Drivers try to break Harvick's lock on Phoenix

Posted on March 12, 2016 by RJ Kraft

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 March 11, 2016 by Nascar

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.

About qualifying, the steering wheel came off. I know my interview was vague, but wanted to tell the team first. I’m thankful for soft walls

— Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) March 12, 2016

“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.

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Nascar

RELATED: Friday at Phoenix, in photos

AVONDALE, Ariz. — There are no plans in place at this time for major changes to Phoenix International Raceway, but track president Bryan Sperber admits, “everybody loves a good rumor.”

“No decision has been made about what we’re going to do,” Sperber told NASCAR.com on Friday, the first day of track activity for this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series races. “We’re evaluating a lot of different options. Once a decision has been made, then we’re going to scream it from the mountaintops. Everybody will know, believe me.”

During Friday’s opening Sprint Cup practice, NASCAR on FOX lead announcer Mike Joy said, “the rumor now is that ISC is going to take and flip-flop this track as has been done at Atlanta and Darlington.”

The change would be made, Joy said, because “these (frontstretch) seats face south which means you are sunbaked all day long. So there is a possibility of making this (backstretch) the frontstretch with new seats, new suites, a new control tower.”

Phoenix is one of 12 facilities owned by International Speedway Corp., and those tracks host 19 of the 36 points races on the current Sprint Cup Series schedule. Phoenix, a 1-mile layout, hosts two of those events.

The facility opened in 1964 but did not host a NASCAR premier series race until 1988. Grandstand seating capacity is listed at 50,000. The last major renovation at the facility came in 2011 when the racing surface was repaved and the layout reconfigured.

The process of requesting funding for facility upgrades begins with the determination of what those projects are “just to get a rough order of magnitude of what those costs would be, and then start to put a business case together around all of that,” said Sperber, who has been steering the ship at PIR since 2002.

“Then when we feel satisfied, when the team at ISC that we are working with also, collectively we feel satisfied that yes, this makes sense, this fits in with the parameters where the company could potentially feel comfortable green-lighting it, then we would take it to senior management and ultimately to the board for hopefully approval.”

At this time, he said, no such plan for upgrades had been submitted to ISC officials. “I hope he (Joy) is right, but we’re a long ways away from me making any kind of announcements about anything.”

Sperber acknowledged that his list of potential upgrades for the facility is a long one. Upgrading the fan experience and how fans interact with the venue is priority one.

“It’s no secret that we are in a market where there are a lot of new stadiums … newer venues,” he said. “Right on par with that, I think, would be to address the shortcomings of our ability to meet the needs of the industry and I would say that ranges from basically just about everything in the infield.”

While “serviceable” in its current form, he admitted “it is not by any means where it should be for a track in a big market like Phoenix, and at an important race track like Phoenix that has two Sprint Cup races, one of which is the semifinal race of the Chase.”

Daytona International Speedway just completed a $400 million upgrade, known as Daytona Rising, which saw the facility completely rebuilt into what officials there now describe as a motorsports stadium.

That money previously earmarked for Phoenix improvements was subsequently redirected to the Daytona project, Sperber said, is incorrect.

“To my knowledge there was never any money … approved for Phoenix and I think I would have known,” he said.

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Nascar

AVONDALE, Ariz. — It’s set to be a memorable weekend for 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick here at Phoenix International Raceway.

Friday, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver was reminded it was the 15-year anniversary of his first NASCAR premier series victory — the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

On Sunday, he will make his 500th consecutive series start, a feat accomplished only by 14 others throughout the history of NASCAR.

He will also be looking to score his eighth career win at the 1-mile track, joining such legendary figures as … well, actually no one.

MORE: Harvick addresses future with Stewart-Haas, Ford

When it comes to PIR, Harvick has no current equals. Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson once won three consecutive races and four out of five at PIR. Hendrick teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. won two in a row (2003-04), then returning to the winner’s circle here last fall.

Jeff Gordon, the four-time series champion now working the TV booth for FOX Sports’ NASCAR coverage, won twice. Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott, Dale Jarrett and Rusty Wallace won once.

“It’s obviously been a great race track for me, personally,” Harvick said Friday morning at PIR. “Really for the last two years at Stewart-Haas Racing, it’s be phenomenal; we’ve won three of the (last) four races, got beat by the rain in the last one.”

Only Johnson has a better driver rating (112.6 vs. 109.9) and average finish (7.7 to 9.3) at PIR.

