Posted on by RJ Kraft

RELATED: Harvick heads to Victory Lane after photo finish | Full race results

 

AVONDALE, Ariz. — For Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Ives, there were no regrets over the decision to stay out under the final caution in the Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday afternoon.

 

An accident in Turn 3 involving his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne on Lap 306, with Earnhardt running in second place, brought out the fifth and final caution flag to set up a NASCAR overtime finish.

 

Eventual race-winner Kevin Harvick, Earnhardt and Austin Dillon stayed out while the Joe Gibbs Racing trio of Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch led a brigade of cars onto pit road for two tires.

 

In the closing two laps, Earnhardt slid back to fifth after starting on the inside, which he said “doomed us.” Harvick and Edwards bumped and battled for the victory with Harvick emerging as the victor by 0.010 seconds.

 

RELATED: Closest finishes in NASCAR history

 

“I like the call we made,” Earnhardt said after the race. “If another car, one more car would have stayed out and been on that outside, second row that would have been the decision maker that that was a good call. The guy in fourth place (Edwards) had tires so he could jump to my right rear and get on me and pinch me down. He’s got new tires, I got old tires. He’s going to win.”

 

Ives told NASCAR.com that the gamble to stay out was one they needed to take, but not what he was initially thinking.

 

“I was hoping that more people would stay behind us and we could have just raced the 4 (Harvick),” Ives said on pit road. “At the time, I wasn’t going to tell him to do the opposite. You come down pit road and you never know what is going to happen. The plan was two tires and I just called him off there at the end. I was hoping there would be a row or two in between us but there wasn’t. That’s the gamble you got to take to try and win one of these races.”

 

And Earnhardt backed Ives’ decision all the way.

 

“I know our fans are wondering why we made the call we made, but it’s not an easy deal,” Earnhardt said. “The guy that won the race stayed out. It’s not easy to make those calls so I don’t hold anything against Greg and I love what he did and I back it. Second, fifth. I mean who the hell cares in the long run, really. We want to win.”

 

The start of the race saw Junior moving through the field at a blistering clip in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. After starting the day 26th (although scored in 24th at the time of the green flag since teammates Kahne and Jimmie Johnson had to move to the rear of the field due to qualifying mishaps), Earnhardt wasted no time moving up the field. By Lap 21, he was in the top 10. By Lap 60, he was in second. By Lap 75, he had caught Kyle Busch and taken the race lead, which he held for 34 laps on the day.

 

MORE: Relive the race day in photos

 

The loop data from the day backed up how fast Earnhardt’s car was. The 41-year-old had the second-fastest laps run (62) as well as the fourth-most quality passes (22) on the afternoon.

 

And that came amid Junior admitting he burned the front brakes off of the car in the middle of the race.

 

“Lost a lot of track position (in the middle of the race) just because I couldn’t run hard,” Earnhardt said. “We fixed that and got the car running good and I took care of it so we were good at the end of a long run. What a car.

 

” … This new aero package gives you the ability to pass. I would have never been able to do that with that old aero package. I would have been stuck behind them guys. What we’re doing in the sport, you’re seeing some good racing.

 

“It’s been a blast. I had a good time today.”

 

MORE: Edwards: ‘We made (Harvick) work for it’ | Tire trouble for Kes at Phoenix

Posted on by Nascar

MORE: Johnson to backup after wreck | Full race lineup


AVONDALE, Ariz. — NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jimmie Johnson said it was driver error and not a mechanical malfunction that caused him to crash into the wall Friday during qualifying for Sunday’s Good Sam 500 race here at Phoenix International Raceway.



“This one’s on me,” Johnson said Saturday morning, meeting with the media outside his Hendrick Motorsports team hauler prior to the start of practice. “Last night … with the chaos of the guys trying to get the backup car out we didn’t have a chance to look at things closely. This morning … they have and this one’s on me.”

TECH TALK: Examining Johnson’s mishap



Johnson, 40, had just completed one qualifying lap during the third and final round of qualifying. At the time, he had posted the third fastest speed of the round before his No. 48 Chevrolet shot up the track and into the wall.



The area of the car’s impact is protected by SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) Barrier. Johnson was not injured.



“As I came in Turn 1, working my way through the center of the corner and jumped in the gas … I guess I pull on the wheel when I do that, because I pulled on the wheel and it just came off in my hands,” the six-time premier series champion said. “So I’m sitting there with no steering, holding the steering wheel staring at the blue wall and was along for the ride at that point.



