NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Watkins Glen
Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.
1. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson finished eighth at Watkins Glen, posting his series-best 15th top-10 result. His lead in the Sprint Cup point standings is 75 over Clint Bowyer.
“I envy Kyle Busch,” Johnson said. “He faced three restarts in the final 12 laps and still won the race. The last time I faced three restarts, I didn’t win a single race. In fact, I lost three.
“But I did officially clinch a spot in the Chase For The Cup. And I’m really intent on winning my sixth Cup title, if for no other reason than to distinguish myself from all the other drivers. As it stands right now, we can all count our championships on one hand.”
2. Kyle Busch: Busch held on to the lead through three late restarts and held off Brad Keselowski to win the Cheez-It 355 At The Glen, earning his third win of the year. Busch is now fifth in the points standings, 115 behind Jimmie Johnson.
“Keselowski was on my tail,” Busch said, “and I kept him there. And Brad surely knows an ‘ass’ when he sees one.”
3. Clint Bowyer: Bowyer finished sixth at Watkins Glen, joining Michael Waltrip Racing teammate Martin Truex, Jr. in the top 10. Bowyer is second in the points standings, 75 behind Jimmie Johnson.
“Unfortunately,” Bowyer said, “I’m still winless on the season. That first win is proving to be as elusive as Jeff Gordon at Phoenix.”
4. Kevin Harvick: Harvick led eight laps and finished 13th at Watkins Glen, He was the top finisher among Richard Childress Racing cars and is fourth in the Sprint Cup points standings, 101 out of first.
“My future employer Tony Stewart broke his leg in a sprint car accident last week,” Harvick said. “It seems he’s exchanged a clutch for a crutch. A cast is not the only thing I’ve signed for Tony this year. This all reminds of the time when the Winston Cup became the Nextel Cup, because NASCAR’s gone ‘Smoke-less.’”
5. Kasey Kahne: Kahne was spun during a restart with 11 to go and was subsequently rammed by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Kahne finished 34th, eight laps down, and is 12th in the points standings.
“The S-turns spelled trouble on several restarts,” Kahne said. “You could say ‘The ‘esses’ hit the fan.’ That left the No. 5 Farmers Insurance car heavily damaged. In other words, it was ‘Kahne and dis-able-d.’”
6. Carl Edwards: Edwards posted his best finish since a third at Sonoma with a fourth at Watkins Glen, his seventh top 5 of the year. He is third in the points standings, 80 behind Jimmie Johnson.
“The No. 99 Cheez-It Ford was solid,” Edwards said. “Double thanks for Cheez-It for sponsoring my car as well as the race. Who says NASCAR is a sport just for white crackers? It’s a sport for orange crackers, as well.”
7. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth found trouble on a restart with ten laps to go when he got into Marcose Ambrose, who clipped Kasey Kahne, sending the No. 5 Hendrick Chevrolet spinning across the track, where it was slammed by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Kenseth eventually finished 23rd, his second consecutive result outside the top 20.
“I took out two Hendrick Motorsports cars,” Kenseth said. “That’s one more than Jeff Gordon. Gordon likened Sunday’s race to his going stag at his senior prom—-he took himself out.”
8. Brad Keselowski: After winning the Nationwide Zippo 200 on Saturday, Keselowski nearly completed the Watkins Glen sweep, taking second in the Cheez-It 355 At The Glen on Sunday. The results boosted the defending Cup champ four spots in the point standings to eighth.
“If I did nothing else,” Keselowski said, “I gave Kyle and the No. 18 M&M’s car a scare. I could smell the fear. Let’s just say his car wasn’t the only place where there was chocolate.
“But let me just say this: I will win the 2013 championship. I will win the 2013 championship. I know I said that twice, but that may be the closest I come to a ‘repeat.’”
9. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt finished 30th at Watkins Glen after plowing the spinning car of teammate Kasey Kahne with about ten laps to go. Kahne was turned around after contact from Matt Kenseth after one of many late restarts. Earnhardt is now sixth in the points standings, 138 out of first, and still searching for his first win of the year.