Harvick, 40, has been successful in spite of a tremendous number of changes. He’s changed teams, the cars have evolved and the racing surface has been altered.

And still he has rolled into town as the driver to beat. Winning four in a row and five of the last seven will result in that sort of thing.

“I think there are still a lot of the same characteristics of the old track, especially on entry into Turn 1 and the way that you go through Turns 3 and 4 and how you use the brakes and apply the pressure to the pedal,” Harvick said. “If they ever move those cones going into the corner, I’m in deep crap — I won’t know where to let off.”

The similarities with tracks out west that he grew up racing — flatter, shorter layouts — plays into his success as well, he said, requiring little change in how he attacks each one.

This year, there’s change yet again, with NASCAR’s 2016 rules package stripping away downforce and sending crew chiefs and engineers scurrying to adapt.

“It’s definitely going to be different (at PIR),” Harvick said. “I think the temperature (90 degrees Friday, but in the 70s by Sunday’s race) is exactly what everybody would want to see with the rules package … the low downforce, the softer tire. Hot weather should make for some ill handling cars to drive. I think as drivers and as a sport, that is really what we are all looking for.”

Third in points through the season’s first three races, Harvick has finishes of fourth, sixth and seventh. He’s finished inside the top-10 in his last seven starts, dating back to last season, but says recent outings haven’t been as solid as they might have appeared.

“We have had a disastrous last two weeks in all honesty,” he said, recalling a bout with a stomach virus last week and the absence of a race engineer the week before.

“We have just had a lot of circumstances. We have got to get everybody healthy and get everybody in sync, but the cars have been plenty fast. We just hadn’t been able to get everything out of them just for one reason or another over the last two weeks.”

Sunday’s Good Sam 500 is scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. ET start (FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR).

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Staff Report

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Running the fastest lap of the day when it counted most, Kyle Busch paced a Joe Gibbs Racing sweep of the top three starting spots for Sunday’s Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Busch covered the one-mile distance in 26.014 seconds (138.387 mph) in Friday’s final round of knockout qualifying, a session interrupted by Jimmie Johnson’s hard wreck against the Turn 2 wall.

The Coors Light Pole Award was Busch’s first of the season (after an inspection failure cost him the top starting spot at Atlanta), his third at Phoenix and the 18th of his career.

“It was a good day,” Busch said. “Unloading off the truck, everything seemed to go real well. I wasn’t sure about our speed in race trim, but then hopped over to qualifying trim and, for as not as good of a feel that the car had, we had some good speed, so that was definitely a plus — being able to have some good laps there and being able to run a really good lap there in the last session.”

Carl Edwards (137.515 mph) was second fastest in the final round, followed by JGR teammate Denny Hamlin (137.426 mph). Kurt Busch (137.394 mph), trying for his third straight pole, will start fourth in Sunday’s race.

Johnson earned the fifth position on the grid with his first lap in the final round, but the six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion went to a backup car after his wreck and will drop to the rear of the field for the start of the race.

Johnson initially said said he wasn’t sure what made his car drive straight into the Turn 2 wall, although he later confirmed his steering wheel came off.

“Certainly, a lot of ‘straight’ in an area of the track that I didn’t need to have straight,” he said. “So, we’ll have to get to the bottom of it and see what went on. But, just a really hard impact to the outside wall.

“I’m thankful that we have SAFER barriers and soft walls. I’m very disappointed, because we had a very fast race car, and the guys have been working so hard to get this thing tuned-up. Thankfully, we have tomorrow to work on the back-up car and try to get it up to speed and get it going, but this is certainly not what we wanted right now.”

Johnson’s crash wasn’t the only calamity in what was a bizarre qualifying session for Hendrick Motorsports. Kasey Kahne’s engine caught fire after the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet posted the third fastest lap in the opening round.

Forced to change engines after smoke spewed from the air cleaner for several minutes. Kahne will join Johnson at the rear of the field for the start of Sunday’s race.

The team surmised later that the engine went into EFI (electronic fuel injection) protection mode and blew up. Kahne was mystified by the problem but said the engine had continued to run after he attempted to shut it off.

Kevin Harvick, who has won three of the last four NASCAR Sprint Cup races at PIR, will have to charge from mid-pack after qualifying 18th on Friday.

“We’ve just been off in qualifying every week so far,” Harvick said. “Just not hitting the balance from practice to qualifying.”

