One Million Dollar Man; McMurray wins the Sprint All-Star Race
Jamie McMurray restarted second and used the outside line during the final 10-lap segment to pass race leader Carl Edwards to win Saturday nights NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. McMurray captured his first career All-Star race win and the first for team owner Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sebates.
“This is an amazing race. I’ve been fortunate enough to win the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 but the All-Star race is different. When I woke up this morning, I was like ‘I’m just going to have fun. We were talking about the old days of the All-Star race when it was more laid back. It’s way more serious now. That’s what I told the pit crew – just have fun. It’s about having a good time today and doing your best and fortunately we were the best ones today,” McMurray said.
Crew chief Keith Rodden made the call to take track position over tires and McMurray came off pit road second and in position to win the race.
“Keith did an unbelievable job. He was a huge secret in the garage and I’m so glad that I get the opportunity to work with him. We’ve had good cars all year long. We had some bad luck but this is one of those races that make up for a lot of bad times,” McMurray said.
2007 All-Star champion Kevin Harvick finished in second place. Harvick was unable to catch McMurray after moving into second with five laps remaining.
“The guys did a great job putting a fast race car on the track. We recovered from the first one and the second one cost us the race. All in all, they put a car on the race track that was capable of winning and we just didn’t get it done,” Harvick said.
Mat Kenseth has a strong car all night and finished third.
“I don’t know what we were missing — most of the night I felt like we were very mid-pack and made some good adjustments and had a really good pit stop at the end,” Kenseth said. “Really happy for Jamie (McMurray). If we can’t win it’s always nice to see good guys win.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was also looking for his second All-Star win, but came home fourth in the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS.
“They made the car a little bit better there at the end. But we’ll think about it and look at everything we need to look at to make it better for the 600 and I’m happy for Jamie (McMurray, race winner). It’s a pretty cool deal for him. We need to work a little bit and get a little better and the guys will do it. I’m confident that when we come back here next week we’ll be good,” Earnhardt Jr. said.
Carl Edwards captured his second straight Sprint All-Star race pole and lead 18 laps en route to a fifth place finish.
“That’s frustrating. I just went back and watched the replays. Jamie just did a perfect job on the start. I had him cleared for a minute. If I would have pulled in front of him in turn one, if I would have gone high, I think we would have won that race, but I was just so reluctant to give up the bottom. Jamie just did a perfect job,” Edwards said.
Kasey Kahne won the second and third segments but hit the wall off of turn four in the fourth segment. Teammate Jeff Gordon also had a good car but lost control of his car on lap 61 after something mechanical went wrong.
“I’m not exactly sure what. Hopefully we didn’t damage it too bad so we can’t find out what it was. I was going down the backstretch going into turn three and I felt something in the front end give. All of a sudden I had more wheel and I wasn’t even in the corner. As I got in the corner, the car just went straight. It wasn’t like it was a right-front where it just shot there; it just slowly went there. We’ll have to do some investigating to find out. It was certainly one fast Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet up until that point,” Gordon said.
Kyle Busch spun after making contact with Clint Bowyer while trying to get around both Bowyer and his brother Kurt Busch. In the second segment, Busch bumped Bowyer’s rear bumper and got loose and as Busch went around the front end of Bowyer he clipped Busch, sending him spinning into the outside wall. Joey Logano was unable to avoid Busch and was also collected in the crash.
“Had a good run through (turns) one and two and off turn two. Kurt (Busch) got real bottled up on the outside and slowed down so I knew I was clear to go to the bottom and swoop down and try to get underneath (Clint) Bowyer and when I did he blocked me and I hit him and he got squirrely and then I was still under him and it hit me and turned me around the wrong way on the backstretch and got in the outside wall,” Busch said.
“Just going for it with Kyle (Busch) back there. His brother (Kurt Busch) was really tight and I think he was fighting two tires or staying out or something and about got in the fence and kind of caused Kyle to make an evasive maneuver, which kind of moved me down. It’s just racing for a million bucks,” seventh place finisher Bowyer said of the accident.
Final All-Star Results
——————————————————–
1 Jamie McMurray – Chevrolet
2 Kevin Harvick – Chevrolet
3 Matt Kenseth – Toyota
4 Dale Earnhardt Jr – Chevrolet
5 Carl Edwards – Ford
6 Jimmie Johnson – Chevrolet
7 Clint Bowyer – Toyota
8 Brian Vickers – Toyota
9 Denny Hamlin – Toyota
10 Brad Keselowski – Ford
11 Kurt Busch – Chevrolet
12 Tony Stewart – Chevrolet
13 David Ragan – Ford
14 Kasey Kahne – Chevrolet
15 Josh Wise – Chevrolet
16 Ryan Newman – Chevrolet
17 Jeff Gordon – Chevrolet
18 Martin Truex Jr – Chevrolet
19 Greg Biffle – Ford
20 AJ Allmendinger – Chevrolet
21 Kyle Busch – Toyota
22 Joey Logano – Ford
The Sprint Cup Series will return to Charlotte next weekend for the season’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600.
