Earnhardt Jr. looking forward to Richmond with cushion on Chase bubble
HAMPTON, Ga. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. was breathing a little easier Sunday night at the Atlanta Motor Speedway after an eighth place finish moved him closer to the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
“I was real thankful the car was as good as it was,” he said after climbing out of his National Guard / Race2Achieve.org Chevrolet. “We have struggled here and not ran great here the last several trips. It’s so hard and it’s such a struggle to get a car that has a good balance and we did.”
With the right balance on the car, the focus on the night became tires. Most notably spinning the tires on the restarts, which was a problem for many drivers. Earnhardt Jr. saw it first hand when teammate Jeff Gordon stacked up the outside lane early and collected Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne – who suffered major damage that ruined their nights – but luckily Earnhardt Jr. was unscathed.
The 88 team carried on and kept Earnhardt Jr. amongst the leaders as the race ran into long green flag runs that saw many cars go a lap down. Not even a potential loose wheel derailed his night. Goodyear brought the new zoned tire and with Atlanta being slick and tough, Earnhardt Jr. said he was worried about it entering the night but that it held up pretty well.
“We had a fast car, a faster car than a lot of guys,” the happy driver said afterwards as he watched his team load up his Chevrolet.
Happy with tires, happy with the car, all Earnhardt Jr. needed was the lane choice. If he had it, he might have “easily” finished in the top five, although perhaps not close enough to Kyle Busch, who ran away with the race over the course of the final 21 laps. But he’ll take his top 10 and head to Richmond and the final race to make the Chase.
“We just get to go there with a really nice cushion on the guys behind us to make the Chase and go to Chicago and enjoy all that experience,” he said.
He’s a three-time winner at RIR, the last in 2006. But recently he hasn’t been on par with his performance and has found himself fighting for a decent finish. The last two seasons he’s had to go to Richmond and fight for his Chase spot, even battling back from an early wreck in 2011.
Last season he won the pole for the event, led 64 of the races first 93 laps, but finished a disappointing 14th. He has just two top 10 finishes in the last nine RIR races.
So this season as the Steve Letarte led team found themselves again heading toward another Chase defining race at Richmond, they decided to utilize one of their NASCAR tests. Hoping that it will lead to a little less stress this time around.
“We tested at Richmond so hopefully that’s going to pay off for us,” Earnhardt Jr. said.
“We worked really hard trying to figure out some things because we haven’t ran great there, similar to Atlanta, in the last several trips. We worked really hard at the test and we’ll see if that worked out for us.”
Kyle Busch clinches Chase spot with fourth win in Atlanta
HAMPTON, Ga. – In a night of attrition that claimed both of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Kyle Busch was around at the end of the ADVOCARE 500 and took home his second career win at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Busch led the final 36 laps of the event and survived a restart with 21 laps to go with older brother Kurt breathing down his neck. Joey Logano, who led a race high 76 laps, was unable to run down Busch after charging to second. For Busch it’s the fourth win of the season and the 28th of his NSCS career.
“Man, I don’t know where it came from, but these guys never gave up,” said a pleased Busch on the way his car responded late. “They made some really good calls and I commend them. It was their race today. I appreciate them hanging in there with me, although I was pretty graphic sometimes, but that’s what this sport is all about.”
Logano helped his Chase chances by moving to eighth in the standings. With teammate and defending champion Brad Keselowski suffering an engine failure, Logano might be the only Penske entry to make NASCAR’s playoffs. Keselowski finished 35th after leading early laps with a car capable of running in the top 10.
“What can you do? You can sit here and be mad and stomp your feet and be a jerk about it, but it just broke,” said Keselowski. “That’s racing. It’s kind of been the story of our year.”
Keselowski will head to Richmond 15th in points and in need of different scenarios if he’s to make the Chase and defend his championship. He wasn’t the only champion in trouble on Sunday night though, point leader Jimmie Johnson finished four laps down.
Johnson was caught up in a wreck early as all four Hendrick Motorsports cars got a piece when teammate Jeff Gordon spun the tires on a restart and stacked up the outside lane. Johnson ran into the back of Dale Earnhardt Jr. as Kasey Kahne ran into the back of Johnson.
Earnhardt Jr. was left unscathed and finished eighth while Johnson and Kahne both suffered major damage. Johnson remains the point leader over Clint Bowyer, who was the dominant car the first half of the event before blowing an engine, by 28 points. Johnson however, has finished outside the top 25 the past three weeks.
There were nine cautions throughout the 325-lap event with 13 different leaders.
Seven drivers are now locked into the 2013 Chase heading into Richmond: Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, and Kasey Kahne.
L.P. Dumoulin wins Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 at CTMP
L.P. Dumoulin led the second half of the Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park to pick up his second victory of the season. Dumoulin went with the strategy of pitting early and worked his way to the lead on lap 31 around Marc-Antoine Camirand. From then on, Dumoulin held on and took home the victory.
