Surprising and Not Surprising: New Hampshire Sylvania 300

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September 27, 2012

[media-credit name=”Noel Lanier” align=”alignright” width=”246″][/media-credit]From late-arriving pit crews to the second time around for the Cup Series at the mile track in Loudon, New Hampshire, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the second Chase race, the Sylvania 300.

Surprising: While being in Victory Lane is always special, it was a surprisingly big moment for the winner of the Sylvania 300, his team and his team owner.

For Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota, it was truly a big moment as he delivered on his promise, via tweet, to win the race.

And it was a major accomplishment for his team, who after overcoming mistakes of the previous race and during their qualifying lap at New Hampshire, rallied around each other and their driver to score the victory.

But most of all, it was a huge moment for team owner Joe Gibbs, who achieved a milestone, his team’s 100^th NASCAR Sprint Cup win, at the Magic Mile. The 100 wins were scored by Tony Stewart with 33, Denny Hamlin with 22, Bobby Labonte with 21, Kyle Busch with 20, Dale Jarrett with 2 and Joey Logano with 2 wins.

Joe Gibbs Racing is now only one of six teams in NASCAR history to achieve the 100 victory mark.

“It was a huge day for us,” Coach Gibbs said. “Bobby Labonte came into victory circle and I appreciated Bobby, Dale Jarrett, Jimmy Makar, everybody when we first started, Tony Stewart, so it took a lot of people down the road.”

“But, certainly, gosh, thinking back on my 21 years – just doesn’t seem like it was that long ago and you realize that we’ve got a hundred wins.”

“That was a huge deal for us.”

Not Surprising: Runner up for the second week in a row, Jimmie Johnson, continues to not only rack up the points, but count each one most carefully, right to the points lead.

This was Johnson’s 15^th top-10 finish in 22 races at the Magic Mile and his 19^th top-10 finish for the season.

“We had a great race car, just not an amazing car like the No. 11 had,” Johnson said. “To only leave seven points on the table in two races is pretty good.”

“We missed the win last week and this week and we didn’t lead the most this weekend,” Johnson continued. “But it is probably seven points total.”

“That’s not bad.”

Surprising: Brian Vickers did his own surprising Denny Hamlin impersonation, slicing and dicing his way from the back of the field after an engine change to a ninth place finish.

“Really proud of the guys – everyone at MWR, Toyota, just this 55 crew,” said the driver of the No. 55 Freightliner/Jet Edge Toyota. “All the guys did a great job.”

“We had a car good enough to go and race with them for a little while.”

Not Surprising: In spite of still being 45 points behind the leader and in the 12^th Chase position, this driver continues to keep the faith, just like every other four-time past champion should.

Jeff Gordon, in the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, started on the pole and finished 3^rd at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

“It was a really solid effort,” Jeff Gordon said. “It’s a shame what happened to us in Chicago last weekend because I think we would have back-to-back top fives.”

“There is no doubt we can get ourselves back into this.”

Surprising: It was surprising just how badly the Ford camp performed, especially Chase competitors Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle, who finished 14^th and 18^th respectively.

“We were just battling overall grip,” Biffle, pilot of the No. 16 3M/GE Appliances Ford, said. “We chattered the front tires. We chattered the rear tires.”

“There at the end we chattered all four.”

“On a long run, we had about a 10^th place car, which is probably a little bit better than we usually do here,” Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Zest Ford Fusion, said. “But on short runs, we weren’t very good at all and then we got that caution there at the end and that didn’t work in our favor.”

“We weren’t that great overall.”

Not Surprising: As has his season gone, so did the New Hampshire race play out. Kyle Busch had a great outside pole start go south with engine woes yet again.

And while his crew chief Dave Rogers attempted to put the best spin on it, Busch was less then complimentary behind the wheel of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota.

“Unfortunately, we picked up a ‘miss’ under the hood,” Rogers said. “We just stayed out there and rode it out, and got the best finish possible.”

When told by his crew chief that he could not fix the car and to just ride it out, Busch said simply “Imagine that.”

Surprising: The two Michael Waltrip Racing teammates in the Chase had diametrically opposite experiences at the Magic Mile this past weekend. Clint Bowyer, in the No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota, finished fourth but Martin Truex Jr., in the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, finished 17^th.

“We had a solid race car,” Bowyer said. “But we needed a little bit more.”

“There’s a lot of racing left,” Bowyer continued. “It was a solid finish and kept us in the game going to Dover.”

Not Surprising: While Stewart Haas Racing had a seemingly solid day, with Tony Stewart finishing seventh and teammate Ryan Newman finishing tenth, both were disappointed when the checkered flag flew.

“It might’ve been a solid result, but we need to be better than that,” Stewart said simply.

“It was just not what we wanted,” Newman said. “Two top-10s aren’t bad, but we’d like to get Aspen Dental a win, too.”

Surprising: Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 5 Farmer’s Insurance Chevrolet, had a surprisingly consistent run at the Magic Mile. He finished in the same place as his number, position five.

“We had another consistent day,” Kahne said. “We have been pretty consistent so far so the first two are good for the Chase.”

“Hopefully, we can keep it going and get a little faster if we want to catch those other guys,” Kahne continued. “That would be pretty cool.”

Not Surprising: With a thirteen place finish and an issue with his pit stop, it was no surprise that the Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was in a state of dislike.

“I didn’t like the car in practice and didn’t really like it all weekend,” Junior said of his No. 88 AMP Energy/Diet Mountain Dew/National Guard Chevrolet. “We’ve got to get our stuff together to compete with these guys.”

