Ryan Newman Qualifies 3rd At Las Vegas – Interview

Submitted by Ryan Newman News and Information

Ryan Newman and his new #39 Tornados Impala qualified 3rd for Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

This will be Newman’s first race with the Tornados sponsor.

Earlier in the day Ryan Newman was the 6th fastest in practice.

SEE RYAN NEWMAN’s PAST PERFORMANCE AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Las Vegas Motor Speedway Track Page – You’ll see that the 3rd starting position at Las Vegas has the 3rd highest average finishing position. Important? Who knows!

Shelby American At Las Vegas Motor Speedway Line Up

Newman and 17 other drivers broke the tracks previous record including pole sitter Kurt Busch.

THERE WERE LOTS OF RECORD-BREAKING LAPS OUT THERE TODAY
“Yes there were.”

WHY? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?
“Well, they’ve got new tires and we’ve worked on our race cars and the track was cool. I thought it was pretty good that for whatever reason Mother Nature keeps following us in the form of rain and it seems like it’s been it’s been cool for qualifying for almost every time, including Daytona; but the conditions have stayed the same throughout the entire practice session. It cooled off a little bit, don’t get me wrong, but if it had been sunny it would have been a bigger difference depending on where you drew.”

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE PERSONALLY TO TRY TO BUMP UP THE MOOD IN THE NO. 39 HAULER GIVEN THE FIRST COUPLE OF WEEKS THAT YOU’VE HAD THIS SEASON?
“Nothing. I mean really, I go in and have a good attitude and everybody else has a good attitude and knowing what happened to us was poor luck, I mean, at Daytona we got crashed and we lost an engine there at California. So, it’s tough. And we know where we were at this time last year and it’s about the same spot. And we’ve run a lot better than we did last year. It’s only two races, but either way. It kind of gives you an idea. Our biggest satisfaction was at California knowing that we had a car that was a top five race car. We worked our way towards the front every run and lost that engine. But that in itself has kept us from having to worry about attitude or that mentality of what are we going to do?”

HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU IN YOUR CAR FOR SUNDAY AND HOW DO YOU THINK YOU’LL RUN?
“I’m very confident. It’s a brand new race car. The Tornados Chevrolet. It’s the first race for them. We’ve made some pretty big gains as an organization and some pretty big gains for me personally working with Tony Gibson and having a year under our belts and having that notebook to go back on when we got some experience here last year. You only get to come to places like here and Kansas and Indy one time each year. So you’ve got to be on your game. When you have nothing to go off of, it’s 200 percent more difficult. So to come here and have the experience of qualifying good last year and then proving that for this year I think that we’ve looked on some good things. I’m just happy to debut the Tornados Chevrolet in a good position in the media center.”

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In NYC today!!

Submitted by AUTO JUNKIES

I guess the city is due for a few feet..

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Kurt Busch On The Pole At Las Vegas – Shatters Kyle’s Record – Line Up

Submitted by RACING NEWS DIGEST

Kurt Busch grabbed his first pole today at his home track Las Vegas Motor Speedway and in the process he shattered his younger brothers track record.

Kyle Busch held the previous track record of 185.995 mph and Kurt Busch turned a lap of 188.719 mph to claim the top starting spot for Sunday’s race. In all, 18 drivers topped Kyle Busch’s record.

And while he is winless at Las Vegas, he is very hopeful that this pole is a good sign of things to come for this weekend.

“I’m pretty stoked,” Kurt Busch said. “It’s something you can’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched, but this would be a special win. It’s hard to play what-if.”

“Steve Addington definitely has his game on for this place,” Kurt Busch said.

Jeff Gordon was second with a lap at 188.646. Ryan Newman qualified third and was followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch.

SUNDAY’S LINE UP AT LAS VEGAS

POS CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR SPEED TIME BEHIND
1 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 188.719 28.614 Leader
2 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet Pepsi Max / DuPont 188.646 28.625 -0.011
3 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet Tornados 188.180 28.696 -0.082
4 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet National Guard / Amp Energy 188.173 28.697 -0.083
5 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M’s 188.153 28.700 -0.086
6 20 Joey Logano Toyota The Home Depot 187.611 28.783 -0.169
7 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M 187.598 28.785 -0.171
8 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet GoDaddy.com 187.500 28.800 -0.186
9 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Old Spice / Office Depot 186.942 28.886 -0.272
10 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Chevrolet Target 186.793 28.909 -0.295
11 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Crown Royal 186.748 28.916 -0.302
12 99 Carl Edwards Ford Aflac / Kellogg’s 186.554 28.946 -0.332
13 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Cheerios / Hamburger Helper 186.548 28.947 -0.333
14 77 Sam Hornish Jr Dodge Mobil 1 186.445 28.963 -0.349
15 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota FrontRowJoe.com 186.355 28.977 -0.363
16 12 Brad Keselowski Dodge Penske Racing 186.245 28.994 -0.380
17 00 David Reutimann Toyota Tums 186.233 28.996 -0.382
18 6 David Ragan Ford UPS 186.188 29.003 -0.389
19 9 Kasey Kahne Ford Budweiser 185.995 29.033 -0.419
20 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s / Kobalt Tools 185.963 29.038 -0.424
21 13 Max Papis Toyota GEICO 185.497 29.111 -0.497
22 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Caterpillar 185.395 29.127 -0.513
23 82 Scott Speed Toyota Red Bull 185.236 29.152 -0.538
24 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet McDonald’s 185.109 29.172 -0.558
25 34 Travis Kvapil Ford Long John Silver’s 185.058 29.180 -0.566
26 98 Paul Menard Ford Moen / Menards 184.773 29.225 -0.611
27 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Ground 184.615 29.250 -0.636
28 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet Furniture Row Companies 184.590 29.254 -0.640
29 71 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet TaxSlayer.com 184.552 29.260 -0.646
30 36 Mike Bliss Chevrolet KimKardashian Fragrance / Sephora.com 184.540 29.262 -0.648
31 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 184.458 29.275 -0.661
32 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota Kingsford / Scott Products 184.445 29.277 -0.663
33 55 Michael McDowell Toyota Prism Motorsports 184.439 29.278 -0.664
34 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Pennzoil Ultra 184.080 29.335 -0.721
35 56 Martin Truex Jr Toyota NAPA Gold Filters 183.961 29.354 -0.740
36 66 Dave Blaney Toyota Prism Motorsports 183.955 29.355 -0.741
37 19 Elliott Sadler Ford Stanley 183.467 29.433 -0.819
38 38 David Gilliland Ford Taco Bell 181.965 29.676 -1.062
39 37 Kevin Conway Ford Extenze 181.843 29.696 -1.082
40 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford Valvoline 181.026 29.830 -1.216
41 26 Boris Said Ford Southern Pride Trucking 176.586 30.580 -1.966
42 7 Robby Gordon Toyota Monster Energy - - -
43 09 Aric Almirola Chevrolet Phoenix Racing 183.038 29.542 -0.928
Did Not Qualify
44 190 Casey Mears Chevrolet Keyed-Up Motorsports 182.248 29.630 -1.016
45 46 Terry Cook Dodge Whitney Motorsports 180.705 29.883 -1.269

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Musgrave To Return “Full-Time, Multi-Year And Fully Funded”

Submitted by The Motorsports Soapbox

There is good news and bad news this week for fans of former NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Ted Musgrave.

Musgrave told Sirius NASCAR Radio’s Sirius Speedway with Dave Moody today that he will not race in the Truck series’ second event of 2010 at Atlanta Motor Speedway next week, and could also miss the next two races at Martinsville and Nashville.

However, he said paperwork and legalities are currently being finalized to put him back on the circuit in the near future. “It will be full time, multi-year and fully funded, and we’re hopeful that it will all come together within the next six weeks,” said Musgrave. “It has taken a lot of people and a lot of hard work, but it is coming together really well.”

The new deal will likely put Musgrave in a Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota Tundra for the balance of the 2010 season and beyond, though those negotiations also have not been finalized.

Musgrave finished 31st in the season-opening NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona in a Ballew-owned Toyota.

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Ryan Newman 2010 Las Vegas Preview

Submitted by Ryan Newman News and Information

While Ryan Newman embarks on his 299th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend, the seasoned veteran will also celebrate an important first for his No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) team.

Sunday’s Shelby American will be the first of nine races where new sponsor Tornados, a brand of family owned Ruiz Foods, will adorn the No. 39 Chevrolet Impala as the team’s primary sponsor.

Teaming up with Newman and SHR was a leap – a bold move, one could say – for the Dinuba, Calif.-based company. Tornados, a bold-tasting snack featuring meat, cheese and sauce rolled into a crispy crust, was already popular in convenience stores nationwide. Ruiz Foods was now prepared to launch Tornados into retail grocery stores. The company wanted a big idea to bring attention to its product. For a brand with the tagline “Bold is how we roll,” the bigger the idea, the better.

The company’s big idea was to sponsor a Sprint Cup team, and it didn’t take long to turn that idea into reality. The brand joined forces with SHR and announced the venture last November. The partnership begins in earnest this weekend, when Newman and the No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet take the track for the first time at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas oval.

Ryan Newman At Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Starts Poles Wins Top 5 Top 10 Led AVG ST AVG FN DNF
9 1 0 1 4 98 13.00 18.89 1
Stats By Racing News Digest

In nine Sprint Cup starts at Las Vegas, Newman has one pole (2005), one top-five and four top-10 finishes. His best finish at the Nevada track is a fourth-place effort during his rookie season in 2002, when Newman started on the outside pole and led the field for 50 laps. Last season at Las Vegas, Newman was making a hard charge for the top-10 when a vibration, which turned out to be a loose wheel, forced him to pit under green. Newman lost two laps and was had to settle for a 25th-place finish.

In his sophomore campaign with SHR, Newman’s goals are to improve on last season’s performances – to score poles, to win races and to make the Chase for the Championship for a second consecutive season. Although the first two race finishes of 2010 have been less than desirable – a 34th-place finish at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway due to a late-race wreck, and a 36th-place finish at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., due to engine failure – Newman and his No. 39 team have been solid competitors in each race and have shown improved performances on the track.

This weekend is no different. With new sponsor Tornados on board for its first race, Newman is ready for his team’s improved performances on the racetrack to translate into a solid finish. Newman would also like to make it a memorable one.

The first outing on the No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet could well result in several firsts for Newman and the team – his first career win at Las Vegas, his first win at SHR, and the first win ever for any car wearing the No. 39 in Sprint Cup competition.

Taking the checkered flag first and rolling into victory lane at Las Vegas for the first time would be quite an opening act for Newman and his No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet. It may seem like a lofty goal, but this isn’t Newman & Company’s first race together, and they’re more than ready to make a bold statement.

