s uniform, and the melee ensued. Brad had an escape strategy going for him, but that is when a Gordon crew man came from behind to commit him entirely before collaring the boy. Brad bent backwards and sunk beneath the waves. Both drivers got a little bloodied, but it all proved about as damaging as a pair of toddlers squaring off.
There were punches thrown, but few if any, really connected. The boys got rough, the boys got loud, and the only person you could really feel sorry for was ESPN’s Jamie Little, who was caught on the fringes of it all. Mind you, a big lug with Paul Menard’s team placed a mitt over the wall to keep her stabilized and upright. Chivalry is alive in NASCAR, as she went on with her job and interviewed Bad Brad post-ruckus. She is a good one, and it is good to see she will be heading over to FOX for next season.

So, is anyone at fault here? Gordon had every right to be upset as a great finish went into the tank big time. Keselowski tried a maneuver Dale Earnhardt would have attempted in a moment, only the Intimidator would have been in the middle of the expected activities that came afterward. All Harvick did was give Brad a little advice and a gentle push in a direction the boy did not seem eager to face on his own. It was rowdy, not terribly genteel, and totally inappropriate for the conclusion of a chess match, but with these type of personalities in this kind of situation, not overly unexpected. As for violence, it barely matched that of a rugby scrum.

Yes, there are reports about the supposed mass brawl. No doubt, these folks have never seen a real one, never mind taking in a rough hockey game. Both men were cut up, though scraped up might be a more truthful observation. Brad might have been spitting blood, though it was hard to tell as he was rinsing his mouth out with a red liquid. Harvick’s shove was less aggressive than what I’ve seen DeLana “suffer” at the hands of a teasing Tony Stewart. One writer has stated that throwing a punch, connecting, and giving someone a bloody lip has no place in society. In a conference room, yes, but throw a beanball, spear a hockey player, or drive your car recklessly and you just might face a good, ole fashioned whopping. Even that did not happen in Texas. We saw some boys get rough, some got scraped up a bit, but nobody got whopped. Then again, some scribes obviously chose not to subscribe to the notion of actual facts getting in the way of a good story.

We have a good storyline heading into Phoenix, where everybody is still in the running, either via a win or on points, and nobody is yet a sure thing. Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, and Ryan Newman have an edge, but early misfortune can still bite them. While Johnson’s previous four wins and an average finish of 6.3 finish in Arizona makes him the favorite going in, Hamlin, Gordon, Harvick, and Carl Edwards are the best amongst the Chasers.

It should be one hell of an event, both on and off the track.
1 – Joey Logano – 4072 Points – 13 Pts to the good
2 – Denny Hamlin – 4072 – 13 Pts to the good
3 – Ryan Newman – 4070 – 11 Pts to the good
4 – Jeff Gordon – 4060 – 1 Pt to the good

5 – Matt Kenseth – 4059 – 1 Pt out
6 – Carl Edwards – 4059 – 1 Pt out
7 – Brad Keselowski – 4055 – 5 Pts out
8 – Kevin Harvick – 4054 – 6 Pts out

Pemberton Says It Right: NASCAR’s a Contact Sport

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: NASCAR.com

NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition and Race Development Robin Pemberton made some interesting comments following the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday evening. Pemberton was talking about Brad Keselowski’s contact with Jeff Gordon and stated, “I think it was hard racing and this is a contact sport.”

Contact, that’s what NASCAR was built on. Since the beginning of the sport drivers have always had discussions about who was right and who was wrong in certain situations and have argued over real estate. What happened Sunday night is nothing different than what happens on most Saturday night’s at a short track race. Race fans have seen it plenty of times.

But what has changed in NASCAR is the mentality and the kind of contact it takes to send someone into a fit of rage. Since NASCAR began in 1949 there have been plenty of stories about accidents that involved contact. Most of them have come at short tracks but not all of them. One of the prime examples came in the 1979 Daytona 500 when two hardnosed drivers crashed while racing for the lead on the final lap. Both Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison were beating each other’s doors in, down the entire long back straightaway at Daytona International Speedway. When it came to winning the Daytona 500, there was no limit on what a driver would do. Everything was fair game. Both drivers proved that and while both of them crashed on the back straightaway eventually leading to Richard Petty winning his sixth Daytona 500, neither driver complained about racing each other too hard. While a fight did break out, it was between Cale Yarborough and Donnie’s brother Bobby from an earlier altercation.

The same can be said for a classic moment that came at Darlington Raceway in the 2003 season. That’s when young driver Kurt Busch and veteran Ricky Craven battled it out in the closing stages of the 2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400. Busch had a strong car all day long and led in the closing stages until Craven’s Pontiac Grand Prix closed in quickly.

Craven, who only had one career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory prior to the race, was going to give it his all and win at all costs. Craven was once considered as one of NASCAR’s best young drivers and many thought he would be NASCAR’s next big star. However, a slew of injuries put Craven’s career on hold. After losing his ride at Hendrick Motorsports following another injury plagued 1998 season, Craven bounced around between low level Winston Cup Series teams before the Newburgh, Maine native caught on with Cal Wells’ PPI Motorsports team with sponsor Tide to start the 2001 season. Craven won his first career race at Martinsville in 2001 and had some success driving for the single car operation. He had his best season in 2002 where he finished 15th in points for the team and had seven top-ten finishes. While 2002 was a great year, another win just seemed out of his grasp. Craven was now at the toughest track on the circuit chasing down one of NASCAR’s best race teams and one of its hottest young stars.

As Craven closed in Busch could do nothing but drive the way he knew how; hard. Craven, for reasons mentioned earlier, needed no incentive to race hard. The two did just that. Craven caught Busch with just three laps to go and from there one of the greatest battles in NASCAR history ensued. They slammed each other as Craven got on the inside of Busch and made contact, knocking Busch into the wall with just two laps to go. Busch continued and went chasing after Craven. Busch then bumped Craven and slowed him down enough to get around him. Craven then again went after Busch. Craven would get to the inside of Busch coming to the checkered flag and the two would slam each other really hard and ride each other all the way to the start-finish line. They did everything but wreck each other and in the end Craven had won his second career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in dramatic fashion.

Both cars were mangled like they had been in a demolition derby, not a NASCAR race. One would think that a driver would be upset at this display of racing. Instead, both Busch and Craven got out of their cars smiling because they knew they did all they could to prevent each other from winning the race. Busch told Fox’s Steve Byrnes that was racing, “the way it should be, hard fought racing.” Craven did the same and the two still talk about the ending of the race with respect and dignity.

Fast forward 11 years to the 2014 season, and my how things have changed. Keselowski’s contact with Gordon wasn’t nearly as significant as the contact that Busch and Craven had or the contact that Yarborough and Allison had at Daytona years earlier. Yet the outcome was extremely different.

In other forms of racing contact hasn’t been widely accepted as normal like it has been in NASCAR. NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt made a living off of making contact with someone and speeding ahead to victory. Sure, some fans and drivers didn’t like it, but it was still an accepted style of racing. Earnhardt ran hard and raced to win at all costs and it paid off for him immensely, as the Intimidator won 76 career NASCAR Cup races and seven championships.

Contact has always been a part of stock car racing. Pemberton is right. However lately, fans and drivers have had issue with the slightest contact. Whether it’s a different era of the sport where cars and parts cost more than they ever have or whether the style has racing has changed over the last 10 years, one thing is for sure. Something has changed.

Back in August Sprint Cup Series drivers Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson got into an altercation after the Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Johnson and Newman were running each other hard for the seventh position in the closing stages of the event and Johnson made slight contact with Newman coming off of turn two. Newman was not happy with the contact and wanted to tell Johnson about it. Johnson made a tire rub on Newman’s left side of his racecar, leaving many fans wondering if “rubbing” actually still is racing like the old saying goes.

Fast forward to Sunday’s incident between Keselowski and Gordon and while the contact between the two eventually left Gordon with a blown left rear tire, the contact itself wasn’t anything to be mad about. It was good, hard racing in the closing stages of a race where Keselowski had to win to continue his quest for a second championship. Keselowski didn’t wreck Gordon, like we’ve seen drivers do in the past.

The Senior Vice President of Competition of NASCAR was right. NASCAR is a contact sport, let’s not forget that.