“Sonoma, home of the season’s first road course race, is wine and cheese country,” Earnhardt said. “When you put the fans of Junior Nation in the crowd for the Cheez-It 355, it makes Watkins Glen fortified wine and Cheez country.”
10. Martin Truex, Jr.: Truex battled up front for most of the day at Watkins Glen and finished third, recording his fifth top-5 finish of the year. Truex jumped four spots in the points standings to 10th.
“Things are ‘looking up’ for Michael Waltrip Racing,” Truex said. “Does that mean a Cup title is in the future for MWR? Not necessarily. It just means Michael Waltrip is tall.”
Eric McClure: “I Want People To Be Able To Think That I Did Things The Right Way”
On a rainy and humid Friday afternoon at Watkins Glen, I made my way from the Media Center and into the Nationwide garage to meet with NASCAR veteran Eric McClure. I’ve been told many positive stories about Eric from people who have met him and he immediately gave credence to the stories I had heard. He greeted me at the No. 14 hauler with big smile, offered me something to eat and invited me to come sit down with him.
Eric has a great personality and his love for God as well as his family quickly became apparent which are a couple attributes a lot of people sadly lack this day in age. He is extremely self-aware about the way he acts and tries to be very professional about the way he goes about things on and off the track which I thought was very commendable and something I’m sure sponsors love. We talked about the struggles of being an independent team in modern day NASCAR, the greatest moments of his career, that scary crash at Talladega, and why he folds his socks! He also reminisced about me some funny stories from the past and even talked about what he wants to be remembered for in the future. Enjoy!
Try to describe what it’s like to drive for one of the underdog teams and the challenges you guys face when competing against Roush, Penske and Gibbs on a weekly basis?
Well, it’s a challenge from a mental standpoint because as a driver, all of us are used to winning or being a top dog at a lower level. When you get to this level, you realize pretty quickly that you’re not going to beat them on an everyday basis no matter how good of a driver you are. I think that’s something as a professional, you have to understand and also, it can be a challenge because the average fan doesn’t understand that and some of the media doesn’t understand that. There are so many factors that go into winning and being a strong team and they’re quick to point the finger at a driver or whatever when in reality, (except for restrictor plate races) we’re competing for 20th so we measure our goals a little bit differently.
What would you consider to be TriStar’s strongest and weakest points?
Well, our strongest point is experience. I mean, I have teammates, Jeff Green (who) is a former champion and Mike Bliss. So from a driving standpoint, they’ve been able to help me and take me to a different level over the last couple of years to where I feel like I am a driver that can fit into our organization; that can maximize our equipment. I think we’ve proven that by Jeff being in my car a few times as well so I think the experience is something that works for us.
Our weakest point is a lack of resources. If you look at our team, we have four cars and one full time sponsor and they piece together some sponsors on one of the other cars. We show up to the race track and each car has the max it can afford to have but we miss the wind tunnel, we don’t have 7-post, (and) we have less personnel. We are down at a resource standpoint. If you look at our teams, we have two big name sponsors on our cars this week but that doesn’t mean that the resource level is the same. So that’s our weakest point…just a number of people and resources but our strongest point is that we do have good experience on the crew chief side and on the driver side.
You mentioned Mike Bliss there…how big of a benefit is it to have teammates while with most small teams; it’s just a one car operation? It must be a huge advantage to have somebody that you can bounce ideas and setups off of.
It is, but only recently have we taken full advantage of that. We have our team meetings after practice. We have a four car team but it’s a challenge to get all four of us to work together sometimes. Having Bliss here is really good; he’s helped me a lot but I think Jeff Green, where he does the start and park, he’s also are R&D department. He tries some things.
He and I have a really close relationship off the track and that’s why I’ve leaned on him to drive my car when I’ve been out. Just leaning on those guys from a driving standpoint and from a setup standpoint has been huge. In the past, where maybe we’ve been lost one weekend, we put his setup under the car and started over and he did that a couple times for us at the end of last year where he used my setup. It’s really neat when you can have assets like that.
