What Bubble drivers are saying heading into cutoff race

Posted on October 24, 2015 by

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Anything can happen at Talladega, and anything can happen in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

The specter of the gigantic 2.66-mile superspeedway and the reality of it being an elimination race in the Contender Round intersect here Sunday in the Alabama foothills.

Entering the CampingWorld.com 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) Joey Logano is safe, having won twice already in this three-race round to earn an automatic advancement. No one else can be overly confident of advancing to the eight-driver Eliminator Round, though.

Second-place Denny Hamlin, for example, is a mere 12 points ahead of eighth-place Martin Truex Jr., hardly a comfortably margin.

In fact, close proximity is the story throughout the Chase Grid.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (11th place, 31 points behind Truex) and Matt Kenseth (12th place, 35 points behind Truex) almost certainly must win, but every other driver — again, with the exception of Logano — will likely have plenty of jangled nerves Sunday.

Here’s quick look at where things stand on the Chase Grid:

REASONABLY COMFORTABLE
• Denny Hamlin (second place, 12 points above cutoff)

SMALLER SEPARATION
• Kurt Busch (third place, seven points above cutoff and 13 points above ninth-place Kyle Busch): “Only plus-13? That is unbelievable. I would have hoped we could have been 25. That is how tight it is. This competition, you can’t get a spot on anybody and you can’t give up a spot. Plus-13 is not very exciting — wow, you kind of deflated my bubble there.”

• Carl Edwards (fourth place, six points above cutoff): “It is the most unpredictable track on the circuit, with basically ours and 10 other guys’ championship hopes on the line. It’s going to be very interesting to see how the race plays out. My guess is that it will be really chaotic, unpredictable at best.”

BUBBLE BOYS
• Kevin Harvick (fifth place, one point above cutoff): “I’ve just made the decision over the last several years that you go there and you try to position yourself at the front of the pack and you just let it happen. Otherwise, it’s just a complete mental drain on yourself and the team. That’s the strategy. That’s what we’re going to do.”

• Jeff Gordon (sixth place, one point above cutoff) | Read Gordon’s commentary here

• Brad Keselowski (seventh place, one point above cutoff) | Read Keselowski’s commentary here

• Martin Truex Jr. (eighth place): “We’re going to race our own race, that’s all you can do. You can’t predict when or where the ‘Big One’ will happen.”

BELOW THE LINE
• Kyle Busch (ninth place, six points behind the cutoff line): “Last year we were the top point-total scorer of the first two rounds and we were seeded the highest without a win, and we went to Talladega and we sure learned how to throw that away. … For us, if we can do the same thing again, then we’ll do the same thing again. I think what we can do a better job of — instead of being one of the only guys to race at the back of the pack and get ourselves caught up in something that none of the other Chasers were involved in — is race with all the rest of the Chasers.”

• Ryan Newman (10th place, eight points behind the cutoff line): “I think we have a better opportunity of winning here than some of the other tracks. They say anyone can win Talladega. That certainly gives us the better odds I’d say than some other tracks.”

Posted on October 24, 2015 by

Race day info

What: 47th annual CampingWorld.com 500.

Where: Talladega Superspeedway, 2.66-mile oval in Talladega, Alabama. | Learn more about the track

Green flag time: 2:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Forecast: Mostly cloudy, high of 76 degrees, 20 percent chance of rain, according to the National Weather Service

National anthem: 313th United States Army Band

Grand marshal: Marcus Lemonis, Chairman and CEO, Camping World and Good Sam

Distance: 188 laps, 500.08 miles.

Pit road speed: 55 mph.

Caution car speed: 70 mph.

On the front row

1. Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (194.500 mph)

2. Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (193.638 mph)

RELATED: See the full lineup

To the rear

Danica Patrick (transmission change); Justin Allgaier (adjustments to car following qualifying); Tony Stewart (adjustments).

Fastest in practice

First practice: Greg Biffle, No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford (201.189 mph). | Results

Final practice: Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Team Penske Ford (196.423 mph) | Results

Key story lines

1. Jeff Gordon sits on pole in final Talladega race | Read more

2. Kes says drivers will ‘race scared’ at Talladega | Read more

3. Facing must-win scenario, Earnhardt Jr. comfortable in car | Read more

4. Annoyed Kenseth says Logano is ‘lying’ about Kansas incident | Read more

Former winners in the field

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (6), Jeff Gordon (6), Brad Keselowski (3), Clint Bowyer (2), Jimmie Johnson (2), Jamie McMurray (2), Kyle Busch (1), Denny Hamlin (1), Kevin Harvick (1), Matt Kenseth (1), Bobby Labonte (1), David Ragan (1), Tony Stewart (1), Michael Waltrip (1)

They said it

“Everything we do here is a risk vs. reward proposition, and the odds aren’t in your favor. Eventually you’re gonna wreck. You’re relying on others to give while you’re taking and sometimes people are just tired of giving.” — Brad Keselowski

Posted on October 24, 2015 by

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Martin Truex Jr.’s time during the first round of single-car qualifying at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday was disallowed after he dipped below the double-yellow line during his lap.

