Johnson overcomes near disaster, Scores top 10 at Kansas
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[/media-credit]After the first 136 laps of Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway it appeared that Jimmie Johnson had a car well capable of winning the race. Johnson who had led 44 of the first 118 laps of Sunday’s race was mired back in traffic after receiving the wave around during a cycle of yellow flag pit stops.
On lap 136 disaster appeared to strike Johnson and the No.48 team. Johnson who was trying to make a pass underneath the No.56 of Martin Truex Jr. spun and backed his Lowe’s Chevrolet into the wall. Instead of going to the garage for repairs Chad Knaus never wavered. Knaus began giving directions to his No.48 pit crew. After several pit stops and incredibly never losing a lap Johnson was able to continue the race and score a 9th place finish after what had looked like a wreck that had taken the 5-time champion out of contention.
Johnson didn’t know the extent of the damage to his Lowe’s Chevrolet until after the race. “I’m just now getting a chance to look at the damage on the car and it’s pretty severe,” Johnson said. “I’m impressed they fixed it as they did and they got the spoiler and the decklid back in place.
“I’m surprised the car was as fast as it is. It drove fine through the turn. I could tell on the straightaway it didn’t have the efficiency. I can see why with this left rear quarter panel it’s blown out, a big parachute sticking in the wind.” Even though Johnson doesn’t lead the chase standings he did manage to keep the gap between himself and points leader Brad Keselowski at 7 points heading into next week’s race at Martinsville a track where Johnson has went to victory lane on 6 occasions.
Rick Hendrick was impressed with the effort of the 48 team on Sunday. “Unbelievable,” Hendrick said. “I’ve never in my 30 years of racing seen anybody perform that kind of surgery and not lose a lap. I basically I thought our deal was over, probably not even get back out there. … That was truly amazing.
“That says it all about what the 48 team is all about and Chad’s leadership.”
If Johnson goes on to win this championship after Homestead many will point to this race as the key factor in why the No.48 team won the championship. Sunday at Kansas just might have been the most impressive performance of 2012 for the 48 team.
Truex nabs another runner-up finish at Kansas
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[/media-credit]New pavement or old pavement, Martin Truex Jr. has a knack for the Kansas Speedway. Sunday at the newly surfaced 1.5-mile track he brought home another second place finish after being unable to track down the dominant Matt Kenseth who won the Hollywood Casino 400.
“It was wild one that’s for sure, we were second here in the spring, but today was a whole different mood. We had to battle for this one all day long, we didn’t quite have a second place car there for a while,” said Truex.
“Fought track position most of the day, started 16th and didn’t qualify all that well and worked our way to the top five early and then we caught by that caution and had to get the wave around and all that. We came form the back and finished second, which is really had to do at a place like this, where it’s hard to pass and new pavement.”
Truex will be credited with finishing second in both Kansas races this season. At the track in April, before it was repaved, he was the class of the field. On that day he led 173 laps, but Sunday he never saw the front of the field. The closest being Kenseth’s Zest bumper getting further and further away during the race’s final 48 lap run.
After starting 16th Truex ran comfortably in the top 10 for much of the event. His No. 56 NAPA Toyota one of the few which wasn’t leaving the track with scrapes, dents or barebond on it. Cautions ruled the day; a record 14 yellow flags flew on Sunday afternoon. Many drivers simply losing their racecars, resulting in single car spins, although tire issues plagued a few different competitors.
“There was two grooves out there today, but even the second groove wasn’t very high. The bottom lane was definitely the place to be on restarts, unless you were the leader and you could control the start, as we saw at the end,” believed Truex. “The 17 [Kenseth] had really good restarts on the outside. But when you are back on traffic it always seemed better to be on the bottom.
“Anytime, at least for me, when I was on the outside my car was really, really loose. So I was trying to stay as low as I could and I noticed a lot of other cars doing it.”
The strategy worked for Truex, who quietly worked his way closer into contention. With how tight everyone was running together because of how small the groove was, cars were getting loose while side-by-side, thus the spins. But Truex was pleased with the repave and how the track felt, noting that things will get better with time and age. Something that, as he continues to succeed at this track, he’ll look forward to next season.
