Michigan low downforce test set for Tuesday

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Nascar

NASCAR and Goodyear officials, along with three Sprint Cup Series teams, return to Michigan International Speedway Tuesday to test a low downforce aerodynamic package scheduled for use at most venues where the series will compete in 2016.

Teams and drivers that will participate are: Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports; Chris Buescher, Roush Fenway Racing and Erik Jones, Joe Gibbs Racing.

“The real key at Michigan is to see … what the top speeds are and understand that,” Greg Stucker, Director of Race Tire Sales for Goodyear, said Saturday at Kansas Speedway.

“We (tested) low downforce at Michigan in 2014; had a test up there and had a number of different (aero) packages and low downforce was one of them. We were pretty conservative at that point. So we’ve got some data to go off of and we’ll go back in the spring (of ’16) to confirm.”

NASCAR officials announced last week that a low downforce package, similar to the one used at Kentucky Speedway and Darlington Raceway earlier this season, would be put into play for the bulk of the races in 2016. The new base package will include a 3.5-inch spoiler, a quarter-inch leading splitter edge and 33-inch splitter extension panel (radiator pan). The changes will lessen the amount of downforce on the cars, similar to the changes made prior to the start of the ’15 season.

“The success of the races at Kentucky and Darlington in similar trim proved extremely valuable in accelerating rules development for 2016,” Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, said in announcing the ’16 package.

“Now, as teams have even more time to prepare and a strong baseline of data, we anticipate the racing to be even better.”

Sprint Cup Series teams competed with a high drag package this year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the August race at Michigan. The changes, however, failed to produce the desired results.

Decreasing the area of the leading edge of the spoiler and radiator pan will lessen the amount of downforce on the front of the cars while a shorter spoiler will similarly impact rear downforce.

The current 2015 aero package, which will continue to be used in this year’s events at Martinsville, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead, consists of a 6-inch spoiler and 38-inch splitter extension panel.

No major changes are expected for the sanctioning body’s superspeedway rules package, which will be used at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend.

Tuesday’s test is expected to consist of individual 10- and 25-lap runs in morning and afternoon sessions.

According to Michigan officials, the Turn 1 grandstand seats will be open for fans with no admission charge.

Weather conditions for Brooklyn, Michigan, on Tuesday call for a 10 percent chance of showers before 8 a.m. and a high near 69 degrees.

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Nascar

RELATED: Race results | Standings | Chase Grid

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kevin Harvick said his team was fortunate to finish as well as it did Sunday, a 16th-place finish leaving the defending series champion fifth in points following the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

“We didn’t have a great weekend,” the 2015 Sprint Cup Series champion admitted after enduring a broken gear shift knob and a pit road penalty for removing equipment during the course of the 269-lap event.

“A lot of things falling off and now we’ve got to go to Talladega and have a good week.

“All in all it could have been a lot worse … everybody kept digging.”

Harvick, 39, led only once for 21 laps but ran inside the top five for much of the race.

It all went haywire for the Stewart-Haas Racing team, however, coming through a round of green-flag stops with some 50 laps remaining.

After hitting pit road for service, Harvick pulled out of his pit box on Lap 213 with the fuel can still attached to his car, resulting in a stop-and-go penalty that quickly dropped him to 20th and one lap down. Shortly afterward, he radioed his crew to announce that the knob on the gear shifter had broken.

“It was just really hard to shift from second to third just because there was nothing to grab onto for leverage,” he said. “But in the end the car vibrated all day; I’m lucky something else didn’t break.”

The top eight in points advance out of the Contender Round and into the Eliminator Round following next week’s CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM). During the Challenger Round, Harvick kept his season alive in the opening round of the Chase, bouncing back from bad races at Chicagoland and New Hampshire to win comfortably at Dover.

Crew chief Rodney Childers says the team simply has to go to Talladega “and have a solid day.”

“It’s all about just racing,” he said. “Just like today. We go every week just to race; it’s not about anything other than that. Just do the best job you can and whatever happens, happens.”