His lap of 191.762 mph would have been good for 21st in the starting lineup but instead he will start from the back of the field in 43rd for Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).

“We didn’t make qualifying runs in practice or anything so we really didn’t know what we had and honestly ran faster than we thought we would have,” Truex said. “Good job by the team, obviously, preparing the car.

“The double-yellow line deal, I just didn’t know anything about it. So, Cole (Pearn, crew chief) said, ‘Sorry, guess I should have told you the change.’ Just one of those memos that I didn’t get, so a little confused there.”

NASCAR ruled in July prior to the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway that drivers’ qualifying times at superspeedways would be disallowed if they passed below the double-yellow line. However, Daytona’s qualifying rainout meant the rule premiered this weekend at Talladega, the next restrictor-plate race on the Sprint Cup schedule.

Because of the disqualification, the No. 78 team will have the last choice for pit stall selection. Nonetheless, the mistake isn’t detrimental to the No. 78 team, who had strategized they would ride in the back from the start.

“We kinda planned to ride in the back for the first part anyways, so it makes it a lot easier to get back there,” Pearn said in the garage.

“… At some point, we’ll have to make a transition to the front, especially if it gets into a track position game. But we kind of thought it might be smart for a bit at the start, just to make sure the game doesn’t change somehow early in the going. Makes it an easier decision now.”

Posted on October 24, 2015 by

TALLADEGA, Ala. — It has been The Joey Logano Show in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup over the past couple weeks, as the Team Penske driver has won two straight races in the Contender Round at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway. The yellow No. 22 seems to have regained its strength after its season-opening Daytona 500 victory, accumulating five wins that tie Matt Kenseth for a series-best in 2015.

But as Logano celebrates in a shower of confetti, his Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski — who hasn’t won since March — is left peering in from outside Victory Lane. “Bad Brad” has been relatively quiet this year without the post-race fireworks amid six victories last season, including one in the first race of the 2014 Chase at Chicagoland and the Talladega Chase race last year.

Compared with Logano’s handful of wins, particularly in recent weeks, the gap between the two begs the question: What’s the No. 2 team missing?

“I’m happy for Joey and his success, so I’m not discouraged by it,” Keselowski said on Friday. “I feel like this sport cycles. … Last year up until we had the issue at Martinsville, we had six wins, we had the most wins of anyone last year, and I felt my cars were probably some of the best in the garage, if not the best, and the last few weeks we haven’t showcased that.

“But I know it can cycle. It could cycle in the next three weeks.”

If he can survive Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) the next three weeks will be the most crucial for Keselowski’s No. 2 team, as he could be fighting for his second Sprint Cup Series championship. Keselowski’s outlook remains positive – he has 21 top-10 finishes this season, including Auto Club Speedway victory. He also sat on the pole last week at Kansas and showed plenty of speed throughout the weekend during practice.

It was something the No. 22 team noticed.

“Are there things that (the No. 2 team members) lean on? No differently than we normally do,” Logano’s crew chief Todd Gordon said in the Talladega garage on Saturday. “… We used a lot of what the 2 car had last weekend. They had a lot of speed at Kansas in qualifying and practice. So we’re always aware of those things.”

Logano and Keselowski are one of the more teamwork-minded duos in the garage, working together on-track more than many Cup team members. The same philosophy carries into the Team Penske shop meetings, Gordon says.

“We share everything every week — We’re aware of what everyone is doing,” Gordon said. “You have ebs and flows and I think there’s been a couple things with this year and the way the races have played out that have played to Joey’s strengths. You have come-and-go and momentum changes different ways.

“I don’t think the 2 car’s got challenges ahead of them. They’re definitely a title contender as well.”

For Keselowski, the title talk that surrounds his teammate and close friend doesn’t diminish his own season – if anything, it’s heartening as he heads into the foreboding Talladega and the rest of the season.

“It’s encouraging for me in the sense that we know we have the same potential that we just have to find it,” Keselowski said. “I think our teams operate quite a bit differently and I would say it’s probably encouraging for my team to try new things and to be better and expand. So I don’t take any negative from it. I’m certainly not happy to not be winning as much as he is, but that’s not a negative connotation. I think it’s an opportunity more so than anything else.

