The Final Word – Truex left his heart, Montoya left his gas gauge, in San Francisco
Martin Truex Jr has the best sideburns in the business, and now he has the shortest losing streak. That 218 race gap between victories came to an end as he drove away in the hills of Sonoma, just outside of San Francisco on Sunday. Have there been longer droughts? Certainly. Michael Waltrip went 462 before he finally won a Cup race. J.D. McDuffie went 653 and never won. In fact, in 1991 he died at Watkins Glen in his final attempt.
Kurt Busch roars in to the pits, way over speed, and gets a drive through penalty. He again roars in to the pits, way over speed, and gets a stop and go penalty. All he did after that was drive through the field, got his lap back on the track, and wound up fourth. A bad day just three positions behind the guy with a great day. I wish I was that bad.
So does brother Kyle. He got spun by Juan Pablo Montoya early, then stalled on pit road, got punted by Carl Edwards, and went for a spin in the dirt. Some Busch’s finish fourth, others 35th. One consolation is that Kyle finished just one position behind Montoya. Funny how one can be second at one moment and 34th at another when the fuel runs out on the final lap. Yes, I bet his team thought it real hilarious.
Just in case you were wondering, Jacques Villeneuve was entered at Sonoma, my mother was not. The former F1 champ lasted 19 more laps than Mom did, and picked up three points to Mrs. Thornton’s zero. Neither are slated to run at Kentucky on Saturday night. Just keeping you informed.
So, JTG-Daugherty Racing sat Bobby Labonte so A.J. Allmendinger could provide them some feedback as to what the team might be missing. On Sunday, Labonte was back in and the damn car blew its engine on the first lap. So, unless the former Cup champ did something real stupid real early, or the problems with that team has nothing to do with who is driving but rather who is working on it. Just an observation.
Rating Sonoma – 9/10 – Can you beat the rolling hills in the background? Can you beat the surprises that often lurked in the turns, especially that last one? Is there a better crew than Adam, Kyle, and Wally, or better tech analyst than Larry, or better track-side reporters? Any worse? I will let you think about that for a few weeks. I am sure some names will come to you.
As they venture to Kentucky Brad Keselowski might consider repeating his win from last year. Presently, the defending Cup champ is just nine points to the good, with no wins in 2013. A hiccup on Saturday night, especially should Paul Menard, Kahne, Jeff Gordon, or Joey Logano do very well, could prove to be rather nasty. As for two-time winner Kyle Busch, he remains 16 points within a Chase place, but another bad day for him and things could start getting complicated. Enjoy the week.
Surprising and Not Surprising: Sonoma Toyota Save Mart 350
Under unexpected cloudy skies and even some rain drops, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 25th annual Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
Surprising: Martin Truex Jr. was in surprisingly esteemed company with his 218-race winless streak, the second longest in the Cup Series to Bill Elliott’s 226-race winless streak.
But Truex managed to avoid that number one winless record spot by grabbing the brass ring on the road course, attaining his second career victory, his first at Sonoma, and his first of the season.
And according to the driver of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing, the win marks the beginning of the new winning Truex.
“I can’t even put it into words,” Truex said in Victory Lane. “I have so many people to thank who have stuck with me.”
“The team is just phenomenal,” Truex continued. “It feels damn good to get one finally.”
“Today was just our day and our time,” Truex said. “Our car was flawless.”
“We’re going to get a bunch of them now, I can tell you that much.”
Not Surprising: The remainder of the MWR Race team also had a good day at the race track, with Clint Bowyer, defending Sonoma winner, finishing fifth in his No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota and Brian Vickers, fresh off his sixth place Nationwide finish at Road America, finishing 13th in the No. 55 RKMotorsCharlotte.com Toyota.
“We had a fast car all weekend long,” Bowyer said. “We got close but we pitted and nobody came with us.”
“A long time coming for Martin and happy to see him in Victory Lane.”
MWR driver Vickers may not have had quite the finish he wanted but he got something even more important, a ringing endorsement from his team owner Michael Waltrip after the race.
“We want Brian Vickers to be a part of this organization in the future,” Waltrip said after the race. “He’s our guy.”
“We’re trying to put the pieces together.”
