Junior talks plate success that others still seek

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Nascar

TALLADEGA, Ala. — In his mind, the best race Dale Earnhardt Jr. ever ran at Talladega Superspeedway won’t be remembered for one simple reason.

“Because I didn’t win,” the Hendrick Motorsports driver said Friday during a day of practice on the 2.66-mile layout.

“I’m disappointed because of what happened in that race and what we were doing with the car and what the car was doing was amazing. It sucks because we were just 6 inches short of being declared the winner. … We’ve lost a lot of races here, but I can’t even remember any of them that stand out like that.”

A winner in the spring race at Talladega, Earnhardt Jr. returned in the fall needing another victory to keep his championship hopes alive. Although he led a race-high 61 laps, officials determined that Joey Logano (Team Penske) was the leader and thus the winner when the caution came out on a green-white-checkered restart that froze the field and ended the race.

Fifty-five. That’s how many races the 41-year-old Earnhardt has lost on tracks where NASCAR requires the use of restrictor plates to keeps speeds in check.

However, 10 wins during a career that launched full-time in 2000, puts the son of a seven-time champion in the role of the favorite in plate races. That’s twice as many as the soon-to-be-retired Tony Stewart and six-time champion Jimmie Johnson.

It’s as much a statement about the car, Earnhardt said, as the driver. And what one does with it.

“If the car can’t complete the passes that my mind mentally wants it to make, then I won’t be as offensive and as confident in making those moves,” he said.

“When I was driving the (Budweiser) car, around 2003, ’04, ’05 when we were winning all those races, I raced as hard in practice as I did in the race. …You kind of can set the tone early in the weekend with your competitors that this is who you’re going to be out on the track; plus this is the car you’ve got.”

It certainly helped that his father, Dale Earnhardt, was a master of plate racing, winning 13 times combined at Talladega and Daytona.

“I learned a tremendous amount because I solely watched him whereas, someone else who grew up around the sport may not have focused as much on one particular driver,” Earnhardt Jr. said.

Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards have combined to win the last four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races heading into Sunday’s GEICO 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Fellow JGR teammate Denny Hamlin scored the win in the season-opener at Daytona, the most recent restrictor-plate race.

MORE: Edwards: ‘Kyle and I haven’t talked’ since Richmond

“You can’t make stupid mistakes,” Edwards, still searching for his first plate-track win, said. “I learned that early on.”

Caught up in an incident during one restrictor-plate race, Edwards said he told then-car owner Jack Roush afterward “something like, ‘Man, there’s just nothing I could do to miss the wreck.’ “

At which point Roush gave his driver a piece of advice. “He said, ‘You might want to go look at the tape because you drove right past Tony Stewart into the wreck and he somehow missed it.’

“I went back and watched and I learned from that,” Edwards said. “You really have to be watching ahead and you have to pay attention.”

That he’s yet to win a restrictor-plate race is perplexing, considering the 36-year-old has 27 career victories.

“I don’t need to see my stats at these places,” he said, “because they’re not good. … I’d like to get a superspeedway win. We’ve got great cars and we’ve got great teammates. I feel like I know how to run these races, but I just haven’t been able to get the victory out of it. Hopefully we can do that.”

Edwards isn’t the only notable still searching for that first plate win. Former series champion Kurt Busch (2004) and Martin Truex Jr., who lost to Hamlin by a nose at Daytona, are as well.

“We’ve seen Dale over the years just really show everybody how it’s done and that’s because he has a really good understanding of the air, the way it works and knowing how to use that to his advantage,” Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing) said. “For me … I’ve kind of had good races and bad and lately I feel like I’ve learned a lot more and gotten better at it, but there’s still a lot to learn.

MORE: Five to Watch: Sleeper picks | Wildest Talladega wrecks

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Nascar

TALLADEGA, Ala. — A week after returning to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition, Tony Stewart becomes a start-and-park driver.

In a manner of speaking. Start-and-watch might be more appropriate.

The three-time premier series champion missed the season’s first eight points races after suffering a back injury during the offseason.

Stewart is scheduled to start his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet in Sunday’s GEICO 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Talladega Superspeedway before turning over the wheel to XFINITY Series driver Ty Dillon .

