Will Power scores Grand Prix of St. Petersburg victory
After finding himself outside of the championship picture last year, Will Power is making a statement early that he plans on being part of the discussion. Power kicked off the Verizon IndyCar Series season in style, scoring the victory in the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. This marks Power’s second St. Petersburg win as he won the event in 2010.
“I worked so hard in the off-season and came into this year wanting to win a championship,” Power said in victory lane. “It was disappointing last year to come so close with Helio. With the field so tight, I was glad to have a good racecar.”
Power started up front and ran inside the top three, taking the lead from pole sitter and early race leader Takuma Sato on lap 31 with an impressive move on the outside in turn one. Power would lose the lead through the pit cycle, but quickly gained it back and led the rest of the way without being challenged.
There was one questionable restart during the race with Power as the leader with just under 30 to go as Power didn’t appear to go and resulted in a check-up through the field, with both Marco Andretti and rookie Jack Hawksworth wrecking.
“I lifted a little but I didn’t touch the brake at all,” Power commented. “They can check my data. I did not brake-check or touch the brakes at all.”
“Up front, everything was fine,” Ryan Hunter-Reay, who was third at the time, commented post-race. “I got a good run on Helio and got by him so it was fine by me. I guess there was an accordion behind me. There’s always accordions with restarts so we just need to control it better.”
Andretti and Hawksworth both suffered a poor finish as a result due to not being able to continue.
“Yeah it’s hard to see because I was pretty far back, but Will just stopped,” Andretti commented. “Once you go, you gotta go. It was a bit of an accordion effect, and I just got caught up. That’s what happens when you’re in the back, so I’ve really got no one to blame but myself.”
“I don’t know what the leader was doing,” Hawksworth said. “Everybody went and then they all stopped and somebody hit me.”
Power’s race strategist Tim Cindric commented during the race that they waved the green before the leader got to the acceleration cone and that’s why everybody went before his driver. Andretti suggested that’s a good reason why they shouldn’t use the cone.
“I’m not complaining, but the leader should dictate it,” Andretti added. “He probably questioned himself because he might have gotten penalized or something, but you should penalize the leader, he can go when he wants.”
Hunter-Reay finished second after he was able to pass Castroneves on a late race restart.
“Will was doing a great job at the end,” Hunter-Reay said. “We were matching each other through there. I had a good fight with Helio and got by him. I didn’t have enough speed to catch him but we could match his pace. It’s a good start to the season and to the championship.”
Castroneves rounded out the podium for his third straight St. Petersburg podium finish.
“Unfortunately, one of the restarts was a poker game with Will. But you know its ok, its good,” Castroneves commented. “He was fast in the end and it was very difficult to push it. Plus with the tires that we had to scuffed at the end, it turned out to be a great race. I have to thank Roger for a great, great start and the Hitachi boys for great pit stops.”
2013 IZOD IndyCar Champion Scott Dixon finished fourth, followed by Simon Pagenaud. It marks Pagenaud’s first top five finish in three starts at St. Petersburg. Tony Kanaan finished sixth, followed by Takuma Sato, Justin Wilson, Josef Newgarden and Ryan Briscoe.
Juan Pablo Montoya would end up finishing 15th in his first open-wheel start since 2007 after battling with the set-up throughout the day. Last year’s race winner James Hinchcliffe finished 19th after battling mechanical issues all-day.
“At the end there, the United Fiber & Data car got even better,” Hinchcliffe commented. “We were going to be so strong at the end of this race if we had been in contention. You could see at the end there we were keeping pace with some of the guys; it’s unfortunate to see it like that. More yellows might have helped keep us on the lead lap, maybe. We could have taken advantage if some more guys have problems with their tires in the end.
“At the end of the day, that is the way it goes. I think getting to still run and know what the chassis was going to do and learn a little bit about the tires again helps. We have another street race in two weeks, so all of this stuff still applies in Long Beach, and that is what we have to look at as a positive to come from this.”
The next Verizon IndyCar Series race is the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 13 on the Streets of Long Beach. The race will be televised live by NBCSN at 4 p.m. (ET) and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network, including Sirius and XM Channels 209 and the INDYCAR 14 app for most smartphones and tablets.
