After Texas slips away, Ty Dillon still confident RCR will ‘win a lot of races’
Perched on the window of his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet, helmet still on Ty Dillon put his head in his hands.
In disbelief and frustration. Dillon had the best truck Friday night at the Texas Motor Speedway and was the leader coming down for the last restart with 23 laps to go. He had led a race high 76 laps but was passed by eventual winner Jeb Burton quickly after the restart and just as he closed back in and got to the back bumper of Burton, the checkered flag was in the air.
“Man if we had one more corner or something, a straightaway, I just needed a little bit more time,” said a disappointed Dillon afterwards. “If I could make a request to move the straightaway down like Talladega, I think I will right now.”
His restart wasn’t horrible, Dillon noted that he didn’t spin the tires and went through all the gears. When the two went into turn one Dillon was a nose ahead of Burton before losing the lead later that lap. Saying he couldn’t blame it on anyone, it came down to drafting as Burton had the 88 of Matt Crafton stuck behind him and pushing him down the backstretch, whereas Dillon was all alone on the outside.
“It was a great race, Jeb did a great job he’s deserving of that, he’s worked hard, he’s a great driver … that’s cool for him. Man, I want that hat and I want them six shooters [you get in Victory Lane]. I’ve ran really well here at Texas and I feel like it’s about my time, isn’t it?”
The Richard Childress Racing trucks of Dillon and teammate Brendan Gaughan, who’s a four-time TMS winner, were the class of the field. With Dillon’s 76 laps led, Gaughan paced the field for 44 circuits and finished fifth. It was Gaughan who Dillon learned the most from on Friday, watching as the experienced Gaughan motored past him midway through the race.
It was at that point Dillon joked he wished he had that experience. Dillon went on to praise his teammate for what he brings to RCR and how he’s made people better. Both drivers sit in the top 10 in points – Gaughan third, Dillon seventh respectively – heading into Kentucky later this month.
“There’s definitely going to be a lot of momentum coming from this, especially leading so many laps. RCR dominated the race, pretty much,” Dillon said. “ECR power, so proud of those guys, we’ve really turned our program around. Last year we were good, but this year we’re pretty awesome. We’re going to win a lot of races, as shown tonight.”
Dillon’s performance isn’t deceiving of that confidence, but his statistics can be. With how well he’s run, it’s surprising to see him as far back in the points as he is, considering he’s started just one race outside the top 10 and up until Dover his worst finish of the year was 18th.
He’s racing like a veteran however, and looking to add to his lone career win from last fall in Atlanta.
“We’ve changed some things and gotten our trucks where they really race good,” Dillon said of the company.
“We keep running like that we’ll get our fair share of wins, the cards will fall into our hands a little bit better. We’ll get ‘em next time.”
Chase Elliott and Erik Jones Make ARCA History With One, Two Finish at Pocono
Two seventeen year olds, Chase Elliott and Erik Jones battled royally at the Tricky Triangle to score a one, two finish in the Pocono ARCA 200.
And in so doing, they made history, becoming the youngest winner and runner up finisher in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards.
“It was a lot of fun,” Chase Elliott said of his race win after starting from the 32nd position. “We had to start in the back and had some work to do.”
“Lance (McGrew, crew chief) made some good calls getting us off sequence,” Elliott continued. “Being able to take advantage of that and get out in front when the cautions fell, I feel worked out to our advantage.”
“We got out front and stayed there so it worked out.”
The driver of the No. 9 Aaron’s-Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet admitted that it did not hurt having his father Bill coaching him prior to the race and from atop the hauler, especially with his history of winning at Pocono.
“I talked to him a lot by phone and then at the track,” Elliott said. “He gave me some good advice about this place.”
“But the big thing is that he never raced on this surface so a lot of things are different than how they used to be,” Elliott continued. “A lot of things have changed but it is still the same old Pocono and he helped me a lot.”
What did it mean to have his father with him in Victory Lane at Pocono?
“It means a ton to me,” Elliott said. “It wasn’t a little over ten years ago that I was in Victory Lane with Dad and I’ve got some pictures from that.”
“I just think that’s really cool,” Elliott continued. “To come up here to Pocono where Dad raced and to get that opportunity is really cool.”