RYAN NEWMAN, Driver of the No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing

Las Vegas is the first of nine races for new sponsor Tornados, which is a brand of family owned Ruiz Foods. Talk a little bit about this new partnership for the No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing team.

“Ruiz Foods is a family owned business, and we think of ourselves as a family at Stewart-Haas Racing. We’re excited to have them join our family. Coming into NASCAR and joining SHR is a big deal for them, and we’re excited that they are using us to help grow their brand. Last week, I went to the Ruiz Foods plant in Dinuba, Calif., and spent time with their team members, went on a plant tour and learned how their company works. It was really cool watching the production line and seeing how Tornados are made. It’s kind of funny, though, because while I was there, I realized that this is the first time I’ve ever been associated with any kind of food in my racing career. So this is kind of new for me. But while I was talking about it, I also told Bryce Ruiz (the company’s CEO) that this is probably one of the easiest sponsors for me, in some ways. I mean, it’s a simple connection because of our schedule and what we do. At the track, we are constantly on the go with practice, appearances, media obligations. It’s racing, racing, racing, and then you get a little break. Like on Saturday, our practice sessions are set up where we will have a 30-minute window where the guys get the car turned around and have a chance to eat. It’s nothing for the guys to go to the truck and grab a Tornado, or put one in the microwave really quick, and come back to the garage and keep working on the car. Time-wise and, obviously, taste-wise, it’s ideal for what our guys do – me included – because we are always on the run. We’re busy, and we like it that way, but it’s always nice to be able to have a good bite to eat when we can. It’s funny because I hadn’t thought about that at all until I wasn’t sitting at the plant talking to the plant workers last week.”

While you were spending time at the Ruiz Foods plant, you actually told a couple of stories that the employees thought were funny about how you have been incorporating Tornados into different activities that you have done, and even how you have shared this new food with your family. Tell a couple of those stories again.

“Like I said, I’m really excited about working with Tornados. NASCAR is a new thing for their family, but I think it’s a perfect fit for them because our sport is probably the most family oriented sport out there. For me, it’s fun to have new sponsors and to do different things with them. When I got to the plant, everyone wanted to know what my favorite flavor was. I had to be honest and tell them I had only tried a few of them, but my favorite was Cheesy Pepperjack because my mom used to always get me pepperjack cheese at the grocery store when I was a little boy. But we have different flavors at the racetrack every weekend, so I’m trying them all. The fact that everybody around me wants to try Tornados since they are my sponsor is kind of how I got to the story.

“Anyhow, we have some friends in Utah, and every year we go there in the offseason to snowmobile. It’s a small cabin in Utah. It runs off a generator and it has a wood stove for a furnace and that’s it. We go out there in December to go ride snowmobiles, and that is all we do. When you go snowmobiling, you ride for a while, you find a place to eat, you take some snacks and you take a break and eat. Anyhow, on the snowmobiles, they have these things called hot doggers – it’s just the terminology because people used to throw mini corndogs in them. We got the bright idea to throw some Tornados in there, just to see how they cook, how they warm up, what it’s going to be like. It’s literally a can that gets strapped by a hose clamp to the exhaust of the snowmobile. The harder you ride, the hotter it gets, the quicker the food cooks. So the harder you ride, the quicker you get to eat. We had a few boxes of Tornados, and the Tornados were a hit with the group we were with. They cooked up pretty good in the hot dogger. It’s a weird story, but it’s true.

“The other story they thought was cool was about my grandfather. He’s 85 years old, and we sent him a couple of boxes of different flavors of Tornados earlier this year because he wanted to know what they were. He had his family over, and he did a taste test. I talked to him the other day and he’s ready for another shipment. So, it’s kind of cool the things we can incorporate with a sponsor like this, and I’m looking forward to having some fun off the racetrack and on it with our new sponsor and the No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet.”

It was a disappointing weekend for you and the No. 39 team last weekend at Auto Club Speedway. The No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet had moved into the top-10 and had been a solid performer in the race. But then you endured an engine failure. Despite the 36th-place finish, you were very upbeat about how your team raced. Can you talk about that a little bit more?

“It was a really disappointing finish to the race for us. We didn’t have a good finish at Daytona because of a wreck with like five laps to go before the green-white-checker, and we really went to California feeling like we needed to have a good finish. We felt like we had good notes going in there, and we were pretty confident about the racecar we were taking and our game plan. Then, to have an engine failure was tough, but that’s not something that has been common for us since SHR started last season. Hendrick gives us very good, strong, reliable engines and I think we’ve probably had one engine failure in the course of the past year that I can remember besides this one. It’s something that happens – it’s part of racing. It was just disappointing because we had such a strong run going and because we’ve now had two DNFs and we’re back in the same hole that we were in last season.

“But for me and Tony Gibson, I think the race at California really showed us just how much improvement we have made over the course of the past year. Before the season started, I talked a lot about the great work the guys had done in the offseason with the racecars to make them better, and how I thought we had made some big gains. This year, we have notes to go back on, whereas last year, we were a new group of people still learning each other. Last year, we were just trying things. This year, we have notes and data points from all the races so we can come back each year and be a stronger team. California showed that we have made some big improvements as a team. To me, California is a good test because it’s a 2-mile track. It’s that kind of intermediate track where we go the most during the course of the season. That’s also the track that we struggled on a lot last year. After California, I feel like we made some big gains. That car was the most competitive car I have had in a really long time at California. It was good all day long, and we were moving forward every run the entire race. We showed what we are capable of during the long runs. Unfortunately, I just didn’t get a chance to show what I had at the end of the race. It was a bad way to the end the day, but I’m really proud of how good of a car we had and how much we have improved. We still have some work to do, but I’m looking forward to getting to Las Vegas and seeing how we run on a mile-and-a-half track.”

Talk about racing at Las Vegas.

“We had a pretty fast racecar at Las Vegas last year, but we had a loose wheel later in the race. We ended up having to pit under green and that caused us to lose a couple of laps to the leader. We finished 25th, but I remember leaving there last year thinking we had a much better car than that. Last season, the intermediate tracks were our weakness, but we got better throughout the course of the year. After the improvements we made to our mile-and-a-half program last season, and then after what both me and Gibson felt like were huge gains at California last weekend, I’m really looking forward to what we can accomplish this weekend at Las Vegas in the No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet.

“As far as the track goes, they’ve made some changes to it over the past few years. It’s higher-banked, has a rougher surface and there are more bumps. The track has some character to it, which makes it tricky, and I think it’s one of the reasons we like it. I’m looking forward to Las Vegas. I’m really hoping this is the place for my luck to change. I think this team has really improved the way we approach the mile-and-a-half track. I think our cars have gotten better since last year’s Las Vegas race, and I’m confident. Unfortunately, just like last season, we’ve had a couple of bad races to start 2010. We’re hoping that Lady Luck is on our side this weekend.”

TONY GIBSON, Crew Chief of the No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing

Although the California race didn’t turn out as you and the No. 39 team had hoped, you were still very positive following an engine failure and a 36th-place finish. You and Ryan both talked about how much the team had improved and how happy you were with those gains on the racetrack. How important is seeing that improvement and staying upbeat despite the finishes?

“Last year, we had struggled on 2-mile racetracks, and we worked really hard in the offseason to try to find something that Ryan would like to drive there. That was really one of our focuses in the offseason. We did a lot of work with our racecars on the seven-post (shaker rig) at the wind tunnel, and we thought going to California that we had really made some gains. And, in the end, we did. We think, looking at our performance at California and Ryan’s feedback during the race, that this is a good starting spot moving forward. I think we’ll be able to base the rest of our mile-and-a-half races on what we learned this past weekend. We think what we learned and our notes will transfer this weekend to Las Vegas and, hopefully, we will be able to keep some momentum going and continuing making gains on these racetracks that are such a big part of our schedule.

“Honestly, the finishes have not been what we have wanted, but we have really had great racecars the first two races of the season. We had the wreck in Daytona and the engine problem in California, but those are things that are out of our control. We can’t do anything about that. Things like that will happen during the course of the season, but we need to focus on what we have done to these racecars and how we have improved. If we can keep our focus and keep doing what we are doing to improve our position on the racetrack each week, and we can keep the driver excited about the gains that we are making, then it’s going to be just like it was last year. When the luck turns around for us, it’s going to be good, and we are going to be competing for race wins every weekend.”

The No. 39 Chevrolet was a really fast, strong car at Las Vegas last year. How does that, in addition to the fact that the No. 39 Chevrolet was so strong at California, help build momentum for the team this weekend?

“We did have a good car at Las Vegas last year. We qualified sixth, and we were really fast during the whole race. Unfortunately, we had a lose wheel and that ended up costing us. But it was a race where we left feeling really positive about what we had. We’re coming back to Las Vegas with what we believe is an even better car aero-wise. It’s a newer, lighter version of our cars. We think this is really good track, and we believe this is a track where we have a shot at the pole and our first win.

“The improvement we saw at California in our performance on the racetrack is something we’re really proud of. Our racecars are good. Our communication continues to get better each weekend. We’re getting better as a team, and that’s showing in our on-track performances. Again, we haven’t had the finishes we have wanted, but that has been out of our control. We’re picking out the positives and focusing on them.

“For us, Las Vegas is a big weekend. We want to get a good finish and put the last two races behind us. It’s also the first weekend for our new sponsor Tornados, and to be able to give them a good race their first weekend on the car would be something really special. They are a great family, and we’ve all had a lot of fun getting to know them and we’re excited to have them as part of our Stewart-Haas family.”

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After Week 2: Harvick Leads Points, Johnson Biggest Gainer, Biggest Looser?

Submitted by RACING NEWS DIGEST

Official 2010 Standings.

Official Results

After just Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway Kevin Harvick is leading the point standings.

There were some big movers up and down which is expected with only 2 races into the 2010 season.

Leader Kevin Harvick gained +4 point positions to take the lead with consistent finishes in the season opening 2 races. Finishing 2nd at Daytona International Speedway for the Daytona 500 and then finishing 7th this past weekend helped him reach the top. In his post race interview this last weekend Harvick was quick to point out that there was still 34 races.

Jimmie Johnson’s win this past Sunday catapulted him up +23 positions. He was the biggest mover after race number 2 and now sits in 12th. Johnson ran into trouble at Daytona when he had a trouble with his rear axle having him finish 23rd.

Joey Logano, Kurt Busch and Sam Hornish Jr. all tied for the second biggest positive move – +11 positions. Logano finished 5th at Fontana followed by Busch in 5th and Hornish in 16th.

Logano and Busch did not have great races at Daytona but finished strong at Fontana. Hornish finished 37th at Daytona after having problems.

