Daytona Marks the Start of the ‘Road to Richmond’ and Making the Chase
Starting Saturday night in Daytona there will be just 10 races left before the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup kicks off in Chicago. Over that time the phrase “Road to Richmond” will be heard throughout as Richmond International Raceway promotes the last race to get into the Chase.
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[/media-credit]“’The Road to Richmond’ is a great opportunity for us to remind race fans that Richmond hosts the ‘One Last Race to Make The Chase’ and to promote the new Chase format,” said Richmond’s president Doug Fritz. “And the fact that everything that happens from Daytona on leads to what you’ll see at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday night, September 10.”
Along with Fritz, Virginia native Denny Hamlin spoke about the next few weeks. Hamlin has been in the Chase every year since he began competing in the Cup Series in 2006. He’s currently the only rookie to ever have qualified for the Chase.
This season with NASCAR’s new wildcard format, Hamlin is a believer that not only will the next 10 weeks be important for drivers looking to win but says that race day in Richmond will be fun for the fans to watch. Drivers have already turned the energy and racing level up, with rough racing and paybacks being seen on many occasions already this year.
Richmond is now in prime position to add to that. Saturday night and under the lights, it’s bound to be short track racing at its best and with a lot on the line.
“Hectic” Hamlin said of what the Richmond race will be like. He believes drivers who know they need to either win or race their way in are going to be more aggressive, wanting to hold onto their track position or go for more.
Currently sitting 11th in points with one win, Hamlin doesn’t want to have to fallback on the wildcard position or having to race his way in. In fact, when it was brought up he sat and shook his head no repeatedly. Hamlin’s already done that before and prefers to never to have to experience it again.
Running with only seven cylinders in 2006, Hamlin told his team over the radio that their season was over. Instead they fought their way to a 15th place finish and into the Chase. More, of what could be expected later this season.
Richmond has become known for drivers bumping in and out of the Chase. Jeremy Mayfield won at RIR in 2004 to get in the Chase. Kasey Kahne knocked Tony Stewart out in 2006 and in 2009 it was Brian Vickers would race into the Chase on the last lap and kept Kyle Busch out.
This year though what has the potential to be the big story are the aforementioned wildcard spots. Winning has had an emphasis placed on it when NASCAR announced in the pre-season that only the top 10 will be locked into the Chase with the 11 and 12th place drivers being placed by wins. Drivers who sit 11-20 in points have the chance to get in the Chase if they win a race.
Heading into Daytona there’s only one driver in that position, Tony Stewart in 11th, but there are two others who have wins that are sitting outside the top 20. Both Brad Keselowski and Regan Smith found victory lane early this season but sit 22nd and 28th in points respectively. Their goal going forward is to win as much as they can before Richmond or at Richmond, making the last race to get into the Chase a hot ticket.
“This year’s format has the making of one of, if not the most epic ‘One Last Race to Make The Chase’ events,” Fritz believes. “With the two wild card drivers racing their way in, there could potentially be more drivers than ever having a shot at racing their way into The Chase.”
“The Road to Richmond” goes through Daytona, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Indianapolis, Pocono, Watkins Glen, Michigan, Bristol and Atlanta before heading to Richmond.
Tickets are still available for the September 10 race. Race fans can purchase tickets through the RIR website, www.rir.com, or by calling 866-455-7223.
J. J. Yeley Has One Word for Daytona: Impressive
J. J. Yeley will be back on track this July 4th weekend for the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway. As he pilots the No. 46 Red Line Oil Chevrolet Impala for Whitney Motorsports, the driver has just one word for the superspeedway: ‘impressive.’
“I will always remember the first time I went to Daytona International Speedway,” Yeley said. “I couldn’t believe that the race track was right in the middle of town.”
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“It’s such a magnificent facility,” Yeley continued. “The fact that this city has grown up around the track and has supported it like they do is what makes it so special.”
“It’s a place that takes your breath away.”
One thing that Yeley knows for sure is that he will have to have a qualifying lap that will take his breath away at Daytona. He is in the unenviable position of being a ‘go or go homer’ for this race.
“When you come to a place like this, you’ve got what you got,” Yeley said. “We’ll tune on the engine as best we can and hope that the new body that we’ve put on this car is streamlined enough to make us fast enough to qualify in.”
“It’s a horrible position honestly to have to be in, especially when you come to a restrictor plate track,” Yeley continued. “It’s tough because there is nothing that I can do as a driver to help make the car go faster. But if we can make it into the race, we’ll be pretty excited about it.”
While Yeley is not terribly fond of the two-car tandem racing that has become the norm at Daytona, he is still excited about trying to find that partner to hook up with to go to the front.
“As long as you have a partner, it’s kind of exciting,” Yeley said with a chuckle. “The problem is there are 43 cars that start the race so someone is going to be left out.”
“The toughest part is the vision,” Yeley continued. “If you are the car that is pushing, you really are limited in what you can see. For the most part, you’re just looking at the back of the car in front of you, hoping that wherever he is going to lead you is a safe place.”
Yeley, like so many of the other Cup drivers, already has a partner in mind with whom he would like to race. But he also realizes that he may have to have a backup plan, a particularly difficult situation for a single car team.