“We had a good strategy by pitting early for tires and fuel, and after that we just gained positions after everyone else was pitting,” Dumoulin said. “I was trying really hard to keep a good pace and not overdriving my car so that for the last 10 laps I could be really hard on it.
“I didn’t know the race was going to go red [flag] and that they were going to give the checkered flag. I was just ready to go and finish the race.”
The race was scheduled for 51 laps, though was cut to 42 laps as a result of it not being completed in its allotted time slot. The final caution flew at lap 42 when Ron Beauchamp Jr. and Ray Courtemanche Jr. got sideways, with Steve Mathews driving straight into Courtemache’s car up in turn eight.
Martin Roy would play his strategy right and stay out of the accidents to finish second for his best career NASCAR Canadian Tire Series finish.
Andrew Ranger, running a car for D.J. Kennington, finished third to mark his fifth top 10 in six career starts at CTMP.
“My car was really, really good and I was very happy because it was my first weekend with D.J. Kennington,” Ranger said. “At the end I was trying to push really hard, at the same time trying to save my tires, but the last caution came out and we were not able to finish the race.”
Ranger’s car owner D.J. Kennington finished fourth to take over the points lead, now sitting three points ahead of Scott Steckly heading to the final two races of the season. Steckly finished 11th.
J.R. Fitzpatrick rounded out the top five, followed by Camirad, Gary Klutt, pole sitter Jeff Lapcevich, Howie Scannell Jr. and Robin Buck.
Four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers ran the NCAT race in preparation for their own event. Jeb Burton was the highest finishing of the four, finishing 12th with Chad Hackenbracht behind him in 13th. James Buescher pulled behind the wall after 34 laps due to a broken rear-end while Ty Dillon pulled behind the wall after 32 laps due to over-heating from earlier contact in the race.
Jason Hathaway, who came into the event third in points, was on pit road for a couple laps due to mechanical issues under the hood, which resulted in a 25th place finish. Hathaway falls to fourth in points, now 27 points behind Kennington for the lead and six points behind Dumoulin for third.
The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series is in action once again next weekend at Barrie Speedway on Saturday night.
Chase Elliott wrecks Ty Dillon to win Chevrolet Silverado 250 at CTMP
The final lap of the Chevrolet Silverado 250 was filled with drama as Chase Elliott would wreck Ty Dillon in turn 10 to take the victory.
Going into turn nine, Elliott got himself alongside Dillon a bit as they went into 10, contact was made and resulted in Dillon on the tires.
“I hated to do that but I had to do that,” Elliott commented after the race. “Not very often do you have a truck as good as the truck we had today and have your strategy as good as ours did today. We had a couple curveballs thrown at us there but were able to escape all that and put ourselves in a good position on the restart at the end.”
It marks Elliott’s first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win in his sixth start as he becomes the series’ youngest winner at the age of 17.
“I had the opportunity there going into 10,” Elliott added. “I thought the 3 (Dillon) was sputtering. I felt he was really close or out of gas or something and got to his right-rear quarter panel and tried to move him out of the way and put him in the fence. That’s not how I race. I think anybody that has raced me before knows that’s now how I do things.”
Dillon got credited with a 17th place finish and would have words for Elliott after the race, stating that if Elliott was at Iowa, he wouldn’t finish the race.
“Everything comes full circle,” Elliott commented. “I hope it doesn’t but I’ve learned that I’ve lost really close races, I’ve won really close races and eventually things like that come full circle.”
At the same time on the final lap, Max Papis and Mike Skeen would bump into each other back and forth for the third and fourth positions, resulting in heavy damage to both trucks and Papis finishing sixth while Skeen finished 13th. The pair of road course veterans would share a heated discussion on pit road following the competition of the race.
Then behind them, Brad Keselowski Racing teammate Ross Chastain made contact with Ryan Blaney in turn eight, resulting in Blaney going around. Chastain got credited with seventh while Blaney got 16th.
Escaping all three incidents first would be Chad Hackenbracht, scoring a second place finish in just his third Camping World Truck Series start.
“We just sorted of raced our own race and Rudy got the truck handling really good; we didn’t make a lot of changes,” the young driver commented after the race. “I couldn’t ask for much better of a race. I’ll be smiling for the next couple of days here. I’m pretty pumped.”
Miguel Paludo ran inside the top five most of the day and came home with a solid third place finish.
“Unfortunately, strategy didn’t pay off for us,” Paludo commented. “The caution didn’t come out at the right time and on the last top, I dropped from first to 14th with like 17 laps to go, clearly didn’t go like we wanted as a team. Good points day for the team and just it was exciting to be here. It was a really good race.”
Darrell Wallace Jr. finished fourth, joining his Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Hackenbracht in the top five. The third KBM truck of Joey Coulter finished 26th after having to make a trip to the garage mid-race due to making heavy contact with the turn eight tire barrier. Ron Hornaday Jr. rounded out the top five.
