Crafton nudges Dillon for second career win
[/media-credit]Matt Crafton broke a 79 race winless streak and recorded his second win at Iowa Speedway on Saturday, nudging defending race winner Austin Dillon by two car lengths at the stripe.
Crafton’s last win came at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 16, 2008. His victory also broke the streak of pole winners going on to win the race at Iowa Speedway’s two races.
“It’s a huge momentum builder. It was awesome. It was a long time since 2008.” Crafton said.
Dillon dominated for most of the night until a bad late pit stop placed him back in eight place on the restart.
“I don’t know what happened. I saw they stumbled in the front, lost a tire. Never got an explanation. My guys do a great job on pit row, and (Saturday) night wasn’t their night.” Dillon said.
Pole sitter David Mayhew led a few laps at the beginning of the race, finishing third. Johnny Sauter and Joey Coulter rounded out the top five finishers.
Dillon fell short of making it a Dillon family sweep after his brother Ty Dillon won the ARCA Series race held before the Truck Series event.
Dillon now trails Sauter by 22 points in the Camping World Truck Series driver standings.
“I’m really proud of Matt tonight, he earned this win. ThorSport Racing just moved all its racing operations this week into the new shop, and the guys are all working overtime. To come out here and get a win and a top five finish after a really long week in the shop, that’s pretty amazing. We had more in us on the No. 13 Safe Auto/Karl Chevrolet team tonight, but we’ll take a top five after all that happened to us in this race. It’s a solid finish, and we’ll build on that into Nashville.” Sauter said.
| Unofficial Race Results | |||||
| Coca-Cola 200 presented by Hy-Vee, Iowa Speedway | |||||
| http://www.speedwaymedia.com/truckseries/race.php?race=11 | |||||
| ============================================== | |||||
| Pos. | St. | No. | Driver | Make | Points |
| ============================================== | |||||
| 1 | 11 | 88 | Matt Crafton | Chevrolet | 47 |
| 2 | 5 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 44 |
| 3 | 1 | 2 | David Mayhew | Chevrolet | 42 |
| 4 | 6 | 13 | Johnny Sauter | Chevrolet | 41 |
| 5 | 2 | 22 | Joey Coulter * | Chevrolet | 39 |
| 6 | 14 | 60 | Cole Whitt * | Chevrolet | 38 |
| 7 | 3 | 31 | James Buescher | Chevrolet | 37 |
| 8 | 10 | 8 | Nelson Piquet Jr. * | Chevrolet | 36 |
| 9 | 32 | 81 | David Starr | Toyota | 35 |
| 10 | 21 | 5 | Todd Bodine | Toyota | 35 |
| 11 | 4 | 17 | Timothy Peters | Toyota | 33 |
| 12 | 9 | 46 | Justin Lofton | Toyota | 32 |
| 13 | 13 | 32 | Steve Arpin | Chevrolet | 31 |
| 14 | 7 | 18 | Brian Ickler | Toyota | 30 |
| 15 | 12 | 7 | Miguel Paludo * | Toyota | 29 |
| 16 | 19 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan | Toyota | 28 |
| 17 | 20 | 92 | Clay Rogers | Chevrolet | 27 |
| 18 | 23 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | Chevrolet | 26 |
| 19 | 18 | 33 | Ron Hornaday | Chevrolet | 25 |
| 20 | 17 | 9 | Max Papis | Toyota | 24 |
| 21 | 25 | 98 | Dakoda Armstrong | Chevrolet | 23 |
| 22 | 8 | 29 | Parker Kligerman * | Dodge | 22 |
| 23 | 27 | 102 | Jamie Dick | Chevrolet | 21 |
| 24 | 28 | 7 | Caleb Roark | Chevrolet | 20 |
| 25 | 16 | 23 | Jason White | Chevrolet | 19 |
| 26 | 30 | 57 | Norm Benning | Chevrolet | 18 |
| 27 | 22 | 4 | Ricky Carmichael | Chevrolet | 17 |
| 28 | 15 | 66 | Justin Marks | Chevrolet | 15 |
| 29 | 24 | 63 | Jack Smith | Ford | 0 |
| 30 | 26 | 93 | Mike Garvey | Chevrolet | 14 |
| 31 | 29 | 296 | Todd Peck | Chevrolet | 13 |
| 32 | 31 | 175 | Greg Seevers | Chevrolet | 0 |
Kyle Busch Marks 100th Victory in All Three Series With 49th Nationwide Win
Kyle Busch not only won the New England 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but he also tied Mark Martin as the record holder for Nationwide wins at 49. And for good measure, Busch became just the third driver to score 100 NASCAR national series victories.