“Everyone knows who they are going to work with at the start of the race,” Yeley said. “I worked with Terry Labonte a bunch at Talladega and we worked very well together, but then he had an engine problem.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t have others on speed dial,” Yeley continued. “Being a single car team, it’s not going to be as easy to have other guys on the same system, like the Hendrick guys.”
“We’ll sit down and talk and go through the scenarios,” Yeley said. “We know the single car teams that also need help.”
“There’s guys that you want to work with and guys that you want to stay away as far as you possibly can,” Yeley continued. “Hopefully, we can hook up with Terry Labonte again and can get to the front.”
Yeley is looking forward not only to partnering with other drivers for the Daytona race but also is seeking sponsorship partners so that he can race more this season.
“We have run five races so far this year,” Yeley said. “We’ve had to start and park the rest of them.”
“This is one of the races on our schedule where we will run the entire race.”
While looking forward to running the full race, Yeley is also strangely looking forward to ‘silly season,’ a time when drivers and teams start making changes. And he is making sure that he is at the track and keeping his name out there as part of the ‘silly season’ mix.
“Right now, we’re getting into ‘silly season’ and there’s a lot of teams looking to make changes,” Yeley said. “I’m trying to be a part of those discussions. The biggest thing for me is to qualify and be competitive with the equipment that I have so we can prove to people that this is where we belong.”
Another way that Yeley is keeping his name out in front, as well as connecting with his fans, is through the use of social media. He has concocted interesting games and promotions, from ‘Speed Dice’ on his Facebook page to ‘Pay it Forward Friday’ on his Twitter account.
“Obviously, this is the time and age of technology,” Yeley said. “So, you have to take advantage of everything you can.”
“I’ve been on Twitter for a year and a half and now Facebook,” Yeley continued. “It’s a way you can really communicate with fans one on one.”
Yeley hopes that all fans, including his Facebook friends and Twitter followers, will be watching him not only as he qualifies his way into the Coke Zero 400 but also as he races toward the checkered flag. What are Yeley’s predictions for the big race?
“If I could look into my crystal ball and we were able to come out of Daytona with a top-10, that would be very special for this team and myself,” Yeley said. “For a team with one car and one speedway engine, that would be great and is very doable.”
Denny Hamlin Says Kyle Busch Aggressive But Not an Instigator
Even though Denny Hamlin had not seen the handshake between his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch and Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick, he still had plenty to say about it.
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[/media-credit]“I would consider it genuine,” Hamlin said Thursday at Daytona. “Kyle’s just not a head games type of guy, I don’t believe. In 2008 when he was winning a lot of races I remember a race throughout the season where a lot of emphasis was being put on Kyle and different things that he was doing and I remember a lot of teams going after them as far as playing heads games and stuff. But Kyle never really responds to that, I don’t feel like.”
Harvick and his supporters would disagree. At Darlington in May, Busch hooked Harvick under a caution flag after the two raced hard a few laps before. Their actions carried over to pit road and led to NASCAR placing them on probation until June 15.
Probation or not, the two never stopped racing each other as hard as they did before. Just days before their probation period was to be over, Harvick ran Busch down the frontstretch at Pocono and said afterwards Busch knows he has one coming. Harvick sounding as though Busch started it and he was going to finish it.
It made Hamlin’s comments on Thursday particularly interesting. According to Hamlin his teammate is tough but not dirty.
“He [Busch] never really does anything on-track to instigate it. I feel like he’s one of the most fair racers really out there. Even though he’s aggressive at times, he does a pretty good job of keeping it relatively safe for other drivers. I would consider it something that is sincere.”
When asked directly about last weekend Busch said, “I felt like we had a really good race with each other. So, I just wanted to let him know that. We gave each other great room and raced each other hard and clean. And, that’s all there is to it.” Adding that those around the sport looked too much into it.
Harvick on the other hand was confused by what took place. He didn’t know where it came from and said things between he and Busch aren’t necessarily fine because they only raced each other for half a lap.
But for Hamlin, having been involved in altercations with Harvick last season, he has a different view. The two traded words and paint in the Chase at Dover after taking shots at each other’s organizations. Harvick had also previously been involved in incidents with another JGR driver, Joey Logano, making it three for three with the Gibbs team. All of which taught Hamlin a lesson.
“As far as Harvick, that’s just kind of the team make-up I believe,” said Hamlin. “Whether it’s back to the old 3 car or anything like that, that team has always kind of been in those situations. When they’re racing for championships, that’s part of their game that they play.”
Ones Hamlin fell for last season, something he acknowledges, while also saying some drivers are better at staying away from altercations than others. There are too many personalities in this sport for them all to fit on one track.
Harvick and Busch, or Childress and Busch have plenty of personality to go around. While Hamlin has nothing but praise for his teammate and his driving style, team owner Richard Childress isn’t a fan. He made that known in Kansas a few weeks ago.
In Hamlin’s mind though, the feud between the two organizations or any two drivers blow over in time. Something yet to be seen in this instance.
“A lot of times they don’t mesh well together and we saw that with the 29 and the 18 this year,” said Hamlin. “In general, everyone is going to work it out in time. Even though you consider yourself the toughest of rivals we still do a lot of things together that kind of patch that up.”
