Phoenix top-10 brings spring to Elliott's step

Posted on March 15, 2016 by RJ Kraft

In his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, Chase Elliott keeps making strides.

The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet scored his second top-10 finish in three races with an eighth-place result Sunday in the Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. That finish matched his career-best result in the Sprint Cup ranks, equaling his eighth-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway last month.

Elliott, who started 17th, spent all but six of the 313 laps in the top 15, and resided in the top six for much of the race’s latter third.

“I was just happy we finally put a day together and got a finish that these guys deserved,” Elliott said. “I feel like we had a good car. We made gains on it all day long.”

Elliott’s gains showed not just on the leaderboard but also in the loop data for the race. The 20-year-old had the most quality passes (28) in the field on Sunday, carrying over the speed the team showed in Saturday’s two practices where Elliott placed fifth and fourth, respectively.

“My guys have been bringing such fast race cars to the race track every week since Daytona, and I haven’t been doing a very good job of getting the finishes that they deserve,” Elliott said.

Elliott lined up seventh on the final restart on Lap 312 but got shuffled back a spot in the overtime frenzy of the final two laps.

“That last restart, obviously, was pretty wild,” said Elliott, who jumped up seven spots in the Sprint Cup points standings to 21st. “We tried our best. We gave up a couple of spots, but we will take it and move on to Fontana.”

Elliott was not the lone rookie the score a top-10 at Phoenix. Ryan Blaney snuck in a 10th-place finish, his second straight top-10 tally. Benefiting from a late-race pit stop before the final green flag of the day, the 22-year-old picked up two spots from his restart position of 12th. The result moved Blaney up to 12th in the point standings as well.

“We didn’t start out that great and we just got better as we went along,” Blaney said of his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team. “The guys did a great job with two tires at the end and I thought about staying out but we wouldn’t have been on the first two rows I don’t think so we had to come in and get two.”

The Sunoco Rookie of the Year battle is expected to go back and forth all season long between Elliott and Blaney. Thus far, the two have alternated as the top finishing rookie in each of the season’s four races.

The two drivers comprise a five-person rookie class that also includes Chris Buescher (No. 34 Front Row Motorsports), Jeffrey Earnhardt (No. 32 Go Fas Racing) and Brian Scott (No. 44 Richard Petty Motorsports).

The Good Sam 500 marked the first time since the 2014 Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway that two Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidates finished in the top 10 in a race. In that race, Kyle Larson finished second, while Austin Dillon finished eighth. Larson and Dillon also both placed in the top 10 that year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Posted on March 15, 2016 by RJ Kraft

As far back as mid-January, Parker Kligerman wasn’t exactly sure what the 2016 season had in store for him. The 25-year-old knew he had a gig as part of NBC Sports’ NASCAR coverage, but his driving plans were still in flux before a phone call changed that.

  Fast forward to today as the Camping World Truck Series is in a five-week off-period until April 2 at Martinsville Speedway and Kligerman’s name is atop the point standings through two of the series’ 23 races.  

Piloting the No. 92 truck for Ricky Benton Racing, Kligerman has notched a third-place result at Daytona International Speedway and an eighth-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway.   

However, all of this wouldn’t have been possible had Kligerman not gotten a phone call while he was attending the Team Penske 50th Anniversary Party.

  ”I got a call from Ricky and he said, ‘Are you still available?’ ” Kligerman told NASCAR.com. “I said, ‘Absolutely. What do you want to do?’ And he said, ‘Let’s go to Daytona.’ As things built up and we got to know each other, got to know the team, it was like, hey, maybe we can do more.”

Doing more is exactly what the team intends to do. With the early portion of the Truck Series slate spread out, the opportunity arose to run the beginning part of the schedule before taking stock of where they stand. Kligerman said that decision was made closer to the Daytona race, but the strong start hasn’t hurt the case to continue.

“I think everyone is really committed to trying to do as many as possible and see if we can keep up this great run. I’d say in these next four (Martinsville, Kansas, Dover and Charlotte), we have a chance to win one here if we can put the race together.”

Kligerman has visited Victory Lane one time in his Truck Series career (Talladega in 2012) and a win would only help further the case to keep the band together and chase a championship.
 
