Cole Whitt Wide Open
What makes Cole Whitt, driver of the No. 60 for Turn One/Red Bull Racing in the Camping World Truck Series, tick? Whitt explains it simply as running his life on and off the track “wide open.”
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[/media-credit]Whitt’s exposure to his now wide open racing style started at a very young age. And, as with many drivers in the various levels of NASCAR, he credits his family with initiating him in the sport.
“I’d say who got me hooked is my cousin Brandon,” Whitt said. “He used to race and got me started in go kart racing and then moved up into the stock car world with late models.”
“I watched him race the trucks a lot while I was just racing go karts,” Whitt continued. “I’d say my cousin Brandon got me my real start, but my dad and my grandpa all raced so, it’s really been in my family.”
While Whitt’s cousin may have gotten him going in the wide open world of racing, his dad is the one that he credits for his competitiveness in the sport.
“My dad helped me be competitive,” Whitt acknowledged. “A lot of my good characteristics come from my dad.”
“He’s a hard worker,” Whitt continued. “He just raised me that way, to be competitive and be at the top.”
In learning to race wide open, Whitt not only credits his father with being his mentor along the way but also mentions several other racing mentors. Tops among them are Cory Kruseman and Jon Stanbrough, both from the sprint car racing world.
“There have been a lot of people that have helped me along the way,” Whitt said. “I’d say my dad definitely got me my main start. My cousin helped me out.”
“But even along the way in sprint car ranks there are people like Cory Kruseman, who helped me find my way to Indiana and got me my start with Skeeter Ellis,” Whitt continued. “As I was racing out there, I became friends with Jon Stanbrough, who is the ‘King of Indiana’, in sprint racing.”
“I became friends with Jon and we really hit it off,” Whitt continued. “We became good friends and had a lot of good battles throughout our career. Jon helped me out a lot.”
With his support wide open, when did the light bulb go off for Whitt so that he knew that racing would be his career of choice? The young rookie Truck Series driver has an interesting response.
“I don’t think the light bulb has gone off yet if racing is it for me,” Whitt said. “Trust me, if I can do it, I want to do it.”
“The problem is actually being able to do it,” Whitt continued. “It’s hard.”
“So, I’m not saying necessarily this is it for me,” Whitt said. “But at the same time, this is what I want to do for sure.”
“As a kid racing go karts and I was doing good, winning races and championships, it was so much fun just enjoying all that with my family,” Whitt continued. “That was the time where I really wanted to race. That’s when it all happened for me.”
Progressing from his early sprint car racing roots to being wide open in the Truck Series, Whitt has seen his share of ups and downs, especially in this his rookie year. Yet Whitt remains steadfast as well as confident in his abilities.
“You can never quit,” Whitt said. “If it was easy, everybody would do it.”
“Racing is a hard sport,” Whitt continued. “There are ups and downs.”
“Obviously, the days that are great are the days you live for,” Whitt said. “But then the days that are bad, you just want to come back and redeem yourself and be that much better.”
“You love to hate it,” Whitt continued. “It’s tough but it’s almost like an obsession to me.”
Throughout his racing obsession, Whitt has had moments to remember, as well as moments that have broken his heart.
“I’d say probably the pole at Darlington was my best moment,” Whitt said. “Also, running second to Kyle (Busch) at Dover was good.”
“But another good moment would be Charlotte, when we ran third,” Whitt continued. “It was the last run of the day and we were running eighth to tenth.”
“We jumped up to the high groove and worked our way up to third at the end,” Whitt said. “I was pretty proud of that moment too.”
As wide open exciting as his career has been, Whitt also has had his moments of heart break.
“There’s been a few,” Whitt said. “Missing the show at Daytona was crazy and one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had.”
“And also another heart break was blowing the motor at Texas running fourth,” Whitt continued. “And we were running fourth at Atlanta and blew a motor.”
“It seems like we can’t get any luck,” Whitt said. “The days that we run tenth to twelfth all day, nothing can go wrong.”
“You’re sitting there thinking ‘Why couldn’t the motor blow up on a day like that instead of when we’re running up front?’
