Cut tire puts Joey Logano in big Chase hole

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Pat DeCola

FORT WORTH, Texas — In order to advance to his second straight Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Joey Logano all but needed to win one of the two remaining races of the Eliminator Round of NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.

The Team Penske driver’s chances were cut in half a mere 10 laps into Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway — by a cut tire.

Running fourth on Lap 10, Logano had a left-rear tire go down in Turn 2, spinning to the bottom of the track and suffering major damage to the left-rear quarter panel of his No. 22 Ford Fusion.

The wreck “shredded everything inside the car,” according to Logano, and although he was able to get back out on track, he was saddled with a 40th-place finish. With one race remaining in the Eliminator Round and 63 points separating him from the cutoff line, Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM) at Phoenix International Raceway is a must-win situation.

“(Today’s race is) not what we needed, we need to win. But we’re not out of it — this team’s not quitting,” Logano said. “… It was just part of it. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. We will be ready for Phoenix. This team is strong. We didn’t take any wind out of our sails today, and we showed how fast this thing was even after we crashed.”

The 25-year-old driver has yet to add a trophy from Phoenix to his quickly-growing collection, but if anyone on the circuit can unseat Kevin Harvick as the “Desert King” it’s a motivated Logano.

The Team Penske driver swept the Contender Round races of the Chase, has six wins on the season and has a consecutive run of four straight top-10 finishes at Phoenix — all of which were Harvick wins.

So how does he feel going into next week, knowing his entire season — which started in February with his first Daytona 500 win — is riding on it?

“Same as this week, right? This was a must-win situation as well,” Logano said. “If we finished second today we would be in the same boat going into Phoenix. I feel great about our chances at Phoenix. It has been a great race track for us in the past. I felt like this track was a great one for us as well. It is unfortunate that we finished how we did.”

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Nascar

Hendrick Motorsports, winner of six of the last nine NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships, fields four teams but only one will be going for the 2015 championship later this month at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

It’s a fact that team owner Rick Hendrick doesn’t like to be reminded of, given his organization’s run of success in the series.

Three Hendrick drivers qualified for this year’s 16-team Chase for the Sprint Cup field — Jeff Gordon, a four-time champ; Jimmie Johnson, winner of six titles; and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Earnhardt is still chasing his first Sprint Cup crown. Teammate Kasey Kahne was the only Hendrick driver who failed to earn a berth in the 10-race playoff.

Gordon qualified for the Championship Round at Homestead thanks to a win last weekend at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Johnson failed to advance past the first round, while Earnhardt was eliminated after the second three-race segment.

With only Gordon still title eligible, how does the organization balance what’s best for the No. 24 team while not ignoring the needs of its other teams in the remaining three races?

“The cool thing about our deal,” Hendrick told NASCAR.com, “is all the stuff is the same. We don’t play favorites over any of them. We give them the best stuff we’ve got — all four of them.

“So it won’t be any different the next few races.”

While Gordon’s efforts are top of mind, it’s just as valuable for his other teams to continue to succeed as the season winds down, Hendrick said.

It’s just as important for Jimmie, Kasey and Dale,” Hendrick said. “Dale’s won twice, Jimmie’s won four times this year, so it would be nice if Kasey could get a win. He’s been running really well here lately, running up in the top five and top 10.

“For all of those teams to end the year on a high is important because that momentum rolls you into next year. You go into the off-season kind of feeling like ‘Man, I can’t wait to go to Daytona.’

“So yeah, it’s important for all of them to run good.”

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Nascar

FORT WORTH, Texas — Jeff Gordon is playing with house money, as the saying goes, having already earned a berth in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship later this month at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Regardless of how the four-time NASCAR champion finishes in tomorrow’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, or next weekend at Phoenix International Raceway, he is already assured of a shot at a fifth title.

So why not put it on cruise control for the next two weeks? With so much riding on the Homestead outcome, why not turn all of the team’s attention on that race?

In part, Gordon said, because there are enough similarities between Texas and Homestead to allow the team to continue to develop its 1.5-mile (intermediate) program.

Of no less importance, the 44-year-old noted, is the simple desire to win.

TMS and Homestead are similar in size and layout, and Goodyear officials noted earlier this month that the same tire combinations will be used for the two races.

“There is definitely some fall-off in these tires … because of the abrasiveness of the track,” Gordon said Friday at TMS. “I think in general we are just trying to step up our mile and a half performance, and that could contribute to this weekend.

“We want to win. We want to keep the momentum going all the way into Homestead. We also need to build up our confidence on the mile-and-a-half … so we can have the confidence we need at Homestead that not only we are strong team, but we are a team that has a car that is performing on the level we need to contend for the win there.”

The nature of NASCAR competition is that the team with the fastest car doesn’t always come out on top. Pit strategies, fuel mileage and other factors can and often do come into play.

“But boy, having a fast race car is the ultimate,” Gordon said.

“That’s what we’re working on this weekend. It gives us the opportunity to step outside the box and experiment more than what we have done in the past. That’s nice, and we will try to take advantage of the position that we are in. But, taking advantage of that is trying to win not only this weekend, but also at Phoenix and Homestead.”

Gordon earned his berth in the championship-determining race by virtue of a win last weekend at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. It was his first victory of the season, and the 93rd of his career.

Seven others — Kurt and Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., defending series champion Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano — will be vying for the remaining three spots in the title round.

Keselowski will start on the pole at Texas; Gordon will start 18th. Truex was the slowest among the Chase drivers in qualifying, and will start 23rd in the 334-lap event (2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR).

Both scheduled practices on Saturday were canceled due to wet track conditions. Teams are unsure how that lack of track time will impact the season’s 34th race.

“We ran a fair amount of race trim yesterday,” Alan Gustafson, Gordon’s crew chief on the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports entry, told NBC Sports on Saturday. “So we’re fairly comfortable where we’re at. You’re always trying to improve, always trying to get more opportunity on the track.

“The unfortunate thing is the conditions will probably not be as good as they would have been before the rain and the jet dryers and everything else.”

But Texas, he said, is the team’s best option to prepare for the season-finale.

“Regardless of whether it’s a perfect situation or not, it’s absolutely the best opportunity we have to (dial in) our program for Homestead,” Gustafson said.

Gordon has one career win at TMS, in 2009. He finished seventh here in this year’s spring race.

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Nascar

RELATED: Sunday’s lineup | See the Chase Grid

Race day info

What: AAA Texas 500
Where: Texas Motor Speedway, 1.5-mile tri-oval in Fort Worth, Texas
Green flag: 2:16 p.m. ET (NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Forecast: Sunny, with a high near 63. East northeast wind 5 to 10 mph. (NOAA.gov)
National anthem: Bárbara Padilla (America’s Got Talent runner-up, Season 4)
Grand marshal: John Krasinski, actor
Honorary Starter: John Daly, Technology Infrastructure, AAA Texas
Distance: 334 laps, 501 miles.
Pit road speed: 45 mph
Caution car speed: 55 mph
Competition caution: Lap 25

On the front row

1. Brad Keselowski, Team Penske No. 2 Ford (196.929 mph)
2. Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet (195.993 mph)

RELATED: See the full lineup

Failed to qualify

Joey Gase, Go Green Racing No. 32 Ford; Reed Sorenson, Premium Motorsports No. 62 Chevrolet

Fastest in practice

First practice: Brad Keselowski, Team Penske No. 2 Ford (197.059 mph) | Results

Second practice: Canceled (wet track)

Final practice: Canceled (wet track)

Key story lines

1. Underdog? Truex Jr. OK with status | Read more

2. Logano moves past Martinsville, focused on Texas | Read more

3. Drivers digest Kenseth penalty impact | Read more

4. Jones an able option for JGR entry | Read more

Former winners in the field

Jimmie Johnson (5); Carl Edwards (3); Greg Biffle, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart (2); Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne (1).

He said it

“I think if you are not in the top five right now you are in a must-win situation. … In reality, we know we will probably need to win two of the next three to win the championship. We have that opportunity and there is no reason to focus on what we don’t have, which is the ability to finish consistent and make it to the next round.” — Brad Keselowski, Coors Light Pole Winner

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Staff Report

RELATED: Updated weekend schedule

Saturday’s two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practices as well as Coors Light Pole Qualifying for the XFINITY Series were all canceled at Texas Motor Speedway due to a damp track and poor drying conditions.

Air Titans were on the 1.5-mile track early, but weepers — water seeping up through the cracks on track — significantly slowed the process, keeping the Sprint Cup cars in the garage for all of Saturday.

Brad Keselowski will start from the Coors Light Pole position in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500. The Team Penske driver will have Kevin Harvick on his outside.

With Saturday’s pair of practice sessions canceled, Friday’s three-round qualifying session and 85-minute opening practice stand as the only track time for Sprint Cup drivers in Sprint Cup vehicles.

The XFINITY Series race took the green after a brief delay from its scheduled 3:30 p.m. ET start time.