1. (4) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 110, Running
2. (3) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 110, Running
3. (10) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 110, Running
4. (5) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Chevy, 110, Running
5. (14) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 110, Running
6. (2) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 110, Running
7. (1) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 110, Running
8. (16) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 110, Running
9. (22) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 110, Running
10. (9) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Chevy, 110, Running
11. (11) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevy, 110, Running
12. (15) Mikhail Aleshin, Dallara-Honda, 110, Running
13. (13) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 110, Running
14. (21) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 110, Running
15. (18) Juan Pablo Montoya, Dallara-Chevy, 110, Running
16. (12) Mike Conway, Dallara-Chevy, 110, Running
17. (7) Carlos Munoz, Dallara-Honda, 110, Running
18. (17) Carlos Huertas, Dallara-Honda, 110, Running
19. (19) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 109, Running
20. (20) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Chevy, 108, Running
21. (8) Jack Hawksworth, Dallara-Honda, 83, Contact
22. (6) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 82, Contact
Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 93.572
Time of Race: 02:06:57.6288
Margin of victory: 1.9475
Cautions: 2 for 10 laps
Lead changes: 7 among four drivers
Lap Leaders:
Sato 1 – 26
Castroneves 27 – 28
Sato 29 – 30
Power 31 – 52
Sato 53 – 57
Power 58 – 76
Conway 77
Power 78 – 110
Verizon IndyCar Series Point Standings: Power 53, Hunter-Reay 40, Castroneves 36, Dixon 32, Pagenaud 30, Kanaan 28, Sato 28, Wilson 24, Newgarden 22, Briscoe 20.
Matt Crafton survives bumping and banging to win Kroger 200
When the trucks hit the half-mile paperclip shaped race track on Sunday, there was no holding back the action as drivers young and old bumped and banged for every position.
In the end, it was a champion rising to the occasion as 2013 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion Matt Crafton scored the victory for the first ever Grandfather clock of his career.
“I didn’t think we were going to get it on those first two runs but that’s just how these guys are,” Crafton said post-race. “They kept making adjustments and I can’t thank them enough. I got to thank those guys that raced me clean – Peters, Wallace.”
Crafton ran just outside of the top 10 for the most of the first half of the event while Timothy Peters and Johnny Sauter. However under a caution with just over 50 to go, Crafton was able to get off pit road in second behind Peters. Crafton used that to his advantage, grabbing the lead with 40 laps to go.
From then, Crafton was able to hold off all charges over the course of the next four restarts – including a pair of green-white-checkereds – to score the victory. While Crafton isn’t known for being a short track racer, he did finish second last year in the spring to his teammate Sauter.
Last year’s fall race winner Darrell Wallace Jr. came home second after rooting Peters out of the way on the second green-white-checkered. It marks his third top five at Martinsville in three starts.
Rookie Ben Kennedy finished third despite running just outside the top five most of the day for his second Martinsville top five; he finished fourth last fall.
Sauter finished fourth after virtually getting into everybody throughout the day for various positions, including contact with Erik Jones that resulted in the 16-year-old going for a spin under the first green-white-checkered.
“If anyone has a problem with me, they can come find me, anytime, anywhere, any time of the day,” Sauter said post-race. “I’m waiting…I’m ready. Where is everybody?”
Sauter added that he was aggressive because he was tired of being run-over in the past.
Ryan Blaney finished fifth, followed by Red Horse Racing teammates Timothy Peters and German Quiroga. Peters and Quiroga had words following the race after contact that ensured on the last lap between the pair of teammates, and carried on post-race.
“Wild and exciting at Martinsville,” Peters said. “First the 54 (Wallace) moved us out of the way but I didn’t expect my own teammate to do it. I feel bad for everybody at Red Horse Racing – but German has a lot to learn. It’s Martinsville. People get mad.”
Peters wasn’t the only one who had words with Quiroga as Ron Hornaday also had some things to say after Quiroga sent the champ for a spin. Ben Rhodes finished eighth, followed by Hornaday and Brian Ickler.
