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Ragan wins the Sprint Showdown

By
Tammyrae Benscoter
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Saturday nights preliminary action kicked off the evening with a big bang. In the early laps of the Sprint Showdown a caution flew to end any chances that Landon Cassill and Derrike Cope would have of advancing into the main event. Cassill’s Chevrolet had tire issues and threw his machine into the outside line collecting Cope. Cassill’s car took a hard hit to the driver’s door area, but due to great safety strides, both drivers walked away unscathed.

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Two Ford drivers that have never been in an All-Star event, David Ragan and Paul Menard lead the pack at the mid-point of the All-Star Showdown. And while some teams decided to pit and service the cars, a few notable drivers stayed out, including race leaders Ragan and Menard as well as the hometown kid Dale Earnhardt Jr.

On the start of the second segment, Brad Keselowski made it three wide on the front stretch jumping to the inside of Ragan to steal the front position.

The second caution flew for the No. 30 car of David Stremme after hitting the wall in turn 1. Stremme was running in the 17th position at the time of his incident. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was among the drivers taking the time to pit under this caution.

The second restart in the final showdown segment saw Joey Lagano push his way through the middle, when the frontrunners dud bit get on the gas fast enough. The field behind the leaders stacked up. Brian Vickers in the silver Red Bull machine became the lone victim of the back up as he spun out in traffic. Because caution laps do not count in this segment, the restart order was reverted to the previous lap.

Green flags laps concluded the second segment as David Ragan brought Brad Keselowski to the checkered flag, both drivers advanced into the main event. This is the third appearance for Keselowski.

“Everything is a lot easier if you’ve got a fast race car, so I just tried not to make any mistakes those last few runs,” said Ragan. “It’ll give us some extra confidence to be out here in this All-Star Race.” Not only did Ragan score his first non-points win, but with the win he will make his first appearance in the All-Star event.

Brad Keselowski transferred the second Penske machine into the main race. “Our goal was to transfer,” Keselowski said, “But we wanted to win the Showdown too. We just need a little more speed and we can win these things.”

And while Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t take the Sprint Fan Vote for granted, he was given the final transfer spot. The fan favorite of many, Earnhardt solely believes there was no guarantee. “My fans worked really hard. They deserve all the credit, they do the work, “ Earnhardt added.

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The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to the famed Charlotte Motor Speedway for the prestigious 600 mile Memorial Day Weekend Event. The winner of the Sprint All-Star has won the longest Sprint Cup race on the schedule seven times. The most recent driver to accomplish this feat was Kurt Busch in 2010. The other men who have swept the May events at CMS include the late Dale Earnhardt Sr., the late Davey Allison, veteran driver Darrell Waltrip, five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne.

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The NASCAR Nationwide Series is live from Iowa Speedway on Sunday May 22. Two historic moments to note include the first time that three women will compete in a Nationwide race. Sisters Angela and Amber Cope will join Jennifer Jo Cobb in the record books. The second big event at Iowa is the celebration of Kenny Wallace’s 500th career start. Wallace will start the race in the 14th starting position. The field was set on Owner points after rain washed out qualifying.

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CHEVY NSCS AT CHARLOTTE ALL-STAR RACE: Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Press Conference Transcript – Post Sprint Showdown

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SM Archive
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Post-Race Quotes — Sprint Showdown

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SM Archive
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Ford Sprint Showdown Quotes

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SM Archive
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Goess Survives Yellow Fever at Charlotte; Finishes 22nd

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SM Archive
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TOYOTA NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) Post-Race Notes & Quotes Charlotte Motor Speedway

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SM Archive
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Busch takes the checkers in the NCWTS North Carolina Education Lottery 200

By
Tammyrae Benscoter
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[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]

Kyle ‘Rowdy’ Busch claimed the checkers in his 28th career Camping World Truck Series Race. Busch, led the last seven laps in Friday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He joins driving legends Mike Skinner and Jack Sprague in second place on the all-time truck series win list. However, for Busch, the numbers do not stop there. He brings his NASCAR career total to 97 wins. This monumental number puts Busch in the elite company of Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip, and tied for third in NASCAR wins.

 

The race win did not come easy for the defending race winner. Busch spun early, but used his talent to keep the No. 18 green NOS Tundra off the wall, losing only a few positions on the racetrack.

Kyle Busch Motorsports in conjunction with Speedway Children’s Charities raced in remembrance of 10-year-old Zahra Baker, who was tragically murdered last September. A photo of Baker adorned the passenger side window of Busch’s No. 18 truck. Following his win, Busch dedicated his win to her memory.