It’s an infrequent turn of events, but something that does happen from time to time in NASCAR.

Last season, Erik Jones stepped in for Denny Hamlin at Bristol Motor Speedway after the Joe Gibbs Racing driver developed a neck spasm during a rain delay. Jones finished 26th.

Hamlin was also involved in a driver swap at Talladega in 2013. Injured in an accident at Auto Club Speedway, Hamlin started the Aaron’s 499 but eventually gave up the seat to Brian Vickers.

J.J. Yeley replaced Bill Elliott during a race here in 2011; he also replaced Stewart in ’08 during the summer race at Daytona.

Stewart, speaking to the media Friday at Talladega, said he expects to do “what I always do around here at the beginning of the race … just ride around in the back until we get to the first caution.”

It won’t be “glamorous,” he said, but it meets his doctors’ request. Well, almost. According to Stewart, his doctors didn’t want him competing at all this weekend.

“We need the points and so we talked them into letting us to at least start the race,” said Stewart, who sits 101 points out of 30th.

MORE: Standings pre-Talladega

“I told them it normally doesn’t go more than two or three laps at the beginning of the race before a caution. It might go 82 or 83 laps, who knows? But, we’ll run until it gets there.”

Unofficially, the last time a relief driver won a NASCAR premier series race was 1977, and it occurred at Talladega as well. Donnie Allison started what was then a July race but eventually turned the driving over to Darrell Waltrip due to illness.

Waltrip replaced Allison with 23 laps remaining and took the lead with six to go when race leader Skip Manning’s car suffered mechanical problems.

According to NASCAR rules, points earned by an entry are awarded to the driver starting the race, meaning Stewart will be credited with those earned Sunday by Dillon.

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Staff Report

Denny Hamlin: If Joe Gibbs Racing can get organized in the same way it did at Daytona in February, the No. 11 could be the winning ticket at Talladega. — Zack Albert

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Series’ best plate racer has had three runner-up finishes this season. He’s due. — Kenny Bruce

Jimmie Johnson: This will mark the 10th Talladega race since Johnson last won here and, quite simply, it’s time. While his teammates will grab the lion’s share of the attention, “Six-Time” will ultimately hold the winner’s trophy — his third. — Holly Cain

Joey Logano: Entering the weekend, I’d already pegged Joey Logano as the favorite — then he went out and topped final practice. Seemingly due for a win and with a pair of restrictor-plate victories in his back pocket from last year, what more are you looking for? — Pat DeCola

Ryan Blaney: His best Cup finish came in this race last year and Penske, with whom Wood Brothers is affiliated, has taken two of the last three ‘Dega races. — RJ Kraft

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: I’m jumping on the Junior bandwagon. He’s always the one to beat at the 2.66-mile track and he’ll make it difficult for the rest of the field en route to his seventh Cup win here. — Maggie MacKenzie

Brad Keselowski: The 2012 premier series champion spoils the recent Hendrick-JGR show of power, thanks to his own racing ingenuity and plenty of fast Fords with which to partner. — Brad Norman

Brad Keselowski: The Team Penske driver earned his first Cup win in 2009 at Talladega and has won twice more since. Couple that with he and teammate Joey Logano‘s history of working closely together on-track — a crucial element to plate racing — and ‘Dega Victory Lane could be calling Keselowski’s name. — Jessica Ruffin

Matt Kenseth: All the bad luck that the No. 20 team has had this year has masked impressive speed. Talladega is about both luck and speed. With the former in hand as shown by his fourth-place qualifying effort, Kenseth is due for a more auspicious turn of his fortune. — Kathy Sheldon

Denny Hamlin: Hamlin saw Victory Lane two years ago at Talladega and with his 2016 Daytona 500 win under his belt, the JGR driver seems ready to dominate another superspeedway this season. — Taylor Starer

Chase Elliott: His dad won here twice and the man who drove the No. 24 before him won here six times. Talladega has been known to produce dramatic moments, so let’s root for another one to happen Sunday. — George Winkler

Make your picks in Streak to the Finish!