“Anytime you can get positive momentum like we have, you definitely need to capitalize on it,” Kligerman explained. “A lot of times in this sport the sizzle is better than the steak. We’re doing a lot of great things right now and we got a lot of buzz. We need to try and capitalize on it and use that to go further in the season.”

Benton told NASCAR.com that the hunt for some sponsorship is ongoing.  

“We had a little bit of marketing dollars to help us get started, and if we can find some more marketing dollars — I have my business — but other people, and if we can do good, we’ll try to rake and scrape and do the best we can.”

Small-team success

  Benton owns over 30 Black’s Tire Service shops in the Carolinas. He has been involved in racing on several levels, fielding a part-time entry in the Camping World Truck Series since 2010, and he has also been involved in the Late Model circuit and other forms of racing, winning the 1998 Winston Racing Series Atlantic Seaboard championship as well as the 2002 USAR Hooter ProCup title. During that time, Benton fielded teams that raced against Sprint Cup drivers Denny Hamlin, Brian Vickers and crew chief Rodney Childers. He describes himself and the team “as Saturday night racers.”

The 92 team, which is based out of Cerro Gordo, North Carolina (a town with a population of 207, according to data from the 2010 U.S. Census) is described by Benton as “just a little, small team.  ”

“We don’t have but three people in the shop this whole time,” Benton added.  

  Small-team success has been one of the early trends in the 2016 standings for the Camping World Truck Series as Kligerman leads the points driving for RBR (which has never run a full season), and John Hunter Nemechek (won at Atlanta and drives for family-run SWM-NEMCO Motorsports) and Tyler Young (drives for family-run Youngs Motorsports) are also in the top five of the standings. Kligerman believes that trend will continue.

“The Truck Series right now is going through a huge transition in terms of smaller teams being able to succeed,” Kligerman said. “If you look at Nemechek’s team. Obviously, the 92 team. We are a vastly smaller team then we are seeing traditionally out of KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports), BKR (Brad Keselowski Racing), ThorSport. I think that you are going to continue to see that in a lot of the measures the Truck Series is putting in and it’s a good thing.”

Plenty of perspective

Kligerman, an energetic Connecticut native, has been around the sport plenty to know a good thing when he sees it. During his NASCAR career, Kligerman has spent time with several organizations both big and small such as Team Penske and Kyle Busch Motorsports, and he had a full-time spot on the Sprint Cup driver roster lined up with Swan Racing. That ride came to an end just eight races into the 2014 season as a lack of sponsorship forced Swan Racing to restructure and sell its assets.

  ”There were bright days. There were dark days,” Kligerman said of the aftermath of his Cup ride going away in 2014. “There’s days where you start to look back too much and get very nostalgic and that’s the wrong thing to do. …

“I’ve always thought it’s a cool deal to be doing what I’m doing at the age I am and have as many experiences I’ve had in the sport. As many different facets from the top teams, championship-caliber teams to teams that were growing and teams that have run into trouble. I’ve seen it all in such a short amount of time that I’m very grateful for that and I think it has allowed me to bring a good perspective to outside our sport.”

 It’s that perspective that led NBC to bring Kligerman on board for its NASCAR coverage in 2014 when Kligerman was out of a ride and not sure what the future held.   

“It started very informal and one thing led to another where basically I asked them where they were located and it was Stamford, Connecticut, and that’s where I grew up,” Kligerman said.   ”I kind of felt at the time there weren’t a lot of good opportunities racing-wise. Just nothing that was exciting me. Nothing that felt like it was going to further my career so I decided let’s go do this and see where it goes.”

Kligerman appears on NBC Sports Network’s NASCAR programs such as “NASCAR America” and “NASCAR Victory Lap,” offering his insight as a driver who has not only competed against many of the NASCAR Sprint Cup stars, but also still competes today.

  ”Right now, I tell people I’ve got a very dynamic life at the moment in terms of doing the TV thing and driving,” Kligerman says, “and I wouldn’t change it for the world because I’m really enjoying it.”