The Charlotte Motor Speedway was not kind to the Camping World Truck Series Drivers. Point’s leader Matt Crafton was collected in an early caution involving Max Papis and Brendan Gaughan. Crafton’s misfortune opened the door for rookie Cole Whitt to lead the point standings as the trucks leave Charlotte and head to Kansas in two weeks.

Defending champion Todd Bodine and veteran wheeler Ron Hornaday were both victims of cautions during the race. The field collectively brought out 10 caution flags.

Polesitter Timothy Peters, No. 17 GearWrench Red Horse Racing Toyota claimed the pole for Friday’s race, in his 100th career start. However, his night came to a quick end after his machine struck the outside wall.

Sprint Cup Series driver Clint Bowyer powered his Kevin Harvick owned entry to a second place finish. Rookie Cole Whitt backed up his Dover finish with a great third place run. James Buescher and Ron Hornaday rounded out the top five. Sixth place belonged to Johnny Sauter. Post race activity on the track saw Hornaday and Sauter in a heated discussion about on track racing. Austin Dillon, Parker Klingerman, Justin Marks and Brad Sweet rounded out the top 10.

Formula 1 Champion Kimi Raikkonen strapped into the No. 15 Perky Jerky Toyota Tundra owned by Kyle Busch Motorsports for his NASCAR debut on 1.5 mile oval of Charlotte Motor Speedway. Raikkonen joined past Formula 1 drivers Nelson Piquet Jr. and Max Papis in Friday night’s internationally charged event.

“I really want him to have success,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said of Raikkonen’s debut. “I hope that he runs well and enjoys his experience. I like to see people come in and get opportunities. I like to really see people that come in and have never seen our sport, heard about it and maybe heard good and bad things come in here and leave with a great impressions,” Earnhardt continued. “That makes me feel proud of being a part of it for as long as I have. I think that he will get a good impression. I think he’ll enjoy what he is going to get himself into.”

Raikkonen qualified in the 31st starting position and finished his evening in the 15th finishing spot.

“Expectations for Kimi (Raikkonen) tonight are pretty simple,” said car owner Kyle Busch. “Just try to get him to run all the laps, try to get him to gain some experience, get out there with some other trucks, try to drive the truck a little harder, and get a feel for it.”

The opportunity to have Raikkonen drive for Kyle Busch Motorsports came about after his agent contacted the team. The discussions were quick and Charlotte was the track of choice. This is just preliminary and there are not indications that Raikkonen will move to a Nationwide team anytime soon.

Kyle Busch Wins North Carolina Lottery 200 After Going For A Spin

By
SM Staff
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When there’s a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event, you always have to watch for Kyle Busch as he will be in the thick of the action. Tonight was no exception, as despite spinning out on lap 52, Busch won the race.  It was his fourth win this year in seven truck races and 28th truck win the year.

“I had an angel riding with me with Zarah Baker,” Busch said. “I didn’t have the truck to beat there at the end, Clint was strong, but we were able to do it. I’m not going to lie but its odd how things work out”

“We spun out; we only lost 3 or 4 spots. We came to pit road, got four tires. Eric made some changes and got me something that was a lot better …more drivable. I was able to drive back up there.”

Meanwhile, it was Clint Bowyer who finished second after leading the final laps before passed by Busch with seven to go.

“Yeah, it was just too loose,” Bowyer said. “Its unfortunate. You know, you draft so big there and he just got by me. I tried to get back to him. They deserved to win today, but I didn’t give it to them.”

Rookie Cole Whitt finished third to take over the points lead, one point over Johnny Sauter.

“Our team has just been so constant each week,” Whitt said. “The Cup guys have always been strong. We’ve just been consistent, beating the guys that we need to beat. It feels pretty good to run third to those guys and do well. We’re just going to keep racing like we are, go for wins and do what we can.”

James Buescher came home fourth after changing a battery with 65 to go, while Ron Hornaday came home fifth after spinning on lap 22.

After the race, Hornaday had a heated discussion with Johnny Sauter, who came home sixth, due to contact that happened near the end of the event.

“He told me it was a good race, I guess,” Hornaday said. “He told me I blocked him, but he didn’t know that I was three-wide. The truck got loose there and we got three-wide and he booted me there.”

“Just close racing there and I had a run and you just can’t stop there,” Sauter said. “It hurt our night pretty good as it put a pretty big gouge in the front of the truck.”

Austin Dillon finished seventh, followed by Parker Kligermann, Justin Marks and Brad Sweet.

