Helio Castroneves Scores Pole Position at Barber Motorsports Park

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April 1, 2012

[media-credit id=4 align=”alignleft” width=”266″][/media-credit]Team Penske driver Helio Castroneves won the IZOD IndyCar Series pole for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park for his first pole in more than a year. Last week’s race winner got the pole with a best time of one minute, 10 seconds during the Firestone Fast Six session.

“The AAA Team Penske crew did a great job, and it will keep us in good shape,” Castroneves says. “Unfortunately, we were the first ones out there because of no practice this morning. The red tires gave us a lot of bonus, so I apparently made it. We made some changes and that put us good for second qualifying. In the end, Will (Power) and some other competitors not making it was tough, but it is better to be lucky than good. (Strategist) John (Erickson), (race engineer) Ron (Ruzewski) and I were just going through the stuff and The Firestone red tires were great and have a lot of grip. The Firestone tires were able to give me Top 6 and thanks again Firestone.”

The last pole for Castroneves came at Motegi in 2010 as this marks the 37^th pole of his career and the third consecutive pole at Barber for Penske.

Andretti Autorsport driver James Hinchcliffe qualified second for his career best start in IndyCar.

“Obviously a great start for us to be on the outside of the front row,” he says. “It’s my best start and it’s a great result after the way practice went yesterday and being rained out, then being fogged out this morning. We only had 14 dry laps coming into qualifying. We knew we had to take a little bit of a swing at it, and give it to the Andretti Autosport guys because that green Go Daddy guy was quick. As soon as we pulled out and we got into the Fast Six and we had only done I think one quick lap on those tires and two before the red came out.”

Target Chip Ganassi driver Scott Dixon qualified in third, followed by Mike Conway and Tony Kanaan.

Will Power scored the best lap of the session in round one for a record lap of one minute, 9.8529 seconds. He would transfer to round two via that lap, but didn’t get to round three and Firestone Fast Six, as he ended up in the ninth at the end of the season. Last year, Power won the event after starting on the pole.

“”It’s a pretty frustrating qualifying result,” he says. “Man, we had a great Verizon car today. We had a good first session and we were ready to fight for the pole. I know INDYCAR threw the red flag there but I’m not sure why they didn’t allow our fast lap. It’s definitely going to be tough starting ninth tomorrow, but we know we’ve got a fast car. We have to have a good start and be strong on the restarts and hopefully work our way up front.”

The Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama 90-lap event is set to take place on Sunday at 2p.m. ET and will be shown live on NBC Sports Network.

Matty’s Picks 2012 – Vol. 7 Martinsville Speedway – Goody’s Fast Relief 500 – April 1, 2012

By

SM Staff

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March 31, 2012

[media-credit name=”Matt LaFlair” align=”alignright” width=”224″][/media-credit]Under the gun with a very important deadline this week, Matty’s Picks will be very brief and uneventful, much like last week’s Auto Club 400.

Last week was another dismal performance for me picking winners, much like this week’s winner pick’s start to the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. I picked Matt Kenseth as my winner pick last week because of the domination of the Ford FR9 engines early this season, but again I was let down. Kenseth finished the 112 lap sprint 17th, and I received zero points for my efforts.

My Dark Horse finished in the top-10 and without my stat book in front of me I can not tell you exactly how many times that has happened this year. I picked Martin Truex Jr. last week as my Dark Horse, but he is steadily working his way into the ranks of not qualifying as a Dark Horse. At any rate, he scored an 8th place finish last week, keeping him inside the top-5 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings.

Martinsville Picks

Everyone knows the history of the paper-clip in Southern Virginia, so I don’t need to re-iterate how excited I am to watch all 500 laps tomorrow afternoon. It’s probably the only true short-track left on the circuit, and the race Sunday is surely going to be one of the more exciting stanzas of the season.

Winner Pick

He’s off to a slow start this season but I’m thinking his luck is about to turn around. Sitting in 25th place in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Standings, Jeff Gordon needs to get his act together quickly as we’re almost a quarter of the way to the start of the 2012 Chase for the Sprint Cup. He’s been the guy to beat all weekend at Martinsville Speedway, winning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Final Practice by two-tenths of a second. When you’re talking a flat short -track, two-tenths is an eternity. He’ll start 9th tomorrow, and in order for the Drive to End Hunger team to be in the big dance at the end of the season, Jeff Gordon has to turn his luck around soon.

