Final restart hinders front-runners shot at XFINITY win

Posted on April 16, 2016 by Nascar

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Kyle Busch said it would happen eventually, and eventually arrived Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion likely didn’t expect it to happen like this.

Busch had won four NASCAR XFINITY Series races this season, and Sprint Cup Series regulars had gone six-for-six entering the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol.

But after Busch and fellow Sprint Cup regular Kyle Larson chased one another lap after lap after lap around the high-banked half-mile track, it was series regular Erik Jones who collected the win and a $100,000 bonus from the series sponsor in its Dash 4 Cash program.

Busch had said earlier this season after a typically strong performance there was no doubt teammates Jones and Daniel Suarez would eventually make their way into Victory Lane. Jones had two series wins (earned in 2015) before Saturday; Suarez is looking his first series victory. Both finish consistently in the top five.

The issue for Busch at Bristol was the late restart, a three-lap dash after Ryan Reed and Mario Gosselin brought out the yellow on Lap 189 of 200.

Larson chalked up the loss to the restart as well, but blamed himself.

The Reed/Gosselin incident bled nine laps off the board and set up the three-lap dash. Not that more laps under green would have mattered, according to Busch, who led three times for 43 laps.

“Both restarts I had today were absolutely horrendous; both times I would go to the throttle and the engine would shut off and those guys were gone,” he said. “… I couldn’t keep a nose on their left-rear fender or anything.

“More laps obviously would have been better … but being on that inside lane is already a disadvantage.”

And that doesn’t bode well for Sunday’s Food City 500 Sprint Cup Series race (1 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), he said.

“It used to be a race track that you could race around three-wide and pass and work traffic really well and have some fun,” Busch said. “Now it’s just frustrating and aggravating.

“It will be the top lane tomorrow. … The race will be around the top and it will be the same frustrating single-file show tomorrow.”

Larson restarted for the final time in the outside lane, Busch on the inside. Jones, fourth on the restart, shot in front of Busch when the No. 18 Toyota stumbled, then raced side-by-side with Larson for the lead as they came to the white flag.

“Just did a really poor job the last couple of laps,” Larson said, “really disappointed in myself and probably not going to forget about this one for quite a while.”

Posted on April 16, 2016 by Staff Report

RELATED: Practice 2 results

Denny Hamlin and Danica Patrick made contact during second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice Saturday morning, causing slight damage to their cars at Bristol Motor Speedway.

With roughly 12 minutes left in the 55-minute session, Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota closed on Patrick’s Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Chevrolet on the .533-mile track’s frontstretch. Hamlin dove to the inside in an attempt to clear Patrick’s car entering Turn 1, but ran out of room, pushing the right side of his car’s nose into her car’s left-rear fender.

Patrick said she tried to signal to Hamlin to help him pass by.

“I had just come out on tires,” said Patrick, who is set to start 33rd in Sunday’s Food City 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM). “They were cold and I wasn’t very good anyway, I was pretty loose. I came down the front straightaway and I put my finger out the window to point him by, but he hit me on entry. I don’t know if he … it looked like he came pretty close when he went to go to the inside, too.

“Man, I love Denny, but he makes a lot of mistakes behind me. I don’t know if he misjudged it or I was going slower than he thought, but I put my finger out the window and pointed him by. I had no intention to race him. I was not fast enough. I don’t know, but the guys are going to try and fix it.”

Hamlin said he didn’t see any indication from Patrick’s driver’s-side window.

“I didn’t see her finger,” said Hamlin, who qualified fourth for Sunday’s 500-lapper. “More than likely if she did, it was because I was on the outside of her on the straightaway, so I couldn’t see the left side of her car. I went to go low, but I don’t know whether she had stuff on her tires ’cause it looked like she was struggling and had stuff on her tires for a few laps there. I tried to go low and obviously we hung bumpers going into the corner.”

