Kyle Busch earns Coors Light Pole at Phoenix

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Staff Report

Kyle Busch topped the leaderboard for Saturday’s Coors Light Pole qualifying, earning his 47th series pole of his career and fourth of the season. Busch wheeled his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to a fast lap of 138.504 mph.

Joining “Rowdy” on the front row for the DAV 200 Honoring America’s Veterans (4 p.m. ET, NBCSN/Live Extra) will be the No. 33 of Austin Dillon after posting the second-fastest lap during the session (137.054 mph).

Joe Gibbs Racing had two more of its drivers in the top five with Erik Jones (137.002 mph) and Daniel Suarez (136.137 mph) taking third and fifth, respectively.

The No. 22 of Brad Keselowski will line up fourth after the Team Penske driver brought his Ford around the 1-mile track with a speed of 136.887 mph.

Current points leader Chris Buescher placed seventh in his No. 60 Ford (135.895 mph).

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Staff Report

Practice 3 | Full results
Kurt Busch proved Kevin Harvick wasn’t the only Stewart-Haas Racing car favored for the win Sunday, as he swept both Sprint Cup Series practices on Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway. Busch’s No. 41 Chevrolet zipped around the Arizona track at 140.029 mph to nab the fastest spot in the final session.

Polesitter Jimmie Johnson made a late run to briefly top the leaderboard in Saturday’s final practice session at Phoenix International Raceway. His No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet’s fast lap of 139.389 mph ultimately earned the second spot.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. posted the third-fastest speed, his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet flying around the 1-mile oval at 139.130 mph. Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates’ Kyle Larson nabbed the fourth spot with a fast lap of 138.910 from his No. 42 Chevrolet.

Reigning series champion Kevin Harvick, who has won four straight races at Phoenix, rounded the 1-mile oval at 138.905 mph to pick up the fifth-fastest speed.

Erik Jones, who is filling in for Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Matt Kenseth this weekend, showed plenty of speed in the No. 20, as he posted a speed of 138.905 mph to pick up the sixth spot.

Jeff Gordon was the slowest of the eight remaining Chase drivers in the final session, maneuvering his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at 137.905 mph to rank 20th-fastest. With his win at Martinsville two weeks ago, Gordon is the only driver locked into the championship round at Homestead.

The Sprint Cup Series is back on track Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET for the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 (NBC, MRN, SiriusXM).

Practice 2 | Full results

Kurt Busch opened the day on a strong note, topping the first of two Sprint Cup Series practice sessions on Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway.

Busch, who qualified second for Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC/Live Extra, MRN, SiriusXM), paced the morning run through with a best speed of 139.627 mph.

The Stewart-Haas Racing driver’s fellow Chase for the Sprint Cup competitor, Carl Edwards, was second on the charts at 139.260 mph.

Kyle Larson (139.152 mph), Kevin Harvick (139.147 mph) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (139.028 mph) rounded out the top five. Friday’s practice leader and Coors Light Pole Award winner, Jimmie Johnson, was sixth at 138.878 mph.

The rest of the Chase field placed as follows: Martin Truex Jr. (8th, 138.680 mph); Joey Logano (9th, 138.680 mph); Kyle Busch (13th, 138.265 mph); Brad Keselowski (14th, 138.233 mph) and Jeff Gordon (18th, 138.021 mph).

Sprint Cup cars are back on track for final practice at 2:30 p.m. ET with coverage on NBCSN/Live Extra.

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Staff Report

RELATED: Play Fantasy Live now

There are only two races remaining in your Fantasy Live season, which means your lineup picks are at a premium. No more guessing — it’s time to make ground late in your league.

Sure, we know Kevin Harvick is great at Phoenix. But you have five spots to fill on your Fantasy Live lineup, and you may not want the Stewart-Haas Racing driver anyway. 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 Phoenix-specific and categories used in Fantasy Live scoring.

Last week the data showed Jimmie Johnson was a smart pick for Texas, and he won the race. We also recommended Austin Dillon as a value play, and that turned out OK, too.

Good luck this weekend!

Sleeper picks

Aric Almirola: Is Almirola the new Mr. Consistency? He has been extremely productive at Phoenix, stringing together seven consecutive top-20 finishes in the desert. The value for Almirola exceeds his asking price in almost all season-long leagues, including Fantasy Live.