Surprising: Jeff Gordon, who had an eventful day of having to overcome a pitting too early penalty, also achieved a surprising record of his own.
This was the Gordon’s 302nd career top-five finish, breaking the tie he had for third with Hall of Fame driver David Pearson.
“This is one of those crazy types of races where pit strategy goes all over the place and you never know what might happen,” the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet said. “The way things have been going on the track for me haven’t been great and they way things have been going with the calls haven’t been going his (crew chief Alan Gustafson’s) way either.”
“But wow, we finally had a race car that was fantastic,” Gordon continued. “We had a lot of fun out there.”
This was Gordon’s 17th top-10 finish in 21 races at Sonoma.
Not Surprising: Carl Edwards started where he finished, third and third, in his No. 99 Aflac Ford. This was his fourth top-10 finish in nine races at Sonoma and he was officially the highest finishing Ford in the race.
“I would have liked to have made a couple spots up,” Edwards said. “It feels weird to race that hard all day and finish in the same spot you started.”
“That’s the true story,” Edwards continued. “It was a pretty dynamic race.”
“Eventually we will win one of these races.”
Even with his third place start and finish, Edwards remains in the second place in the point standings, 25 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.
Surprising: Kurt Busch was, by his own admission, surprisingly fast both on and off the track. He endured not one but two pit road speeding penalties , and in spite of that managed to claw his way back to the fourth finishing position in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing/Sealy Chevrolet.
“Yeah, we were fast, even on pit road, twice,” Busch said. “I messed up, flat out.”
“I didn’t hit my tachometer right and I was speeding both times,” Busch continued. “I just put myself in a position that was poor trying to get too much on pit road.”
“But man this Furniture Row Chevy was fast.”
Not Surprising: Juan Pablo Montoya had a fast race car but that was not quite enough to finish the Sonoma race. The driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet needed some additional gas in his vehicle, running out on the last lap and dropping from the front of the field to a 34th place finish.
“It’s just heartbreak,” Montoya said. “Our Target Chevy was really good today.”
“You’ve got to defend them in the way they do the fuel calculations,” Montoya continued. “It should have been a little smarter.”
“We’ve got tools to prevent things like that from happening.”
Surprising: Kyle Busch, who finished 35th in his No. 18 M&Ms Toyota after contact with both Montoya and Edwards sent him spinning, took to Twitter to battle those who were criticizing him.
His first tweet of “Awww. My heart melts for @jpmontoya who ran out of gas. Only thing I got for Carl is “aww crap,” sent the tweet war off and running with some of his followers.
After a few barbs back and forth, however, Busch showed his more jovial side, ending the Twitter visit with “Brought to u in part by mms. LOL” in response to this tweet @queers4gears: Does @KyleBusch’s twitter feed come with popcorn? #Entertainment.
Not Surprising: Most likely the two most disappointed drivers at Sonoma were those that started on the front row. Jamie McMurray had a great pole run only to finish 25th due to a flat tire and damage, while Marcos Ambrose, who had tested at Sonoma and qualified on the outside pole, salvaged a seventh place finish.
“It’s OK,” the driver of the No. 9 Stanley Ford said. “We got a top-10 out of it.”
“The weather cooled down and lot and we just didn’t anticipate that when we set the car up,” Ambrose continued. “Of course I wanted to win but that’s the way it goes.”
Surprising: There were two surprising engine issues right at the start in the race. Bobby Labonte, in the No. 47 Kingsford Toyota, did not even make a lap before his engine expired.
Joining him was Jacques Villeneuve, who made it to Lap 19 before having his No. 51 Tag Heuer Avant-Garde Eyewear Chevrolet pushed into the garage with gear and engine woes.
Not Surprising: While Danica Patrick supposed that she was comfortable at Sonoma in that she at least knew where the ladies’ restrooms were, she finished a very uncomfortable 29th in her No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet.
“It was a long day – a long weekend,” Patrick said. “We just couldn’t get the car to the point where I was comfortable with it.”
“Having the cut tire and going into the tire barrier was just sort of salt in the wound,” Patrick continued. “Hopefully we have a better weekend next week at Kentucky.”
Surprising: Rookie Paulie Harraka, attempting his first Cup start in his No. 52 Hasa Pool Products Ford, had a surprisingly difficult start to the race, wrecking as the cars went out on track for the pace laps.