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Staff Report

RELATED: Full practice results

Kurt Busch topped the speed charts during Friday’s first Sprint Cup practice at Phoenix International Raceway with a fast lap of 138.846 mph in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

Right behind him was 2015 Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at 138.467 mph as the top five changed multiple times in the final 10 minutes of the 85-minute session.

Rounding out the top five were Joey Logano in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota and Kevin Harvick in the No 4 SHR Chevrolet.

Sprint Cup Series points leader Kyle Busch was eighth on the leaderboard with a speed of 137.715 mph in the No. 18 JGR Toyota.

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Staff Report

Practice 3 | Results

Ty Dillon led the final XFINITY Series practice on Friday, closing out the sessions at Phoenix International Raceway.

The Richard Childress Racing driver had a fast lap of 133.087 mph on his final run out of a total of 36 laps.

Current XFINITY Series points leader Daniel Suarez came up short to the No. 3 driver with a speed of 132.787 mph.

Erik Jones, who had led the first two practice sessions at the 1.022-mile track, was third-fastest in the closing round at 132.719 mph.

Defending race winner Kyle Busch was fourth-fastest (132.504 mph) and JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier completed the top five with a speed of 132.382 mph.

Along with Busch, other previous race winners in the field are Brad Keselowski and Elliott Sadler, who were seventh (132.129 mph) and 16th-fastest (130.957 mph), respectively.

The XFINITY Series returns to the track Saturday for Coors Light Pole Qualifying at 11:45 a.m. ET (FS1). The Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 takes place at 2:30 p.m. ET (FOX).

Practice 2 | Results

Erik Jones found his way to the top of the leaderboard once again in the second XFINITY Series practice on Friday at Phoenix International Raceway, after topping the first earlier in the day.

Jones ran the 1.022-mile desert track at a blistering clip of 134.053 mph to edge Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and series points leader Daniel Suarez, who clocked in at 133.889 mph. Kyle Busch completed the JGR trio sweep with a best speed of 132.861 mph.

Richard Childress Racing teammates Ty Dillon (132.856 mph) and Brandon Jones (132.763 mph) rounded out the top five. Dillon made a whopping 67 circuits in the practice, the most of any driver.

The session included a lenghty red-flag period as track workers aimed to clean up debris caused by a wreck from the No. 07 driver Ray Black Jr., who broke an oil line and hit the wall.

“It just kind of came out of nowhere,” Black told FS1. “It’s not been a great start for us to the year.”

Practice 1 | Results

Erik Jones zipped to the top of the NASCAR XFINITY Series leaderboard in Friday’s opening practice at Phoenix International Raceway.

Jones drove the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota to a best lap of 134.128 mph on the 1-mile track. His speed was just .041 seconds quicker than second-fastest Ty Dillon, who pushed the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet to a lap of 133.924 mph in preparation for Saturday’s Axalta 200 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM), the fourth race of the XFINITY season.

Ryan Sieg was third-fastest at 133.393 mph with Brad Keselowski and Blake Koch completing the top five.

Points leader Daniel Suarez was 12th-fastest in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota. Sprint Cup regular Kyle Busch, an eight-time Phoenix winner in XFINITY competition and Suarez’s JGR teammate, did not turn a lap in opening practice in the No. 18 Toyota.

The hourlong session was extended five minutes past its scheduled time after it was interrupted by a crash just past the halfway point involving Brennan Poole, who spun at the exit of Turn 4. Poole’s Chip Ganassi Racing No. 48 Chevrolet crunching into the sand barrels protecting the pit wall abutment. The lengthy clean-up at pit entrance left plenty of teams scrambling to turn laps in the final five minutes of the session.

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Staff Report

Stewart-Haas Racing is moving to Fords starting in 2017, creating speculation on the future of some of the team’s drivers.

Kevin Harvick, who has driven a Chevrolet since his first premier series start in 2001, addressed that head-on last Friday morning at Phoenix International Raceway.

“I don’t see any reason why that wouldn’t happen,” Harvick said when asked if he would drive a Ford for SHR in 2017. “For me I’m in the best position that I’ve been in with my team. I feel like I have the best crew chief in the garage. It would be pretty tough to turn around and walk out on everybody who has been a part of building everything that we have built so far.”

Harvick, the 2014 series champion, made his 500th consecutive start Sunday. The 40-year-old went on to win the race at Phoenix in a thrilling finish, holding off Carl Edwards for his eighth win at the 1-mile track.