But Sunday, his runner up finish was only his seventh top five of the season, continuing his quest for victory. His single Sprint Cup win at Dover in June of 2007 is becoming a faded memory, with Truex having expected to be victorious long before now. Yet, it’s becoming just a matter of time.
Truex and his MWR team did qualify for the Chase this season and have done everything but break through to Victory Lane. Sunday, close again, but not close enough. It was enough though for Truex to move to sixth in points, yet over 40 markers behind the leaders as they head for the seventh Chase race next weekend in Martinsville.
“There’s always a chance, there’s more racing to go. There’s always a chance. We’re further back than we want to be, but you can’t change that,” said Truex.
“Those races are behind us now and we just got to do what we did today. That’s try to go out and win races, we definitely want to win before the years out. We’ve been close a bunch of times and let a few slip away here and there. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that before the season’s out and just go each weekend to the racetrack try to be a good help for our teammates, try to do the best job we can to put all three of our cars up in the front and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”
Kyle Busch: ‘That’s our year’ as victory again taken from him
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[/media-credit]With three Nationwide Series races remaining in the 2012 season, Kyle Busch finds himself in unfamiliar territory. The winningest driver in NNS history is winless. Yes, winless. Locked out of a place that he used to take up an almost permanent residence and looking for some way to get back on the right side of the racing Gods. For Busch, nothing less than winning is acceptable.
Saturday afternoon in Kansas it was more than just the fact that Busch had another victory snatched from him. It was how it happened. Running out of fuel on a green-white-checkered finish and coasting to the finish line sixth. He had been leading when coming through turns three and four when the tank in the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota went dry.
“Ran out in the middle of three and four. But, that’s our year man,” said Busch after making it back to pit road. “Nothing else to it than that.”
Busch, who led on two occasions for 29 laps, started sixth and fought back from early trouble. He scrapped the wall and damaged the right rear decklid, but his KBM team quickly fixed the problem and Busch, falling as far as 29th, rallied back into contention. Taking the lead on lap 176 things appeared well in hand as he cruised to the finish.
He fended off challenges from Paul Menard, who had the day’s strongest car. Menard led 110 of the race’s 206 laps. But both Menard and Busch were done in by not only a late caution, but an extra caution lap when Kenny Wallace and Sam Hornish ran out fuel. The race having already been extended into overtime after a hard crash between Hal Martin and Scott Lagasse Jr. stopped the action with just three laps remaining.
When the race restarted Busch quickly drove away in the lead, but that last little bit of fuel he needed was gone a lap later. Another hard pill to swallow, but he did so graciously afterwards. Perhaps, as he revealed, it has just been that kind of year. He’s accepted it and has begun to wonder what will happen next.
Crew chief Mike Beam, sitting atop the Monster Energy pit box and seemingly holding his breath, also knew it wasn’t over until Busch crossed the line. Beam, when asked on-air about his thoughts on the pending finish simply stated he hoped, “the racing Gods are with us today.” For he too, had seen this movie before, with Busch the character who gets left out in the cold.
Unfortunately on Saturday, that meant now going 20 NNS races without a win. Not since September of last year at Richmond has Busch seen Victory Lane.
This season, driving his own equipment, Busch hasn’t seen the same success he’s used to. While brother Kyle has the lone win for the company – at Richmond in May – Kyle is in jeopardy of seeing one his streaks come to an end. He’s won a least one race a year in the NNS for the past eight years.
This year though, doesn’t look to be. While there’s still time to make it happen, a black cloud continues to hang above the Las Vegas native who missed the Chase in the Sprint Cup Series and fights for his life in a series he made history in. A driver who once made winning look so easy, can’t seem to remember how to now. His eight wins from a year ago, a distance memory.
And so, as Busch and Beam walked off into the Kansas sunset on Saturday afternoon, it was with the knowledge that the racing business can be cruel. That sometimes, even the best drivers (Busch) and the best situations (leading in turn four on the last lap) aren’t a sure thing. Sometimes, it’s just not your year.
“I can’t say enough about all our guys, everybody at Monster Energy and Toyota – they do a great job for us,” Busch said, holding his head high but still in disbelief. “We’re supposed to repay them by winning races and we haven’t done that this year. What a frustrating defeat. Oh well, you get defeated sometimes.”
