Kyle Larson Wins in a Dash to the Finish at Rockingham Speedway
Kyle Larson held off a hard charging Joey Logano to capture the win at the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at The Rock Sunday afternoon. This was his first NASCAR national series win in five NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts and his first top-ten finish in 2013. Larson currently drives full-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
Larson was dominant all afternoon, leading 187 laps, but the biggest threat came in the last 25 laps of the race.
Logano had dropped to 18th after he had to pit under green to fix loose lug nuts. But a caution on lap 180 gave Logano the lucky break he needed to make a final pit stop and put on four fresh tires. He methodically made his way to the front and was in second place when the last caution fell.
“I was passing a ton of cars on the newer tires,” Logano said. “That’s Rockingham for you. That’s what makes this race track so cool, because you can play a strategy like that. When we got the last caution, I thought it was playing out perfect for us.”
Larson was apprehensive, but determined.
“I was pretty nervous on that last restart because Joey was on a lot newer tires than me, and I’m not normally the best on restarts.”
It was the veteran Logano, however, who made the mistake on the green-white-checkered start.
“I just got beat. I spun my tires, so it was all my fault. I was so mad at myself. I felt like we should have won this race. We might not have had the truck to win, but we had the strategy to win.”
Larson was all smiles after the race.
“It was a great day,” he said. “We didn’t make any changes to the truck; it was perfect from the start. It was a lot of fun today.”
Joey Logano finished in second place. Brendan Gaughan, Johnny Sauter and Chase Elliot rounded out the top five.
Johnny Sauter remains the unofficial points leader. Jeb Burton is 16 points behind in second place. Matt Crafton is third followed by Ron Hornaday Jr. in fourth and Ryan Blaney in fifth.
Hornaday met with NASCAR after the race and may face further sanctions for wrecking Darrell Wallace Jr. under caution during the final laps of the race.
Wallace finished a disappointing 27th. Hornaday was penalized at the time of the incident for aggressive driving and sent to the rear of the field. He finished the race in 15th place.
| Unofficial Race Results | |||||
| N.C. Edu. Lottery 200 at The Rock | |||||
| http://www.speedwaymedia.com/truckseries/race.php?race=3 | |||||
| ========================================= | |||||
| Pos. | St. | No. | Driver | Make | Points |
| ========================================= | |||||
| 1 | 3 | 30 | Kyle Larson(i) | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 2 | 7 | 19 | Joey Logano(i) | Ford | 0 |
| 3 | 9 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan | Chevrolet | 41 |
| 4 | 11 | 98 | Johnny Sauter | Toyota | 41 |
| 5 | 4 | 94 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 39 |
| 6 | 5 | 88 | Matt Crafton | Toyota | 38 |
| 7 | 1 | 4 | Jeb Burton # | Chevrolet | 37 |
| 8 | 6 | 29 | Ryan Blaney # | Ford | 36 |
| 9 | 36 | 51 | Erik Jones # | Toyota | 35 |
| 10 | 18 | 32 | Miguel Paludo | Chevrolet | 34 |
| 11 | 26 | 7 | John Wes Townley | Toyota | 33 |
| 12 | 14 | 3 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 32 |
| 13 | 17 | 18 | Joey Coulter | Toyota | 31 |
| 14 | 2 | 31 | James Buescher | Chevrolet | 31 |
| 15 | 16 | 9 | Ron Hornaday Jr. | Chevrolet | 29 |
| 16 | 15 | 8 | Max Gresham | Chevrolet | 28 |
| 17 | 8 | 60 | Dakoda Armstrong | Chevrolet | 27 |
| 18 | 30 | 5 | Tim George Jr. | Ford | 26 |
| 19 | 23 | 77 | German Quiroga # | Toyota | 25 |
| 20 | 25 | 81 | David Starr | Toyota | 24 |
| 21 | 24 | 14 | Brennan Newberry # | Chevrolet | 23 |
| 22 | 12 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | Chevrolet | 22 |
| 23 | 31 | 99 | Bryan Silas | Ford | 21 |
| 24 | 22 | 6 | Tyler Young | Chevrolet | 20 |
| 25 | 28 | 92 | Clay Rogers | Chevrolet | 19 |
| 26 | 20 | 17 | Timothy Peters | Toyota | 18 |
| 27 | 10 | 54 | Darrell Wallace Jr. # | Toyota | 17 |
| 28 | 32 | 7 | Johnny Chapman | Chevrolet | 16 |
| 29 | 21 | 75 | Caleb Holman | Chevrolet | 15 |
| 30 | 13 | 52 | Tyler Reddick | Toyota | 14 |
| 31 | 34 | 10 | Jennifer Jo Cobb | 13 | |
| 32 | 19 | 13 | Todd Bodine | Toyota | 12 |
| 33 | 35 | 57 | Norm Benning | Chevrolet | 11 |
| 34 | 29 | 93 | Chris Jones | Chevrolet | 10 |
| 35 | 27 | 27 | Jeff Agnew | Chevrolet | 9 |
| 36 | 33 | 84 | Mike Harmon(i) | Ford | 0 |
Sprint Cup Drivers Invading the Nationwide Series; Is it Okay?
