Kevin Harvick continues momentum ride, topping speed charts
After dominating at Phoenix International Speedway, Kevin Harvick kept the momentum going as he topped the speed charts in Thursday’s test session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Harvick admitted that he struggled at the beginning with trying to find the right feel of the car, but was able to find it after making some changes and had it right at the end of the day.
“I think the best thing that happened today is the car didn’t run very fast at the beginning of the practice,” Harvick commented. “We were three or four tenths off and had to kind of abort on what we were doing and go a different route. The next route was not as good and the third route finally wound up being good. I think those are good things that are, for us, important because it gives us direction when we go to other mile and a half race tracks so we don’t have to do like we did today. We can get to what has been working for us and just go straight from there to progress that package to make it even better. I thought that was probably the best thing that came out of today.”
Harvick added that he thought the progress through the session for him and the team was great to experience as they continue to learn how to communicate with each other.
“I would rather of had us struggle at the beginning of the day and have to work through things and communicate well with each other,” Harvick continued.
The test was critical not only for Harvick with his new team, but for other teams due to NASCAR’s rule changes that allow for more sensitive adjustments, including the jack screws.
“NASCAR has kind of given us some different things that will help us be able to make bigger swings at the car during the race that are very sensitive and still kind of fresh in the simulation,” he commented. “So it’s not 100 percent right as you go through some of the travels and different things.
“So our travels and things were off a fair amount, not a fair amount, but they were off in the beginning of the test. So we just got all those right and with the data and things on the car today you can kind of get a better idea of where you were and hopefully go back and zero in on all that and make it better as you go into the next few weeks.”
When it comes to rule changes, teams do a lot of tests and some times they go down the wrong route, while some work. Harvick said he thought after Charlotte that they were going down the right route – till now. The driver of the No. 4 Jimmy Johns Chevrolet attributed that to things being different when you get to the actual track versus a test.
Greg Biffle not pleased with test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
At the end of the Sprint Cup Series test session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Biffle walked into the media center for his availability and made it clear that he didn’t want to talk about the day.
“I’m willing to talk about anything but today’s test, so any questions that you guys have I’d be more than happy to answer, but it was a pretty tough day for us,” he said in his opening statement.
Biffle ended up 27th on the speed charts and said that he honestly wish he knew why, but couldn’t come up with a solid reason.
Though as of late, this seems to be a theme with Roush-Fenway Racing as their program suffered last year on the intermediate tracks. On the 13 traditional cookie cutter intermediate tracks last year, Biffle only had five top 10s to go with his win at Michigan Internatonal Speedway.
“We talked over the winter or at the end of last season that our intermediate track program really suffered and that was the flagship of Roush Fenway,” Biffle commented. “And actually a pleasant surprise, our short-track program, which was always the toughest for us actually picked up and we made, what I’m going to consider with the 16 team, a fairly significant gain in our short-track program – Richmond, Loudon, Martinsville – a pretty good improvement. Phoenix, finished third in the fall, so that was kind of light at the end of the tunnel.”
Last weekend at Phoenix, though, Biffle didn’t have the day he was expecting as he finished 17th.
Coming into this weekend, Biffle hoped to get his season back on track and get RFR back strong on the intermediate tracks like they were before. The Charlotte test had gone decent for him and he said that he didn’t see any thing that stood out going into Las Vegas. However, now with this test in the bank, he knows that they have work to do.
Biffle added that there’s still time this weekend to improve as sometimes it’s just the smallest thing that could gain that half-second that they’re off by.
“I know one thing, two years ago I was at Michigan and I was horrible – like couldn’t make a lap horrible – and we looked at Matt’s setup and he had a little bit different rear spring combination and we said, ‘OK, tomorrow we’re gonna start with that,’” Biffle rcalled. “We were the fastest car both practices on Saturday and won the race with one spring change. So that gives us some insight.