“I guess that’s part of rookie luck and a first season,” Whitt continued. “You’ve got to pay your dues, just hopefully long enough to cash them in.”
Whitt admitted that he also has some interesting ways to cope with these vagaries of the sport. He not only throws himself into fishing and hunting, but channels all of his energy right back into his racing career.
“My life is pretty much all racing,” Whitt said. “When I’m at home, I go to the shop every day and work on the truck.”
“I grew up that way,” Whitt continued. “My dad wanted me to be ‘hands on.’ It makes me appreciate my equipment more and my team appreciates me working with them.”
What does Whitt want to accomplish for the remainder of this 2011 season? The rookie has only one thing on his mind.
“Hopefully we can get a win,” Whitt said. “We’ve been chasing that win since the beginning of the year.”
“I want to be a front-runner,” Whitt continued. “When I walk through the gate, I want people to know that I’m the guy to beat and that I have a fast truck.”
“More than anything, I want to get a win and win this rookie championship.”
While Whitt focuses on running wide open for the win and the rookie championship, he also acknowledged the need to think, at least briefly, about his future. And that is unfortunately wide open as well.
“I don’t know,” Whitt said simply. “It’s going to be a weird and pretty crazy off season.”
“The rumors started flying this year earlier than they ever have,” Whitt continued. “It’s kind of tough. I really don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“Hopefully we can finish off the season strong and move on to something different,” Whitt said. “Racing is all I’ve ever done.”
“It’s the only way of life that I understand.”
Kyle Busch Spanks Truck Field at New Hampshire
Kyle Busch, driving the No. 18 Toyota/Traxxas Toyota, spanked the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with a dominant win in the 16th annual running of the F. W. Webb 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
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[/media-credit]This was Busch’s 30th career win in 99 Truck races and he now ranks second on the all-time series wins list. Busch also achieved another record, leading 165 laps, the most ever in a 175 lap Truck race at New Hampshire.
This was Busch’s 104th national series win. And with that domination, Busch also scored a perfect driving rating of 150.
“We just had a great truck,” Busch said in the understatement of the race. “We worked hard and I want to say ‘hi’ to my wife who is working at home in Charlotte.”
“It was fun for us but probably not for others.”
Busch not only dominated the field but he also started from the pole, his 12th in 99 the Truck Series competition. Rowdy Busch was so dominant that only six trucks finished on the lead lap.
“These guys on this Kyle Busch Motorsports team did a great job,” Busch said. “We unloaded a little bit off but we just had to get the feel where I liked it.”
“I felt really good with it,” Busch continued. “To be able to qualify first and set sail on our own agenda really meant a lot.”
Eric Phillips, Busch’s crew chief, agreed wholeheartedly with his driver.
“Like Kyle said, we were off a little bit so we tried something different,” Phillips said. “We made steady progress through both practices and then the truck was pretty good the rest of the weekend.”
Busch acknowledged that he has had other dominating performances, such as leading every lap at Phoenix in the Nationwide race earlier in the year.
“I never thought of that actually,” Busch said. “I think I led 190 or 192 laps of a Nationwide race here too one time.”
“So, that’s cool,” Busch said. “Certainly Phoenix and Loudon, when I can hit it right, I can hit it right. I’m really, really good.”
Young Austin Dillon, in the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, ran second for most of the race to Busch. And that is exactly where he finished.
This was Dillon’s second top-10 finish in three races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He also now leads the point standings by just two over James Buescher.
“We were in there every lap,” Dillon said. “We even got to lead a lap which was good for our points deal.”
“Championship has been on our mind all year,” Dillon said. “I feel like we’ve had a great truck to beat each and every week.”
“We’re finally stringing some finishes together.”
Kevin Harvick, behind the wheel of the No.2 JEGS Chevrolet, came in third. Although his fifth top-10 finish in six races at New Hampshire, Harvick was frustrated with the racing.
“It was like a parade,” Harvick said. “It was a terrible race with everybody following each other around.”
