Drivers discuss challenges that lie ahead at Fontana

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Nascar

FONTANA, Calif. — A well-worn racing surface, multiple racing grooves and generous tire falloff await NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams here at Auto Club Speedway for Sunday’s Auto Club 400.

Will it be the perfect combination or the perfect storm?

NASCAR’s 2016 aero package, which features less downforce, has gotten high marks thus far this year, as has Goodyear’s development of tires to go with the package.

Long green-flag runs have been the rule rather than the exception, and tire management has become crucial. But late caution flags have kept teams guessing.

“I think you’re going to see that short-run, long-run balance,” Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski said Friday after qualifying 15th. “The guys that are good on the short run here will have a huge advantage if there’s a yellow at the end.”

The difference between the two is immense, the 2012 series champ noted.

“It was two years ago where the 24 car (then driven by Jeff Gordon) was heads and tails the best car on the long run, but didn’t have any short-run speed,” Keselowski said. When a late caution created a green-white-checkered finish, Gordon went from contending for the win to finishing outside the top 10.

“That shows how you can get eaten up really quick if you don’t have that short-run speed at the end,” Keselowski said. “I think a lot of what is going to dictate who is going to win the race is going to be exactly how the yellows fall.”

At ACS, last-lap passes have become almost routine. Keselowski won here a year ago with a pass on the final lap; Kyle Busch managed the feat in both 2014 and ’13. In 2011, it was Kevin Harvick that shot into the lead with one lap remaining for the win.

The 2-mile layout at ACS promotes high speeds, but it’s more than just holding the gas pedal to the floor and hanging on, Harvick said.

“Oh, you are going to have to lift a lot,” Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing) said. “You are probably going to have three seconds of fall-off, maybe more, as you go through the run because the tires just fall off so fast.

“You are going to have a lot of straightaway speed because of the low drag, so yeah, there is definitely going to be a lot of off-throttle time. I think the amount of time is going to change dramatically from the first lap to Lap 30. It’s going to be a huge pace swing.”

The Goodyear tires for Sunday’s race mirror those used at Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this year. Right-side multi-zone tires feature a harder compound on the inner two inches while the outer 10 inches is softer.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Carl Edwards, fresh off a last-lap battle with Harvick a week ago at Phoenix, said, “You could write a book about this place.”

“There’s so much happening out there,” Edwards said. “Where you place your tires, how you enter the corner, what the guy in front of you is doing. All those things add up to a lot different balance.

“Turns 1 and 2, as many times as I’ve been here I still don’t feel like I have it figured out. There are spots that I like to run, things I like to do, but there are some spots out there and it’s like, ‘Man, I can’t quite figure out what’s happening.’

“It’s a little bit unpredictable, it’s definitely tough and to me that’s part of the fun.”

Nine former winners are in the field; pole winner Austin Dillon is not among them. The Richard Childress Racing driver scored his second-career pole on Friday and is still looking for his first Sprint Cup victory.

“I’m very confident in my guys that they will give me something to work with,” Dillon, 25, said. “They already have and the speed is there.

“Just focus on running that wall because that is where the race is going to be, I think, in the long run. Everybody is going to be running right by the wall.”

Posted on March 19, 2016 by

FONTANA, Calif. — A strong top-three finish for Darrell Wallace Jr. in Saturday’s TreatMyClot.com 300 by Janssen at Auto Club Speedway was slightly marred, as NASCAR announced the No. 6 Ford failed post-race inspection.

According to NASCAR officials, Wallace’s Roush Fenway Racing entry failed to meet the minimum ride height requirement. Potential penalties for the team would be addressed early next week at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina. (UPDATE: No penalties were issued to the No. 6 team)

The third-place finish for Wallace tied the 22-year-old driver’s career-best finish in the XFINITY Series and was his top result thus far in the 2016 season.

MORE: At-track photos

Posted on March 19, 2016 by

FONTANA, Calif. — “Happy Hour” practice at Auto Club Speedway wasn’t so happy for Kyle Larson and Greg Biffle.

