Jeb Burton takes the pole in the Fred’s 250 at Talladega
Turner-Scott Motorsports driver, Jeb Burton, scores his sixth pole of the season on Friday at Talladega Superspeedway. Burton turned in a lap of 176.182 mph in his Arrowhead/Kangaroo Express Chevrolet. Burton currently sits fourth in points, 73 points behind leader, Matt Crafton.
Burton, when was asked about his success this season in qualifying responded, “Well I feel like – raw seed, out team has been the best from practice to qualifying, we have the speed, we just haven’t been able to finish it in the race. Even if we’re struggling, we’re fast, we’re at the top of the charts every week. I feel like this year we’re building a notebook for my team and next we will really be able to go get some wins.”
Max Gresham earns his best starting position of the season starting from the outside pole. Gresham turned a lap of 176.020 mph in the Made in USA Chevrolet. Burton and Gresham edged out Sprint Cup Series regular, Kyle Busch. Busch will start third in the Toyota Care Toyota, turning a lap of 175.910 mph.
Kyle was asked about his Kyle Busch Motorsports driver lineup for next year he replied, “Unfortunately, we don’t and a lot of that comes from the unknown of what’s going on in the world of sponsorship and for the truck series it’s very tough for Kyle Busch Motorsports it’s been very tough and obviously without the support of Toyota that we get, we probably wouldn’t be here.”
Rounding out the top five were James Buescher in fourth and Ty Dillon starting fifth. Buescher’s lap of 175.900 mph was just .003 seconds slower than Busch. Buescher, the defending series champion, is trying to catch Matt Crafton in the standings. He is currently 41 points out of the lead with just five races to go.
Dillon currently sits third in points, 53 behind leader Crafton. Dillon turned a lap of 175.861 mph in his Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet.
Other notables: Ross Chastain and Ryan Blaney who led practice, qualified seventh and 13th respectively. KBM driver, Darrell Wallace Jr will start tenth with points leader, Matt Crafton taking the green in 23rd.
The green falls on the Fred’s 250 at Talladega Superspeedway at 3:00pm local time.
NCWTS: Mingus Ready For Debut, He Starts 11th For Tomorrow’s Race
Success rained throughout Mason Mingus’s 2013 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards season. Despite not seeing victory lane the 18-year-old finished second overall for the Win-Tron Racing team in the points standings. Soon after the ARCA season had been completed Mingus and WinTron announced that they would compete in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) at the treacherous Talladega Super Speedway.
The Mooresville, North Carolina based team of Win-Tron have entered the No. 35 Chevrolet into the Fred’s 250 for Saturday’s NCWTS event. This isn’t just Mingus’s debut but also Win-Tron’s in any of NASCAR’S top 3-series. Mark Rette, the 2009 ARCA champion crew chief will lead the efforts for Win-Tron Racing in the series 19th race of the year
“While, I’m most excited about this opportunity, the key is to get the seat time in the truck and learn how to handle it in the draft and how the air affects them compared to an ARCA car. I’m most nervous about figuring out who I can draft with and catching onto the two very different styles of drafting between the truck and an ARCA car.
Mingus has 34 starts throughout his ARCA career, which include five top-five finishes and 25 top-ten finishes as well as 2-second place finishes at the 2.66 mile Super Speedway of Talladega.
Friday’s practice was the first time Mingus took to the track, he did so very cautiously. He ran a total of 15 laps and ended up 31st at the finish of final practice. The team was feared to not run around other trucks because they have no back-up truck. Mingus did as told and ran mock qualifying runs as they are forced to qualify in on time.
Not running around other trucks might not benefit the rookie come Saturday when 36-trucks are stacked together within 2-seconds of each other.
Either way this weekend could be the deciding factor to whether Mingus will make it to the biggest stage in NASCAR. Restrictor plate racing can be friendly or deadly and Mingus knows that very well.
“This is like an early, early Christmas present,” said Mingus “I’m really excited about the opportunity to race (again) at Talladega. Everyone at Win-Tron Racing has worked very hard to put a truck together for me. I have had success at Talladega in an ARCA car and I hope to continue that success over to the trucks.”
“You have to enter races like these with the best outlook possible, but at the same time, you can’t be disappointed if your weekend doesn’t pan out. This is Talladega after all.” said the Brentwood, Tennessee native (Mingus)
Qualifying played into Mingus’s hands as mentioned before he’d have to qualify in on time and he did so in dominating fashion. Rolling off early in qualifying wasn’t an advantage for Mingus as he’d come out 8th out of 37 trucks. After 29 more trucks took times Mingus locked himself in the field and will start in the 12th position.
In addition to Talladega, Mingus and Win-Tron Racing will also compete in the final two NCWTS races of the year from Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway (November 8) and Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway (November 15) respectively.
Kenseth leads the pack, heading into Talladega
When Matt Kenseth made the move from Roush-Fenway Racing to Joe Gibbs Racing, many thought it would there would be an adjustment period. After all, Kenseth had been driving for the same team and manufacturer for his entire Sprint Cup Series career with the exception of his very first start subbing for an injured Bill Elliott.
It would not take long to quiet the critics. Kenseth found victory lane in just his third start for his new team. He would also follow that up with six more wins. Now the Wisconsin native, who is many credit for causing NASCAR to implement the Chase format, is leading the Chase standings halfway through the ten race playoff.
Kenseth is definitely is the midst of the best season of his career. In addition to the six wins, he has accumulated nine top-5’s, and 17 top-10’s. In 2003, his championship season, he only scored one win, but had 25 top-10’s. The fact that he won the title with just one win, is the reason many think NASCAR created the Chase format.