“I got stuck behind the 88 there and lost half a track,” Harvick lamented. “It was just really hard to pass.” Track position was king.”
Ron Hornaday, Jr., driving the No. 33 Cooked Perfect Meatballs Chevrolet, finished fourth and Johnny Sauter, in the No. 13 SafeAuto/Carrier Chevrolet, rounded out the top five.
Miguel Paludo, behind the wheel of the No. 7 Stemco Duroline Toyota, was the top-finishing Sunoco rookie. Paludo started from the 15th position and ended the race in the 10th spot.
“It was a good day for us,” Paludo said. “The two tires in the end was a better call for us. I’m proud of our guys and I’m proud to be in the top ten in a race like this.”
Joey Coulter, driving the No. 22 RCR Graphics Center Chevrolet , was probably the most frustrated driver on the ‘Magic Mile.’ Coulter qualified third, was moving his way up through the pack, and even led a lap in the race.
Unfortunately, Coulter was penalized twice for being too fast on pit road and finished his race in the 11th position.
Matt Crafton, James Buescher, Todd Bodine, Timothy Peters and rookie Miguel Paludo rounded out the top ten finishers, sixth through tenth respectively, in the F. W. Webb 175.
| Unofficial Race Results | |||||
| F.W. Webb 175, New Hampshire Motor Speedway | |||||
| http://www.speedwaymedia.com/truckseries/race.php?race=19 | |||||
| ============================================== | |||||
| Pos. | St. | No. | Driver | Make | Points |
| ============================================== | |||||
| 1 | 1 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 0 |
| 2 | 4 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 43 |
| 3 | 2 | 2 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 4 | 5 | 33 | Ron Hornaday | Chevrolet | 40 |
| 5 | 14 | 13 | Johnny Sauter | Chevrolet | 39 |
| 6 | 10 | 88 | Matt Crafton | Chevrolet | 38 |
| 7 | 8 | 31 | James Buescher | Chevrolet | 38 |
| 8 | 11 | 5 | Todd Bodine | Toyota | 37 |
| 9 | 9 | 17 | Timothy Peters | Toyota | 35 |
| 10 | 15 | 7 | Miguel Paludo * | Toyota | 34 |
| 11 | 3 | 22 | Joey Coulter * | Chevrolet | 34 |
| 12 | 12 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan | Toyota | 32 |
| 13 | 7 | 6 | Justin Lofton | Chevrolet | 31 |
| 14 | 16 | 81 | David Starr | Toyota | 30 |
| 15 | 18 | 60 | Cole Whitt * | Chevrolet | 29 |
| 16 | 17 | 151 | German Quiroga | Toyota | 28 |
| 17 | 34 | 23 | Jason White | Chevrolet | 27 |
| 18 | 19 | 29 | Parker Kligerman * | Dodge | 26 |
| 19 | 22 | 4 | Ricky Carmichael | Chevrolet | 25 |
| 20 | 13 | 9 | Max Papis | Toyota | 24 |
| 21 | 23 | 32 | Blake Feese | Chevrolet | 23 |
| 22 | 21 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | Chevrolet | 22 |
| 23 | 26 | 261 | Wes Burton | Ford | 21 |
| 24 | 6 | 8 | Nelson Piquet Jr. * | Chevrolet | 20 |
| 25 | 32 | 57 | Norm Benning | Chevrolet | 19 |
| 26 | 31 | 173 | Austin Russell | Dodge | 18 |
| 27 | 20 | 170 | Jeff Agnew | Chevrolet | 17 |
| 28 | 25 | 66 | J.J. Yeley | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 29 | 24 | 93 | Josh Wise | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 30 | 30 | 7 | Butch Miller | Chevrolet | 14 |
| 31 | 28 | 296 | Todd Peck | Chevrolet | 13 |
| 32 | 27 | 87 | Chris Jones | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 33 | 29 | 174 | Mike Harmon | Ford | 0 |
| 34 | 33 | 175 | Bobby Santos | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 35 | 36 | 10 | Jennifer Jo Cobb | Ford | 0 |
Ron Silk Makes Whelen Modified Magic with Third Win
Ron Silk, driver of the No. 6 TS Haulers/Calverton Tree Farm Chevrolet, made three times a charm with a win in the New Hampshire 100 on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Silk, from Norwalk, Connecticut, started the race from the pole.