Both cars circled back to their pit stalls to allow their crews to assess the damage before Saturday’s final practice (11 a.m. ET, FS1).

Posted on April 16, 2016 by Staff Report

Heat race 1

Finish	Start	Car	Driver
1	1	20	Erik Jones #
2	2	42	Kyle Larson(i)
3	3	18	Kyle Busch(i)
4	4	7	Justin Allgaier
5	5	33	Brandon Jones #
6	7	62	Brendan Gaughan
7	8	6	Darrell Wallace Jr
8	10	1	Elliott Sadler
9	11	16	Ryan Reed
10	9	48	Brennan Poole #
11	6	4	Ross Chastain
12	14	15	Jeff Green
13	15	24	Matt Tifft(i)
14	16	46	Brandon Gdovic
15	18	25	Harrison Rhodes
16	13	28	Dakoda Armstrong
17	17	52	Joey Gase
18	20	74	Mike Harmon
19	19	13	Timmy Hill(i)
20	12	10	Matt DiBenedetto(i)

Heat race 2

Finish	Start	Car	Driver
1	1	2	Austin Dillon(i)
2	5	3	Ty Dillon
3	3	22	Joey Logano(i)
4	2	19	Daniel Suarez
5	6	88	Kevin Harvick(i)
6	4	98	Aric Almirola(i)
7	8	43	Jeb Burton
8	7	11	Blake Koch
9	11	51	Jeremy Clements
10	9	39	Ryan Sieg
11	10	90	Mario Gosselin
12	15	44	David Starr
13	13	01	Ryan Preece #
14	16	78	BJ McLeod #
15	18	0	Garrett Smithley #
16	19	97	Ryan Ellis
17	20	70	Derrike Cope
18	17	07	Ray Black Jr #
19	14	14	JJ Yeley
20	12	93	Josh Wise(i)

Posted on April 16, 2016 by Staff Report

Denny Hamlin made a solid recovery from a collision in Saturday’s earlier practice session, setting the pace in final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Hamlin, sporting repairs on the nose of his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota, logged a best lap of 126.129 mph on the .533-mile track. His car suffered slight right-front damage after making contact with Danica Patrick‘s No. 10 Chevrolet in Saturday’s earlier practice.

Sunoco Rookie of the Year points leader Chase Elliott snuck in the second-fastest lap in the closing minute of practice, turning a 125.823 mph speed in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet. Martin Truex Jr. landed the third-fastest lap (125.749 mph) in the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota.

Coors Light Pole winner Carl Edwards, Hamlin’s JGR teammate in the No. 19 Toyota, was fourth-fastest at 125.691 mph. Edwards, who topped Sprint Cup qualifying for the second straight week, will start first in Sunday’s Food City 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Kyle Busch, winner of the last four NASCAR national series events, completed the top five in another Joe Gibbs-owned entry. His No. 18 Toyota was fifth-fastest at 125.395 mph in the 55-minute session.

Patrick, the other driver involved in the early-session altercation, also returned to the track after repairs, but brushed the outside wall in the early stages of final practice. She wound up 30th in the 40-car field on the final leaderboard.

Kyle Busch fastest in early Saturday session

Kyle Busch kept up his show of speed in Saturday morning practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, topping the leaderboard at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Busch powered the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota to a best lap of 126.370 mph in the 55-minute session. The reigning Sprint Cup champ will start fifth in Sunday’s Food City 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM), the eighth of 36 points-paying races for the series this year.

Sunoco Rookie of the Year points leader Chase Elliott was second-fastest at 126.253 mph in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet. Kurt Busch wound up third-best (126.137 mph) in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Chevy.

Aric Almirola (125.988 mph) turned the fourth-fastest lap around the .533-mile track in the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Ford. Coors Light Pole Award winner Carl Edwards and Joey Logano, a two-time Bristol winner, tied for the fifth-fastest lap at 125.972 mph.