“I don’t know what to say except that stuff happens,” Harraka said. “Somebody two cars ahead of me decided to stop in the go lane and why he did that I have absolutely no idea, but these cars don’t stop very well on the wet asphalt.”
“Sometimes crazy stuff happens.”
Not Surprising: While Dale Earnhardt Jr. may not have scored a top-ten finish, he was still smiling after Sonoma with a 12th place finish at a road course which admittedly is not his forte.
“It was a pretty good day,” the driver of the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet said. “This is definitely my worst race track, my least favorite track.”
“We will take a top-15 here any week.”
Allmendinger’s welcome back to NASCAR complete with first win
Not very often does a victory in NASCAR feel good for almost everyone in the garage or the grandstands. Because in this sport, there can only be one winner and 42 losers on any given weekend.
Saturday at the road course in Wisconsin, AJ Allmendinger mastered Road America from the pole to earn his first career Nationwide Series victory. His first victory in any of NASCAR’s elite divisions and it became a moment well received around the NASCAR world.
What a difference a year makes. The loveable Allmendinger had never been a serious contender. He’d driven for teams that were, but always seemed to find himself in the wrong position. He looked good at Richard Petty Motorsports from 2009-2011. Finding himself in contention at Dover a few times before bad luck struck.
Then came 2012, where Allmendinger caught a big break. Moving to Penske Racing and the 22 car that was vacated by Kurt Busch. But halfway through the season he was gone and his career looked over. Allmendinger was suspended by NASCAR just hours before the green flag in Daytona last July for violation of the sport’s substance abuse policy.
When his ‘B’ sample also failed, Allmendinger chose to participate in NASCAR’s Road to Recovery program, in hopes of one day being reinstating and getting back on track. In the meantime though, he was done in the Penske machine.
That didn’t, however, mean team owner Roger Penske was done with him. A year later he’s given Allmendinger his second shot, after NASCAR in fact reinstated him last fall. He’s driven for the Captain in the IndyCar Series, where he came close to winning the Indianapolis 500 last month. And he’s been behind the wheel of his NNS car a few times, too.
Saturday, Allmendinger completed his NASCAR comeback and repaid the man who never gave up on him, never lost touch and promised when the right opportunity came around he’d be back in a car.
“What Roger’s done for me career wise is great, but personally it’s meant a lot more to me. After it happened last year, just making sure that I was OK. I wouldn’t have thought twice if he would have kind of wrote it off and not called and went on,” said Allmendinger after his win.
“He kept checking up on me. I didn’t expect anything from it, it was just nice to have a friend, somebody I could bounce ideas off of, life ideas. Figure out where I was going. Once the IndyCar thing starting happening that was a bit of a surprise and a great motivation to really be focused this year.”
As is tradition at Penske Racing, banners hang for each victory. All Allmendinger wanted was one from him, something to show what he’s done and a small gift that he could give back to Penske.
“Everybody on this race team, this organization from top to bottom, they’ve never I felt like they looked down on me or kind of put me aside or treated me differently. When I came back, I felt like they wanted me back,” Allmendinger revealed.
“The IndyCar side of it, they wanted me back, I felt like. And here, as soon as I showed up for the test at VIR [Virginia International Raceway] everybody seemed excited. It’s just meant the world to me. This is the only way I could repay them. I was trying so hard out there, at times probably over trying.”
Once Allmendinger took the checkered flag and before he had even started his celebratory burnout, he was already receiving congratulations and pats on the back from his peers and fans. Calling it a refreshing win, a story of redemption and proof that when you don’t give up, good things can come of it. 
Those who Allmendinger was racing on Saturday didn’t view the driver any different. Admiring the work he’s put in. Former Penske Racing driver Justin Allgaier, now at Turner Scott Motorsports, finished second and said Allmendinger doesn’t have to earn his respect; he’s already got it.
“From knowing Roger Penske and knowing the situation he puts his employees and his people in, obviously he has a trust and a respect of what AJ has told him and what AJ has done for him,” Allgaier said.
“I trust Roger’s opinion a lot and I have more respect for Roger Penske than most people in the garage and so if he’s taken him [Allmendinger] back in and put him back in his racecars, he’s done every step that Roger feels is necessary and I have respect for that.”