Cole Custer finished 11th in his first career truck series start despite contact with Brandon Jones and Gray Gaulding that sent Gaulding for a spin on the backstretch. Custer and Gaulding have a history from the K&N Pro West Series after an incident last year at Phoenix International Raceway.
“My thing after the way he did to us at Phoenix, I wasn’t going to go out there and intentionally wreck him but if he did something to us again, I was going make sure he wasn’t going to get by us or have something happen,” Custer commented on the contact. “But, we were racing hard there (at the end) and he got spun out, so that’s what happened.”
One of the biggest incidents of the day was a caution at lap 123 when both Bryan Silas and Spencer Gallagher received heavy damage. Caleb Holman got into Gallagher, causing Gallagher to spin in the path of traffic which left no where for Silas to go. Afterwards, Gallagher threw his HANS device at Holman’s truck.
“Dude was driving like a lobotomized starfish all day,” Gallagher said in regards to Holman.
Surprising and Not Surprising: Martinsville STP 500
With no practice due to a rainy weekend, the Cup drivers unleashed their pent up aggression on the short track of Martinsville. Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 65th running of the STP 500.
Surprising: The closest that Hendrick Motorsports got to Victory Lane at Martinsville was the motor and chassis as Kurt Busch surprisingly took his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet to the checkered flag.
The win also marked significant milestones for driver and crew chief as this was Busch’s 25th Cup win and his crew chief Daniel Knost’s first win as a crew chief.
Busch’s 83 start winless drought finally came to a close, with his last victory prior to this at the Monster Mile in the fall race of 2011.
“Every time you come to Martinsville you draw a line through it; like there’s no way I’ll be able to challenge those Hendrick guys,” Busch said. “The Stewart-Haas team gave me a team to do it.”
“It’s an unbelievable feeling to deliver.”
Not Surprising: While Brad Keselowski had some harsh words to say about the race winner, sarcastically ‘thanking Kurt’ after tangling with him early in the race and finishing 38th, he kept his sense of humor when he took to Twitter after the race.
“I’m here,” Keselowski tweeted when a follower said that he would probably not be on social media for a while. “Laughing at all the hate tweets. #freeEntertainment.”
With that difficult finish, the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford dropped three spots to seventh in the point standings.
Surprising: Dale Earnhardt Jr. was surprisingly disappointed with not getting a clock, even though he finished third in his No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet and took the points lead away from Carl Edwards.
“Well, it was up and down,” Junior said of his race. “We ran out of tire there just trying to get by those lap guys that were giving me the top in the corner and I don’t need to be up there running.”
“That cost us a little bit.”
Junior and girlfriend Amy Reimann did, however, console themselves with a Martinsville hot dog as his “reward” for finishing third, tweeting a picture of the celebration from the plane.
This was Earnhardt Jr.’s 16th top-10 finish in 29 races at the track known as the ‘Paper Clip.’
Not Surprising: Martinsville made for some interesting milestones, including another new winner for the season and a record number of lead changes.
Kurt Busch became the sixth different winner in six races to date and there were a record 33 lead changes among 12 drivers, the most ever at Martinsville. The previous record for lead changes was 31, set in April of 2011.
Surprising: They may have been driving with heavy hearts due to the death of Miss Lynda Petty, the King’s late wife, but the two Richard Petty Motorsports drivers pulled off great finishes, with Marcos Ambrose in fifth and Aric Almirola in eighth.
In fact, this was only the fourth time that the two RPM teammates have finished in the top-10 together, but the second time in six races this season.
““We’ve had a really tough week. We lost Miss Lynda.” Ambrose, driver of the No. 9 DeWalt Ford said. “We really wanted to win for them bad out there, but we’ll take a top five.”
“I’m really proud of all the guys at Richard Petty Motorsports,” Almirola, driver of the No. 43 STP Ford, said. “If we keep running like this, we’ll get to Victory Lane.”
Not Surprising: The highest finishing Ford was Joey Logano, who deemed his drive in the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford “a battle.”
“This race is really hard, but we finished where we deserved to finish,” Logano said after finishing fourth. “That’s where we ran and that’s about all we had.”
“I wish we had a little more.”
