Kahne Wins Inaugural Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200 at Rockingham Speedway

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April 15, 2012

Kasey Kahne was in the lead heading into the final 20 laps at Rockingham Speedway. He never relinquished that lead, scoring the victory in the inaugural Camping World Truck Series race at Rockingham Speedway. This was Kahne’s first victory in of 2012.

Kahne described this as “the best weekend I have had in a long time.” He drove in three races this weekend with three impressive finishes; third place in the Nationwide Series in Texas, seventh place in the Cup race, and the win at Rockingham.

[media-credit name=”Credit: Rainer Ehrhardt/Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”253″][/media-credit]He went on to explain how happy he was to be a part of the event.

“When I heard they were putting a race on here at Rockingham, as soon as I heard about it, I was trying to figure out whom I would race for and how I would make it here,” he said.

He only got about 4 ½ hours sleep the previous night but that did not dampen his enthusiasm.

“Coming to ‘The Rock’ I was so excited that I woke up early. My alarm was supposed to go off at nine this morning and I woke up at 7:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep.”

Sunday marked NASCAR’s first return to Rockingham Speedway since February 2004.

‘The Rock,’ under the guidance of Andy Hillenburg, opened its arms to the fans allowing them access to the infield and pit road, areas that are normally out of bounds for most ticket holders. Golf cart shuttles were available to take fans to their seats. They were limited but if you didn’t mind waiting, you could catch a ride. The atmosphere was more like a family reunion than a sporting event.

Everyone from the staff to the fans to the drivers was excited to be a part of the track’s return to NASCAR.

Nelson Piquet Jr. led the field to green on a sunny Sunday afternoon in the Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200. He led a total of 107 laps during the race and was dominant most of the race.

Points leader John King spun out on lap four, hit the inside wall and brought out the first caution.

Piquet continued to lead the field and had just lapped the tenth place car when a debris caution was called.

Matt Crafton took the lead shortly after the restart, leaving Piquet Jr. in second place.

Kasey Kahne started in the rear of the field but quickly worked his way into the top three battling with Matt Crafton and Nelson Piquet Jr. for the lead. Kahne took over the lead on lap 155.

On the final pit stop Piquet Jr. was caught too fast exiting and had to go to the back of the field, ending his bid for a win. He fought his way back to finish the race in seventh position.

James Buescher finished the race in second place position earning him his second top ten finish of 2012. Matt Crafton finished third followed by Johnny Sauter. Timothy Peters rounded out the top five.

Peter’s fifth place pushed him to a six point lead in the point standings over Justin Lofton. Ty Dillon is third, followed by James Buescher and Parker Kligerman.

Ty Dillon finished in eighth place and was the highest finishing rookie.

The next Camping World Truck Series race will be April 21, 2012 at Kansas Speedway.

Unofficial Race Results
Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200, Rockingham Speedway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/truckseries/race.php?race=3
=========================================
Pos.	St.	No.	Driver	Make	Points
=========================================
1	5	4	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	0
2	16	31	James Buescher	Chevrolet	42
3	8	88	Matt Crafton	Toyota	42
4	10	13	Johnny Sauter	Toyota	40
5	3	17	Timothy Peters	Toyota	40
6	17	22	Joey Coulter	Chevrolet	38
7	1	30	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Chevrolet	39
8	12	3	Ty Dillon *	Chevrolet	36
9	6	29	Parker Kligerman	Ram	35
10	19	6	Justin Lofton	Chevrolet	34
11	27	27	Jeb Burton *	Chevrolet	33
12	22	9	Ron Hornaday	Chevrolet	32
13	21	81	David Starr	Toyota	31
14	11	98	Dakoda Armstrong *	Toyota	30
15	23	32	Miguel Paludo	Chevrolet	29
16	29	2	Tim George Jr.	Chevrolet	28
17	13	33	Cale Gale *	Chevrolet	27
18	15	24	Max Gresham *	Chevrolet	26
19	18	92	David Reutimann	Chevrolet	0
20	20	9	John Wes Townley *	Toyota	24
21	24	275	Caleb Holman*	Chevrolet	23
22	32	39	Ryan Sieg	Chevrolet	22
23	30	214	Brennan Newberry	Chevrolet	21
24	28	23	Jason White	Ford	20
25	14	8	Ross Chastain *	Toyota	19
26	2	5	Paulie Harraka *	Ford	18
27	36	170	Jeff Agnew	Chevrolet	17
28	26	202	Tyler Young	Chevrolet	16
29	33	93	Chris Cockrum	Chevrolet	15
30	35	57	Norm Benning	Chevrolet	14
31	7	11	Todd Bodine	Toyota	13
32	31	99	Bryan Silas *	Ford	12
33	25	7	John King *	Toyota	11
34	4	18	Jason Leffler	Toyota	10
35	34	7	Johnny Chapman	Toyota	9
36	9	60	Grant Enfinger	Chevrolet	8

