Darlington Raceway Celebrates Its Past & Looks Ahead to a Bright Future
Darlington Raceway is an integral part of NASCAR history. Many of those who have conquered the Lady in Black went on to become legends of the sport including Bill Elliott.
Elliott is a five-time winner at Darlington Raceway, NASCAR’s 1988 Champion and has always been a fan favorite. His son Chase, who won the Nationwide Series race Friday night in his first appearance at the famed track, is a perfect example of the future of NASCAR. Chase currently drives the No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet for JR Motorsports.
Darlington Raceway track president Chip Wile announced plans Saturday to celebrate its beginnings and look ahead to the next generation of drivers who will make new history and add to the mystique of the track, beginning in 2015.
“Our history defines us,” he said. “Without history we wouldn’t know where we’ve come from or where we’re going. NASCAR legends and loyal fans have all played a role in defining Darlington Raceway. Together, we’re celebrating where we came from and where we’re going.”
As part of the celebration, Bill and Chase Elliott were introduced Saturday as the “face” of the program. Wile, along with Bill and Chase, talked about future plans which will include a retro ticket design for the 2015 Bojangles’ Southern 500 and a Classic merchandise product line that will focus on previous decades and will be available for purchase.
Media and fans in attendance were also treated to a first look at an old school designed No. 9 Bill Elliott car which will be used to promote the endeavor.
Another interesting element of the program will feature stories from fans who are encouraged to share their ideas and their unique stories at darlington1950@darlingtonraceway.com
“Tell us your Darlington story,” said Wile. “If you have ideas about how Darlington Raceway and NASCAR can celebrate our history and embrace our future, please let us know.”
Will Power looking for second straight win in Long Beach
When it comes to street and road courses, there are few that can say that they’ve got more wins than Will Power as Power always seems to impress when both left and right turns come into play.
After struggles hurt his championship chances last year, Power is hoping that this year street and road course success coupled with some solid oval performances to his first ever Verizon IndyCar Series Championship.
So far, the driver of the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet is off to a good start as he picked up the win last weekend at St. Petersburg with a dominating performance as he led 74 laps on his way to victory. Power carries that momentum from the west coast to the east coast, posting a solid fifth quickest time in the Friday practice session.
“It’s not a bad day for Verizon Team Penske, but we need to find a bit more,” Power noted post-practice. “It’s ridiculously tight, but there’s a bit of a gap to (Simon) Pagenaud and (Sebastien) Bourdais. I don’t know what they’re doing, but it seems to be working for them. It’s hard work, and it was an unbelievable day. Tomorrow when we put on red tires for the first time, we know we’ll be faster, but it’s always a bit of an unknown because it changes the car.”
While Power may be off right now, don’t count the Australian out of contention as he has two wins and four podiums in his last six starts in California. If you add in the fact that he’s won three of hte last four events, Power is on a roll of momentum. However , while success may be sweet, Power says you can’t get to be comfortable with as you have to keep working hard.
“There’s so many good teams, good drivers,” he commented. “It’s just a good thing. It’s a good kick in the ass to have some bad runs. Not actually lack of pace, but just to have some bad runs, be in the back of the field. You just reset, just realize that you can’t leave anything on the table. You just can’t.”
RACEDAY: Kevin Harvick Feeling Jaunty; Pursuing Southern 500 Triumph
Darlington Raceway’s moniker ‘Too Tough To Tame’ certainly is fitting for Kevin Harvick driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.
The 2007 Daytona 500 champion, Harvick, is still held winless in Darlington. He’s experienced 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at the challenging 1.366-mile speedway, but has only posted three top five and six top-10 finishes.
However, remarkably, he’s only received one DNF (Did Not Finish) on his resume at Darlington, but still has yet to score the ultimate goal: winning.
“This is one of those, I guess, what would refer to as a crown jewel race.” Harvick explained on Friday in the media center. “(This) is one that’s not sitting in our trophy case, not only that, but it’s just Darlington and this is what NASCAR racing is all about.”
