Posts Tagged ‘Carl Edwards’

I’m kind of shocked that Keselowski is going with this without some kind of rebuttal. I feel this is not over In Brad’s eyes, I can’t see him not doing anything about this. I feel there  has to be some retaliation on his part.

I don’t see it happing in the near future because Nascar”s eyes will be watching.

Mike Hembree: at Speed Tv wrote this report.

Driver Brad Keselowski expressed support for NASCAR Tuesday after the sanctioning body announced its decision to place driver Carl Edwards on a three-race probation  for his role in a late-race accident Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Edwards bumped Keselowski with two laps remaining in the race, sending Keselowski’s car high into the air before it slammed to the race surface on its roof.

“I support NASCAR in the decision they communicated today,” Keselowski said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon. “They are not in an enviable position when it comes to these matters, but they do an outstanding job. The unfortunate part about what happened on Sunday is that it has overshadowed a win (by his teammate, Kurt Busch) and an overall solid performance by Penske Racing at Atlanta.”

Edwards could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

NASCAR’s decision appears to leave drivers with a lot of room to maneuver under and around the rules of the game in deciding how to deal with confrontation.

The line that NASCAR says drivers can’t cross remains rather ill-defined, in other words.

“If you draw a line in the sand, then you’re saying you can do everything up to that line and it’s OK, but anything over that, it’s not,” driver David Reutimann said Tuesday during a teleconference after NASCAR’s announcement. “I don’t think you can do that. It’s not a perfect system, nor will it ever be.

“We’re a bunch of emotional guys out there, and sometimes when we put the helmet on … some of us don’t always think as clearly as we probably ought to, especially myself.

“It’s complicated, and I would not want to have NASCAR’s job in this deal. But I think they’ve done a good job with this, with the penalties so far, and hopefully everybody can just go on and race and we won’t have issues anymore. That would be great.”

Of course, that’s also unlikely. Boys will be boys, and NASCAR already has told them to “have at it.”

One of the problems linked to aggressive and retaliatory racing is that innocent drivers often become involved in accidents caused by road rage, a point that bothers Reutimann.

“I think the thing that ticks you off is getting caught up in somebody else’s retaliation,” he said. “I think that really aggravates you to the point where you’re like, man, I didn’t do anything wrong, I just got caught up in a deal. Sometimes that happens.”

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Kurt winds back to back spring races at Atlanta winning  the Kobalt Tools 500 with a dominate car all day.

The victory was great for Busch and new crew, chief Steve Addington, who used to be crew chief for Kurts younger brother Kyle Busch last season. It was a bitter sweet victory, all people are going to be talking about and remember is the late race incident between known rivals,  Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski.

Only two laps remaining Edwards clearly turned Keselowski on purpose, sending him upside down in the frontstretch. Keselowski’s car spun around backwards sending his car airborne into the fronstretch wall upside down. A wreck that should never had happened, this isn’t short track racing were the speeds aren’t so high. Edwards was black flag parked for the rest of the race and had to go to the NASCAR trailer immediately after climbing out of his car.

Fortunately Keselowski was not injured in the incident, but clearly and understandably upset. Edwards told reporters he intentional spun Keselowski but didn’t intend for it to go that bad.

Earlier in the race Edwards and Keselowski got together entering turn one were Edwards said Keselowski never gives him room. After Edwards watched the replay, he made it sound that Keselowski getting into him wasn’t as blatant as he initially thought it was.

With the late race incident, it sent the race into overtime. Taking two green white checkered restarts to finish the race.

Kurt Busch got a great restart on the first green white checkered attempt, but was slowed by another caution on the first lap with a multi car accidents going into turn three. Jamie McMurry went into turn three hard getting loose and creating a Hugh pile up.

On the second restart, Busch got a great jump. This time, the they were able to  completed two laps safely, this is the first win for Busch and his Penske team.

“I’m just so happy to bring this car home to victory lane,” Busch said. “Even with all the restarts at the end, I felt like we had the car to beat.”

Busch led 129 of the race’s 341 laps. Only Kahne at 144 led more

Kevin Harvick, who finished ninth, kept the point lead. Kenseth is second, Greg Biffle third, Jimmie Johnson fourth and Clint Bowyer fifth.

Some of the top teams had some serious tire issues. A lot of blown out tires and punctures during the race.