Recently, I’ve had a few discussions with race fans via Twitter regarding the amount of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) drivers racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS). This is a debate that is certainty not new to NASCAR and in fact, it is the reason officials decided to mandate that each driver must declare at the start of each season which division they wish to be given points toward the championship in. The point was to let Nationwide regulars win the Nationwide title and to hopefully discourage some Cup drivers to double dip. Well, 16 of the drivers that raced in the NNS event at Texas are also participating in the Cup race so those rules obviously haven’t discouraged them.
Should NASCAR put further rules in place to either limit or completely stop these drivers that love to pull double duty? If they decided to implement such rules regarding this issue, there really isn’t much they can do that isn’t beyond reason. They could simply tell Cup drivers that they are not allowed to race in any division other than the NSCS and that would eradicate the “problem” instantly. I put the word problem in quotations because I don’t personally see it as an issue whiles a large contingent of race fans do. I look at it this way, what better way for the Nationwide regulars to learn than to be racing the best guys in the sport? The reason why fans are getting so incensed by the Cup guys this year unlike 2012 is because Kyle Busch has won 4 out of the last 5 races aggravating a bunch of people. Sure, no one likes to see one guy dominate but if you eliminate the Cup guys, you will probably have a Nationwide guy like Austin Dillon dominate instead.
I don’t have a problem with our superstars racing on the Nationwide side but I do have a slight issue with Cup teams fielding Nationwide teams just so they can put Cup guys in them. I think it’s a waste for the best teams in NASCAR to field Nationwide cars and not even give the guys trying to work their way up a chance to drive them. I have to give major kudos to Jack Roush because if you look at his driver lineup at Texas, you would see that they were all up and comers instead of Cup guys. I’d love to see a JGR team fielding Parker Kligerman and Alex Bowman instead of Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth. NSCS drivers double dipping may good for ticket sales except for when Kyle Busch has wins almost every race in dominating fashion. Here is a solution; put Busch in Robby Benton’s #99 and we’ll see if he can parlay that into a victory. He will still be fast but at least the Nationwide regulars might have a fighting chance against these titans of the sport and a small team would get the opportunity to have some major talent wheel their racecar.
I’d love it if NASCAR told all the Cup guys that they were only permitted to drive cars for teams that don’t run in the NSCS. NASCAR can still let the Cup teams field Nationwide ones but only allow them to hire Nationwide regulars as their drivers. I know that this is a crazy idea that in reality would never happen but it’s cool to think about the possibility of it. Anyway, back to reality….. Denying Cup drivers the right to race in NNS isn’t right in my opinion. When a Nationwide regular wins a race these days, they get noticed a lot more than they would if they weren’t racing against Busch, Keselowski and Harvick. It gives a NNS victory more credibility when you beat the best the sport has to offer.
The only reason why this issue has even been brought back up is because Kyle Busch is back to his old form and winning races left and right. The people against Cup drivers racing in Nationwide say that in F1 and Indycar, you don’t see the superstars racing in Indy lights in GP2. That is a very good point but how many people truly watch those forms of racing? Indy Lights only has about 9 drivers and is on the verge of collapse. Spice the field up with Franchitti and Hinchcliffe and I guarantee you that it will help.