As stated previous, Papis finished sixth followed by Chastain, Timothy Peters, pole sitter James Buescher and points leader Matt Crafton. Crafton now leads Buescher by 47 points.
Johnny Sauter, who was third in points coming into the weekend, suffered handling and mechanical problems throughout the day with his Toyota Tundra.
Hornish grabs another top three finish, extends point lead after Atlanta
HAMPTON, Ga. – Should Sam Hornish Jr. go on to win his first NASCAR Nationwide Series championship at the end of the season, he might look at the month of August as where he made the push.
Hornish finished third Saturday night in the Great Clips / Grit Chips 300 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. While he never led a lap, running inside the top 10 all night kept Hornish out of trouble and in contention should an opportunity arise. The final restart with seven laps to go provided such an opening as Hornish went from sixth to the top three.
“It was a good set of calls and really having a good lane choice there at the end, being in the right place,” Hornish said afterwards. “So many times you get stuck out here by being in the wrong lane, but tonight it really worked out for us and we were exactly where we wanted to be. Our Ford Mustang was really good on the long run and I was glad we were able to make solid adjustments on it to be able to make it good for that last short run.”
The top three finish was the fourth in five weeks for Hornish, his worst finish of the month being 12th last weekend in Bristol. That consistency has Hornish in control of the NNS title fight; he extended his point lead on Austin Dillon to 10 heading into Richmond next Friday night. Nine races remain in the season.
“We sure hope so,” Hornish said when asked if his team had regained their early season consistency.
“Last week we ran on seven cylinders for about three-quarters of the race, so to get a 12th out of that was pretty good, so I’ve been real happy with the performance that the guys have been giving me as far as the race cars.”
Saturday night Hornish drove a brand new car and said he feels confident the team is continually evolving, bettering themselves and that there’s the potential for the same amount of success at each of the remaining tracks. Of those he’s battling for the title, Hornish is one of three in the top 10 who have a win already this season.
“I feel like our bad days need to be a 12th place finish, so the fact that we can take days like [Saturday] where we weren’t as good as we probably needed to be and were probably a fifth place car, and were able to get a third out of it, that’s great.”
Even with the championship battle long from over, Hornish can look ahead with eagerness He’s won at Phoenix, which the NNS will head to late in the season and the mile-and-a-halfs have been where the No. 12 Penske team have performed their best this season.
“We look at places like Charlotte coming back around and Kansas and places I feel we’ve got a great opportunity to go there and run well, and then we go to a couple of short tracks like Richmond and Phoenix that I’ve traditionally run very well at, so my outlook couldn’t be any better,” said Hornish.
“The tracks that we’re going to, Bristol was the last one where I felt like that could be a downfall for us. I feel like if we go to these next ones and we race the way that we should, we’ve got a pretty good shot at it.”
James Buescher scores pole for Chevrolet Silverado 250 at CTMP
James Buescher stayed true to his word. He said as he continued to lay down laps, he would continue to get faster. That played true in qualifying as the defending truck series champion laid down a lap of 81.074 seconds to score the pole for the Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.
“The biggest thing is the more laps,” the driver of the No. 31 Motomaster Eliminator Chevrolet Silverado said. “Every lap I make, everytime I went out, I got faster every time. So I feel like the more laps I can get, the better prepared I will be.”
It will be important for Buescher to have a good run as after some bad luck to start the year, Buescher has turned his season around and sits second in points, 49 points behind Matt Crafton.
“People say we’re back in the title hunt, but I don’t think we ever fell out,” he said. “We’re just closer to the top now and plenty of racing left to go; we’re just past halfway.”
Rookie Ryan Blaney qualified his No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford in the second spot, 0.17 seconds off of Buescher.
“This team has been on a tear of late,” Blaney said coming into the weekend. “I’m confident our Cooper Standard team will have a shot at winning Sunday afternoon which will put us right back in the championship hunt.”
Mike Skeen qualified third with his No. 6 Hawk Performance Chevrolet as he looks to make his Camping World Truck Series debut.
In his past four Pirelli World Challenge GT Series starts at CTMP, he has four poles and four wins. Skeen currently sits sixth in the World Challenge GT Series standings after winning at Lime Rock earlier this year.
“Anytime you have that much success with a track you’re comfortable with it,” Skeen commented. “But this is a whole other world. I’ve had very little time in stock cars and not certainly any round here.”
Chase Elliott, who led both practices earlier in the day, rounded out the top five in fifth.
Miguel Paludo qualified sixth, followed by Ty Dillon, Max Papis, Chad Hackenbracht and Darrell Wallace Jr.
Points leader Matt Crafton qualified in the 13th position.
The Chevrolet Silverado 250 is set to start tomorrow at 2pm EST.
