Harvick starts up front after Coors Light qualifying canceled

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Reid Spencer

JOLIET, Ill. — Kevin Harvick will start the 2015 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup from the same position he ended last year’s playoff — in the No. 1 spot.

When torrential rain at Chicagoland Speedway wiped out Friday’s time trials at the 1.5-mile track, Harvick earned the Coors Light Pole position for Sunday’s myAFibRisk.com 400 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN) by virtue of having posted the fastest lap during opening practice.

With heavy rains forecasted for the afternoon, most drivers focused on mock qualifying runs during practice, anticipating the field for the opening Chase race would be set according to practice speeds. Harvick was the only driver to top 188 mph in the opening session, running a lap at 188.317 mph.

Joey Logano, a Championship 4 competitor in 2014, will start on the outside of the front row, after running 187.911 mph in practice. With Brad Keselowski third quickest and Martin Truex Jr. fourth, Chase drivers claimed the top four starting spots and six of the top seven.

Ryan Newman will start sixth and Kyle Busch seventh in the 400-mile event.

“First off,” Harvick said, “I’m just most proud of my team for having a fast race car and coming to the track and having a plan and doing all the things that they did to pay attention to the weather and put a lot of emphasis on trying to lay a fast lap down, just like everybody else, to get a good starting position with the way that the weather was (looking).”

Logano and his team spent the entire 85-minute practice session in qualifying trim, expecting time trials to be rained out.

“We looked at the forecast and knew there was a good chance of rain,” Logano said. “Any time that happens, you focus in on qualifying in practice a little bit more. We haven’t been in race trim yet … Really, I felt like it was qualifying during practice.

“We were really trying to top the chart, because we really felt like that was where we were going to start — at the end of practice.”

Harvick, on the other hand, started in race trim to get a feel for the track before he moved to a qualifying setup.

“We started in race trim because (Crew chief) Rodney (Childers) and I felt like this is one of those places … it’s a hard place to drive around because it’s so rough, and the timing and rhythm of the race track is something that, as a driver, you need to be able to get into that rhythm before you go into qualifying trim.”

Two Chase drivers who failed to post strong practice speeds — Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin — will start 26th and 29th, respectively, in Sunday’s race. Other Chasers secured spots on the grid as follows: Kurt Busch (ninth), Jeff Gordon (10th), Jimmie Johnson (11th), Matt Kenseth (12th), Jamie McMurray (13th), Carl Edwards (14th), Paul Menard (16th) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (19th).

A major casualty of the cancellation was Ryan Blaney, who was ninth fastest in opening practice in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford but will not start the race under rainout rules (because of fewer qualifying attempts this year). This is the third time this season Blaney has been knocked out of a race by rain.

Michael McDowell and Travis Kvapil also failed to make the 43-car field.

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Nascar

RELATED: JGR has look of Chase favorite

CHICAGO — Speed isn’t everything, Kevin Harvick said, and the defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion doesn’t take kindly to having his team described as being “behind” the Joe Gibbs Racing organization.

Whether a bit of gamesmanship or a gut feeling, Harvick said he believed his Stewart-Haas Racing team would “pound them into the ground” when asked about the four-team JGR stable during Thursday’s Chase Media Day at The Murphy in downtown Chicago.

“I wouldn’t consider us behind the Gibbs cars,” Harvick, 39, said. “I’ve raced against the Gibbs cars. I think we’re going to pound them into the ground, that’s what I think. Hopefully they can beat themselves.”

JGR drivers Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin won 11 of this year’s 26 races leading into the Chase, which begins this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. They have won eight of the last 11, and Kenseth dominated last week’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

Harvick’s SHR organization, which also fields four teams, has four wins (two for Harvick; two for teammate Kurt Busch). But while Harvick hasn’t won as often as Kyle Busch or Kenseth this season, his No. 4 team has been incredibly consistent, with 10 runner-up finishes and 18 top fives.

Harvick acknowledges what JGR has been able to accomplish, but said speed is only part of the equation when it comes to the 10-race Chase and surviving through three rounds of eliminations to get to the final, championship-determining race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“I don’t know that we’re better than them,” he said. “I think for us it’s all about having the experience. It’s really not about having the fastest car at this point. It’s about having experience to be able to go out and handle the emotions of 10 weeks.

“As you go into these 10 weeks, you have to put it all together and there’s a lot more than racing to handle.”

JGR drivers took Harvick’s comments in stride. A Toyota-branded team has yet to win a Sprint Cup title, although Kenseth finished second two years ago, Clint Bowyer (Michael Waltrip Racing) was second in ’12 and Hamlin finished in the third spot last season.

“That’s talk,” Edwards, who joined JGR prior to the start of this season, said when told of Harvick’s comment. “We’ll go race and we’ll see how it turns out, but I think statistics and our performance lately speaks for itself.

“We’re pretty fast and that’s that.”

“I though that was supposed to be with media day before Homestead, not media day before the Chase starts,” Busch said of Harvick’s remark. “He’s moving it up. …

“I’d really hate to see him blow a motor here this first week; that would be really, really bad.”

