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Brad Keselowski Knocks Out Logano for Phoenix Pole

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Photo Credit: Robert Laberge/Getty Images

Brad Keselowski had a game plan coming into the debut of NASCAR’s version of knockout qualifying. Keselowski turned a lap of 139.384 mph on Friday to set a new track record at Phoenix International Raceway, knocking out fellow Team Penske teammate, Joey Logano.

It was Keselowski’s fourth career pole and his first since New Hampshire last season. Keselowski ran two laps in the opening segment, placing second behind Logano, then ran five laps in the final segment, which was fast enough for the pole.

Keselowski said that the new qualifying format fits his style. “I’m curious to see the feedback we get from our fans whether or not they liked it,” Keselowski said. Despite the new format, Keselowski added that he believed, “Nine times out of ten, the fastest cars will be out front.”

Jamie McMurray, Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won the Daytona 500, last Sunday, rounded out the top five. Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top 12 who survived the first round cut-offs.

Hamlin, 2012 spring winner at Phoenix, attempted to pull a buzzer beater at the end of the second round. Technically, the ten minutes concluded before Hamlin crossed the finish line to complete his lap. NASCAR allowed the lap to count. However, it did not make a difference in Hamlin’s overall starting position for Sunday.

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s Vice President for Competition, came to the media center, to answer questions. When asked about why NASCAR did not allow drivers to cool their engines off on pit road, Pemberton said that some drivers privately told NASCAR, “Do not let anyone talk you into putting cool-down units.” Drivers were forced to coast around the track to cool their engines, in an attempt to save their equipment, as they were not allowed to do so on pit road.

The overall reaction was mixed for the debut of knockout qualifying. There were people who favored single-car-qualifying, other people loved the new format, others did not understand the format at all, and there were those that were upset about Fox Sports 1 being delayed 13 minutes. It’s going to be fun the rest of this weekend.

Regan Smith looks to increase points lead this weekend

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Photo Credit: David Yeazell

Last weekend, Regan Smith made the last lap pass on Brad Keselowski to grab the win in the DRIVE4COPD 300. Then on Sunday, his team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Daytona 500. So at the JR Motorsports shop this week, Smith said that there were a lot of happy guys.

“I didn’t think we were going to be able to have a shot on the outside, but we were able to catch the air just right,” Smith said in reflecting back on the move he made. “Once I was able to the outside of Brad, I pinned him on the bottom as much as I could and figured it’d give me a shot as we came off turn four at the win – really the only chance I had was to separate the air and fortunately I slowed him down enough to get back to the flag first.

“Anytime you win at Daytona, it’s exciting. I’ve worked since I was four years old to have a chance to win there and it felt real special to get a win there. To have a good friend win the 500, it made the whole week more meaningful.”

Smith said that he remembers going to the Daytona 500 when he was four years old and realizing then how magical Daytona can be.

“It was pretty cool to get that feeling and understand what it feels like to pull into victory lane,” he added. “Sometimes you’re like, ‘What does it take to win at Daytona?’. It’s not easy to win here. It means a lot to say that I got wins at special places like Daytona and Darlington.”

Like Daytona, there is rain in forecast for Phoenix. Last weekend, the Nationwide Series saw their qualifying session shortened but got in the full race. This weekend’s forecast may see qualifying either rained out or shortened once again, with the race possibly delayed to Sunday or Monday.

When it comes to sitting around and waiting out the rain, Smith says that it does effect your energy level, but you can prepare for being stuck in the satiation when you know the forecast before hand.

“I won’t start to prepare mentally unless I see a radar that looks like there’s going to be a window. Then I’ll go into my routine,” Smith said. “My routine I can usually start four, five hours before the race with what I eat, how I hydrate, etc. When you’re aware and ready for it, it’s easier to prepare for it than a pop-up shower.”

Some people say that weather in the air increases the intensity on track, but Smith says that it depends on the circumstances that you’re under. For the Daytona 500 last weekend, that was just a product of the perfect storm.