Biggest looser is a tie between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Juan Pablo Montoya where both loss -14 positions after last weekend. Dale Jr. had a great run at Daytona almost winning it. Another lap and it may have happened. But he suffered at Fontana’s Auto Club Speedway last weekend when he had a rear axle (or something) problem landing him with a 32nd place finish.

Juan Pablo Montoya had a good run at Daytona as well finishing 10th and leading a couple of laps. But his car gave out on him in Fontana and he ended up finishing 37th.

NOTABLE’S

Greg Biffle appears to be running consistent at 3rd in the points. No gain or loss in the points. 3rd at Daytona and 10th at Fontana.

His teammate Carl Edwards is also running pretty consistent holding onto 10th in points both weeks. 9th at Daytona and 13th at Fontana.

Kyle Busch is the most consistent, although not in the way he wants to be. He has sat 13th in points both weeks. Both weeks he finished 14th in the races.

There are other consistent drivers as well that aren’t so good. Ryan Newman was involved in a wreck at Daytona and his car blew up at Fontana. They have some work to do on that team after finishing 34th at Daytona and 36h at Fontana.

We’re only 2 weeks into this long season. Still a lot of time for team to make up or loose ground.

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Jimmie Johnson Gets 48th Win In The 48 At Fontana – Results And Standings

Submitted by RACING NEWS DIGEST
Jimmie Johnson grabbed his 48th Sprint Cup win at Auto Club Speedway this weekend in a race that was continually threatened by rain that managed to stay away for the most part.

Jimmie Johnson got lucky when he went in for green flag pit stops. As he was leaving the pits on lap 226 the caution came out. He managed to get across the timing line at the end of pit row before race leader Jeff Burton crossed the timing line while still on the track. This let Johnson stay on the lead lap.

Then on the following lap when the leaders came in for pits under yellow, Johnson cycled into the lead. Then it was a matter holding off Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick.

Does this guy always seem to get lucky or what?

Johnson entered the race with the most wins at Auto Club Speedway – 4 – and has now obviously increased that lead to 5. Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth are the only other multiple winners at Fontana, both have 3 “W’s”.

“The deal on pit road, we got lucky,” Johnson admitted. “We were in our pit box and the caution came out. We were able to just beat the 31 car [of Burton] off of pit road where the scoring line is at the end of pit road.

“You know, [we] certainly got lucky. We were running third or fourth or fifth at the time, so it’s not like we totally backed into this thing.”

“We got a really nice gift with the way things worked out, then it was kind of up to me to hang onto it.”

The battle at the end of the race was great. Jeff Burton was closing on Kevin Harvick. Harvick in return was closing on Johnson. Burton got to Harvick. Harvick got to Johnson. Then Burton got loose and starting falling back.

On final lap Kevin Harvick made a pass to the outside of the Jimmie to pass him. Harvick got a little loose and scraped the wall causing him to start falling back.

Great finish watching Harvick and Burton catch Jimmie. To bad the couldn’t capitalize on it.

Other drivers didn’t have luck on their side for the race. Juan Pablo Montoya saw his engine blew up after leading 29 laps. Ryan Newman also blew up after having a pretty good day.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
Check our OFFICIAL RESULTS page later today (Monday).

FIN ST CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS
1 7 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s / Kobalt Tools 195/10 250 Running
2 6 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 175/5 250 Running
3 14 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Caterpillar 170/5 250 Running
4 10 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet GoDaddy.com 165/5 250 Running
5 19 20 Joey Logano Toyota The Home Depot 155/0 250 Running
6 12 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 155/5 250 Running
7 20 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Crown Royal 146/0 250 Running
8 3 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Cheerios / Hamburger Helper 147/5 250 Running
9 16 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Old Spice / Office Depot 138/0 250 Running
10 35 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M 134/0 250 Running
11 13 82 Scott Speed Toyota Red Bull 135/5 250 Running
12 23 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 132/5 250 Running
13 31 99 Carl Edwards Ford Aflac “You don’t know quack” 124/0 250 Running
14 9 18 Kyle Busch Toyota Interstate Batteries 126/5 250 Running
15 11 0 David Reutimann Toyota Aaron’s Dream Machine 118/0 250 Running
16 8 77 Sam Hornish Jr Dodge Auto Club 120/5 250 Running
17 1 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 112/0 250 Running
18 36 98 Paul Menard Ford Energizer / Menards 109/0 250 Running
19 22 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet Furniture Row Companies 106/0 250 Running
20 28 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 108/5 250 Running
21 21 12 Brad Keselowski Dodge AAA Insurance 100/0 250 Running
22 17 36 Mike Bliss Chevrolet Wave Energy Drink 97/0 250 Running
23 15 6 David Ragan Ford UPS 94/0 250 Running
24 37 19 Elliott Sadler Ford Stanley 91/0 250 Running
25 29 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford Best Buy 88/0 250 Running
26 41 38 David Gilliland Ford Taco Bell 85/0 250 Running
27 33 71 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet TaxSlayer.com 82/0 250 Running
28 43 13 Max Papis Toyota GEICO 79/0 250 Running
29 25 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Freight 81/5 248 Running
30 39 34 Travis Kvapil Ford Long John Silver’s 73/0 248 Running
31 38 37 Kevin Conway Ford Extenze 70/0 247 Running
32 27 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet Amp Energy Juice / National Guard 67/0 238 Running
33 40 7 Robby Gordon Toyota Warner Music Nashville / Whitney Duncan 64/0 230 Overheating
34 4 9 Kasey Kahne Ford Budweiser / Team USA 61/0 221 Running
35 26 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota Armor All 58/0 170 Overheating
36 18 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet Haas Automation 55/0 148 Engine
37 2 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Chevrolet Target 57/5 140 Engine
38 42 26 Boris Said Ford Sacred Power / Southern Pride Trucking 49/0 67 Rear Gear
39 34 56 Martin Truex Jr Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 46/0 64 Engine
40 32 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota FrontRowJoe.com 43/0 48 Rear Gear
41 5 66 Dave Blaney Toyota Prism Motorsports 45/5 43 Engine
42 30 55 Michael McDowell Toyota Prism Motorsports 37/0 40 Engine
43 24 9 Aric Almirola Chevrolet Phoenix Racing 34/0 34 Engine

UNOFFICIAL STANDINGS – TOP 20
Check our STANDINGS page for complete official standings later today.

RANK +/- DRIVER POINTS BEHIND STARTS POLES WINS TOP 5 TOP 10
1 4 Kevin Harvick 331 Leader 2 0 0 1 2
2 2 Clint Bowyer 312 -19 2 0 0 1 2
3 – Greg Biffle 304 -27 2 0 0 1 2
4 -3 Jamie McMurray 302 -29 2 1 1 1 1
5 7 Jeff Burton 300 -31 2 0 0 1 1
6 5 Mark Martin 297 -34 2 1 0 1 1
7 1 Matt Kenseth 288 -43 2 0 0 0 2
8 -2 David Reutimann 273 -58 2 0 0 1 1
9 11 Joey Logano 263 -68 2 0 0 1 1
10 – Carl Edwards 262 -69 2 0 0 0 1
11 11 Kurt Busch 254 -77 2 0 0 0 1
12 23 Jimmie Johnson 253 -78 2 0 1 1 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
13 – Kyle Busch 252 -79 2 0 0 0 0
14 2 Brian Vickers 250 -81 2 0 0 0 0
15 3 Scott Speed 246 -85 2 0 0 0 0
16 -14 Dale Earnhardt Jr 242 -89 2 0 0 1 1
17 6 Tony Stewart 235 -96 2 0 0 0 1
18 -4 Paul Menard 233 -98 2 0 0 0 0
19 -4 David Ragan 214 -117 2 0 0 0 0
20 -13 Martin Truex Jr 201 -130 2 0 0 0 1

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Ryan Newman Finishes 36th After Strong Run, Car Goes Up in Smoke

Submitted by Ryan Newman News and Information

You can see the replay of the engine blowing up in my last post.

Engine troubles spoiled a solid top-10 run for Ryan Newman in Sunday’s Auto Club 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Newman had been a fixture among the top-12 for much of the afternoon before an engine failure relegated the driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) to a 36th-place finish.

“We just lost an engine,” Newman said. “We had a really good car with the Haas Automation Chevrolet, but it just grenaded, basically. I couldn’t tell you what happened, but it was big and there was smoke and that was the end of our day.”

Just a couple of laps before Newman’s engine expired, the No. 39 was at the front of the field, restarting the 250-lap race in second-place. However, Newman didn’t get the restart he had hoped for as he spun the tires and fell back through the field. When he crossed the start/finish line the next time on lap 147, Newman was posted in 16th-place. He circled the track one more time and had just passed the flagstand on lap 148,when smoke billowed from the No. 39 Chevrolet. Newman came over the radio and reported he had lost an engine and was no longer under power.

“I got a horrible restart,” Newman said. “I spun my tires on the restart, but didn’t over-rev it or anything. The next lap, it just blew up.”

It was an especially disappointing day for Newman and the No. 39 team as they were enjoying a strong run at Auto Club Speedway, the home track for the team’s Oxnard Calif.-based co-owner and sponsor Haas Automation, the largest CNC machine tool builder in the western world.

Newman started the race in 18th-place, but he was quickly able to move into the top-12 where he spent much of the race’s first 90 laps.

A slightly loose racecar had been Newman’s biggest issue during the course of the race, but his pit crew had been able to improve those handling issues with air pressure and track bar adjustments. Crew chief Tony Gibson’s calls and the team’s diligent efforts in the pits paid off, and by lap 97 Newman moved into ninth-place. He ran solidly in the top-10 until his final restart on lap 146.

“We had a really good car,” Newman said. “The car was good all day long. We were mixing it up, and that is really the most competitive I’ve been here in a long time. We were working forward every run the entire race. We showed what we are capable of out there on a couple of those long runs.

“I think we’ve made some big improvements as a team, and what we were doing out there today shows that. We feel like we’ve made some big gains as a team. This just is not how I wanted to end the race.”

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala for SHR, finished ninth. It was Stewart’s first top-10 of the 2010 Sprint Cup season and his 10th top-10 in 18 career Sprint Cup starts at Fontana.

Stewart continues to lead the SHR driver lineup in the championship point race, as his ninth-place finish bumped him six spots to 17th in the standings where he is 96 points behind series leader Kevin Harvick. Newman lost two spots to fall to 36th in the standings, 215 markers arrears Harvick.

Four-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson beat Harvick by 1.523 seconds to win the Auto Club 500 and score the 48th victory of his Sprint Cup career, his first of the season and his fifth at Fontana. Johnson has now won four of the last six races at the Southern California track.

