Posts Tagged ‘NASCAR’

I don’t think NASCAR was ready for this one.

The boys have at it” attitude that NASCAR gave the drivers came into full swing Sunday At the Kobalt Tools 500. With only 2 laps remaining Carl Edwards Spun Brad Keselowski sending him airborne into the fronstrech wall roof first. The whole feud started way earlier in the race, when Keselowski got into Edwards in turn one only 40 laps into the race.

I don’t think anyone thought that NASCAR’s would be tested so soon only four races into the season.

NASCAR on Monday found in the middle of a dilemma over what to do with Carl Edwards, whose intentional wrecking of Brad Keselowski late in Sunday’s race ignited a heated debate about what is exceptable under this NASCAR new policy.

You know whatever decision NASCAR makes will will not satisfy everyone.

The first to find out here, is what is everyone is so upset about?

Is it that Edwards returned to the track down 153 laps, intent on retaliating against Keselowski, and after trying for at least one full lap, finally succeeded with a deliberate nudge?

Is it that the high-speed contact sent Keselowski airborne in a spectacular flip that could have caused serious harm to Keselowski or any number of fans in the grandstands?

Or, maybe, the issue is that NASCAR wasn’t ready to deal with the ramifications of allowing drivers free rein on the race track.

All three would be good arguments.

Edwards is not the only driver who has been on the losing end of Keselowski’s aggressive charge into NASCAR’s top level. Although Denny Hamlin had the most public feud with Keselowski, there is no shortage of top name drivers who privately pledged they’d exact their revenge this season.

I still think this dates back to last year on the final lap of last April’s race at Talladega, where Keselowski’s nudge sent Edwards flying into the fence in a wreck that some may argue was worse than one at Atlanta. But the two race against each other weekly in two series, and Edwards’ hinted at a far deeper history with the unapologetic Keselowski.

Edwards didn’t hold back any words in a Facebook posting late Sunday night.

“My options,” he wrote, “Considering that Brad wrecks me with no regard for anyones safety or hard work, should I: A-Keep letting him wreck me? B-Confront him after the race? C-Wait till Bristol and collect other cars? or D-Take care of it now?

“I want to be clear that I was surprised at his flight and very relieved when he walked away. Every person has to decide what code they want to live by and hopefully this explains mine.”

Brad knows the deal between him and I,” Edwards said. “The scary part was his car went airborne, which was not at all what I expected. At the end of the day, we’re out here to race and people have to have respect for one another and I have a lot of respect for people’s safety.

“I wish it wouldn’t have gone like it did, but I’m glad he’s OK and we’ll just go on and race some more and maybe him and I won’t get in any more incidents together. That would be the best thing.”

Opinions were split, though, perhaps fueled by the severity of Keselowski’s crash.

Nobody was to outraged when Hamlin paid back Keselowski in last year’s Nationwide Series finale at Homestead. And it sure seemed that more people were cheering than jeering when Juan Pablo Montoya and Tony Stewart played retaliatory bumper-cars a day later.

Fans want him suspended, and many analysts have agreed. Even Keselowski seemed to taunt NASCAR into cracking down on Edwards.
“It’ll be interesting to see how NASCAR reacts to it,” he said after the wreck. “They have the ball. If they’re going to allow people to intentionally wreck each other at tracks this fast, we will hurt someone either in the cars or the grandstands. It’s not cool to intentionally wreck someone at 195 mph.”

Now it is up to NASCAR to figure out what they need to do.

Jenna Fryer, AP Auto Racing Writer, contributed to this report

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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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I read this over at MRN and thought I would share it with you guys.

“Suitcase” Jake Elder operated out of a suitcase and in the shadows. At one point, he jumped to three different teams over a 4-month period. But he was a crew chief extraordinaire, making the careers of many top NASCAR drivers. He died Wednesday in his native Statesville, NC, at 73, after suffering a stroke in 2006 and remaining in failing health.

Just ask Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip, Fred Lorenzen, Mario Andretti, or A.J. Foyt (USAC stock cars) who put them on track. It was Elder, who also worked his magic for the late Benny Parsons and rookie Dale Earnhardt Sr. He worked for Petty Enterprises 1963-64 before the Chrysler boycott. While with Petty, Richard won 23 races and his first Cup Series championship.

His 1960s Ford involvement came through Holman-Moody. In 1972, Elder spent time with Roger Penske and driver Mark Donohue.

“Suitcase” wasn’t one to seek out media exposure. Instead of going to the press box with his winning driver and car owner,

he would be in the garage thinking about the next race on the calendar. Jake was king of chassis set-up, not prince of publicity. He built top- flight race cars, and tutored his young drivers. His dynamics surfaced on the race track.

At the beginning of the 1979 season, Jake was on with Buddy Baker, who already had the dynamic but aging Herb Nab on board. The two literal geniuses were friends, but clashed, so Suitcase packed up.