“Part of that was the factor that there was more rain coming, while part of it was they realized how important track position would be at Daytona,” he commented.

Smith will look to make it through the rain and whatever comes his way this weekend to increase his points lead, while working with young teammate Chase Elliott. 18-year-old Elliott enters his first full season in the Nationwide Series and Smith feels that Elliott has the right attitude given the situation.

“From his standpoint, I wish I was as mature and quick of a learner at that age as he is,” Smith commented. “He picks up a lot of things real fast. It seems like he’s always asking questions, always observing stuff. One of my regrets when I was younger was not asking more questions. Instead, I was a little more hard-headed and tried to learn things my way.”

On a personal standpoint, Smith says he hopes the momentum carries forward from Daytona and certainly having that on his side will play a factor.

 “If we don’t have it, it’s tough to get; if you do have it, it can be tough to do things wrong at times,” Smith said. “I think that was big for our team with the big changes that we made in the off-season. That’s a huge confidence booster – not just for me, but those guys wrenching on those cars, for Ryan on the pit box making those calls. It’s huge for everybody.

“Now with that said, this is a whole different weekend and we get to see if the stuff we worked on really helped us or not. This weekend and Vegas are really going to let everything come to the forefront in what you’ve done well and what you need to work on. It’s an important weekend and we want to get all 46 points that are possible.”

Smith enters this season with a new crew chief as Ryan Pemberton is on the pit box calling the shots after Smith worked with Greg Ives last year. Smith says while Pemberton did a good job last weekend, this will be the first weekend that they will truly be working on adjustments.

“We’re going to have know what needs to be done and well I may have given Greg this information last year, I may need to give Ryan different information this year just because they all tune differently,” Smith explained. “There’s going to be little things like that to work  through. I’ve worked with Ryan before so it’s not someone totally new, but typically when I have something new, I keep it as simple as possible and progressively feel what they need for information. There may be a little bit of that learning curve, but besides that, Ryan has a lot of experience on the pit box in managing people, the crew and even drivers.”

Smith added that he’s excited to have Pemberton’s veteran leadership on the pit box as he feels that will help him personally.

“There were times last year that I let my head out of the game and didn’t keep my focus on what I need to,” Smith continued. “I know he is going to keep that focus in me all the time.”

NASCAR BTS: Travis Okulski Tells All In Wild Ride With Jeff Gordon

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SM Staff
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When Jeff Gordon and sponsor Pepsi Max teamed up to do ‘Test Drive’, a video showing Jeff Gordon pranking a sales person at a car dealership, there were many critics of its authenticity. One of the most vocal was writer and Deputy Editor with Jalopnik, Travis Okulski.

“The sales person was an actor and the guy that drove the car was a stunt driver not Jeff Gordon,” Okulski said. “I wrote three stories and made a couple of phone calls because it was one of those things where it was being passed off as true.”

“And it obviously wasn’t true,” Okulski continued. “It was a great ad and entertaining but it just wasn’t true.”

Given that criticism, Pepsi Max and Jeff Gordon decided to team up for Prank Number Two. So, in “Test Drive 2”, Jeff Gordon plays an ex-con taxi cab driver who took his fare for the day, Travis Okulski, for one wild ride trying to outrun the coppers who were hot on his trail.

“When you look at all the comments from the first video, I think that it was really the bloggers, the media, the fans, it was everybody really challenging us to go and do this because of their comments of saying, ‘Hey, Jeff wasn’t driving the car or this or that wasn’t real,’ ” Jeff Gordon said. “We wanted to go out there and show everybody how authentic and how real this can be.”

So, just how did Okulski feel when ‘convicted con’ taxi cab driver Jeff Gordon tried to outrun the law with him along for the ride?

“I thought I was going to die,” Okulski said. “I was really scared and was freaking out.”