Finishing third was Jeff Burton, while Mark Martin and Joey Logano rounded out the top-five. Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Stewart and Greg Biffle comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were six caution periods for 30 laps, with 10 drivers failing to finish the 500-mile race.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the February 28 Shelby American at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

-source: shr

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Re-Run

Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic

This is an image of what the vast majority of NASCAR fans dream of. I’m not a Johnson hater but I too am discouraged. I actually believe that NASCAR’s TV ratings will fall even more if Johnson continues to win races. I read many forums last night after the race and fans as a whole are not happy. My own wife won’t even sit to watch a race anymore, she was in another room watching Lifetime movies. This from a woman who used to jump up and down in the living room, now she won’t even bat an eyelash. As soon as I saw Harvick scrape the wall with 2 laps to go I took the dog for a walk.

His win yesterday was pure luck. Something he has had time and time again. He did not have the best car in the field. Funny how many think it’s a conspiracy.. NASCAR conspire ?? nah! But much of it is just pure good luck.

So we brush ourselves off and hope somebody new wins at Vegas.

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What Have You Done For Me Lately?

Submitted by The Motorsports Soapbox

Stock car racing has always been a “what have you done for me lately” kind of sport. When you work in the NASCAR garage, you’re only as good as your last finish – or even your last pit stop — and job security is something only a fortunate few enjoy.

When you work for Jack Roush, the lifeline is stretched even thinner. The Roush-Fenway Racing owner has never been shy about making midseason personnel moves, and when something goes awry on any of his four NASCAR Sprint Cup teams, “The Cat In The Hat” is ready, willing and able to move people around, transfer them out, or even hand them a pink slip.

Latest case in point? The strange saga of Drew Blickensderfer.

One year ago today, Blickensderfer was the hottest crewchief in all of NASCAR, after overseeing back-to-back victories by Matt Kenseth in the Daytona 500 and Auto Club 500. Today, he’s the former crewchief of Kenseth’s #17 Crown Royal Ford, after being shuffled off to Roush-Fenway’s Research and Development department -– the auto racing equivalent of the Russian Front — in favor of veteran Todd Parrott.

The timing of the move could not have been more strange. Why would Roush-Fenway retain Blickensderfer through a long, cold offseason, only to replace him just one race into the new campaign? What issues could possibility have surfaced at Daytona that were not known to the team long beforehand?

The blame, said Kenseth, was all his.

The 2003 Sprint Cup champion called the timing of last week’s change “100-percent my fault,” admitting that Roush approached him at the end of last season to suggest replacing Blickensderfer. Kenseth argued against the move, feeling his pit chief could use the offseason to improve.

However, Kenseth said he realized during Speedweeks 2010 at Daytona that his team was not properly motivated to win races and contend for another championship. Asked what needed to be changed, he replied, “the whole dynamic of the team. We needed a spark,” adding that he believes Parrott is the man to provide that spark.

Parrott -– the son of legendary crewchief Buddy Parrott — is outgoing, opinionated and emotional; words seldom used to describe his new driver. Some observers immediately questioned whether two such divergent personalities would be able to mesh, but Kenseth said he believes their differences will make them strong. Since he is not a natural leader himself, Kenseth said he needs an emotional, cheerleading crewchief to motivate the #17 team.

Roush went to great lengths last week to state that Blickensderfer still has a home at Roush-Fenway. “I wanted to make sure that everybody felt my passion, my empathy, my support and my belief in Drew Blickensderfer,” he said. “As conflicted as I am, Matt is equally conflicted.”

“Matt doesn’t like to be wrong,” said a Roush-Fenway team member this week, on the condition of anonymity. “`Blick’ was Matt’s choice to be crewchief. Jack had someone else in mind, but Matt knew who he wanted. It was Matt who brought him in, and ultimately, it was Matt’s decision to make this change.”

Roush will apparently play things a bit more cautiously this time around.

“Todd’s position is interim on the 17 team, with an expectation that we can get a formula here that will work better than what we’ve had,” said Roush. In an effort to smooth the transition, Roush assigned Robbie Reiser -– who crewchiefed Kenseth’s 2003 championship run -– to sit atop the pit box with Parrott at Auto Club Speedway for what he called an “all hands on deck weekend.”

The early returns were positive, with Kenseth authoring a seventh place Fontana finish after qualifying in the 20th position. That’s not as good as a year ago, but it’s not bad. And it’s almost certainly good enough to earn Parrott sole command of the ship this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Parrott’s credentials as a Sprint Cup Series crewchief are strong. He won the 1999 championship with Dale Jarrett, the highlight of a seven-year run that saw the pair combine to win 26 races between 1995 and 2002. Recently, however, the wins have been tough to come by. He managed just two wins with Elliott Sadler, one in a reunion tour with Jarrett, and has gone winless in the last couple of years with Bobby Labonte, David Gilliland and Travis Kvapil. He lasted just eight races with Labonte last season before being shuffled from Yates Racing to Roush-Fenway’s restrictor plate program.

Parrott knows what happens to NASCAR crewchiefs when they don’t win, and seems determined to do whatever it takes to get Kenseth back to Victory Lane and the 2010 Chase For The Sprint Cup.

“I’m going to go out a winner,” he said. “I don’t want to be remembered going through the things that happened to me last year. I had a great year in 2008 with Travis, then last year I only made it five or six races and they took me off. That was very disheartening, but I understood. I kept working and kept digging. That’s the way I’ve been taught.

“That’s the way the Parrotts do things. They don’t give up.”

Best of luck, Todd. And please, don’t take too long getting it done.

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Race Day – 2010 Auto Club 500

Submitted by RACING NEWS DIGEST

VISIT OUR Auto Club Speedway For Full Details

Auto Club Speedway
Our Track Page
ALL TIME WINS
Jimmie Johnson 4
Jeff Gordon 3
Matt Kenseth 3
Carl Edwards 1
Elliott Sadler 1
ALL TIME POLES
Kurt Busch 3
Brian Vickers 2
Jeff Gordon 2
Jimmie Johnson 2
Bobby Labonte 1
ALL TIME BEST AVG START
Patrick Carpentier 5.00
Scott Pruett 6.00
Jimmie Johnson 8.79
A.J. Allmendinger 10.00
Jeff Gordon 10.63
ALL TIME BEST AVG FINISH
Jimmie Johnson 5.79
Carl Edwards 6.64
Matt Kenseth 9.25
Jeff Gordon 10.47
Kyle Busch 10.55
ALL TIME Wins From The Pole
Jimmie Johnson 1
QUALIFYING NOTES
Jamie McMurray won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Auto Club 500 with a lap of 39.185 seconds,
183.744 mph. This is his fourth pole in 260 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. This is his first pole and first top-10 start in 2010. This is his first pole in 14 races at Auto Club Speedway. Juan Pablo Montoya (second) posted his second top-10 start of 2010 and his third in seven races at
Auto Club Speedway. This marks the first time that Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates has
claimed both front row starting positions. Clint Bowyer (third) posted his fifth top-10 start at Auto Club Speedway. It is his second in two races
this season. Kevin Conway (38th) was the fastest qualifying rookie.

NOTES
· There have been 19 NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Auto Club Speedway since the track opened in 1997.
· Four drivers have competed in all 19 races: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte and Joe Nemechek.
· Joe Nemechek won the pole for the inaugural race in 1997.
· There have been 13 different pole winners, led by Kurt Busch (three). Brian Vickers and Jeff Gordon each have two poles.
· Twelve different drivers have posted victories. Jimmie Johnson leads all drivers with four wins. Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth each have won three races.
· Hendrick Motorsports has won eight races, more than any other team.
· Nine of the 19 races were won from starting positions outside the top 10; only one has been won from the pole (Jimmie Johnson in 2008). The most prolific starting position is third, with three victories.
· Matt Kenseth won the 2006 spring race from the 31st starting position, the deepest in the field that a race winner has started.
· Three active drivers have averaged a top-10 finish: Carl Edwards (6.6), Jimmie Johnson (5.8) and Matt Kenseth (9.3).
· Kyle Busch won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup pole (2/05) and first race (9/05) at Auto Club Speedway.
· Jimmie Johnson won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup race at ASC on April 28, 2002.

HISTORY
· Groundbreaking for California Speedway, as Auto Club Speedway was originally known, took place in November 1995.
· The first race at Auto Club Speedway was a NASCAR K&N Pro Series, West race won by Ken Schrader on June 21, 1997.
· The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was held on June 22, 1997 and won by Jeff Gordon.
· September 2004 was the first night race at Auto Club Speedway and that also was the first year both the NASCAR Sprint Cup and NASCAR Nationwide Series ran two races in a season there.
· The track name was changed to Auto Club Speedway in February 2008.

Auto Club Speedway Data
Race # 2 of 36 (2-21-10)
Track Size: 2 miles
· Race Length: 250 laps/500 miles
· Banking/Corners: 14 degrees
· Banking/Frontstretch: 11 degrees
· Banking/Backstretch: 3 degrees

WEATHER (from our track page as well)
Rain is in the forecast for today, but it shouldn’t really show up until about 10pm local time.

Other than that it is expected to be cloudy and in the mid 50’s.