Posted on March 14, 2016 by

1. Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. The most dominant driver at PIR lately took his time getting to the front, taking control of the race following the Lap 168 restart. Harvick had to get by Carl Edwards, but did so on Lap 235. He was able to hold onto the top spot despite a hard charge by Edwards to score his eighth Phoenix win. Grade: A+

2. Carl Edwards, No. 19 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. The No. 19 was one of the fastest cars in the field all day, leading three times for a total of 65 laps. Edwards made a last-lap charge under Harvick off Turn 4, tried his best to knock the No. 4 from the lead and finished second by 0.010 seconds. Grade: A+

3. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Hit with a pit road penalty for an uncontrolled tire on the first stop of the day, Hamlin recovered, was in the top five with 70 laps to go and finished third. Grade: A

4. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Busch led the first 74 laps of the race, but the car faded over the long runs, leaving the No. 18 team with some questions that will need to be answered before returning to PIR in the Chase. A mistake on pit road by Busch did not help the efforts. Grade: B+

5. Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Starting 26th, Earnhardt came to life at the drop of the green flag and he led 34 laps on the day. The car went away just past halfway, but returned late in the race. Greg Ives kept the car out under the final caution of the day and Earnhardt slipped on older tires after restarting on the front row. Grade: A-

6. Kurt Busch, No. 41 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. The elder Busch brother and his Tony Gibson-led team had a fast car all weekend, but failed to lead a lap. The No. 41 was a constant figure in the top 10 and came home sixth. Grade: B

7. Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. After a rough outing last weekend in Las Vegas, Kenseth had a quiet day in the top 10. Grade: B+

8. Chase Elliott, No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. The rookie contender continued to impress as a constant figure in the top five and top 10. Elliott earned his second top-10 finish of the year and moves into 21st in the standings. Grade: B+

9. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. After a sloppy day on pit road last weekend, Dillon and the Slugger Labbe-led team had a solid day and stayed out on the final stop of the day to restart third. On older tires, Dillon slipped back in overtime. Grade: B-

10. Ryan Blaney, No. 21 Ford, Wood Brothers Racing. Another solid outing by Blaney and his No. 21 team. The top-10 finish was the best at PIR for Wood Brothers Racing since 2002. Grade: B+

11. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. After a rough outing in qualifying, Johnson started at the rear and wasted no time making his way through the field. The No. 48 spent much of the day in the top five, but slipped outside the top 10 at the end of the day. Grade: A-

12. Kyle Larson, No. 42 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing. Larson started seventh, dropped to the edge of the top 20 and rallied at the end of the race to get back in the top 12. Grade: B

13. Aric Almirola, No. 43 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Solid day for the Richard Petty Motorsports driver, running just outside the top 10. This team continues to improve and earned its third top-15 finish of the season. Grade: B

14. Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Toyota, Furniture Row Racing. Racing without crew chief Cole Pearn, Truex had issues getting through tech on Sunday and faded in the second half of the race to finish six spots behind where he started. Grade: B-

15. Ty Dillon, No. 14 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Making his third start of the year and second in the No. 14 car, the younger Dillon brother had a strong outing and earned his second career top-15 finish. Grade: B+

16. Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing. Starting the day 11th, McMurray dropped to 20th in the middle stages of the race, but worked his way forward at the end of the day. Grade: B-

17. AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Chevrolet, JTG Daugherty Racing. The No. 47 team fought a tight car throughout the weekend and had an issue with the right front. The car was to ‘Dinger’s liking at the end and he gained on his 22nd starting spot. Grade: B-

18. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford, Team Penske. Under the fourth caution of the day, the team did not get the car full of fuel, putting Logano multiple laps short on gas and forcing him to save his stuff. Logano was forced to stop with eight laps to go from the top 10. Grade: C+

19. Danica Patrick, No. 10 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Starting deep in the field in 36th, Patrick’s car came to life late in the race. Her best lap came on Lap 241 and she ran inside the top 20 and on the lead lap until the final 10 laps of the day. Grade: B-

20. Matt DiBenedetto, No. 83 Toyota, BK Racing. This was a strong weekend for DiBenedetto and the BK Racing team. Despite being lapped late in the race, the second-year driver had one of the best runs of his career. Grade: B-

21. Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Biffle started 13th on the day, fought the handling of the car throughout the race and ended up outside the top 20. Grade: C

22. Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. After an odd motor failure earlier in the weekend, Kahne’s cooling system hose came loose and starting hitting his helmet around Lap 135, making for a warm day in the desert. He managed, got the car into the top 15, but a tire issue with less than 10 laps to go brought out the fifth caution of the day. Grade: C-

23. Trevor Bayne, No. 6 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Much like his teammate Biffle, Bayne fought the handling of his car throughout the day and finished two spots behind where he started. Grade: C

24. David Ragan, No. 23 Toyota, BK Racing. Ragan started 29th, dropped as far back as 34th and climbed his way back to a top-25 finish. Not too bad for the Georgia native. Grade: C+

25. Landon Cassill, No. 38 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. An unscheduled pit stop on Lap 138 mired Cassill five laps down, but he still finished two spots ahead of where he started. Grade: C-

26. Michael McDowell, No. 95 Chevrolet, Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing. McDowell gained seven spots on the day, but still ended up five laps down to the leaders. Grade: C-

27. Brian Scott, No. 44 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. With his teammate Aric Almirola showing strength, Scott recorded his second straight finish of 27th and has yet to finish better than 24th this year. Grade: C-

28. Regan Smith, No. 7 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing. Another top-30 finish for Smith and the TBR team, but there is definitely more work to be done. Grade: C-

29. Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Ford, Team Penske. The Las Vegas winner did not have the speed of his teammate Logano throughout the day, and with 87 laps to go, his right rear blew on the backstretch. The 2012 champ made a great save, but brought the blown tire caused damage to the rear end and brake lines. Grade: C+

30. Chris Buescher, No. 34 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. The defending XFINITY Series champion ended up six laps down, the deepest of the Rookie of the Year contenders. Grade: D

31. Clint Bowyer, No. 15 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Another disappointing outing for Bowyer and his new team. They had a loose wheel and gained four spots on the day. Grade: D-

32. Joey Gase, No. 32 Ford, Go Fas Racing. The small team that could started last and moved up to 32nd by the end of the day, giving Gase his best career Sprint Cup finish in eight tries. Grade: C

33. Michael Annett, No. 46 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Annett lost his primary car during practice on Saturday, putting the team behind the eight ball to start with. Grade: D

34. Josh Wise, No. 30 Chevrolet, The Motorsports Group. After starting 37th, Wise was able to take advantage of the trouble of others and moved to 34th by the end of the day Grade: D

35. Casey Mears, No. 13 Chevrolet, Germain Racing. Mears had a mechanical issue and hit pit road on Lap 132, ruining the day for the No. 13 team. Grade: D

36. Cole Whitt, No. 98 Chevrolet, Premium Motorsports. The 36th-place finish was the best of the year for Whitt and Premium Motorsports, but that is not saying much. Grade: D

37. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. A hard hit into the outside wall on Lap 162 brought out the third caution of the day and destroyed the No. 17 Ford. Grade: C-

38. Paul Menard, No. 27 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Much like his teammate Ryan Newman, Menard had an issue on the car and hit the wall hard, bringing out the second caution of the day. Grade: C-

39. Ryan Newman, No. 31 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. The RCR driver blew a right front early after melting a bead, hit the outside wall and brought out the first caution of the day. Still searching for his first win since the 2013 Brickyard 400, Newman suffered his worst finish of the season so far. Grade: C-

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Nascar

AVONDALE, Ariz. — When Sunday’s Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway went into overtime following a caution with less than 10 laps remaining, Kyle Busch had one final opportunity to score his first win of the season in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.

Unfortunately for the defending series champion, it didn’t pan out.

Despite having two fresher tires than those in front of him, Busch was unable to advance and contend for the win, eventually bringing his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota home in fourth place.

“I thought we had a shot if we had restarted fourth, but restarting fifth on the inside behind two guys that had old tires, (our) chances were zero,” Busch said on pit road after the finish.

When the yellow flag appeared for an incident involving Kasey Kahne, race leader Kevin Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Hendrick Motorsports) and Austin Dillon (Richard Childress Racing) opted to stay out. Carl Edwards (JGR), Busch, and several others opted for a quick two-tire stop, leaving Busch fifth on the final restart.