Lap by Lap: Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200 won by Kasey Kahne

By

SM Staff

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April 15, 2012

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]With 46 laps to go, Kahne passed Matt Crafton for the lead and didn’t look back as he led the field off pit road with 26 laps to go after a caution for debris.

Green flag as Nelson Piquet Jr. gets a solid start

Lap 3 Nelson Piquet Jr. leads Jason Leftler, Paulie Harraka, Parker Kligerman, Timothy Peters, Matt Crafton, Todd Bodine

Caution Lap 5 Points Leader John King gets into the inside wall. Got loose off of turn two and gets into the inside wall.

Restart Lap 9 as Nelson Piquet Jr. gets a good restart and pulls ahead

Lap 10 Ross Chastain bounced off the wall in turn two

Lap 11 Piquet Jr. leads Leftler, Crafton, Kligerman, Bodine, Harraka, Peters, Ty Dillon, Johnny Sauter, James Buescher

Lap 15 Sauter passes Dillon for eighth

Lap 16 Buescher passes Dillon for ninth

Lap 19 Peters, Sauter and Buescher pass Haraka

Lap 19 Crafton passes Leftler for second as Leftler heads down pit road with motor problems

Lap 21 Piquet Jr. leads Crafton, Kligerman, Bodine, Peters, Sauter, Buescher, Dillon, Justin Lofton and Harraka

Lap 29 Piquet Jr. leads Crafton, Kligerman, Peters, Sauter, Buescher, Bodine, Dillon, Lofton and Joey Coulter

Lap 31 Kasey Kahne passes Coulter for 10^th after starting in the rear

Lap 36 Dillon, Lofton and Kahne pass Bodine for position

Lap 39 Coulter passes Bodine for 10^th

Lap 47 Piquet Jr. leads Crafton, Kligerman, Peters, Buescher, Sauter, Kahne, Dillon, Lofton and Coulter

Lap 50 Piquet Jr. puts Cale Gale a lap down. Only the top 13 are on the lead lap

Lap 52 Lofton passes Dillon for eighth

Lap 54 Dillon passes Lofton back for eighth

Lap 55 Coulter passes Lofton for ninth

Lap 58 Piquet Jr. has a half a lap lead on second place Crafton

Lap 60 Caution for debris……Piquet Jr. leads Peters, Kligerman, Crafton, Buescher, Kahne, and Sauter off pit road……Jeb Burton got the lucky dog….

Restart Lap 66 as Piquet Jr. gets another strong start

Lap 68 Crafton takes the lead from Piquet Jr as they lead Peters, Kahne, Dillon, Sauter, Buescher, Kligerman, Lofton and Coulter.

Lap 70 Problems for Todd Bodine as he hit the wall off of turn two

Lap 71 Bodine brings the truck down pit road. No caution

Lap 73 Crafton leads Piquet Jr., Kahne, Peters, Sauter, Buescher, Dillon, Kligerman, Lofton and Coulter

Lap 87 Piquet Jr. now leads Crafton, Kahne, Peters, Sauter, Buescher, Dillon, Kligerman, Lofton, Coulter

Lap 94 Peters passes Kahne for third

Lap 95 Sauter passes Kahne for fourth

Lap 100 Coulter passes Lofton for ninth

HALFWAY as only 11 trucks are on the lead lap as Piquet Jr. leads Crafton, Peters, Sauter, Kahne, Buescher, Dillon, Kligerman, Coulter, Lofton and Jeb Burton

Lap 108 Kligerman passes Dillon for seventh

Lap 109 Crafton and Piquet Jr. battle side-by-side for the lead

Lap 110 Piquet Jr. holds Crafton off

Lap 111 Buescher passes Kahne for fifth

Lap 112 Piquet Jr. leads Crafton, Peters, Sauter, Buescher, Kahne, Kligerman, Dillon, Coulter, Lofton and Burton

Lap 113 Kahne, Kligerman and Dillon pass Buescher as Burton passes Lofton

Lap 116 Ron Hornaday runs in the lucky dog spot.

Lap 117 Jason White hits pit road

Lap 118 Piquet Jr. leads Crafton, Peters, Sauter, Kahne, Kligerman, Dillon, Busecher, Coulter, Burton, Lofton and Hornaday

Lap 121 David Reuitmann brings out the caution as he goes for a spin, collecting Bryan Silas…..Pit stops…..Peters leads Crafton, Sauter, Kahne, Piquet Jr., Dillon, Buescher and Kligermann off pit road. Sauter had to come back down pit road as they did not get it full of fuel. He’ll restart 11^th. Ron Hornaday gets the lucky dog to make it 12 trucks on the lead lap.

Restart Lap 131 as Crafton gets a good restart and takes the lead from Peters

Lap 133 Crafton leads Peters, Kahne, Dillon, Buescher, Piquet Jr., Kligerman, Coulter, Lofton, Burton, Sauter and Hornaday. Starr runs in the lucky dog position.

Lap 136 Piquet Jr. passes Buescher for fifth

Lap 139 Lofton passes Coulter while Sauter passes Burton

Lap 140 Buescher passes Piquet Jr. back while Kahne passes Peters

Lap 141 Crafton leads Kahne, Peters, Dillon, Buescher, Piquet Jr., Kligerman, Lofton, Coulter, Sauter, Burton and Hornaday. Starr still runs in the lucky dog position.

Lap 142 Sauter passes Coulter for ninth

Lap 143 Sauter passes Coulter for eighth; Piquet Jr. passes Buescher for fifth

Lap 144 Coulter passes Lofton for ninth

Lap 146 Piquet Jr. passes Dillon for fourth

Lap 148 Buescher passes Dillon for fifth; Sauter passes Kligermann for seventh

Lap 150 Crafton leads Kahne, Peters, Piquet Jr., Buescher, Dillon, Sauter, Kligerman, Coulter, Lofton, Burton and Hornaday. Starr still runs in the lucky dog position.

46 to go Kasey Kahne passes Matt Crafton for the lead

40 to go Kahne leads Crafton, Piquet Jr., Peters, Buescher, Dillon, Sauter, Kligerman, Coulter, Burton, Lofton, Hornaday. Starr still runs in the lucky dog position

35 to go Piquet Jr. passes Crafton for second

33 to go Kahne leads Piquet Jr., Crafton, Buescher and Peters

Caution 26 laps to go for debris. David Starr gets the lucky dog to put 13 trucks on the lead lap…..Pit stops…….Kahne leads Piquet Jr., Buescher, Peters, Crafton, Dillon, Sauter, Coulter, Kligerman and Burton off pit road. Piquet Jr. too fast exiting pit road so will need to go to the tail end of the longest line.

Restart 20 to go as Kahne keeps the lead from Buescher

14 to go Kahne leads Buescher, Crafton, Sauter, Peters, Coulter, Kligerman, Dillon, Lofton, Burton, Hornaday, Piquet Jr., Starr. Daykota Armstrong is in position for the lucky dog.

12 to go Dillon passes Kligerman for seventh

10 to go Piquet Jr. passes Hornaday 11th

9 to go Piquet Jr. passes Burton for 10^th

8 to go Piquet Jr. passes Lofton for ninth

7 to go Piquet Jr. passes Kligerman for eighth

Kasey Kahne wins over Buescher, Crafton, Saute, Peters, Coulter, Piquet Jr., Dillon, Kligerman, Lofton, Burton.