Denny Hamlin and Danica Patrick made slight contact with approximately 12 minutes remaining in the 55-minute practice. Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota closed rapidly on Patrick’s No. 10 Chevrolet entering Turn 1, with the right-front corner of Hamlin’s car crunching into the left-rear fender of Patrick’s.

Defending race winner Matt Kenseth landed the eighth-fastest lap.

Posted on April 16, 2016 by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Race results | Updated series standings

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Erik Jones‘ third NASCAR XFINITY Series victory was a real triple play.

In the series’ new Dash 4 Cash format featuring two heat races and a main event, Jones took advantage of a restart with three laps left in Saturday’s Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 and 1) won the race, 2) earned the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus and 3) stopped Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and race runner-up Kyle Busch’s streak of four straight NASCAR national series victories.

Jones, the pole winner, restarted fourth on the final restart and charged into second place behind leader Kyle Larson when Busch’s No. 18 Toyota hesitated trying to pick up power in the bottom lane. Larson left the preferred top lane open through Turns 3 and 4 and Jones took advantage, taking the lead from Larson with two laps left.

Busch followed his teammate into second place, but couldn’t keep up with Jones on the final lap, trailing the No. 20 JGR Toyota by .418 seconds at the finish line. The runner-up result ended Busch’s prospects for a record third straight NASCAR weekend sweep.

“We had a really good restart, and Kyle (Larson) just left the top open,” said an elated Jones, who was battling teammate and eventual sixth-place finisher Daniel Suárez for the Dash 4 Cash bonus, a prize available only to drivers competing for the XFINITY Series championship.

Suárez had the misfortune to restart third on the bottom on Lap 198 and got bottled up behind Busch as Jones charged forward in pursuit of Larson. That allowed Austin Dillon to take fourth and Justin Allgaier fifth at the finish.

It’s doubtful Jones could have scripted a more satisfactory ending if he’d written it himself.

“I figured at some point in the year we could get a win when those guys weren’t in the field, but it would be a tall task with them in the field,” said Jones, who picked up his third victory in the series and his first this year.

“Here at Bristol, for those two guys, this is one of their best tracks. I’m just so excited and you can tell – I’m out of breath. I wasn’t working that hard. Just so excited about the win and to be here in Victory Lane and beat those guys. This is a really big day for us.”

Though Jones was the winner, most of the race was a battle for the top spot between Larson, who led 94 laps, and Busch, who led 43.

“The two cars that were the class of the field today didn’t win – oh, well,” Busch said. “It’s a great day for Erik Jones. He certainly stole one today. He didn’t out-race the two Kyles up front, but he certainly did in the final laps that counted.”

Larson spent most of his time in the post-race beating himself up for leaving the top lane open for the opportunistic Jones.

“I just did a really bad job on that restart – really bad,” Larson said. “I knew I gave it away. I’m really disappointed in myself. I just ran half a groove too low through (Turns) 3 and 4.”

The two 50-lap heat races produced a pair of wire-to-wire winners, Jones and Austin Dillon, and no cautions. But the heats did establish the starting order for the 200-lap main event, as well as identify the four eligible Dash 4 Cash competitors.

Jones, Allgaier (fourth in the first heat), Ty Dillon (second to his brother in the second heat) and Suárez (fourth in the second heat) took the green as the only drivers competing for the $100,000 bonus.

Any driver who wins two of the four Dash 4 Cash bonuses qualifies for the Chase, but as the first XFINITY regular to win a race this year, Jones won’t need the extra help.

Posted on April 15, 2016 by

RELATED: Dale Jr. shows how to make the perfect banana-mayo sandwich

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Just 10 days after Dale Earnhardt Jr. tweeted out a photo of a banana-mayonnaise sandwich, NASCAR’s 13-time winner of the NMPA Sprint Most Popular Driver has helped raise $145,000 for Blessings in a Backpack, an organization that provides food for elementary school children across America who might otherwise go hungry. With $50,000 of the total donation coming from Hellmann’s, another $50,000 is being matched by Junior, himself.