Erik Jones: There are a couple of reasons the kid is considered a strong sleeper play at Phoenix. One: He’s driving a No. 20 car that is normally a top-priced option; as we’ve seen all year, it’s a fast ride. Two: Jones showed speed all last week at Texas and has proven he has the skills to run in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Value picks

AJ Allmendinger: Known as a road-course specialist, Allmendinger has been a creative and sneaky good value play lately with two consecutive top-20 finishes. Dinger averages 40.5 fantasy points over his past three races and his asking price puts him into value territory.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: His price tag has been rising, and rightfully so. Stenhouse Jr. has eight top 25s in his last nine races. He’s also been productive at Phoenix, with five top 20s in five career desert starts.

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Zack Albert

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Heading into the next-to-last race of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs, Kyle Busch holds a second-place rung in the standings as the highest points-earner without an automatic berth in the championship round.

When the green flag falls Sunday, his 10th-place starting spot — combined with the relative starting positions of his Chase competition — will instantly relegate him to the last driver in, his cushion above the cut line chopped from 11 points to five.

Busch knew his plight just minutes after Friday’s Coors Light Pole Qualifying at Phoenix International Raceway. In his snap assessment of the situation, the 30-year-old driver said he has a target in mind for where he’ll need to be after 312 laps Sunday, determining if the closest brush with a premier series championship of his 11-year career will have a chance at coronation next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“Right now for us, our best scenario is to run hard and run strong and do what we know how to do and come out of here with a better than seventh-place finish. I think that’ll get it done,” Busch said. “We’ll see how that goes. I think that we should be able to run that well and we’re just going to race the race, race our own race right now until it gets down to about the last 100 laps, and we’ll start seeing what we need to do to make up spots, but literally, man, I give it everything I got every lap anyway. I don’t know that I’ll be able to make up from if we’re running 12th to get to that seventh mark. I don’t know that I’ll be able to make that up.”

Busch’s improbable path to potentially snagging a seat at the title-eligible table — from severe leg injuries in February, an 11-race absence, a Chase exemption, and a summertime winning spree — reaches another crucial test in Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM).

Saturday’s pair of Sprint Cup practices took on extra importance, as Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing crew searched for more speed out of his No. 18 Toyota, which hovered closer to the fringes of the top 10 than the top five in Friday’s warm-ups. Though he has finishes of fifth (at Martinsville) and fourth (at Texas) in the bank for this three-race elimination series, Busch said he’s not counting anything as a given.

“We’ve gotta be … it’s definitely going to have to be better than 10th,” Busch said, acknowledging some of the benefits of teammate Matt Kenseth‘s test here last month. “We’ll see how we race, or how everybody else races, but according to qualifying and speeds from practice right now, we need to be smart about what we do (Saturday) and get a good race car going.”

Busch has plenty of history in Victory Lane at the 1-mile track with 11 NASCAR national series wins (one in Sprint Cup, eight in XFINITY and two in Camping World Truck Series competition). Racing for a Cup championship this late in the season, though, is a new experience.

Busch has made strides by surviving the stages in the second year of the Chase’s still-new format, but he’ll need another scrappy effort Sunday to emerge from the jumble near the cutoff point, with just 11 points separating second through fifth — in order: himself, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Carl Edwards — in the standings.

His team had some of the numbers crunched shortly after his place on the starting grid was settled Friday. Will he want status updates in close to real time come Sunday?

“Not till later in the game,” Busch said. “Really, like I said before, I mean what am I going to do different? I don’t know if I’m going to drive from 12th or 15th, if that’s where we’re running, I don’t know if I can drive there from seventh. I give it everything I got anyway.”

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — If Saturday’s DAV 200 Honoring America’s Veterans had been a court case, 39 NASCAR XFINITY Series drivers would have pleaded “no contest.”

The exception was polesitter Kyle Busch, who led 190 of 200 laps in registering a dominating victory at Phoenix International Raceway, his eighth in 19 starts at the track.

In a race that saw defending series champion and seventh-place finisher Chase Elliott trim XFINITY leader Chris Buescher‘s margin in the standings from 24 to 18 points, Busch ran away with the event, crossing the finish line 3.097 seconds ahead of runner-up Brad Keselowski .