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Matt Crossman

Before President Ronald Reagan gave the command at Daytona in 1984, he had a fan in Bobby Allison. The feeling was mutual. The NASCAR Hall of Famer professed his respect for the president in 1982 and was later invited to the White House for a state dinner with Reagan and his wife, Nancy, who died earlier this week at age 94. The story below was told by Bobby Allison to Matt Crossman.

When I won Daytona in ’82, Reagan was going through a political deal where guys were really hammering him about he wasn’t a good enough president about something. In Victory Lane at the 1982 Daytona 500, when they stuck the camera in my face and the microphone in my face, I said, “I love Ronald Reagan.”

It went out all over. Ronald Reagan happened to be watching that broadcast that day and he saw that. So then (my wife) Judy and I got invited to go to the White House for a state dinner, which was quite an affair.

We were up in New York for the ’83 championship banquet. Somebody under his command called and said, “The president would like to have you and Judy at the White House for a state dinner.” I had to go rent a tux — we didn’t wear tuxes yet at the awards banquet. I had a regular suit.

I went across the street there in New York City, got a tux, tried on the pants and shirt, bow tie, all that stuff. I told the guy I wear size 10 1/2 shoe. So he grabs a pair of shoes and sticks them in a shoe box and says, “OK, they’re in there.”

I go to Mike Curb’s apartment in Washington D.C. to get dressed. I get my tux all on and my bow tie and my studs. I put my left foot down into my left shoe. I put my right foot down — into another left shoe.

So here I am, with two left feet. Mike wasn’t there. His sister was there. She called him to see if he had a pair of patent leather shoes for a tux. He said, “Yeah, they’re right there. But you know I have little tiny feet.”

Mike Curb had size 7 1/2 shoes. So I put my size 10 1/2 feet into those 7 1/2 shoes. I was so in agony. Nancy Reagan asked me to dance, and I couldn’t dance. I could barely stand up. It hurt to sit down, even.

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (March 11, 2016) — Days after Ford Motor Company celebrated its first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory of the season, the manufacturer will take home its third NASCAR “Driving Business Award.” Ford is the first three-time recipient of the annual award, which is bestowed upon the Official NASCAR Partner that demonstrates leadership and results through its participation in the NASCAR Fuel for Business (NFFB) Council.

The NFFB Council hosted its first meeting of the year last week in Las Vegas, bringing together an exclusive group of nearly 60 Official NASCAR Partners. Ford has been competing in NASCAR since 1949 and has been a proud member of the NFFB Council since 2007. Council members bring key personnel from across their organization to construct customized deals that help address specific business needs.

As a result of Ford’s participation in the Council in 2015, Ford aligned business goals with a number of Official NASCAR Partners, resulting in highly visible partnerships and a number of programs that were successful in “Driving Business.”

“As a proud member of the Council, winning the ‘Driving Business Award’ for the third time is proof, yet again, of how effective the NASCAR Fuel for Business Council platform is at generating a positive return on investment for partners,” said Tim Duerr, Ford Performance motorsports marketing manager. “At Ford, we’re constantly identifying new and innovative ways to add value to our partnerships, and this tool maximizes our B2B strategy in motorsports.”

As one of the most active participants of the NFFB Council in 2015, Ford identified procurement opportunities, optimized chances for NASCAR partners to purchase Ford vehicles for their fleets, offered participation in Ford’s “Partner Recognition Program” and created successful co-marketing programs. Highlights from Ford’s success in 2015 leveraging the NFFB Council include:

• Ford sold more than 3,500 vehicles through its “Partner Recognition Program”

• Co-marketing programs with MillerCoors, Goodyear and SiriusXM result in nearly 900 vehicles sold

• Ford executed multiple deals that eclipsed $5 million in value

• More than two-thirds of Council members participated in business-to-business deals with Ford

“Ford continues to be a preeminent member of the NASCAR Fuel for Business Council, setting the standard as an active and dedicated partner during our quarterly meetings,” said Steve Phelps, NASCAR executive vice president and chief marketing officer. “Committed to winning both on and off the track, Ford’s ability to execute business-to-business deals delivered results worthy of being a three-time recipient of the award.”

Since the NFFB’s 2004 inception, the Council has facilitated hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue and savings to its participating members.

Be sure to watch the next NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race — the Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday, March 13 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM.