Surprising and Not Surprising: Subway Fresh Fit 500
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[/media-credit]With the 36 hours of Daytona in the rear view mirror, the Cup Series headed to the Valley of the Sun. Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the Subway Fresh Fit 500.
Surprising: With the short interval between the Great American Race and the trek to Phoenix International Raceway, the amount of news made before the haulers even arrived in the Valley of the Sun was indeed surprising.
The first ‘surprise’ was for Chad Knaus, who was fined $100,000 and suspended for six races due to illegally modified C-posts found on the No. 48 Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson prior to the Daytona 500. Knaus and his team at Hendrick Motorsports have already agreed to appeal.
The second pre-race surprise occurred with Penske Racing announcing its move from Dodge to Ford in 2013. Roger Penske, the ‘Captain’ of the team, affirmed that he needed to make the manufacturer move for one reason only, to finally secure the Cup championship.
Not Surprising: With a championship level crew chief in Darian Grubb atop his pit box, it was not surprising that his new driver Denny Hamlin raced his way right to the checkered flag. After a spectacular burnout, the driver of the No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota paid homage to his crew chief and team from Victory Lane.
“If you would have asked me, I would have told you I would have taken a 15th place finish,” Hamlin said. “We just kept working at it.”
This was Hamlin’s 18th career win in his 225th start. It was the driver’s first win at PIR, having finished third four times before this victory.
With the win at Phoenix, Hamlin jumped to first place in the point standings. Although obviously very early in the season, Hamlin has not been at the top of the leader board since his losing championship battle two years ago.
“We’ve never been in this position at this point in the season,” Hamlin said. “We’re back this year.”
Surprising: While NASCAR nation has been waiting with bated breath, it was a bit surprising that the Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI) reared its ugly head for none other than reigning champ Tony Stewart. The driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet fell prey to EFI difficulties, unable to re-fire his engine after attempting to save fuel.
“I just shut the car off to save fuel and it never re-fired,” Smoke, who finished 22nd, said. “I don’t know why that was, but it definitely cost us a good day.”
Not Surprising: Although he did not quite live up to his moniker as ‘The Closer’, the driver of the No. 29 Rheem Chevrolet was pretty happy nonetheless. Kevin Harvick coasted on fumes to secure a second place berth in the Subway Fresh Fit 500.
“Finishing second and racing for a win in a place where we ran back in the twenties, was pretty good,” Harvick said. “You cut the fuel mileage that close, you’re figuring it right. Hopefully this is what sets the tone for the year.”
Surprising: Those drivers hooked up with new teams for the 2012 season did not fare well in the Valley of the Sun. Hendrick newcomer Kasey Kahne hit the wall in his No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet on Lap 22. Kahne ended up in the garage for many laps, finally finishing 34th.
AJ Allmendinger, new pilot of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge, also had some calamity befall his Phoenix run. The ‘Dinger was caught up in the Paul Menard crash on Lap 132, relegating him to an 18th place finish.
Not Surprising: After finishing almost dead last at Daytona and under the gun with his penalty, Jimmie Johnson was already 23 points in the hole before coming to Phoenix. Yet, to no one’s surprise, Johnson was in redemption mode yet again, scoring a fourth place finish in his No. 48 Lowe’s Kobalt Tools Chevrolet, moving him up to 38th in points.
“We were concerned about fuel,” Johnson admitted. “We just tried to make sure we got some points.”
“We had a little hiccup on pit road but we really fought back.”
Surprising: It was surprising how well Michael Waltrip Racing performed at Phoenix, at least for the majority of the team members.
Martin Truex, Jr. scored his first top-10 of the year for his No. 56 NAPA Filters Toyota, coming in seventh. Teammate and pole sitter Mark Martin brought his No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota to a second-straight top-10, officially finishing ninth.
“We need to get finishes like this each week,” Truex Jr. said. “And hopefully there are even better ones to come.”
“Proud of the effort,” teammate Mark Martin said. “Any time you get a top-10 finish, you have to say it’s a reasonable run.”
The No. 56 and the No. 55 are now tied, at 71 points, for sixth position in the point standings.