Unofficial Race Results
Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200, Rockingham Speedway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/truckseries/race.php?race=3
=========================================
Pos.	St.	No.	Driver	Make	Points
=========================================
1	5	4	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	0
2	16	31	James Buescher	Chevrolet	42
3	8	88	Matt Crafton	Toyota	42
4	10	13	Johnny Sauter	Toyota	40
5	3	17	Timothy Peters	Toyota	40
6	17	22	Joey Coulter	Chevrolet	38
7	1	30	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Chevrolet	39
8	12	3	Ty Dillon *	Chevrolet	36
9	6	29	Parker Kligerman	Ram	35
10	19	6	Justin Lofton	Chevrolet	34
11	27	27	Jeb Burton *	Chevrolet	33
12	22	9	Ron Hornaday	Chevrolet	32
13	21	81	David Starr	Toyota	31
14	11	98	Dakoda Armstrong *	Toyota	30
15	23	32	Miguel Paludo	Chevrolet	29
16	29	2	Tim George Jr.	Chevrolet	28
17	13	33	Cale Gale *	Chevrolet	27
18	15	24	Max Gresham *	Chevrolet	26
19	18	92	David Reutimann	Chevrolet	0
20	20	9	John Wes Townley *	Toyota	24
21	24	275	Caleb Holman*	Chevrolet	23
22	32	39	Ryan Sieg	Chevrolet	22
23	30	214	Brennan Newberry	Chevrolet	21
24	28	23	Jason White	Ford	20
25	14	8	Ross Chastain *	Toyota	19
26	2	5	Paulie Harraka *	Ford	18
27	36	170	Jeff Agnew	Chevrolet	17
28	26	202	Tyler Young	Chevrolet	16
29	33	93	Chris Cockrum	Chevrolet	15
30	35	57	Norm Benning	Chevrolet	14
31	7	11	Todd Bodine	Toyota	13
32	31	99	Bryan Silas *	Ford	12
33	25	7	John King *	Toyota	11
34	4	18	Jason Leffler	Toyota	10
35	34	7	Johnny Chapman	Toyota	9
36	9	60	Grant Enfinger	Chevrolet	8

Toyota NCWTS Rockingham Post-Race Notes & Quotes

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SM Archive

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April 15, 2012

SRT Motorsports — RAM NCWTS Final Race Quotes – Rockingham

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SM Archive

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April 15, 2012

RCR Post Race Report — Samsung Mobile 500

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SM Archive

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April 15, 2012

DEREK THORN SHINES IN NASCAR WEST ACTION AT LAKE HAVASU CITY

By

SM Staff

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April 15, 2012

[media-credit name=”Derek Thorn by LMP” align=”alignright” width=”223″][/media-credit]The NASCAR K&N Pro Series West made its inaugural appearance at the Havasu 95 Speedway, the quarter mile paved oval located in Lake Havasu City-Arizona, last Saturday, April 14th, in front of a SRO crowd who made it very clear that they liked what they saw that night.

However, no one in Lake Havasu City on this night was happier than Derek Thorn who crossed under the checkers to win the Toyota-Napa Auto Parts 150, presented by Gene Price Motorsports. The impressive outing in this race marked the Bakersfield-California resident’s first West Series win in only eight starts.

Thorn’s excellent Arizona evening began early in the day during qualifying when he won the Coors Light Pole after ripping off a lap of 15.277 seconds, (58.912 MPH), in his Sunrise Ford/Lucas Oil/Eibach Springs Ford Fusion.

While he made that qualifying lap look easy, winning this race was another matter. Thorn spent much of night racing hard with Dylan Kwasniewski and then having to fend off a late race challenge from eventual runner up David Mayhew.

When the Toyota-Napa Auto Parts 150, presented by Gene Price Motorsports, received the initial green flag, Thorn jumped into lead and opened a three car length lead by lap 14. But his race rhythm was disrupted by a caution flag, on lap 22, due to a double car spin in turn four. Thorn quickly discovered that the evening was destined to be a case of multiple double file restarts. The yellow caution flag flew a total of eight times and consumed 45 laps of the race.

The most prevalent of these caution flags came on lap 70 following a single car spin in turn three. Five laps, and another double file restart, later Dylan Kwasniewski was clearly aware that the laps were clicking off very quickly, the race was now at the half way point and it was go time.

Thorn and Kwasniewski sailed under the green flag side by side and stayed that way until Thorn was able to regain the point on lap 84. The two hard chargers traded the race lead a few times during this side by side run with the margin often being the thickness of the paint on their front bumpers.

This pattern was repeated two more times following caution flags on laps 87 and 98. All of this side by side action was much to the delight of the capacity crowd who completely abandoned the seats they paid good money to sit in.

Following a turn two collision that involved three race cars, the final yellow flag of the race was presented on lap 114 with the restart coming five laps later. This time Thorn made very quick work of clearing Kwasniewski and the two potential race winners opened up an eight car length lead over David Mayhew who had now worked his way to third.