“I got to the brakes briefly; I remember looking down at the steering shaft and seeing it spinning and I knew there was no way I could get the wheel back on. It was all happening so quick.”



Johnson’s incident brought out the red flag to halt qualifying, and only a brief amount of time remained in the session once it resumed.



The uncertainty of why the steering wheel came off, and the subsequent investigation by the team, led to the delay in providing a detailed explanation of what had happened, Johnson said.



“I didn’t want to falsely blame something or someone or whatever the situation may be,” he said. “Honestly, it’s such a delicate topic I just wanted to be able to talk to my crew guys and look through everything first before it became national news.



“Even last night it was very difficult to find out what the cause was because of the tight time frame trying to get the back-up car out. This morning the picture is crystal clear what happened. I just didn’t get the wheel locked on.”



Going forward, Johnson said he would make “small changes” in his routine and preparation, including having an additional line marked on the steering wheel unit and shaft to ensure that it is fully engaged.



It’s a move, he said, former teammate Jeff Gordon suggested Friday evening when the two discussed the crash.



“I’m going to put that into effect right away,” Johnson said.



Johnson likened the helpless feeling to that of a crash he was involved in at Watkins Glen in 2000, when the brakes on his XFINITY (then Busch) Series entry failed.



“There are only very few moments in my racing career I have had that moment where you are just totally helpless and along for the ride,” he said. “It’s not a fun position to be in.



“I’ve always believed that my belts, my HANS, my helmet being buckled and my steering wheel are my responsibility. Members on the team say ‘hey this one is on me’; that is not the case it’s the driver’s responsibility to make sure he is safe. Those three or four connection points are my life line. 



“This is on me. I am completely shocked that is happened to me. Out of racing on four wheels my entire life I’ve always had a wheel that has come on and off, I’ve never had this happen. I’ve seen it happen to others and I’ve thought ‘how in the world does that happen,’ well it just happened to me. It’s just a freak thing.”



Johnson will officially be listed as starting fifth, however because he will go to a backup entry, he will start from the rear of the 39-car field.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Full results from Saturday’s race

 

The Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota, driven to a second-place finish Saturday by NASCAR XFINITY Series rookie Erik Jones, failed post-race inspection at Phoenix International Raceway.

According to NASCAR officials, the No. 20 car was found to have rear alignment measurement issues in the post-race laser inspection.

A similar issue arose for the Richard Childress Racing No. 2 Chevy team two weeks ago at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The team’s crew chief, Danny Stockman, was fined $5,000.

 

Any potential penalties for the JGR No. 20 team would be announced Wednesday after NASCAR’s competition department meeting next week.

Jones finished second in Saturday’s Axalta 200, 2.286 seconds behind race winner Kyle Busch. Points leader Daniel Suarez finished third to complete a 1-2-3 sweep for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Full lineup, qualifying speeds



Erik Jones captured his first 21 means 21 Pole Award of the season in Saturday’s XFINITY qualifying, speeding around Phoenix International Raceway at 136.789 mph in the No. 20 Toyota. Jones has started the last two XFINITY races from the No. 2 position.


Jones’ Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Daniel Suarez (136.643 mph) and Kyle Busch (136.415 mph) will start in the second and third positions, respectively, in Saturday’s Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 at Phoenix International Raceway (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX).



Ty Dillon will start fourth (135.399 mph) while Chase Elliott starts fifth (135.227 mph).


Jones was fastest in both the second and third rounds of qualifying en route to the fourth XFINITY pole of his career.


Jones had to speed past Suarez, whose first-round speed of 134.489 mph in the No. 19 Toyota was better than Jones’ 133.353 in that round.



Ryan Ellis wrecked in the first round with his No. 15 Ford, and did not finish.



Josh Reaume and Todd Peck failed to qualify.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: See Sunday’s full lineup | Complete weekend schedule

 

Final practice | Full results

 

Kevin Harvick posted the fastest lap in final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway.

 

Harvick, who has logged seven of his 31 career premier series wins at the 1-mile Arizona oval, clocked a fast lap of 136.317 mph in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet. He’ll start 18th in Sunday’s Good Sam 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM), the fourth of 36 races this year.