Not Surprising: With the slipperiness of the race track, it was no surprise that several drivers, including the third MWR driver, suffered tire troubles. Most notably on the tire issue list was MWR driver Clint Bowyer, behind the wheel of the No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota.
Bowyer suffered tire failure not one, but twice, relegating him to a 30th place finish. The MWR driver now sits 17th in points, falling six spots back due to his tire woes.
Surprising: In addition to EFI and tire troubles, the Valley of the Sun seemed to cause some engine failures as well. Most notably were the blown engines of Jamie McMurray, Marcos Ambrose and Jeff Burton, all of whom had good runs going until the tell-tale smoke billowed out from their tail pipes.
“We blew up,” Ambrose, driver of the No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion, said simply. “We are here trying to run for wins and run for championships and to trip over ourselves like that, it just isn’t going to get it done.”
Not Surprising: Although not technically a short track, there were some short track tempers flaring at Phoenix International Raceway. Most notably was a flare up between Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Subway Ford for whom the race was named, and Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Wix Filters Chevrolet.
On lap 256, Newman brought out the seventh caution of the race, crashing after contact with Edwards.
“I’m 99 percent sure Carl Edwards didn’t do that on purpose,” Newman said. “But I trusted him.”
“Now he can’t trust me because there is a lot to be had and lost, and we lost today,” Newman continued. “We know plenty of times in this sport, what comes around goes around.”
Greg Biffle off to a hot start following back-to-back top five finishes
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[/media-credit]Starting the season off with two third place finishes has Greg Biffle feeling pretty content.
Sunday in Phoenix Biffle followed up his impressive Daytona 500 run with another solid performance in his No. 16 3M Ford Fusion. He never led a lap but with his team continuing to improve on the car during the course of the race was able to mount a late race charge to fall in behind winner Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick.
“I certainly would have thought we would have run better today than we did,” said Biffle.
“We fought the car really bad beginning of this race. I guess the track is just a lot different than it was on Friday. I don’t care so much for this format of doing all of our practice on Friday when we get here. I like to practice and qualify and then Saturday we have happy hour. We have two practices to get ready for the race.”
This weekend’s schedule put Biffle behind he felt and he missed on what he needed. Luckily crew chief Matt Puccia kept working on it every time the car stopped on pit road. For all his hard work Biffle just didn’t think the car was that good and was ready to write the day off with a 15th or 20th place finish.
“But boy, it started coming around, coming around and really took off,” he said. “Certainly excited about how they got the car going. But I got off a little bit for today’s race. I probably was being a little aggressive. Great third-place finish.”
Heading into the season’s third race at Las Vegas next weekend, Biffle sits second in points behind Hamlin. After a 2011 season where he went winless and finished 16th in points, Biffle’s plenty pleased with how his new team is working together.
The team’s back to being competitive and Puccia seems to work well with Biffle. They were fast during Speedweeks in Daytona, sitting outside pole for the 500 and nearly winning their Duel race. Another top 10 starting position at Phoenix continued the team’s momentum and it was enough to keep them focused when the day could have gone south.
“I’m feeling really good,” said Biffle.
“I’ve got all new guys, I’ve got guys working really hard on the car, crew chief and team, and a guy that’s really, really smart paying attention to all the fine details and that’s Matt Puccia. And that’s the reason why we got two third-place finishes, because of his leadership and decision making on pit road on what to do to the car. It’s executed, he’s thinking about it. He makes the decisions he wants and that’s why we’re sitting here now.”
Yet there was still a bit of disappointment for Biffle. Even though he was ready to take whatever finish he could get during the race, beforehand he was sure that he could have won the thing. It didn’t work out that way and in being disappointed with a top five finish shows how the team is back to being where they should be.
Biffle acknowledges the team is clicking on all cylinders right now and even with cars that aren’t to his liking they’re bringing home solid finishes. Confidence is at a high going forward he says and their success during the year will come down to him learning from mistakes that he makes behind the wheel.
“Well, certainly don’t want to be greedy, but I thought myself or the 5 [Kasey Kahne] would have won the race today, honestly,” Biffle said.
“My was just so good and qualifying – I got high in 3 and 4 and was in that fuzz and came back and I wasn’t very fast crossing the white and the second lap I come back and qualified seventh. I knew my car was just super fast.