Auto Club 500 At Auto Club Speedway LINEUP

POS CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR SPEED TIME BEHIND
1 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 183.744 39.185 Leader
2 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Chevrolet Target 183.477 39.242 -0.057
3 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Cheerios / Hamburger Helper 183.127 39.317 -0.132
4 9 Kasey Kahne Ford Budweiser / Team USA 182.913 39.363 -0.178
5 66 Dave Blaney Toyota Prism Motorsports 182.908 39.364 -0.179
6 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 182.899 39.366 -0.181
7 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s / Kobalt Tools 182.890 39.368 -0.183
8 77 Sam Hornish Jr Dodge Auto Club 182.811 39.385 -0.200
9 18 Kyle Busch Toyota Interstate Batteries 182.788 39.390 -0.205
10 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet GoDaddy.com 182.741 39.400 -0.215
11 00 David Reutimann Toyota Aaron’s Dream Machine 182.597 39.431 -0.246
12 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 182.292 39.497 -0.312
13 82 Scott Speed Toyota Red Bull 182.195 39.518 -0.333
14 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Caterpillar 182.085 39.542 -0.357
15 6 David Ragan Ford UPS 181.974 39.566 -0.381
16 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Old Spice / Office Depot 181.883 39.586 -0.401
17 36 Mike Bliss Chevrolet Wave Energy Drink 181.749 39.615 -0.430
18 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet Haas Automation 181.726 39.620 -0.435
19 20 Joey Logano Toyota The Home Depot 181.671 39.632 -0.447
20 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Crown Royal 181.502 39.669 -0.484
21 12 Brad Keselowski Dodge AAA Insurance 181.333 39.706 -0.521
22 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet Furniture Row Companies 181.324 39.708 -0.523
23 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 181.314 39.710 -0.525
24 09 Aric Almirola Chevrolet Phoenix Racing 181.314 39.710 -0.525
25 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Freight 181.301 39.713 -0.528
26 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota Armor All 181.228 39.729 -0.544
27 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet Amp Energy Juice / National Guard 181.109 39.755 -0.570
28 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 181.055 39.767 -0.582
29 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford Best Buy 181.041 39.770 -0.585
30 55 Michael McDowell Toyota Prism Motorsports 180.895 39.802 -0.617
31 99 Carl Edwards Ford Aflac “You don’t know quack” 180.768 39.830 -0.645
32 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota FrontRowJoe.com 180.755 39.833 -0.648
33 71 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet TaxSlayer.com 180.587 39.870 -0.685
34 56 Martin Truex Jr Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 180.523 39.884 -0.699
35 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M 180.325 39.928 -0.743
36 98 Paul Menard Ford Energizer / Menards 180.081 39.982 -0.797
37 19 Elliott Sadler Ford Stanley 179.919 40.018 -0.833
38 37 Kevin Conway Ford Extenze 179.292 40.158 -0.973
39 34 Travis Kvapil Ford Long John Silver’s 178.975 40.229 -1.044
40 7 Robby Gordon Toyota Warner Music Nashville / Whitney Duncan 176.302 40.839 -1.654
41 38 David Gilliland Ford Taco Bell 176.207 40.861 -1.676
42 26 Boris Said Ford Sacred Power / Southern Pride Trucking - - -
43 13 Max Papis Toyota GEICO 180.501 39.889 -0.704
Did Not Qualify
44 190 Casey Mears Chevrolet Keyed-Up Motorsports 179.915 40.019 -0.834
45 135 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet Tommy Baldwin Racing 178.940 40.237 -1.052
46 46 Terry Cook Dodge Whitney Motorsports 178.064 40.435 -1.250

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Ryan Newman Blows Engine At Fontana – Finishes 36th

Submitted by Ryan Newman News and Information

Unfortunately Ryan Newman is starting the 2010 season with 2 DNF’s.

Ryan Newman was having a decent run today at Fontana until his engine blew on lap 147 bring out the 4th caution of the day.

The field had just restarted from caution 3 and Newman had restarted 2nd. Almost immediately on the restart Newman dropped to the bottom of the track. The announcers were speculating that he may have missed a gear or something that hurt his restart and hurt the engine. He blew up later on that lap (or maybe the next lap).

Unofficially this will have Newman 36rh in the points positions after finishing 34th at Daytona.

Juan Pablo Montoya also blew his engine earlier in the race after leading the first 29 laps

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Good PR

Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic

Credit: Jeff Gross/Getty Images

Toyota’s recent woes have not effected TRD. The not so happy Logano pulled off a fifth place finish sliding through the infield and across the finish line as his team mate and fellow Toyota driver, Kyle Busch (no surprise there), takes the checker at the Nationwide ACS race. Although, in Fontana tradition, Logano dominated the race with somewhere around 100 laps led. The final lap was pretty exciting with The Biff tapping Logano’s bumper and taking the lead. Busch just had more muscle in the end with Toyota’s horsepower and beat Biffle out in a drag race down the final stretch with Keselowski running a close third. The kid I’m watching towards the future is Justin Allgaier.

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Watch Out Osama!

Submitted by The Motorsports Soapbox

Sirius Speedway regular — OK, make that semi-regular — Brendan Gaughan got to drive a tank at the Oakley factory in California today. We want HIS life!

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Ryan Newman 2010 Auto Club Speedway Preview

Submitted by Ryan Newman News and Information

Ryan Newman never thought he’d call California “home.”

Admittedly, it’s a bit of a stretch for the Indiana native, who would rather be chopping wood or casting a fishing pole on a pond instead of crunching numbers on a computer or sitting in an endless line of traffic. Picturing himself at ease in the hustle and bustle of the massive metropolitan expanse that is Southern California isn’t something the avid outdoorsman has ever given much consideration.

That is, until now.

When Newman and his No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) team roll into Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., this weekend, they are home — the home track for Haas Automation, the co-owner of SHR and this weekend’s primary sponsor for the No. 39 Chevrolet.

Haas Automation, the largest CNC machine tool builder in the western world, has its headquarters in Oxnard, Calif., which is located 100 miles west of Auto Club Speedway. The company’s 1-million-square-foot facility houses 1,200 employees and is the largest, most modern machine tool manufacturing operation in the United States.

Newman’s newest sponsor also hails from California. Tornados, which will sponsor Newman’s No. 39 Chevrolet in nine races in 2010, is part of the family-owned Ruiz Foods, whose headquarters are located in Dinuba, Calif., about 250 miles northwest of Auto Club Speedway.

So, if Newman’s ties to California thanks to his sponsors can help him get a leg up on the field — or gain a home-track advantage, of sorts, in this weekend’s Auto Club 500 — then Newman will gladly embrace the role of a hometown favorite at Fontana.

Ryan Newman At Auto Club Speedway
Starts Poles Wins Top 5 Top 10 Led AVG ST AVG FN DNF
14 1 0 2 4 11 14.50 18.86 2
Stats By Racing News Digest

Over the years, the 2-mile speedway hasn’t been one of Newman’s best tracks. In 14 starts at Fontana, he has one pole, two top-five and four top-10 finishes. Last year, in his first season with SHR, Newman and the No. 39 team finished 28th and 15th, respectively, in the two Cup races at the track.

Newman & Company roll into Fontana and the second race of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season determined to improve on the past. Last year, in the team’s inaugural season, there were no expectations. But in its sophomore campaign, the bar has been set high for the No. 39 team — improve at each track, win races, earn a berth in the Chase for the Championship, and contend for the overall title.

Last weekend’s season-opener at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway wasn’t how the team wanted to start out the new year. Newman finished a disappointing 34th after being involved in an accident in his No. 39 Chevrolet just seven laps from the end of the race.

Now, the team turns its focus to Auto Club Speedway and racing in its sponsor’s backyard. There’s no better time for the No. 39 Haas Automation team to start achieving some of its goals set for the 2010 season — win races, build momentum and give the hometown supporters in the crowd something to cheer about.

RYAN NEWMAN, Driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing

Talk about racing at Auto Club Speedway.

“Unfortunately, it’s not one of my favorite places to go. I have not had the best record at California. The racetrack can be a lot of fun because it’s a very smooth track and super fast, but I just haven’t done all that well there throughout my career. It’s a track where, a lot of times, your team’s strategy determines the finish because, a lot of times, it becomes a fuel-mileage race. It will be even more interesting to see how, and if, that plays out with the new green-white-checker rule that NASCAR started last weekend at Daytona. We’ll just have to see how the race plays out.

“I do think we’ll see some better racing at California because I think the racing has gotten better each time we’ve gone there. At this track in general, the more it’s aged, the better it’s gotten, as with most race tracks. I think the double-file restarts help the racing a lot, too. They are more advantageous at bigger racetracks, especially the wider ones. When you have a wide racing groove like at California, the cars can get three-wide in the corners and anything can happen. California is not my favorite racetrack. I’ll tell you that first-hand. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a good showing there. We improved on our spring performance when we came back in the fall. We had a good car. We overcame a cut tire, but we got bottled up in the wrong line on the restart and ended up getting shuffled back to 15th. Tony Gibson (crew chief) and the guys have really worked on our cars to make them better and lighter in the offseason, and I know they worked a lot on the seven-post and did other things to improve our package for the mile-and-a-half and 2-mile tracks like California. So, we’ll see what happens with the Haas Automation Chevrolet. Our goal is to improve each time we go back.”

This is a big weekend for Stewart-Haas Racing because Auto Club Speedway is a “home track,” of sorts, for team co-owner Haas Automation, which is based in nearby Oxnard, Calif. Talk about the importance of this race for you and the team.

“Everybody wants to be the best when they are racing in their backyard. Just think about how everybody wants to win at Charlotte. You want bragging rights. You want to be top dog on your home turf. California isn’t my home track, but it is a very important race to our co-owner and our sponsor, Haas Automation. Haas Automation has been involved in NASCAR for several years, but I think we have an opportunity to give them something they have not had before as a team sponsor and that’s a win in the Sprint Cup Series. And this year, we have another sponsor that calls California home that has come on board — Tornados. They are an associate sponsor for us this weekend in California, but they are the primary sponsor for nine races. I’m actually going to their headquarters and plant in Dinuba, Calif., on Thursday. We want to make everyone involved with both of these companies proud, and I don’t think there is a better way to do that than to have a strong run on Sunday. It’s cool that a guy from Indiana will have so much support at California.

“To me, California is really where our season starts. Daytona is our biggest race of the season, and things are done a little differently throughout Speedweeks. I’ve always kind of thought that California is a better gauge when it comes to determining how you compare to the other 42-plus teams that are at the racetrack.”

Last weekend, Daytona was not what you had hoped for. How do you put that behind you and now focus on California and the season in front of you? You have talked a lot about the 2010 season and what it means to SHR because it is your second season. What are the team’s goals?

“Daytona was very disappointing — more so than I think a lot of people realize. We were just biding our time in the back of the field and, with 10 laps or so to go, we decided it was time to make our move. I don’t really know what happened, but I was the recipient of it. We were seven laps from the end of the race, well before the green-white-checker, and we ended up with a destroyed racecar. It was just very disappointing. We wanted to come out of the box strong at Daytona, but we walked away with a 34th-place finish. We had good cars but we didn’t get the finish we wanted. Honestly, though, we proved last year that you don’t have to leave Daytona with a top-10 to have a good year. You want to, obviously. Everybody wants to. Daytona is the biggest race and we start with it but, in the end, it’s about consistency and it’s about teamwork and it’s about reliability. Our team did a great job in 2009. I think it was 99.75 percent of all laps that both our cars (the Nos. 39 and the No. 14 of Tony Stewart) completed, and that’s phenomenal. That’s phenomenal for any team, any organization, and I think our guys did a great job for a new organization to be able to achieve that from a mechanical standpoint.

“And in 2010, I think that’s something we want to build on. We want to make improvements. We want to make the Chase. We want to win the championship. And I think we can, as an organization, be that consistent to maintain that slope, to polish up on the things we have learned, to make the corrections on the mistakes that we have made. I think that, ultimately, I want to win a championship and, I feel that, you know, this year we are closer than we were last year because of our time together and the chemistry we have created over the past 365 days. We want to make sure we improve because, in so many people’s eyes, we weren’t supposed to do what we did last year. From a team standpoint, from a performance standpoint, it’s important that we move forward and progress, like you said. How we do that is honestly a people thing. It’s teamwork. It’s building better race cars, communicating, all those things that the 48 team has done for the last four years straight. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to get to that point, but I think our organization has done a lot of great things in the offseason for our people and for our racecars to be stronger, and we’re going to try to prove that this year.”