“We’ve got to take that direction because we don’t have a guy that is very fast to take a look at and say, ‘Hey, what do they have.’ Now, we did recognize last week we weren’t very fast in race trim, went to q-trim and went to the top of the board and were sixth in both of the qualifying sessions and had a pretty fast car. The 21 car is third on the board in q-trim, so is there some formula between qualifying and race trim that is giving us a little fuss right now. Actually, we learned a little bit in qualifying trim last week and applied that to race trim, so maybe that’s the same thing that’s gonna happen here.”
This weekend at Las Vegas marks the second round of Knock-Out Qualifying, which should be interesting once again. Biffle says it’ll be interesting to watch how people time their runs to make sure that they have enough time to cool their cars in-between runs due to not being able to use the cool-down units.
“We were in a good position last week and we’ll have to wait and see tomorrow what that brings, but I feel pretty good that Trevor’s that fast in q-trim,” Biffle commented. “Obviously, I think only maybe 12-15 cars made q-runs today, so when everybody does it, then it might be a different story.”
Dale Jr. Daytona Win, Danica Drama, and Kurt Busch Double Down Showcases NASCAR
While NASCAR sometimes struggles to gain the national attention that it so desires, the sport has gotten off to a strong start with three major stories, including Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s big win in the Daytona 500, some Danica Patrick drama, and Kurt Busch’s announcement that he will run the Indy 500 as well as the NASCAR Coke 600, that have garnered publicity in the very young 2014 season.
The first story that caught the national eye was the victory of NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., in the biggest race of the season, the Daytona 500. The win was especially noteworthy as Junior, the anointed heir, won on the track where his father not only was so dominant but also where he lost his life thirteen years ago.
The Dale Jr. Daytona 500 race win was almost picture perfect, with the exception of a six hour plus rain delay. But Junior was not to be deterred and refused to suffer yet again another runner up finish, which he had experienced in three of the previous four Daytona 500 races.
In fact, after the rain delay, Earnhardt Jr. led a race-high 54 laps, staying up front six times during the race. The win also ended a 55-race losing streak, with the victory coming a decade after his first Daytona 500 win.
With his trip to Victory Lane, Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored his 20th victory in the Cup Series and joined Bill Elliott, Michael Waltrip, Sterling Marlin, Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson as two-time Daytona 500 winners.
“Winning this race is the greatest feeling that you could feel in this sport besides accepting the trophy for the championship,” said Earnhardt, after bear hugging every member of his Hendrick Motorsports crew in Victory Lane. “I didn’t know if I’d ever get the chance to feel it again and it feels just as good.”
“I’ll never take this for granted,” Junior said. “We’re two time Daytona champions.”
While Junior celebrated with his team and his owner Rick Hendrick, who hitched a ride in his window, to Victory Lane, the fans also went crazy with delight.
Even Jeff Gordon, four-time champion and veteran Hendrick driver, got into the act of celebrating with his most popular teammate.
“The world is right right now — Dale Junior just won the Daytona 500,” Gordon said. “That’s a sign it’s going to be a great season.”
Junior Nation, as his extensive fan base are known, was indeed beside themselves with joy, especially since the win qualified their driver for the championship Chase. And with that pressure off and the confidence at its height, Dale Earnhardt Jr. might have their hopes and dreams of a Cup championship come true.
“We might be in the Chase — I ain’t going to worry about that,” Earnhardt said. “Trust me, man, we’re going to have a blast this year.”
As Dale Earnhardt Jr. moved through his national media post-Daytona 500 responsibilities, another story that had also been brewing in the early season took hold, that of the drama surrounding the lone female in the sport, Danica Patrick.
A major part of the drama began when NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Richard Petty shared his opinion that Patrick could only win a Sprint Cup Series race “if everybody else stayed home.” Petty added that Patrick gets the attention that she does because of her gender, but added the caveat that that was still good for the sport.
“This is a female deal that’s driving her,” Petty said. “There’s nothing wrong with that. More fans come out, people are more interested in it. She has helped to draw attention to the sport, which helps everybody in the sport.”