Midway through the final practice session on Saturday, Larson’s No. 42 Chevrolet became loose and went high on the race track, brushing the wall. Biffle’s No. 16 ride, equipped with a fresh set of Goodyear tires, was unable to stop and made significant contact with Larson.

“We were on new tires … (and) the 42 was on old tires, so our closure rate was super-fast,” Biffle said in the garage afterward. “I was kind of looking at my mark on the wall and on the race track and he wrecked in front of me and I just couldn’t get stopped. There wasn’t anywhere for me to go.

“The groove is right up against the fence and I was going probably 15-20 miles an hour faster than he was. By the time I saw him sideways I was catching him so fast that I don’t know what happened.”

The wreck was especially unfortunate for Larson, who has struggled to find speed throughout the weekend.

“It’s been the first time all week that I’ve felt decent speed, especially long-run speed,” Larson said in the garage, following a brief conversation with Biffle. “So, disappointed in myself. … Hopefully not too much work for them.”

Both cars have significant damage, but neither Larson nor Biffle are sure whether or not their teams will defer to a backup car for Sunday’s race. Both drivers would need to forgo their qualifying positions (Larson, 32nd; Biffle, 22nd) if they decided to switch to backup cars.

“We’re still trying to decide if we need to go to a backup or not, it’s more just body damage,” Larson said. “… Hate it those (No. 16) guys have to work really hard on their car, as well. Hopefully we can get our car fixed up, and so can they, to have some speed.”

MORE: At-track photos, Auto Club

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Holly Cain

SEBRING, Fla. — Fans practically contorted themselves to get the perfect “selfies” and random close-ups of Chip Ganassi’s two Ford GT cars on the grid awaiting Saturday’s green flag for the 64th annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Dressed in their finest Ford, Chevrolet Corvette and even Ferrari and Porsche T-shirts and hats, the crowd around Ganassi’s two red-white-and-blue entries was easily the largest on the starting grid. The curious and adoring fans examined the rear wing, peered into the car’s windows and asked crewman to pose for photos.

And there were audible bursts of “ohhh and ahhh” in various inflections and languages.

Unlike most race events, the fancy sports cars parked in the infield lots didn’t belong to the drivers or team executives, but instead to the highly devoted sports car fans who attend the famous Twelve Hours of Sebring dressed in Mark Donohue shirts with prototype car silhouettes on their cap.

NASCAR Hall of Famers Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte have competed at Sebring as have Ricky Rudd and Michael Waltrip.

While no former NASCAR drivers were entered this weekend, Sprint Cup team owners Ganassi and Rob Kauffman, who competed here with Michael Waltrip in 2012, were on hand to see their Fords compete in what is considered one of the world’s greatest races.

Ganassi’s team won this race in a prototype class car in 2014.

“The big thing is to get some distance in them,” Ford driver Joey Hand told the crowd Saturday. “But the cars look fast and they are fast.”

Going the distance is the big challenge. The brand new Ford GT EcoBoosts had a few hiccups in their Rolex 24 debut, but in all fairness, had only turned laps a couple weeks before the race during a massive test session.

It was a tricky debut at Daytona for the new cars, but the team is quite confident it has learned from the growing pains and repaired the glitches. They led laps and kept pace at Daytona and Saturday was all about increasing the performance further.

“The good thing about it all, and the thing we are pleased about, is the car is showing some pace, it is showing some opportunity, and overall we are happy that we have a fast car and we need to work on reliability,’” Ford Motor Company’s executive vice president, Product Development, and chief technical officer, Raj Nair said after Daytona.

“That’s a lot better than having a slow car that’s reliable, but you don’t know how to get speed out of it. Overall, this is racing and this is what can happen in racing. If we don’t win every race, we are disappointed, but at the same time we know how to fix our issues and we’ll be better the next time we come out.”

The whole program is a major undertaking for Ganassi, who has won Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500, Brickyard 400, Rolex 24 and 12 Hours of Sebring trophies already. But the quest is as sentimental as it is ambitious.

A win at the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans is the next great trophy Ganassi desires — and a victory there would certainly add to what is absolutely already one of the greatest resumes in racing history.