Kenseth currently has a slim four point lead over five time series champion, Jimmie Johnson. The two, however, have a solid 29 point lead over third place, Kevin Harvick. But there is still. . . . Talladega!
The 2.66 mile superspeedway that is credited with giving several driver their one and only win. However, it is also known for ending the championship hopes of many drivers. The track does not discriminate – it doesn’t matter if you are a mid-pack racer or a popular one. Just Dale Earnhardt Jr. He sat out two races in 2012 due to a concussion received in a crash triggered by Tony Stewart.
When asked about coming back Talladega, Kenseth replied, “Yeah, so Talladega – man, I don’t know. Yeah, I mean obviously the Chase has been pretty good up to this point, so I’m glad to be leading, glad we had a good run last week – got a pretty good finish out of it – and at Talladega, the driver will draft a little bit today, kind of look at the weather and see if we need to put up a lap time or what we need to do. So, that makes practice kind of interesting if there is a threat of rain with everybody trying to lay back and get fast times and do all that.”
Kenseth won this race last fall, but all-in-all, does not have a stellar record at Talladega. In 27 starts, he has just the one win with five top-5’s and nine top-10’s. Fortunately, for Kenseth, Johnson’s record at Talladega is not much better. In 23 starts, he has two wins, and only ten top-10’s.
Both drivers have been extremely strong throughout the first half if the Chase. Kenseth opened the Chase two wins, Johnson followed suit with a win in race three. Kenseth did stumble just slightly at Kansas with an eleventh. Johnson’s worst finish is a sixth in the same race. Ironically enough, third place Kevin Harvick has almost identical stats as the two frontrunners. Harvick has scored one win and ten-10’s in 25 starts.
As Kenseth points out, at Talladega you have more cars to worry about due to a more level playing field – “ the interesting thing about the races here is pretty much any of the 43 cars under the right circumstances could have a shot to win it. You really don’t know what’s going to happen and usually when you go race at Texas you probably can’t say that. So anyway, you just want to, I think, try to figure out how to be one of those cars and certainly I think your guard is up maybe a little bit more than normal.”
It seems as if no driver near the top of the standings has a statistical advantage over the other. Given the nature of this track and the equality in stats. This weekend could lead to one driver having a large lead in the standings, or possibly creating a scenario where as many as five drivers are within striking distance. Either way it is sure to be an exciting race on Sunday in the Camping World RV Sales 500.
From mini-stocks to Supertrucks – Caleb Holman set to make Talladega debut
When race car drivers are growing up, they usually dream of racing in the “big-time” at the tracks they see on television with the stars of the sport. One such driver who had those dreams is Southwest Virginia native, Caleb Holman.
While growing up and racing the short tracks around Virginia and Tennessee, Caleb had aspirations of racing in the upper levels of NASCAR. Working his way up through the ranks from mini-stocks at Wytheville Raceway to racing Late Models at places like Lonesome Pine Raceway and Kingsport. Caleb made his NASCAR national touring series debut in the Nationwide Series in 2003 at Richmond driving a car owned by his Father, Darrell Holman.
After a while he partnered with Charlie Henderson, founder of Food Country USA, a regional grocery store chain. Caleb found success and eventually began competing on the UARA touring late model series and the X1R Pro Cup Series. Henderson loves racing and wants to succeed with Holman at the wheel. In 2006, he competed at Bristol for Henderson finishing 33rd, but only four laps behind the leader. He made a few more starts in the series over the next few years, but never found the right combination.
In 2012, Holman and the Henderson team made their way to the Camping World Truck Series. Making his debut at Rockingham, he instantly seemed to be at home in the trucks finishing a respectable 21st. He followed that effort with another 21st at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He finished the season with eight starts and three top-20 finishes with his worst finish coming at Atlanta with a 27th. Holman has produced similar results in 2013 with five starts so far this season, with a best finish of 17th coming at Bristol.
In attempt to take the next step, the team purchased a superspeedway truck from Richard Childress Racing. They will make their superspeedway debut at Talladega Superspeedway in the Fred’s 250 powered by Coca-Cola on Saturday, Oct 19.
In preparation for the race, Caleb traveled to the RCR shop almost every day to finish getting the truck prepared. It is a rarity in the sport today when the driver works on the race car. That is the way Holman was raised, in race shops, around race cars, and knowing to get things and get them done right, you have to get your hands dirty. Working on the race cars that he drives is just second nature – it’s what you do. From the very beginning, his Father Darrell, taught him to work and prepare race cars and earn what you get, not expect it to be handed to you.
Darrell Holman talked about the team owner, Charlie Henderson, “He (Henderson) loves it and he wants to see his truck running, he don’t to see us out back loafing.” When asked about their stats he continued, “For a team our size and no more races than we’re doing, we’re really overachieving probably, because most of the time we finish 17th to 20th, and for what we’re up against, that’s a really good day for us.”
Holman, asked about being at Talladega, said “It sounds almost to me – conceited and arrogant to be saying, when you talk to somebody at home and you say – yeah we’re going to Talladega. You say it like it’s Talladega, big deal, but when you stop and think about it you’re like man that’s big. Not just big like big racetrack, big like never thought I’d be here, never thought that would happen and you have to catch yourself when you’re talking to people at home that you have known forever, what that sounds like. When you say Talladega to them, they see pictures of Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, so it’s a big deal. It really is and like I say when you get to building a truck, and all the stuff you got to do, it’s easy to forget that man this is really cool.”
This team has the feel of local hometown team. A sense of teamwork and pride fills their garage stall. Throw in a dash of family values and good old fashion dose of “do the best you can with what you have” and you have a recipe for making the dreams of a former mini-stock racer from Southwest Virginia come true on the fast, high-banks of Talladega Superspeedway.