” … I really feel like for our team that if we can get through this weekend, that we’ll go all the way to Homestead.”

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Staff Report

RELATED: Play the new games here

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NASCAR Trivia Tournament mirrors the Trivial Pursuit concept, with questions coming in six different categories: Drivers, Fantastic Finishes, Tracks, Pop Culture, General Knowledge and Champions. Just like in NASCAR itself, speed counts — the faster you answer, the more points you score. Also keep an eye on your multiplier. Answer five consecutive questions correctly to max it out and score the most points.

NASCAR Slots is just like visiting Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Play for credits and win big — in-game only, of course — and try to earn some bonus games as well. Early next year mobile app versions of each game will be released.

“Dusenberry Martin Racing is 100 percent focused on producing mass market games for NASCAR fans,” said Matt Dusenberry, DMR’s director of NASCAR Industry Relations. “Our ‘something for everyone’ strategy, including classic games like NASCAR Trivia Duel and NASCAR Slots Games, are the beginning of broadening our portfolio beyond the traditional console racing game. We want to deliver multiple options for NASCAR fans of all ages, to enable a fun games.NASCAR.com experience.”

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Staff Report

RELATED: Full starting lineup

Timothy Peters scored the Keystone Light Pole Award for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series fred’s 250 presented by Coca-Cola at Talladega Superspeedway (1 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM).

Peters used a fast lap of 178.304 mph in the final round of qualifying to score his first pole of the 2015 and the seventh pole of his career. The veteran is also the defending race winner at Talladega.

Joining Peters on the front row will be John Wes Townley (178.065 mph), who earlier this month won the Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The second row will be comprised of Erik Jones (177.485 mph) and Daniel Hemric (177.343 mph), with Ben Kennedy (177.291 mph) and Matt Tifft (176.428 mph) making up the third row.

The fred’s 250 is the 19th race of the Truck Series season. Jones enters the race with a four-point advantage on two-time defending series champion Matt Crafton and a 16-point lead on Tyler Reddick.

Andy Seuss and Ryan Ellis did not qualify for the 32-truck field.

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Reid Spencer

TALLADEGA, Ala. – In a knockout qualifying session dominated by Hendrick Motorsports on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, the outgoing king of restrictor-plate time trials—Jeff Gordon—won the pole position for Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500, the final race in the Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).

Gordon toured the 2.66-mile oval in 49.234 seconds (194.500 mph) to earn his fourth Coors Light Pole Award of the season, his fifth at Talladega and the 81st of his career. Gordon has claimed the top starting spot for all three 2015 restrictor-plate races for which the pole was contested—the Daytona 500 and both Talladega events.

Rain forced cancellation of time trials for the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona in July.

Gordon beat out Hendrick teammate and non-Chaser Kasey Kahne (193.638 mph) for the top spot on the grid for the race that will determine which eight drivers advance to the Chase’s Eliminator Round.

Jimmie Johnson, who was knocked out of the Chase in the first round, qualified third at 193.584 mph, immediately ahead of two drivers who likely must win on Sunday to keep their title hopes alive—Mat Kenseth (193.580 mph, 12th in the Chase standings) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (193.162 mph, 11th in the standings).

Kenseth was the only non-Hendrick driver to crack the top five.

“These guys work extremely hard,” Gordon said of his team’s effort. “I know everybody does for these restrictor-plate tracks. To be able to get the results like that, and they have been doing it all year long on these tracks. …

“That is just a complete credit to all the details that come from the top down. (Crew chief) Alan (Gustafson), he really does a phenomenal job at every track, but especially these tracks with these cars. Hendrick engines, Hendrick chassis, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports—1, 2, 3 and 5 that is an awesome day for Hendrick Motorsports.”

Trevor Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner, qualified sixth, followed by reigning series champion Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Tony Stewart. Of that group, Harvick, Hamlin and Keselowski are vying for spots in the next round of the Chase. Logano has already locked up his spot in the next round.

Even before the final round started, the session featured its share of bizarre circumstances. The first-round time of Chase driver Martin Truex Jr. was disallowed after Truex drove below the yellow line in the tri-oval on his qualifying lap.

NASCAR had stipulated to the Sprint Cup teams before time trials that driving below the yellow line was no longer allowed. Accordingly, Truex will start from the rear of the field in Sunday’s race.

“Well the last couple of times we’ve been here, we’ve run on the apron through the tri-oval,” Truex said. “Apparently there was a memo sent out, and I never got it. I don’t really know what to say.”