“I think it’s obviously something that’s been on our radar screen for a couple years,” Ganassi said standing alongside his car Saturday, enjoying the large and curious crowd. “It’s going to be a challenge and we’re hopeful we can put Ford forward the way they want to be represented. We look forward to it.

“The greatest events attract the greatest teams and the greatest challenges. That’s why we look forward to it.

“And it’s nice to go over there with an American company. That’s pretty cool.”

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Staff Report

Practice 3 recap | RELATED: Practice 3 results

Matt Kenseth topped the final Sprint Cup Series practice on Saturday at Auto Club Speedway, but the story from the session was a somewhat bizarre wreck between Kyle Larson and Greg Biffle.

Midway through the practice, Larson rose up and hit the outside wall, forcing Biffle to make a split-second decision about where he’d try to avoid the No. 42 Chevrolet, but chose the high side. Needless to say, it was not the correct choice.

The front end of Biffle’s No. 16 crunched in — along with the rear of Larson’s ride — forcing his hood to pop up. Both teams are attempting repairs but may need to use backup entries in Sunday’s Auto Club 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).

“I just had to slow down so much that the 16 caught me,” Larson told FOX. “It was my fault. I apologize to Greg Biffle.”

The pair talked after the wreck and appeared to come to an understanding with what happened.

Kenseth’s best speed of 185.419 mph narrowly edged his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Carl Edwards, who was second at 185.347 mph. Ryan Blaney (185.161 mph), Joey Logano (185.099 mph) and Aric Almirola (185.071 mph) rounded out the top five.

Kurt Busch wrecked his primary car in the opening practice of the day. He was 24th fastest in the final session at 183.299 mph in his backup.

Practice 2 recap | RELATED: Practice 2 results

Carl Edwards paced the opening Saturday morning practice at Auto Club Speedway, topping the leaderboard with a best speed of 187.906 mph.

Speeds were slightly down from where they were on Friday as heavy fog surrounded the California track.

Martin Truex Jr. was next on the charts at 187.632 mph, followed by Ryan Newman (186.640 mph), Kyle Busch (186.635 mph) and pole-winner Austin Dillon (186.587 mph) to round out the top five.

Midway through the practice, Kurt Busch got into the wall and, while the damage appeared to be slight, his No. 41 team elected to go to a backup Chevrolet. He had qualified 26th, but will now have to start from the rear.

Aric Almirola also slapped the Turn 2 wall early on in the session, pancaking the right side of his No. 43 Ford Fusion. The Richard Petty Motorsports team was working on his car, attempting to fix it.

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Staff Report

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Reid Spencer

FONTANA, Calif. — Seconds after crossing the finish line .714 seconds ahead of runner-up Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon summed up Saturday’s TreatMyClot.com 300 by Janssen in one short sentence.

“I’d rather be lucky than good,” Dillon chortled on his team radio after ending evading Busch’s last-ditch attempt to pinch the winning No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet into the outside wall at Auto Club Speedway.

And that was just the final stanza of a crazy final lap that saw: 1) Busch slow to a crawl, short on fuel; 2) Daniel Suárez take the lead from his Joe Gibbs racing teammate on the backstretch, only to run out of fuel; 3) Busch regain the lead despite cutting a left front tire on his final lap; and 4) Dillon come from a half-lap down to pass Busch as the drivers approached the finish line.

Dillon led only one lap, but it was the lap that counted.

“Well, I just had to stay focused,” said Dillon, who did a masterful job of saving fuel in snapping Busch’s three-race winning streak. “(My team) said (Busch) had a flat. I was worried about our fuel and stayed focused on that the whole time.

“He tried to screw me right there at the end, but it didn’t work out for him, did it? I’m proud of these guys. Man, that was fun. I didn’t think we had a car to do that, and we didn’t, but we did what we had to do to win the race …

“Sometimes things just go your way, and today they definitely did.”

Busch, on the other hand, led 133 of the 150 laps and appeared destined to tie Sam Ard’s record of four victories in as many consecutive races. In fact, Joe Gibbs Racing seemed headed for its third straight 1-2-3 finish before Erik Jones ran out of fuel on the next-to-last lap, Daniel Suárez emptied his tank a lap later, and Busch cut his tire after taking the white flag.