Along with the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s charitable efforts, the sandwich was picked up by Bristol Motor Speedway for this weekend’s race events. The Tennessee short track plans to sell the unusual sandwich combo to fans for $4, with $1 of every sandwich sold going to the Dale Jr. Foundation.

“It’s awesome that tracks are participating and anyone donating however they want to donate, that’s a great thing,” Dale Jr. said on Friday at Bristol. “But it’s important to say the whole thing was completely organic. I was sitting there bored with a little time on my hands in between taking pictures for a Hellmann’s photoshoot and they always have me make this sandwich at the photoshoots and it was laying there as a prop they were preparing for a picture, and I took a picture of it and I had no idea that that was going to take off like it did.”

Carrying over 1.4 million Twitter followers, when Dale Jr. tweets, the world listens, so he might be alone in the shock of the sandwich tweet’s takeoff, but leave it to the NASCAR veteran to turn what many viewed as gross, to good.

“The thing is is 25 percent of the country knew exactly what I was talking about and the rest were completely disgusted,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “So, it got a lot of attention and I think the disgust is what really drove the tweet viral. But it had everybody’s attention so I called Mike Davis (Director, Brand Strategy and Communications at JR Motorsports) and said, ‘It just seems silly to let this fizzle out and not seize this opportunity to do something good.’ ”

And with one simple phone call the JRM team has generated awareness for an important cause, all with the help of just three simple ingredients.

“The response from the fans, as far as donations, has been amazing. And also, you have things like this where the tracks are doing their own thing and it’s helping people. So it’s been an amazing thing, and I’m super glad we have the resources at JR Motorsports to make these things happen.”

You can donate to the cause at DaleJrSandwich.com.

Posted on April 15, 2016 by

BRISTOL, Tenn. — When your teammate wins the last two consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races like Kyle Busch has, you’d think the spotlight would be off you. But that wasn’t the case for Carl Edwards on Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing driver arrived at the short track seeking his first win of 2016, as well as his fourth career victory at “The Last Colosseum.”

“This place has been really good to me,” Edwards said. “I feel like our vantage on pit road will pay off here. Hopefully the speed we have in qualifying trim will pay off and with my experience here hopefully we’ll get a win.”

In his last four Cup starts at Bristol, the 36-year-old has earned himself the highest driver rating (109.9) of all Sprint Cup Series drivers at the half-miler, with his most recent win coming in 2014’s spring race. This season, however, Edwards has come up short, earning three top-five and six top-10 finishes in seven races. So while he’s still winless, Edwards is utilizing his teammate’s accomplishments and building off of them.

“The good thing about Kyle’s success right now is I’m on his team and I can talk to him about it,” Edwards said. “But everyone does things differently. But I think the coolest part for me is to see like, ‘Hey, this can be done right now out of this shop, with these cars, these engines’ and that’s the best thing you can have, is someone out there setting the bar.”

Knowing that JGR has the ability to win back-to-back gives Edwards confidence, and being able to compare notes also gives him insight.

“We’re able to go back and look at the entire weekend and kind of compare what we did to the 18 and if we see things that are outstanding, obviously we change them, but if there’s things that aren’t clear we can go talk to them, and that’s really the advantage to having a teammate like that.”

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Nascar

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Daniel Suarez won two of the four Dash 4 Cash events last season, and the Joe Gibbs Racing driver hopes for more success when this year’s bonus program kicks off Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Suarez certainly has to be considered a favorite to take home at least one of the four $100,000 bonus checks, and is equally capable of using the program to pave his way into the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase.

“It’s a good track for me,” Suarez said of the fast, high-banked half-mile. “I hope I can stay in the outside line, but Bristol is a good track for me for sure — two top fives last year.”