“But I went a little more aggressive on the front end. I was a little nervous about it with the heat today and how warm it was, if what I was going to do was going ot work out. I was trying to keep the front end right on the track real good, and it slid the nose and shattered the front tire. I fought that all day.
“It would be loose in and then shatter the tire when I’d try to go to the gas, so I made a little big of a mistake probably, but I guess we could have only been two spots better. But Vegas I won’t make that same mistake.”
Denny Hamlin Avenges 2010 Hiccup; Wins Subway Fresh Fit 500!
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[/media-credit]Denny Hamlin avenged his 2010 hiccup during the 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup and used good pit strategy to win the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at the Phoenix International Raceway.
“If you would’ve asked me at the beginning of the day, I would’ve taken a top-15 finish.” Hamlin said in victory lane. “Just an amazing job by this FedEx Office team. Just kept working on it. Every time we worked on it, it got better. Can’t thank them enough.”
The race came down to fuel mileage as Hamlin had the 29 of Kevin Harvick breathing down his neck down the stretch, but the 29 was short on fuel by just one lap, but still managed to finish in Second.
“You cut the fuel mileage that close, you’re figuring it right. So I’m proud of all my guys. When they come to a place like this where we struggled so much, and then race for a win, is hopefully what sets the tone for the year.” Harvick said.
Greg Biffle, who was one of the favorites for the race today based off his performance during the first practice session struggled for the first half of the race before finally picking up the pace.
“The guys did a great job with the 3M Ford Fusion. I wish I wouldn’t have tried to save so much gas. I probably would have caught the 29, but you just never know how much gas you’ve got.” Biffle said.
Jimmie Johnson rebounded from last week’s disastrous Daytona 500 to finish in fourth position, but because of the penalty handed out by NASCAR at the beginning of the week, Johnson only has 18 points coming out of Phoenix.
“We were concerned because I rarely get good fuel mileage. We were definitely concerned and once we cleared the No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) we just kind of fell into a rhythm at that point and tried to make sure that we got home and made some points. Leaving Daytona in 42nd on the board wasn’t a good way to start the season. But I’m very proud of the effort. We had a very fast Kobalt Tools Chevrolet.” Johnson said.
Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, and Joey Logano rounded out the rest of the top-10.
Kasey Kahne ran into trouble during the very early stages of the race. Kahne got loose and hit the wall coming off turn 4 and didn’t finish better than 34th. It has not been a season to cheer about so far for Kahne and Hendrick Motorsports.
Another driver involved in the silly season was Clint Bowyer. He simply had no luck. The caution flew for him the first time for a cut tire which caused some damage to the right-front fender, but that wasn’t the end of the disaster. Bowyer cut another tire about nine laps later and hit the wall, but no caution was thrown. Bowyer finished in 30th.
Tony Stewart, who started on the outside of the front row, led early on in the race after passing Mark Martin, but fell victim to the new fueling system which was very similar to what Greg Biffle went through at Las Vegas almost a year ago. Stewart turned off his engine during the yellow, but the engine did not come back when he tried re-firing. Stewart ended up losing laps and wound up a disappointing 22nd.
“I just shut the car off like we did at Daytona and turned it back on and it never re-fired. That’s all I can tell you. I don’t know why it didn’t re-fire. I honestly don’t know. It’s not really my department. I just turned the switch back on and it never re-fired. I don’t know why that was; but it definitely cost us a good day.” Stewart said.
I personally witnessed the fate of Marcos Ambrose. Ambrose was inching his way into the top-5, but ran into a problem with his engine. He came down into Turn 1 and it sounded like the engine had farted. I tweeted “Ambrose is in trouble!”. He came around again and his car had begun to smoke and he pulled down off the track. It was sad to see because it looked like he was on his way to a great finish for a lower-funded Richard Petty Motorsports.
“We blew up. We are here trying to run for wins and run for championships and to trip over ourselves like that, it just isn’t going to get it done.” Ambrose said.
The only other incident of the day happened when A.J. Allmendinger got loose and made contact with Paul Menard on the front stretch. Menard was sent to the inside wall while Jamie McMurray, an innocent man with no where to go, suffered damage to the front-end. McMurray tried staying out and lead some laps before developing an engine problem and later went to the garage and was done for the day.