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[/media-credit]This was Silk’s second career victory at the ‘Magic Mile’, his third win of the season and his seventh career win.
“The car was really great right from the beginning,” Silk said. “After we didn’t make any adjustments at the pit stop, I was happy with the car. It got a little bit better throughout the race and I was able to get up there to the lead.”
Silk said that pit strategy was important throughout the race, especially with the green flag runs, as well as the red flag rain delay.
“It was definitely the right time to pit,” Silk said. “It went green for awhile. It would have been pretty tough to wait longer to take tires and get back through the field.”
“I was confident,” Silk continued. “We’ve had a good car here all year.”
Todd Szegedy, behind the wheel of the No. 2 Wisk Detergent/A&J Romano Construction Ford, finished second. This was Szegedy’s second win at New Hampshire and his 14th top-10 in 19 starts at New Hampshire.
“Second is a phenomenal finish for us,” Szegedy said. “But we certainly didn’t have a second place car.”
“We’ve got our homework to do,” Szegedy continued. “It’s fortunate we got second place but why were we so far off and basically struggled. It was a struggle for me to stay in the top five.”
“That green-white-checkered, we started fourth,” Szegedy continued. “I had momentum and I knew I could push Ronnie. But I had absolutely zero for him.”
The third place finisher was Justin Bonsignore, from Holtsville, New York. The driver of the No. 51 M3 Technology Chevrolet scored his best finish ever at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Bonsignore was the 2010 Sunoco Rookie of the Year on the Whelen Modified Tour. He finished fourth in August, so this third place finish was also his career best.
“It was pretty eventful,” Bonsignore said. “The air cleaner came off about 20 laps in and we rode around until the yellow came out for the rain.”
“We replace that and took tires then and that put us a little bit behind,” Bonsignore continued. “We stayed out and the car was good.”
“Luckily that last restart, we mixed it up on that last lap and came home third.”
“We’re only a second year team,” Bonsignore said. “I’m really proud of what we’ve built.”
“To be contending for wins is really cool to do.”
As is tradition at New Hampshire, the race had its share of drama. One source of drama was the weather, with sprinkles breaking out on the track, delaying the race.
The other source of drama was for the only Cup driver in the competition. After his win disqualification at the last Modified race, Ryan Newman, who qualified fourth, blew the engine of his No. 77 Aggressive Hydraulics/Menards Chevrolet.
Newman finished a disappointing 28th out of 29 spots, after the tell-tale smoke flowed from his race car on lap 60 of the race.
The final drama of the race had to do with the points battle for the Whelen Modified Series championship. Szegedy came into the race leading the points by 12 points over Silk.
“It’s a lot of fun, especially battling with a guy like Todd Szegedy,” Silk said. “He’s a good friend of mine.”
“I kind of kept tabs on him throughout the race today and when I saw he was second, I said ‘Damn, I’m not going to gain too many points today.’
“It’s going to go right down to the wire it looks like,” Silk continued. “It will go right down to the world series there at Thompson (International Speedway).”
“This is how you win a championship,” Szegedy, the other points challenger, said. “You’ve got to use your head, stay out of trouble, and I’m being a nice guy because I want to win that championship.”
After Silk, Szegedy and Bonsignore, rounding out the top five were Ted Christopher, driver of the No. 36 Al-Lee Installations, and Eric Beers, behind the wheel of the No. 45 Horwith Freightliner/John Blewett, Inc.
Erick Rudolph, Zane Zeiner, Mike Stefanik, Matt Hirschman and Eric Goodale rounded out the top ten. Stefanik, who finished eighth, was the ‘comeback kid’ after spinning and going a lap down early in the race.