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Staff Report

RELATED: Full lineup

Matt Tifft topped the leaderboard during Saturday’s single-car qualifying session to earn the 21 Means 21 Pole Award at Talladega Superspeedway. Tifft, in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, posted a fastest lap of 181.168 mph.

Tifft’s teammate Daniel Suarez will join him on the front row for the Sparks Energy 300 after posting the second-fastest lap during the two-round single-car qualifying event (180.846 mph).

Rounding out the top three was the No. 2 of Austin Dillon, soaring around the 2.66-mile track at 180.506 mph.

The third JGR entry Erik Jones was fourth-quickest, logging a fast lap of 180.366 mph. Next was the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Ty Dillon (180.217 mph), rounding out the top five.

Defending race winner Joey Logano will start on the fourth row in eighth (178.817 mph).

Josh Reaume, Derrike Cope and Mike Harmon failed to qualify for the 40-car event.

The 300-mile event is set for 3 p.m. ET (FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Staff Report

RELATED: Complete Talladega schedule

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Results | Standings | Frame-by-frame of finish

TALLADEGA, Ala. — On his 41st birthday, Elliott Sadler got an unexpected present.

When Saturday’s Sparks Energy 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race ended under caution in overtime with the front-runners just short of the finish line, Sadler had the lead, after Joey Logano‘s last-ditch attempt to block Sadler in the tri-oval ended with Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford plowing nose-first into the outside wall.

Brennan Poole got to the finish line first and thought he had won the race, until NASCAR officials reviewed the video of the finish and determined Sadler was ahead when the caution lights illuminated before Poole’s No. 48 Chevrolet reached the stripe.

“It’s a great birthday gift to me,” said an emotional Sadler, who broke a 65-race winless streak dating to May 2014 at Talladega. “We really needed this win. I told everybody this morning, ‘We’ve got the car to win this with.’ Things went our way, we had a little luck, and we were able to make it at the end.”

The victory was Sadler’s second in the series at Talladega and the 11th of his career, and it came with a deft move as the cars roared into the tri-oval on the second overtime lap.

Logano had the lead and blocked Sadler’s move to the outside. Sadler dived to the inside and contact between the cars sent Logano’s Ford out of control. The two cars collided again, and Logano’s No. 22 shot up into the wall, but Sadler was able to maintain control with his left-side tires on the infield grass and kept his JR Motorsports Chevrolet moving forward in the lead until NASCAR called the caution that ended the race.

RELATED: Ride with Logano to the finish

“I was going to try to get to the outside of Joey,” Sadler said. “He made a great block, I went back to the inside and then I just held it straight. I’ve had some races I’ve done some good driving and some I’ve probably done some bad, but I feel like that was one of the best saves I’ve ever made through the grass to keep it straight.”

In fact, JR Motorsports got an unexpected double, because Justin Allgaier‘s JRM Chevy was inches ahead of Poole’s car when the caution flew.

Poole took the disappointment with extremely good grace.

“I think I’m upbeat today because I had so much fun racing with everybody,” he said. “It was just a blast. As I was waiting there (for the decision), I was thinking, ‘Man, hopefully the caution didn’t come out as early as I think it came out,’ and I’m hoping we raced to the line.

“But at the same time, (I thought) hopefully NASCAR gets it right. I want the guy who deserves to win the race to be the winner and go by the rules. And according to the rules, Elliott was the winner. I can’t be mad about it. It is what it is.”

RELATED: No hard feelings for Poole after near-win

Logano likewise harbored no ill feelings toward Sadler, despite his hard crash into the outside wall.

“I know Elliott is a great speedway racer, and he knew what he had to do to win the race, and I knew what I had to do to try to keep him behind me,” Logano said. “He went to make the move on the top, and then he pulled it down to the bottom and got it underneath me, and then I was a little late to the block.

“He was already there. Around I went and hit a bunch of other stuff along the way.”

Jeremy Clements finished fourth, a career best, as Chevrolets claimed the top six positions, with Brendan Gaughan fifth and Austin Dillon sixth.

Notes: Sadler leaves Talladega tied for the series lead with seventh-place finisher Daniel Suarez — and with a spot in the first NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase… The victory was the second straight for JR Motorsports, piggy-backing on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s win last week in Richmond.