[media-credit name=”Kirk Schroll” align=”alignright” width=”227″]
[/media-credit]The 26 year old driver from Las Vegas, Nevada has won 22 times in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, 49 in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and 29 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Busch is now third in the ranking of NASCAR National Series wins, behind Richard Petty, with 200, and David Person with 106.
Busch has won at 25 different tracks, including achieving an historic first three-race weekend sweep at Bristol. He is ranked 28th with Terry Labonte in NASCAR Sprint Cup victories.
“It certainly feels good and it means a lot,” Busch said. “To come out here and win for Z-Line Designs and get the 49th win in their car, we couldn’t do it without their support.”
“To tie Mark Martin’s win is pretty awesome as well.”
Speaking of Mark Martin, he was one of the first to find Busch in Victory Lane and congratulate him.
“It’s just incredible,” Martin said of Busch tying his record. “Everybody forgets that he’s 26 years old. There’s so many more out there for him.”
Busch had to do battle with his nemesis and probation partner Kevin Harvick, behind the wheel of the No. 33 Rheem Heating, Cooling and Water Heating Chevrolet, at the end of the race. Harvick finished in the runner up position and attributed his not winning the race to being warned by NASCAR.
“I was told a few weeks ago that if we touched the 18 car, we’d be parked,” Harvick said. “I just had to be really careful and that’s just the way NASCAR put it to me.”
“It would have been a lot easier to win if you didn’t have handcuffs put on you.”
Even though Harvick did not win the race, he, like Busch, achieved his own record when the checkered flag flew. Harvick scored his 199th top-10 finish, which is an all-time record in the Nationwide Series.
“We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of fun in this Series since it first started,” Harvick said. “I just came up one short.”
Kasey Kahne, driving the No. 7 GoDaddy.com/Verisign Chevrolet, followed closely behind Harvick, coming in third. This was Kahne’s third top-10 finish in four races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“We were a seventh or eighth place car,” Kahne said. “My car was bouncing pretty bad throughout the race. But we were able to miss some of those wrecks and got up to third.”
“It ended up being a pretty good result.”
After spinning on Lap 33, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. recovered to come in fourth. The driver of the No. 6 Fenway Park 100 Years Ford admitted to having a pretty good run after his early error.
“I made a mistake there early trying to get by the 31,” Stenhouse, Jr. said. “He was holding everybody up and I tried to push the issue too hard.”
“We got in there and got too tight and spun the car around there,” Stenhouse, Jr. continued. “This Red Sox Fenway Park 100 Year’s edition is a cool looking car and I wish we could have gotten it into victory lane.”
Aric Almirola, behind the wheel of No. 88 Grand Touring Vodka Chevrolet, rounded out the top five.
“We were a top ten car off the truck so to come out with a top five has been good,” Almirola said. “Everybody at JR Motorsports has been working their guts out.”
“So, it’s fun to come and have a good weekend and put it all together and show off some of the hard work the guys have been doing back at the shop.”
There was plenty of action throughout the race, from Carl Edwards blowing an engine and returning to his seat in the broadcast booth to several on-track altercations involving Rusty Wallace’s son and driver Steve Wallace.
The driver of the No. 60 Fastenal Ford Mustang blamed a broken value or broken valve spring on his falling out of the race.