Ryan Blaney Wins His First NASCAR Nationwide Series Pole at Iowa Speedway
Ryan Blaney claimed the 21 Means 21 Pole Award, his first career Nationwide Series pole, for Sunday’s Get To Know Newton 250 presented by Sherwin Williams at Iowa Speedway. Each race of the 2014 Nationwide Series season has seen a new polesitter and Blaney continues the progression by becoming the 10th different pole winner in 10 races.
In the final round of knockout qualifying Saturday evening, Blaney posted the fastest time with a lap speed of 23.148 seconds at 136.081 mph in his No. 22 Discount Tire Ford. He bested Sam Hornish Jr. who will start on the outside pole and Michael McDowell who qualified in third place.
Blaney had little time to prepare for his qualifying run. He was in Charlotte Friday night for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race where he was involved in a wreck, resulting in a disheartening 22nd place finish.
“It’s been a busy 24 hours,” Blaney said. He also thanked his team saying they “did a great job of getting everything ready for me to just come, to jump in the car, and have it close to where we need it to be.”
After winning the pole, Blaney spoke with the media about how confident he feels at this track.
“Being that I got my first NASCAR win in the Truck Series in 2012 here, it definitely makes it special. I actually got my first start for Penske in that 22 car here in 2012. So this place holds a lot of value to me and I really like it,” he said. He went on to say that he hopes to “get a Nationwide win to add to that truck win here.”
Regan Smith will start the race in fourth place followed by Dylan Kwasniewski. Series points leader, Chase Elliott, will begin the race in the sixth position. Elliott has one K&N Pro Series East win at Iowa in 2012 and was quickest in two of the practice sessions on Friday.
Brian Scott, Elliott Sadler, Landon Cassill and Brendan Gaughan will start in positions seventh through 10th, respectively.
Coverage for the NASCAR Nationwide Series Get to Know Newton 250 presented by Sherwin Williams will begin at 2 p.m. ET Sunday on ESPN.
Complete Starting Lineup:
1. (22) Ryan Blaney
2. (54) Sam Hornish Jr.
3. (20) Michael McDowell
4. (7) Regan Smith
5. (42) Dylan Kwasniewski
6. (9) Chase Elliott
7. (2) Brian Scott
8. (11) Elliott Sadler
9. (01) Landon Cassill
10. (62) Brendan Gaughan
11. (60) Chris Buescher
12. (31) Chase Pistone
13. (3) Ty Dillon
14. (99) James Buescher
15. (16) Ryan Reed
16. (6) Trevor Bayne
17. (5) Austin Theriault
18. (39) Ryan Sieg
19. (19) Mike Bliss
20. (84) Chad Boat
21. (33) Cale Conley
22. (43) Dakoda Armstrong
23. (98) Ryan Gifford
24. (28) J.J. Yeley
25. (4) Jeffrey Earnhardt
26. (10) Jeff Green
27. (44) Hal Martin
28. (51) Jeremy Clements
29. (52) Joey Gase
30. (40) Matt DiBenedetto
31. (17) Tanner Berryhill
32. (14) Eric McClure
33. (70) Derrike Cope
34. (76) Tommy Joe Martins
35. (93) Carl Long
36. (87) Tim Schendel
37. (23) Carlos Contreras
38. (55) Caleb Roark
39. (46) Ryan Ellis
40. (74) Mike Harmon
Bowyer Wins Sprint Showdown; Wise Takes Sprint Fan Vote
The Kyle Busch Show: Busch dominates North Carolina Education Lottery 200
Kyle Busch would put on a clinic at Charlotte Motor Speedway as he dominated the North Carolina Education Lottery 200, leading all but four of the 134 laps. It marks Busch’s 38th career victory and his third victory in three starts this season. For Busch, it also marks his fourth victory in his last four starts dating back to Homestead-Miami Speedway in November of 2013.
Busch started on pole and led there, only failing to lead four laps when Joe Nemechek stayed out under caution.
“With all that debris, you’re never sure if you’ll avoid running over something,” Busch commented. “Can’t say enough for these guys in the effort that they put in. It was a fun race for us. We were really strong, especially on the long runs; it seems guys would fall off.”
For Kyle Busch Motorsports, they have now won five of the last six races, with Toyota winning six consecutive races in a row.
Matt Crafton ran second all night to claim his third top 10 finish of the year as he leads the point standings, 11 points ahead of Timothy Peters.
“I’m going to have to whoop him,” Crafton said afterwards. “I’m getting tired of it but my guys did a great job tonight. We had enough fuel to get the track position back and I thought I could run with him but it got real tight. But like I said, it was a great race.”
Brad Keselowski would finish third for his second top 10 in five starts at Charlotte. Keselowski got four tires late and weaved his way through traffic, running out of time at the end.