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Lineup | See all 40 cars

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Numerologists doubtless will have a field day with the front row for Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (on FOX at 1 p.m. ET, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Touring the 2.66-mile race track in 49.704 seconds (192.661 mph) during Saturday’s time trials, Chase Elliott put the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on the pole, making the 20-year-old rookie driver two-for-two at restrictor-plate superspeedways.

In his first qualifying run as a full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver, Elliott won the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500.

The pole was the sixth at Talladega for the No. 24, the first five having been recorded by Jeff Gordon, who retired after the 2015 season and turned the car over to Elliott.

And the pole run came roughly 30 years after Elliott’s father, Bill Elliott, earned the top starting spot for the spring Talladega race with a lap at 212.229 mph, before restrictor plates were introduced at the superspeedways.

Coincidentally, Bill Elliott also won the pole for the Daytona 500 in 1986.

“This is definitely a special place,” Chase Elliott said after his pole-winning run. “It’s cool to get it done today. This is a team effort, and those guys and everybody at the No. 5 and No. 24 shop, in particular, and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and the Hendrick engine department and obviously (sponsor) NAPA Auto parts.

“But, man, this is cool. Those guys do such a good job. And as I said in Daytona, this had nothing to do with me. This is the car that we had. This is the same car we had in Daytona. They brought another fast one here.”

The car Elliott beat for the pole, the No. 3 Chevrolet driven by Austin Dillon (192.424 mph), also has a noteworthy history at Talladega. Driving the No. 3 for owner Richard Childress, Dillon’s grandfather, the late Dale Earnhardt collected nine of his 10 Talladega victories and all three of his Talladega poles.

“There’s a lot of history here with Dale and RCR,” Dillon said. “A lot of good stuff happened with RCR here, so hopefully we can continue that streak of good runs for RCR here. We’ve got a car capable of doing that, obviously, with the qualifying effort, and I’d love for it to be my first Cup win.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has never won a pole at NASCAR’s biggest oval track but has six race wins on his resume here, qualified third at 192.293 mph. Matt Kenseth (192.181 mph) claimed the fourth position on the grid, followed by Jimmie Johnson (192.116 mph) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (192.089 mph).

The only other driver to top 192 mph was seventh-place starter Brad Keselowski (192.008 mph), a three-time Talladega winner.

Ty Dillon qualified the No. 14 Chevrolet for Tony Stewart and earned the 14th starting spot, but Stewart will start Sunday’s race and will have to drop to the rear for the green flag because of the driver change. The plan is for Stewart, who returned to action last Sunday at Richmond after injuring his back during the offseason, to turn the car over to Dillon during the first caution of the race.

Note: Josh Wise failed to make the 40-car field.

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Pat DeCola

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Brennan Poole won Saturday’s XFINITY Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.

And then he didn’t.

After a chaotic finish was ruled final under caution, the Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender was initially named the Sparks Energy 300 victor before Elliott Sadler was told to bring his No. 1 Chevrolet to Victory Lane, several minutes after the checkered flag flew.

Before NASCAR came to that conclusion, however, the pair of drivers each patiently sat on opposite sides of the start/finish line at the 2.66-mile Alabama track, about to swap emotions.

“As I was waiting there, one, I was thinking hopefully the caution didn’t come out as early as I think it came out and I’m hoping we race to the line but at the same time I’m thinking ‘I hope NASCAR gets it right,’ ” Poole said in his post-race press conference. “I want the guy who deserves to win the race be the winner and go by the rules. And according to the rules, Elliott was the winner. I can’t get mad about it. It just is what it is.”

The finish was certainly among NASCAR’s wildest — both with the wreck that saw Joey Logano get airborne to spark the caution and with the period of time it took to make the final call. The minutes must have felt like an eternity to Poole and Sadler as the running order was sorted out.

NASCAR is certain it got it right.

“Took us a little time up in the tower. We feel 100 percent that we got it exactly right,” said Wayne Auton, XFINITY Series managing director. “We used film, we used eyes. … We took our time in the tower.

“I think all of you saw the 1 and the 48 come and sit at the start/finish line, which was pretty cool, to just have both drivers sit there really calm. … We used every bit of film that we had; slow down, speed up — we arrived at the finish we did and that’s by using every piece of technology that we had to our availability.”