Do you believe that TriStar has the potential to one day be a top team, sort of like what we saw Michael Waltrip Racing do?
There’s always potential because NASCAR’s the most democratic sport in the world. Anybody that can meet that criteria has the opportunity to grow. You saw with Michael Waltrip, it wasn’t an overnight thing and TriStar has to operate in the mentality we do now for survival. It’s amazing we’re even able to run the three full time cars and the start and park. I certainly think we are overdoing it, we are overachieving right now.
If you were ever able to attract that full time sponsorship or drivers that have backing like I do, you can set your goals a little bit different. It’s not something that will happen overnight but I think TriStar needs to be commended for what they’ve done. You don’t see independent guys like Mark Smith survive in this sport anymore. I feel really blessed to be a part of this organization because of the commitment him and Kathy have and I think because of their dedication, they are a team that certainly can expand.
You had that vicious crash at Talladega last year but you persevered, you came back and that’s not something every driver can say. How did that scary crash affect you personally and professionally once you got back behind the wheel?
Well personally, it was a challenge. It really had an effect on my wife and my little girls; the ones that were old enough to know what was happening. There was a soul searching period there when I had to decide….talking to her, talking to the team, talking to the sponsors and decide if I wanted to come back and do that. That was some adversity we never faced before. That was a tough time personally to get over what could have happened or to realize that people I cared about and cared about me were hurting. It wasn’t a big deal for me but to see the effect it had on them was a big challenge for me.
Professionally, once I came back to the car, you’re not afraid of anything. Other than having a limited number of cars, you know that’s about as hard as you can hit and you’re fine. It was several months before I woke up and knew I was fully healthy. Even coming back with a clean bill of health, I wasn’t 100% and that’s something I didn’t know until I woke up and was 100% one day. There was certainly some challenges but if you look at from the end of summer all the way through the end of that year, we were really fast. We were as fast as Bliss every week and had the opportunity to be top 10 or top 15 in speed and we had a couple of finishes there. The rest of the time, we were competing for top 20’s against really strong fields. That was an encouragement and that brought the fun back into the series and if you look at this year, we’ve been faster more times than not but we’ve had a lot more things go wrong. But certainly, from a professional standpoint and from a personal standpoint, I’ve been able to appreciate it a lot more and that’s made the experience a lot more enjoyable.
You’re 34 years old and have spent about a decade in NASCAR. Are you content with where you are right now or do you have aspirations to maybe one day, race in Cup full time?
Other than having to pay for five weddings…(laughs) You know, I love the Nationwide series. When I first came up, I got thrown to the wolves and I ran three Cup races, (and) a few Nationwide. When we were able to obtain our sponsorship with Hefty Brands and Reynolds Wrap; their competitors and their retail support was in the Nationwide series and that seemed like the logical step for them and for me. Over that time, you can see how much I struggled in a full time role. Where I’m at now, we’re very respectable on most weeks. I’ve sort of found a home here in the way Nationwide markets the series. It’s not much of a development series anymore as it is an independent series.
I’m able to make a living doing what I love and I’m home an extra day during the week. I’m able to be at church with my family on Sunday so to me, it’s the perfect scenario. As I’ve gotten older and had children and seen my priorities in life change a little bit; it’s not as prevalent in my life to go to the Cup series while some people might consider their career a failure if they don’t. I’ve achieved everything I’ve ever dreamed in life by doing this. I still have fun and I still compete and I’d love to win a race but it hasn’t happened yet. I don’t have a problem being here and I certainly anticipate retiring out of the Nationwide series.
What would you consider the highlight of your professional motorsports career so far…what has been your biggest moment?
