Surprising and Not Surprising: Richmond Toyota Owners 400
A full moon and short track racing led to plenty of surprises and some not so surprising moments in the 59th Annual Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
Surprising: Race winner Kevin Harvick, currently with Richard Childress Racing but leaving at year end, was surprisingly more fixated on dispelling the moniker of ‘Lame Duck’ than celebrating his ‘Closer’ nickname in Victory Lane.
In fact, with his first win of the season for RCR and his 20th career win under his belt, Harvick proclaimed he was nothing like a ‘Lame Duck’.
“You know, a lot of people have thought we might lay down this year,” Harvick said. “There ain’t no lame in that game is there?”
“It was a great night.”
Not Surprising: With some tempers tested on the short track, it was no surprise that a late-race caution and a green-white-checkered finish led to total chaos up to and even after the checkered flag flew.
Perhaps the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing/Sealy Chevrolet summed it up best after seeing his potential top-five finish disappear to a ninth place finish thanks to the final lap craziness.
“It was just chaos,” Kurt Busch said. “Some guys had older tires. Some guys had newer tires.”
“People were beating and banging and shoving each other out of the way,” Busch continued. “It was a free-for-all at the end.”
Surprising: Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 15 Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip Racing, was surprisingly pleased with his bridesmaid’s position. This was his ninth top-ten finish in 15 races at Richmond and his fifth top-ten finish of the season.
“We had a good car,” Bowyer said. “It really got wild there at the end.”
“Wish we could have won the Toyota race, but second’s not bad.”
Not Surprising: With his team’s appeal hearing looming this week, it was not surprising to see Penske’s Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, make a statement with a third place finish. This was Logano’s second top-ten finish in nine races at Richmond.
“I’m just super-proud of my guys,” Logano said. “They never quit.”
“They threw the kitchen sink at it and I’m just proud of what we got out of that.”
Surprising: Logano’s teammate, Brad Keselowski, however, had a surprisingly freaky bad day at the track, perhaps proving that ‘Redd’ was not a good color for a car known as the No. 2 ‘Blue Deuce.’
“It was a long day,” the reigning champ said. “We had a bad pit stop and then blew a tire.”
“Then whatever happened with the engine,” Keselowski continued. “It was a freak deal where something in the wheel broke and let all the air out of the tires.”
“We got hit by a lot of freak deals.”
Not Surprising: With the ‘Orange Cone’ away, commitment violations came into play. And no one understood that more completely than Kyle Busch, who was tagged by NASCAR for that violation.
In an unusual move, however, NASCAR reviewed the penalty and actually overturned it. Unfortunately for Busch, the damage was done and his four Spring Richmond race win streak came to a screeching halt.
Busch’s fate was sealed after he was caught up in an accident and he finished 24th in the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota.
Surprising: With the beginnings of resurgence by Petty Motorsports, it was surprising that driver Marcos Ambrose suffered his first DNF of the season since Texas last year.
“This is so disappointing for us,” the driver of the No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion said. “We were fast and had fantastic power from Ford Racing and Roush Yates Engines.”
“So, we can’t complain.”
Not Surprising: Even with his first win on an oval track in sight, it was not surprising to see Juan Pablo Montoya and his crew chief thinking big picture and maximum points. The team elected to pit to take tires before the green-white-checkered finish to guarantee themselves a top-five finish.
“Everybody on the Depend Chevy did an amazing job,” Montoya said. “We had a great car.”
“This is what we needed,” Montoya continued. “We made the right call when we pitted.”
Surprising: Another Richard Childress racer Jeff Burton had a surprisingly great run, from threading his way through one of the many wrecks to finishing fifth.
“Kevin Harvick and I both got better at the end of the race,” the driver of the No. 31 Airgas/Bulwark Chevrolet said. “We were best at the end.”
Not Surprising: Richard Petty Motorsports’ other driver Aric Almirola continued to reel off top-ten finishes in his No. 43 Smithfield Ford. Almirola managed an eighth place finish on the short track after battling an ill-handling race car.
“At one point we were almost a lap down,” Almirola said. “We were in big trouble and Todd Parrott made so many adjustments and kept making it better and better and better.”