After winning his 47th pole earlier in the day (extending his series record), Busch picked up his 76th XFINITY victory (again, extending his series record). The driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota now has led 1,636 laps at PIR, second most at any track behind Bristol (1,768).

The win was Busch’s fifth from the pole at PIR.

“It wasn’t particularly hard, obviously,” Busch said about the ease of his victory. “I do remember that there was one other time here I think I led 200 of 200 (laps) … We’ve done that here before. Today was close. We just weren’t able to get good enough pit stops to come out of the pits with the lead each time and hold the lead that we had.

“But, all in all, it was a very fast race car — flawless, really.”

Keselowski’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford was fast but not in Busch’s class.

“We had a great effort,” Keselowski said. “We had a great day on pit road. The guys on the pit crew did a great job there. We gained spots, so that was really cool and real fun, but we just needed a lot more speed to run with the 54. Either way, it was a pretty solid day.”

JGR drivers Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez ran third and fourth, respectively, giving the organization three of the top four finishing positions. Ty Dillon came home fifth, followed by Regan Smith .

Buescher finished 13th, one lap down, and lost a fourth of his points lead over the reigning champion. But he can clinch the series title with a finish of 13th or better next Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“In the grand scheme of things, we need to go to Homestead and we need to have a good day and do what we did there last year — just run around and stay out of trouble,” Buescher said. “Run fifth — that would be just fine.

“When you look at the averages and points gained versus our needed position to finish, our window is getting bigger as we go through these last four races, so that makes me feel good as we go to Homestead. Even though they gained some points, honestly, unless something crazy happens at Homestead it’s just not going be enough.”

Busch, on the other hand, is in a dogfight for one of three available spots in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship Round next week at Homestead. But first he’ll have to survive Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at PIR (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC).

“We got our M&M’s Camry a little bit better there in Happy Hour,” Busch said of Saturday’s final Sprint Cup practice session. “It was good. I’d like it to be better than it was, but we’ll see how it stacks up in the race. I learned some things here today that will help me, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Busch, who is second on the Chase Grid, will start 10th in Sunday’s race.

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Nascar

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Jeff Gordon said he thought they were joking.

A 10-race, season-ending playoff to determine the champion? Yeah, right.

Turns out, NASCAR officials weren’t kidding.

“The one thing that I will never forget is the moment that I was standing on the dock in Key West, Florida, on a NASCAR boat trip with (NASCAR Chairman and CEO) Brian France and (Vice Chairman) Mike Helton and they told me what they were planning on doing with the Chase format and I laughed in their faces because I thought that was the most hilarious thing I have ever heard of,” Gordon said Friday at Phoenix International Raceway, which will be renamed Jeff Gordon Raceway for Sunday’s race. “Because I thought it was a joke, then I quickly realized that was not a joke and I was pulling the laughs back into my mouth. I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ And they said, ‘Yes.’ Of course I didn’t like it. I felt like point system was just fine for me.”

Little wonder. Before the arrival of the Chase for the Sprint Cup format, Gordon had won four championships, and the Hendrick Motorsports driver narrowly missed a fifth by just 37 points. A season-long battle to determine the championship suited his driving style, and his team, just fine.

Since the inception of the format, Gordon has failed to bring home the series’ biggest trophy. He’ll try to remedy that situation next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, site of the Ford EcoBoost 400 and the championship-determining race. The 44-year-old, who will retire from full-time competition at season’s end, earned one of the four available spots in the finale by virtue of his win at Martinsville (Virginia) Speedway last month.

“There is no doubt in my mind that it suited my driving style,” Gordon said of the pre-2004 format. “The reason I was able to win at so many different tracks was the consistency that our team had and that I had at all the different tracks. That paid off when you were trying to win the championship under a 36-race schedule.

“I didn’t want to see it come down to that final 10, because some of those final 10 were not tracks that suited me. It actually suited others pretty well and so I felt like it was not benefiting me. So of course I wish it hadn’t changed.”

Would he have won more championships had the format remained unchanged? Gordon isn’t sure, but he says it’s not something on which he dwells. Different formats create different circumstances, which often lead to drivers making different decisions.

“Everybody races differently under each point system and does what it takes,” he said. “So I don’t know if we can all sit here and speculate and talk about things and wonder what could have been if the old point system would have stayed the same.”

His success didn’t entirely disappear with the arrival of the Chase – 29 of his 93 career victories have come since 2004. But others have taken advantage of the move, and none more so than Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson, who has won six titles under the format.