Caution No. 8 came out when Denny Hamlin’s left-front tire blew, forcing the field to slow at lap 288. A couple of laps after the restart, the caution came out again,  the cars of Elliott Sadler and Max Papis made contact.

Johnson pitted during that caution so that his team could repair damage Johnson’s car received when he and Ryan Newman bumped.

On lap 158 the right front tire blew on Joey  car , causing significant damage to the front of the Logano’s Toyota and bringing out the day’s sixth caution.

Lap 114 Mark Martin slid along the frontstretch when his car lost its left rear tire. Martin kept the car off the wall, but his Chevrolet later was damaged severely in the caution that resulted from the first green white checkered attempt.

Martin did not finish and ended up 33rd.

The Edwards Keselowski first incident caused the first multi-car caution flag of the day on lap 40.

A blown tire sent David Ragan into the third-turn wall on lap 35, causing the second caution of the race. The event had barely started when a tire problem sent Robby Gordon into the first-turn wall.

RESULTS: KOBALT TOOL 500

Speed tv contributed to this report

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After a bad finish at Daytona Jimmie Johnson bounces back to wins his 48th race in the #48 Lowes Chevrolet at the Auto Club 500 in Fontana California.

Johnson led the last 24 laps of the race to beat out a hard charging Kevin Harvick. Harvick chased Johnson down in the last 20 laps, cutting down a two second Johnson lead. With only five laps to go Harvick slid coming out of turn 4 slapping the wall spoiling any chance to get by Jimmie Johnson.

“Life is good, man,” said Johnson, who is pursuing his fifth straight Sprint Cup championship. “We’re right back in victory lane.”

Luck was on Johnson’s side as with 27 laps to go Johnson pitted for his final stop of the race, and the caution came out for Brad Keselowski when he lost control and spun down the frontstrech, Johnson got  off of pit road just in time, so he would start up front on the restart.

“The fact that we were on pit road when the caution came out gave us track position, and we finally got the car turning,” Johnson said.

Harvick was pushing hard and said he lost control of his car trying to catch up to Johnson.

“The 48 saw me coming and moved up,” Harvick said. “I lost the nose of the car and got in the wall and knocked the right front fender in.”

Harvick who got a pit road speeding violation, putting him to the back of the field drove his car top the front to challenged Johnson at the end of the race.

Completing the top five were Jeff Burton, Mark Martin and Joey Logano.

“I think we have a little bit of work to do, although we won the race,” Johnson said. “We’ll just keep working hard. This is a good step in the right direction.”

The race saw a lot of different challengers at the front of the field, that were contributed by NASCAR’s new aero package and a new tire compound that Goodyear brought to the race. It was unbelievable at how many pit road violation there were considering NACAR warned the driver after the Nationwide race. Teams seemed to have more engine failures than normal, mostly thought do to the long green runs and the cooler weather making the engines rev higher and longer.

Kasey Kahne brought out the second caution when he lost control coming out of turn four spinning into the wet infield bending up the left side of the front splitter and right front fender damage.

Johnson, Harvick and Montoya were up front of the field for most of the first half of the race, round half way Montoya’s engine gave way ending the #42 Target’s car day.

A few laps later after spinning his tires on the restart, Ryan Newman blew his engine up big time on the fronstrech ending his day and giving Newman his second DNF of the season.

At lap 70 with bad weather threatening most  of the leaders were forced to make a green flag pit stop.

A light sprinkle bought out a caution with Denny Hamlin leading the race. A few laps into the caution Denny Hamlin was forced to pit giving up the lead to Scott Speed. Speed led a few laps under caution to get his 5 bonus points, hoping the rain would come, but he was forced to pit running low on fuel.

After the rain delay there were only 50 laps to go and Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch lead to field to the green. The crew chief were looking to the sky as more bad weather was threatening.

Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin got together after the restart causing Hamlin’s left rear tire to go flat.

Jeff Burton was showing the strength of the Earnhardt Childress engines with 42 laps to go looking like Burton had the car to beat.  Unfortunately for Burton the handling went away in the closing laps losing the battle with Harvick for second place. The RCR cars were strong all day putting all three cars in the top ten.

Videos From California

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What another great race from Daytona International Speedway. Close racing just about all night with tons of lead changes. But Jammie McMurry driver of the #1 Tracker Boats Chevy Impala prevailed and took the checkered flag winning the 52nd running of the Daytona 500.