“I knew it would mean a lot to win and we were fortunate that it worked out.”
Proud father Bill Elliott did have some first words for his young race winner in Victory Lane. And Chase Elliott definitely heeded that advice.
“First thing he said that he was going to keep the champagne because I wasn’t old enough to drink it,” Elliott said. “But I think it meant a lot for dad to go back to Victory Lane with me.”
“I’m not a dad but I feel like that would be cool,” Chase Elliott said. “I’m glad I could take him there today and hope to do it a lot more this year.”
Bill Elliott was indeed proud of his young son, who has become the focus of his racing expertise.
“Someone showed me a picture when I was in Victory Lane in 2002 and here is Chase in Victory Lane now in 2013,” Bill Elliott said. “He did a good job.”
“Everything came together and he did real well,” Elliott continued. “It’s a dream come true for me.”
“He’s done a good job in all he’s raced,” Elliott said. “This is just another era.”
Bill Elliott acknowledged that he was one who pushed the ARCA Series to consider relaxing their rules to allow 16 and 17 year olds to race in the series.
“The kids today have so much more experience and there was a real void there at age 16 or 17,” Elliott said. “ARCA is giving these kids a little extra time to get their feet wet.”
Bill Elliott was not the only proud parent with his son’s historic ARCA win.
“I’m just really thrilled for him,” mom Cindy Elliott said. “They tell me that he is the youngest winner.”
“So, I’m just thrilled for him and for the team and for Lance McGrew, winning now in every division,” Cindy Elliott continued. “What they’ve accomplished today is just wonderful.”
Crew chief Lance McGrew was also very proud of his young racer and felt fortunate that he could showcase his skills on the big track of Pocono.
“Chase is an extremely talented race car driver,” McGrew said. “He is young but he was born and bred that way.”
“He’s got years and years of experience,” McGrew continued. “We were fortunate enough that ARCA made a rule change this season to where we could run on a bigger race track.”
“I felt like with the backing we had and Chase’s experience that we could come here and do well,” McGrew said. “And we did.”
Seventeen year old Erik Jones, behind the wheel of the No. 15 ToyotaCare Toyota, finished runner up to Chase Elliott. And he had to battle his own demons and mistakes before being able to move forward to contend for the lead.
“We ran ourselves out of fuel right before the first pit stop on Lap 42,” Jones said. “We had the whole field lapped at that time.”
“We had to start at the tail end and a violation coming off pit road,” We just didn’t have time to run him back down.”
“We’ll come back in August and see if we can get the win.”
Veteran driver Frank Kimmel, in the No. 44 Ansell-Menards Toyota, finished third. And he was feeling very good about that finish after just getting a few laps on the track because of the rain.
“Pretty good day,” Kimmel said. “We were one of the teams that didn’t test so we just had about three laps before the race.”
“I smacked the wall and I thought I had a flat,” Kimmel continued. “That kind of ruined our day and I couldn’t run with those two.”
“So, we rode it out.”
Kimmel had nothing but praise for the youngsters who beat him on the race track. And yes, he acknowledged that they were really young, with both of them combined having less years of life than he had alone.
“What a remarkable deal these young kids are,” Kimmel said. “I have underwear that old.”
“Chase is a chip off the old block,” Kimmel continued. “I asked Bill (Elliott) who Chase’s father was because he’s an awfully nice kid.”
“These young kids are a lot of fun to race with.”
Tom Hessert, behind the wheel of the No. 77 Barbera’s Autoland Dodge, and Mason Mitchell, driving the No. 99 Happy Cheeks-BeavEx-Reliance Tool Ford, rounded out the top five finishers in the Pocono ARCA 200.
CASTRONEVES WINS AT TEXAS TO TAKE IZOD INDYCAR SERIES POINTS LEAD
Sadler says JGR team needs to run better, aiming for Iowa turnaround
Elliott Sadler probably expected things to be a little different at this point in the season after making the decision to leave Richard Childress Racing for the dominant Joe Gibbs Racing following the 2012 season.
Different in the sense that Sadler could be sitting better than seventh in points heading into Saturday night’s event in Iowa, which he won last August. Different because he joined a team that has shown to be superior to others in the Nationwide Series, except the No. 11 team has been anything but after 11 races. He’s winless and in a deep championship hole, both of which brings the DuPont Pioneer 250 at the perfect time.