“Our guys never gave up.”
Surprising: Matt Kenseth may have won the pole for the Toyota Owners 400, led the most laps at 140, and finished seventh, but he felt more like he was riding a roller coaster than driving an elite Cup car.
“It was an up and down race,” Kenseth said. “In the beginning, we were real strong.”
“That last restart, just being on the outside and the 78 (Kurt Busch) drove up through there and knocked my whole side off,” Kenseth continued. “That was the best I could do.”
Not Surprising: While Richmond may be known more as a Denny Hamlin type track, the Hendrick Motorsports team fared pretty well, with three of the four drivers finishing in the top-15.
In fact, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson finished tenth, eleventh and twelfth respectively while Kasey Kahne brought up the rear in 21st.
With his finish, Johnson extended his points lead, now 43 points ahead of Carl Edwards in the second spot. And all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers are now in the top 15 in the point standings.
Matt Kenseth looks to continue successful season at Talladega
After being in the center of controversy following failing post-race technical inspection after the Kansas win, everybody thought we’d see a falter in the Joe Gibbs Racing team. However, that wasn’t the case as Kenseth sat on the pole at Richmond before coming home with a strong finish.
“Obviously I think we all here at Joe Gibbs Racing, we wanted to try to win that race,” he said. “Unfortunately we didn’t make that happen. Had a good car most of the night, strong car most of the race, pretty decent at the end, too. Just caught up in that outside with all the varying pit strategies and just got boxed behind the cars and then didn’t quite get the finish there that we hoped for, but we did have a good, strong, solid night. Looking forward to going to Talladega.”
Kenseth isn’t set to dwell on that Kansas penalty as he feels his team has a shot to win at Talladega.
“Daytona was really good for us and I thought it was a really good speed week,” he said. “Learned a lot throughout Speedweeks, and I felt like we kept getting better and stronger. And by the 500 I felt like as an organization, we had all three cars where we needed them to be before we had our problems. So hopefully we can take that momentum and go to Talladega and carry that on.”
Last year, Kenseth had an average finish of 2.0 across the four restrictor plate races with Roush-Fenway Racing, including winning the Daytona 500 and the fall race at Talladega.
“That was a pretty gawdy number, I don’t think we’ll ever be able to do that again,” Kenseth commented.
Kenseth is looking for the same success this year. He was running in the top three at Daytona in February when he had an engine failure.
“Hopefully going back to Talladega, our cars will have some speed in them again and we’ll be able to make it 500 miles and hopefully be up front and be in that mix,” he commented.
With the new Generation 6 car, nothing much carried over from last year’s restrictor plate success according to the driver of the No. 20 Dollar General/Home Depot Toyota.
“I won’t say anything really carried over from last year and where it was before or any of that kind of stuff,” he commented. “More just started off testing this winter and working on these cars and we just continue to try to do that.”
Kenseth, though, mentions that he was glad to see the tandem racing go away as it didn’t fit with his comfort style.
“You had a little more control over your own destiny than having to depend on somebody the whole race and having them depend on you,” Kenseth commented.
There are also the unique dangers that loom at Talladega and Daytona with the threat of the big wreck.
“The first thing you think of when you think of Talladega — and you want to be honest, you think of a wreck, as a fan or driver or whatever, that’s usually what comes to your mind is big packs of cars and big wrecks,” Kenseth said. “So certainly I think it’s on your mind a little bit more. I don’t know, I think the racing is a little different than what it was last year with this particular car. I think it’s going to be a little bit of a learning experience for everybody.”
With seeing Dale Earnhardt Jr. have to sit out two weeks last year due to a concussion and Denny Hamlin now out for a month due to his back injury, it’s a reminder to drivers of what could happen in that wreck. Kenseth says its a reminder that everybody is human.
“Things can happen. We are going really, really fast in these cars, we are setting track records everywhere,” he said. “Certainly it’s just human nature. You know, we went through a really dark period where a lot of people got hurt, a lot of bad things were happening, and it was on everybody’s mind more than normal. And then we went through a real long period where you’ve seen some just horrendous wrecks and watch people walk away from them and everybody’s okay.