You can’t tell these guys what they can and can’t race in. NASCAR tried a long time ago to tell drivers that they couldn’t race in anything that wasn’t NASCAR sanctioned and it caused a lot of trouble. In fact, they indirectly took the 1950 title from Lee Petty after taking 809pts way from him part-way through the year for breaking the rule. They also permanently banned future HOF’er Curtis Turner for the same infraction as Petty. The fact of the matter is that these guys are racers and they love to race. They don’t care if it’s Nationwide, a USAC Sprint car or some Late Model event in the middle of nowhere. All they want to do is drive and you can’t blame them for that; it’s in their blood.
Larson holds off Logano and wins at The Rock
Kyle Larson held off Joey Logano on the final green-white-checkered restart in Sunday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Rockingham Speedway and captured his first victory in just five NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) races.
Logano who was battling back from being a lap down early in the race due to a loose wheel, restarted in 18th place and diced his way through the field. Logano was gaining on Larson as the laps were winding down. But contact between Timothy Peters and Ryan Sieg brought out the final caution flag of the day with two laps remaining.
With fresher tires and more experience, Logano looked to be in the drivers seat when the race restarted. But Larson got a great restart as Logano spun his tires and pulled out to a two car length lead. The lead was just enough to hold off Logano for the final two laps.
“I’m usually not the best on restarts, so I was surprised I got that good of a start.” Larson said.
“I just got beat. I was waiting for him to do something on the restart and he didn’t do what I expected him to do.” Logano said. ”I spun my tires and cost these guys the race.”
Logano finished second, Brendan Gaughan third, Johnny Sauter fourth and Chase Elliott finished fifth.
“It was fun as always — probably one of the best race tracks we go to all year. I can’t thank Andy Hillenburg (track president) enough and everybody. Our Carolina Nut Company/Curb Records Toyota was really, really strong.” Sauter said.
During the final caution flag, Ron Hornaday Jr. spun out Darrell Wallace Jr. Wallace’s car suffered heavy damage and was taken to the garage. Hornaday Jr. was sent to the end of the longest line.
“He just flat out wrecked us. It’s unfortunate! It was fun, we just couldn’t hit it all weekend. Put it up to the top with that last restart and we were making up some ground. Got to him and he wasn’t going to give me the top so I knew what to do. I had to take his line away. I didn’t put him in the fence or anything and he just pulls that bonehead move.” Wallace Jr. said.
Hornaday Jr. was asked by NASCAR to meet with them after the race to discuss wrecking Wallace Jr. under caution.
“I didn’t know the yellow was out and I got down in there and started racing on the back straightaway, and he slowed up and then I run into him a little bit. But down the back, I went over to the other side and I don’t know if he hit his brakes on me or whatever, but I turned him in the fence and I feel like a total idiot.” Hornaday Jr. said.
Johnny Sauter leads the point standings by 16 points over rookie Jeb Burton who finished seventh.
| Unofficial Race Results | |||||
| N.C. Edu. Lottery 200 at The Rock | |||||
| http://www.speedwaymedia.com/truckseries/race.php?race=3 | |||||
| ========================================= | |||||
| Pos. | St. | No. | Driver | Make | Points |
| ========================================= | |||||
| 1 | 3 | 30 | Kyle Larson(i) | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 2 | 7 | 19 | Joey Logano(i) | Ford | 0 |
| 3 | 9 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan | Chevrolet | 41 |
| 4 | 11 | 98 | Johnny Sauter | Toyota | 41 |
| 5 | 4 | 94 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 39 |
| 6 | 5 | 88 | Matt Crafton | Toyota | 38 |
| 7 | 1 | 4 | Jeb Burton # | Chevrolet | 37 |
| 8 | 6 | 29 | Ryan Blaney # | Ford | 36 |
| 9 | 36 | 51 | Erik Jones # | Toyota | 35 |
| 10 | 18 | 32 | Miguel Paludo | Chevrolet | 34 |
| 11 | 26 | 7 | John Wes Townley | Toyota | 33 |
