Surprising and Not Surprising: Aaron’s 499 at Talladega
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[/media-credit]From a rain-delayed beginning to the green, white, checkered finish, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 43rd annual Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Surprising: It was surprising that it took nearly 36 years for a Dodge to return to Victory Lane, with the last one being the Dodge win of Dave Marcos on August 8, 1976.
And thanks to Brad Keselowski, in the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge for Penske Racing, the long winless streak for the manufacturer was finally been broken.
“At Talladega you don’t have a plan,” Keselowski said. “You go up front and you race your butt off all day.”
“You either get to the front or you don’t,” Keselowski continued. “That’s what we did.”
“Man it feels good to win here in Talladega,” Keselowski declared from Victory Lane. “I’m glad to come out on top with the Miller Lite Dodge.”
This was Keselowski’s sixth victory in 99 Cup races and his second victory and fifth top-10 finish in 2012. The driver has won twice before at Talladega as well.
Not Surprising: Since it was Talladega, as well as Super Moon and Cinco de Mayo weekend, it was not surprising that crazy things happened, including many drivers watching the remainder of the race from the sidelines, due to everything from engine woes to multiple car pileups.
Even the most influential athlete and five-time champ Jimmie Johnson was not immune, succumbing to engine failure and officially retiring on Lap 110 with a 35th place finish.
Johnson spent the remainder of the race on his teammate Dale Earnhardt Junior’s pit box, rooting for that elusive 200th win for Hendrick Motorsports, which again was not meant to be.
“We lost the oil pressure there,” the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet said. “We don’t know exactly what happened.”
Surprising: In spite of celebrating his 20 year sponsorship with Dupont and 20 straight years with a pole, Jeff Gordon was NASCAR’s surprising biggest point’s loser. The four-time champion battled overheating all race long and was caught up in the ‘big one’ on Lap 141.
Gordon fell six spots, from 17th to 23rd, in the point standings. The driver of the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet finished the race in the 33rd position.
“That was not fun,” Gordon said. “I didn’t like hitting the wall.”
“Man, this is just one of the most bizarre years that this Dupont Chevrolet and Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet team has ever gone through,” Gordon continued. “I mean, it’s almost comical at this point.”
Not Surprising: As high as his teammate was for winning, it was not surprising that the other Penske Dodge competitor, A.J. Allmendinger was about as low as he could go.
The driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil-AAA Dodge went to block Denny Hamlin and the wreck was on. Allmendinger finished 15th after starting from the outside pole.
“My guys did a good job, fast motor, fast race car,” Allmendinger said. “I had a chance to win the race until it all went down the drain.”
“We had a chance to win,” Dinger said with abject disappointment. “I’m happy the 2 car won.”
Surprising: At a track where the spotter is essential, it was surprising that the driver of the No. 5 Farmer’s Insurance Chevrolet was able to rebound for a good finish after losing his spotter Kevin Hamlin to laryngitis.
Kasey Kahne, dodging at least three wrecks, finished fourth. He was the highest Hendrick Motorsports finisher.
“We survived, that was the biggest thing,” Kahne said. “We missed the wrecks and got a good push there at the end.”
“We were catching the guys in front of us, but it was just too late.”
Not Surprising: With the new rules changes by NASCAR designed to decrease the tandem racing and increase the pack racing, it was not surprising that many drivers were concerned about the cars overheating and the temperatures of the water and oil in the engines.
The unofficial ‘Mayor’ of the NASCAR garage, Jeff Burton, weighed in on the issue. The driver of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet was none too happy in spite of his tenth place finish.
“Not being able to race the way we want to race is frustrating,” Burton said. “Every time we would get in the pack, our water pressure would get real high.”
“We didn’t want to push water and that wasn’t a lot of fun,” Burton continued. “But we caught a lucky break when the caution came out and fortunately that helped us a lot.”
Surprising: Kurt Busch, channeling his inner Ricky Bobby, had a surprisingly good run in his No. 51 Talladega Nights ME car. In fact, it was even surprisingly pleasant to listen to his radio chatter as he rattled off strings of dialogue from the movie.
Unfortunately, Busch was caught up in one of the late race crashes, relegating him to a 20th place finish.
“It was a good effort all day by the team,” Busch said. “It’s pretty disappointing to come to one of the places we have circled on the schedule, run well all day, and then have it end like this.”
“But that’s a part of it.”
Not Surprising: Fresh off his second place finish in the Nationwide race, it was not surprising to see Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota, finish in the runner up spot in the Cup race.