The gear shifter problem and pit road violation were just a continuation of the team’s troubles at Kansas, according to Childers, who said the head of the shifter “looked like it wasn’t glued properly.”

“It started going south when we got here Friday,” Childers said of the team’s issues. “The brakes were dragging Friday. We finally got that fixed, qualified good and then (Saturday) didn’t go smooth.

“Then this morning the track bar slider locked up, we had to cut that off the car and replace it. Then the door seam broke(n) in half, the shifter broke and then we drove the gas can out.”

The broken door seam — a large crack ran down the driver’s side door area of the No. 4 Chevrolet — was a result of the beating the cars take from nothing more than air.

“A lot of these places that are real smooth … the air buffets a lot and it just beats them to death,” he said.

“I don’t think we necessarily had a bad weekend; a better weekend than most (teams). But our (fuel) mileage wasn’t very good and if we didn’t try to follow the car out of the box with the can we were going to run out anyway.”

Only one point separates Harvick, who was second in points entering Kansas, from eighth place Martin Truex Jr.

Outside the top eight heading to Talladega are Kyle Busch (ninth), Ryan Newman (10th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (11th) and Matt Kenseth (12th).

Posted on October 19, 2015 by

“Next February will be quite the feeling,” said Chase Elliott on the night of his paint scheme unveil for the 2016 season.

Elliott is set to take over for the almost-retiree Jeff Gordon and will sit behind the wheel of the iconic No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in just a few months, beginning with the season-opening Daytona 500.

But the famed No. 24 car will have a new look next season, which Elliott and team owner Rick Hendrick revealed on Monday via FS1’s NASCAR Race Hub.

Feast your �� on @chaseelliott’s 2016 @NAPARacing Chevy SS! #NAPAKnowHow pic.twitter.com/uFku6mwCAe

— NAPA Racing (@NAPARacing) October 19, 2015

The duo discussed the redesigned No. 24 NAPA Chevrolet and what to expect from the 2014 NASCAR XFINITY Series champion.

“We are just so excited about this young man,” Hendrick said.

Elliott couldn’t be more excited either. “(The) 24 team in particular has a lot of great guys,” Elliott said, referring especially to crew chief Alan Gustafson, who is returning for next year’s season.

“If I can do my job we have shot there (in next year’s Chase).”

Strapping into the No. 24 car with Hendrick-high expectations is a daunting task for the young racer, but not out of Elliott’s grasp, according to the man himself.

“(Jeff) thinks the world about this guy,” Hendrick said, continuing on to say that Gordon would undoubtedly serve as a mentor for Elliott, along with the other three Hendrick drivers.

In the meantime, Elliott still has three more XFINITY races to finish of 2015’s season and to defend his title. He currently sits in second place in the standings, 27 points behind Chris Buescher.

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Staff Report

NASCAR officials are considering alterations to its overtime finish procedures at restrictor-plate tracks, potentially making a rules change ahead of this weekend’s events at Talladega Superspeedway.

Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer, mentioned the possibility Monday morning during a semi-weekly competition debrief with NASCAR.com.

Drivers said they had discussions with NASCAR officials about potential tweaks for Talladega and sister track Daytona International Speedway, where restrictor plates limit horsepower and speeds, often keeping the field in tightly knit packs. To reduce the potential for late-race carnage, one option considered was reducing the number of possible attempts for a green-white-checkered overtime finish from its current maximum of three.

Those rules may be in place in time for Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM), the sixth of 10 races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs.

“We are looking at the potential for a procedural change, and that would be it,” O’Donnell said. “I know there was talk about some other things we may be looking at from a race car perspective, but that’s not the case. Still in some final discussions with the industry regarding the green-white-checker procedure, so we expect to have something out by the latest, Wednesday of this week heading into Talladega.”

Any potential change would mark the first major alteration of the green-white-checkered rules since their debut in 2004. O’Donnell said many factors, including the racing history at Talladega, would be considered before making a shift in procedures.