Surprising: “That’s all I had,” are words that are eerily similar to Logano’s but are not typically heard from six-time champion Jimmie Johnson. But that was his summary of the race as well at one of his strongest tracks.
“I’d been loose in the final third of the race and was hanging on there,” Johnson, who finished runner up in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, said. “When (Kurt Busch) got back by me, I was hopefully that he’d wear his stuff out and I could get back by him. He did but I couldn’t hold him off.”
“I started to get looser and looser,” Johnson continued. “I ran the rear tires off the car.”
“That’s all I had.”
This was Johnson’s 22nd top-10 finish in 25 races at Martinsville Speedway and his fourth top-10 finish in the 2014 season.
Not Surprising: While most drivers are focused on the wins, Jamie McMurray was thinking about points and shaking his head.
McMurray, behind the wheel of the No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet, was involved in an on-track incident with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Lap 199 that caused him to finish 42nd and falling eleven spots in the point standings to 23rd.
“I thought the No. 88 would be a little more patient with me. I had gotten by him in lap traffic. Then he got on my inside. When he got into me it was like it couldn’t get off and spun me around and just got into the wall there,” Jamie Mac said. “Really unfortunate had a good car, every race we’ve had good cars.”
“You just wish you weren’t racing for points because that is the hardest part to swallow is the point’s loss,” McMurray continued. “It’s fun to run well but that is what you will think about for the next five days.”
Surprising: After missing the previous race week due to metal in his eye and after vowing to make a comeback and win at a track where he has the third-best driver rating, it was most surprising to see Denny Hamlin finish a disappointing 19th.
The driver of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota had ignition issues and then was just plain slow during the race.
“Just a frustrating day, especially when you know that this is a race track that I feel like I can make up a difference here and there,” Hamlin said. “We were a football field and then some away from the right set up today.”
Not Surprising: Austin Dillon, behind the wheel of the No. 3 Dow Chevrolet was the highest finishing rookie, finishing 15th at the very demanding short track.
“I had some good runs there in my truck but it was totally different in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car,” Dillon said. “It’s one of those races where you have to fight to stay in it.”
“Things were definitely wild there.”
The Cup Series will move from the short track of Martinsville to the track in Texas where everything is big for the Duck Commander 500.
Kurt Busch Goes from Wreckers to Checkers and Snaps 83-Race Winless Streak at Martinsville
Kurt Busch snapped his more than two year drought this afternoon at Martinsville Speedway in true Outlaw fashion. His last win was on October 2, 2011 at Dover International Raceway.
“A win like today is a great step forward,” Busch said. “I don’t want it to camouflage any of the work, though, that we still have to do to make our car stronger and to be more competitive week in and week out, but don’t think that I’m not going to enjoy this for one moment.”
He continued saying, “This is an unbelievable feeling to get back to victory lane after this tour that I’ve been on, to find this opportunity with Stewart-Haas, and to win, it means the world to me.”
After contact with Brad Keselowski on pit road on lap 40 that continued onto the track with retaliation by the No. 2, Busch proclaimed that he was “done” on the radio to his team. But the No. 41 crew chief Daniel Knost rallied him, calmed him down and he was back up inside the top 10 racing some of the fastest cars of the day in no time.
There were 14 cautions throughout the afternoon at the paperclip, involving many drivers. The first one came on lap 2 when Parker Kligerman smashed into the barriers in turn three. Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, Casey Mears and Justin Allgaier were also involved.
The race restarted on lap 11. The top-five were pole-sitter Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, who dominated the race most of the day, Denny Hamlin, who eventually fell back due to electrical problems, Matt Kenseth, who had an up and down day and Joey Logano in fifth. Matt Kenseth moved to the lead on lap 18, passing his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, but by the time the competition caution came out on lap 40, he fell back to eighth place as he was stuck on the outside lane and couldn’t get down. Under this caution is where the aforementioned skirmish between Bush and Keselowski began.