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Staff Report

RELATED: Full lineup

NASCAR XFINITY Series qualifying was canceled on Saturday as Air Titans continued to dry a damp Texas Motor Speedway.

After posting the fastest lap (184.363 mph) during Friday’s practice session, Austin Dillon will bring the 40-car field to the green in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM).

Joining Dillon’s No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on the front row will be Sprint Cup Series pole winner Brad Keselowski after posting the second-fastest lap during XFINITY Series practice.

Erik Jones, Friday’s winner in the Camping World Truck Series, will start third in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The No. 7 Chevrolet of Regan Smith and the No. 18 Toyota of Daniel Suarez will start fourth and fifth, respectively.

Series points leader Chris Buescher will line up 12th.

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Staff Report

Members of the NASCAR.com editorial team make their predictions for the second race of the Eliminator Round in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at Texas Motor Speedway (AAA Texas 500, 2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM).

Zack Albert
Kyle Busch: With four top fives in his most recent five Texas starts, Busch has Lone Star momentum that could carry him to Homestead’s championship round. Expect the best Chase of his career to get that much better with six-shooters a-blazin’ in Victory Lane.

Kenny Bruce
Kevin Harvick: The defending champ flexes his muscle and earns a shot at his second crown.

Brad Norman
Kevin Harvick: Forget all the talk about Harvick winning next week at Phoenix — although he may do that, too — to advance in the Chase. The defending series champ will earn his way back to Homestead with a dominant outing on Sunday.

George Winkler
Joey Logano: He had arguably the best car again last week before Matt Kenseth wrecked him, so provided Joey can stay focused within a media circus, he’ll have a great chance at a track where he has won as recently as spring 2014.

Kathy Sheldon
Kyle Larson: Pressure’s peaking among the Eliminator 8, creating a huge distraction. And Larson has top-10 finishes at two of his four career Sprint Cup races at Texas. Larson likes big, fast tracks, and that’s Texas Motor Speedway.

RJ Kraft
Kyle Busch: The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has a solid history at Texas (he won there in 2013) and it’s his best track left on the schedule. Look for “Rowdy” to join Jeff Gordon by locking up a Championship 4 spot.

Pat DeCola
Jimmie Johnson: In or out of title contention, a winless Jimmie Johnson in the Chase just isn’t a thing that happens. The three-time defending victor of this race will add a fourth straight trip to Victory Lane and ride out of Fort Worth wearing yet another black hat.

Taylor Starer
Joey Logano: Logano is coming off a rough week at Martinsville, where his 37th-place finish dropped him to last in the Chase standings. This year’s Daytona 500 winner is looking for redemption, along with a ticket to the Championship 4 Round.

Maggie MacKenzie
Brad Keselowski: The Team Penske driver has been racing under the radar throughout the Chase, but the AAA Texas 500 could change everything. Keselowski, who sits sixth on the Chase Grid, statistically has done well at Texas and earned a top-five result in the spring race.

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Staff Report

RELATED: Play Fantasy Live now

Only three races remain in your Fantasy Live season. Maybe you’re leading the league, maybe you’re bringing up the rear (although we hope not).

More than likely, though, you’re like the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers on the track — fighting for position.

Texas is a big fantasy week, so make sure to set your lineup by using the information below to guide your picks. All stats listed — place differential, fastest laps run and laps led — are Texas-specific and categories used in Fantasy Live scoring.

Good luck this weekend!

Sleeper picks

Jamie McMurray: After a resilient second-place finish at Martinsville last week, McMurray is a perfect sleeper play at Texas. In his past two starts here, he’s finished fifth and sixth. He’s worth the salary spike this week and will pay off big for owners.

Kyle Larson: The other Chip Ganassi Racing driver is worth a look this week, too. Larson has been inconsistent in 2015, but he’s never finished worse than 25th at Texas and owns a +4 place differential, which shows speed. He finished seventh in the fall last year.

Value picks

Austin Dillon: Dillon’s current value status is teetering between value and sleeper play. If you can spare the salary, he’s worth it at Texas. With two consecutive top-20 finishes, Dillon is primed to perform in the Lone Star State.

Ryan Blaney: Blaney comes with both slight risk and big upside. His price tag makes him intriguing as he has produced nine top-25 finishes in 14 starts this year. As long as he finishes the race, he has a chance to finish up front. Blaney posted +30 fantasy point performances in his last two starts on 1.5-mile tracks.

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Reid Spencer

FORT WORTH, Texas — Kevin Harvick has never won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

In 25 starts at the 1.5-mile track, the reigning series champion has scored just five top-five finishes.