MORE: Who is your Chase driver? Take our quiz

Kenseth, who won the Sprint Cup title in 2003 before the debut of the Chase format, admitted Harvick has something of an advantage as the only driver to win under the current elimination format.

“The only way he was going to make it to Homestead was to win Phoenix and … he was able to win Phoenix; then the only way to assure himself a championships was to win Homestead and he did that, too,” Kenseth said.

“To be able to do that in this format, to be behind and step up to the plate, absolutely, I think that gives him an advantage.”

Harvick and his team, led by crew chief Rodney Childers, spent Wednesday at Kansas Speedway testing prior to heading for Chicago to begin preparations for Sunday’s myAFibRisk.com 400 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR).

“I feel like we’ve got good cars sitting at the shop ready to go,” Childers said following the test. “And I feel like we’re more prepared than what we were last year.

“Last year we did have a little bit of a motor advantage, that kind of thing, and now we don’t. It’s going to be harder. But we’ve got a good race team. We’re going to have to race hard, just like we did last year.

“During the Chase last year the Penske cars (of ’12 champion Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano) were as fast or probably faster at a lot of places and that’s who we had to contend with. Now I think they’ll have good speed and the Gibbs cars will have good speed. It’s going to be exciting.”

Chase games: Chase Battle Grid | Perfect Grid Challenge

Posted on September 17, 2015 by

The pit crew for Brad Keselowski‘s No. 2 Team Penske Ford will have a new rear tire changer heading into the Chase at Chicagoland.

Veteran tire changer Kyle Power will be taking over duties on the No. 2 car immediately. Power has spent the last few years at Richard Petty Motorsports working on the No. 9 and No. 43 teams. He also has many years under his belt as a tire changer at Roush Fenway Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing.

With Power’s departure from the No. 43 team of Aric Almirola, tire changer Colin Fambrough could move to that spot from the No. 9 team to fill the vacancy. That will leave an opening on the pit crew of Sam Hornish Jr.’s No. 9 Ford.

Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet for Jeff Gordon

Pit Coach: Chris Burkey
Front Changer: Scott Brzozowski
Front Carrier: Dion Williams
Jackman: John Gianatto
Rear Changer: Chad Avritt
Rear Carrier: Jared Erspamer
Gas Man: Travis Gordon

Strength: They pit for one of the greatest drivers of all time, and this crew would love to send Jeff Gordon off on a solid note at the end of his final full-time Sprint Cup season. They have two changers who are as fast as any two out there and a support team that is solid.

Weakness: Early in the year this team was moving some crewmen around. They took a few weeks to look at some young talent at the front carrier, rear carrier and jack man positions. During this time, jackman Bailey Walker and HMS parted ways and John Gianatto took over full time. So the in-experience of this team might play a factor. Also, they took a lot of heat a few weeks back at Bristol over two loose wheels on the rear and getting over that will be key.

Richard Childress Racing No. 31 Chevrolet for Ryan Newman

Pit Crew: 31
Pit Coach: Eric Wilson
Front Changer: Tim Sheets
Front Carrier: J.D. Holcum
Jackman: Adam Lewis
Rear Changer: Jake Lind
Rear Carrier: Brad Robinson
Gas Man: Cruz Gonzalez

Strength: This team has some very high-end speed. They have been a top 15 crew for most of the year and come Chase time, they must find that top-end speed in order to compete. This is the same group that helped Newman finish second in last year’s Chase

Weakness: Last year they were a team that was running fast times all year at every track. This year they’ve fallen off a little bit on the consistency side. Make no mistake … this team is fast, but being fast sometimes and being fast all the time are two different things.

Richard Childress Racing No. 27 for Paul Menard

Pit Coach: Eric Wilson
Front Changer: Jeff Cordero
Front Carrier: Matt Donley
Jackman: Sam Abney
Rear Changer: Aaron Smith
Rear Carrier: Ray Wright
Gas Man: Matt Krueter

Strength: This is the same group that has pitted the No. 27 all year. They understand their driver and have veteran leadership within the back of their car with Smith, Wright and Krueter.

Weakness: It’s been a while since they were in contention for a win, and it’s hard to get up for each race when your not used to pitting up front.

Michael Waltrip Racing No. 15 Toyota for Clint Bowyer

Pit Coach: Walt Smith
Front Changer: Terry Spalding
Front Carrier: Allen Steel
Jackman: Brian Chase
Rear Changer: Lee Cunningham
Rear Carrier: PJ Brody
Gas Man: Evan Marchall

Strength: They have a ton of leadership with Spalding and Chase and have plenty of talent in the rear with Brody and Cunningham. They have the ability to go low on any stop.

Weakness: They haven’t been running up front all year, and pitting under the pressure that the Chase provides will test this group. They have had races where they’ve been a top team all day and they’ve had races where you didn’t know they were there. This would be a scary crew to handicap one way or the other.

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Staff Report

RELATED: Take the My Driver Quiz

The My Driver Quiz returns for its second year, giving fans and competitors alike the chance to find out which Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup driver they are most like.

Click the link above to take the quiz yourself. During Thursday’s live chat with Miss Sprint Cup Julianna White, several drivers took the quiz — and some of the results were surprising.