The adrenaline rush of the final two laps, the second attempt at a green-white-checkered-flag finish under rules implemented by NASCAR before Thursday’s Gatorade Duels, all but erased the frustration of almost 2½ hours of stoppages as track workers at Daytona International Speedway repaired potholes in the asphalt between Turns 1 and 2.

You couldn’t have asked for a more story book finish. When other teams wrote him off and even Jammie wasn’t sure where he would be for the 2010 season, owner Chip Ganassi  gave McMurry the chance to come back and drive for Earnhardt Ganassi racing.

“Oh, my God!” McMurray screamed after taking the checkered flag. “I can’t freaking believe it right now. Thank you so much. I can’t believe we just won the Daytona 500.”

Later,  in Victory Lane, McMurray fought back tears. Though he won one race last season at Roush Fenway Racing, he struggled in his final year there and was the odd man out from his team’s NASCAR-mandated reduction from five teams to four.

“It’s a dream — it really is,” he said. “To be where I was last year, and for Johnny Morris owner of sponsor Bass Pro Shops, Chip and co-owner Felix Sabates to take a chance on me and let me come back what a way to pay them back.”

With the new areo package and restrictor plate size, cars were not able to come up through the field like years past. There wasn’t a lot of drivers  sitting out back waiting to avoid the big wreck.

The Roush Fenway Ford Fusions look to be strong all night. Greg Biffle in the #16 3M car finished third, Matt Kenseth in the #17 Crown Royal car finished 8th and soon to be father Carl Edwards finished a respectable 9th place.

Clint Bowyer, who led 37 laps, finished fourth, followed by David Reutimann. Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick the 2009 Daytona 500 winner.

Under the new NASCAR rules the race leader must take the white flag and start the final lap under green before the race can end, unless three attempts at a green-white-checkered-flag finish are exhausted.

The field failed to make it to the white flag under green on a restart on Lap 203, because NASCAR called a caution for a wreck off Turn 2 involving Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Robert Richardson and Jeff Gordon. By then, McMurray had rocketed to second position behind Harvick and restarted next to Harvick on Lap 207.

The push from Biffle gave McMurry the lead he need to win the race.

Coming into turn three on the last lap  McMurry look in his mirror only to see the #88 Chevy National Guard car driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr, McMurray said, “No!” but there wasn’t enough time for Jr to make a move for the win.

Nascar .com contributed to this report.

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Tony Stewart’s stayed up front all day in Saturday’s Drive4COPD 300 Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway his KHI chevy was strong keeping him there.

This will be Stewart’s third consecutive and fifth overall February Nationwide at Dayton that he has won, and showing his dominance on restrictor-plate races in the Nationwide series getting his sixth win. Tying Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the career lead in that category.

“There were some really good cars that got mangled up Saturday,” Stewart said, referring to crashes that damaged the cars of Earnhardt, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, among others. “We were just lucky to be in front when it happened.”

Kevin Harvick, who owns the No. 4 Chevrolet that Stewart was driving in his only scheduled Nationwide appearance of the year, finished third in his own No. 33 Chevy. Justin Allgaier came home fourth and Brian Vickers fifth.

There was some wild racing and on lap 92, Dale Earnhardt Jr in his #88 Chevrolet went for a wild tumble flipping his car on the backstrech, after Carl Edwards tried to squeeze into a small hole in the outside lane. Edwards made contact with Brad Keselowski spinning him into Earnhardt.

“We were having a real good run, and I felt good about our chances,” said Earnhardt, whose company, JR Motorsports, also owns the car Patrick will drive in selected races this season. “I’ll have to go back and balance the books — it was an expensive day for JR Motorsports.”

After an 11-minute red flag for Earnhardt’s accident, Stewart took command for his 15th win in a stock car at Daytona, moving him into a tie with Cale Yarborough for third all time at the storied track. He now trails only Earnhardt (34 wins) and Bobby Allison (16) for most at Daytona.

“I would trade a couple of them just for a win in a Sunday race here,” said Stewart, who is 0-for-11 in the Daytona 500. He’ll start sixth in Sunday’s main event.

Patrick’s scheduled to run the next two Nationwide races, at Fontana and Las Vegas.

“We’ll go to these other tracks where she’ll literally be driving the car, it’ll be handling good or bad,” Earnhardt said. “Then people can start forming their opinions on what kind of learning curve she has. But I feel pretty confident. She’s been in a tough situation with the media and the pressure and the attention, I couldn’t have done it.”
Nascar.com contributed to this report.