“For me, whatever Talladega and Daytona is, it’s a restrictor plate race,” Busch said. “That’s what we all know going into the weekend.”
“Some of us love coming here, some of us dread it,” Busch continued. “You don’t have control of your own destiny, I don’t feel like.”
Surprising: When asked if he preferred the pack racing to the tandem drafting, Tony Stewart had a surprisingly ‘interesting’ idea for what he thought might just make the racing even better.
“I think we ought to make it a figure eight,” the driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet said. “If we could make it a figure eight, it would be perfect here.”
“We can stop at the half way mark, take a break and turn around and go backwards the rest of the way,” Smoke continued. “Then with ten to go, we split the field in half and half go the regular direction and half of them go backwards.”
Not Surprising: NASCAR’s most popular driver gained a new moniker, ‘Mr. Consistent’, that is not at all surprising given the good start to his season. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had another solid run, finishing ninth in his No. 88 National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet.
“This is definitely the most consistent we’ve ever been, or I’ve ever been,” Junior said. “I have a great team and they give me great cars.”
“It worked out and we ended up getting a finish, and not tore up and on the hook,” Junior continued. “I hope we can go to Darlington and keep our consistency going.”
Simple Physics spoils Talladega
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[/media-credit]For a long time I have said of Talladega and Daytona that they are multi-million dollar junk yards. This year was no different but this time it could all be laid at NASCAR’s feet.
In Daytona, in an effort to break up the tandem draft, NASCAR altered the grill opening and the radiator capacity and put a pressure valve in the cooling system of the cars. The purpose was to keep the cars from pushing one another for laps at a time. They lowered the rear bumper cover. They decreased the size of the spoiler. End result they broke up tandem drafting successfully and sent the teams back to pack racing.
No I have no problem with pack racing. It was certainly more exciting than surrey racing. But NASCAR did not take into consideration the change of seasons and climates.Talladega in the spring is much warmer temperature wise than Daytona in February. When they made no changes for the 90 degree ambient temperature in Alabama, they created a race situation that was hardly a race. A very sarcastic Tony Stewart said post race, “The racing was awesome,” Stewart said. “It’s fun to be able to race and have to watch the (overheating) gauges at the same time. It just adds that much more. Being able to make yourself run on the apron and everything to try to get clean air, it makes it fun.”
Teams spent most of the day monitoring water pressure and temperature gauges and trying to hold together engines that were overheating kind of like a boiling tea kettle. Basically the overheating situations made it impossible for the cars to race. At one point in the race Jeff Gordon said ‘My (water) pressure is way high. The temperatures are not flashing but I gotta get out of here.” How exactly do you get out of a pack that has 40 cars in it without wrecking 10 of them and yourself?
The temperatures affected the ability for teams to fuel the cars. Alcohol is lighter than the petroleum fuel and is much more temperature sensitive. When you add the humidity at Talladega you created a vapor lock type situation where the teams couldn’t get the car full of fuel. With no venting in the can or the system it makes impossible to force the air out of the system and replace it with fuel. Think about the finger on the end of the straw trick. If you heat the straw it doesn’t work as well. It’s more difficult to get fluid into the straw. Now I understand that DW is of the opinion that the fuel was vaporizing from the cars but that is simply not true.
What is true is that more and more NASCAR shows that its cost containment measures are merely a control of competition measure. The COT itself is more expensive to build. The new EFI system is much more expensive to build, monitor and maintain. And then to decrease the cooling capability of the car on an engine that now uses Ethanol which burns hotter than petroleum fuel you are asking to blow up and destroy very very expensive and highly specialized engines.
NASCAR needs to once again examine its mandates for teams on the Super Speedways. To force drivers to watch gauges and pressures in packs moving 190 mph is asking for disaster. To put them in packs, which they should, but take away the ability to keep the million dollar engines from blowing up because no air can get to the engine and the engine is trying to cool itself on 2 gallons of water is poor judgment at the very best. It creates situations that even the skills of the best stock car drivers in the world can’t maneuver out of.
Speaking of maneuvering, huge display of car control by Dale Earnhardt Jr in getting through the first wreck of the day by slicing and dicing his way through the carnage, it was just another example of the talent that is often overlooked behind the wheel of the 88.
Another point of contention this weekend occurred at the checkered flag in the Nationwide race. It was yet another blatant example of double standards in NASCAR. Sam Hornish, Jr. suffered a flat right front tire coming out of four and with the limited control that brings got into Danica Patrick who got into the wall. Patrick retaliated after the checkered flag going into one on the cool down lap and spun the car of Hornish into the wall.