On Saturday at Darlington – during ‘Knockout Qualifying – Harvick saved his tires, as your not able to change tires during the session, and eventually qualified a 26.802 en route to his seventh career Sprint Cup Series pole.
“It all worked out,” Harvick expressed following his pole-winning lap time. “Knockout qualifying paid off for us today. We were able to save the best for last.”
Harvick, with the best starting position for Saturday’s race, is aiming for his first career triumph at Darlington, in his first-career start at the historic track with Stewart-Haas.
“To win here would mean a lot,” Harvick furthered commented. “Hopefully we can keep it together for 500 miles, I believe we have a really fast car and (just) everything has gone well all weekend.”
Harvick’s also already, almost, confirmed his placing in this season’s Chase, after winning at Phoenix International Speedway, giving him and crew chief Rodney Childers to gamble for victories.
However, the past few weekends the team’s been restricted from visiting victory lane after having mechanical failures.
“Since we’ve already won and obviously we feel like we have given away some wins with the failures, (we) just need to keep going about our business.” Harvick explained about the struggles this season, “I think (winning the pole) is good medicine for everybody and proof that everybody just works week to week on what they need to work on and last week is over.”
The Bojangles Southern 500 pre-race show begins at 5:00 PM EST on FOX and Harvick will lead the field to the green flag at 6:45 PM EST – follow @MarshallGabell on Twitter for live updates of the action.
Joey Logano feels he’s living up expectations with success this year
When Joey Logano entered the Sprint Cup Series, a lot of people expected ‘Sliced Bread’ to be a contender for wins, scoring mutiple ones, and contending for championships. That didn’t happen as planned as Logano first struggled.
Flash forward to April 2014 and perhaps those expectations are starting to come true as Logano sits fourth in points after winning last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.
“ I feel like it has taken me quite a number of years to figure out what I need to do in this sport and how to race against these guys and what I need in the race car here to run well,” Logano commented. “Did I start too soon? Yeah, no doubt I did. But it is an experience that I value a lot right now because I am 22 years old with six years of experience behind me and there is nobody else out here who has that. I am thankful for that opportunity and the tough times I went through to figure it out.
“We have had a lot of fast cars lately and led laps in about every race. We have that win and we have a lot of top-five’s and are sitting fourth in points. Things are going good right now. All the hard work is paying off.”
Logano feels part of it has to do with the confidence that he has now, with the success that he has had on both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series side. The success also leads to carry momentum forward, which he feels is an advantage to have not for himself, but the whole team.
“The team is in great spirits and they have been working really hard over the past few weeks testing a lot and it makes it all worth it when you win a race,” Logano said. “When you win it is like it makes all the work worth it. Winning races is really hard and you need to make sure you enjoy them when you get them. To answer your question it is momentum, confidence and I feel like that is what I am the way I am and I feel like the whole team is that way also.”
With the win in his back pocket and teammate Brad Keselowski having a win, Logano is set for Chase destiny for this season. As a result, he feels his team can focus on the Chase by testing things out some weeks, and saving their test sessions for those 10 tracks.
“Don’t get me wrong, we aren’t trying to not win this weekend and I feel like we will have another good piece here at Darlington and the car will have good speed,” Logano said. “It is cool to see your name on the car with the winner sticker next to it. That is a good sign. It is nice to have both our cars in and we can focus in this weekend and kind of have that distraction of needing to win and all the pressure that comes with that relieved a little bit.”
Logano added that it opens the door for them to try new things and improve things, especially with the new rules this year.
“With this new rules package with the ride height rule there is some low hanging fruit still to grab,” he explained. “We need to figure out what works best with these cars and we will be trying different things like we already do, so that doesn’t change. Really, like I said, at the shop it is about making sure we get our specs right and get some nice new cars ready and get our guns loaded for when the Chase starts.”
