Matty’s Picks 2013 – Race 26 Federated Auto Parts 400 – Richmond International Raceway – September 7, 3013

By

-

September 7, 2013

bowyer_yeazell — Photo Credit: David Yeazell

The cliché holds true this week as “it all comes down to this”. Six guys have already claimed their top-10 spots when The Chase begins next week at Chicago – Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, and Matt Kenseth…that’s 2 Chevy’s, a Ford, and 3 Toyotas in case you’re keeping score.

Seventh-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. faces the least pressure among non-qualifiers, needing only a finish of 32nd or better in the 400-lap race on Saturday night to enter the postseason. Joey Logano, Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch complete the provisional top 10 – 16, 14 and six points ahead of 11th-place Jeff Gordon who is still in the hunt for a top-10 spot going into the chase, as he stands no chance at making a Wild Card without a win on Saturday Night.

Logano and Biffle each have a single victory giving them some Chase insurance as potential Wild Cards, but both have to turn around their historical finishes at Richmond to ensure they’re racing for a championship the next ten weeks.

Former NASCAR Sprint Cup champions Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon, however, both are without victories on the season and need to have solid finishes, along with poor finishes from other drivers to punch their tickets to the big dance starting next week at Chicagoland. Both have done what they need to do to lead a lap on Saturday by qualifying their Chevy’s on the front row, so it will be interesting to see if they can spoil a few Chase hopefuls by winning on Saturday Night. This Race is shaping up to be even more exciting than I expected with 3 Wild Card hopefuls staring in the top 3 spots on Saturday Night.

Two-time 2013 race-winner Kasey Kahne (12th) and Sonoma winner, Martin Truex Jr. (13th) hold the provisional Wild Cards as the points run right now.

Five drivers have clinched Chase berths on the final night of the regular season since the start of The Chase for the Sprint Cup began in 2004. Ryan Newman’s sixth-place finish in 2005 is the best among the “last in” drivers. Brian Vickers (2009), Kasey Kahne (2006) and Jeremy Mayfield (2004) also were final-race qualifiers. Most recently, Jeff Gordon waited until the final race of the season to solidify his spot in the chase by finishing second in this race last season, so this parody is nothing we’ve not seen before….but we’ve NEVER seen this many drivers on the fence for The Chase. The backstretch wall at Richmond has never seen as many car numbers in yellow (meaning the driver has NOT clinched a spot in the NASCAR Playoffs) as are painted in yellow this season, so for anyone whose never watched a NASCAR race before, Saturday Night is the one to watch.

I will save my words this week and not recap my poor picks last week at Atlanta and roll right into my picks for Saturday Night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 (even though my Dark Horse Pick last week finished 3rd with a broken wrist).

Winner Pick

Richmond has been Clint Bowyer’s best track over his career, and to no surprise, he’s been the best driver statistically over the past 5 races at Richmond.

Clint has finished outside the top 12 just twice in 15 races at Richmond – averaging a finish of 9th in the meantime. Bowyer is one of just 3 drivers averaging a top-10 finish at Richmond, behind Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin for third on the best average finish at the 3/4 mile short track. He’s got a couple wins, most recently and notably his win in THIS race last season. In the loop stats, Bowyer is 4th in Average Running position, Driver Rating and Quality Passes, and he’s 5th in 2 more of the 6 loop stats, Average Green Flag Speed and Laps in the Top 15.

Clint Bowyer holds the record for the deepest in the field ANY Richmond race-winner has started, that was his win from the 31st starting position back in 2008, and throw in the fact that he’s starting 4th on Saturday Night, Bowyer is still my top guy this week. Keep in mind, he led 113 laps and finished 2nd in the April race at Richmond…

Dark Horse Pick

I was on the fence on Thursday as I previewed the race with Greg on The Prime Sports Network, but after practice and qualifying, I’m a bit more confident with my selection do go with Dale Earnhardt Jr. as my Dark Horse guy this week.

He was 7th in first practice and 3rd in Happy Hour earlier today at Richmond International Raceway, and probably took a conservative approach to his qualifying lap today as a 32nd or better finish will punch Jr.’s ticket to the big dance next week.

Richmond actually ranks as Jr.’s 4th best track over his career with the other two short tracks ranking first (Bristol) and third (Martinsville), much to my surprise as everybody knows the Earnhardt’s for their restrictor-plate racing.

Jr. has 3 career wins at Richmond, granted none since 2006 but in the loop stats he ranks anywhere from 6th in Fastest Laps Run to 13th in

Driver Rating.

Dale Jr. would certainly like to have those 3 bonus points to start The Chase, so I think we’re looking at him staying out of trouble early, then a march to the front during the closing laps on Saturday Night.

That’s all for this week, enjoy the race and the hunt for The Chase and be sure to tune in Monday to the Prime Sports Network (www.primesportsnetwork.com) as Greg and all the folks from SpeedwayMedia.com preview the 2013 Chase for the Sprint Cup! And as always….You Stay Classy NASCAR (and Dale Earnhardt Jr.) NATION!

Brian Scott dominates but comes up short at Richmond

By

SM Staff

-

September 6, 2013

Victory Lane richmond 2 — Photo Credit: Kala Perkins/Speedway Media

Richard Childress Racing driver, Brian Scott, had only led 38 laps in his Nationwide Series career before the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 at Richmond International Raceway.

Tonight, however, he dominated, leading 240 of 250 laps yet still came up short due to a controversial late race restart. Eventual race winner Brad Keselowski, took the lead with ten laps to go, when it appeared to team owner Richard Childress that Keselowski beat Scott to the line. Childress asked his team over the radio, “The 22 beat us to the line, is somebody hollering about that?”