Third place finisher Parker Kligerman, also with a past Penske connection, was just as proud to see Allmendinger in Victory Lane. Kligerman said he and Allmendinger are not only friends, but neighbors, and he’s seen how far the California native has come over the last year.
“All your life you’re told everyone deserves a second chance, he made a mistake, he was probably in a bad spot,” Kligerman said.
“You could see that he probably wasn’t in the best place, personally at that time as a human being, not just a racecar driver, you can totally understand that. And to come back for any athlete or any competitive situation once you’ve lost it all, once you come back, you’re better at what you do.
“I think we’re seeing that with AJ, he’s in his prime, he’s leading the Indy 500, he’s doing well in the Indy cars, he’s doing well in the stock cars and he’s really at the point where he’s lost it all before and now he has nothing to lose and he’s showing what he really has talent wise.”
Allmendinger will continue to run for Penske in both the NNS and IndyCar Series as the 2013 racing season rolls on. Giving him more opportunities to prove he’s earned and ready to take advantage of the chance that he’s been given. And to continue to repay one of the only people who didn’t give up and walk away from him when his life took a dramatic turn almost one year ago.
Kurt Busch admits ‘My bad’ for team’s long day in Sonoma
A levelheaded Kurt Busch prevailed Sunday in Sonoma and carried his team to a fourth place finish. Carrying them after he was the one who made a mistake that cost them a shot at their first win.
Busch was busted for speeding on pit road, not once but twice. He had to serve two penalties and went a lap down to the leader. Through strategy and with an excellent racecar, Busch rallied and put himself back into contention with less than 25 laps to go. Driving into the top 10 than the top five before running out of time.
“We were fast, even on pit road, twice,” Busch said with a chuckle after he climbed from his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet.
“I messed up, flat out. I didn’t hit my tachometer right and I was speeding both times. It was one of those where I’m like how does that happen? I just put myself in a position that was poor trying to get too much on pit road. But man, this Furniture Row Chevy was fast. Congrats to [Martin] Truex. When we were running a lap down with him, I was trying to pace myself. I wanted to get back on the lead lap.”
Before the penalties Busch had driven from his seventh staring spot to the lead, and remained there for 15 circuits. Holding off road course ace Marcos Ambrose and others. When he pulled off to pit road for the team’s first stop and to start their race strategy he was busted for speeding and told to serve a pass through penalty. Things got worse when he was caught speeding while serving the penalty and left to serve a stop-and-go penalty.
That put Busch back on track and soon a lap down. He un-lapped himself once by driving past the leaders, only to go back down a lap again before he muscled his way back to the lead lap right before a caution came out. It gave him his track position back and when pit stops began and contenders began to fall, Busch starting driving back towards the front.
Late in the race Busch apologized again over the radio, telling the team that it was his fault, the car was awesome. Even taking the blame for other problems they’ve has had throughout the season. Never once though, losing his temper or unleashing on the radio, keeping focused on the task at hand and getting back to where the car was capable of running.
“We did get back on the lead lap when he [Truex] pitted, but we had to battle hard,” said Busch.
“We came back up through there. You’ve got to run guys and move guys and we gave guys room and just made one mistake. I think we could have gotten all the way up to second, but we never would have caught Truex.”
Busch and Jeff Gordon, who was also attempting to rebound from a pit road penalty, drove their way through the field together. Gordon made it to second but Busch felt he had a chance to race amongst the leaders had he not wasted a lap in which he radioed the team that he felt he could have grabbed three spots.
Instead he finished fourth and remains winless, his last coming in the fall of 2011. But the team is getting closer and Busch remains a skilled a driver as he’s always been. The calmness with which he handled himself on Sunday helped parlay the team to their fourth top five finish of the season.
A win might be coming however, if the last few weeks have been any indication. Busch just needs to keep himself out of trouble, something he was unable to do last weekend in Michigan where he also led laps but crashed while running up front. Next weekend, the series heads to Kentucky with Busch having moved up three spots to 17th in points, yet still looking for that complete race.
“I just have to thank the Furniture Row guys. We have Simmons, Serta, and Sealy as our mattress sponsors,” said Busch.
“But I got busted speeding on pit road. My bad.”