“Something just broke,” Edwards said. “You don’t really know until you get it apart but I did shut it off early so we should be able to troubleshoot and look at it to see what was actually broken.”
Steve Wallace, driver of the No. 66 5-Hour Energy Toyota Camry, also had an eventful race, but in a different way than Edwards. He was at the heart of several racing incidents and eventually spun out and wrecked at the end.
“I really like Jason Leffler a lot – I get along with him really, really well,” Wallace said of one of his altercations. “He hit me about five or six different times today and he cut up in front of me and spun himself out.”
“It’s as simple as that,” Wallace continued. “Got in the back of the 20 (Joey Logano) there and just a lot of things happened today – some were my fault and some were not.”
Joey Logano, one of those who was caught up with Wallace in one of the incidents, had his own take on the on-track tussle.
“The 66 (Steve Wallace) just drove in there a little too high and got us,” Logano said. “That was the end of our day.
| Unofficial Race Results | |||||
| New England 200, New Hampshire Motor Speedway | |||||
| http://www.speedwaymedia.com/n2s/race.php?race=19 | |||||
| ========================================= | |||||
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Make | Points | |
| ========================================= | |||||
| 1 | 5 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 0 |
| 2 | 2 | 33 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 3 | 12 | 7 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 4 | 14 | 6 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 41 |
| 5 | 4 | 88 | Aric Almirola | Chevrolet | 39 |
| 6 | 13 | 9 | Kenny Wallace | Toyota | 39 |
| 7 | 18 | 62 | Michael Annett | Toyota | 37 |
| 8 | 1 | 22 | Brad Keselowski | Dodge | 0 |
| 9 | 17 | 66 | Steve Wallace | Toyota | 35 |
| 10 | 8 | 31 | Justin Allgaier | Chevrolet | 34 |
| 11 | 16 | 87 | Joe Nemechek | Toyota | 33 |
| 12 | 15 | 2 | Elliott Sadler | Chevrolet | 32 |
| 13 | 7 | 16 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 32 |
| 14 | 20 | 19 | Mike Bliss | Chevrolet | 30 |
| 15 | 6 | 32 | Reed Sorenson | Chevrolet | 29 |
| 16 | 19 | 30 | Mikey Kile | Chevrolet | 28 |
| 17 | 9 | 11 | Brian Scott | Toyota | 27 |
| 18 | 25 | 81 | Blake Koch * | Dodge | 26 |
| 19 | 26 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | Chevrolet | 25 |
| 20 | 23 | 14 | Eric McClure | Chevrolet | 24 |
| 21 | 27 | 89 | Morgan Shepherd | Chevrolet | 23 |
| 22 | 28 | 40 | Charles Lewandoski * | Chevrolet | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 15 | Timmy Hill * | Ford | 21 |
| 24 | 36 | 52 | Kevin Lepage | Chevrolet | 20 |
| 25 | 39 | 44 | Angela Cope | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 26 | 35 | 39 | Matt Frahm | Ford | 18 |
| 27 | 22 | 1 | Mike Wallace | Chevrolet | 17 |
| 28 | 21 | 167 | Andrew Ranger | Ford | 0 |
| 29 | 3 | 20 | Joey Logano | Toyota | 0 |
| 30 | 11 | 38 | Jason Leffler | Chevrolet | 14 |
| 31 | 31 | 28 | Derrike Cope | Chevrolet | 13 |
| 32 | 34 | 70 | Dennis Setzer | Dodge | 12 |
| 33 | 30 | 23 | David Green | Chevrolet | 11 |
| 34 | 10 | 60 | Carl Edwards | Ford | 0 |
| 35 | 42 | 113 | Jennifer Jo Cobb * | Dodge | 9 |
| 36 | 40 | 141 | Carl Long | Ford | 8 |
| 37 | 29 | 174 | Mike Harmon | Chevrolet | 7 |
| 38 | 38 | 175 | Johnny Chapman | Chevrolet | 6 |
| 39 | 33 | 146 | Chase Miller | Chevrolet | 5 |
| 40 | 41 | 104 | Danny Efland | Ford | 4 |
| 41 | 32 | 142 | Tim Andrews | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 42 | 37 | 147 | Scott Wimmer | Chevrolet | 2 |
Smith responds….. ‘Las Vegas, Baby!’
