Matt Crafton Eyes the Championship After Solid Start to Season
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[/media-credit]So far this season, Matt Crafton is having one of the best seasons of his career as he currently leads the point standings.
“The season has been good so far,” he told me earlier this week. “It hasn’t great so far that we’ve got two top five finishes and a top 10. The last race at Darlington we had a really truck. That will help towards building for the next race at Martinsville and build off the momentum for the team and having momentum is huge in this sport.”
The last race at Darlington was a trying race for the No. 88 team as they got stuck back outside the top 20 late in the going with a late pit stop. Though Crafton proved that his team is ready to make a run at the championship as he drove back to a fourth place finish.
“It was cool that we had as good as a truck as we did to come back to finish fourth,” he said. “That was awesome. I think if we had better track position, we would’ve had a better shot.”
One of the keys to Crafton’s run at Darlington was working with teammate Johnny Sauter, who he has a good relationship with.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “Things are great. If we’re off a little bit in practice, you can over there and see what they’re doing and get your program with what they’re doing. We actually went to them at Darlington. And that’s go back and forth as they can come to us.”
Crafton is set to go for the championship after watching ThorSport Racing grow through the years.
“It would be everything,” he said. “I mean, that’s what we all strive for. We’re all here to win the championship. That weekend is one thing, but its all part of working towards that.”
He got the call to drive for them in 2000, after winning the Featherlite Southwest Series Championship. When he first joined, they were a team that was just starting out, though have since grown to a three-truck organization. ThorSport Racing announced last week that they’d be adding a third truck to the organization with Dakoda Armstrong behind the wheel.
“I remember when it was just one team and not a whole trucks and to keep adding to it makes it better and better every year,” he said. “That’s pretty awesome to have another truck at the race track; I look forward to working with him.”
Key highlights to his career to date include his first racing memory of winning his first ever go-kart racing and his first career Camping World Truck Series win at Atlanta, followed by the win at Charlotte. Though one track that he has yet to win at that’s on his radar is Bristol, following the second-place finish last year.
Outside of his driving commitments, Crafton has also been working with Travis Pastrana in helping him learn the ropes of driving stock cars.
“He is going to be a good racecar driver,” he said. “He has been good to work with. He has already done well. To finish sixth in his first ever start and then the second one, he got caught up in someone else’s mess.”
Speedway Media News and Bits
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[/media-credit]This weekend, NASCAR shifts from one of its smallest tracks – Bristol Motor Speedway – to one of its biggest – Auto Club Speedway. Auto Club Speedway, a two-miler, which offers the fifth different track-size in as many weeks, a challenge to each driver’s skill and versatility. Up first this weekend is the NASCAR Nationwide Series, running the 13th Annual Royal Purple 300 on Saturday and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing wraps up the weekend, with Sunday’s 15th Annual Auto Club 400 – a race that’ll see a ratcheted-up sense of urgency. This one’s 50 laps — 100 miles – shorter than past spring races at Auto Club Speedway.
And for the first time since 2005, there have been four different winners in the first four races. Competitive balance is high, especially when you consider that last year’s top winners – Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson – have yet to triumph. This weeks race schedule:
NSS Practice 3 p.m. ET Fri. Speed
NNS Practice 4:30 p.m. ET Fri. Speed
NSS Qualifying 7:30 p.m. ET Fri. Speed
NNS Qualifying 1:00 p.m. ET Sat. Speed
NSS Practice 2:30 p.m ET Sat Speed
NSS Final Practice 4:00 p.m ET Sat Speed
NNS Royal Purple 300 5:30 p.m. ET Sat ESPN
NSS Auto Club 400 2:30 p.m ET Sun FOX
Can Kyle Busch driver of the NO. 18 M&M’s Toyota comes into the Auto Club 400 with a sweep the previous week at Bristol Motor Speedway winning both the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. Busch has a driver rating of 100.7 the fourth-best at ACS with an average finish of 12.7. He has one win, four top fives, eight top tens, and a pole in his career at ACS. I would pay close attention to the NO. 18 this week in both races at Auto Club Speedway.
*A New Day: After Sunday, 2011 Points Decide Top 35. For the first five races, the 2010 owner points are used when awarding top 35 teams guaranteed status to each race.
Auto Club Speedway hosts race No. 5. After Sunday, the 2011 points will be used.
That presents some interesting angles all around the top-35 bubble. Casey Mears and his No. 13 Germain Racing Toyota has had to qualify on speed for the first five races, and now sits directly on the bubble, in 35th. Mears is one point ahead of Dave Blaney and the No. 36 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet, in 36th.
A few marquee teams are perilously close to the bubble. Jeff Burton and the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet sit 30th, 23 points ahead of the cut-off. Joey Logano and the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota are also 23 points up. Brian Vickers and the No. 83 Red Bull Racing Toyota are just 18 points ahead of the cut-off
*Paul Menard Finds Perfect Fit at RCR. Paul Menard’s first full seasons were with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. He finished 34th in 2007, and 26th in 2008.