“Iowa is probably my best track. I would say that and Bristol are my two best tracks,” noted Sadler earlier this week. “Mentally as I show up, I know where I want to be on the track, where I need to be on the gas, on the brake, how my car needs to feel in practice to be in the race. It is a really good track to me.”
Sadler feels comfortable enough that when he goes to Iowa, he knows he’ll be successful. And that’s what he needs this weekend in order to get his season turned around. Sitting 64 markers out of the championship lead and coming off a crash in Dover, Sadler is the best driver at Iowa.
He’s won three straight poles –including the track record last August – with his worst finish at the track is fifth. That gives him an average finish of 2.8 on the half-mile speedway.
The goose eggs in the win and pole columns on his record for 2013 could disappear on Saturday. But Sadler acknowledges that wins are nice but his JGR team needs to run better first, bringing up their season average finish of 12.8 and just his five top 10 finishes on the year.
“We were a little caught off guard at Dover. We ran well at Darlington, some of the other tracks,” he said. “Early in the year, we felt really good about that particular setup as far as intermediate tracks and stuff were concerned.”
Their position hasn’t been for a lack of trying. A blown engine at Bristol resulted in their worst finish of the year, while bad luck and bad adjustments kept them out of the top 10 on others.
“We were caught off guard at Dover. We struggled the entire weekend, through practice, qualifying and the race. We really have dug ourselves a pretty big hole here. We are a lot of points behind, seventh in the points. Honestly, points don’t mean a hill of beans to me right now. We need to run better, be more competitive on a weekly basis.
“I think going to Iowa, we can get some good optimism going with our race team, get some good direction going. We can go there and be competitive and run good. That’s what our team needs right now, to kind of get back on the ball, get back in the game. I can’t think of a better place to go.”
Jeb Burton scores first career victory in WinStar World Casino 400
After taking the lead on a restart with 24 laps to go, Jeb Burton would hold on to lead the final laps and beat Ty Dillon to the line to win the WinStar World Casino 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. It’s the marks the victory of the 20-year-olds career.
“It’s freaking awesome,” he said in victory lane. “I’m just a little old country boy from South Boston living a dream. Just have an awesome team behind me. These guys right here, damn, that’s the best team I have ever had the privilege to drive for.”
Burton has been strong so far this season, though has come up short each weekend – till now.
“It’s huge,” Burton continued. “I’ve been telling everybody that once we get one, they’re going to start stacking up. I’m ready for Kentucky in a couple weeks. It’s been a lot of blood and tears to get here so it means a lot.”
Burton is the son of 2002 Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton, who said this is the biggest day he has ever experienced in racing.
“We got so many people to think,” Ward Burton said. “Can’t say enough about them all. Steve Turner and Harry Scott – they’re providing awesome resources for my son. Mike Hilman Jr. is guiding him, helping him. The Burton family is really lucky.”
Ward Burton was up on the spotter stand for the race and noted that he wished he had a parachute to get to victory lane quicker.
For crew chief Mile Hilman Jr., it marks his first win with Turner-Scott Motorsports and first win with a driver other than Todd Bodine. Hilman Jr. scored his 19 previous wins with Bodine.
“Everybody works hard at Turner-Scott Motorsports day in and day out,” Hilman Jr. said. “It’s nice to get them back to victory lane where they belong.”
Ty Dillon would lead much of the race at Texas, though fell up short as he finished second.
“One more lap, one more turn is all I needed,” Dillon said afterwards. “We shouldn’t had that at the end. We were the dominant truck and should have had it. We’re going to win a lot of races this year. I wanted to win this race at Texas – I’m a little heartbroken.
“I just didn’t have the help on the restart. Crafton was shoving the 4 (Burton) on the restart and they just went by on the backstretch.”
NASCAR Mexico Series Champion German Quiroga would score his best career truck finish with a third.
“I want to thank the whole team, Red Horse Racing,” Quiroga said. “The truck was great. I knew we were fast. We just need to work on pit tragedy; I just need to get better. I’m very proud of the team and everybody in the shop.”