Simon Pagenaud leads Friday practice for Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Coming off a fifth-place finish at St. Petersburg, Simon Pagenaud led the combined practice sheet for the first pair of sessions at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Pagenaud lapped the 1.968 mile road course in one minute and 9.1488 seconds.
“I think the team’s done a great job over the winter at helping the car on the curbs and on the bumps,” Pagenaud, driving the No. 77 Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports car, said. “I feel pretty confident this weekend; we’ve got a pretty good package. Obviously, with different series running there will be different rubber on the track. You have to adapt. As the track rubbers up, the softness of the car needs to go up or needs to go down, and that’s what we’ll have to adjust for the red Firestone tires that are going to give us more grip. It’s quite exciting.”
Sebastian Bourdais was second quickest as he comes to a track where he’s won at multiple times in the past.
|You need the balance (in Long Beach) and it can be a very difficult place,” he commented. “I’m pretty happy with where we’re at, we still have a bit of work to do, but the KVSH Group has done a whole lot over the winter and we’re showcasing in the Mistic car this weekend and hopefully we can put it up front. It’s going to be hard to make a move on somebody on Sunday, so track position is going to be crucial more than ever, but every time we say that we end up seeing more passing than any other race.”
After falling out of the race two weeks ago at St. Petersburg due to a restart incident, rookie Jack Hawksworth was third quickest and says he liked this circuit when he ran it last year in the Indy Lights Series.
“It’s a little bit more of a generic street circuit compared to St. Pete – I’ve always thought St. Pete was very tricky to get the balance right,” he added. “I’m enjoying it. It’s a great location and a great event and it should be a good weekend.”
Last year’s winner Takuma Sato was fourth quickest while last week’s race winner Will Power rounded out the top five.
“It’s not a bad day for Verizon Team Penske, but we need to find a bit more,” Power commented. “It’s ridiculously tight, but there’s a bit of a gap to (Simon) Pagenaud and (Sebastien) Bourdais. I don’t know what they’re doing, but it seems to be working for them. It’s hard work, and it was an unbelievable day. Tomorrow when we put on red tires for the first time, we know we’ll be faster, but it’s always a bit of an unknown because it changes the car.”
Josef Newgarden was sixth fastest, followed by Ryan Briscoe, Justin Wilson, Juan Pablo Montoya and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Hunter-Reay is coming off of a second place finish two weeks ago as the California native heads to his home track.
“Everything went pretty well; it’s the first day of Long Beach and we’ve been very strong here in the past,” Hunter-Reay said. “We’ve got a lot of things we want to do and we’ve got that pressure riding on us to be up at the front. We spent most of the day there but towards the end of the last session we didn’t get everything out of the new set of Firestones, so hopefully tomorrow will be better. For qualifying we need to make the car turn better, that’s the name of the game right now for the DHL Honda.”
Of note, Power and Montoya’s Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves was only 17th quickest.
The driver will get a 45 minute practice session on Saturday morning, before qualifying takes place at 1:15 p.m. local time.
Chase Elliott Tames the “Lady in Black” with a Dramatic Win at Darlington Raceway
Chase Elliott won the VFW Sports Clip Help a Hero 200 in his first start at Darlington, conquering the legendary track in a dramatic finish. This is his second consecutive victory following his win at Texas last week and his sixth top-10 finish in 2014.
He’s not only winning races but breaking records as well. He’s the youngest driver to win two NASCAR Nationwide Series races at 18 years, 4 months and 14 days. Joey Logano previously held the record at 18 years, 10 months and 18 days. He’s also the youngest driver to win a Nationwide Series race at Darlington and the youngest points leader in the Nationwide Series history. Elliott is only the fourth driver to win his first NASCAR National Series race in his first start at Darlington. Johnny Mantz did so in 1950, Herb Thomas in 1951 and Dick Rathmann in 1952.