But the smart money says Harvick is going to be a player in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM), and the performance of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet in Friday’s knockout qualifying session underscores that assertion.

True, Harvick was 15th fastest in the first round of time trials, posting a lap at 196.178 mph, more than two miles an hour slower than the 198.282 mph recorded by session leader Brad Keselowski.

In the second round, Harvick ran 196.542 mph, good enough for third fastest as other drivers slowed down. In the final round, Harvick posted the second fastest speed at 195.993 mph, securing the outside-front-row starting position next to Coors Light Pole winner Brad Keselowski.

The bottom line was that Harvick maintained his speed as others fell off the pace, suggesting the 2014 series champ will be a factor during Sunday’s second of three races in the Eliminator Round for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

“The team did a great job,” Harvick said after qualifying. “Pretty much ran the same speed in all three rounds there. Didn’t quite have the raw speed in the first round, but this is a race track where you want the car to keep going as long as you can.

“I felt like we had a good start to our race trim practice (on Friday) and going to have a good spot to start on Sunday.”

That should be cause for concern for the other seven drivers still eligible for the series championship. Next on the schedule after Texas is Phoenix, where Harvick has seven victories, including the last four in a row and five of the last six.

After that, it’s the Nov. 22 Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where Harvick won last year to clinch his first championship.

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Full race results

FORT WORTH, Texas — Brad Keselowski‘s love affair with the Lone Star State continued in full force on Saturday with a hard-fought NASCAR XFINITY Series victory in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway.

Keselowski grabbed the lead from Coors Light Polesitter Austin Dillon on Lap 189 of 200 after a restart with 16 laps left in the race. The No. 22 Team Penske Ford finished 1.137 seconds ahead of the No. 88 JR Motorsports entry driven by Kevin Harvick, who passed Dillon for the runner-up spot with four laps left.

The victory was Keselowski’s second of the season, his second at the 1.5-mile speedway and the 34th of his career. The eighth win of the season for the No. 22 Ford (accomplished by Keselowski and teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney) clinched the third straight XFINITY Series owner’s championship for Roger Penske.

“To get our team owner, Roger Penske, No. 4 as far as XFINITY championships go, I’m really proud of that,” said Keselowski, who also won a series title as a driver in 2010. “When I came to (Team Penske) in 2010, we didn’t have any, and now we have four in five years, so I’m really proud of that accomplishment.”

In his last four starts at Texas, Keselowski has won twice and finished second twice. In his last 12 XFINITY Series starts at the Cowtown track, Keselowski has posted 11 finishes of seventh or better.

Victory Lane, however, hardly seemed a likely destination for Keselowski in the early going. Harvick and Kyle Busch dominated the opening laps and came to pit road running 1-2, respectively, for pit stops under caution on Lap 79.

But a broken shifter proved Busch’s undoing, as his No. 54 Toyota was limited to fourth gear and fell out of the running for the victory. Under that same caution, the second of the race, Harvick returned to pit road twice because of a loose wheel and spent the bulk of a subsequent 34-lap green-flag run regaining the positions he lost.

Kyle Larson also took a turn at the front of the field, leading 50 laps before a tire rub finally popped his left rear on Lap 176 and sent his No. 42 Chevrolet spinning through the tri-oval and out of the lead, handing the top spot to Harvick, who was in close pursuit.

Harvick came to pit road with the lead but left in third place under caution on Lap 181, leaving Keselowski and Dillon to battle for the top position after a restart on Lap 185.

“First off, Austin Dillon was really good and he was one of the toughest guys to beat,” Keselowski said in Victory Lane. “He ran a heck of a race. Harvick looked really good, Kyle Busch looked really good and Kyle Larson I thought was going to run away with the race until he had that flat.

“There was a lot of competition out there today, and that makes this win very special for the whole Discount Tire Ford team.”

Erik Jones ran fourth behind Keselowski, Harvick and Austin Dillon, with Ty Dillon taking the fifth spot. Chris Buescher came home 11th but moved closer to the series title. With two races left, he leads eighth-place finisher and reigning series champ Chase Elliott by 24 points.

“It isn’t comfortable yet,” Buescher warned. “It is a cushion that we have, and I guess you average that out to 12 spots per race, so if we go out and finish top-10 the last two, we should be in good shape.

“That would be cutting it too close for comfort, but we need to just have some solid runs the next two weeks.”

Kevin Harvick snagged the runner-up position, finishing just behind fellow Cup-regular Keselowski.

Laps led, since 2005

Fastest laps run, since 2005

Place differential, 2014 fall race

Place differential, 2015 spring race

Sleeper picks

Value picks