“You know, I think you always have to take safety seriously and keep working on your cars and the tracks and you know, pit road, everything to keep the environment as safe as you can for everybody.
“But certainly when you go through a period where people don’t get hurt, it’s not on your mind nearly as much so I think that when you do see people get hurt and have to miss time and all that, it’s certainly a reminder that things can happen.”
Besides the engine failure at Daytona, Kenseth has been off to a solid start this year with a pair of wins at Las Vegas and Kansas. Kenseth says with the success, he has a lot of confidence in his team.
“These guys are really, really good and we’ve had — our performance has been nothing short of spectacular all year,” he said. “Although we don’t have all the finishes to show for it, I’m real thankful to have two wins. We had a couple races where everything worked out all right. I feel really good with where we are at today, still obviously trying to move forward, get the cars faster, me do a better job on track, all that stuff.
“I certainly feel good about where we are from a performance standpoint only being here nine races into the year, and you know, hopefully we can keep that moving forward.”
Though even with that said, Kenseth knows that he has room to improve as a team can never stop improving.
“Every team is out there trying to figure out every day, every week, every race, how to get better and how to beat their competition,” he said. “So you can never rest, that’s for sure. You’ve got to keep working on it. We are constantly trying to figure out how we can improve and how to get better.”
The Final Word – As Talladega looms, let us chat about cheating, groin kicks, and naked athletes
Richmond is in the rearview after providing, for me at least, a surprisingly entertaining contest. Next on the calender is Talladega, where one would think only rain might prevent the good times from continuing to roll this weekend. As we head to the big track there are a few big stories vying for our attention.
Big penalties have been handed out, and about the time you are reading this the appeals court will have ruled on a couple of them. Will Penske’s boys get their 25 point deductions back? This is their judgement day. Next week, it is Judge Wopner time for Team Gibbs as they hope to reduce the 50 point levy against Matt Kenseth, the fines and especially the suspension for Coach Gibbs himself. If they are not, then Gibbs will not win the car owner’s crown this season no matter what his driver does. As for being blameless for that underweight engine part that came from Toyota, that team received a manifest that indicated a problem if only someone had noticed it. That puts the problem back in the team’s court. Maybe a fine might be reduced, maybe a suspension might be shortened, but those points, me thinks, are gone.
As for Penske and the problems with the rear end housing, some blame Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus, or somebody from that team for blowing the whistle that affected both Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano. Personally, to paraphrase Rhett Butler, quite frankly I don’t give a damn. If you are cheating and get caught, no matter how, then pay the piper. Richard Petty says that back in the day, you did not turn in a cheater but instead emulated him. That might have been one hell of a plan back in 1973 when getting caught meant a slap on the wrist. Today, the wrist isn’t the part of the anatomy that gets slapped, and none too gingerly. You don’t turn a blind eye to someone doing something wrong that winds up hurting yourself. To do otherwise would be just plain stupid.
Back in the day things were not all that different. Some bent the rules, if not outright broke them. There are some who believe the King won his 200th race in a car not exactly kosher, either. Now, if one could be pretty sure of getting away with it, it might be an idea to follow suit. Too bad that the odds of getting away with it today are a tad longer. After last Friday’s Nationwide race, Nelson Piquet Jr attempted to put the boot to Brian Scott’s tender bits. Not cool, yet after the 1979 Daytona 500 Bobby had Cale Yarborough’s foot in hand to thwart what may well have been an attempted blow to his Allisons. No, not much seems to have changed over the decades.
Yet, things do change. Recently, former NHL coach and television personality Don Cherry caused some to get their knickers in a knot by saying female reporters should not found in men’s locker rooms. It has nothing to do with equality and all about being naked in front of those of the opposite sex. This week, NBA veteran Chris Collins came out as the first active player to admit to being homosexual. For me, the only issue here would be to those who find themselves naked in front of a team mate who might be attracted to them. Regardless as to your views on either issue, neither should affect NASCAR except by way of prejudice. No locker rooms, no nakedness, no problem. Just drive, fix, or service the damn car. Do that and who interviews you or who you date just don’t matter.
In the meantime, take the time to get your snacks together and shut off the phone. Talladega is this Sunday. Enjoy the week.