Dark Horse Pick

This one might be a long shot this week, but in order to win big, you have to bet big. Kurt Busch is another guy that if he didn’t have bad luck this season, he wouldn’t have any at all. He’s starting way back in the field, and will need the combination of solid pit strategy, a good race car, and a bit of lady luck this weekend in Martinsville to come up with a solid finish. The paper-clip in Southern Virginia has not been the kindest of places for Busch historically, with an average finish of just 20.8. One of his 7 career short-track wins has come at Martinsville, but he’s got a tall task ahead of him if he’s to leave Old Dominion with a solid finish.

That’s it for this week, and until next time…You Stay Classy NASCAR NATION!

Harvick dominates NCWTS race at Martinsville

By

Barry Albert

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March 31, 2012

[media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Kevin Harvick dominated Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race by leading a series-record 248 of the 250 laps run at Martinsville Speedway.

“Nine times out of 10, when you have trucks like this, or cars, and you have a day like that where you think you’re by far the fastest, usually they never work out. So today was a special day to win the pole, lead the most laps and win the race.” Harvick said.

This was the first victory in the NCWTS for team owner Richard Childress.

Teammate Ty Dillon finished second in just his fourth start.

“I think our truck was just as good. That’s just Harvick. He’s been in a lot of races here, won a lot of races. Second place in my first start at Martinsville. I’ll take it.” Dillon said.

James Buescher finished third, Justin Lofton fourth and Timothy Peters finished fifth.

John King finished ninth and holds a one point lead in the series standings over Timothy Peters and Justin Lofton.

Unofficial Race Results
Kroger 250, Martinsville Speedway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Cup/race.php?race=2
=========================================
Pos.	St.	No.	Driver	Make	Points
=========================================
1	1	2	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	0
2	2	3	Ty Dillon *	Chevrolet	43
3	9	31	James Buescher	Chevrolet	41
4	6	6	Justin Lofton	Chevrolet	40
5	3	17	Timothy Peters	Toyota	39
6	16	30	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Chevrolet	38
7	17	8	Ross Chastain *	Toyota	37
8	12	18	Jason Leffler	Toyota	36
9	32	7	John King *	Toyota	35
10	22	23	Jason White	Ford	34
11	15	29	Parker Kligerman	Ram	33
12	20	60	J R Fitzpatrick	Chevrolet	32
13	7	27	Jeb Burton*	Chevrolet	31
14	27	81	David Starr	Toyota	30
15	4	33	Cale Gale *	Chevrolet	29
16	5	9	Ron Hornaday	Chevrolet	28
17	14	32	Miguel Paludo	Chevrolet	27
18	31	7	Jake Crum	Chevrolet	26
19	26	24	Max Gresham *	Chevrolet	25
20	25	92	David Reutimann	Chevrolet	0
21	36	98	Dakoda Armstrong *	Toyota	23
22	18	5	Paulie Harraka *	Ford	22
23	30	9	John Wes Townley *	Toyota	21
24	11	88	Matt Crafton	Toyota	20
25	13	11	Todd Bodine	Toyota	19
26	33	99	Bryan Silas *	Ford	18
27	35	93	Chris Cockrum	Chevrolet	17
28	19	214	Brennan Newberry	Chevrolet	16
29	8	13	Johnny Sauter	Toyota	15
30	21	22	Joey Coulter	Chevrolet	14
31	29	168	Clay Greenfield	Ram	13
32	28	39	Ryan Sieg	Chevrolet	12
33	24	15	Dusty Davis *	Ram	11
34	34	8	Jennifer Jo Cobb	Ram	10
35	10	170	Jeff Agnew	Chevrolet	9
36	23	174	Rick Crawford	Chevrolet	8

Lap by Lap: Kroger 250 won by Kevin Harvick

By

SM Staff

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March 31, 2012

[media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]Green flag as Kevin Harvick leads the first lap after starting on the pole.

Lap 2 Harvick leads Ty Dillon and Cale Gale.

Lap 3 Timothy Peters and Ron Hornaday both pass Gale for third and fourth.

Lap 4 Justin Lofton passes Gale for fifth

Lap 5 Dillon takes the lead from Harvick

Lap 6 Harvick takes the lead back from Dillon while Johnny Sauter passes Gale.

Lap 8 James Buescher and Matt Crafton pass Gale for seventh and eighth

Lap 10 Harvick leads Dillon, Peters, Hornaday, Lofton, Sauter, Buescher and Crafton.

Caution Lap 21 Hornaday get loose and goes for a spin.

Restart Lap 26 Harvick leads Dillon, Lofton, Peters, Buescher, Sauter, Crafton, Gale, Todd Bodine and Jeb Burton.

Lap 33 Peters, Buescher and Sauter pass Lofton for third and fourth.