Suarez pocketed the bonus at Bristol in the August event, thanks to a fifth-place finish, and again in September at Darlington Raceway with a third-place result.

This year’s program offers more than a six-figure bonus for finishing highest among the four eligible Dash 4 Cash drivers in each race. Earning the bonus in two of the four events is the equivalent of winning the race itself, and that should translate into a spot in the series’ inaugural Chase.

This year’s Dash 4 Cash events are slated for Bristol, Richmond (April 23), Dover (May 14) and Indianapolis (July 23). A year ago, the program’s stops were at Dover, Indy, Bristol and Darlington.

There’s no extra effort put forth by himself or his JGR team for the Dash races, Suarez said.

“Not really, they happen to be good races for us. It happened to be most of the Dash 4 Cash races were in the second half the year and we were stronger in the second half,” Suarez said. “I think things just worked out for us.”

Suarez leads JR Motorsports’ Elliott Sadler by one point in the standings, and his only finish outside the top eight came a week ago at Texas Motor Speedway when his No. 19 Toyota came home in 16th place.

“Honestly I think the team is doing an excellent job,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where we go, the team has a good car. I think I’m doing my job decent. We’re working super hard. But … all the work the team did during the winter is paying off. I’m confident in them and it seems like they are confident in me.”

MORE: Heat races add spice to program

Also new to the program this year are heat races, short sprints following qualifying that will determine the starting order for the main event. At Bristol each heat will consist of 50 laps, followed by a 200-lap main.

“It will be interesting, different for sure,” Suarez said of the heat races. “For a driver, we’re going to be racing those races harder, be more aggressive. But at the same time you can make many mistakes and if you (do), you are in trouble for the main. It’s going to be difficult to manage that. But it’s going to be something new for everyone.

“But if you do well, if you win two, you can lock yourself in for the Chase.”

An outright win in any XFINITY Series race would accomplish the same thing, something that’s not lost on Suarez. He has 11 top-five finishes In 41 career starts, including a runner-up this year at Las Vegas, a third at Phoenix and a fourth at Auto Club Speedway. He took the lead briefly on the final lap at ACS before running out of gas on the backstretch.

“Yeah, that would be easier,” he said, “but we’re right in there. I think we’ll win sooner or later. We just have to keep working to make it happen.”

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Nascar

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch is attempting to continue his winning ways here at Bristol Motor Speedway, having swept race weekends at Martinsville Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway the past two weekends.

Sprint Cup victories at the two tracks inched the 30-year-old closer to another notable mark — he’s only one win away from tying three-time premier series champion Tony Stewart as the winningest driver to ever suit up for JGR.

Between 1999 and 2008, Stewart scored 33 of his 48 career wins while driving for Joe Gibbs. He has won 15 times since moving over to become a driver and co-owner at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009.

Busch has earned 32 of his 36 career victories since moving to JGR in 2008. His first four wins in the Cup Series came while driving for Hendrick Motorsports.

“I never even knew that, but that’s pretty neat,” Busch said of the overall win mark at JGR. “It does mean a little bit. Tony being there for the amount of years that he was there and winning two championships for the Coach (Joe Gibbs) … he was a huge part of our team and the way that it grew from when it went from one car to two cars and then from two to three, obviously he was there for all of that.

“I certainly wish that I was teammates with him for a lot longer than I was, but to have the opportunity to go out there this year and maybe win a few more races and to beat him as far as the all-time wins leader at JGR, that would be pretty special and I would like that a lot.

“Maybe I’ll give him a handshake when it’s all said and done.”

Eight drivers have scored premier series wins for the organization. In addition to Stewart and Busch, others are current JGR drivers Denny Hamlin (27), Matt Kenseth (12) and Carl Edwards (2) as well as Bobby Labonte (21), Joey Logano (2) and Dale Jarrett (2).

Jarrett scored the organization’s first premier series win when he captured the 1993 Daytona 500.

JGR drivers have combined for 131 premier series victories overall.