“This ain’t good enough.”

Surprising: Regan Smith, celebrating his 29^th birthday and finishing 16^th, got a real surprise. He found out that he was being replaced in his No. 78 Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet.

“You just have to keep plugging away,” Smith said. “You need to figure out a way to make the best of the situation.”

Not Surprising: Brad Keselowski, scrappy as ever, could only talk about beating, banging, clawing and digging after his 6^th place finish in the Blue Deuce.

“There was a lot of clawing in the race,” Keselowski said. “We’d have liked to have been a little faster but we still had a decent day.”

“Like my 2 crew does every week, they just keep digging and made something happen.”

When asked about his position in the point standings, now just one point behind Jimmie Johnson, Keselowski was direct and to the point.

“One point doesn’t seem too bad,” Keselowski said. “We’ll go to Dover and give ‘em hell.”

NASCAR Community Embraces Five Year Old Cancer Survivor Ricky Mock

By

Angie Campbell

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September 27, 2012

In many ways, Ricky is like any other young boy.

“He loves anything to do with racing,” his mother, Sue, told me. “He’ll spend hours racing his toys and playing out different scenarios. The only video games he’ll play are racing ones.”

Ricky also loves “Sponge Bob,’ watching cartoons and animals.

“He’s just a precocious, fun-loving kid,” Sue says. “He wakes up in the morning happy and even with all he’s been through; he’s kept his zest for life.”

In April of 2011, Ricky began complaining that his leg hurt and would often sit and cry because of the pain.

They were eventually referred to an orthopedist for tests. After seeing the results, he set up an appointment for them at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. The family met with Dr. Walter Virkus, an orthopedic trauma and oncology surgeon.

He performed a bone biopsy and Ricky was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma in December. It’s a malignant cancer that usually affects children and adolescents. The cancer had metastasized to the liver and an aggressive treatment plan was formed.

The regimen began with six cycles of chemotherapy administered over 18 weeks. In March of 2012, Ricky underwent liver resection surgery.

His Mom spoke of how the treatment took its toll on the young boy.

“He was hospitalized about every 10 days for either a fever or from the chemo from January 4th – May 5th,” she said.

The hardest part was yet to come.

The chemotherapy had shrunk the cancer but because his entire right femur was involved, the femur would have to be removed to save Ricky’s life.

Ricky’s parents were presented with two options; a full amputation at the hip or a lesser known procedure called a rotationplasty which would allow the surgeon to reconnect the tibia (lower part of the leg) to the hip bone.

Sue explains their decision to go with a version of the rotationplasty surgery as “three weeks of discussion, research, tears, and questions.”

Before Sue and her husband Dave delivered the news to their son, they took him on a family vacation.

“We chose to go to Florida and see Winter, the star of the movie ‘Dolphin Tale,’ at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.”

His parents contacted the aquarium ahead of time and arranged a special visit. They hoped that the meeting would help when it came time to explain the upcoming surgery to their son.

Winter is not your typical dolphin. She was rescued after being caught in a crab trap line and was sent to the aquarium to begin her recovery. As a result of the accident, Winter lost her entire tail and two vertebrae.

Few dolphins survive such an experience but Winter beat the odds. Her resilience inspired her rescuers to come up with a procedure to fit her with a prosthetic tail. The rehabilitation process is ongoing but Winter had adapted amazingly well to the device.

The people at the aquarium were “phenomenal”, according to Sue. They allowed Ricky and his parents to meet with the trainer and get a firsthand look as he attached the prosthetic tail to the dolphin.

At this time, Ricky did not know about his surgery but his parents soon discovered that the trip had made a lasting impression on Ricky.

When the family arrived back home, Sue and Dave sat down with Ricky to talk about the upcoming operation. They had also picked up a book about the dolphin, Winter, to help them break the news.

Sue describes the heartbreaking conversation, saying “We tried to explain to our precious little boy that he was going to have surgery to have the sickness removed from his body. We told him he would be like Winter and would have to learn to wear a fake leg just like Winter.”

They weren’t sure if he truly understood what was going to happen until they went to meet with the surgeon.

The surgeon told Ricky that he wanted to talk to him about his surgery. But to everyone’s surprise, Ricky interrupted the surgeon and began telling him what was going to happen.

“He showed the surgeon the book about Winter,” Sue said, “and went to a page in the book where it showed a picture of an amputee with the dolphin.”

Ricky had the surgery on May 21, 2012 and the procedure went smoothly. His recovery was difficult because he was in a cast from the middle of his chest to his knees. This left him immobilized for about six weeks and finding ways to entertain their son proved challenging.

His parents improvised by setting up makeshift race tracks on his bed but it just wasn’t the same. Ricky found a new outlet in video games.

In late July Ricky began getting fitted for his prosthetic leg and going to physical therapy at Shriners Hospital for Children in Chicago, Illinois to learn how to use the prosthetic leg.

Word soon spread about this courageous young boy who loves racing and the NASCAR community responded. He has received cards, pictures and autographs from people all around the country.

“We have been so incredibly overwhelmed by everyone’s support and it never ceases to amazes us,” Sue said.

To learn more about Ricky please visit his “Team Ricky” Facebook page at the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/TeamRicky

Special thanks to Don Betke, Chrissy Pistone, Santus Gore, Gerry Wright, Shelley Cochran, James Cochran and LJ Cochran for their efforts in bringing Ricky’s story to the attention of the NASCAR community. There are so many others who have selflessly come forward to support Ricky and his family in countless ways. It’s impossible to list each person by name but your spirit of giving is truly appreciated.