The winner will receive one $100 NASCAR.com Gift Card, M&M’S Racing backpack (the backpack contains a M&M’S hat, ‘koozie’, two toy race cars and a pen) and some M&M’S.
Indy Lights: Sebastian Saavedra wins Pole for Grand Prix of Alabama
[media-credit name=”IndyCar.com” align=”alignleft” width=”300″]
[/media-credit]With a lap of one minute and 16 seconds, Sebastian Saavedra won the Sonoco Pole Award for the 45-lap Grand Prix of Alabama on April 1st on the 17-turn Barber Motorsports Park road course.
“It was a very tough qualifying session,” he says. “Very wet in a couple of places and you don’t want it to be wet. A very big thanks to the No. 27 guys. They did an amazing job. This car was unbelievably fast all through the weekend. It was also very fast last week in St. Pete. It feels very good to have our first pole of the season and we will move forward from here.”
Tristan Vautier will start in second, beside Saavedra, for his second consecutive front row start. He made his Firestone Indy Lights debut last week from the pole at St. Petersburg.
“I’m happy and frustrated at the same time,” Vautier says. “I’m happy because I feel like we made a big step from practice, and we improved the car a lot. The team and my engineer made the right calls for the car. I’m happy because I feel we could have had this pole, but I’m frustrated because with the red flag we didn’t get to use our last set of tires, we just put it on and then it was red, we just did a warmup lap. But you know, we took a risk in waiting longer and it didn’t work out, so great job from these guys at Andretti/AFS, they made the right call in qualifying and were strong from the start of practice here. So well deserved, and we’ll do our best to do it in the race.”
Carlos Munoz will start third for his career best start while Esteban Guerrieri starts fourth for his 16th consecutive top-five start, which is a series record.
There was one incident on the session involving Oliver Webb.
The Grand Prix of Alabama is set to take place on April 1st with the green flag dropped at 5pm EST. The race will be shown live on the NBC Sports Network.
Helio Castroneves Scores Pole Position at Barber Motorsports Park
[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 37th 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
[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
[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
[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 |