 

Kurt Busch, another former Phoenix winner and Harvick’s SHR teammate, was second-fastest at 136.173 mph but reported a vibration in the No. 41 Chevrolet. Busch will start fourth in Sunday’s main event. The two Stewart-Haas teammates also topped Saturday’s opening practice, but in reverse order.

 

Defending Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch was third-fastest in the 50-minute session at 136.096 mph in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota. “Rowdy” will bring the field to green for the 312-mile race after earning the Coors Light Pole Award.

 

Rookie Chase Elliott (136.044 mph) and Austin Dillon (135.947) completed the top five on the single-lap speed chart.


Kasey Kahne , who posted the sixth-fastest single lap, was atop the 10-lap averages category in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet. Kurt Busch was second-best in the 10-lap heading, followed by Martin Truex Jr. , Paul Menard and Kyle Busch in the top five.

 

Jimmie Johnson was 13th-fastest as he continued to sort out a reserve Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevy, turning the most laps (60) of any driver in final practice. Johnson wrecked in his primary car during Friday qualifying after his steering wheel came unattached, sending his No. 48 entry into the Turn 1 wall.

 

Practice 2 | Full results

 

Kurt Busch‘s No. 41 Chevrolet soared to the top of the leaderboard during Saturday’s opening practice session, clocking in at a best speed of 137.436 mph. The Stewart-Haas Racing wheelman qualified fourth during Friday’s Coors Light Pole Qualifying at Phoenix International Raceway. 

Seven-time Phoenix winner — and Busch’s SHR teammate — Kevin Harvick was next, soaring around the 1-mile track at 136.685 mph in his No. 4 Chevrolet.

Third-quickest was the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Carl Edwards (136.493 mph) with the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. right behind him in fourth (136.389 mph).

Rookie Chase Elliott propelled his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet around the track at 136.379 mph, rounding out the top five. 

Pole-sitter Kyle Busch was 19th-fastest during the session (135.486 mph) with his JGR teammate Denny Hamlin just ahead of him in the 18th spot (135.629 mph).

Michael Annett crashed in the first half of the 55-minute session, bringing out the red flag, and will resort to a backup car for Sunday’s Good Sam 500. Jimmie Johnson (11th, 135.834 mph), too, will race in an alternate car after crashing during Friday’s qualifying session. 

 

MORE: Previewing Phoenix | Harvick: King of Phoenix

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Full race results

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Kyle Busch calls it a “knack.”

His rivals might refer to the continuing saga of Kyle Busch at Phoenix International Raceway as absolute dominance.

But the record books will show Saturday’s result in the Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 as yet another NASCAR XFINITY Series victory for the Busch juggernaut.

Leading 175 of 200 laps at the 1-mile race track, Busch notched his ninth victory in 20 starts at PIR. That’s the highest total number of wins by a single driver at an active XFINITY Series venue. (Mark Martin holds the all-time single track record with 11 victories at Rockingham.)

In winning for the third straight time this season and the 79th time in his career — extending his own series record — Busch has now led 493 of a possible 563 laps in his three 2016 starts.

“It’s just a knack for this place, I guess,” Busch said. “We’ve been off a little bit on the (Sprint) Cup side for years, but this year we seem to be a lot better, and last year we improved a lot. But the XFINITY program has always been good.”

In fact, it was good for the entire Joe Gibbs Racing organization, which started 1-2-3, with pole winner Erik Jones and Daniel Suárez leading Busch in qualifying, and finished 1-2-3, with Jones and Suárez trailing Busch to the finish line by 2.285 and 9.980 seconds, respectively.

Busch, Suárez and Jones also ran 1-2-3 in that order a week earlier at Las Vegas, a further indication of just how much JGR has gapped the competition.

Justin Allgaier was a distant fourth in Saturday’s race, more than 14 seconds behind the winner.

“I can’t say enough about (crew chief) Chris Gayle and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing,” Busch said. “Obviously, (they) did a great job for me, giving me the car that I needed and prepared everything for today’s race.

“We didn’t sit on the pole, but our teammates did. They were obviously really fast, and they made me run hard all day long. I mean, there was nothing left in this car. It’s all used up. Instead of having to go back to the shop and freshen her up a little bit, they’re going to have to rebuild it.”

The race ran without caution for the final 99 laps, and on Lap 172, Jones caught Busch in traffic and pulled alongside. But Busch regained control of the top spot and led Jones to pit road for a two-tire green-flag stop on Lap 177.

That stop proved crucial, with Busch gaining more than three seconds in the exchange.

