Denny Hamlin dominates a wild Sprint Unlimited
After starting on pole, Denny Hamlin would lead the most laps and worked his way to the front at the end of the Sprint Unlimited to pick up the win. It marks the second time that Hamlin has won the event as he won it in his rookie year in 2006.
“Best car won – that’s for sure,” he commented. “Can’t thank this team enough. We’re two in a row now. We’re building on something. We had a good car the whole night. It was survival of the fittest for sure.”
On the final restart with three to go, Hamlin sat in the eighth position. Using the draft to his advantage, he made his way to third with two laps to go and down the backstretch, would make a three-wide move on Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski to the lead. The momentum allowed him to build up a considerable lead and escape the pack.
“With three to go, we were at the tail end of a small pack and it was hard to get runs but we were able to,” he said.
Brad Keselowski finished second followed by Kyle Busch, who came back for a solid finish after sliding sideways and through the grass off of turn four. Joey Logano finished fourth followed by Kevin Harvick.
Harvick was one of the nine drivers involved in the big wreck back on lap six of the second segment. Matt Kenseth went to move down in the tri-oval, though he caught Logano, resulting in a pile-up that collected many drivers.
“Replay tells a lot more than I saw,” he commented. “I honestly had no idea that anyone was inside of me. I was watching my teammate there and trying to move down to help my team there. I guess hindsight I should’ve stayed up there. I didn’t know Joey was there. I thought I had a good half a car length and by the time I looked, he must’ve got a run and got down there.”
Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch all found themselves involved in the wreck with heavy damage as they got pinned up against the outside front stretch wall.
“That’s awfully expensive fun – but it is fun,” Edwards commented. “I did learn a bunch and that’s the key to this race even though we have a torn up car. Team worked hard and it sucks that we’re out. The night is about checkers or wreckers – and fortunately we’re on the other end of it.”
“The race started off calm and then all of a sudden business picked up,” Gordon mentioned. “I knew that they started stacking up and I was right there on Tony’s bumper. The closing rate with the higher spoiler is pretty severe. So maybe he didn’t know that Joey was there. That was a nasty wreck.”
“You just have to protect your spot,” Stewart said. “I’ve always said I’m not a big fan of blocking but it’s unfortunate that’s what you have to do. It was easy to get stalled out so if you got track position, you wanted to protect it.”
Fans were worried that Stewart may have further injured his leg as he is coming back from a broken leg, but Stewart said it feels pretty good.
“I was a little nervous but it feels pretty good,” he added. “We’ll see how it is once the adrenaline wears off.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. also was collected in the pile-up against the wall in the tri-oval, which caused the hood to fly up. Trying to see where he was going and avoid further trouble, Stenhouse would make heavy contact with his girlfriend Danica Patrick.
“I got to watch the replay but all I know is I hit someone real hard now; I couldn’t see. I found out after that it was her,” Stenhouse explained. “I tried to look over the hood and got into her. She probably would’ve fine without that. That’s not good. We should think about getting Nationwide Insurance on these cars because we tore up a lot tonight.”
Patrick thought that she had avoided the wreck as she went down low to avoid those who were wrecking, sliding sideways as her tires touched the grass. The contact from Stenhouse was a surprise.
“I’m sad that it got cut short,” she said. “I was learning a lot. Bummed for the team, bummed for Go Daddy. It was a great warm-up for me to learn about closing rates, saving it after contact, being in the draft. I saw them wrecking high so I went low and got hooked in the grass, came around. Thought I’d be fine and I got hit by my boyfriend. What a bummer, eh? Not the way I wanted it to go.”
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. also saw their nights cut short in seperate incidents.
Johnson would make heavy contact with the inside fronstretch wall at the end of the first segment when his car got loose trying to pass Hamlin.
“Racing hard trying to find way by Hamlin and the transition off of four there made the back of the car light and sent it into a lazy spin,” Johnson said.
Earnhardt’s night ended with 10 laps to go when he would made contact with the outside turn one wall after contact with Ambrose as they fought and blocked for positions.
“Hard racing. I hate it happened. I was upset with him but can’t say really it was his fault,” Earnhardt commented. “He was going to the outside and I didn’t know he was there. I thought he was staying with me because he had pushed me down the straightaway. A lot was happening there and I just got turned around.”
The night featured a lot of excitement as the pace car would catch fire under one of the late cautions.
With the exhibition race under their belts, drivers will now focus on qualifying for the Daytona 500 tomorrow.
Grant Enfinger Holds Off Frank Kimmel For His Third Career Victory
Grant Enfinger’s determination assisted him to victory lane in the Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday. His celebration after the impressive win proved just how much his third career ARCA Racing Series victory meant.
“This is pretty special,” Enfinger said. “To get this, Iowa and Mobile last year means the world to me. Appreciate everybody at Team BCR. We have some great sponsors and great partners. It doesn’t get much better than this.”
Enfinger, who began the race in the second starting position, fought off a late race caution and a charging Frank Kimmel to seal the victory. Kimmel wounded up with a career-best second place finish at DIS, but again, his ultimate career goal of winning at Daytona wasn’t accomplished.
Clay Campbell, Martinsville Speedway President, racked up a magnificent third place finish. Tom Hessert and Tyler Reddick rounded out the top five after making many moves in the closing laps.
The pivotal moment of the event occurred in the beginning laps after Buster Graham was sent around which caused a catastrophe on the front stretch. Justin Boston, Will Kimmel, Justin Allison and Jeb Burton were the notable drivers involved in the multi-car incident.
Dylan Kwasniewski, who inherited the pole after many competitors failed post-qualifying tech, was shuffled outside the top five in the closing laps and eventually finished a dismal 14th position.
Chase Elliott, who was certainly a favorite entering the race, finished ninth after having a bad restart with under nine laps to go. John Wes Townely, last year’s Daytona winner, finished a satisfying 11th place finish.
The ARCA Racing Series returns to the racetrack on March 22nd at Mobile International Speedway, which is Enfinger’s home track and a track in which he captured one of his three career victories.
Ryan Newman looks forward to Daytona, skeptical on qualifying format
While some drivers have focused on racing and getting to that top level, Ryan Newman is one of a few drivers who went to University and got an engineering degree. For Newman, he feels that it is a plus for him, personally.
“Anytime that you have an opportunity to continue with your education, it’s an opportunity you should take,” he commented. “There’s a balance there, though, because you don’t want to be 45 years old and still in school. My point is from my stand point if racing didn’t work out, I’d have that to fall back on. Without a doubt my engineering degree, or any degree or any person is important.”
Newman added that having the engineering degree brings perks while at the track as he can join in on discussion with the engineers and create additional questions for what they’re telling him because he knows how it works.
With his knowledge in his back pocket, Newman makes the shift from Stewart-Haas Racing to Richard Childress Racing this season.
“I’m really excited about working with everybody,” he said. “It’s the biggest organization that I’ve been apart of. I was with Penske before with two Cup teams, then SHR with three Cup teams and now at RCR with three Cup teams and a couple Nationwide teams. Richard as a hands on owner reminds me a lot of Don Miller, who was at Penske Racing and he was like the Roger Penske at Penske Racing because Roger was never there. Having that hands on approach and the personality that he has had and the success he had had with making the Chase each year shows they have the parts and pieces.
“Aside for that, Richard’s passion for the outdoors is something that I admire. It’s great how we both get away from things. Even if we’re texting on our phone, it’s about if he’s seen any deer, turkeys, or anything else. I look forward to it all.”
Mid-season last year, Newman found out from Stewart-Haas Racing officials that he would not be back with them in 2014. A week later, he went and won the Brickyard 400.
“That was huge for many reasons because it was the Brickyard, but also it was my first win with Quickens Loans,” Newman explained. “We put everything together with them to be the primary sponsor and now they’ve moved over to Richard Childress Racing so that proves to them through the adversity that I was a winner. It made a big difference – for me for sure, but also the way people viewed me out of the deal.”
People shuffling around led to Newman and Richard Childress talking and signing a deal.