NASCAR turned a blind eye to situation, even though when compared to video tape of the Busch/Hornaday incident in Texas they appear to be very similar. Busch as you will recall had been placed on probation for similar incidents and was then sat out for the remainder of the Texas weekend. Patrick however, was not even called to the trailer.
Let me just say that the touch me not attitude and the tantrums that are synonymous with Danica’s reputation are a result of sanctioning bodies not holding her to the same standards as every other driver on the track. It was those tantrums that made Indy Car breathe a sigh of relief when she left for NASCAR on a full time basis.
If you are going to climb in and race with the boys you have to expect to be treated exactly like one of them. Because when you climb in that car you are no longer male or female. You are a driver period. I was very disappointed that NASCAR didn’t at least issue a warning about the behavior. Especially in light of the fact that she once again crawls in a Cup Car at Darlington. To let this slide says it’s ok for her to continue this behavior. It is not ok for Kyle Busch or Kevin Harvick or Carl Edwards or Denny Hamlin but it is ok for Danica. Honestly folks that simply doesn’t fly. It does however add another color to the WWE palate that NASCAR has begun to resemble.
Congratulations to this weeks winners. Kyle Larson and Tracy Hines in USAC competition, Chad Kemenah and Sammy Swindell in World of Outlaws competition, Brandon McReynolds in ARCA competition, Joey Logano on his NNS win and Brad Keselowski on his Sprint Cup Series win.
Thoughts and prayers continue for Eric McClure and his family as he continues to recover after a very frightening crash during the NNS race on Saturday.
That said, to all the competitors in all the series thanks for giving us everything you have to give, you are our heroes. Most importantly, thanks to all the families who shared their loved ones with us so we could cheer our favorite driver and favorite teams. You are the true heroes of the sport and we are forever in your debt.
Swindell Walks The Dog for Victory Number 4
[/media-credit]The Goodyear Outlaw Thunder returned to Eldora last night for it’s final night. It’s final night would prove much calmer than it’s first. And would see Sammy Swindell take the checkered flag for the 4th time this season.
After qualifying seventh quickest, Swindell drove from third to second in both his heat race and the dash. He then rocketed to the lead at the start of the feature, which went caution free for 24 laps before Jason Sides’ flat left rear tire brought out a yellow flag.
“The way the car was rolling through there I knew that if somebody was faster, they’d have to be just really awesome because this thing was almost on rails,” Swindell said. “It was just stuck down so hard I could just drive around there like I’m driving down the freeway.”
The caution eliminated nearly a straightaway lead for Swindell, who took little time in reestablishing a sizeable advantage. However, Kraig Kinser sustained a flat left rear tire with two laps remaining to bring out the final caution of the race.
Joey Saldana, who ran second for most of the race, began to slow a couple of laps before the caution because of an engine issue. Swindell chose the outside lane on the double-file restart and Saldana’s car was slow to take off, bogging the inside lane on the start and dropping him to sixth by turn one.
Swindell sailed to the win as Dale Blaney used the late cautions to pick up a pair of positions.
“We were probably going to run fourth until those last couple of yellows,” he said after finishing second. “They kind of helped us out. Sometimes yellows can help or hurt, and tonight they helped a little bit.
“(Swindell) was awful good all night long. He drove away from us early. He was definitely a better car than us and it would have took a little bit of problem from him for us to get up to him. I just wasn’t good enough from the center off to get a run on guys to slide them.”
Craig Dollansky also capitalized on the two cautions to drive from sixth to third in the final five laps.
“My car got good as the race wore on,” he said. “Late in the race was when my car felt the best.
“Any time you can come out with a top three with this group of teams here, it’s a pretty good night.”
David Gravel, who set fast time for the second night in a row, finished fourth and Daryn Pittman drove from 11th to round out the top five.
Schatz overcame an early issue of his own and rebounded in the feature. After advancing from eighth to third in the Last Chance Showdown to earn a transfer, Schatz started the main event in 24th. He restarted 14th on the caution with six laps remaining and then restarted ninth on the green-white-checker.
Schatz finished sixth and he earned the KSE Hard Charger Award for a series-best third time this season.
Saldana placed seventh, Steve Kinser was eighth, Greg Wilson ended ninth and Friday night winner Chad Kemenah rallied from 22nd to conclude the top 10.
Paul McMahan won a heat race and the dash, and Trey Starks, Steve Kinser and Jac Haudenschild earned heat wins. Tony Stewart claimed the Last Chance Showdown.
Swindell and Schatz have exchanged the points lead 8 times in 15 events making it the most hotly contested championship battle in World of Outlaws History.