“I think you just look at the race track and the competitors heading in, some of the historicals we’ve seen,” O’Donnell said. “We’re going to make our best effort, regardless, to finish a race under green and I think you’ve seen that. I think in the last 40 to 42 races, we’ve only seen six races where there have been more than one attempt, so we’re looking at all the data to see what we can find out, but ultimately our job and what we want to see is for the race to finish under green-flag conditions.”

One change that will certainly be in effect for this weekend is the addition of more energy-absorbing walls at Talladega. The track announced Oct. 8 that all exterior and interior retaining walls at the 2.66-mile facility were now protected by the SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barrier.

Several tracks have made similar safety measures in the wake of Kyle Busch‘s severe crash in the NASCAR XFINITY Series opener at Daytona in February.

“Talladega’s added over 8,000 feet of SAFER barriers, which is terrific,” O’Donnell said. “What we’ve seen really from the entire industry coming out of Daytona, and we’ve said this, that we’re going to work with the tracks to expedite all the SAFER barriers at each of the tracks. We’ve seen that. We’ve seen the track operators really step up, especially those that have had one event early on and then had a fall event. They’ve made a number of changes.

“Really pleased with the progress all the tracks have made. We’ll continue to see that through the end of this season and certainly as we head into ’16, so I think the message is clear of what we expect and the competitors expect, and I think the tracks are delivering on those expectations each and every race now.”

O’Donnell also put a wrap on the most recent race weekend at Kansas Speedway, which was capped by Joey Logano‘s late-race contact with Matt Kenseth on the way to victory in the Hollywood Casino 400. O’Donnell chalked the run-in to “just some good hard racing” in a high-pressure situation, with Logano trying to deny his rival an automatic berth in the Chase’s next round.

Both drivers had strong words for each other during post-race interviews, but nothing became physical between the two or their teams. O’Donnell said he didn’t expect retaliation in the weeks ahead, and that NASCAR would only intervene if the conflict potentially escalated.

“Ultimately, we like to leave it in the drivers’ hands to work things out. These guys race each other week in and week out. It’s a long season and tend to work it out among themselves. If we have to, though, we will get involved and we’ll sit down with the drivers and make sure that they’re on the same page and we don’t see any retaliatory events on the race track. In this case, I think Matt and Joey will talk and if not, if both of those guys or one says, ‘hey, I need you guys to come in and bring us together,’ we’ll do that. But certainly expect those guys to work it out.”

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Staff Report

Stewart-Haas Racing has called a news conference Wednesday with driver Kurt Busch and team co-owner Tony Stewart at 12 p.m. ET, the team announced Sunday night. There will also be a car unveiling, according to the team.

The event will have video live-streamed — bookmark NASCAR.com/presspass to tune in.

Busch’s contract is up at the end of 2016, and SHR officials have said the two sides were closing in on an agreement. Stewart in August said an extension would come “soon.”

A 27-time winner in NASCAR’s top series, Busch has three wins since joining SHR for the 2014 season. In his two seasons at SHR, he’s qualified for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup twice. He’s currently third in the standings with one race remaining in the Contender Round.

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Staff Report

RELATED: Watch the live stream here

From 8-11 a.m. ET on Tuesday, NASCAR.com will live stream the post-race inspection process at the Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina.

The three-hour look takes you behind the scenes as NASCAR officials inspect NASCAR Sprint Cup Series vehicles following Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

The cars at the R&D Center this week are: the No. 22 Ford of Joey Logano (won Sunday’s race), the No. 11 Toyota of Denny Hamlin (finished second in Sunday’s race) and the No. 21 Ford of Ryan Blaney (the random car selected).

For more information on what the inspection process entails, click here.

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Pat DeCola

Joey Logano‘s late-race move to get past the leading No. 20 car of Matt Kenseth in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway remains a topic of hot debate, and the Team Penske driver addressed the controversial maneuver Monday morning on “The Dan Patrick Show,” simulcasted on NBCSN.

