Matty’s Picks 2012 – Vol. 8 Texas Motor Speedway – Samsung Mobile 500 – April 14, 2012

By

-

April 14, 2012

[media-credit name=”texasmotorspeedway.com” align=”alignright” width=”199″][/media-credit]We head to the Lone Star State for tonight’s Samsung Mobile 500 for the first scheduled race under the lights during this 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Its wide, its fast, and there will be plenty of drama when the green flag flies later this evening. This is just the second mile-and-a-half track of the season, and is guaranteed to pull me away from the NHL playoffs tonight.

Texas has been one of my favorite tracks for a while now, I’m not sure if its the speed, the flames and six-shooters in Victory Lane, the simple thought that ‘Everything’s Bigger in Texas’ – (a track that comfortably seats over 190,000). If you recall last fall’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway , the race was promoted as a old west showdown between Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart. This weekend will not be much different except that it will be a duel between two teams, Roush Fenway Racing (8 wins in 22 Cup races at Texas) and Michael Waltrip Racing.

Last Week’s Recap

I had a great time celebrating Easter back in Syracuse, Mom made some great ham, showed my brothers and SpeedwayMedia.com editor Ed Coombs how to catch fish…
Back to racing.

It was two-weeks ago that we visited Martinsville Speedway for the Goody’s Fast Relief 500, and it was a dandy of a race on April Fools Day. My Dark Horse pick two weeks ago was a long shot after NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying, but Kurt Busch was up for the challenge of winning the race from 40th. Well, Busch’s day ended after a slue of problems with the No. 51 Phoenix Construction Services Chevrolet including a pair of blown right-front tires. Busch’s No. 51 was shown way down towards the bottom of the scoring pylon in 33rd, netting me yet another finish outside the top 30.

It was a much better day for my Winner Pick two weeks ago, leading a race-high 328 laps and completely dominating the 500-lap battle at Martinsville Speedway. It was David Reutimann that squashed my hope of picking up my first win of the season two weeks ago at Martinsville. When his car came to rest on the backstretch with just three laps to go, he brought out the caution that would make the final restart of the race a five-car fiasco. My Winner Pick had the lead on the final restart, partly because him and his teammate Jimmie Johnson opted not to come to pit road under the final caution for fresh tires. Jeff Gordon had dominated all day, and when the field took the green flag on the race’s final restart, he was punted by Clint Bowyer, who was shoved by race-winner Ryan Newman. It was a result of fresh tires vs. old tires, and the old tires lost. Gordon finished 14th.

Texas Picks

Besides a couple Hendrick chassis, its a MWR versus Roush Fenway battle this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. Roush Fenway drivers Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle are sandwiched between pole-sitter Martin Truex and Mark Martin in the top-4 starting spots, setting the stage for the two-team battle under the lights tonight.

Winner Pick

I think its Matt Kenseth who will fire the six-shooters tonight in Fort Worth. He is the defending winner of the Samsung Mobile 500, his second Cup win at Texas coming this time last year. His average finish of 8.7 at Texas is the best out of all the drivers taking the green tonight, and he’s also got two NASCAR Nationwide Series victories under his belt at Texas.

Kenseth will start on the outside of the front row tonight, and is excited for his chances of putting the cowboy hat on in Victory Lane, “I don’t really know why, but it has been a pretty good track for us in the past. We have had a lot of good runs and finishes here. Whenever you come back to a track you’ve had success at, then I think you probably always look forward to coming back to it maybe a little bit more. As far as mile-and-a-half tracks, we have only been to Vegas (this season) and I thought we performed really well there.“

Dark Horse Pick

Since Roush Fenway claimed my Winner Pick this week, Michael Waltrip Racing will take my Dark Horse this week, although this pick is a stretch of a Dark Horse.

He’s starting 4th tonight in just his 5th start of the 2012 season, but he will be piloting a rocket ship in the form of a Toyota Camry. Mark Martin is running a limited schedule this season in the No. 55 Aaron’s Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing, so when he does make it behind the wheel, he’s got to make the most out of it.

He fired the six-shooters in Victory Lane at Texas back in 1998, but struggled severely in the two races in the Lone Star State last year with 36th and 19th place finishes. Texas has been fairly kind to him with 7 top-5’s and 12 top-10’s, and enjoys the ‘Hometown’ feel Texas has for him, “Texas Motor Speedway is about 450 miles from my hometown of Batesville, Arkansas. I’ve had a stronger fan following there than anywhere else. Sure I listen in driver introductions when the fans cheer or boo, but I really notice the fans in general throughout the weekend. They are pretty vocal. Since it isn’t that far from Batesville it’s one of the places where my fans go. Texas and Kansas are probably the two places where I see or hear from most of my fans. That’s always a great feeling.”

Tonight will be fun and I look forward to what the Lone Start State’s first race of 2012 has to offer. Until Next Time…You Stay Classy NASCAR NATION!

Stenhouse strikes again, captures second win in Texas

By

SM Staff

-

April 14, 2012

[media-credit name=”Credit: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”255″][/media-credit]Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won for the second time in 2012 on Friday night in Texas but in doing so he had to overcome everything Friday the 13th could throw at him.

From radio problems, to his tachometer acting up, even the lights going out on multiple occasions. Yet it wasn’t enough to slow him from leading 69 laps and capturing a cowboy hat to go with the cowboy personality, and boots, that he already has.

“It was back and forth,” said Stenhouse of his night. “The race started we were very strong, our Pure Michigan Mustang was doing everything that I needed it to do. Then we lost a little track position there on that restart and seemed like we really struggled, wasn’t sure if it wanted to be loose, tight, we were battling with it.”

Stenhouse credited crew chief Mike Kelley for making all the right changes, as well as keeping him calm. Knowing they had a fast car but unable to overtake Paul Menard during a stint of the race, Stenhouse was told to relax and they would continue working on it.