“We were fourth or fifth (before the caution) and then we finished fourth so it didn’t make a difference,” crew chief Adam Stevens said. “We weren’t in a situation where we were going to win by staying out; it was kind of a deal where we had to do the opposite of what the leader did.

“But all in all we had a fast car, it was a competitive weekend; it’s always disappointing when you don’t win but I think we’ll look back and say we’ve got a good starting point for next time we come here and that next race here is really important.”

Busch started on the pole and led the first 74 laps of the 313-lap race. A two-tire stop during the first caution (Lap 53-59) kept the No. 18 out front but eventually the payoff faded, as did Busch’s lead, with Earnhardt Jr. moving to the point on Lap 75.

Second when the caution flag flew for a third time (on Lap 164), Busch had a problem-filled stop and re-started 18th.

“I screwed up,” Busch said of the incident that saw him drive too deep into his pit box and stop too close to pit wall.

“He thought he was over the line and he was not,” Stevens said. “He went to throw it in reverse and must have still had it in first gear and then it did lurch over the line. Then he had to back up.

“Aside from that he was way too close to the wall. Backing up made no difference on being too close to the wall. It was going to be bad regardless but backing up cost us a couple of additional spots we didn’t need to give up.”

Within 30 laps, however, Busch was back in the top 10, and eventually the top five.

“But it’s slow going when you get into the top seven or eight,” Stevens said. “A couple of guys were able to drive through the field … you have to execute in these races; you can’t make many mistakes.”

Busch, tied for the points lead with Kevin Harvick, has led laps in all four races this season and has finished no worse than fourth. Still, he knows the goal is to get back to Victory Lane.

“You could be happy with top-five and you could be happy with running up front and doing those things,” he said. “Those are the things you’re supposed to do, but ultimately we’ve got to get to Victory Lane.

“We’re close. We’ll see if we can hit one here on the West Coast swing, maybe next week in California, and put ourselves in.”

Posted on March 14, 2016 by

You don’t hear many stories like this in any sport, but this past weekend in Phoenix Wood Brothers Racing crew member Andretti Smith missed his first race since October 1990.

The veteran pit crew member spent his first 24 years in the sport going over the wall with the Wood Brothers, doing everything from carrying to changing tires and finished up gassing his last eight years. When the Wood Brothers aligned with Team Penske two years ago, Smith started handing in the second gas can from behind the wall.

“I did everything over the wall,” Smith said. “I carried from 1990 to ’92, jacked from ’92-94, changed from ’95-05, and then gassed from ’06-’14.”

It was the behind the wall help that sidelined Smith following the Las Vegas race earlier this season.

“I tore my biceps at the top of the shoulder and 50 percent at the elbow. It happened handing in the second can during the Vegas race.”

After 26 straight years of going to the track, you would think it would be very difficult for Smith during Sunday’s race at Phoenix International Raceway to not be there, so … we asked him.

“Honestly, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be,” Smith said. “I went to buy my little girl some T-ball pants and went to her practice. I did catch the race and made sure to watch how we did.”

Smith hopes to be back at the track as early as Martinsville, depending on how his recovery goes.

For more pit crew news, visit PitTalks.com.

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Staff Report

Bottom row, from left: Adam Silver, commissioner of NBA; Robert D. Manfred, Jr., commissioner of MLB; Kathy Milthorpe, chief financial officer, LPGA; Don Garber, commissioner of MLS; and Brian France, chairman and CEO of NASCAR.

Top row, from left: Craig Harnett, chief financial officer for NHL; Dennis Di Lorenzo, Harvey J. Stedman dean of the NYU School of Professional Studies; Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL; and Arthur R. Miller, associate dean of the NYU School of Professional Studies Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Media, and Business. | Photo courtesy of Mark McQueen/NYU

• • •

NASCAR Chairman & CEO Brian France and the Commissioners of the NBA, NFL, MLB and MLS, led a group from across nine major professional sports leagues Monday at New York University to collaborate on social responsibility in sports.

The industry summit was hosted by the NYU School of Professional Studies Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Media, and Business. The intent of Monday’s summit was to bring forth league leaders to exchange ideas in an open forum, and also to explain each sport’s own commitment to social responsibility.