The drama ratcheted up, however, as Patrick responded to Petty’s allegations.
“It’s true that there are plenty of people who say bad things about me; I read them,” Patrick countered. “At the end of the day, you get over that stuff and trust that you are doing a good job.”
“The people that matter the most to me are my team, my sponsors and those little 3-year-old kids that run up to you and want a great big hug and say they want to grow up to be like you. That’s the stuff I really focus on.”
“More than anything, I love the conversation it creates,” Patrick said. “Across the board, it makes sports interesting. It makes life interesting when people have different perspectives. That’s fine with me. … It really just doesn’t matter. It’s interesting conversation. I’m fortunate I’m in it.”
Whether the conversation was a distraction or not, Patrick has also had drama in the first two races of the season, crashing out in both the Daytona 500 and the Phoenix race. And she found herself at odds with another racer yet again, this time Justin Allgaier with whom she tussled in last weekend’s race.
“She was just upset because she got involved in the crash that we had,” Allgaier said. “She said she’s been through this and that she felt like I needed to settle down at that point.”
“I explained my position on why everything happened. I think she understood where I was coming from. It doesn’t fix either one of our racecars; it doesn’t fix either one of our days.”
“It’s tough,” Patrick said. “That’s two weeks in a row we’ve had good cars and nothing to show for it.”
“I’m starting to think if we didn’t have bad luck, we’d have no luck at all.”
If Danica’s drama does not soon come to an end, perhaps as early as this weekend’s race in Las Vegas, a major headline may just be that she will begin to have trouble even qualifying for the race down the road.
The final story that has captured national headlines for NASCAR was the recent announcement that Kurt Busch, driver of the No.41 HAAS Automation Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, will attempt to double down, racing both the Indy 500 and the NASCAR Coca Cola 600, all in the same day.
Busch will have to qualifying his way in for Andretti Autosport in the Indianapolis 500 and then fly to Charlotte to participate in the longest race of the NASCAR season.
“I’m a fan of motorsports, a student of motorsports, and I view this as a challenge for myself,” Busch said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Memorial Day weekend, the central focus of all motorsports is Monaco, Indianapolis and Charlotte and this is a tremendous opportunity to be right in the middle of it.”
“It’s a great opportunity for Kurt and I fully support him,” team owner Tony Stewart said. “He’ll have a lot to learn in a short amount of time, but he has an overwhelming amount of driving talent on his side. He has a great car owner with Michael Andretti, who’s not only an owner, but he’s been a driver too.”
“Michael has so much to offer Kurt in terms of knowledge and firsthand experience. It really seems like a natural pairing.”
Busch is also hoping to continue the buzz of the national story with a website that he recently launched, www.kurtbuschdouble.com, that will showcase his efforts to make history.
“I think this is something that is good for NASCAR, good for IndyCar, good for the fans to get behind and rally feel like they are part of,” Busch said. “There was no social media, or the means for fans to get an in-depth look at what goes into the double when the others tried it. We think we’ve got an opportunity to make people feel like they are part of the experience with me.”
NASCAR’s new rules also make the Busch double down possible since the driver would just need that one race win to get into the Chase. And with that win, he could afford to miss the start of the Coke 600 and still not hurt himself or his team.
“As long as we attempt to qualify for every race, we are eligible for the Chase under the new rules,” Busch said. “It’s like you are in New York City, on Broadway, and you look up at all the bright lights — they are clearly pointing to this being the right time to do this. The green light is on.”
The green light has indeed been switched on for all of these headlines, including Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s win of the Daytona 500, the drama surrounding Danica Patrick, and the doubling down of Kurt Busch in the IndyCar Series and NASCAR on Memorial Day weekend.
And it will be no doubt interesting and intriguing to see if the season continues to unfold, next in the race in Las Vegas this weekend, with additional storylines that piques the interest of even the most casual race fan across the county.