While the five-time 2015 Sprint Cup Series winner expressed his disappointment that Kenseth’s Toyota was spun out, he certainly isn’t apologizing for racing hard despite already advancing to the Eliminator Round.

“I think all of us are racers; we all just want to race hard and race for wins,” Logano said. “He was doing what he needed to do and I was doing what I had to do and it’s unfortunate we collided there and ended up getting tangled up.

“It’s unfortunate, but it’s just hard racing. We were both racing for a win. It’s Chase time right now and everyone has picked up their intensity level and sometimes things happen.”

Things happen, but was the move intentional? Logano appeared to have the faster car and theoretically could’ve passed Kenseth during the final laps – but a spin? The lower Kenseth finishes in the running order, the less likely it is that the 2003 champ moves on to the Eliminator, an obvious benefit for Logano.

A little bump to the 20 could certainly be looked at as a strategy.

“I wouldn’t say it was a tactic. Our tactic was to go out there and win the race. That’s what we tried to do,” Logano replied after Patrick asked if the bump was part of the plan. “We don’t try to go out there and wreck someone, by no means, but we go out there and try to race hard. He was racing hard, as well. That’s just what happens sometimes.

“I think the way NASCAR has applied this new Chase format with the elimination process, it really puts a lot of people in do-or-die situations and when that happens, crazy things seem to happen on the race track. NASCAR has put us in a position where we have to race hard. I think it puts a great product on the race track and it’s a lot of fun for the fans to watch.”

There’s no denying the new format of the Chase has increased the drama for the season’s 10-race playoff system – we saw that start last year – which has just added to an already exhilarating way to end the season.

Because of this, Patrick asked Logano if he viewed himself as an entertainer.

“I’m here to race; I’m not here to entertain,” said Logano. “In the meantime, if we entertain some people, that’s great. But my job … Roger Penske hired me to win races.

“That’s my job and I need to produce that.”

Posted on October 18, 2015June 29, 2020 by Kathy Sheldon

RELATED: Updated series standings

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — After fighting poor handling all day, Jeff Gordon pulled a crucial 10th-place finish out of his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on Sunday at Kansas Speedway. That’s what four-time champions do: Keep digging.

“We were absolutely as far off as you can be,” Gordon said after a green-white-checkered finish in the Hollywood Casino 400. “The thing qualified amazing and ever since we put it in race trim, I just haven’t felt comfortable. I haven’t felt good and struggled with it. That was one of the hardest top-10s I’ve ever had.”

In an exchange with crew chief Alan Gustafson after a caution on Lap 65, Gordon said, “I’ve got zero confidence in the back. The front’s barely hanging on. … I know we’ve got to get the front to turn better. I just don’t know how we get it and keep some security in the rear.”

Making adjustments on every stop, Gustafson and Gordon worked to get the No. 24 lined up 14th on the race’s final restart, having slid back to mid-pack in stretches Sunday.

The top-10 finish, one place ahead of fellow Chaser Ryan Newman‘s No. 31 Chevrolet, was a difference-maker in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Gordon moved one spot up in the standings, putting him seventh going into the final race of the Contender Round at Talladega. Only the top eight drivers will advance to the Eliminator Round.

Gordon is in his last season as a full-time Sprint Cup Series driver, and his 23 years of experience have helped him maintain his composure while fighting a car, keeping one eye on the track at hand and another on the big picture of the championship race.

“You can’t wreck it, that’s the thing. And I almost did,” Gordon said about trying to balance fighting for a win and fighting for a championship. “I was battling with Carl (Edwards) there on one of those last restarts. And Carl almost got away from me. I realized 12th was better than 35th, and so I just had to back off.

“There at the end we had an opportunity, Alan made a great call in putting two tires on, and I had the outside lane and we moved up some spots.”