Unfortunately, Kwasniewski’s Rockstar Energy Drink/Royal Purple Ford began to fade from the previous hard racing and, with only eight laps remaining in the race, Mayhew’s MMI/Ron’s Rear Ends Chevrolet took over second and began a last ditch effort the chase down Thorn. Unfortunately for that effort the time spent dueling for second, combined with the element of lapped traffic, allowed the race leader to pull away. Thorn sailed under the checkers with a margin of victory of 1.010 seconds. Michael Self, Golden Gate Meat Company/Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, and Eric Holmes, Napa Auto Parts Toyota, completed the top five.

After parking his Ford in the Havasu 95 Speedway victory lane, a very happy race winner said: “I’ve got to pay tribute to the Sunrise Ford team, Bob Bruncati, (team owner), and Bill Sedgwick, (crew chief), as well as all of the guys at our race shop. It was really hard coming to this track, because no had raced here, (except Kwasniewski). It’s hard to take something from practice and prepare yourself for a 150 lap race. It involved a lot of guess work but my guys did an awesome job of putting an awesome car underneath me.”

Based on winning the season opening race at Phoenix, David Mayhew continues to lead the West Series’ point standings with a three point advantage over Thorn and a six point lead over Kwasniewski. The series returns to action on April 28th and will run the Utah Grand Prix, a challenging road course event, at the Miller Motorsports Park.

The Toyota-Napa Auto Parts 150, presented by Gene Price Motorsports, was promoted by Bill McAnally Racing Promotions who leased the Havasu 95 Speedway. Judging from the intense competition of this race, combined with the SRO crowd, there are a lot of racing fans in Lake Havasu City-Arizona who are already hoping that this race will become a same time-next year annual event.

Briscoe Claims Toyota Grand Prix Pole, But Franchitti to start from first

By

SM Staff

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April 15, 2012

[media-credit name=”INDYCAR/LAT USA” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]At the end of the Firestone Fast Six 10-minute Shootout, Ryan Briscoe claimed the pole for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The record lap of one minute, 8.6089 seconds earned Briscoe his first pole of the season, one bonus point and $10,000. This is Briscoe’s first pole since Chicagoland in 2010.

However, he will be starting 11^th because of a 10-grid spot penalty after changing his engine due to an advisory from Chevrolet.

“We’ve only done short stints so far, but I feel like the first step is having the pace, and we know we’ve got that, so that’s definitely going to be a big help to us starting from 11^th tomorrow,” Briscoe said yesterday. “Last year we started 12^th, and through strategy ended up leading a lot of laps in the race. So we’re going to look at all of that. It’s going to be tough – it’s a really hard track to pass on, so we’re going to have to do our best and see what we can do to get to the front.”

The pole for Briscoe gives Team Penske their third consecutive of the season and fourth consecutive pole at Long Beach.

Briscoe’s Team Penske teammate Will Power qualified second, 0.0984 seconds behind Briscoe. However, he will be starting 12^th due to also being effected by the penalty.

“It was a battle in the Fast Six for sure, that was everything I had and we threw down a mega lap,” Power said. “Qualifying was important because we didn’t want to end up 15^th or 16^th, but yeah so I’m sure we’re going to make the best out of the situation and see where we can end up. Days like tomorrow will end up being really important for the championship, just trying to get as many points as possible and work hard at strategy.”

Andretti Autosports Ryan-Hunter Reay qualified third, however will start 13^th due to the penalty.

“It was OK, I expected a little bit more grip out there today but with only one session and 2 laps at a time here and it was tough to know what we really wanted out of the car, but it was the same for everybody,” he said. “So tired of being that couple hundredths off of the Penske guys here, three years in a row now. Definitely wanted the pole despite the penalty we’re going to take, and that was as good a chance as I’ve ever had, and we’re going to start 13^th I believe. So yeah it was a good day, but we wanted a lot more today and I’m pretty bummed about that.”

The pole sitter for the event will be Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dario Franchitti, who qualified fourth will start on the front row as he was the first driver not affected by the engine rule change penalty.

“In the Firestone Fast 6 we knew where we’d be starting regardless of what time we did, but we kind of wanted to earn it,” Franchitti said. “We didn’t quite have it in the car. So we’ll go back tomorrow and we’ll see what happens.”

E.J. Viso and James Hinchcliffe qualified fifth and sixth, though will start further back due to both changing motors. Franchitti would be joined on the front row by Josef Newgarden, who qualified seventh.

The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is set to take place on April 15^th at 3:30pm EST. The race will be telecast live by NBC Sports Network. The IMS Radio Network will also carry the race live on XM Channel 94 and Sirius 212.