Kimi Raikkonen, making his first ever NASCAR start, would finish the night in 15th.

The night saw a record-tying 10 cautions as a lot of trucks were loose all night long causing single truck and multiple truck incidents.

The action started right away as on lap 10, Todd Bodine spun and made contact with the inside wall on the backstretch. Hornaday was the next to spin on lap 22 and then on the restart, Miguel Paludo had an engine let go. Then the winner, Busch spun on lap 52, followed by Timothy Peters getting in the wall on lap 63  while trying to pass Sauter.

Just past halfway with 65 laps to go, Brendan Gaughan got into the wall and behind him, Jamie Dick and TJ Bell made contact trying to avoid. Gaughan would be apart of the next wreck with 59 to go as  he was slowing down, Max Papis would cut across the nose of Matt Crafton, taking them all out. With a wounded truck, Dick would find the wall, both with 49 to go and 39 to go. The last caution came out with 28 to go when David Starr got into the wall and cut a tire.

The next Camping World Truck Series race is Saturday June 4th at Kansas Speedway at 2pm EST.

Steve Wallace and Michael Annett See Light at the End of the Tunnel Leading to Iowa

By
SM Staff
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As Steve Wallace and Michael Annett put Dover in their rear view mirror and head to the stand alone Nationwide race in Iowa, the teammates of Rusty Wallace Racing agree that they both see the light at the end of the tunnel for Rusty Wallace Racing.

[media-credit name=”nascar.com” align=”alignright” width=”230″][/media-credit]“Well, I’ll tell you the whole deal,” Wallace, driver of the No. 66 5-Hour Energy Toyota, said.”We thought we were going to start the year pretty good.”

“We got a new teammate this year and built a bunch of new race cars,” Wallace continued. “We thought we were going to be really fast and felt like we had a pretty good idea going into this year.”

“But as it turned out we didn’t,” Wallace said. “And we really, really struggled early there in the year.”

Wallace’s teammate Michael Annett, driver of the No. 62 Pilot Flying J Toyota, could not agree more with the assessment of their early going this season.

“We went into the season doing a ton of stuff thinking we had the best thing we could bring to the track,” Annett said. “And then we unloaded and realized we had a lot of work to do.”

Both drivers and teams went back to the drawing board and after multiple meetings and changing up some personnel, they hit on another idea. They signed up one of the Cup drivers, David Reutimann, to help them shake out the problems on their team.

“We went to Nashville and we ran a third car with David Reutimann,” Wallace said. “He had a completely, way different, odd-ball set up and it ran really, really good.”

“He ran good and I struggled so we went back to the shop and we mended all the set ups and ever since then our cars have unloaded a lot better,” Wallace continued. “We’re still not where we need to be but we’re definitely going in the right direction.”

“We’re getting better and better,” Wallace said. “It’s exciting knowing that we’re not so lost as we were before.”

“There is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Annett used almost identical language regarding the difference the third car of Reutimann has made for both he and his teammate.

“We started having our Monday morning meetings and we made a list of what we needed to do,” Annett said. “We did all on the list and moved some people around and added the third car.”

“They went completely different and they were better,” Annett continued. “They just hit on something and from then on we hit on something. Both teams went that direction and from then on, we started running better.”

“All the hard work is paying off and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Annett said. “For awhile there at the beginning of the season, it was a small light but we knew we had the people, the parts and the cars to get the job done.”

“We are getting closer and closer to the end of that tunnel and everything’s finally moving in the right direction.”

While both Rusty Wallace Racing teammates did not have the best of days at last weekend’s race at Dover’s Monster Mile, with Wallace wrecking hard at the end and Annett never quite finding the handling on his car, the duo managed to salvage top-20 finishes when all was said and done.

Both now go to the track designed by their team owner Rusty Wallace, Iowa Speedway, for this weekend’s stand alone Nationwide race. Again, Annett and Wallace agreed that the John Deere Dealers 250 presented by Pioneer might just be their best chance to head to the winner’s circle.

“I have a big bull’s eye on Iowa,” Wallace said. “That’s my favorite track,”

“We had a really good shot there to win last year and had a problem in the pits,” Wallace continued. “We’re taking a brand new car, our best most state of the art piece.”

Interestingly, Wallace will be running for the first time ever the chassis matching his car number, RWR-066, this weekend in Iowa.

“It’s lighter and better and it’s been in the wind tunnel,” Wallace said.” That’s going to be a good deal.”

For teammate Annett, Iowa Speedway is coming home. The Des Moines, Iowa native has already scored an 11th and 7th place finish in 2009 and 2010 respectively at his home track.