The victory was Dillon’s first of the season, first at the two-mile track and seventh of his career.

Darrell Wallace Jr. finished third, and Suárez limped across the finish line in fourth place, maintaining a 10-point lead over fifth-place finisher Elliott Sadler in the series standings. Kevin Harvick, Brendan Gaughan, Kyle Larson, Brandon Jones and Justin Allgaier completed the top 10.

Second with two laps left, Jones came home 15th, one lap down.

After pit stops under caution on Lap 101, Suárez came up a half-lap short of his elusive first victory.

“In the whole run we were saving fuel,” Suárez said. “I knew that we were one to one-and-a-half laps short. I was saving fuel. I wasn’t worrying about the 20 (Jones) or 18 (Busch). I was just trying to finish the race, because I knew that we were short. I knew that the 20 was a little bit shorter than us and eventually he ran out. When he ran out I started saving more because I knew that I had more fuel than him, but not a lot.

“I was just trying to save as much as I can. I passed the 18 when he blew the left front tire in (Turns) 1 and 2, and on the exit of 2 I ran out of fuel, and on the exit of four the 2 (Dillon) and the 18 passed me back. Very unfortunate, but it’s part of racing. I really think that our first victory is coming and hopefully we can get it very soon.”

The pole winner for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Dillon will try to complete a career-first weekend sweep in the Auto Club 400.

Note: Wallace’s car failed post-race Laser Inspection Station. NASCAR will determine next week if a penalty is warranted.

MORE: Harvick gets heated | Wallace fails post-race inspection

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Nascar

FONTANA, Calif. – Kyle Larson, the can’t miss kid of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates was expected to see his Sprint Cup Series career flourish with NASCAR’s most recent rules package change.

Looser, harder to driver cars with less downforce, it was surmised, would be right in the youngster’s wheelhouse. And it may be yet.

But four races into the 2016 season and Larson, 23, is 17th in points with just one top-15 finish in three races utilizing the new platform.

“Whether you have zero downforce or thousands of (pounds of) downforce, you still have to have a good car, good handling, good speed and all of that,” Larson said Friday at Auto Club Speedway, site of Sunday’s Auto Club 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.)

“Right now we’ve just kind of struggled with getting the speed really. I feel like our balance has been close for the few races we’ve run (with this package). Just lack speed, especially on the long runs. That’s where I feel like we struggled last year and so far this season … as well.”

The former USAC open-wheel standout raced his way to eight top-five and 17 top-10 finishes in his first full season of Sprint Cup competition with CGR in 2014, including a runnerup finish to Kyle Busch here at Auto Club Speedway. That was good enough for 17th in the final points standings and saw him knocking on the door of a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup battle.

But the numbers fell off dramatically last season (two top fives and 10 top 10s) and resulted in a 19th-place finish.

A crew chief change for the No. 42 team — Chad Johnston replaced Chris Heroy — came during the offseason. Larson, still seeking his first Sprint Cup victory, opened the year with a seventh-place run at Daytona International Speedway. But he could muster only a 26th-best result at Atlanta and followed that with a 34th-place run a week later at Las Vegas.

He finished 12th last week at Phoenix.

“Hopefully we can take what we have learned here on the West Coast, get back to the shop and try and make our cars better,” he said. “We’ve gotten a little better the last couple of weeks; we still have a long way to go. Trying to stay positive and stay confident and hopefully our guys can figure it out.”

Teammate Jamie McMurray has fared somewhat better yet sits 15th in points and has yet to post a top-15 finish.

No Ganassi driver has won a points race since 2013.

Both teams, Larson acknowledged, “are struggling.”

“If one car was a lot better than the other, then we could place blame on the driver more,” he said. “We just haven’t hit on the right thing, I guess, to make speed.

“There are a lot of other teams that we ran around last year that are better than we are I feel like this year. That has been a little disappointing, but having that stuff happen early in the year, it just makes everybody work really hard.”

Thirteenth in the day’s only practice at ACS and starting 32nd after failing to advance out of the first round of qualifying Friday, Larson says he remains confident in his team and the entire organization.