A year later, with Yates Racing, he finished 31st. That was 2009.
A year after that, last season, Menard enjoyed the best finish of his career, 23rd. That was in Richard Petty Motorsports equipment.
Now, with his fourth team in as many seasons, Menard has gotten the break of his career. He joined Richard Childress Racing, an operation that houses six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships, and last year landed all three of its drivers – Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer – in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
This year, shirking predictions of another subpar points finish, Menard might be the next RCR driver in the Chase.
He currently sits fifth – the best points position of his career, and the best of any RCR driver. He has been the top-finishing Richard Childress Racing driver in three of the four races this season.
And at Bristol, he led 35 laps, the highest single-race total of his career.
But this weekend presents another new challenge for Menard. In eight career Auto Club Speedway races, Menard has just one finish in the top 20 – an 18th last February.
*Point Standings through Race 4 of 36:
Position Drvier Points
1 Kurt Busch 150
2 Carl Edwards 149
3 Tony Stewart 138
4 Ryan Newman 138
5 Paul Menard 136
6 Kyle Busch 133
7 Jimmie Johnson 130
8 Juan P. Montoya 126
9 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 124
10 Martin Truex Jr. 123
11 Mark Martin 123
12 Kasey Kahne 122
13 Matt Kenseth 117
14 Bobby Labonte 115
15 Kevin Harvick 110
16 AJ Allmendinger 107
17 Denny Hamlin 106
18 Marcos Ambrose 105
19 Jeff Gordon 104
20 David Ragan 89
NOTES FROM THE NASCAR NATION: THE NATIONWIDE SERIES AT FONTANA
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[/media-credit]The NASCAR Nationwide Series will visit “the left coast” for Saturday’s running of the Royal Purple 300 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana-California. Like any event featuring one of NASCAR’s big three national touring series, there are some story lines attached to this race. Some of them are very interesting and at least one of them has the characteristics of a daytime soap opera.
THE STORY BREAKDOWN
We already know what the number one NASCAR Nationwide Series story is going to be this weekend. It’s, of course, Rick Russell versus Jennifer Jo Cobb in a situation that has just hit another brand new level of bizarre.
In previous editions of this motorsports soap opera, Rick Russell, owner of 2nd Chance Motorsports, and Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing announced an alliance, for the 2011 season, with plans to run at least the first five Nationwide Series races with hopes of attracting sponsorship for the full season.
Already trying to race under tight financial circumstances, the operation hit a major snag at the Las Vegas race where Cobb was caught up in a crash, not of her making, that caused considerable damage to the team’s only race car. Following the massive expenses of repairing the car, Russell apparently decided it would be best to start and park at Bristol, a track notorious for sheet metal damage, and have the car ready for the Auto Club Speedway.
It’s at this point when team communication apparently fell apart. Russell claimed that everyone was told about the start and park plan during a team meeting the day before the Bristol race. Cobb later admitted that she had heard some “rumblings” about it but didn’t actually get the official word from Russell until literally minutes before the race last Saturday afternoon. Cobb further claims that she had already hired a pit crew and purchased tires for the Bristol event. Russell countered with these expenses were incurred “behind his back”. That’s when Cobb, along with her crew chief Steve Kuykendall, left the track. Cobb later released a statement saying she refused to start and park out of a sense of commitment to her sponsors, the fans and to NASCAR. Russell had driver Chris Lawson suit up, get into the car, run four laps and park it in the garage. He pocketed $16,000 plus for the minimal effort which was apparently enough to cover the repair costs from the previous weekend at Las Vegas. He later announced his intent to sue Cobb for breach of contract.
As they say on those late night television infomercials: “but wait, there’s more.” This soap opera developed an unexpected plot twist when Russell announced that he has filed an official police report against Cobb and her crew chief alleging larceny. Russell claims that Cobb and Kuykendall stole approximately $16,000 in race car parts from his race shop located in Mooresville-North Carolina.
In comments made to “ESPN Dot Com” on Tuesday, Russell said that police investigators located about half of the missing car parts, last Sunday, in a storage bin used by Cobb located near the race shop. “Both her and her crew chief said they didn’t know how it, (the car parts), got there,” Russell said adding “I’m in the race parts selling business. There were containers of parts, (in the storage bin), that came right off of my shelves with the prices still marked on them.”
Cobb later claimed that the storage bin actually belonged to Russell and that he agreed to let her and Steve Kuykendall relocate some of the parts there in order to clear some work space in the race shop. She further claimed this arrangement was made with Russell while their partnership still existed. She adamantly claims that there was no attempt to steal anything and that she told Russell on Sunday to take all of the parts that were his.