Kurt Busch (2004), Tony Stewart (’05, ’11), Brad Keselowski (’12) and reigning champ Kevin Harvick have won championships under the Chase setup, as well.

“When I look at the sport from 10,000 feet I love it and think it is exciting,” Gordon said. “And with this new (elimination) format, I think it is even better.

“I will continue to support it, always have, even when it hasn’t suited me. I think that I try and not be that selfish and think of what is best for the sport. At the end of the day, what is best for the sport is best for me, best for the team, best for all teams.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be an extra sense of satisfaction should he win a fifth title, a final one under a format that seemed to suit others more than the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet.

“That would be the ultimate, most poetic justice ever,” he said.

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Nascar

AVONDALE, Ariz. – The last driver not named Kevin Harvick to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway admits the defending series champion has set a pretty high standard here at the 1-mile track.

“Those guys are definitely fast here,” Carl Edwards said Friday after the completion of Sprint Cup Series practice. “We’ll see how it goes tomorrow (when two more practice sessions are scheduled), but it appears that they’re really fast here in this first practice.”

Harvick is the defending series champion and winner of the last four Sprint Cup races at Phoenix. His Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet was sixth fastest in the opening practice; Edwards and his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota crew clocked in fourth overall.

If not for Edwards’ 2013 spring victory at Phoenix, Harvick might be going for a sixth consecutive victory, having won the fall race of ’12 before Edwards found his way to Victory Lane the following spring. Harvick’s run of four straight at Phoenix began in part because Edwards ran out of fuel while leading with two laps remaining in the fall race of ’13.

Is Harvick beatable here?

“This sport changes and everybody works and you never know what’s going to happen,” Edwards said. “The other thing that can happen here is it can become a real strategy race at the end.

“It has been pretty spectacular what that 4 team has been able to get done. It’s such a tough race to win, I can attest to that. And to win I guess five out of the last six? … If we can beat those guys, we’ll be alright.”

Nearly a year removed from a 10-year stint at Roush Fenway Racing, Edwards finds himself just outside the cutline for advancement to Homestead-Miami Speedway and a shot at the Sprint Cup title. Sunday’s race will set the three other teams (Jeff Gordon is already locked in with a win at Martinsville) that will vie for the title while eliminating four others.

He trails fourth-place Martin Truex Jr. by seven points, certainly not an insurmountable deficit, but a deficit just the same.

“If you look at the scenarios, we’ve really got to perform here,” Edwards admitted. “We have to win this race – that’s our mission. We have to qualify well, we have to make good decisions and really we have to have some speed.”

In his mind, Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM) is a “must-win race.”

“That’s the only way to guarantee our spot (in the championship race),” he said. “If one of the guys behind us leapfrogs us and wins, it’s going to be a tall order to advance, so we just have to give it all we’ve got.”

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Nascar

Photo courtesy of Richard Childress Racing

AVONDALE, Ariz. — It was a question that’s been asked almost as long as NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers have been competing in companion events over the course of a weekend.

“So Ryan, did you learn anything out there today that might help you on Sunday?”

“Yes. You definitely don’t want to hit the cone. There’s a pass-through penalty for that,” Newman said.

It was a joke, of course. Ryan Newman had just climbed from behind the “wheel” of a Caterpillar D11 T bulldozer, a mammoth piece of equipment that tips the scales at 230,000 pounds.

His No. 31 Chevrolet, fielded by Richard Childress Racing, carries primary sponsorship from Caterpillar. For this weekend’s race at Phoenix International Raceway (renamed Jeff Gordon Raceway for Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500, 2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM), the black and yellow paint scheme features Cat Command Autonomous Mining on the rear quarter panels.

So there Newman was, taking the D11 T through its paces, moving around an obstacle course and pushing around a lot of dirt.

Did I mention the dozer, the course and the dirt was located outside Tucson, nearly 150 miles away from Newman and Phoenix?

Caterpillar’s Cat Command is a program that allows heavy equipment to be operated remotely. Thanks to technological advances, the operator can be on site, if not behind the wheel, or more than 100 miles away, as was the case here Friday morning. The benefits, such as safety and increased production, appear to be numerous.

It was a new experience for Newman, 37, and a 17-time winner in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, but not an entirely foreign one.