Hamlin, like many drivers, had made a two tire stop to acquire track position and eventually the lead. Harvick led the most laps today, but as stated above, ran out of fuel and finished second. Hamlin now has the point lead as we head into Las Vegas where last year Carl Edwards edged Tony Stewart for his only win of 2010 minus the Sprint All-Star Race. My pick for the race will be Carl Edwards. Last year, the event was plagued with a series of tire failures, including Jeff Gordon and David Gilliland.
What did you guys think of the race today? Let me know! Follow me on Twitter! http://www.twitter.com/SirRyanTheOHara
On the possibility of a championship: Absolutely. I think we can do it if we continue to run well, but you never know what’s going to happen. Next week we’re going to an entirely different race track and that is what makes the first half of the season difficult. We get a lot of tracks that all have different dimensions for about five weeks during the year. -Hamlin
| Unofficial Race Results | |||||
| Subway Fresh Fit 500, Phoenix International Raceway | |||||
| http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Cup/race.php?race=2 | |||||
| ========================================= | |||||
| Pos. | St. | No. | Driver | Make | Points |
| ========================================= | |||||
| 1 | 13 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 47 |
| 2 | 8 | 29 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | 44 |
| 3 | 7 | 16 | Greg Biffle | Ford | 41 |
| 4 | 4 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 41 |
| 5 | 28 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Dodge | 40 |
| 6 | 12 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 39 |
| 7 | 25 | 56 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 38 |
| 8 | 30 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Chevrolet | 37 |
| 9 | 1 | 55 | Mark Martin | Toyota | 36 |
| 10 | 9 | 20 | Joey Logano | Toyota | 34 |
| 11 | 5 | 42 | Juan Montoya | Chevrolet | 33 |
| 12 | 18 | 43 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 32 |
| 13 | 26 | 17 | Matt Kenseth | Ford | 32 |
| 14 | 29 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Chevrolet | 30 |
| 15 | 19 | 51 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | 30 |
| 16 | 17 | 47 | Bobby Labonte | Toyota | 28 |
| 17 | 24 | 99 | Carl Edwards | Ford | 27 |
| 18 | 15 | 22 | A.J. Allmendinger | Dodge | 26 |
| 19 | 41 | 93 | Travis Kvapil | Toyota | 25 |
| 20 | 3 | 78 | Regan Smith | Chevrolet | 24 |
| 21 | 6 | 39 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | 23 |
| 22 | 2 | 14 | Tony Stewart | Chevrolet | 23 |
| 23 | 23 | 36 | Dave Blaney | Chevrolet | 21 |
| 24 | 42 | 32 | Mike Bliss | Ford | 0 |
| 25 | 34 | 34 | David Ragan | Ford | 20 |
| 26 | 35 | 249 | J.J. Yeley | Toyota | 18 |
| 27 | 40 | 33 | Brendan Gaughan | Chevrolet | 17 |
| 28 | 36 | 38 | David Gilliland | Ford | 16 |
| 29 | 43 | 30 | David Stremme | Toyota | 15 |
| 30 | 16 | 15 | Clint Bowyer | Toyota | 14 |
| 31 | 20 | 27 | Paul Menard | Chevrolet | 13 |
| 32 | 14 | 9 | Marcos Ambrose | Ford | 12 |
| 33 | 11 | 31 | Jeff Burton | Chevrolet | 12 |
| 34 | 10 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 10 |
| 35 | 22 | 83 | Landon Cassill | Toyota | 9 |
| 36 | 32 | 10 | David Reutimann | Chevrolet | 8 |
| 37 | 21 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 8 |
| 38 | 33 | 26 | Josh Wise * | Ford | 6 |
| 39 | 31 | 13 | Casey Mears | Ford | 5 |
| 40 | 38 | 87 | Joe Nemechek | Toyota | 0 |
| 41 | 39 | 7 | Robby Gordon | Dodge | 3 |
| 42 | 27 | 23 | Scott Riggs | Chevrolet | 2 |
| 43 | 37 | 98 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 1 |