TONY GIBSON, Crew Chief of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing

Last year, the No. 39 team posted 28th-place and 15th-place finishes at Auto Club Speedway. At the time, you said you considered the team’s 2-mile-track program to be one of its weaknesses. How do you feel you have improved the program, and what is your outlook on this weekend’s race?

“We didn’t run well in our first trip to California at all. We were really good in qualifying practice. We were, like, third or fourth quick, but when we went to qualify, we got loose and we just didn’t get a lap in. Then, at the very start of the race, we had a transponder issue, where we had to come back down pit road to replace the transponder for NASCAR. And while all that was happening, we ended up with a loose wing mount plate and, later on, we had a loose wheel. It was almost like we were out of it before we even started. We struggled for track position all day and we really didn’t run that well. We just couldn’t recover from all the issues we had.

“We went back for the second race, and we definitely ran a lot better. I think you could tell we had made improvements on our 2-mile — Michigan-, California-type — racetracks. We didn’t hit the setup solid, but I think we were fifth or sixth with something like seven laps to go. The caution came out, and Ryan ended up being in the wrong line for the double-file restart and got shuffled back. We had a shot at a solid top-10 finish. That race showed we had made some gains. I think throughout the rest of last season, we felt like every time we went to a mile-and-half or 2-mile track, we made even more gains. We’ve spent a lot of time on the seven-post and at the wind tunnel, so we can get this part of our program where we think it should be. We think our cars are better this year and, hopefully, we can go out there and just keep improving on our finishing position.

“We feel more confident going to California this year, but you never know. Sometimes, drivers just seem to struggle on certain racetracks. Ryan will be the first to tell you that he hasn’t had a lot of success at California, but we’re hoping to change that. I just hope we’ve got a package that can help him get over that hump. We’ve made improvements and, hopefully, we can continue to make gains on it, so each time we go back to these tracks, we run better and we qualify better. That’s our goal.”

Many teams consider this weekend’s race to be, really, the first race of the season because Daytona is such a different deal than any other race throughout the course of the season. So what does it take to be competitive at Auto Club Speedway? And how important will strategy from atop the pitbox be at Fontana?

“Track position is huge at California. It’s one of those racetracks — kind of like a Pocono — where you can take a not-so-good-handling racecar and, if you can get track position, you can hang on and do a pretty good job there. The deal is that, once the tires equalize, you’ve got what you’ve got. Your car runs so much better in clean air than it does back there in dirty air, and we have seen that time and time again. So track position is going to be a key for us.

“We’ve got a new tire going out to California this weekend. It’s got more grip, so it’s probably going to be faster. And hopefully with the new tire and more grip, that will help fix some of our problems we had last year. Obviously, the new tire is going to help everybody, but maybe it’s something that can get us just a little bit closer or make it a little easier for us to find the setup that makes Ryan happy with the car.

“Strategy and luck play into every race. As for strategy, that’s always been part of having a good race at California. A lot of races there have come down to fuel mileage, so now, with the green-white-checker deal, we have to figure that into the fuel mileage, too. If you were figuring out your fuel mileage for just one green-white-checker, you can’t do that anymore. Now, you’ve got to do that for potentially three. What you thought was your window for fuel last year, it’s not going to be that, anymore. You’ve got to keep that in mind. The green-white-checker came into play the very first race after NASCAR came up with the rule, and you know it’s going to happen more than not. It’s definitely going to be a strategy race.”

The No. 39 Haas Automation team came out of Daytona in 34th place. Last year, the team left Daytona in 36th place. Recap the week at Daytona. How does something like that affect the team, and how do you get everyone pumped up for this weekend’s race at California?

“This year’s outing at Daytona was almost a mirror image of last year for us. The only difference was that our Daytona 500 car actually made it through the entire week. We had the same car until seven laps to go in the Daytona 500. But it was a disappointing week for us in the end. We had good cars throughout all of Speedweeks — in the Budweiser Shootout and in the Daytona 500. In the Shootout, our strategy was staying in the back and waiting on guys to wreck. It didn’t really pay off because, when we had to get going with eight to go, we ended up right in the middle of them when they wrecked. We qualified third again for the Daytona 500, and missed the front row by just a little bit for the second year. Then our strategy in the Duels was just to run hard and try to stay up front, which is what we were doing. We were running in the top-five with four to go and we felt we had a shot to win it. But the caution fell and we ended up in the wrong line. We just didn’t get going on the final restart of the Duel. And, in the 500, Ryan got wrecked with seven laps to go as he was making his move. We’ve tried strategies all across the board and none of it seems to work. It just comes down to pure luck. We haven’t had a whole lot of that, so we just accept it and go on.

“But one bad Speedweeks doesn’t define this team. We’ve been in worse situations than this. We’ve been here before. It’s nothing new for this team. We’ll dig like hell, and we’ll get out of it. In my opinion, it’s not a speed bump for us. It’s like going to the Super Bowl and, once you’ve done it three or four times, you know that if you get behind on the scoreboard, you can always make it up and come back. If you believe in yourself and your team, you can accomplish it. This team proved last year it can overcome any obstacle that is thrown its way. This team has been through way worse than this and has come out on the good side.”

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Steve and Charlie

Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic

From my desktop in Upstate NY I can tune into Toledo’s finest radio show “On Pit Row”. It’s broadcast live on Tuesday’s from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Steve and Charlie do an outstanding job. I tuned in this past Tuesday to listen to NASCAR Legend Bobby Allison. Somehow these guys managed to get Bobby on the phone, but I must say that it was the most comfortable laid back conversation I’ve heard. Bobby seemed to feel right at home and I felt like I was right there with them. This is in part due to the live interaction they provide with their Facebook page. Here I listened and left comments on Facebook that were answered live by the guys. One can also call in on 800-645-2946 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 800-645-2946 end_of_the_skype_highlighting. It’s really a fantastic gig these guys have. Thanks Steve and Charlie.

Here we go… from the most highly anticipated week in NASCAR, Daytona, to the hum drum of Hollywood. Boring!! These mile and a half flat tracks are like driving on interstate I-95 although without a speed limit. It’s like watching the Pied Piper because whoever takes the lead early on seems to stay there for the entire race while the rest of the field falls in behind… tune in for the pre-race and listen to Styx then come back in two hours to watch the final laps. You’ll have a much more productive Sunday. NASCAR needs a track like Bristol in a warmer climate zone.

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Nice Guys Don’t Always Finish Last

Submitted by The Motorsports Soapbox

Just when you begin to believe there’s no place for the little guys in NASCAR anymore, along come Max Papis, Joe Nemechek and Michael McDowell.

Against long (some would argue insurmountable) odds, Papis, Nemechek and McDowell fought their way onto the starting grid for last weekend’s 52nd Daytona 500, outrunning teams with unlimited resources, top-notch personnel and decades of experience. It was the NASCAR equivalent of the lowly Chicago Cubs sweeping a World Series title from the New York Yankees in four games, and it set a “feel good” tone that carried through to the end of SpeedWeek 2010.

Nemechek, a two-time Daytona winner in NASCAR Nationwide Series competition, turned heads almost immediately in time trial qualifying, pushing his unsponsored #87 Toyota to the 16th-fastest qualifying time – third among so-called “go or go home” drivers — to earn a guaranteed starting spot in Sunday’s Daytona 500. The performance provided a watershed financial moment for the veteran driver, who guaranteed his self-owned team a minimum last-place Daytona 500 payday of nearly $250,000.

Papis raced his way into NASCAR’s greatest race with a 15th-place finish in the first Gatorade Duel at Daytona qualifier. He started 20th and made only modest progress in the early going, until veteran crewchief Robert “Bootie” Barker left Papis on the track while many others pitted for tires and fuel on lap 54. “Mad Max” did the rest, keeping himself in qualifying contention until the final lap, then making a testosterone-rich move in the fourth turn that catapulted his GEICO Toyota past three cars and into The Great American Race.

As he climbed from his machine after the race, “Mad Max” had understandably become “Glad Max,” and the tears flowed freely as he accepted congratulations from family, friends, team members and fellow drivers.

“Did you see that? Mark Martin just came to me and congratulated me,” said a beaming Papis. “He punched me in the arm and said I did a great job. I think I hugged him!
“I’ve won two Rolex 24-Hour races here, so this place means a lot to me,” he said. “Daytona means everything to me. Last year, I never would’ve had the opportunity to make this dream come true.”

One spot ahead of Papis at the finish was Michael McDowell, who earned his inaugural Daytona 500 berth after starting 26th in his #55 Prism Motorsports Toyota. Team owners Phil Parsons and Randy Humphrey spent much of last season as start-and-park artists in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, but the same lap-54 caution flag that benefitted Papis gave McDowell the outside chance he was looking for.

“When that last caution came out, I knew we had a shot at it,” he said. “Our car was really good on the short runs, and we got the pushes we needed. I picked the right line at the right time.”

The road to the 2010 Daytona 500 has been a long one for all three drivers.
Until last week, McDowell was best known for his horrifying qualifying crash in April of 2008 at Texas Motor Speedway, while driving for Michael Watrip Racing. Since then, his NASCAR career has been a hodgepodge of rides with various teams in NASCAR’s three national series’, none offering much in the way of job security or opportunity to shine.

Papis’ seven-year journey has carried him from CART — where he recorded three wins — to Indy Cars, Formula One, sports cars – highlighted by the 2004 Grand Am Rolex Series championship — and eventually NASCAR. His skill and bravado have been readily apparent at every stop along the way, but unfortunately, the outgoing Italian has rarely been able to find a team with funding to match his talent.

Nemechek once ranked as one of NASCAR’s best, but it’s been a long time since “Front Row Joe” ran up front. These days, he is forced to field his own entries in both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide ranks, racing when he can and pulling a “start and park” when he can’t.

Unfortunately, none of the three drivers were able to parlay their qualifying success into strong runs on race day. McDowell finished 33rd after his car spit a driveshaft with just a handful of laps remaining. Papis finished 40th in the Daytona 500 after catching a piece of the day’s first incident on lap seven, then suffering engine failure with just 89 of 200 laps complete. Nemechek finished 43rd after getting tagged by the Dodge of Sam Hornish, Jr. – who was many laps down at the time – and crashing in the fourth turn on lap 64.

In the end, however, their final finishing positions didn’t seem to matter.