“I’d say the closest thing to it, something that is somewhat parallel to some of the stuff that we’re doing in the Sprint Cup Series … is the (race car) simulation,” he said.

“This is different in the form that you’re performing a service … getting a job done. Whereas where what we’re doing is about subjective feeling and feedback and trying to base it off a stopwatch.

“But it’s really interesting to see the use of technology and how Caterpillar has adapted all that to the job site.”

Can automated racing be far behind? NASCAR from afar?

“I hope not,” he said. “That kind of takes me out of a job. I might enjoy the air-conditioned office but I like the physical part of (my job).

“For me, it’s all about driving the race car. I like that, to be able to feel that … to take it to that edge and be super competitive.”

And that “feel” wouldn’t exist outside the vehicle, whether it’s in a race car going 180 mph or a piece of heavy equipment with a top speed of 7 mph.

“Here, it’s more about the edge of the (bulldozer’s) blade and not the edge of control,” he said.

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Nascar

AVONDALE, Ariz. — NASCAR whittles its field of championship contenders in half here this weekend, in a manner of speaking, with seven drivers trying to squeeze into three spots and join Jeff Gordon next week at Homestead to race for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, which will be renamed Jeff Gordon Raceway for the event, could boost Gordon’s career stats, but the results won’t make or break his chances at a fifth title. It will be Gordon’s last official start as a full-time competitor at PIR, and no doubt he’d like to go out a winner.

For everyone else, Sunday will be a potential train wreck.

RELATED: See the updated Chase Grid

Kyle Busch, second in points, doesn’t need to win, but he can’t afford to stumble either. Think last year’s result at Talladega has been forgotten? Think again. Busch was second in points going into that elimination race as well, before getting swept up in a crash and swept out of the Chase. He also hasn’t forgotten the painful road back from injuries earlier this season that resulted in his missing the first 11 points races.

All Busch did after climbing back in the car was reel off four wins in five starts, and with only one race standing between himself and a shot the title, don’t expect Busch to go quietly into the night.

Defending Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick sits third and doesn’t need a win. The thing is, Harvick’s done nothing but win at Phoenix since joining Stewart-Haas Racing. He’s unbeaten on the 1-mile track in his last four starts and has won here seven times overall. If there’s a concern in the No. 4 camp, it’s the unknown. Cut tires at Texas? Had ’em. Shifter issues at Kansas? Yep. But no one has been better when backed into a corner.

Looking for a darkhorse? Look no further than Martin Truex Jr. The Furniture Row Racing driver has defied the expectations of others, but in his world he’s simply doing what he knows he and his team are capable of — consistently running in the top 10. Another top-10 finish could be enough; however, since he is fourth in points, he would be the first casualty should one of those behind him wind up in Victory Lane.

Carl Edwards leads those on the outside, sitting six points behind Truex Jr. in fifth. He finished 13th here earlier this season, back when he and his Joe Gibbs Racing team were in their “just getting to know you” phase. Edwards had just two top 10s in his first 17 starts with JGR; he’s managed 13 more in 18 starts since.

Also looking to re-ignite their Chase hopes are Team Penske drivers Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, as well as SHR’s Kurt Busch.

The good news for Keselowski, the 2012 champ, is that he has led 455 laps in the last two races. The bad news — he failed to win both times. Sure, he’s won only once this year, but he’s finished second five times, including last weekend. Second, though, likely won’t be enough this weekend. Expect Keselowski to swing for the fences.

Logano appeared to be the driver most likely to advance to Homestead when he swept the Contender Round, winning all three races. But his fortunes have taken a turn for the worse in recent weeks, with finishes of 37th and 40th. He enters Sunday’s race eighth in points, and knowing that a win is the only way he can assure himself of a shot at the championship.

Rounding out the Chase contenders is Busch, possibly as much of a darkhorse as Truex. The No. 41 team has been as fast as anyone at times this season, it just hasn’t done it as often as several of those Busch will need to outrun. Seventh in points, a win is all but necessary if the 2004 champion hopes to advance.

It’s the same as any other week, and it’s nothing like any other week — seven drivers battling for three positions and a shot at the championship.

Sunday isn’t about a race, it’s about a season.

Laps led, since 2005

Fastest laps run, since 2005

Place differential, 2014 fall race

Sleeper picks

Value picks