Just after it had appeared that the animosity from the traffic debacle at Kentucky Speedway had somewhat subsided, Bruton Smith, who is Speedway Motorsports, opened up another can of hard feelings on Friday. He should have hidden from the media.
[media-credit id=24 align=”alignright” width=”229″]
[/media-credit]After saying he was sorry that he was sorry that fans had to endure the mess that was created when over 100,000 fans tried to enter the speedway, he let loose with some inflammatory comments that may have made things worse. He got some things right and some things terribly wrong, but those of us who admire Smith for his expertise in putting on good shows at his tracks and the general convenience of his properties, had to pause as he made his comments.
Bruton got some things right. Two two-car drafting at Daytona and Talladega is an abomination. This Restrictor Plate Two-Step is simply not racing. It puts a driver in an unnatural position of settling for second place—pushing the car—instead of racing. It should be fixed. Smith’s comments that he would fix Kentucky’s traffic problems before NASCAR fixed that particular problem at those two tracks were probably spot-on.
He’s also right about the highway system that goes into the track, but this is a problem at other SMI tracks like Bristol, Atlanta, Las Vegas, and others including the crown jewel, Charlotte Motor Speedway. Put that many people in one area and you will have problems. He has somewhat alleviated the problems at Bristol and Charlotte, two tracks I regularly attend. The secret there is to go early and stay late. It works. Oh yeah, and find a back road. The difference there is a very organized parking and camping situation—something Kentucky did not have.
What he missed on were his comments about building infrastructure. Sparta, Kentucky has a grand total of 235 residents (according to a 2007 estimate). It is only 42 miles from Cincinnati, OH in the north and about 60 miles from other population centers in the state, Louisville and Lexington. It’s not Charlotte where affluence is noted everywhere. While Smith was able to strong-arm officials in Charlotte, he may have a tough time with Kentucky officials. Building an extra 40,000 seats didn’t help any either.
He also stated emphatically that there would be no cash refunds because people couldn’t park, and were actually turned away from the track, because, “we don’t want to.” That’s a pretty arrogant statement. The ticket exchange is nice, but how many people can just pick up and go to Charlotte, Bristol, or Atlanta because they missed a race they paid for and sat in traffic for hours waiting to get into the facility.
More alarming were the stories of poor camping conditions (which are the lifeblood of most SMI tracks. These die-hard race fans are always there) and parking seem to indicate poor planning for the part of the speedway. Clearly as the head of the corporation, these maladies fall right on his shoulders—something he refuses to admit.
The final insult was the questions asked by Dustin Long, a reporter for Landmark Newspapers and Smith’s answers. When asked what he would discuss with the Kentucky governor next week about improvements to the infrastructure around the track, Smith responded, “Las Vegas, baby.” It was an apparent veiled threat to move the Kentucky date to his track in Nevada, giving that facility two dates. It’s something Smith has wanted for awhile and leaves the impression that the Kentucky debacle was a planned event for that end. Never mind the comments referring to the ISC track in Homestead, Florida, as being in “North Cuba.” Smith would like the season finale to be in Las Vegas instead of Homestead.
So, what will happen? Your guess is as good as mine. Kentucky officials might give in to Smith, but I doubt it. The track might be better managed next time, but it probably will get better, especially if folks just stay away, which I expect. I only know that Smith will eventually get his way. He always has been able to get things done, but this one will be a little tougher.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see another date at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a couple of years. Then the good folks of Kentucky will know how fans in Rockingham and North Wilkesboro felt. That’s not good.