Dodge’s Brad Keselowski Receives Driver of the Year Award
Marcos Ambrose Reflects on Life, Loudon and Spewing
Marcos Ambrose, driver of the No. 9 DEWALT Ford Fusion for Richard Petty Motorsports, may not be in the Chase for the Cup championship but he still has an agenda for Loudon, the rest of the season and for next year. And he even has time to explain his Australian word of the week, spewing.
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[/media-credit]As far as the ‘Magic Mile’, Ambrose has made five career Cup Series starts at the ‘Magic Mile’. His best finish, ninth, came in last year’s spring race.
“No doubt it’s going to be challenging,” Ambrose said of this weekend’s race. “Qualifying becomes very important. It sets the grid.”
“You have to practice fast but you also have to go out in qualifying trim,” Ambrose continued. “So you really have to juggle and take your chances on your set ups.”
Ambrose also acknowledged that track position reigns, especially for the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Passing is another challenge at the track, as, according to Ambrose, each spot requires the perfect set up prior to the pass.
“If you’ve got a fast car, you can pass,” Ambrose said. “But it just takes a little longer here.”
“If you’ve got a fast car, you have to set up each pass individually and pick them up one by one, which takes time.”
Along with every other driver in the race, Ambrose is also consumed with the fuel mileage question. But for the Aussie, fuel mileage racing is just the price of doing business.
“I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating,” Ambrose said. “It’s just part of the business.”
“It’s another facet to racing that is unusual,” Ambrose continued. “It’s hard to save fuel because you don’t know. There’s no fuel gauge in the car.”
“So, it’s a challenging thing,” Ambrose continued. “Some guys are good at it and some aren’t. I like it when races come down to different strategies.”
Does Ambrose’s vast experience in other racing series help with saving fuel? Not necessarily as far as Ambrose is concerned.
“No, generally speaking if the motor’s shut off or the gas pedal is off, you’re going to save fuel,” Ambrose said. “You’ve got to work out the best way to do it.”
“It’s definitely an art,” Ambrose continued. “It’s a skill you acquire over time.”
“The penalty for making a mistake is huge,” Ambrose said. “If you come up short, you can lose ten, twenty spots very quickly.”
In addition to having a good run at Loudon this weekend, Ambrose has an agenda for the remainder of the 2011 race season, especially since he is not a Chase participant.
“It’s pretty simple,” Ambrose said. “We’re just going to go and try and win races.”
“We’re building momentum for next year,” Ambrose continued. “We want to be the best.”
“We’ve run well this year but we want to be better,” Ambrose said. “It’s going to take some serious effort to win a race.”
“If you can do that in one of those big ten races, you know you’re ready for next year.”
While Ambrose may be planning for the next season, he still has some fond, as well as not so fond, memories for the 2011 season. One of his best memories is his win, as well as how he started off this year.
“It was just such a sense of relief,” Ambrose said. “There are not many moments in your life when you can pick a moment in time where you say, ‘You know what, it all worked out.’
“The sacrifices to come here and the quest to win at the Cup level was a massive challenge,” Ambrose continued. “On that day, at that time, we were the champion for the day and won the race. It means a lot.”
“Winning the race was awesome,” Ambrose said. “We came out of the gate really showing on the one and a half mile race tracks.”
“Charlotte and Texas stood out,” Ambrose continued. “At that point, there was a lot of concern about what kind of team we were going to be together.”
“The first good race for us was Las Vegas where we finished fourth,” Ambrose said. “And that was a good moment for us.”
In spite of the win and his good early start, Ambrose pronounced that he would still give his overall season to date a ‘B’ grade.
“Learning new people and a new team is tough,” Ambrose said. “I’d give it a B. We want to be A+ so we’ve got a ways to go.”
Ambrose is absolutely convinced, however, that the familiarity and lessons learned throughout this race season will serve him and his team well going forward.
“If I knew what I know now and I knew the people the way I do now and the systems and the stuff we got, we would have had a different year,” Ambrose said. “I think it’s continuity, experience and just familiarity.”
“You start to know your people,” Ambrose continued. “We’ve got a much deeper notebook than we did at the start of the year. We’ve got better set ups at all these tracks we’re starting to hit a second time. It makes a difference.”