Both parties have clearly parted ways at this point. Russell has entered his #79 Ford, with driver Tim Andrews, sans sponsorship in Saturday’s Nationwide Series race at the Auto Club Speedway. Cobb, earlier this week, said she will be driving the #41 Ford for Rick Ware Racing, also with no posted sponsor on the official entry list, on Saturday. She also intimated that she has been talking to “some people” and hopes to make an announcement regarding future plans soon.
It would appear that, at some point, the “L WORD”, that would be lawyers not losers, is going to play a prominent role in this motorsports soap opera. That’s too bad because it appears that both sides really can’t afford massive legal expenses right now. Then again, maybe the word loser does apply here because the only possible winners will be the lawyers.
Jennifer Jo Cobb, during a television interview on SPEED earlier in the week, appears to prefer an amicable resolution that would simply, and officially, dissolve the partnership, everyone wishes each other good luck and then move on and go racing. That’s actually a very good idea.
Again, you expect to hear a lot of commentary about this story prior to Saturday’s Royal Purple 300 Nationwide Series race.
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Fortunately that’s not the only story line connected to Saturday’s race at the Auto Club Speedway. There has been a long time NASCAR Nationwide Series policy that states any team entrenched within the top thirty in series owner’s points will be awarded a guaranteed start in the next race on the schedule. During the first five races of any new NASCAR season this privilege is bestowed based on the owner’s points from the previous year. After race number five the current 2011 points becomes effective.
Saturday’s Royal Purple 300 at the Auto Club Speedway is race number five on the Nationwide Series schedule and the jockeying for position to stay in the all important top thirty could get most interesting. Going into Saturday there is only a three point separation between positions 27 through 31 in the current owner’s points. The teams in positions 28 through 30 are tied with 70 points each.
Then there’s the matter of who’s on the outside looking in. There are six teams within eight points of the 30th place cut off. They are led by 69 year old ageless wonder Morgan Shepherd. The owner/driver is currently 31st in the owner’s rankings just a mere two points away from a guaranteed start in the next series race at Texas.
Do you believe that Morgan Shepherd is going to drive his heart out at the Auto Club Speedway on Saturday? I do. Do you think every NASCAR Nationwide Series fan in the country is going to pulling for this fine gentleman to make the top thirty? So do I.
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Speaking of points, how about Steve Turner’s teams and how well they’re doing in the Nationwide Series championship standings? Late last year Turner Motorsports announced they had acquired select assets of Braun Racing and planned to run three full time teams in the series in 2011. Turner entered a fourth car at Las Vegas for veteran Mark Martin who presented him with his first series’ win.
Turner Motorsports goes into Saturday’s race with driver Jason Leffler leading the points while his team mates, Justin Allgaier and Reed Sorenson, are third and fourth in the championship standings.
By the way, Leffler is really looking forward to returning to southern California and the Auto Club Speedway this weekend. That’s because it’s a homecoming for the driver. He’s from nearby Long Beach. He would love to win Saturday’s Royal Purple 300 with family and friends cheering him on from the grandstands. He’s also looking forward to visiting his favorite restaurant: In And Out Burgers. Apparently that’s the only burger joint that doesn’t have a franchise back east.
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Steve Turner also arranged for Mark Martin to make another appearance in the Nationwide Series in his fourth team: the #32 Chevrolet. After winning at Las Vegas, Martin now has a series high 49 career wins and he wants to become the first driver to win 50 times. So does Kyle Busch who, after winning at Bristol last weekend, now has 45 Nationwide wins. Expect a little good natured ribbing between these two while at the Auto Club Speedway.
Their Nationwide Series career stats are remarkably close. Martin has 232 starts with a winning percentage of 21.1 percent. Busch has 206 starts with a win percentage of 21.8 percent. At the Auto Club Speedway Martin has two Nationwide starts and has made the best of them by scoring a win and a third place finish. Busch has 12 career starts at NASCAR’s home in southern California. He’s also made the best of the opportunity with four wins, seven top five finishes, nine top tens and two poles. Both men are the only drivers who have scored wins in all three of NASCAR’s national touring series while racing at the Auto Club Speedway.
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THE RACE BREAKDOWN
The Royal Purple 300 is 150 laps/300 miles around the Auto Club Speedway’s massive two mile, D shaped, oval.
There are 45 posted entries for the race vying for the 43 starting berths.
14 of those entries are on the go or go home list meaning they do not have a guaranteed starting berth in the race because they are currently outside of the top 30 in Nationwide Series owner’s points. These teams will have to rely on qualifying speeds to make Saturday’s race. Three of these drivers, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Green and Joe Nemechek, have past champion’s provisionals available to them if needed.
Kyle Busch is defending race champion from last year. He actually won both Nationwide Series events at the Auto Club Speedway in 2010.
The Royal Purple 300 will be broadcast live by the ESPN Network on Saturday beginning with the pre race show at 5 pm eastern time.