Staying above the cut line at Talladega will be a challenge for every Chase driver except Joey Logano, who is locked into the Eliminator Round after back-to-back victories at Charlotte and Kansas.

Gordon has six wins at Talladega — the same number as fellow Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. — and an average finish of 17.3. His 79.2 driver rating at the tempestuous track is another reason for the No. 24 team to feel some level of confidence heading into a Chase wild-card race.

“With our pit crew and the communication and the way the team’s performing and executing, I think I’m more optimistic about that race than these last two, in all honesty. But it’s just the unknown that throws a wrench in that.”

Earnhardt Jr. is the strongest Chase driver statistically at Talladega, and Gordon takes comfort in his teammate’s success at the Alabama track, including the No. 88’s victory in May’s Geico 500.

“You’ve seen what Dale Jr.’s done there, and I think our cars are just as good as his,” Gordon said. “We just can’t get caught in the middle and get caught up in a wreck.”

The secrets to success next week are qualifying and pit stops: Starting up front and staying up front. As far as advancing in the Chase goes, that’s a simple solution, too: “Win.”

Gordon knows he doesn’t have to win next week to advance, but that’s another thing four-time champions do: Aim high.

Posted on October 18, 2015June 29, 2020 by Kathy Sheldon

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Carl Edwards didn’t like the way Brad Keselowski started the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. Kevin Harvick criticized Matt Kenseth‘s approach to restarts.

A sensitive subject all season, the issue with Sunday’s green flags wasn’t one of jumping the start, it was hanging back too much.

“Does the leader get to stab the gas then lift again?” Carl Edwards asked at the first caution Sunday, still irked about the race’s start under the direction of pole-sitter Keselowski. “I almost just went, but he almost burped it enough they wouldn’t notice.”

Edwards’ team reminded him of the bottom line on restarts — a good point for fans to remember, as well: “As long as the green flag drops, you can go.”

“I wasn’t paying attention to the flag,” Edwards responded. But as a contender who is now fourth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, he quickly refocused: “We’ll get ’em next time. … He does that every time. We’ll get him.”

It’s the No. 20 driver who games restarts every week, according to the No. 4’s pilot.

“How long are they going to let the 20 get away with that? Slowing down like that (on the restart),” Harvick asked after Kenseth led the field to green following a caution.

Leave it to a racing legend such as four-time champ Jeff Gordon to break it down for us: “You know, I think it’s nice to give the leader that option to go when he wants to go, but he’s gotta maintain a little bit better pace if they’re going to do that.”

Gordon says he doesn’t agree with the way Kenseth restarts, though he “loves the guy.” But it is the control car’s prerogative to go at will anywhere inside the restart zone, which is now 180 feet at Kansas Speedway, double the 90 feet for May’s race.

“That’s just (Kenseth’s) way of going about it,” Gordon said. “When someone comes down that slow and then they take off the last second, if you’re five rows back, it’s an absolute mess. Other than that, I thought the restarts were really good.”

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Nascar

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Joey Logano snatched victory, and a chance at this year’s championship, from the grasp of Matt Kenseth with four laps remaining in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway when contact between the two sent Kenseth’s yellow No. 20 Toyota spinning sideways and Logano’s No. 22 Ford roaring away with the lead.

Kenseth had controlled much of the 269-lap race, leading 153 laps around the 1.5-mile track. But after a caution period for his Turn 1 spin and a green-white-checkered finish, the 2003 NASCAR premier series champion found himself 14th in the final rundown.

Logano held on for the victory, his second straight in the Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and his fifth of the season.

“It was really cut and dry,” Kenseth, 43, said after exiting his car on pit road. “He picked my rear tires off the ground and wrecked me, so there’s no debate about that one.”

A disastrous finish a week earlier at Charlotte Motor Speedway had left Kenseth 12th in the Chase standings, and likely needing a victory at Kansas or next weekend’s race at Talladega Superspeedway to advance and keep his title hopes alive.

