Surprising and Not Surprising: Loudon Sylvania 300
While rain played a factor earlier in the race weekend, New Hampshire Motor Speedway was not only bathed in sunshine, but was hot enough to boil a lobster for the running of the 15th annual Sylvania 300. Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the track dubbed the ‘Magic Mile’.
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[/media-credit]Surprising: While one five-time champion usually peaks in performance during the Chase competition, it was most surprising to see another driver, one who deemed himself unworthy of even being in the Chase, win his second race in a row.
Tony Stewart, behind the wheel of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet, took the checkered flag, giving him a perfect Chase record to date. This was Smoke’s 41st Cup Series win and put him in the lead dog position in the point standings.
“I’ll be honest, we were about a 10th place car the majority of the day,” Stewart said. “The closer to the front we got, the better it drove.”
“Man, what a day to win it,” Stewart continued. “Such an irony from last year where we ran out of gas coming to the white.”
Not Surprising: Speaking of fuel mileage racing, which happened all weekend long, it was not surprising to see this come into play yet again at the ‘Magic Mile.’ In fact, fuel mileage cost one driver the race and another Chase driver a possible win as well.
Most affected by the fuel mileage gremlin was Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet. Bowyer ran out of fuel with just three laps to go, allowing Smoke to blow by him for the win.
“It’s just not our year,” Bowyer said. “What a great car. It just didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to.”
The other driver who struggled with fuel mileage was Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet. As Gordon was moving forward at race end, his crew chief Alan Gustafson advised him that there had been a problem while fueling that may have resulted in his tank not being completely packed full.
Gordon immediately went into conservation mode, letting many of his competitors blow by him. Gordon finished fourth in the race and move dup in the point standings to the fifth spot.
“It is tough conditions to race in,” Gordon said. “I don’t think that we wanted to see back-to-back fuel mileage races like this, but it is kind of the name of the game these days.”
“We were just setting the pace so it is unfortunate that that happened,” Gordon continued. “It is something we need to be better at.”
Surprising: Although battling tire camber troubles all race long, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and his ever positive crew chief Steve Letarte seemed surprisingly pleased with their 17th place finish with the No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew/National Guard Chevrolet. Earnhardt, Jr. fell three spots in the points, from fifth to eighth.
“We had a flat tire there at the end,” Junior said. “We had a fast car all day.”
“I was real happy with the car,” Earnhardt, Jr. continued. “We were real competitive. And I got to race up front.”
“I had an awesome car all day long and I’m happy about what my guys did.”
Not Surprising: After starting the race fuming because he his car was stuck in NASCAR technical inspection during the pre-race festivities, Kurt Busch continued his ‘Drive for Anger’ campaign in his No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Dodge.
Busch was so annoyed when he finally did get in the car to race that team ‘Captain’ Roger Penske had to come on the radio, telling his driver to “Keep your head in this.”
“It was a frustrating day,” Busch said. “We were late going through inspection and that set the tone for the day.”
“NASCAR wasn’t 100% happy with what they saw on one of their gauges,” Travis Geisler, Director of Competition for Penske Racing, said of the inspection delay. “So, we had to do a little work on it.”
Busch finished 22nd, making him also the official ‘Biggest Loser’ in the points, falling from fourth to ninth.
Surprising: As a result of the Sylvania 300, three surprising basement dwellers emerged. Five-time champ Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowes Chevrolet, was the first, finishing 18th and falling to tenth in points.
In addition to his struggles on the track, Johnson also had some harsh exchanges with his crew chief, Chad Knaus, who goaded his drive to ‘prove’ that he could drive the car.
“Yeah, it wasn’t what we thought it was going to be,” Johnson said. “We just didn’t have the breaks go right and really get the track position as we needed it throughout the day.”
“I’m going 100 percent regardless of what’s being said on the radio,” Johnson continued. “I think he (Knaus) was just being optimistic there about what was left in my back pocket; but my suit doesn’t have any back pockets.”
Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet, also became an official basement dweller. Newman, who started the race from the pole, finished 25th and fell four spots to 11th in the points.
“We just had a tough day,” Newman said. “We had a couple of slow pit stops and then we had a tire go down at the end.”
“It was just a disappointing day for us.”
Finally, it has been surprisingly painful to watch the ongoing implosion of Denny Hamlin and company. The driver of the No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota, finished 29th, remaining in the 12th Chase spot.
“It was another tough day for us,” Hamlin said. “We’re just figuring out what we need to do to be a little bit more competitive.”
Not Surprising: To no one’s surprise, the ascent of the Keselowski continued at the ‘Magic Mile’. The driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger finished second to Stewart and catapulted himself to third in points.
“I feel really good about this one,” Keselowski said. “We struggled a little bit this weekend, but we executed and that’s what these races are about.”
“It’s been a good roll.”
Surprising: Mark Martin, behind the wheel of the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, looked surprisingly like the driver of old. Martin led a total of 46 laps, almost two times more than he had led all season.
Not Surprising: David Ragan’s ‘Drive for a Sponsor’ continued behind the wheel of the No. 6 UPS Ford. The young driver overcame being a lap down with the ‘lucky dog’ to finish seventh.
“We didn’t have the best of cars today but we showed that with some hard work and good strategy, we could overcome that,” Ragan said. “It feels good for the UPS team to get a top 10.”
“So it was a good job by everybody and now it’s on to Dover.”