 

Ben Kennedy NCWTS Preview: Phoenix International Raceway

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SM Archive
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Roger Penske Statement following Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas

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Jeff vs. Brad – One Theory

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/NASCAR via Getty Images

It was a wild night in the Fort Worth area. Eliminated Jimmie Johnson won a race, thus allowing three drivers to enter the championship winner-take-all race at Homestead and get in on points. Brad Keselowski, fighting for his racing life tried to split Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson but made contact with Gordon. Gordon cut a tire and tires were in short supply. Gordon finished 29th and wasn’t happy. Gordon said on his radio, “I’m gonna beat his ass.” He confronted Keselowski on pit road (sound familiar?), a crowd followed, and a melee began.

Gordon and Keselowski, well maybe just Gordon, were yelling at each other when Kevin Harvick pushed Keselowski from behind telling him to get involved in the fight, “and if you’re going to drive like that…” You get the picture. All manners of Hades broke loose. One crew member from the No. 5 Chevrolet of Kasey Kahne appeared to be laying haymakers everywhere. Gordon even threw a punch that was intercepted by Keselowski. Both Gordon and Keselowski came away bloody and probably not from each other. I have a theory on this. Hang with me for a moment.

In the past few years, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing were the top dogs in the Sprint Cup Series (and you can arguably add the Nationwide Series to that too). Though HMS cars have won the most races this year, they have only one car left, Gordon’s No. 24, that is eligible for the Final Four at Homestead. This year, Team Penske cars have won 11 races with a two car team. This must be frustrating to them. Joe Gibbs Racing has only won two races after winning in double figures in 2013. Frustration has to be big there. Add to that the new NASCAR Chase format and dynamite is exploding, and it goes deeper than the two drivers that got into an altercation tonight.

I don’t recall any other altercations with drivers on the track, but it all seemed to explode at Charlotte a couple of weeks ago. Here’s Brad getting pushed around on a restart by Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin, so he retaliates against those two and ended up tapping the back end of Tony Stewart. Stewart retaliates by spinning his tires and backing into Keselowski. Seeing that he’s in trouble, Keselowski drives through the garage area with Hamlin in tow. Kenseth finally puts him in a headlock and the thing is over quickly. Keselowski must have broken some secret rule because now everyone hates him. Or is it now? Maybe it’s always been that way.

Remember how Brad drove in the Nationwide Series? It got Carl Edwards so mad, he went after him. Remember Brad punting Edwards nearly into the stands at Talladega? Maybe no one has forgotten those days. That’s part of it, but it goes deeper. Remember Joey Logano punting Hamlin and causing him to miss almost all of a season. Remember? These were all racing accidents—the kind we see every race, but it’s more than that.

Today’s NASCAR, unlike a few years ago, has a group of drivers who want to act gentlemanly on the track. Don’t take a chance to win; just settle for what you have. If you’re running in second and you have to rub to try to get a win, it’s a no-no. With the new rules, just settle for not making the Final Four and leave it to the proper folks. Trouble is, guys like Brad and Joey don’t race that way. They race more like they did in the day. Win at any cost. Sort of like Dale Earnhardt, David Pearson, and Bobby Allison. Let us not forget Cale Yarborough. This newer generation doesn’t like it. That’s why guys like Hamlin, Harvick, Stewart, Gordon and others are expressing hatred for the Penske boys. They’re running better on some days and winning more. What’s not to hate? So if Brad touches one of them, all of the teams’ crews come out to participate in the beating of Brad or Joey if they get touched. I watched tonight a crew member from Kasey Khane’s crew get in the fray and throw punch after punch. NASCAR may have created a monster.

The worst thing about all of this is the fan reaction. Twitter is filled with hate messages from fans who now “hate” Keselowski. He was called names I can’t even write here. One tweet even went as far as to say a hit man is needed to “take care of him.” Huh? I have to imagine the late Dale Earnhardt, sitting in Heaven is having a good laugh about this. I can imagine what he would say at this point, but it’s not printable either. It’s almost like the sport morphed into that fighting organization where Harvick manages some of the participants, or the WWE. Many think this is the greatest thing, but it embarrasses me. I hope NASCAR acts appropriately.

Johnson Claims the Six Shooters in Texas

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SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/NASCAR via Getty Images
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