“I take a lot of pride in my home track,” Annett said. “With the race just down the road from where I grew up, it’s a fun weekend.”

The teammates are convinced that the Nationwide race, with only two Cup drivers competing, is also the best chance for a Nationwide-only driver to take the checkered flag. And both are motivated by that opportunity to have that Cinderella finish.

“It drives me 100% to be the first Nationwide driver to get a win,” Wallace said. “It makes you feel really good when you can run up front with those guys. That’s what I’m excited about.”

“Trevor Bayne winning that race was amazing because he’s such a young kid and a Nationwide guy,” Annett said. “But Regan Smith winning at Darlington is really something.”

“Steven and I were talking about it and we agreed,” Annett said. “Him winning that race shows that if you do your job right, you can get the job done.”

With both Annett and Wallace headed into a track that means so much to the team owner and father respectively, one question that many have asked is if the two feel any added pressure.

“I get that question a lot,” Wallace said. “Iowa’s a cool track, but not just because my Dad’s involved with it.”

“As far as I’m concerned, we can’t let any of that change the way we approach the weekend at all,” Wallace continued. “We still have to keep our focus on the race.”

“We’ve had a real chance to win there the last two years in a row,” Wallace said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to put our team in Victory Lane and win one for the Nationwide guys.”

 

Fan events center of All-Star event

By
Tammyrae Benscoter
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The All-Star event kicks off Saturday with a pre-race concert from Country Music Artist Dierks Bentley, presented by Budweiser. Bentley is best known for his song ’Sideways,’ which has been featured as NASCAR’s theme song on FOX. All ticket holders are treated to the pre-race entertainment.

[media-credit name=”cms.com” align=”alignright” width=”234″][/media-credit]A few of the biggest names in NASCAR will display their burnout talents and take center stage in the Pennzoil Ultra Victory Challenge. Defending champion Joey Logano will be joined by Clint Bowyer, Regan Smith, Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski and the Busch brothers. After the top three contenders have been announced, fans will vote for the winner via text messaging.

Race fans will witness the largest high definition television unveiling when the 200 ft by 80 ft tall screen created by Panasonic lights up on the backstretch. The new addition to Charlotte Motor Speedway is the world’s largest HD-TV. The screen will present fans seated along the front stretch with clear viewing and instant replays. The structure weighs in at 332-and-a half tons and will be illuminated by nine million LED lamps.

Prior to the main event, Country Music Male Vocalist of the Year Brad Paisley will kick off the All-Star Cast of driver introductions and premiere his video ‘Old Alabama,’ which was shot at the Hendrick Motorsports Complex near the Speedway. The video features NASCAR legends Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick as well as the iconic country group Alabama.

And before the green flag falls, race fans will ’Light Up the Night.’ With some help from Charlotte Motor Speedway and Energizer, race fans will shine flashlights simultaneously in an attempt to break a Guinness World Record. Representatives from the prestigious record holding company will be on-hand to confirm the record. This event is a spin-off from Energizers relationship with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates that has lasted 16 years. ’I can’t wait for this ’Light Up the Night’ promotion,” said Juan Pablo Montoya, “I think it is going to be so cool to see 80,000 people all flashing their brights.”

Under the lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway, men race for bragging rights as a field of past winners and champions battle for a $1,000,000 payday. This year’s event will feature new blood as Trevor Bayne and Regan Smith take the green as first time winners in the Sprint Cup Series. Locked into Saturday night’s main event are past champions and race winners from 2010 and 2011.

The slugfest begins with 28 wheelers vying for two-top finishing positions in the Sprint Showdown. Included in this field is fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr., the Australian Wheeler Marcos Ambrose and the happiest NASCAR driver Joey Logano. Following the checkered flag, the fan vote will be announced. Only those three men will advance to the main event.

The All-Star race features 22 drivers in an all-out dash for the cash. The race is broken down into four-segments. The first 50-lap dash requires a four-tire green flag stop. The second segment is 20 laps, as well as the third. Following the third segment teams must perform a four-tire stop to position themselves for the final 10-laps of no holds barred action.

When the checkered flag falls, the sky will illuminate with a fireworks show. A post race concert will feature Country music star Julie Roberts. She will perform a 30-minute concert debuting her new song ‘NASCAR Party.’ Fans will have the opportunity to step-out onto the front-stretch and join the celebration. “I didn’t think we could pack any more special events for our fans into the schedule on Saturday, but we did with this post-race concert,” said Marcus Smith, President and General Manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway.

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