No matter where they finished Sunday, “Mad Max,” Mike and “Front Row Joe” reassured us once again that in an era of multi-million dollar, multi-car mega-teams, little guys still stand a chance.

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BREAKING NEWS: Blickensderfer Out As Kenseth’s Crewchief, Parrott To Take Over

Submitted by The Motorsports Soapbox

Sources tell Sirius Speedway today that Drew Blickensderfer is out as crewchief for Matt Kenseth’s #17 Crown Royal Ford, and will be replaced by veteran Todd Parrott, beginning this weekend at Auto Club Speedway.

Blickensderfer has served as Kenseth’s crewchief since the beginning of last 2009 season, and has been transferred to a new position in Roush Fenway’s research and development department. Parrott won the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship with Dale Jarrett in 1999 and is the third winningest active crewchief in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, with 29 career wins.

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My Dream Car…

Submitted by DaleJarrett4Ever

Oh yes, one day it shall be mine. Maybe not in this lifetime but it shall happen

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Repaving The Daytona Hole – When?

Submitted by RACING NEWS DIGEST

That pesky little hole in the track at Daytona International Speedway for the Daytona 500 was a real race killer for a lot of people. A total of almost 3 hours was spent trying to get that whole repaired while viewers at home sat bored, vented their frustrations on Twitter and other social networking sites and I have to believe a lot of views eventually just left the race….not to return.

Jaime McMurray won the Daytona 500 and his Dad had already left due the late hour and not wanting to ride his motorcycle in the dark.

So what are the people at Daytona International Speedway doing about it? Well there is nothing definitely planned right now. They do tentatively have a repaving job scheduled for 2012 with a price tag of $20 Million.

I can’t imagine them waiting that long. Whether it is next years Daytona 500 or one of the summer races, the fans don’t want to have to sit through that again. It was long and agonizing.

“We’re not sure if we have pavement failure because it could have been a gouge,” track president Robin Braig told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “As cars continued to bottom out there, they kept digging into it. And that was the only spot on the track in the shade.

“The ambient temperature was 14 to 20 degrees different from the rest of the track.”

And this has been going on for 30+ years.

Now the chances that Daytona will be repaved before the July 3rd race is very unlikely. ISC would have to take the same approach that they did for Talladega Superspeedway and that took about 4 1/2 months to complete. And that didn’t even include all the prep work.

“We didn’t just decide in April to start paving in May,” Talladega president Rick Humphrey said. “There were processes that went in place. Equipment had to be built to pave the track.”

“It’s not like paving a highway,” he said. “The degree of turns and banking creates challenges that folks don’t typically experience.”

“We were concerned with what we might find down there, but very pleased we didn’t find anything that created a problem during the process,” he said. “The timing of it is what we were most concerned with and what we might find once we milled up the track.”

Humphrey said that they started ripping up the old surface May 1, 2005, and concluded with a tire test Sept. 4. Before they could even get to that part it took months of preparation, including building a temporary on-site asphalt plant.

As you can see by how Talladega was done, this is not a simple process. And Talladega got lucky. They didn’t find any problems under the old track surface at Talladega, could Daytona be as lucky.

Hopefully the track can hold out for another weekend or 2 of NASCAR racing before it can be replaced.

All I know is that fans will not be happy having to sit through more delays like we saw this past Sunday at Daytona. Hopefully they can have a better solution in place by July.

I know during the race some drivers expressed that they hoped the track got repaved while others didn’t want to see it get repaved.

I don’t know how many options there are here. They already have it tentatively scheduled to be repaved in 2012. At some point, just like any road, it is going to have to be repaved.

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Jamie McMurray Wins 2010 Daytona 500 – Results And Standings

Submitted by RACING NEWS DIGEST

The 52nd running of the Daytona 500 had it all. Good racing, 2 intermissions (as they repaired the “hole”), night racing under the lights (repairing the “hole” took quite a while), green/white/checkered finish….twice as NASCAR has the new rule implemented where they will do everything possible (three attempts) to finish under green.

Jaime McMurray who looked strong all day tamed everything the 52nd Daytona 500 had to offer and captured the checkered flag.

“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.”

“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.”

McMurray spun his tires on the restart but got pushed through the first turn by Greg Biffle getting pass Kevin Harvick who was very strong all day.

At the end McMurray crossed the finish line .119 seconds ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who surged from the pack to chase McMurray to the stripe on Lap 208, eight laps beyond the scheduled distance. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was not happy with his car most of the day and managed this second place finish.

“It was all a blur — I was just going wherever they weren’t,” Earnhardt said of the closing laps. “I really don’t enjoy being that aggressive. But if there was enough room for the radiator to fit, you just kind of held the gas down and prayed for the best.

“It was a lot of fun. It went by so fast, I couldn’t really tell you the process. But I just remember going down the back straightaway and getting in between Greg and I don’t remember who was on the outside of me. We all kind of wiggled through that whole deal. Jamie got away from us.

“I didn’t even know where I was. Then we got into [Turn] 3. I was counting in my head how many laps we ran. I knew we were coming to the checkered; I was running second. This is awesome — but it kind of sucks at the same time.

“It was frustrating to come that close. But, hell, we were running 22nd at the first green-white-checkered.”

The “hole” in the track brought the race to a screeching halt and will probably end up being what the 52 Daytona 500 is remembered for. The track surface was last done back in 1978 and with all he rain lately in Florida and then a weekend (actually a couple of weeks) of cars and trucks pounding the surface of the track. And POP, out came a chunk of track.

Track officials had trouble getting it repaired, mostly due to the cool weather. It took an hour and 40 minutes of red flag and 3 or 4 different attempts to get it repaired. In the end I believe they were holding torches to the patch to get it to cure.

Then on lap 159 the yellow comes back out because the track was falling apart in the same spot again and by lap 161 we were under red again for 44 minutes.

NASCAR NOTES AND NUGGETS ON DAYTONA
• Jamie McMurray won in his first start with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, which is also the team’s first victory.
• The last driver to win in his first start with a new team was Michael Waltrip in 2001 Daytona 500.
• McMurray is the 34th different winner of the Daytona 500.
• McMurray scored his first victory in eight starts in the Daytona 500.
• McMurray is the ninth different winner in last nine Daytona 500s; ties record for the longest streak of different drivers to win the 500.
• Three of McMurray’s four Cup Series victories have come on restrictor-plate tracks (Daytona, 2; Talladega, 1).
• Sunday was McMurray’s second Cup Series victory at Daytona in 15 starts; last Daytona win: July 2007.
• McMurray’s previous best Daytona 500 finish was 26th in 2008.
• McMurray led once, for the final two laps — the fewest laps led by Daytona 500 winner (previous was four laps by Benny Parsons (1975) and Kevin Harvick (2007).
• Ten of the past 14 Daytona 500s have had a caution in the last five laps.
• The race-winning pass has come in the last 10 laps in nine of the past 12 Daytona 500s.
• Kevin Harvick led the most laps in the race: seven times for 41 laps.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2nd) posted his first top-10 finish in the past 13 races; his last top-10 came at Bristol in August (ninth). This marked his best finish since he finished second at Talladega in April.
• Greg Biffle (3rd) posted his best Daytona finish since his first career win, at Daytona in July 2003.
• Clint Bowyer (4th) posted his his third top-10 in five Daytona 500s; also finished fourth in this race one year ago.
• David Reutimann (5th) posted his first top-10 finish in four Daytona 500s; it also was his career-best restrictor-plate finish.
• Chevrolet scored its 21st Daytona 500 victory; Ford has 11 Daytona 500 victories, Dodge has four. Toyota has never won the 500.
• There were four first-time starters in the 2010 Daytona 500: Robert Richardson (31st), Michael McDowell (33rd), Brad Keselowski (36th) and Max Papis (40th).
• Jimmie Johnson won the Daytona 500 in 2006. His finishes since: 39th in 2007, 27th in 2008, 31st in 2009 and 35th in 2010.
• The 21 different leaders was a record for the 500.
• Sunday was the fourth green-white-checkered finish in the Daytona 500 (2005, ‘06, ‘07 and ‘10).

CAUTION SUMMARY
Lap 7 — YELLOW FLAG NO. 1: Brad Keselowski blows a tire and hits the wall collecting Regan Smith, Sam Hornish Jr., Mike Bliss, Max Papis and Boris Said in Turn 1. No free pass is given.

Lap 65 — YELLOW FLAG NO. 2: Joe Nemechek spins and slams the wall bringing out the caution. Boris Said gets the free pass.

Lap 77 — YELLOW FLAG NO. 3: Mike Bliss spins on the backstretch bringing out the caution. Bliss was the eligible car for the free pass so no free pass given.

Lap 116 — YELLOW FLAG NO. 4: John Andretti hits the wall bringing out the caution. Michael McDowell gets the free pass and is now scored two laps down.

Lap 122 — RED FLAG: It looks like there is a hole in the race track so the cars are on pit road so crews can look at the track.

Lap 142 — YELLOW FLAG NO. 5: A.J. Allmendinger spins bringing out the caution. Allmendinger is able to keep his car off the wall, but is stuck in the grass. He was running fifth when he went around. Michael McDowell gets the free pass and is now one lap down.

Lap 159 — YELLOW FLAG NO. 6: Caution is out for more track issues. Michael McDowell gets the free pass for the third consecutive caution and is back on the lead lap.

Lap 161 — RED FLAG: The cars are again going to stop on pit road and the race will be halted for a second time.

Lap 194 — YELLOW FLAG NO. 7: Big wreck on the backstretch after Elliott Sadler gets loose collecting Travis Kvapil and Ryan Newman. Newman slams the wall hard but is OK

Lap 199 — YELLOW FLAG NO. 8: Bill Elliott and Joey Logano get together in Turn 3 bringing out the caution. Boris Said gets involved as well.

Lap 203 — YELLOW FLAG NO. 9/LEAD CHANGE: Kasey Kahne and Robert Richardson get together on the backstretch before the white flag flies bringing out the caution. On the restart, Greg Biffle, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick bump dropping Biffle to fourth, Truex to seventh and Harvick to the lead.

Lap 207 — WHITE FLAG/LEAD CHANGE: Carl Edwards slowed Kevin Harvick allowing Jamie McMurray to take the lead with Greg Biffle second.

Lap 208 — CHECKERED FLAG: Jamie McMurray holds off a hard-charging Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the Daytona 500. Greg Biffle finishes third. Robby Gordon and Jeff Gordon crash coming to the finish.