I’ve had two biggest moments. Before, it would always be my first cup race for Morgan McClure being at Talladega and with the success they had. Going down there, making the race and being in the lead pack all day was really special. Now that I’ve been in the series longer and I know how much effort, frustration, blood, sweat and tears have gone into my career and all the nights I sat up wondering if I made the right decisions. When we went to Daytona this year and we led the race, it was inside of 20 laps and we were fighting for a win. It didn’t work out, but for us to be in that position that I had never been in before and have some of the veterans of the sport; some Cup guys come up and shake my hand and tell me I did a really good job and want to work with me in that race…that was probably my proudest moment.
To me, you seem like a pretty calm guy, but when was the angriest you’ve ever gotten inside the race car?
I’ve had a couple episodes this year…I was really mad at Darlington when a rookie caused me to wreck because I was being too patient and trying to treat others the way people had treated me when I first started. I’ve probably been a little more vocal this year and bumped more people because I was mad but for me, I can’t help but think about who’s listening. My sponsor’s watching, God’s watching, my wife’s watching and I don’t want to disappoint anyone with my words or my actions. Sometimes, I’ve had to get over the perception that people can take advantage of me on the race track and off the race track because I’ve always tried to do the right thing.
This year, there’s been a little more attitude on my end and I’ve expressed frustration at a few more people this year than I would have in the past. Not necessarily going and looking for a fight but I’m not going to let people run over me. I’m going to stand my ground with other people and with my own race team if it comes time. With Stevie Reeves who is my spotter most of the time, he spots for Paul (Menard) in the Cup series and he beats into my head every week that I got to stand up for myself and take no crap from anybody. After three years, I’m finally learning how to do that.
What has been the strangest fan encounter you’ve ever had?
There’s this awesome bathroom in Texas. I always got to go out to the infield and use the bathroom there. In 2010, I go strolling through there and I got my Hefty polo shirt on and I see some people with some Hefty shirts that look like they were homemade. I know Hefty always sends guests to Texas because there’s a manufacturing plant nearby. I look at those people and I’m like, I like your shirt and they’re like hey, I like your shirt. I asked, you guys with the sponsor, you from the local plant? They said no, we’re just really big Eric McClure fans and I’m like, awesome! I didn’t know I had fans! That guy looks at me and he goes, are you Eric? I’m like, really! You’ve never seen me without my helmet on?!
So those are probably my biggest fans. I play games with people at my appearances. I might stand beside my cardboard cut-out and see if people notice me. I like to have fun with people and I’ve been asked to sign some weird things but that was just a bizarre moment because those people were my biggest fans and they had no idea what I looked like. We have them out to the race every year; we have a ball with them. They’re just good people. I always like to meet people that turn out to be fans because you know, you got to be a die-hard to be my fan because we only have three chances a year to win a race and it’s cool when we get people that are loyal like that.
What is something interesting about you that most fans don’t know?
I fold my socks. I have five children. I talk a lot. I’m like Kenny Wallace without the popularity or the grossness. (laughs) When people get to know me, I don’t shut up and I fold my socks over my feet.
Why do you do that? (laughs)
Well, it’s mental now. I’ve done it since I was nine. When I was little, the only way I could fit into a dress shoe was to make my socks bigger because my foot was narrow. Now I can’t function if it’s not folded properly; especially before a race so I’m a weird guy like that. God made me good looking, I can’t ask for anything else! (laughs) We love Disney. I got five little girls who are Disney fanatics but definitely, I talk a lot.
I can tell.
Thanks.
(laughs)
This is a pretty deep question actually. If you could choose what people would remember you for, whether it be what you did or words you spoke; what would it be?
I would want people to remember me as being someone their kids can look at and not be ashamed of. As a father of five kids, we’re really protective of what we have them around. There’s a lot of things that can affect someone’s life negatively. I just want people to know that they don’t have to think I was a great driver; they can think I was a good guy or whatever but I want them to be able to think that I did things the right way and that I always represented our people professionally. I could retire and hold my head up knowing that people weren’t ashamed to watch me and let their kids be influenced by what I did.