“We are privileged that nine sports organizations, including NASCAR, have participated in this important discussion on the Social Responsibility of Sports at the NYUSPS Tisch Institute summit,” said Tony Ponturo, director of industry relations, NYUSPS Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Media, and Business. “We thank Brian France, Chairman and CEO, for his participation, which underlines his leadership in and his commitment to this ongoing dialogue.”

France, who was joined by Commissioners Roger Goodell (NFL), Rob D. Manfred Jr. (MLB), Don Garber (MLS) and Adam Silver (NBA), discussed NASCAR’s wide range of social responsibility programs such as the NASCAR Foundation and NASCAR Drive for Diversity operated by Rev Racing.

Monday’s event is the latest example of how the leagues are joining forces when it comes to social responsibility. In 2015, NASCAR joined the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and others to partner with RISE, a non-profit started by Dolphins Owner Stephen Ross to promote diversity and equality through sports. France was named to the Board of Directors.

The nine leagues represented Monday at NYU include: LPGA, MLB, MLS, NASCAR, NBA, NFL, NHL, PGA and WNBA.

“We are grateful for the leagues’ open cooperation and encouragement throughout this initial research phase,” said Arthur R. Miller, associate dean of the NYUSPS Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Media, and Business. “With the information we have acquired, we hope to help them move forward in a constructive way in using Social Responsibility of Sports as a game changer for the industry.”

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Staff Report

RELATED: Full race entry list

Brian Vickers will be piloting the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet at Auto Club Speedway for the Auto Club 400 (March 20, 3:30 p.m. ET, FOX), according to the official race entry list, as Tony Stewart is still sidelined with an L1 vertebra burst fracture from an all-terrain vehicle accident.

SHR provided an update on Wednesday saying that Stewart’s doctors are now implementing a rehabilitation regimen to hasten the three-time Sprint Cup Series champion’s recovery.

Vickers took the wheel for Stewart for the Daytona 500 where he finished 26th. Vickers also drove the No. 14 at Las Vegas and finished 36th.

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Nascar

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Carl Edwards has finished second 22 times during his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career.

None were as tantalizingly close to victory as Sunday’s, however.

Edwards, driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota, and Kevin Harvick, driver of the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet, engaged in a slam-bang battle on the final lap of the Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Slam! The two make contact coming through Turn 4 with the checkered flag waving.

Bang! On the frontstretch for the final time they were door-slamming again with those in the grandstands on their feet.

Side-by-side the two flashed across the start/finish line.

And Edwards was — second.

“We made him work for it,” Edwards, 36, said afterward. “That’s more than we’ve been able to do here the last few times.”

If there’s any solace for Edwards, it’s the fact that he pushed Harvick to the limit at a track where the SHR driver has now won eight times.

“I really wish it would have worked out a little bit differently, but it’s a good race,” Edwards said. “I ran into him about as hard as I thought I could without wrecking him, and it ended up being a drag race.

“It was kind of fun coming to the line because I thought, ‘Man, I got him,’ and then he doored me real hard and then he got a little run and then I tried to door him and slow him down, but it just didn’t work.”

The .010-second margin between winner and loser tied for seventh closest in Sprint Cup history since the advent of electronic timing and scoring, according to NASCAR. It was the second time this season the winning margin had been as narrow — Denny Hamlin nipped Martin Truex Jr. in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway as well.

Had it not been for a final caution for Kasey Kahne‘s accident in Turn 3 with only four laps remaining, Edwards might not have gotten a shot at all.

With 20 laps remaining in the scheduled 312-lap race, Harvick led Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Hendrick Motorsports), Edwards, Kyle Busch (JGR) and Denny Hamlin (JGR).

When Kahne brought out the yellow, Edwards and Busch were among those to duck onto pit road for two tires.

Harvick, Earnhardt and Austin Dillon stayed out and restarted first through third, with Edwards and Busch rounding out the top five.

Despite his older tires, Harvick shot out quickly, but by the white-flag lap Edwards was second and closing.

And then it got interesting.