“I tried at first to get out when the cab was stopped but the door was locked. That cab was a Chevy Caprice which is only sold to police fleets,” Okulski continued. “I figured it was bought at municipal auction and converted to a cab. So, I tried to get out of the cab and unbuckle my seat belt but that didn’t work.”

“Then I guess I tried to kick through the seat and knock the guy out,” Okulski said. “But then I figured that if the cab crashed, that would be bad thing to happen. So, I kept screaming and pleading but I tried to keep it polite too because I figured if I showed him some respect he might not kill me.”

“I didn’t want to end up tied up in his basement or something,” Okulski continued. “There’s only so long you can keep up screaming. So, then I tried to reason with him and then I just got quiet because I saw that wasn’t going to work.

“But I kept begging him to let me out.”

While Okulski can look back on the video now with a great sense of relief after having survived it, it is still difficult for him to see as he truly feared for his life.

“Obviously I don’t like watching the video very much because I’m too close to it,” Okulski said. “I find seeing myself terrified is not my best look. So, I’m not much of a fan of seeing myself frightened like that.”

“I understand why it’s funny but it’s just not something that I find entertaining I guess,” Okulski continued. “I’m being a good sport about it but I’m not like going home and watching it and thinking that’s really hilarious.”

Okulski admits that he really did not realize this was a prank until right at the very end when Gordon pulled the cab into a garage and the confetti flew.

“I was that terrified right up to the end,” Okulski said. “You look at it now and wonder how I would not know but in the moment, when you are there, it’s all very real.”

“Running from an actual State Police car is bad news, with sirens and all. It was so real and terrifying that there was no way you would think that was a prank,” Okulski continued “You watch Cops and Wildest Police Videos and that’s on it. This was the sort of thing that happens on those shows and there was no time to even think that someone was pranking me. I didn’t understand why anyone would want to prank me that much.”

“I figured it out when we pulled into the garage and that’s why you can see me laughing in the back,” Okulski said. “My day had just gotten exponentially better than it could have ever been. I only figured out it was Jeff Gordon when he walked around, opened the door and said he was Jeff Gordon.”

Okulski said that once he found out what was really going on that he was not mad at all, especially because he is a Jeff Gordon fan. And he enjoyed the face time with his favorite driver once the prank was revealed.

“It’s not often you get to meet your heroes and so it was pretty cool,” Okulski said “I hung out for another hour or so talking to Jeff and he took me for another ride when I wasn’t terrified.”

“He took me around the whole course which was actually wonderful because having a ride with one of the greatest drivers of our generation is not something that happens every day,” Okulski continued “I decided that I would be an idiot not to do that.”

“When I was riding in the car, I wasn’t thinking that he is a great driver but Jeff obviously is a fantastic driver,” Okulski said. “He was on the edge the whole time. He was flying and moving real good. I’ve always been very impressed with Jeff so it was great to get a ride with a race car driver.”

“I’m a motorsports fan for sure,” Okulski continued. “I raced go karts when I was a kid and have been into cars my whole life. I went to college, got an English degree and started writing about cars three years ago.”

“And I have the best job in the world and now I have a great story to tell.”

So, what does Okulski want Jeff Gordon and Pepsi Max fans to know now about ‘Test Drives 1 and 2’?

“It’s 100 percent real,” Okulski said of his wild ride. “It’s 100 percent terrifying.”

“But the first one is still not real.”

“We did it and we can now laugh,” Jeff Gordon said of the prank ride. “Travis can laugh about it and we can all enjoy the risk that paid off.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRIgmKGDqFM&feature=youtu.be

Toyota NSCS Phoenix Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes 2-28-14

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CHEVY NSCS AT PHOENIX ONE: Qualifying Notes and Quotes

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Ford Phoenix 1 Qualifying (Keselowski Presser)

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Ford Phoenix 1 Qualifying (Logano Presser)

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Ford Racing NSCS Phoenix 1 Qualifying Quotes

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Team BCR Racing signs Justin Allison for nine more races

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. looking to carry momentum through Phoenix

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SM Staff
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Photo Credit: David Yeazell

After winning the Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Jr. went on a whirlwind media tour that saw him travel across the United States and talk to a variety of people about his win. Earnhardt Jr. said today at Phoenix that every stop of the tour was enjoyable and he enjoyed talking about the win with everyone.