| 12 | 14 | 3 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 32 |
| 13 | 17 | 18 | Joey Coulter | Toyota | 31 |
| 14 | 2 | 31 | James Buescher | Chevrolet | 31 |
| 15 | 16 | 9 | Ron Hornaday Jr. | Chevrolet | 29 |
| 16 | 15 | 8 | Max Gresham | Chevrolet | 28 |
| 17 | 8 | 60 | Dakoda Armstrong | Chevrolet | 27 |
| 18 | 30 | 5 | Tim George Jr. | Ford | 26 |
| 19 | 23 | 77 | German Quiroga # | Toyota | 25 |
| 20 | 25 | 81 | David Starr | Toyota | 24 |
| 21 | 24 | 14 | Brennan Newberry # | Chevrolet | 23 |
| 22 | 12 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | Chevrolet | 22 |
| 23 | 31 | 99 | Bryan Silas | Ford | 21 |
| 24 | 22 | 6 | Tyler Young | Chevrolet | 20 |
| 25 | 28 | 92 | Clay Rogers | Chevrolet | 19 |
| 26 | 20 | 17 | Timothy Peters | Toyota | 18 |
| 27 | 10 | 54 | Darrell Wallace Jr. # | Toyota | 17 |
| 28 | 32 | 7 | Johnny Chapman | Chevrolet | 16 |
| 29 | 21 | 75 | Caleb Holman | Chevrolet | 15 |
| 30 | 13 | 52 | Tyler Reddick | Toyota | 14 |
| 31 | 34 | 10 | Jennifer Jo Cobb | 13 | |
| 32 | 19 | 13 | Todd Bodine | Toyota | 12 |
| 33 | 35 | 57 | Norm Benning | Chevrolet | 11 |
| 34 | 29 | 93 | Chris Jones | Chevrolet | 10 |
| 35 | 27 | 27 | Jeff Agnew | Chevrolet | 9 |
| 36 | 33 | 84 | Mike Harmon(i) | Ford | 0 |
Wallace Competitive Early in the Season
In his first full-time series in a NASCAR Camping World Truck, Darrell Wallace Jr. is one of the top young guns of the sport. Driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports, the 20 year old driver has one top-15, one top-five, and is currently fifth in the point’s standings.
Coming to Rockingham, Wallace has raced here before in other series, and it seems to be paying off. He was 11th in the first practice on Saturday and moved up to 6th in the final practice. But Wallace, being the competitive driver that he is, still thinks he can improve that time.
“If we can get more on the tighter side I think we’ll be okay, we’re way too free to be able to race. The whole swing of things from first practice to second practice felt like a totally different truck. Jerry (Baxter) and the guys worked really hard getting it to where it needed to be. So we’ve just got to fine tune it, we’re almost to home base, and get a little more grip.”
The issue that will be affecting all drivers at Rockingham Speedway is tire wear. With Rockingham being an older track, the surface is rough, causing tires to fall off much faster. Wallace told me that tire wear is going to be the key to the race.
“Talking to my spotter is going to be something like Greenville (Speedway) or Myrtle Beach (Speedway) in saving tires – it’s going to be key. We did it last year here in the East car and we did okay at it, but it’s going to be ten times worse here in a truck. We’ll work hard to do that, if we can do it just right, I’ll get the rest of the job done.”
Wallace isn’t the only young gun in the sport. With five drivers running for Rookie of the Year in the Truck series this season, Wallace has his eye on the price. When I asked how competitive the ROTY battle was, he told me it is very competitive. “I’ve grown up racing Jeb Burton in late models a couple of times. He’s been pretty stout, he’s beat us two times now for the rookie spot. So, we’ll work hard, I know we can beat them, we just got to get a little better and we’ll be alright.”
With only two races in the books for 2013, Wallace is happy with where is at. “I knew the truck and the whole team was good enough. For me – I’m happy. I’m happy about how everything is going right now. Like this weekend, I feel like we can take off and run far and finish well, we just need to finish all the laps. If we’re in the spot to win – we’re in it. We’ll see how things go. Right now everything is looking good.”
The No. 54 Toyota will start the North Carolina Education Lottery in 10th position for Sunday’s race. To follow Wallace during today’s race, be sure to follow him on Twitter @BubbaWallace.
Rating the race – For all the controversy, the NRA 500 came and went rather quietly in Texas
Why I watched…
There are many reasons to watch a Cup race. You want to see if those up front can stay there, if those in the ditch can pull themselves out, to see if a safety vehicle out on the track the same time as a race car might be aware of the possible dangers.