According to Ambrose, the people with whom he surrounds himself are the most important factor in his racing career.
“Racing is all about the people,” Ambrose said. “At this level, we’ve all got good equipment. It’s about how you work with each other.”
“It’s the team,” Ambrose continued. “It makes all the difference in the world.”
“If you have a team that you can rely on that pays you back and you’ve got their back and if you’ve got the trust and respect of each other, it’s important.”
In addition to his racing family, the other most important people in Ambrose’s life are his family, including his wife and two children. And balancing his professional gig with his family time is one of Ambrose’s most important priorities.
“It’s a constant struggle,” Ambrose said. “I’ve got a great wife and two beautiful kids.”
“Racing is going to end one day but family should last forever,” Ambrose continued. “You’ve got to keep your priorities in life. And definitely my family is my number one priority.”
“But racing’s been good too,” Ambrose said. “The racing community and the racing family have been good to me too.”
With all that good will, from his own family as well as his racing family, hopefully Ambrose will not be using his Australian word of the week, spewing.
“You really don’t spew at somebody, you’re really spewing at some thing,” Ambrose explained. “If you’re annoyed by something and you want to throw up at it, it’s spewing.”
“I’m not spewing today, but I may be after qualifying.”
Matty’s Picks Vol. 19 – New Hampshire – Sylvania 300 – September 25, 2011
Race No. 2 of the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup brings us back to Loudon, New Hampshire. On April 12, 1934 the highest wind speed recorded at ground level was recorded at Mount Washington, NH. The wind speeds were three times as fast as those in most hurricanes.
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[/media-credit]The 750 horsepower engines of the NASCAR Sprint Cup racecars will not reach speeds nearly as fast as those at Mount Washington in 1934, but they will be going as fast as the wind speeds of most hurricanes, Sunday Afternoon.
I didn’t fare extremely well with my Dark Horse pick after the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ first stop this season in New Hampshire, but I did manage to pick the Runner-up in the July race. I thought I had nailed my Dark Horse pick in the July race (even after submitting my picks before any on-track activities) after finding out Regan Smith would start in 11th for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301, but knew a Top-10 finish would be too good to be true.
My Winner Pick for the July race, Tony Stewart started outside pole and would finish exactly there. I had a 2nd and a 33rd place finish earlier this year, with Regan Smith giving me my first pick to finish outside the Top-30 cars.
Chicago Recap
Well, if you’re my winner pick, plan on finishing 22nd…
Two weeks ago, I picked Clint Bowyer to win the Wonderful Pistachios 400 at Richmond International Raceway; his result, a 22nd place finish.
Last week, I picked Kyle Busch to win the Geico 400 at Chicagoland Speedway; his result, a 22nd place finish.
I used up my mandatory once-a-month Kyle Busch pick last week only because it was the second-to-last race of the month, and I probably should have held out and picked the Las Vegas native this week. It was my mistake in thinking that the race at Chicagoland would not turn out to be another once of these fuel-mileage fiascos we see each race at these 1.5-mile cookie-cutter style racetracks.
As we all know, its checkers or wreckers for Kyle Busch each time he straps up his helmet to go racing. And that mentality really puts you at a huge disadvantage when you are trying to conserve fuel at the end of the race. Sometimes I feel like Rowdy’s right foot is made of lead, and he really cannot resist the temptation to jam his foot through the floorboards of his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry. He reached the point position early in the race on Monday, but when the race shook out (as it has historically); it was the guy with the most mustard left in the bottle that took the checkered.
Kyle explained his day after the 400 mile stanza: “We had a good car today and kept fighting back all day long. But, once we hit that debris it made the car really loose and I was doing the best I can. I still hoped we could finish in the top-10. I saved as much fuel as I could but I guess it just wasn’t enough and we ran out with two to go. Just really disappointing day.”
As for my Dark Horse pick last week, he was one of the 7-Chevrolets that finished in the Top-10 on Monday.
Mark Martin’s 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup season has been one filled with questions, disappointments, and very few triumphs. Martin’s starting spot in Monday’s race wasn’t anything to write home about either.