“It’s been a great week,” he commented. “Got a lot of rest and we are ready to go here in Phoenix.  Kind of everything resets and goes back to zero.  We will try to run as well as we can this weekend, get a good result and go from there.”

Though going into the tour, Earnhardt Jr. had not packed any clothes for the tour and had to get some along the way.

“Basically Amy (Reimann, girlfriend) is good friends with this gal Kristin (Heinrich) that works in Charlotte and has helped me a few times,” Earnhardt explained. “Amy works with her on when we need to go to special events and I need to get a sports coat or something.  So, we just by luck, Kristin was in New York working with Lavender which is the shop that Amy works with in Mooresville.  Amy has like a bit of a part-time job and so just by fate these people were in New York to help us get some clothes.  

“So on our flight to New York from Daytona Kristin was scrambling trying to put together some things judging by the schedule that I had.  I never had to wear socks twice or wear underwear twice so that was good.  Everything was clean.  Kristin did a great job.  That is one of the perks to having a good, dedicated girlfriend like that.  I don’t know what I would have done without Amy and Kristin at that particular moment.  I definitely wouldn’t have represented myself as well as I did this week.  That was a big help from them.”

Another big moment this week was when Earnhardt Jr. sent out his first tweet on twitter – a picture of himself with the Harley J. Earl trophy in victory lane. Earnhardt says that he’s still learning how to use twitter, but he’s having fun so far.

“Doing that Q&A on the way to Austin or wherever we were headed was fun,” Earnhardt commented. “That was kind of just a spur of the moment idea and it was enjoyable to be able to plug in like that whenever you feel like it.  Hopefully the fans appreciate that.  I’ve got a lot to learn.  I guess the hard part is there is so much coming at you that you miss a lot of stuff.  There is a lot of great information and a lot of great comments, just trying to read them all.”

Some have worried that the media attention may present a distraction for Earnhardt and team, but Earnhardt Jr. says that isn’t so.

“I feel like I shouldn’t have any problem getting out there on the race track and doing the best I can do,” he commented. “I’ve been doing this a long time and have had the opportunity to win races and get back the next weekend and do well.  It should be no problem.”

With the win, Earnhardt Jr. is now virtually locked in the Chase with the new system and that allows his team to takes chances moving forward with how they go after races. One of the things that Earnhardt says being locked in allows them to do is experiment with set-ups.

“We can start thinking about that earlier than most people and that is definitely one area where we can get aggressive,” Earnhardt said. “Steve can get aggressive to a point on pit strategy, but common sense is going to tell you what the best thing is to do to win the race.  It ain’t going to be some kind of wild hair brained idea at the last minute.  What wins races is what we have been doing, what everybody has been doing for years.  You are not going to go too far out of reality to yank out a win.  Or we would have already been doing that for years.  You are not going to stay out there on 100 lap tires and ‘man that is crazy, get a win’  you are not going to do that you are going to get run over.”

Earnhardt added that one of the strategies his team may play is taking two tires more often then they would normally.

Earnhardt Jr. will head to Phoenix International Raceway without his spotter, though, as TJ Majors will miss the race due to personal reasons. 

“He had some issues with his intestines last year that caused him to miss the Atlanta race.  Some of those issues cropped back up just a small infection.  He is back home now; he is out of the hospital so he is fine,” Earnhardt commented. “He just hates having to miss it.  He is a huge part of our team.  We have such great chemistry it’s going to be a difficult situation not having him.”

Earnhardt had Bill Elliott on the spotter stand spotting for him today in practice and qualifying, where Earnhardt Jr. ended up fifth. 

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