During the first session, Clint Bowyer mistakenly threw his No. 15 Toyota into reverse and backed into the No. 51 Chevrolet of Justin Allgaier, the driver Bowyer will replace next year during his one-year stint at HScott Motorsports, Bowyer’s short-term home before he moves to Stewart-Haas Racing fulltime in 2017.

With the nose of his Chevy caved in, Allgaier qualified 39th, but the team plans to repair and use the primary car for Sunday.

WATCH: Bowyer ‘Obviously it was in reverse’

All four Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolets were flagged during pre-qualifying inspections for radiator inlet duct panels that didn’t conform to NASCAR specifications. The teams spent more than two hours correcting the issue, but Harvick and Stewart still managed to make the top 12, earning the seventh and 12th starting spots, respectively.

The remaining Chase drivers qualified as follows: Kurt Busch, 14th; Carl Edwards, 15th; Kyle Busch, 16th; and Ryan Newman, 18th.

Jeb Burton and Michael Annett failed to make the 43-car field.

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Reid Spencer

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Timothy Peters finished Saturday’s fred’s 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway exactly where he started—at the front of the pack—despite an extraordinary ebb and flow between the opening green flag and the checkers.

Peters was out front when NASCAR called the sixth caution of the race on the first lap of the only attempt at a green-white-checkered-flag finish, after contact between the trucks of John Wes Townley and Spencer Gallagher sent both crashing hard into the outside wall.

The victory was Peters’ first of the season, his second straight at Talladega and the ninth of his career.

Brandon Jones , who led the field to the last restart on Lap 97, finished second after Gallagher, his GMS Racing teammate, pushed Peters to the lead. Mason Mingus ran third, a career-best, and Erik Jones finished fourth and extended his series lead to 18 points over second place Tyler Reddick , who came home fifth on Saturday.

Jones picked the inside for the final restart, even though he could have started in front of Gallagher. Peters wasn’t particularly surprised that Jones picked the preferred lane, rather than choosing the spot in front of his teammate.

“I kind of thought that maybe he would take the outside,” Peters said, “but we’d already gotten the radio from the tower that this was going to be the one and only attempt (at the green-white-checkered). At that point, teammates are good for 95 laps.

“Coming to the checkered, you’re on your own, and he kind of knew it was every man for himself. I appreciate the push that Spencer gave to me. I’m glad he’s OK after that wreck on the back … The push that Spencer gave me was a little delayed, but it was enough to get us both in front of the 33 (Jones).”

Throughout the afternoon, storylines materialized and disappeared as quickly as the smoke from the “Big One”—the almost inevitable multicar wreck that finally occurred on Lap 92 of a scheduled 94 and skewed both the finishing order and the series standings.

Brian Keselowski , making his first series start in a Ford owned by his brother, Brad Keselowski , threatened to win the race—until he ran out of fuel before the last restart.

“They (Keselowski’s team) said right from the get-go to save fuel, and I was,” said Keselowski, who finished 17th after leading 10 laps. But you can only do so much when you’re leading.

“You’ve got to go, so I didn’t save any when I was out front. I guess I should have, but that’s a little bit of inexperience in the Truck Series probably showing up. We’ll learn better next time.”

Two-time defending series champion Matt Crafton was shuffled to the rear of the field when debris struck to the grille of his No. 88 Toyota, but that was the least of his troubles. Crafton was a victim of the Lap 92 10-truck wreck ignited by contact between the Tundras of Johnny Sauter and Matt Tifft .

Crafton finished 24th and fell to third in the standings, 23 points behind Erik Jones.

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Reid Spencer

After he runs his final restrictor-plate race on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, Jeff Gordon may be ready to reflect on his history at the track.

Until then, however, Gordon’s focus is confined to the CampingWorld.com 500, the race that will determine which eight drivers will advance to the Eliminator Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and which four won’t.

“This place has been really good to me and also really bad,” said Gordon, who was 10th fastest in Friday’s final practice. “I’m coming in with a positive attitude – excited at how fast our race car is and how good our team is. It’s a great opportunity we have in front of us. So I’m not thinking about it from a historic standpoint or even letting it sink in that it’s my final race here. We have too much of a job at hand here. Our focus is on this round, continuing in the Chase and moving on.

“I really believe that if we can make it through this round, we have three great tracks coming up that we can move on all the way to Homestead and do something we didn’t do last year and possibly something I’ve never done before, and that’s win a Sprint Cup championship (all four of Gordon’s titles came under the Winston Cup banner).”

Gordon then fired a warning shot his competitors in the Chase would be well-advised to heed.

“I know that we’re not running the way that some others are,” Gordon said. “But if we get through this one, I’m telling you, there are four tracks (Martinsville, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead) where we can surprise some people. That’s all that’s on my mind.”