“I knew we were in a little bit of trouble when he rolled by, right when we were just trying to leave the box,” Jones said. “I didn’t know how much time that was going to equal to, but by the time we got up to speed, he was four or five seconds ahead. It was too much to run back down in that amount of time.”

Suárez expanded his series lead to eight points over Elliott Sadler, who finished eighth. Chase Elliott followed JR Motorsports teammate Allgaier in fifth, with the Dillon brothers, Ty and Austin, running sixth and seventh.

Brad Keselowski and Brennan Poole completed the top 10. With three victories to its credit, the No. 18 JGR Camry leads the owners’ standings by seven points over the No. 88 JR Motorsports all-star car driven by Elliott on Saturday.

In post-race inspection, Jones’ No. 20 was cited for rear toe outside of tolerance when measured by the laser inspection station. NASCAR will address possible sanctions at next week’s competition meeting.

 

The series heads to Auto Club Speedway for the NASCAR XFINITY Series 300 on Sat., March 19th at 4 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM).

 

Contributing: Staff reports

 

RELATED: JGR No. 20 team fails post-race inspection at Phoenix

Posted on by RJ Kraft

RELATED: Full results | Relive the day in photos

 

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Four races into his NASCAR XFINITY Series tenure at JR Motorsports, Justin Allgaier sees the progress being made on his No. 7 Chevrolet team. But he’s hungry for more.



 


The 29-year-old driver scored his best finish of the young 2016 season with a fourth-place showing in the Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday. The top-five finish moves him up one spot in the standings to fourth, just 12 points behind standings leader Daniel Suarez.

“I feel like we should have been third,” Allgaier said on pit road after the race. “To bring the car with a solid top-five is a good day.”




After qualifying 10th, the Illinois native found himself in the top five by Lap 30 and as high as the top three by Lap 60. A call for two tires on a pit stop under the race’s third and final caution at the midpoint of the 200-lap event lifted him to second.



Keeping — and improving on — Allgaier’s track position was the reason behind the call, crew chief Jason Burdett explained after the race.

“We have to maintain that track position as best we can,” Burdett told NASCAR.com. “We had a really good car today. The Brandt Chevrolet was fast for most of the day, but if you get back in traffic you are just bogged down. It’s just hard to get back going again and pass all those guys.



”Our opportunity there was to get two tires. Obviously, the Gibbs guys are really good right now — the class of the field.”



Allgaier was able to make the two-tire play hold up to run in the top five for much of the remainder of the race. The JRM driver was the highest finisher that does not wheel a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as Kyle Busch, Erik Jones and Suarez swept the top three spots.

With Busch rattling off three straight victories in the XFINITY Series and two straight top-three sweeps for JGR, the organization is hard to stop right now. Burdett is taking the long view on how to catch up to them.



“We just got to keep working on it,” Burdett said. “[It] gives us an opportunity with the Chase format in the XFINITY Series. It will give us the chance to keep working, keep getting our cars a little bit better, little bit better and then by the time we get to Kentucky (site of the Chase opener in the XFINITY Series) we’ll be hopefully on par with those guys, and we can go and race them hard.”



The importance of getting back to Victory Lane in this new format is not lost on Allgaier. He has three career wins in the series, with the last coming in 2012.

“Obviously, we’d love to get a win so you’re locked in and can try some different things,” Allgaier said. “At the same time, if we keep plugging along and doing the things that we’re doing, I think we’ve got a great shot of being in the Chase at the end of the year. If we can do that, I think we can keep building on the momentum that we’ve got already and be a threat to hopefully win the Chase.”

Posted on by RJ Kraft

Related: Drivers with 499 or more consecutive starts

 

AVONDALE, Ariz. — When the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series comes to Phoenix International Raceway, Kevin Harvick is the presumptive favorite. 

The 2014 champion has won five of the last seven races at the 1-mile track (two of those coming with Richard Childress Racing and three with Stewart-Haas Racing). In his four races with SHR here, Harvick has led an astounding 74 percent of the laps (855 of 1,155 laps run) with his lone non-win being a runner-up finish in a rain-shortened race last November.

 

The next closest in laps led during that stretch? Joey Logano at 123 laps.

Harvick’s run at Phoenix is not uncommon. Jimmie Johnson enjoyed a run of three straight wins at the track (November 2007 to November 2008) and added another win in November of 2009 for four wins in five races.