Elliott’s car was fast all night but he had challenges from Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Matt Kenseth and particularly, Kyle Busch who led the most laps with 84. The last caution of the night came out on lap 142 and lasted through lap 145. The race restarted with two to go. Due to a quick pit stop, Elliott Sadler restarted in first place but Chase Elliott was not to be denied. He quickly raced through the field from sixth place to fight for the win.
Elliott was able to clear Sadler in turn three of the last lap to claim the win. It was intense competition but both drivers raced cleanly and Chase Elliott drove his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet to his second win in seven starts in the series.
“This is unbelievable,” Elliott said in victory lane. “I couldn’t believe last week, much less here at Darlington. This truly is a dream come true. This is a place I always loved watching races. It was probably my favorite place to watch a race as a fan for a long, long time. Just to come and be a part of this race is unbelievable, but to come and win this thing that’s a deal I’ll never forget.”
JR Motorsports team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke about how impressed he is with his young driver and even gave him a special nickname.
“The thing I like about Chase is obviously he’s successful and winning but his personality, man, I like to call him the new Elvis. He’s the full package, man, he just has it all. The sky’s the limit with that kid.”
Elliott Sadler finished second and praised his crew chief Chris Gayle for making the call to only take two tires on the last pit stop.
“It was a great call by Chris to put me in that position,” he said.
Sadler also expressed disappointment. “I have a lot of second-place finishes here. He continued, “Second is a good finish of course, but it’s not what we wanted. I really want to win at this place. Just felt like I let one get away from us tonight.”
Matt Kenseth finished in third place saying “it was an up and down night. I thought we had a top-five car most of the night and got a decent finish out of that last run.”
Kyle Busch came home in fourth place followed by Joey Logano in fifth. Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, Regan Smith, Trevor Bayne and Ty Dillon round out the top-10 finishers.
Chase Elliott leaves Darlington Raceway ranked first in the points standings, 13 points ahead of Regan Smith in second. Sadler, Dillon and Trevor Bayne are third, fourth and fifth in the standings.
Landon Cassill Hitting His Acme; Finishes 12th in Darlington
Landon Cassill silenced critics on Friday after wheeling his No. 01 JD Motorsports Chevrolet to an astounding 12th place finish at Darlington Speedway – his career-best at the track given the moniker ‘Too Tough To Tame’ and ‘The Lady in Black’.
However, looking at the big picture, it appears after seven seasons in the NASCAR National Touring Series that Cassill is hitting the acme of his career, and in a matter of weekends, he could be celebrating a few top fives, and top-10 finishes.
Cassill’s relationship with racing was solidified at 10-years-old when he finished second in the Pro Kart Tour at Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS) – little did he know that was the beginning of a lifetime in Motorsports.
He returned to the Pro Kart Tour the next season, earning a remarkable two national championships, in addition, to winning four International Kart Federation championships – some coming on dirt tracks, and others on pavement.
His karting career continued for two more years, where he racked up a few more state championships, including a handful of victories. He also ventured into a midget car class where he added to his resume with a few more titles in the Newton Kart Klub, located in Newton, Iowa – right around Iowa Speedway.
His breakthrough opportunity occurred when he began racing SK Modifieds at Hawkeye Downs Speedway and joined the ASA Late Model Series (ASALMS) – all while in high school at JeffersonHigh School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
However, his career-making race was at Lake Erie Speedway on June 9, 2006 when he dominated the ASALMS race, and became the youngest winner in the series history at 16-years-old – that record was held until Erik Jones bettered the mark.
He notched is second career ASALMS triumph at South Georgia Motorsports Park – becoming the first competitor to win in both Northern and Southern divisions. Despite posting multiple victories in the ASALMS, he never experienced a championship in the series, but did finish a career-best second in the driver standings, losing to Kelly Bires.
His NASCAR tenure began during the 2006 season when he was inducted into the GM Racing Developmental competition – which was basically a three-stage test that occurred at Caraway Speedway, Nashville Speedway and North Georgia Speedway. The program allowed higher organizations to recognize the up-and-coming talents in racing.
Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) signed Cassill, not to a full-time driving deal, but to an apprenticeship, to learn the ropes. He tested their cars at Greenville-Pickens Speedway and Lakeland Speedway, in addition to helping assist the team’s research and development program.
He made his debut in NASCAR with HMS at Gateway International Speedway during the 2007 season and finished in a dismal, but knowledge-gaining, 32nd position. Memphis International Raceway witnessed him almost secure his first top-10 finish, but he was spun out on the final lap and didn’t clinch the finish he expected.
During his ‘trial run’ with HMS he started six races and finished a best of 18th at Dover International Speedway.
His talent was recognized, and JR Motorsports placed him in their No. 5 for 16 races during the 2008 Nationwide Series season. He captured his first top-10 finish at Nashville Speedway when he finished ninth, and also added a pole at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to his record.
He concluded 2008 with four top-10 finishes, and also won Rookie of The Year (ROY) honors, and also garnered three top-10 finishes in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving for Randy Moss Motorsports.
Despite the decent finishes, the developing driver was left ride-less during the 2009 season, forcing his to watch from the sidelines.
However, in 2010 he came back with vengeance, starting six Nationwide Series events, three for JR Motorsports and the other couple with RAB Racing. He also received 16 starts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with James Finch, TRG Motorsports and Larry Gunselman, finishing 38th in his Cup debut.
Again, in 2011, he didn’t have any stability with a certain organization, but did finish an impressive third in the Nationwide Series opener at Daytona International Speedway, and competed in 32 Sprint Cup events, finishing a career-best 12th at Michigan International Speedway.
Finally, after working his entire career for the opportunity, Cassill was signed to a full-season deal with BK Racing to drive their No. 83 in the Sprint Cup Series. During his rookie season with the organization he finished 31st in the driver standings and just missed winning the ROY honors.
Entering 2012 it seemed BK Racing and Cassill would continue their relationship, however, the deal fell through when they had contract disagreements.
The setback forced Cassill to join forces with Circle Sport, driving the No. 33 for the remainder of the season. He ran mildly, and very quiet, the entire season, finishing well outside the top-30 in the driver standings
Now, in 2014, Cassill is starting to ‘settle in’ with the JD Motorsports and Circle Sport organizations, while developing chemistry, and remaining loyal, all things he’s struggled to achieve in the past.
Finishing 12th in Darlington proves that Cassill is reaching the acme of his career, and with the potential he possesses, it’s possible he could wind up in victory lane, very soon.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. looking to rebound after last week’s disappointment
Last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had one of the most disappointing weeks a driver could have as he finished 43rd after making a mistake early in the race. Earnhardt Jr. made a bad judgement call, getting into the front stretch grass before shooting across the track and into the wall.
Rather than focus on that mistake, Earnhardt Jr. shifted his focus to the tire test at Michigan International Speedway on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I think we learned some things,” Earnhardt Jr. commented. “I was really happy to have an opportunity to test with Goodyear and get an opportunity to get on the race track and learn. We did go through a lot of different tires and a lot of different constructions. The dual zone tire we tried a couple of different ones. We went through – they had about eight different sets of tires that they wanted to learn something’s about, some for Michigan, some for Kansas and other places. It was a productive test and even though we were cut short on the first day we were able to get a lot of information for Goodyear that I hope is going to be helpful to them.”
Looking to put Texas behind him, Earnhardt Jr. heads to one of NASCAR’s oldest and toughest tracks – Darlington Raceway.
“It’s been around a long time,” Earnhardt Jr. commented. “One of the toughest race tracks physically that we race on, tough track mentally. 500 miles here is a really long race because the track is quite a big race track and the pace slows down. You are working so hard in the corner so just one lap around here is a lot of work. To have to run 500 miles it’s a pretty tough test of man and machine. This track is starting to grey up pretty good so I’m looking forward to getting out there in practice and seeing what we’ve got.”
Earnhardt Jr. qualifed 15th for the Bojangles Southern 500.