Lap 37 Peters passes Dillon for second

Lap 41 Harvick leads Peters, Dillon, Buescher, Sauter, Crafton, Lofton, Gale, Bodine and Parker Kligermann

Caution Lap 75 Joey Coulter gets into the outside wall after a flat tire. All the leaders take the opportunity to pit. Harvick leads Dillon, Buescher, Peters, Lofton, Sauter, Gale, Kligermann and Bodine off pit road. John King gets the lucky dog.

Restart Lap 83

Lap 86 Harvick leads Dillon, Peters, Buescher, Sauter, Lofton, Gale, Kligermann, Bodine and Jason Leftler.

Lap 92 Caution as J.R. Fitzpatrick goes for a spin as Jeff Agnew collects damage. John Wes Townley gets into Fitzpatrick spinning him, as the chain reaction gives Agnew and Dakota Armstrong damage. Hornaday and Crafton both had to change their batteries already, Paulie Harraka thinking he has an issue.

Green Flag lap 100 as Harvick leads Dillon and Buescher

Lap 101 Harraka changes the battery

Lap 103 Harvick leads Dillon, Peters, Buescher, Sauter, Lofton, Gale, Bodine, Kligermann and Leftler

Caution Lap 111 Dusty Davis is stopped on the front stretch on the track. Crafton gets the lucky dog.

Restart Lap 123

Lap 125 Harvick leads Dillon, Buescher, Peters, Lofton, Sauter, Bodine, Gale, Kligermann and David Starr.

HALFWAY

110 to go Bodine passes Sauter for sixth

103 to go Fire on pit road as Ryan Sieg breaks a rear end gear

93 to go Nelson Piquet Jr. passes Starr for 10th

Caution Lap 157 as Starr spins with a flat tire. Hornady gets the lucky dog. Leaders pit…….Harvick leads Dillon, Buescher, Lofton, Bodine, Peters, Gale and Sauter off pit road.

Restart Lap 164.

82 to go Harvick leads Dillon, Lofton, Buescher, Peters, Bodine, Sauter, Gale, Ross Chastain and Piquet Jr.

47 to go Harvick leads Dillon, Buescher, Lofton, Sauter, Peters, Bodine, Gale, Piquet, Chastain

40 to go Sauter passes Lofton

26 to go Bodine has a flat tire and a broken sway bar.

25 to go Leftler possibly has a lot of fluid leaking; Coulter almost into the wall with another flat tire

Caution 24 to go as David Reuitmann gets into the wall with a flat tire. Harvick leads. Sauter behind the wall with a broken upper control arm.

Restart 16 to go as Harvick has the lead.

15 to go Caution as Max Gresham goes for a spin, collecting Jeb Burton, Miguel Paludo and Brennan Newberry

Restart 6 to go

Kevin Harvick wins the Kroger 250 over Dillon, Buscher, Lofton, Peters, Piquet Jr., Chastain, Leftler, John King, Jason White

Unofficial Race Results
Kroger 250, Martinsville Speedway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Cup/race.php?race=2
=========================================
Pos.	St.	No.	Driver	Make	Points
=========================================
1	1	2	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	0
2	2	3	Ty Dillon *	Chevrolet	43
3	9	31	James Buescher	Chevrolet	41
4	6	6	Justin Lofton	Chevrolet	40
5	3	17	Timothy Peters	Toyota	39
6	16	30	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Chevrolet	38
7	17	8	Ross Chastain *	Toyota	37
8	12	18	Jason Leffler	Toyota	36
9	32	7	John King *	Toyota	35
10	22	23	Jason White	Ford	34
11	15	29	Parker Kligerman	Ram	33
12	20	60	J R Fitzpatrick	Chevrolet	32
13	7	27	Jeb Burton*	Chevrolet	31
14	27	81	David Starr	Toyota	30
15	4	33	Cale Gale *	Chevrolet	29
16	5	9	Ron Hornaday	Chevrolet	28
17	14	32	Miguel Paludo	Chevrolet	27
18	31	7	Jake Crum	Chevrolet	26
19	26	24	Max Gresham *	Chevrolet	25
20	25	92	David Reutimann	Chevrolet	0
21	36	98	Dakoda Armstrong *	Toyota	23
22	18	5	Paulie Harraka *	Ford	22
23	30	9	John Wes Townley *	Toyota	21
24	11	88	Matt Crafton	Toyota	20
25	13	11	Todd Bodine	Toyota	19
26	33	99	Bryan Silas *	Ford	18
27	35	93	Chris Cockrum	Chevrolet	17
28	19	214	Brennan Newberry	Chevrolet	16
29	8	13	Johnny Sauter	Toyota	15
30	21	22	Joey Coulter	Chevrolet	14
31	29	168	Clay Greenfield	Ram	13
32	28	39	Ryan Sieg	Chevrolet	12
33	24	15	Dusty Davis *	Ram	11
34	34	8	Jennifer Jo Cobb	Ram	10
35	10	170	Jeff Agnew	Chevrolet	9
36	23	174	Rick Crawford	Chevrolet	8