Poole was lauded on social media and by the press for how he handled the situation, being told that he’d picked up his first career NASCAR win at any national level — on a day which his sponsor, DC Solar, brought droves of people to the track — only to have it swept out from under him. He had to settle for a third-place finish.

It was still a career-best showing for the promising 25-year-old, but moreso it was his post-race demeanor that people will come away remembering.

“I was just glad that they were able to take the time to get it right. Happy that the rightful winner has taken the trophy home tonight. I wish it was us, but we were close,” said Poole, who now sits eighth in the points standings. “So, Elliott’s the winner and it is what it is. It’s racing.

“Any time you come up a little bit short, it kind of sucks. We’ve been fast for several weeks this year, we just haven’t been able to close a whole race out and that’s been tough.

“It’s been an exciting last couple weeks and certainly this afternoon is one of the most exciting times in my racing career.”

MORE: See the wild finish

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Pat DeCola

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Bobby Labonte quietly bowed out of full-time Sprint Cup Series competition at the tail end of the 2013 season.

No retirement tour, no gifts. Certainly no ponies.

The 2000 premier series champion has selectively dabbled in the sport since, however, with a handful of unremarkable starts at Indianapolis and the restrictor-plate tracks, knowing the pack racing may be his last remaining shot at picking up his first — and likely final — Cup victory in more than a decade.

Labonte will run in Sunday’s GEICO 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Talladega Superspeedway, his second of a scheduled four-race slate in 2016.

While not sure if this same type of deal will continue to be available to him in future years, the brother of NASCAR Hall of Famer Terry Labonte hinted at an interestingly hush-hush opportunity that could be coming down the pipeline later on this season.

“I do have a couple other possibilities I am excited about that might come to fruition later on in the year that I didn’t see coming around the corner but they are opportunities that might lead to something that I have been more excited about than anything I have done in my career,” Labonte said Friday at Talladega. “Racing is still a big passion of mine and I know I am not going to go do a lot of things I used to do but there are still some opportunities out there that are still up on my radar that I would like to do.”

But what does he have left to prove? What racing goals remain?

“That is a great question, too. Winning any race. It might be a bicycle race. Racing at the Sprint Cup level has gotten so intense that if you can’t do it every weekend … (Talladega) is different as we all know. Last weekend and next weekend is different than here,” Labonte said. “It is one of those things that I guess I kind of want to race more in a way but I don’t want to race more in some ways. I don’t want to do it every weekend but I know there are different series you can do that aren’t quite as strenuous as this.

“My brother told me one time after about two years of retirement, ‘You know, you will have a lot more friends later that you didn’t know you had.’ And that is true. I am enjoying that. As far as racing goes I am enjoying it and my opportunity is only four times right now through a little bit of what I want to do and a little bit from other people.”

One remaining goal is obvious: becoming NASCAR’s first Triple Crown winner by notching a championship at each of its three national series levels.

Labonte has the two arguably tougher feats down, winning the XFINITY Series (then Busch Grand National) title by 74 points over Kenny Wallace in 1991, then taking his first and only Sprint Cup Series (then Winston Cup) title by a wide, 265-point margin over Dale Earnhardt in 2000.

It’s a long shot, and Labonte admits that “everything has to line up right,” but he’s at least considered the prospect of running for a Camping World Truck Series title. He has 10 career starts in the series, with one win (2005 at Martinsville).

“It is absolutely something that we have talked about and met with some people about,” Labonte said. “I couldn’t just make it happen by snapping my fingers and we couldn’t quite get it all lined up. I definitely had it in my mind that it was something I really wanted to do. I would still entertain that but there is also a point where if you can chase the championship that is one thing, and you can do it in a lot of ways.

“When I started racing when I was little, the passion was to race and win and that is what you want to do. You want the chance to do that. We did it back then and I think the Truck Series is very appealing to me. I loved it when I did a few of them for a couple of guys and won a race and finished in the top five quite a bit. It is definitely a different level and the garage area is a lot calmer there than it is in the Sprint Cup Series and it kind of, at this point in time, is very appealing.”