And for much of Sunday’s race, it seemed as if the win would be his at Kansas. It took him only 28 laps to go from his 11th-place starting position to first, passing pole-sitter Brad Keselowski for the top spot. Although he dropped back occasionally, Kenseth never fell outside the top 10 until the incident in the closing laps of the race.

He wasn’t surprised at the late-race contact, he said afterward, but was disappointed.

“I’ve probably been one of his biggest supporters,” Kenseth said of Logano. “It was an awkward thing, obviously, taking his ride and I was excited for him when he started winning at (Team) Penske and when he got that ride.”

Kenseth, who replaced Logano at Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of the 2013 season, said he “even found him today and congratulated him about racing against each other for a championship.”

There were no congratulations offered afterward.

“I was very disappointed that he would do that,” Kenseth said. “… Yeah, I was running the lane he wanted to run in, but my goodness isn’t this racing? Strategically, I think it wasn’t the smartest move on his part. He’ll probably sleep good tonight; I hope he enjoys that one. It’s not what I would have done, but he had a decision to make and that’s the one he made.”

The result kept Kenseth 12th in the Chase standings with only Talladega remaining to determine the eight teams that will advance to the three-race Eliminator Round. He trails eighth-place Martin Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing) by 35 points.

Jason Ratcliff, Kenseth’s crew chief said he knew Logano would be tough to hold off, because “the 22 car was pretty good all day, at least for the first 15 or 20 laps of a run.

“There was some good racing going there, putting on a good show; I thought it was really clean right up to that point,” Ratcliff said. “I didn’t expect that out of Joey, especially knowing that he won last week and really right now he’s just hanging out having fun. … Really I don’t expect that out of anybody. But I expect Joey to be smarter than that. I thought that was just uncalled for. It didn’t need to happen. Joey’s a good driver.”

Logano guaranteed himself a spot in the Eliminator Round with his win last week at CMS. Other victories this season have come at Daytona, Watkins Glen and Bristol.

“It’s hard racing,” Logano, 25, said of the contact. “With 15 to go I got to the outside of him down the backstretch, and I had to lift not to wreck both of us at that point, and then kind of got put in the same situation down the frontstretch.

“Then we just happened to go in the same corner and we both went for the same piece of real estate. I wanted that middle lane and so did he, and we collided there.

“So good hard racing, you know. We ran each other hard. He ran me hard; I ran him hard back. That’s just the type of driver I am, the type of racer I’m going to be, and it just comes to that point sometimes to — it’s unfortunate that those things happen, you know … it doesn’t take anything away from our win today.”

Team owner Roger Penske said he saw his driver “get squeezed” by Kenseth on a couple of occasions as the two battled for the top spot.

Logano “turned down,” he said “to take the lower lane, and there was another car up there, a slower car … and then Kenseth came down.

“Unfortunately they got together. I don’t like to see that any more than anybody else does. It’s one of those racing accidents that are real tough when it’s in this kind of situation.

“But there was no question that Kenseth was doing everything he could to keep Joey from going by.”

Todd Gordon, Logano’s crew chief, said it was nothing more than “two guys racing their butts off.”

“You know, Joey had a couple runs at Matt and Matt blocked both of them and unfortunately got us in the wall into Turn 1 and there’s more contact that prevails beyond the contact to the wall,” he said. “That’s just hard racing, two guys that want to win, and both have — you know, they’re both … very competitive race car drivers and they do a lot of similar things, and neither one of them was going to give there, and obviously it came out the way it did.”

Logano made it all the way to the Championship Round a year ago, only to finish fourth in the four-team battle. Kenseth made it as far as the third round before falling by the wayside.

Now, just one race remains for the veteran and his team to keep their title hopes alive.

“Matt drove a great race,” Ratcliff said. “He got aggressive when he needed to. He knew that winning today could mean everything as far as advancing and winning the championship. He did exactly what he needed to do and what every other driver out there would have done and I’m really proud of him and the guys on pit road.

“We’ve got one more race with Talladega … anything can happen there.”