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Surprising and Not Surprising: Subway Fresh Fit 500

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[media-credit name=”Simon Scoggins” align=”alignright” width=”259″][/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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SM Staff
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[media-credit name=”David Yeazell” align=”alignright” width=”257″][/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.”

SRT Motorsports — Dodge NSCS Final Race Quotes – Phoenix

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Top-10 Finish Dissipates in Fumes for Smith

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CHEVY NSCS AT PHOENIX ONE — Kevin Harvick Scores Runner-Up Finish at PIR – Post race press conf.

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Toyota NSCS Phoenix Post-Race Notes & Quotes

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Denny Hamlin Avenges 2010 Hiccup; Wins Subway Fresh Fit 500!

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SM Staff
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[media-credit name=”Simon Scoggins” align=”alignright” width=”238″][/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
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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

CHEVY NSCS AT PHOENIX ONE — Team Chevy Driver Post Race Notes and Quotes

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Ford Phoenix 1 Cup Post Race

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Winning combination: Confident team and team owner has Sadler making waves

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SM Staff
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[media-credit name=”Simon Scoggins” align=”alignright” width=”207″][/media-credit]A year ago Elliott Sadler felt he was already in a hole when it came to the Nationwide Series championship.

Following a crazy third place finish in Daytona last weekend and after ending a 14-year drought from victory lane in the Nationwide Series though, it’s clear he’s hitting all the right buttons thus far in 2012. He went to victory lane in Phoenix on Saturday afternoon after leading the final 26 laps and holding Brad Keselowski.

“It’s a very emotional win, it’s been a while and we all know how long it’s been since I’ve been to victory lane,” said Sadler.

“Richard [Childress, owner] is such a great owner and when he talks to me he talks to me like he’s got confidence in me and he’s got confidence in our race team and he believes in what we’re doing and he’s giving us the right tools. And as a driver and as a person because I’ve been on the other side of the fence, man that’s all you can ask for.

“Luke [Lambert, crew chief] made some great calls today and it’s funny because I told him yesterday after practice, ‘Man, we’ve got a good car but I don’t know this is not my best track.’ He said ‘It’ll be your best track after tomorrow don’t you worry about it.’ It’s just cool to have that kind of confidence around my team.”

Sadler lined up third on the race’s final restart after having only taken two tires during pit stops. The dominant car, teammate Kevin Harvick, was buried in traffic after he took four. Quickly driving to a comfortable lead Sadler watched the laps clicked down, Keselowski unable to mount a comeback.

The win was the sixth in Sadler’s 166 race NNS career but the first since 1998 when he won at Rockingham. It was his first NASCAR win since 2010 when he won in at Pocono driving a truck for Kevin Harvick Inc.

It was last year that Sadler drove for KHI and came up short in the championship. Something he’s continually hard on himself for, the expectations had been set pretty high. A wreck at Phoenix in November eliminated him from contention but Sadler said on Saturday that was the furthest thing on his mind.

“Honestly that feels three or four years ago because last year was last year,” Sadler said.

“Yes, it probably affected the way the championship could have worked but we’re on a whole new deal, whole new season, whole new outlook with a different team. So honestly what happened here last year just felt like a long time ago, it did not weigh on my mind one second the whole weekend I was here.

“I felt like coming out of Daytona leading the points with a third place finish we just a lot of momentum on our side. It’s a lot different feeling than I had here last year coming out of Daytona 38th.”

Sadler is working hard on not dwelling on what happened last year or what could have been. He wants to learn from what he did wrong and apply it to his 2012 campaign as he chases the championship.

So far so good, he holds on to the point lead, now by 10 over another teammate, Austin Dillon. A week after leaving Daytona ecstatic just to have survived the crapshoot that is a restrictor plate race, the Virginia native heads into the season’s third week a winner and sitting in a position he never had last year.

Childress couldn’t be more pleased with Sadler and the rest of his RCR teams, saying he knew that he and Lambert were going to be good combination. Also saying that he “just knows” they’re going to be contenders for the championship.

“I’ve got all the confidence in our whole Nationwide organization and I knew Elliott could get the job done, I’ve seen him too close too many times last year,” said Childress.

“And have OneMain back with us as a sponsor and get that win early. And Luke, the talent, man he has the talent, he could go to the Cup side but for his career he and I talked about it, to stick in here for a year or so and whenever he’s ready he’ll be a championship Cup crew chief as well. And I’m sure him and our whole bunch will be chasing the championship pretty hard.

“It’s just the second race a lot can happen but I couldn’t be prouder.”

The praise he has for Sadler is given right back by his driver. Sadler feels that as an athlete you want to have someone there to have your back and with constant belief in you.

“Yes sir, 100 percent it makes a big difference, “said Sadler of having a team owner who believes in him.

“And anybody in here who has played any kind of sport in their life, whether it’s middle school basketball or baseball, if you have a team or a coach or somebody that believes in you, it gives you a ton of different outlook or confidence as a player or as an athlete. In my case as a driver.

“I’ve been on the other side of the fence when you feel like you walk into the place and the spotlights on you and they don’t really want you there. And you walk into this place [RCR] and everyone runs up to you and they want to talk about what you just did and where you came from and we’re going to kick their butts this weekend.

“I mean, the team meeting we had in the truck, I was like ‘man these guys believe, this is awesome. These guys believe, hell we’re going to win the race today.’ It’s just neat the attitude that they have and Richard’s had that the whole entire time. Even when I didn’t drive for Richard.”

More importantly for Sadler, it’s neat how far this team has come in just two races.

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