Running up front, Quiroga noted that he earned respect and had fun racing Crafton in the final laps.
“He was giving me room,” Quiroga noted. “I want to thank him for that. it was good for us. They had a lot of respect and I appreciate that.”
Crafton would finish fourth to keep the points lead, now 23 points ahead of Burton.
“We just missed it a little bit,” Crafton commented. “We just didn’t have the speed on the short run – we were just decent. But man those guys would just drive away on the restart. We finished top five. Definitely not what we wanted, disappointed a little bit with it.”
Brendan Gaughan would round out the top five in fifth after leading the middle portion of the event.
“The track freed up too much in the end and we just didn’t adjust enough to it,” Gaughan noted. “I got behind our teammate, trying to give him a push and lost the nose and Buescher got a run there and took advantage.”
Darrell Wallace Jr. finished sixth, followed by pole sitter Johnny Sauter, Ryan Blaney, James Buescher and Miguel Paludo.
Besides Wallace’s top 10 finish, the Kyle Busch Motorsports truck would find trouble in Texas.
Making his first start for KBM, ARCA standout Chad Hackenbracht would wreck on the backstretch on lap 42 after getting loose while trying to split Jennifer Jo Cobb and Ty Dillon.
“Not what I wanted,” Hackenbracht tweeted. “The @KBMteam guys worked way too hard for that. Waited too late to get around the lapper.”
Then 12 laps later, his teammate Joey Coulter would spin in the corner and back the truck into the wall.
“I was doing good, pointed in the right direction and then suddenly pointed in the wrong direction,” Coulter said. “Can’t tell whether a shock or not. It just happened so quick. I heard something break and it just came around and that was it.
“I hate it for these 18 guys. We had a really good truck and thought we could work our way through there. We’ll get it back together and go and get some points and win the championship at the end of the year.”
There would only be three cautions during the event with the third caution coming on lap 138 when Brad Keselowski Racing driver Ross Chastain got into the wall.
The trucks will have most of the month off before heading to Kentucky Speedway on June 27th.
Marco Andretti off to a solid start this year so far in 2013
“I think he (Marco) is at a point that he can definitely carry the team to a championship. I’m positive of that.” – Mario Andretti
To say that Marco Andretti is off to a good start this year would be a solid statement. Following Detriot, the driver of the No. 25 RC Coca DW12 Chassis for Andretti Autosport sits at the top of the point standings tied with Helio Castroneves for the points lead.
The key to Andretti’s season so far has been consistancy as he has only finished outside of the top seven once this year – last Saturday in Detroit after getting into the wall.
“Consistency is what I’ve worked on in the off season; I just want to be consistently better,” he said earlier today in Texas. “I think we have been knocking on the door and like hanging and lingering around the top six, a couple of podiums.
During the off-season, Andretti spent time with a driver coach to improve his street course performances.
He said that there’s also a new word that’s part of his vocabulary as a driver – finesse.
“I think that was costing me,” he commented. “I think that could have helped me at Indy just be a little more patient. Having looked back at it now I would have probably went for the most laps led, but we were just kind of watching fuel and being more patient than I probably would have been in the past at Indy. That is probably the only difference.”
The change in Andretti’s attitude is noticed by others, including his grandfather Mario.
“You can see obviously that I think he has buckled down and I think focused a little more on somewhat he really needs to work on,” Mario Andretti said. “Again, now of course by having the responsibility to be up there in the points… what they gone six races or so in the series a long way to go for sure, but at least right now he has something to protect and go for. He has got the team behind him and he has the experience now I think to carry it.”
Though even if with the success this year, Andretti says there’s unfinished business as one column remains empty thus far this year.
“I want to start stringing some wins together to hopefully generate even more interest,” he said. “It’s been a decent start to the season, but we’ve got to keep going.”
Andretti added that they need to keep working at their program as he’s not exactly where he wants to be quite yet.
“I think I’m a lot closer at where I was weak last year, so that is helping, but like I said not where I want to be right now,” he commented. “If we come out of here with a win then we could start some big momentum that will be the goal.”
This weekend at Texas Motor Speedway could bring Andretti that win as he led the opening practice session and qualified second behind Will Power.