SRT Motorsports — RAM NCWTS Race Quotes – Martinsville

By

SM Archive

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March 31, 2012

Toyota NCWTS Martinsville Post-Race Notes & Quotes

By

SM Archive

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March 31, 2012

Kahne captures the pole at Martinsville

By

SM Staff

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March 31, 2012

[media-credit id=5 align=”alignright” width=”234″][/media-credit]Following Sprint Cup qualifying, Kasey Kahne won the pole for the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. This marks Kahne’s 24^th career Coors Light Pole Award and his first pole at Martinsville.

“It was a really solid lap,” he says. “The team did a good job yesterday. We didn’t have the most speed yesterday but I felt like the car was balanced really well. I felt pretty stable going around the track. It was the same in qualifying today. It was a good lap. First pole here for myself. It’s a tough track to qualify. It’s a tough track to race, always has been one of my tougher ones over the years. I’m glad we can start up front and have a great pit stall in that number one stall. I think that helps throughout the whole race with track position. Hopefully we will have a solid day tomorrow. That is what we need to do. We have had great Friday and Saturday’s and just haven’t put together a Sunday yet.”

Kahne drove a lap of 19.496 seconds, to beat Kevin Harvick by 16 hundredths of a second.

“The guys have done a great job this weekend,” Harvick says. “The track conditions have changed a lot since the beginning of practice until where we are now. Obviously the race conditions are where we will have to take a little bit of a guess like we did for qualifying based on the rubber being on the track from yesterday. They have done a good job and I just slipped the tires off both corners a little bit but all-in-all they have stepped the program up this year.”

Four-time Martinsville Speedway winner Denny Hamlin qualified third with a lap of 19.521 seconds.

“We didn’t really show a lot of good qualifying speed or really front end speed of a long run yesterday,” he says. “That’s good for us to be that close and after only a couple laps. I feel like once the race gets into a groove and gets going — things get strung out, I think we’ll be pretty good.”

Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman rounded out the top five.

Brian Vickers, making his second start of the season, starts sixth. He is followed by Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, seven-time Martinsville winner Jeff Gordon and Joey Logano. Six-time Martinsville winner Jimmie Johnson qualified 22^nd while points leader Greg Biffle is 26^th.

Tony Raines was disqualified from the starting field after his car was found to be too low in post-qualifying inspection. That moved J.J. Yeley into the 43-car field.

Starting Lineup
Goody’s Fast Relief 500, Martinsville Speedway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Cup/qual.php?race=6
===========================================
Pos.	No.	Driver	Make	Speed	Time
===========================================
1	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	97.128	19.496
2	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	97.048	19.512
3	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	97.003	19.521
4	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	97.003	19.521
5	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	96.988	19.524
6	55	Brian Vickers	Toyota	96.765	19.569
7	2	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	96.751	19.572
8	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	96.745	19.573
9	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	96.731	19.576
10	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	96.706	19.581
11	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	96.701	19.582
12	9	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	96.627	19.597
13	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	96.583	19.606
14	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	96.43	19.637
15	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	96.322	19.659
16	47	Bobby Labonte	Toyota	96.215	19.681
17	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	96.2	19.684
18	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	96.18	19.688
19	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	96.049	19.715
20	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	96.049	19.715
21	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	95.971	19.731
22	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	95.854	19.755
23	98	Michael McDowell	Ford	95.849	19.756
24	34	David Ragan	Ford	95.83	19.76
25	13	Casey Mears	Ford	95.796	19.767
26	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	95.743	19.778
27	22	AJ Allmendinger	Dodge	95.738	19.779
28	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	95.607	19.806
29	10	David Reutimann	Chevrolet	95.607	19.806
30	26	Josh Wise*	Ford	95.583	19.811
31	83	Landon Cassill	Toyota	95.511	19.826
32	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	95.477	19.833
33	23	Scott Riggs	Chevrolet	95.352	19.859
34	93	Travis Kvapil	Toyota	95.347	19.86
35	74	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	95.223	19.886
36	32	Ken Schrader	Ford	95.127	19.906
37	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	94.936	19.946
38	38	David Gilliland	Ford	94.78	19.979
39	30	David Stremme	Toyota	94.609	20.015
40	51	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	94.566	20.024
41	33	Hermie Sadler	Chevrolet	94.486	20.041
42	36	Dave Blaney+	Chevrolet	93.18	20.322
43	249	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	93.212	20.315