I had made my decision on Martin early in the week last week and was put to ease after the first practice session on Friday, after he posted the 3rd best speed of the practice session. I knew all along that winning one of the final 10 races this season would be quite an achievement for the 52-year old whose career seems to be coming to its final chapter.
Many frustrations have plagued Mark Martin’s final season at Hendrick Motorsports, which in the early stages of the race I thought would be the case yet-again for my Dark Horse pick. After starting 25th in the Geico 400, Martin battled through potential damage on the front spoiler on his No. 5 Chevrolet to eventually lay down lap times that were as fast as the race leaders.
With all the fast cars running out of gas at the end, Martin had enough fuel left in the tanks to pass the wounded on the apron and bring home a Top-10 Dark Horse pick for me. Martin finished one-spot better than teammate Jimmie Johnson in 9th place, certainly a respectable finish after qualifying so poorly.
New Hampshire Picks
As I watch the practice speeds roll across my phone today, I can’t help but to notice the fire power the Chevrolets seem to be packing this weekend at New Hampshire. Eight of the Top-10 drivers in practice today have been piloting Chevrolets; I’m going with Chevy for Sunday…
Winner Pick
I’m really going out on a whim here this week and picking July’s race winner to take the checkered flag in Loudon, Sunday Afternoon (or Monday as it looks right now). He’s atop the leaderboard following Sprint Cup practice earlier today, and with that will do all he can to secure a favorable starting position for Sunday’s 3-hour nap window.
Ryan Newman won July’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway after starting from the pole. Since there is little-to-no passing opportunity at New Hampshire, starting up-front is key in a successful finish. No other driver has more poles than Newman at the 1-mile flat track in New England and he hasn’t finished outside the Top-8 in his past three trips to Loudon.
Newman loves racing at New Hampshire, and I would too if I had an average finish of 12.4 in 19 races. “New Hampshire has always been a good place for me. I’m not a hundred percent sure why. It’s the place of my first win, when I hadn’t won in a long while, 70 some races. I won again there. This past July we were able to qualify and finish 1-2 at Stewart-Haas. It’s a fun race; it’s a very finesse racetrack. You can’t overdrive the car there very much because it’s so flat”, said Newman just yesterday before he arrived at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Ryan Newman seems to have a rocket ship of a car this weekend, watch for him to lead the pack for the majority of the 300 laps on Sunday (or Monday).
Dark Horse Pick
As I said last week, I will finish the season by picking a driver that sits outside The Chase for the Sprint Cup as my Dark Horse each week.
Unlike my Winner Pick, whom I have yet to pick this year, I’ve spoke about my Dark Horse pick 4 times this season, second only to Kyle Busch in number of picks this season. His results for me have been like his results at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, really good or really bad, nothing in the middle.
Clint Bowyer has given me two Top-5 picks this year, but the other two times I’ve picked him in my column, he has given me a 36th and a 22nd-place finish. Bowyer is coming off the disappointment of missing The Chase for the Sprint Cup just two weeks ago, and has rebounded nicely from such disappointment by netting a 7th place finish last week at Chicago.
Bowyer’s stats at New Hampshire Motor Speedway are just as I described, really good or really bad. He won this race just a year ago, but finished 17th at Loudon in July. He has visited Victory Lane in New England twice in his Sprint Cup career, finishing in the Top-10 a total of four times in eleven tries.
Bowyer also described enjoying his trips to New Hampshire earlier this week: “Flat tracks like New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Richmond International Raceway always fit my driving style. I love racing up there. It is a lot of fun. Nothing in particular, it just fits my driving style.”
I picked Clint Bowyer to win the race just two weeks ago at Richmond, and he let me down. He will rebound for me this weekend and stick his nose in the mix for the win.
That’s all for this week as I set my sights on the two most important football games this season, my West Virginia Mountaineers hosting the Tigers from Louisiana State University tomorrow night in primetime, and my hometown Buffalo Bills take on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots here in Buffalo on Sunday Afternoon.
Until next time…You Stay Classy NASCAR NATION!