Elder, who was given his nickname by Waltrip, did not have a formal education, and never intended to make racing his career. By chance, he was a good welder who was sought-out in the mid-1950s by a local racer at Hickory, NC, and his future path became defined.

Jake “Suitcase” Elder was all business about the business of winning race cars. He didn’t allow time for BS, and those who did would quickly find themselves clashing with him. Jake was all about old school. He was as much a winner as his cars, and will be sorely missed.

All aboard, Suitcase Jake has respectfully moved on.

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After Speedweeks and the Daytona 500 it was looking as though Dale Jr. was back in racing form, but the California race showed pretty much what we saw out of the #88 team in 2009.

The orange and white #88 driven by Earnhardt was not especially fast and he qualified mid-pack just as he did most of the previous year.  They couldn’t get car to run up in lead pack all day.

Radio communication with Lance McGrew showed frustration when Jr. thought a tire was going down.  McGrew showed frustration when it was determined there was a broken axle.  He nearly threatened the crew if they didn’t have a spare axle ready to go for the lame car.

The broken axle could have been do to the fact that JR spun the tires on the concrete area of pit road.  There were other teams having problems with the concrete pit stalls as well.

I know it’s only the second race of the season.  The California race was the first real test of the season that shows were a team is at.  California has not been a good track for Earnhardt Jr but a better finish would have been given the team a hope they were back on track.

Unfortunately it’s looking like the same story as last year even though Henrick’s stated that they were going to concentrate on the #88 team to get them on track and that they are a new improved team.

Poor qualifying, poor performance during the race, broken parts, frustrated driver and a frustrated crew chief all sound way too familiar.

The other three drivers for Hendrick Motorsports performed much better as usual with one of them, Jimmie Johnson, winning the race.  This cannot come as a surprise one of the drivers faired poorly and it happened to be Earnhardt Jr.

In spite of all the wishful thinking and praise bellowed after Daytona stating Jr. was back and Jr. Nation had reason to cheer, it may have been for naught.

We want Dale Jr. to be back.  NASCAR needs him to be back.  He wants to be back.  Despite our “wants” something is wrong with the #88 team.

If after the first six races we don’t see the team competitive and top five finishes, it will be obvious there is trouble in River City.

I don’t think Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be content to have another bad season this year regardless of the reason.  They need to find the problem fast.  McGrew being the team leader must do whatever it takes to get the team on track.

Jr. Nation is holding it’s breath as the Las Vegas race nears.  What are the odds on the third attempt for Dale Jr. to get back on track to a winning season?

I for one am a big Jr fan and hope that the 88 team can come to Vegas and have a good showing putting the 2009 season behind them.

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Looks like McMurry’s good fortune continues. The #1 Bass Pro Shops Chevy Impala is sitting the pole for the Sunday’s Auto Club 500.
With his teammate  Juan Pablo Montoya in his #42 Target Chevrolet sitting in the outside front row.

“I’m a little bit shocked after winning the 500,” said McMurray in a fit of understatement.

McMurray’s qualifying lap was nearly half a second faster than his practice lap. “I think it says a lot about Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and the cars they’re building,” said McMurray, who earlier in the day visited the ACS infield care center for an antibiotic after his exhausting week of media appearances from coast to coast.

McMurry still riding high on emotions from his full week after winning the Daytona 500.

“It’s just unbelievable,” he said. “And I think something else that has been kind of an eye-opener is that I knew what it meant to win this race, but from the fans and from my peers in the garage, whether it’s like Tony Stewart coming up last night to dinner to congratulate me, it’s just unbelievable. I mean I’ve won a few races. And you see a few guys in the garage and they say, you know, ‘Good job.’ Everybody wants to come up and shake your hand and congratulate you. And that, honestly, is what if the most enjoyable part of it to me. As I walk through the garage, from both sides, I see people like staring at me waiting on me to get to them to shake my hand. And it’s just been wonderful.”

Clint Bowyer was the first car out of the 46 attempting to make the race, running a lap of 183.127 mph in his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. That time stood up through the next 23 challengers, until McMurray hit the track. Bowyer ended the session third, an excellent effort.

Starting alongside Bowyer on Row 2 Sunday will be Kasey Kahne, who cranked off a lap of 182.913 mph in his Richard Petty Motorsports Ford Fusion. Completing the top five was Dave Blaney, fastest of the go-or-go-home cars at 182.908 mph.

The second five consisted of Kevin Harvick, four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, Sam Hornish Jr., Kyle Busch and Mark Martin.

Lets hope Jammie can keep this momentum going, I for one would like to see him do well this year.

Three drivers failed to qualify: Johnny Sauter, Casey Mears and Terry Cook.

RESULTS: Auto Club 500 Qualifying

Speed TV contributed to this report.