After doing this interview, I gained some new-found respect for Eric McClure and I already respected him a great deal beforehand so that’s saying a lot. He answered all my questions thoughtfully and gave great insight. If you are new to NASCAR and looking for someone to call your favorite driver, it would be wise of you to consider this great guy. Eric’s persevered through some tough times but from every bad day he’s been forced to endure to every good one he’s been able to enjoy, one thing remains constant and that’s his desire to be the best man he can be on and off the race track.
He’s a family man with a passion for driving race cars and his only care is that people aren’t disappointed in the way he carries himself and that he can be somebody that kids can look up to. Eric McClure exemplifies the kind of person we should all aspire to be. I want to thank Emily Brandt for scheduling this interview and also thank Eric for taking time out of your day to talk with me. Keep doing what you’re doing and although I am a member of the media and I’m supposed to be unbiased, I can honestly say that you’ve gained a fan in me.
Testing Provides A New Layer to the Chase
The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup is and always will be an aspect of NASCAR that is constantly evolving. Since the playoff system’s inception in 2004, the Chase has seen a change in tracks, cars, point systems, the number of drivers allowed in it, and the introduction of the wild card system.
The year of 2013 marks the 10th Chase for the Sprint Cup. Despite the age of this system, it is still developing. There seems to be something new almost every year. While nothing has changed in format this season, a new NASCAR rule provides a different mindset for the final 10 races this season.
With a ban on testing at NASCAR sanctioned tracks for many years due to economic reasons, NASCAR announced a major change in its policy for 2013. Sprint Cup Series organizations are now given the opportunity to test at up to four tracks on the schedule. Organizations, like Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing, can take their multi-car teams to any track of their choice for as many as three days to gather data and test setups for upcoming events.
In an era with a new racecar and many track repaves, this new policy is a big plus to teams, who have had to use computer simulation and testing at non-sanctioned tracks to gain an edge in the recent years.
So far this season, teams have been taking advantage of these test sessions. Richard Petty Motorsports tested at Sonoma earlier in the year to prepare for the road course races. Stewart Haas Racing tested at Pocono Raceway to get ready for the two races on the schedule at the 2.5-mile racetrack. Some, however, waited longer to use their limited tests – and for a very good reason.
Many in the sport know that it is all about getting hot at the right time. Gaining momentum and peaking in the final 10 races is what it takes to be the Sprint Cup champion. Many remember Tony Stewart’s 2011 championship as a prime example of this. The driver of the No. 14 barely made the Chase, but captured five wins in the 10 races to win the Cup. That’s why teams put everything they can into those final weeks. That’s where it counts the most.
For teams like Hendrick Motorsports, scheduling their tests at crucial times is very important.
“We are going to New Hampshire next week,” Jeff Gordon said at Pocono over a week ago. “We are going to Richmond and a couple weeks after that I think we are going to Texas and then we are going to Homestead in the next month.”
In Gordon’s eyes, Hendrick Motorsports’ test plan fits all four cars of the organization.
“For me I think we have a good game plan that works for all of us. Again, I said earlier that it’s a compromise with the organization. When you have four teams, not everybody is going to be perfectly suited. But in this case, I think it suits our needs to get ourselves in the Chase and if we get in the Chase, then it suits our teammates to be very competitive in the Chase.”
While Hendrick Motorsports has a clear plan to test in the coming weeks as the Chase nears and gets underway, they will not be the only ones who take this approach. Certainly the contending teams of the Chase will be taking advantage of testing at the important tracks on the schedule.
The choices of when and where to test add a strategic layer to the Chase. For some teams, it may be necessary to test at very specific and unique tracks, perhaps tracks of weakness. For others, the strategy may be to test at tracks that are very similar to others on the Chase schedule. Some may choose to test earlier; some may wait until later in the year. The options seem endless.
It’s all about getting on that hot streak at the right time and testing is likely to become a major part of who does.
Only time will tell if testing truly will make a major difference in the Chase. As of now, teams certainly think it will.