Harvick, himself, provided a little insight into what it’s like racing someone who has a hold on a track much as he does now and Johnson had a few years ago.

“I don’t ever think about beating one person ever because this garage is too tough to beat one person,” Harvick said. “When one person is going to win half the races then we might do that. Right now, there are just so many people that can win on a given week.”   

Needless to say, Harvick has been dominant and shows no signs of slowing down in the desert. He will roll off 18th in Sunday’s Good Sam 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), but still will be a force to be reckoned with as evidenced by his win from starting 19th in November of 2012. So, how do drivers tame the No. 4 Chevrolet in their pursuit of a victory on what has been Harvick’s personal playground in recent years?

The answers vary, but also strike a similar tone.

Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (Two wins at Phoenix):

“That is tough when someone figures a track out that well. … For anyone to be that dominant at a track, it really must have something special. But yeah, I think the whole field is chasing those guys and chasing Kevin (Harvick) and that 4 car at this race track. We’ll learn everything we can. We’d like to end that. I love winning here.”

Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (Four wins at Phoenix):

“It’s tough. There’s no way around it. I was probably one of the few that was screaming and yelling, ‘Don’t change this place, don’t repave it, don’t reconfigure it!’ I feel like we’ve had some good showings here. But coming to this track, I definitely put that No. 4 car as my No. 1 pick. I think we’re closing the gap some. The Penske cars usually shine here, so I expect those two to be pretty good. … You start thinking it through and you look at Kyle (Busch) and his success here, which then opens up the JGR cars. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I guess if I’m forced to, the No. 4 car is the one that we’ll all be paying close attention to.”

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (One win at Phoenix):

“He’s obviously been really, really good here over the years. I would not discount him (Harvick) being able to drive up from his starting position. I don’t think you can ever count out Harvick. They did unload (Friday) and they were off a bit from unload, so not sure what’s kind of going on there, but the 41 (Kurt Busch) is fast so I’m sure they can figure it out pretty quick, and they’ll be right there when it counts on Sunday.”

Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford on paying attention to specific teams (No wins at Phoenix; has the third-best average finish (5.5) in the past four races at Phoenix): 

“There is a balance between watching other teams and focusing on your own. A lot of people would tell you to just do your own thing the best you can and you will be all right but that is not really how sports work. You line up against other teams all the time. So I think you have to keep your focus on yourself and the other teams at the same time and I guess in one way it can make you kind of cross-eyed.”

 

MORE: Harvick addresses future with Stewart-Haas

Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: Full schedule for Phoenix | See the schemes hitting the track

 

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson was involved in a hard, single-car crash Friday at Phoenix International Raceway during qualifying for Sunday’s Good Sam 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Johnson, 40, was on his second qualifying lap during the third and final round of the session. He had posted the third fastest speed of the round before his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet shot up the track and into the wall in Turn 2. He later confirmed on Twitter that his steering wheel came off.

The area of his car’s impact was covered with the SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) Barrier.

“Don’t know for sure,” Johnson said initially after being evaluated and released from the infield medical center. “Certainly a lot of straight in an area of the track that I didn’t need to have straight. So we’ll have to get to the bottom of it and see what went on.

“Just a really hard impact to the outside wall. (I’m) thankful that we have SAFER Barriers and soft walls. We’re really disappointed because we had such a fast race car and the guys have been working so hard to get this thing tuned up.”

The team will have two practice sessions on Saturday to attempt to dial in the backup car. “But certainly not what we wanted right now,” he said.

“Until we can look at data and kind of understand what went on … certainly something happened and the car went straight; I just don’t know what caused it at this point.”

Johnson’s incident brought out the red flag, and only a brief amount of time remained in the session once it resumed.

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin swept the top three starting spots. Johnson will officially be listed as starting fifth; however because he will go to a backup entry, he will start from the rear of the 39-car field.

It was a final surprisingly difficult turn of events for the four-team Hendrick organization on Friday. Teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. failed to advance out of the first round; Kasey Kahne managed to advance to Round No. 2, but brought out the red flag after his No. 5 Chevrolet developed a fatal engine issue, keeping him from making a second-round attempt. Kahne will be listed as 24th on the grid, but as with Johnson, he’ll drop to the rear for the start.

Rookie Chase Elliott advanced into the second round and will start 17th.

Johnson’s 76 career wins is tops among active drivers for NASCAR’s premier series, and four of those come from the Arizona-based track.