“We tried to snooker Kyle but we need to find some more speed,” Keselowski commented. “We’re working on it and getting better.”
John Wes Townley and Timothy Peters rounded out the top five, followed by Johnny Sauter, Austin Dillon, Ben Kennedy, German Quiroga and Justin Lofton.
The race featured many incidents throughout as a bunch of drivers left the track upset and disappointed with their efforts. Justin Jennings was the first driver out of the event as he spun and hit the wall after a tire went flat at lap 19.
On lap 28, Jake Crum and Ryan Ellis would get together. Crum didn’t take lightly to the incident, spinning Ellis into the wall with 48 laps to go.
Ron Hornaday didn’t have a smooth night as he went spinning at lap 73, with the field luckily avoiding his No. 30 Rheem Chevrolet. Hornaday would start to work his way back up through the field, when he’d move down in front of Ben Kennedy, not being clear and result in another crash, this time collecting Mason Mingus and Crum.
“I feel bad for these Turner-Scott guys as they keep giving me good trucks and I keep screwing it up,” Hornaday said. “Come back through there and had a good run on Ben, thought that I’d cleared him and hadn’t.”
Restarts didn’t play nice tonight as Scott Riggs tried to move up and Tayler Malsam was there, resulting in Riggs sliding sideways and getting into Darrell Wallace Jr. Wallace would be a little shook up, but otherwise okay.
“I’m good now. It’s unfortunate,” Wallace commented. “We had some troubles with our battery. It looks like Riggs didn’t know we were three-wide, came up and squeezed them. I made the call to pit to change the battery and now I got to live with that call. We had a rough night at Kansas and then a rough night here.”
Blaney didn’t get a good draw either as Townley came down on him, resulting in Blaney going for a trip into the grass and then across the track and into Brian Ickler and the wall with 30 laps to go.
“We had a run on the 5 (Townley) and I was inside the 5 and he just pushed me in the dirt,” Blaney said. “We were side-by-side for a long time and he just turned dead left so not sure what he was thinking there. Felt like I had a truck to catch the 51 and the 88 and shit happens.”
Perhaps the worst luck of the night goes to Jeb Burton as he had a good run going inside the top-five when he’d wreck on the last lap after he and German Quiroga got together as they raced for position around the lap truck of Norm Benning.
SuperBike Rookie Beaubier Establishing Dominance Early
Twenty-one-year-old Cameron Beaubier is no stranger to winning, but this year he has proven his ability to grab checkers in a new venue– the AMA’s premier road racing class.
Notching a win in his second race in the AMA Pro SuperBike class proved to his competition that not only is he capable of winning, but he is capable of winning early, and quite possibly often.
He dominated the Daytona SportBike class last year, winning 12 of 13 races en route to an uncontested championship. His only non-first place finish was a second place, leaving him with an average finishing position of 1.1. That he came out so strong in 2014 is no surprise, even with his graduation to the SuperBike class.
Opening weekend at Daytona in March proved that Beaubier is a force to be reckoned with, landing on the podium in both races. Initially, Race One appeared to be typical AMA SuperBike racing, with Josh Hayes taking the win, but the rookie Beaubier managed to snag a third place finish. Despite a slip up early in the race, Beaubier managed to climb back to second place, and even grabbed the lead for a lap late in the race. When he ran too wide into Turn 1 a second time in the final laps, he lost his chance for a win.
Beaubier would not make the same mistake twice. The next day, he rode his Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha YZF-R1 to victory, and in only his second Pro SuperBike race. After hanging in the top-three throughout the race, Beaubier made his move to second place in the final laps, and on the last circuit played the draft in the final turn to blow by Roger Hayden for the win.
Despite the AMA’s huge scheduling gap between early March’s weekend in Daytona and the following race weekend at Road America May 31-June 1, Beaubier has kept himself busy and successful elsewhere.
Aside from currently leading the AMA Pro SuperBike points after two solid finishes at Daytona, Beaubier also leads the point standings in the GEICO Motorcycle Superbike Shootout series, a three race series that is heading into its final round at Miller Motorsports Park on May 25. His finishes in the first two races: second at Auto Club Speedway and first at Sonoma Raceway.
The weekend following the GEICO series championship will turn Beaubier’s attention back to the AMA series, where the daunting four-mile Road America awaits.The longest course on the circuit is also one of the most popular in all of road racing, and a couple solid finishes there will solidify Beaubier’s position as a serious championship contender in his rookie season, in case anyone has any lingering doubts.
It was obvious that his time to graduate to SuperBike had come. From winning the Daytona 200 last year by 22 seconds, to capturing every pole of the year en route to a 12-win championship season, the question was not if he would race in the SuperBike class, but how dominant he would be. He has exceeded all expectations. While a jump to the internationally acclaimed MotoGP series may undoubtedly be a option in the future, Cameron Beaubier should relish in the fact that he is sitting on a rookie season that may very well be one for the record books.