A truck full of folks were just cruising along the inside of the track during a Nationwide caution Friday in Texas as Kyle Larson came chugging along to get back into position for a re-start. As he neared the truck, a tire blew, sending his car directly at the safety crew. A last-second move to the inside by Larson up against the wall prevented a bad, bad situation from happening. As for the safety workers, it does not appear they even saw Larson coming. Maybe NASCAR can be a bit pro-active in ensuring that safety crews protect themselves at all times. In short, they need to watch their own asses, just in case.
Usually I couldn’t care less about the sponsor of a race if that is all there is to the name. However, the NRA 500 race in Texas sure had resonated with people for rather polarizing reasons. Due to the controversy, NASCAR might take another look at who the tracks get to sign on as a sponsor in future, too. Guns are a hot button issue at present, and it might not be seen as very politically correct to be a bit too chummy with the NRA, except in places like Texas, obviously. This probable action on behalf of NASCAR is a bit different than the safety issue I raised earlier. This is all about some wishing to cover their own asses, just in case. What does this all have to do with what went down Saturday night? Not a damn thing.
The race…
Apparently FOX agreed. It was the Texas 500, according to the graphics. That was not all that disappeared, as just about all the drivers in this one become rather irrelevant early.
There were two exceptions. Martin Truex Jr and Kyle Busch dominated this race, usually among the top three, more likely the top two. Busch won in his 300th start, his second of the season and the 26th of his career. Truex finished second, as he did at Kansas both races there last year. I wonder where they race next week?
Jeff Gordon fans had an opportunity to be excited, as their man was running a strong third. With less than thirty to go he fried a wheel hub and lost about 35 positions as he headed to the garage.
Dale Earnhardt Jr was challenging for third past the midway mark when he was hit by electrical problems. Problems that should have been fixed by the flick of a switch to change to the other battery. Time got lost, a speeding penalty turned into a change of tires which resulted in yet another penalty. At least he was in the top thirty…barely.
Tony Stewart had a pit problem of his own. He may have stayed on the track, but we didn’t really see him again as he was barely inside the top thirty. On the bright side, team mate Ryan Newman was 10th.
Kurt Busch started on the outside pole beside his brother, but an issue under the hood left him just inside the top forty on the day. Danica Patrick was nowhere to be seen except on the tracker, where she finished a spot ahead of Junior.
Bobby Labonte was sick, but had Mike Bliss as a backup. Too bad Bliss was still driving his own car when Labonte folded his cards. The car stayed parked until Michael McDowell parked his own, took Labonte’s ride out until it broke, and managed a share of 42nd and 43rd. As for Bliss, he finished 41st. It would appear no one thought of bringing in a ringer.
Both Penske cars of Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski had a tough time going through pre-race inspection due to issues with their rear end housing. The cars did, not the drivers. As the call came for the gentlemen and lady to start their engines, I don’t think either had got into their cars just yet. Both finished in the top ten. Others who rather quietly recorded a top ten in Texas included Carl Edwards (3rd), Greg Biffle (4th), Jimmie Johnson (6th), Aric Almirola (7th), and Brian Vickers (8th). Excitement is not a keyword I would use for this one.
Kyle Busch might have won the NRA….er…Texas 500, but he did not shoot off the traditional pistols in Victory Lane for the television audience. In the end, it was tame. Too tame. After all the pre-race drama, which turned out to be a whole lot about nothing, we are more than ready to move on to Kansas this Sunday.
Rating the race – (7/10)…
It was a great race if you loved Kyle or Martin. It was good for a while if you liked Gordon or Junior, then it got just plain disappointing. Visually it was not all that stimulating, but it had miscues on pit road and a few on-track surprises to at least keep it interesting. Well, at least to a point. To be honest, this was the dullest race of the season thus far, with more excitement to be had earlier in the day when the Rays played the Red Sox. In fact, there was even more controversy involving Tiger Woods at the Masters than what we had in Texas. Darrell Waltrip told us how this was the kind of track the new Gen 6 car was built for. If so, why were the first six events a whole lot more interesting than this last one turned out to be?