“Richard and I talked five years ago before I went to Stewart-Haas; we just couldn’t put everything together and Stewart-Haas had a great opportunity,” Newman commented.
With the move, the focus hasn’t been on Newman – but rather on Austin Dillon and the return of the iconic No. 3.
“I don’t see the number three at Dale Earnhardt – I see it as Austin Dillon,” Newman commented. “In the grand scheme things there’s a balance between that being just a number and the man’s number. I think you have to separate those things. Dale Earnhardt wasn’t the first person to have the number three – he was just the first person to make the number three famous. Austin Dillon has a challenge ahead of him to out famous Dale Earnhardt and it can be done – Jimmie Johnson is proving that.
“I think the toughest part about that number is when Dale Earnhardt left us, he left us without telling us he wouldn’t leave. Richard Petty and others retired, but Dale Earnhardt retired through death and that left a whole other spot to deal with.”
Beyond Newman’s own changes, NASCAR has made some considerable changes – including an elimination style Chase. Newman says that he likes the change and doesn’t see it as a big of a deal as others have seen it to be.
“I think it is good for our fans to have some extra excitement, as far as looking at it as brackets and playoffs,” he commented. “That I don’t think will change a whole lot. It’s still rewarding consistency and it’s still rewarding some sort of wins. It’ll be exciting for the fans.”
Newman added that it also opens doors of opportunity because a driver that may have been eliminated by the old system due to a bad race to start off can get back into with a win before that segment closes.
“In the end, there’s still going to be a champion and you’re still going to have an equal chance to be that champion, whether different amount points or different system than before,” he continued. “That’s what we all strive for is to have that opportunity.”
Newman’s concern more stems around the qualifying format, which he feels has a lot of grey areas and ways to be manipulated. An example he used stems to what could happen when we go back to Daytona in July and qualify with the group format.
“As a manufacture if I’m thinking to myself, we have 18 Chevrolets out there and we have the top five spots, I’m going to pull all my cars off the track and lessen the pack so we can win the pole today,” Newman explained. “So I think it opens up a chance of manipulation of our sport when it comes to that.”
Newman also brought up another way that it could be manipulated on the mile and a half tracks.
“I’m going to go out first as soon as I can so that way I can come in and let my tires cool off so I can go again later,” he started. “Then if I go out later, or I’ve waited till the end of the session and someone blocks my last run because they have the right to or the opportunity to or whatever, they’ve manipulated my chance to be in that last five minutes and have a shot at winning the pole. I just don’t want to see it where other teams can – because we’re competitors and we have egos – other teams can manipulate the outcome. We were critized heavily after Richmond with everything that went down. We don’t need to be opening ourselves up to that situation again – even if it’s just qualifying.
“That’s not the racing that we grew up with. I think that’s the biggest part of the change that as a competitor I have to deal with.”
As far as reflecting back on his time at SHR, Newman says that despite everything he and Tony Stewart still have a mutual respect for each other.
“I never left the friendship,” Newman said. “Tony and I still talk. We equal or talk more often than before – sometimes totally off track from racing.”
Newman then went on to speak about one of his memorable moments as a teammate with Stewart – a couple years ago at Atlanta.
“We were at Atlanta – two years ago – and for whatever reason, the schedule had us qualifying during the day,” Newman told the story. “The track was really good up top and I was contemplating time trialing the high line. If you went up there, rocks were hitting your inside panels – it was nasty dirty but it was not rubbered up and fast. I did my last race run up there and going into qualifying, thought of qualifying up top. But I thought no, I better qualify at the bottom as I’ve won nine poles here and that’s what I’ve always done.
“I did my run and time trialed not bad – fourth about, I think. He was going out about 35th or 40th – late in the line. I came in and got out of my racecar and walked all the way down. I walked up to Stewart and said, ‘Run the wall.’ He goes, ‘What?’. I said, ‘Run the wall. Run the high line. Don’t even think about qualifying – just do as you do a race run.’ He goes, ‘Are you serious?’ and he’s looking at me as if I’m crazy or I’ve hit my head. So he went out there and won the pole.”