SOME COMMENTS DESERVE TO BE REPEATED: NEW HAMPSHIRE NUGGETS
NASCAR’s weekend in New Hampshire left us several nuggets worthy of Monday morning fan conservations in the employee break room. From deadly serious crew chiefs attempting to be cheerleaders, drivers shedding dead weight and even revelations regarding the installation of hair plugs there were plenty of comments that deserved to be repeated.
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[/media-credit]I’ve always had a great deal respect for crew chief Chad Knaus. His accomplishments, on behalf of driver Jimmie Johnson and team owner Rick Hendrick, over the past five years alone says he deserves our respect. But his knowledge and talent while sitting on top of the pit box doesn’t automatically make him a cheerleader. Knaus is very stoic. You can practically hear the wheels turning in his head over the roar of the race cars on the track.
New Hampshire was not a great race for this team. The car’s handling was off all day and not even Knaus could seem to find something in his bag of tricks to make it right. So when Knaus felt the need to attempt the cheerleader role he received a rather surprising rebuttal from Johnson who said ” dude your cheer leading is terrible. I’ve been driving my ass off. Don’t sweat it. It’s actually annoying more than helping so just let me go do my thing.”
The long day in New Hampshire resulted in an 18th place finish and a drop to tenth in the points. There is already talk regarding “the championship string is broken” or “the dynasty has crumbled.” Blah, Blah, Blah. It way too early in the Chase to be making those announcements. No one on the track runs a Chase scenario better than these guys and their season is far from over. Johnson probably put it best in a Monday “Twitter” message that read “that really sucked-on to Dover.”
Regarding the cheer leading gig, perhaps Chad Knaus could borrow some notes from his Hendrick Motorsports colleague Steve Letarte. Now there’s a natural born cheerleader/crew chief.
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On the subject of New Hampshire nuggets, here’s one from a racing veteran who knows how to dispense nuggets: Larry McReynolds. During an appearance on the Monday edition of the SPEED Channel’s “Race Hub” program, McReynolds was engaged in a conversation regarding the Chase hopes of driver Kyle Busch.
In the first two races of the Chase Busch, and his Joe Gibbs Racing team, has fallen from first to sixth in the standings. That in turn has led to speculation as to whether this factor will be another disappointing Chase run for this team. McReynolds raised an interesting question when he asked: “do you know how you can tell the fall season is here? The leaves fall off of the Busch.”
Related to this topic was a survey presented by ESPN during their New Hampshire pre race show. The divers in the Chase were asked to rate their competitors. When Kevin Harvick was asked about the merits of Kyle Busch he quickly replied “I never think about Kyle Busch because, (pausing), I just don’t.”
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When it comes to the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase For The Championship no one is hotter right now than Tony “Smoke” Stewart. It was just a short matter of weeks ago when we were wondering if this team was going to make the Chase line up at all. Now he’s won both Chase events so far and sits on top of the points standings.
Apparently he accomplished this feat by shedding some dead weight. During the New Hampshire victory lane interview Stewart said “we got rid of some dead weight earlier this week. So, it made it a lot easier. It’s been a big weight pulled off of our shoulders. Just, sometimes you have to make adjustments in your life and we did that. It definitely helped this weekend for sure.”
Needless to say the NASCAR media was completely baffled by this unusual statement. It’s not the first time Stewart has said or done something that left us all baffled. It’s not even the first time this month for that matter. When asked exactly what he meant, Stewart made it clear that he would not elaborate. In a transcript of the post race press conference, provided by “Team Chevy” Stewart said “we’re going to leave it at that. You can’t ask anything. It is what it is. That’s all it was is what you said. That’s where we’ll leave it.”
(WHAT???). Since the New Hampshire press conference there has now been speculation that says these comments made be centered around the driver’s personal life. If that’s true then we should respect Stewart’s wishes and “leave it.” Also, if the speculation is again true, then Stewart also needs to “leave it” and let it remain in his private life.
This appears to be something usually covered by those trashy tabloid magazines and the NASCAR media doesn’t need to go there. There’s only one way I would actually read a story like this one from a tabloid: it would give me something to do while I’m spending way too much time standing in a long check out line at my local supermarket.
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Send some good thoughts to Katie Kenseth, the wife of NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Matt Kenseth, who was injured last Monday while practicing for a charity race scheduled for October 15th on the quarter mile oval located within the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The event, titled “The Better Half Dash”, will feature the wives and girlfriends of Sprint Cup drivers racing small Bandolero cars.
During the practice session Kenseth crashed her car and suffered a broken scapula, shoulder blade, along with scrapes and bruises. However the incident didn’t impact the Kenseth’s sense of humor. In a “Twitter” message, Katie Kenseth wrote: “that didn’t turn out so well, that was the shortest racing career in history.” Matt Kenseth sent a “Twitter” message thanking everyone for their concern and support and added: “Katie is feeling much better and I learned something new: how to put a bra on.”
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Apparently some NASCAR fans noticed that Nationwide Series driver, and SPEED Channel host, Kenny Wallace’s hair line seemed different and asked him about it. In a series of short “Twitter” messages, the always candid Wallace wrote: “I have had three hair transplants done by Bosley. I want you all to know. I show all my friends my scars on the back of my head from the transplants. I guess I’m scarred for life, ha ha ha. I spent 18 thousand dollars on three transplants, split it up three ways. Kind of like girls getting boob jobs, ha ha ha.”
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Item last is a daily affirmation, sent via “Twitter”, from Delana Harvick who wrote: “nothing says welcome back, we missed you like a big dog poop on the floor.”
That’s so true, the love of a fine dog is unconditional. It’s also a comment that deserved to be repeated.