“They’ve got the brains,” he said. “I just hold the wheel. They will get it better and we will start running up front more often.”

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Nascar

FONTANA, Calif. – Brian Vickers will be the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver to make two consecutive starts in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Chevrolet for 2016.

Vickers, filling in for SHR owner/driver Tony Stewart here at Auto Club Speedway this weekend, said Friday that he will also be behind the wheel in two weeks when the series heads to Martinsville Speedway.

Vickers will make his third start for the team this weekend at ACS after finishing 26th at Daytona International Speedway and 36th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

NASCAR XFINITY Series driver Ty Dillon has driven in relief for the team on two occasions this season as well, finishing 17th at Atlanta Motor Speedway and 15th last weekend at Phoenix International Raceway.

“As of right now, I’m going to be (in the car) at Martinsville. … Then we’re figuring out everything from there,” Vickers said during a media appearance at the track. “As you know nothing has really changed. I think everyone is really just kind of waiting to see how Tony shakes out.”

Stewart, scheduled to retire from Sprint Cup competition at the end of the ’16 season, was injured during an off-season off-road accident and has yet to compete this year.

Following last week’s race Stewart said no date has been set for his return to competition, although doctors had cleared him to begin driving his personal car – something he said he had been doing for three weeks without medical approval.

Vickers’ own racing career has been interrupted by medical issues (blood clots), and sponsorship on the No. 14 entry this weekend as well as for the Martinsville race has a tie-in to his condition. For the next two races, the car will carry branding featuring the drug company Janssen and Arnie’s Army Charitable Foundation, the charitable organization founded by legendary golfer Arnold Palmer.

“I can honestly say this: As much as I want to race this car as long as I can … I really want to see Tony back in it,” Vickers said. “I’ve been in his shoes. I know exactly what it’s like. It’s his last season (and) he deserves to be in this car as much as he can be.

“I’m honored to race it as long as I need to and as long as I can, but I’m happy to turn the keys back over as soon as he is ready.”

Posted on March 18, 2016 by

FONTANA, Calif. — The sprawling and lightning fast Auto Club Speedway can be a little daunting for rookie drivers.

Just ask NASCAR XFINITY Series rookie Brandon Jones.

“The first time I pulled up here a couple hours ago — man, this place is really big,” Jones said on Friday at the speedway. “It looked a little intimidating when you pulled up at first.”

But while Jones is contending for Sunoco Rookie of the Year, his performance on-track isn’t reminiscent of a beginner. In his four starts this season, Jones, 19, has finished 11th or better in every race in his No. 33 Richard Childress Chevrolet, making his XFINITY debut on all four tracks.

For Jones, the new tracks have been opportunities to be a student of the sport, studying as much as he can as a young driver.

“The biggest thing is just trying to learn these places I haven’t been to yet,” Jones said. “We kind of kicked off with a pretty tough schedule going from Daytona to pretty bumpy Atlanta. … So some of these places that I haven’t seen so far, it’s been kind of tough to learn right off the trailer.

“(But) every time we’ve unloaded so far, we’ve been top 10 on the speed charts, so I’ve been really happy about where we’ve been firing up at these places.”

He’ll hit the books again this weekend, as he makes his debut at Auto Club Speedway in Saturday’s TreatMyClot.com 300 (4 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM Radio). There’s uncertainty that comes with the tricky seams and speed characteristic of the California track — but there’s also confidence that comes from having strong teammates.

“I know a couple of our RCR teammates — Brendan Gaughan being one of them — (have) finished pretty high up,” Jones said. “I’ve been talking to him a little bit at the race track, going back and watching a couple videos to see how they run over the seams. Like you said, that’s a pretty big deal, so learn how to take that to your advantage during the race, making your car better over those is going to be a big key.

“I’m just going to try to go out there this first practice session and learn the place as best I can, get behind some people that have been here a lot and try and follow them and see if I can pick up a couple things. But I think we’ll be just fine — I think we’ll be pretty fast right off the hauler and we’ll start going to work on our Nexteer Chevy.”