Later, on the last restart of the night with six laps to go, Keselowski hit the gas two car lengths before the restart line. Scott complained, but the complaint fell on deaf ears. No call was made, and Keselowski easily drove to victory in the Nationwide Series’ 1,000^th race.

After the race, Scott said he was mostly mad at himself for not understanding the restart rules. When asked to ignore the controversy and focus on the first 239 laps of the race, Scott replied, “Fun, we had a great car and when you have a car like that it’s easy to lead that many laps. I haven’t had a car that good in my Nationwide career, I have had a couple of them in the truck series and that’s something to be proud of. We had a great showing here tonight, a great race. Um, you know Richmond, me and Richmond have a bittersweet love affair. Looking at replays from last one, obviously there was a pretty infamous incident that happened after that and obviously even with all the laps led, to lose one like that, I still feel the same afterwards.”

Tonight’s win made number five on the season for Keselowski and number ten for his team, Penske Racing. Keselowski commented about the controversy with Scott saying, “Well, first off, Brian Scott did a tremendous job today. He has a lot to be proud of. If he keeps running like he is, he will win races. I think I just caught him off guard. The restart box is a zone and we went right at the start of it and didn’t give him a second to catch up. That probably wasn’t key to victory but it sure didn’t hurt.”

Sam Hornish extended the series points lead to 16 points over Austin Dillon. Third place Regan Smith edges a little closer and is now 26 behind leader Hornish with Elliott Sadler just points back in fourth.

The series now heads to Chicagoland Speedway on September 14 for the Dollar General 300.

CHEVY NSCS AT RICHMOND TWO: Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch Post Qualifying Press Conf Transcript

By

SM Archive

-

September 6, 2013

CHEVY NSCS AT RICHMOND TWO: Qualifying Notes & Quotes

By

SM Archive

-

September 6, 2013

All Three Ford Chase Bubble Drivers Qualify Top-10 at Richmond

By

SM Archive

-

September 6, 2013

Toyota NSCS Richmond Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes

By

SM Archive

-

September 6, 2013

Michael Waltrip Racing continues rise as premier organization

By

SM Staff

-

September 6, 2013

20130906161442-e58fa398-me — Photo Credit: David Yeazell

Michael Waltrip remembers a time when his company, Michael Waltrip Racing, was only brought in conversation because of how awful things were going.

Back when qualifying for races were few and far between. When a cheating scandal at Daytona nearly ended the company before he really even began. Years before two of his three drivers would be talked about as championship favorites with one week remaining before the 2013 Chase for the Sprint Cup begins.

“Pretty good times for MWR and when I think of good times it reminds me of the bad,” said Waltrip on Friday at Richmond International Raceway. “I remember coming here in 2007 and we didn’t even have a garage stall. Our cars were out on pit road because the garage was full and I don’t even know if any of us qualified. Now we’re here and we’re talking championship, so that’s really fun.”

Clint Bowyer enters Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 as the defending winner of the event. In April he finished second. He might have won last weekend at Atlanta had it not been for a blown engine while he was leading. Bowyer is second in the championship standings, 28 points behind Jimmie Johnson, however he’s winless when it comes to seeding for the Chase.

He’s locked in though, unlike teammate Martin Truex Jr. who fights for a wild card position. Truex has a win and sits 13th in points, which would give him one of those two spots. He and his broken wrist however, need to survive 400 laps on Saturday night. Last Sunday he finished third.

For Waltrip, it’s a perfect scenario. MWR is relevant, they’re contenders and not just one hit wonders as some may have believed after they came out of nowhere last season. Bowyer finished second in points to champion Brad Keselowski in his just his first year with MWR. Now, here the company is again, riding a wave of consistency and momentum toward the Chase. But it’s still not enough for even Waltrip to say that they’re going to be yearly Chase contenders.

“We’ve done it this year for sure and that’s great, but we have to do it every year. The cool thing about this year are the challenges that we’re been faced with. The new car was huge to get your arms around to get it to the nth degree of tuned up and ready to race these boys,” said Waltrip.

“While we’ve done a nice job the first part of the season, we were consistent, but we didn’t have the speed that we needed in order to contend for wins and then as the mid-season came along I think we kept closing that gap and just got better and better and better. I think we’re peaking as an organization as this Chase approaches so we’re very confident about our chances to race for a championship and we’re even more confident about 2014, 2015 and beyond.”

It would be hard to blame Waltrip for the confidence and eagerness about what the future holds for MWR. Even while building new cars this season when NASCAR introduced the new Gen6 model, MWR never blinked and have been on par with the likes of Hendrick, Gibbs and Roush.

Truex has a win, as does 2014 full-time driver Brian Vickers. Only running a partial schedule this season, Vickers stunned the garage with a victory at New Hampshire in July. He’ll join Bowyer and Truex in competing for the Chase next season. A championship is expected to follow in the near future.

And whether it comes this year, or next or perhaps after that, Waltrip knows it won’t be easy. Lessons learned from the past will continue to lay the path for future success. Waltrip noted the teams will continue to work hard on capitalizing at tracks they’re most successful. Then go into survival mode at others when it’s necessary. That will be the plan as the Chase begins next weekend, as well.

“I know that Clint loves Loudon and Martin loves the mile-and-a-halfs so you just play to your strengths and you hope that you can take advantage of those tracks and opportunities and I think we’re going into the Chase as an organization at a very opportune time,” he said.

“Last week, I think Clint showed a tremendous amount of speed and Martin showed a tremendous amount of heart. Brian showed a tremendous amount of perseverance and all those things will be key in the Chase and I look forward to seeing our guys in that Chase because we learned so much and grew so much last year as an organization, hopefully we can take advantage of that this year.”