RACE LEADERS – 21 Lead Changes
# Car Driver Times Laps
1 K. Harvick 7 41
2 C. Bowyer 8 37
3 Kurt Busch 5 33
4 G. Biffle 7 27
5 S. Speed 2 12
6 A. Allmendinger 3 11
7 M. Martin 2 11
8 E. Sadler 4 9
9 D. Earnhardt Jr. 1 4
10 K. Kahne 2 4
11 M. Truex Jr. 1 3
12 Kyle Busch 1 3
13 J. McMurray 1 2
14 J. Gordon 1 2
15 D. Ragan 1 2
16 J. Montoya 2 2
17 T. Kvapil 1 1
18 R. Gordon 1 1
19 B. Said 1 1
20 J. Logano 1 1
21 D. Hamlin 1 1

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
(We will have Official Results uploaded HERE when they are available)

FIN ST CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS
1 13 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 190/5 208 Running
2 2 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet Amp Energy / National Guard 175/5 208 Running
3 23 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M 170/5 208 Running
4 9 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Cheerios / Hamburger Helper 165/5 208 Running
5 20 0 David Reutimann Toyota Aaron’s Dream Machine 155/0 208 Running
6 14 56 Martin Truex Jr Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 155/5 208 Running
7 5 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 156/10 208 Running
8 24 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Crown Royal 147/0 208 Running
9 27 99 Carl Edwards Ford Aflac 138/0 208 Running
10 8 42 Juan Pable Montoya Chevrolet Target 139/5 208 Running
11 39 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Caterpillar 130/0 208 Running
12 1 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet GoDaddy.com 132/5 208 Running
13 32 98 Paul Menard Ford Peak / Menards 124/0 208 Running
14 7 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M’s 126/5 208 Running
15 22 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 118/0 208 Running
16 19 6 David Ragan Ford UPS 120/5 208 Running
17 25 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Express 117/5 208 Running
18 43 151 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 109/0 208 Running
19 30 82 Scott Speed Toyota Red Bull 111/5 208 Running
20 16 20 Joey Logano Toyota The Home Depot 108/5 208 Running
21 42 71 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet TaxSlayer.com 100/0 208 Running
22 6 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Office Depot / Old Spice 97/0 208 Running
23 10 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 99/5 208 Running
24 12 19 Elliott Sadler Ford Stanley 96/5 208 Running
25 38 26 Boris Said Ford Window World Cares 93/5 208 Running
26 21 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 90/5 208 Running
27 40 21 Bill Elliott Ford Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center 82/0 208 Running
28 34 7 Robby Gordon Toyota Monster Energy 84/5 207 Running
29 35 37 Travis Kvapil Ford Extenze 81/5 205 Running
30 4 9 Kasey Kahne Ford Budweiser / Team USA 78/5 202 Accident
31 37 38 Robert Richardson Jr Ford Mahindra Tractors 70/0 202 Accident
32 15 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford Best Buy 72/5 198 Running
33 29 55 Michael McDowell Toyota Prism Motorsports 64/0 195 Drive Shaft
34 17 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet U.S. Army 61/0 193 Accident
35 3 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s 58/0 185 Rear Axle
36 26 12 Brad Keselowski Dodge Penske Racing 55/0 174 Running
37 36 77 Sam Hornish Jr Dodge Mobil 1 52/0 160 Running
38 33 34 John Andretti Ford Window World Cares 49/0 117 Accident
39 11 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet Furniture Row Companies 46/0 90 Running
40 31 13 Max Papis Toyota GEICO 43/0 89 Engine
41 18 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota Kroger Floral 40/0 79 Engine
42 28 36 Mike Bliss Chevrolet Wave Energy Drink 37/0 76 Accident
43 41 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota NEMCO Motorsports 34/0 64 Accident

UNOFFICIAL TOP 12 POINTS STANDINGS
(We will have Official Points Standings uploaded HERE when they are available)

RANK +/- DRIVER POINTS BEHIND STARTS POLES WINS TOP 5 TOP 10
1 – Jamie McMurray 190 Leader 1 0 1 1 1
2 – Dale Earnhardt Jr 175 -15 1 0 0 1 1
3 – Greg Biffle 170 -20 1 0 0 1 1
4 – Clint Bowyer 165 -25 1 0 0 1 1
5 – Kevin Harvick 156 -34 1 0 0 0 1
6 – David Reutimann 155 -35 1 0 0 1 1
7 – Martin Truex Jr 155 -35 1 0 0 0 1
8 – Matt Kenseth 142 -48 1 0 0 0 1
9 – Juan Pable Montoya 139 -51 1 0 0 0 1
10 – Carl Edwards 138 -52 1 0 0 0 1
11 – Mark Martin 132 -58 1 1 0 0 0
12 – Jeff Burton 130 -60 1 0 0 0 0

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Newman Gets Wrecked In Final Laps Of 2010 Daytona 500

Submitted by Ryan Newman News and Information

RACE RECAP

This was really to bad. Newman was not doing great through out the race. He (and Tony Stewart) were not happy with thier cars. Generally Newman’s car was to tight, then I believe at the end he was actually to loose.

Not a great way to start the year but Newman’s luck at superspeedways has been anything but good lately.

Below is the press release.

While running in the top-20 with five lapsremainingin regulation,Ryan Newman’s Daytona 500 came to an end after getting collected in a three-car accident on the backstretch of Daytona International Speedway. He was credited with as 34th-place finish in the NASCAR Sprint Cup season opener.

Sunday’s scheduled 200-lap race, which went eight laps into overtime, took more than six hours to complete. The main culprit waslengthy repair time for a pothole on the track, which forcedNASCAR to red flag the race twice for a total of more than two hours.

Newman’s misfortune was triggered when Elliott Sadler lost control of hiscar on the backstretch of the 2.5-mile oval. As Sadler’s car was going into a violent spin, Newman’s Chevy got clipped and slammed into the wall before coming to a halt on the infield grass.

Newman was not injured in the incident, but his No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet was totaled as it was hauled back to the garage on a wrecker.

“I don’t know if Elliott (Sadler) blew a tire or lost control, but I got hit in the right rear,” explained Newman, the 2008 Daytona 500 champion. Luckily I stayed right-side-up this time. It’s unfortunate for the U.S. Army Chevrolet. We were just bidingour time in the back and working our way up when it single filed out. I am not sure what happened, but I was the recipient.”

Newman, who started the race 17th, encountered handling issues from theoutset and never could seem to find the right balance with his U.S. Army Chevy.

“We made changes throughout the race and the car did get better,” added Newman. “We were looking for a late race charge and a top-10 or better finish. We never got it, but we will Soldier on and keep on battling. Our Soldiers expect nothing less, and we will give nothing less.”

Newman’s teammate, Tony Stewart, finished 22nd.

The race winner was Jamie McMurray. Rounding out the top-five in order were: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer and David Reutimann.

The next race on the SprintCup circuit will be Sunday (Feb. 21) at AutoClub Raceway in Fontana, Calif.

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Twists

Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic

Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR
NASCAR Media

Rules change, some benefit, some flounder and the commonly heard cliche’ “it’s anybody’s race” could not have been more prevalent in the 52nd running of The Great American Race. New rules and Mother Nature helped determine the outcome but with a final push from The Biff, McMurray held on to the lead nudging out Dale Jr.

The emotions McMurray demonstrated in Victory Lane were anything but subtle, emotions Jr. Nation were experiencing for the opposite reason. I don’t fault Jamie for this and in fact it was a nice feel good finish, but I felt his embarrassment he’ll undoubtedly feel when the excitement wears off. Melodramatic but characteristic of McMurray.

I found the race to be decent with plenty of excitement, mostly from the continuous lead changes. The pot holes… well those nasty things played a big role in the outcome albeit causing delays that nearly put me to sleep. Repaving is on the agenda and the old girl may never be the same. Perhaps, as Carl Edwards stated, they can repave the track with a rough surface.

On to L.A.

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Stewart-Haas Racing: Gatorade Duel at Daytona

Submitted by Ryan Newman News and Information

Date: Feb. 11, 2010
Event: Gatorade Duel at Daytona (non-point qualifying races for the 52nd Daytona 500)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (2.5-mile oval)
Ryan Newman Start/Finish: 2nd/8th (Running, completed 60 of 60 laps in Gatorade Duel No. 1)
Tony Stewart Start/Finish: 11th/2nd (Running, completed 60 of 60 laps in Gatorade Duel No. 2)
Winners: Gatorade Duel No. 1 – Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Gatorade Duel No. 2 – Kasey Kahne of Richard Petty Motorsports (Ford)

Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) enjoyed a solid outing in Thursday’s Gatorade Duel, twin qualifying races that set the 43-car field for the season-opening Daytona 500. Fifty-four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers were evenly split among the two Duels, putting 27 drivers in each 150-mile race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala, was in the first Gatorade Duel. His SHR teammate, Tony Stewart, drove the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala in the second Gatorade Duel.

Stewart led SHR by finishing second to Duel No. 2 race winner Kasey Kahne by .014 of a second. Newman finished eighth in his Duel race.

Stewart started 11th in his Duel race after notching the 21st quickest lap in time trials. The two-time Sprint Cup champion led once for four laps before finishing in the runner-up spot. The strong effort gave Stewart an equally strong starting spot for Sunday, as he’ll start sixth in the Daytona 500.

Newman started his Duel race in second by virtue of his third-fastest qualifying time in last Saturday’s time trials. After running near the front of the pack late in the race, the 2008 Daytona 500 winner dropped back on the final lap and finished eighth. He will start 17th in the Daytona 500.

Four-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson won the first Gatorade Duel by .005 of a second over Kevin Harvick. Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer and Regan Smith took spots three through five. The rest of the top-10 consisted of Jamie McMurray, A.J. Allmendinger, Newman, David Ragan and Jeff Gordon.

Finishing third in the second Gatorade Duel to Kahne and Stewart was Juan Pablo Montoya, while Kurt Busch and Elliott Sadler rounded-out the top-five. The rest of the top-10 consisted of Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Marcos Ambrose, David Reutimann and Brian Vickers.

With the Gatorade Duel races now complete, the field for the Daytona 500 is set. On the pole is Mark Martin and alongside him is his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. By notching the two quickest times during time trials, both drivers were able to lock themselves into the front row for the Daytona 500. All the remaining drivers, however, had to race their way to a starting spot via the Gatorade Duel.

Those who didn’t make the cut and will be forced to watch the Daytona 500 from the sidelines are Casey Mears, Todd Bodine, David Gilliland, Terry Cook, Derrike Cope, Aric Almirola, Dave Blaney, Reed Sorenson, Mike Wallace, Norm Benning and Jeff Fuller.

The 52nd Daytona 500 gets underway at 1 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 14 with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at noon.

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2010 Daytona 500 Lineup And Gatorade Duel Results

Submitted by RACING NEWS DIGEST

DAYTONA 500 LINEUP

GATORADE DUEL #1

GATORADE DUEL #2

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