“Mike decided to go with no changes on that last pit stop, which I wasn’t fond of. But he knows what he’s doing, that’s why he gets paid to do that. That last restart, it was crazy man. I think I spent the whole five laps we had under caution just praying for a good restart and everything worked out for us.

“It was fun racing those guys. I had to drive in to turn three wide open Denny [Hamlin] was on the left rear of us and got us a little bit loose but we managed to hang on and pull it off.”

It’s the first win for Stenhouse at Texas, his fourth career and the ninth win for Roush Fenway at Texas. He’s only won at three tracks: sweeping Iowa last season, Las Vegas earlier this season and now Texas. He only won twice all of 2011.

Team owner Jack Roush said he felt it was harder to defend the championship than it was to win it for the first time. But the defending champions continue to improve and have become a force to be reckoned with at every track on any given weekend.

Friday night Stenhouse showed everyone that all the talk about Elliott Sadler being in the drivers seat for the championship was premature. And he did so by also showing everyone that even his weakest link, restarts, wasn’t enough to keep him down.

On nearly every restart Stenhouse started off slow, seemingly spinning the tires. But then after a lap or two he had his No. 6 wound up on the high side and he quickly reeled the leaders back in.

On the race’s last restart with six laps to go, Stenhouse was able to keep Hamlin side-by-side with him before once again pulling away as his car came to life. He went on to win by 1.4 seconds over Paul Menard.

“I feel like we have,” said Stenhouse about improving his restarts. “I think a big thing last year was confidence in restarts. If I had a bad one I would spend whole run and the whole next caution trying to think about what I needed to do different.

“I just go into it with a little bit more confidence this year about it. They seem to be a lot better. There’s still some things I need to work on as a racecar driver and I think restarts, the initial takeoff can be improved on. Once we get going I don’t know if there’s anybody that drives it harder than we do. So getting up through the gears, we’re getting a lot better at it.”

It wasn’t all hard work for Stenhouse and company on Friday. There were plenty of light moments on the radio as they battled with the likes of Menard and Hamlin. Spotter Mike Calinoff had Stenhouse look to the right during one caution period and wave because he was watching him on NASCAR’s FanVision.

Throughout the course of the event he and Calinoff also traded barbs about Sadler constantly being on the track’s big screen TV.

Stenhouse joking, “They must love Elliott Sadler, he’s always on that big screen over there. I hate looking at that.” Later on saying Sadler should have a desk set up in his car so he can be a TV analysis or a permanent in-race reporter.

Then after taking the lead for the final time with less than 20 laps to go Calinoff told Stenhouse, “clear by six [car lengths] and the 2 [Sadler], is not on TV.”

It was all in good fun though. Sadler and Stenhouse have set themselves up for a great championship battle over the course of the season. Each have won twice in the seasons first six races and sit first and second in points heading to Richmond in two weeks.

“I think we look at it,” said Stenhouse of the points. “Obviously ours was a very close race up until Phoenix there last year. We sat down this offseason and looked at how many points we gave up at the beginning of the year not finishing off the races as strong as we should. Or some pit calls that didn’t go our way and things like that.

“So we definitely have started looking at it and you just need to try to stay consistent. When you have those bad days at this point you got to keep the 2 [Sadler] in sight as much as you can and try to give up minimal points to him.

“We definitely look at it. That’s our main goal this year, to go back and defend that championship and I think you got to start looking at it as early as the first race.”

Unofficial Race Results
O’Reilly Auto Parts 300, Texas Motor Speedway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Cup/race.php?race=6
=========================================
Pos.	St.	No.	Driver	Make	Points
=========================================
1	3	6	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	47
2	1	33	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	0
3	8	38	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	0
4	2	18	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	0
5	4	3	Austin Dillon *	Chevrolet	40
6	30	27	David Ragan	Ford	0
7	16	31	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	37
8	17	7	Danica Patrick	Chevrolet	36
9	18	43	Michael Annett	Ford	35
10	9	30	Steve Arpin	Chevrolet	34
11	14	12	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	33
12	5	2	Elliott Sadler	Chevrolet	33
13	7	88	Cole Whitt *	Chevrolet	31
14	20	5	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	0
15	12	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	0
16	10	44	Mike Bliss	Toyota	28
17	33	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	27
18	23	81	Jason Bowles *	Toyota	26
19	24	1	Mike Wallace	Chevrolet	25
20	15	70	Johanna Long *	Chevrolet	24
21	21	108	Kyle Fowler	Ford	23
22	31	39	Kelly Bires	Ford	22
23	27	40	Erik Darnell	Chevrolet	21
24	42	14	Eric McClure	Toyota	20
25	28	19	Tayler Malsam	Toyota	19
26	40	50	T.J. Bell	Ford	18
27	38	52	Tim Schendel	Chevrolet	17
28	26	41	Timmy Hill	Ford	16
29	37	51	Jeremy Clements	Chevrolet	15
30	6	54	Kurt Busch	Toyota	0
31	25	4	Danny Efland	Chevrolet	13
32	19	9	Ryan Truex	Toyota	12
33	41	124	Benny Gordon *	Chevrolet	11
34	39	23	Robert Richardson Jr.	Chevrolet	10
35	13	22	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	0
36	29	15	Blake Koch	Chevrolet	8
37	11	11	Brian Scott	Toyota	7
38	34	175	Scott Riggs	Chevrolet	0
39	36	46	Chase Miller	Chevrolet	5
40	32	42	Josh Wise	Chevrolet	0
41	35	47	Scott Speed	Chevrolet	0
42	43	174	Kevin Lepage	Chevrolet	2
43	22	10	Jeff Green	Toyota	1