Jimmie Johnson led the field back to the restart on lap 47 of 500, followed by his teammate Jeff Gordon. The third caution of the afternoon came out for the No. 17 car of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who wheel hopped the car trying to get past the feuding Keselowski and Busch on the track. After another restart on lap 109 led by Joey Logano, Travis Kvapil helped David Gilliland into the wall, bringing out the fourth caution of the afternoon. Michael Annett, Kyle Larson and Jeff Gordon, who was caught in the accordion effect trying to slow down, were involved in this caution.
Greg Biffle, who has never finished in the top five at this track or won a race on a short track in his whole career, took the lead after the restart on lap 119, as he got by Logano and Johnson. AJ Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose also made their way into the top five under this green flag run, drivers you don’t usually see run up front at Martinsville.
The fifth caution of the day was for Casey Mears, who had some help spinning from David Gilliland. On lap 178, Ambrose led the field to the green flag after he won the race off pit road, followed by Biffle and Johnson.
Jamie McMurray brought out the sixth caution of the afternoon when he hit the wall hard with some help from Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Chevrolet. Kenseth led the field to the green flag but fell back to 10th as the seventh caution came out for the No. 23 of Alex Bowman.
The two BK Racing cars (Bowman & Ryan Truex) had some trouble this afternoon, just another part of being a rookie at the paperclip. Kevin Harvick’s string of bad luck continued as he came into the pits in fourth place but came out in the 15th position. This was due to a left rear chain breaking on the No. 4 car, which caused them to have slow pit stops all day long. They rallied to finish in seventh place at the end of the day.
At the halfway mark with 250 laps complete of 500, Jimmie Johnson led as Ryan Truex brought out the eighth caution of the afternoon. On the next restart, teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson traded the lead back and forth but the No. 48 prevailed.
After Kenseth went one lap down and Denny Hamlin fell back due to an electrical issue, the ninth caution came out for Joe Nemechek, who slammed the outside retaining wall. Johnson won the race off pit road, followed by the No. 15, No. 99, No. 88 and Brian Vickers. Kyle Larson then brought out the eleventh caution of the day after he spun coming off of turn two. Johnson won the race off pit road again, followed by the same four drivers.
After Kevin Harvick worked his way back into the top ten after falling back due to repairing his chain problem, the 12th caution came out for debris. With 100 laps to go, Johnson led Edwards, Kurt Busch, Harvick and Logano.
This is when the eventual race winner started to flex his muscles. The 13th caution came out for Martin Truex Jr. and the No. 48 won the race off pit road yet again, but what happened next was a rarity. With 50 laps remaining in the STP 500, Johnson slipped up just a tad, opening the door for Clint Bowyer to move past him and take over the top spot. But that was short lived, as Johnson got right back by the No. 15 car of Bowyer. Kurt Busch was watching this all unfold in third place, plotting his next move.
On lap 458, Carl Edwards brought out the 14th and final caution after spinning while running in fifth place. The final restart of the race came with 35 laps to go as Jimmie Johnson led Logano, Kurt Busch and Almirola. With 27 laps to go, Kurt Busch took the lead away from Johnson, leading for the first time all day. Johnson then took the lead back from Busch, but Busch wasn’t going down without a fight. He took the lead back and with a mere 10 laps to go, held on and won the race, snapping his long dry spell.
When asked about chasing down the dominant No. 48 car, Kurt Busch told FOX’s Krista Voda in victory lane that he “didn’t know if [they’d] be able to catch him, you know. The No. 48 is king here.” He added, “I’ve been on this journey for awhile, every time you come to Martinsville you just cross a line though it!” When asked about his comments on lap 44 about their day being “done,” Busch said, “We won; we’re not worried about that right now!” His car looked beat up, but he got the win nonetheless.
Runner-up Jimmie Johnson said that he was “loose in the final third of the race,” adding that he was “hopeful that [Busch] would wear his stuff out. That’s all I had, man. I ran the rear tires off the car. We had a very fast race car; I wish we could’ve gotten this win for sure.”
Next weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Fort Worth and Texas Motor Speedway. We now have six different winners through six races. Will we have a seventh new winner next weekend? We’ll find out as we go from under 100 mph and tight corners to 200 plus mph and high banked corners. Hopefully the Duck Commander 500 will be as good a race as these past two weeks at Fontana and Martinsville.