“We were fast and we had tires,” Edwards said. “Dave Rogers (crew chief) made a great call. I got down there and I was going to go to the top and he moved up so I went to the bottom and I thought ‘I’m going to move him out of the way.’ I didn’t want to wreck him.

“Those guys earned their spot; I moved him and it just was a drag race and we just lost.”

Too close to call and too close to forget.

“It’s going to be a tough one to swallow,” said Edwards, “but it was a lot of fun.”

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Staff Report

After a hectic, fender-banging finish Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart was among those on pit road basking in the euphoria of the ending and the fruits of his Stewart-Haas Racing organization’s first victory of the season.

But Stewart, whose final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season has been interrupted by a severe back injury, also had good news to savor in terms of his health.

“You’re not waiting on me as far as my mind, I’m ready to go,” Stewart told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio after Sunday’s Good Sam 500, won by SHR driver Kevin Harvick in thrilling fashion. Four races into his final season, Stewart has yet to turn a lap because of a burst fracture of his first lumbar (L1) vertebra — the uppermost bone in the lower back — in an all-terrain vehicle accident Jan. 31.

“It’s just, we had a good doctor visit this week and the X-rays were good,” he added. “It wasn’t really to see about the bone growth as much as just making sure the rods and screws were staying in place where they wanted them. They were really happy.”

A return to the cockpit is still on indefinite hold for Stewart, who announced last September that 2016 would be his final championship campaign in NASCAR’s premier series. The 44-year-old driver did not travel to the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway, but has been at the track the last three weekends in his capacity as a team owner.

At least one of those visits was made against doctors’ orders, but he’s made progress in other areas unbeknownst to his medical team.

“The funny part was when the doctor told me, or the surgeon cleared me to drive a street car,” Stewart said of his most recent doctor’s visit March 9. “I didn’t have the heart to tell him I’ve been driving for almost three weeks. I’m not really one to follow the doctor’s orders anyway, so we’re fine. I’ve been up all day today and I feel great, so we’re excited about where we’re at right now.”

Stewart told SiriusXM that part of his rehabilitation has involved strengthening his core; he is expected to make a full recovery. Stewart also indicated that his next scheduled doctor’s appointment would come in late April.

“So we’ll just have to wait and see,” Stewart said. “Just have to be patient and doing what I’m doing and he told me to listen to my body, that it will tell me what was too much. I’m pretty hard-headed, so hopefully my back is hard-headed as well and will put up with it. I don’t feel like I’ve been pushing it too hard at all.”

Stewart did enjoy the hard pushing on the last lap, with Harvick edging runner-up Carl Edwards by a hair under the checkered flag in the closest finish in track history. Despite the shoving and fender scrapes in the home stretch, Stewart called the last-lap tactics fair and square.

“What a finish. It was pretty cool watching that last corner there,” Stewart said. “Carl did what he had to do to nudge him, which was perfectly good the way Carl did it. It was awesome. He did it with class and then off of (Turn) four, it’s every man for himself. They got hammering on each other trying to break each other’s momentum, so it worked out good, though. I’m proud of Kevin and those guys.”

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Posted on March 13, 2016 by Staff Report

Brad Keselowski ran into late-race trouble in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, seeing a right-rear tire unravel in the 225th of 312 laps at Phoenix International Raceway.

Keselowski, who started 19th in the 39-car field, was the victim of the latest in a series of tire troubles in the Good Sam 500, the fourth of 36 Sprint Cup races this season. The right-rear tire on his Team Penske No. 2 Ford blew out on the backstretch dogleg, littering the back portion of the 1-mile track with debris.

Keselowski, last week’s winner at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, lost at least two laps as he stopped for repairs. He wound up six laps off the pace at the finish, nursing the No. 2 car home in 29th place.

“We ran in that 10th-place range pretty much the entire race until we cut the tire,” Keselowski said. “That was unfortunate and we aren’t really sure why but there isn’t anything we can really do about it. It is hard to say really where we would have been if that hadn’t happened.”

Earlier in the event, the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolets of Ryan Newman and Paul Menard, plus the Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. encountered tire problems. Goodyear officials said that intense brake heat had melted the tire beads (where the edge of the tire sits on the wheel), causing the rubber to separate.