Kurt Busch: Quiz revealed he is most like Jimmie Johnson. “Awww, I got ‘Six-Time,'” Busch said with a chuckle. “I’m trending in the right direction, then.”

Jimmie Johnson: Quiz revealed he is most like Matt Kenseth. “At least I’m not as old as Matt,” Johnson said on his 40th birthday. “That’s the one thing I’ve got going for me today. He’s going to love me for that one.”

Ryan Newman: Quiz revealed he is most like Dale Earnhardt Jr. “I don’t get it.”

Jeff Gordon: Quiz revealed he is most like Carl Edwards. “Cool, Carl Edwards. I’m a big Carl Edwards fan.”

As for Miss Sprint Cup herself? She’s a member of Logano Nation.

Take the quiz for yourself, and let us know in the comments section who you got. As for you other 12 Chase drivers — we’ll look forward to seeing your results on Twitter.

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Staff Report

RELATED: See the Chase Grid | Download your own

We asked members of the NASCAR.com editorial staff to fill out their Chase Grids. Even @nascarcasm got involved. See below for our sleepers, championship picks and even a few doodles.

Click on the individual grids to make them larger.

Zack Albert

Kenny Bruce

Holly Cain

George Winkler

Brad Norman

@nascarcasm

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Staff Report

LEARN MORE: About Bing
PLAY NOW: Play the Chase Grid Battle Game here

The points have been tallied, the smoke cleared and the 16-car field set for the 2015 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Over the next 10 races, drivers will race with everything on the line and battle for limited slots per round, all for a chance to compete in the season’s final event — the Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the Sprint Cup Series title.

And now, fans have the opportunity to get their hands on the action, excitement and drama that comes with the playoffs.

The Chase Grid™ Battle Powered by Bing is an interactive activity that allows fans to follow and participate in the playoffs live, selecting the drivers they think will advance to the next round. Lineups will be scored based upon finishing order and correct selections. Each race is scored so participants are encouraged to set a lineup each round and check back each week for results.

The game will utilize Bing Predicts technology, a system whose résumé includes making accurate predictions for the Women’s World Cup and Tour de France and correctly predicting all 15 knockout games in the men’s World Cup. The round-by-round forecasts will update throughout the Chase and can help users advance to a fantasy championship.

Participants can either choose to form a public or private league to compete against their friends, or join a public league, which can incorporate up to 500 individuals.

Registration is now underway until Nov. 1, but selections are only allowed when the rounds initially open. Fans have the best chance to win prizes if their entries are submitted prior to the first deadline. The deadline to make the first round of picks is Sunday, Sept. 20 at 3 p.m. ET, which coincides with the start of the opening Chase race at Chicagoland Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN).

Click here to get started or learn more about the game here.

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Staff Report

Aaron’s, which has been a Michael Waltrip Racing sponsor for 15 years, confirmed to Sports Business Daily that it would not sponsor a NASCAR team in 2016.

MWR had previously announced it would not field a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team next year. It currently runs the No. 15 Toyota for Clint Bowyer and No. 55 Toyota for David Ragan.

“We have decided to take some time off from a team sponsorship for the 2016 season,” the company wrote in a statement. “The NASCAR fan base is an important audience for us and we have built substantial equity over the past 15 years. We are exploring creative ways to continue to participate in the sport in 2016 including media, brand relationships and track activation.”

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Zack Albert

CHICAGO — Before cars ever turned a lap at Daytona back in February, Joe Gibbs Racing made its season-long aspirations clear in the new-look organization’s first meeting: Place all four teams into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs.

Several months later, with the Chase about to dawn at Chicagoland Speedway, the JGR operation isn’t just one quarter of the 16-team postseason field, it’s also a prohibitive favorite to claim Coach Joe Gibbs’ first premier series championship since 2005.

“I think we have a great shot,” Denny Hamlin, the team’s longest-tenured driver, said at the annual Chase Media Day at The Murphy in downtown Chicago. “Coming into this last year, we had our cars come in but we weren’t running that well. We made it to the final four, but we were very consistent and we ran top-five when it really, really counted. This year, I definitely feel like we have more opportunities to make it to the final four. We all said at the beginning of the year that we wanted to be the last four guys standing and give Joe his first championship in a really long time, and I don’t see why that can’t happen.

“Pretty optimistic right now that JGR’s got a great shot — four shots at a championship.”

Joe Gibbs Racing expanded in the offseason, adding a fourth team with veteran Carl Edwards making the switch from Ford to Toyota. The team also made a drastic shuffle in personnel, switching up the driver-crew chief alignment for three of its four cars. All of the changes came in response to its lackluster performance in 2014 — though all three drivers qualified for the Chase, JGR won just twice in the regular season to limp into the playoffs.

The offseason changes clicked. This year, Joe Gibbs Racing carries the built-up steam of eight victories in the final 11 races of the regular season. Three of the team’s four drivers — Edwards, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch — are winners of multiple races this season, with Hamlin prevailing at familiar haunt Martinsville Speedway.

With one part of the preseason goals met, JGR makes a compelling case for a clean sweep of the Championship 4 in the Homestead-Miami finale Nov. 22. Though racing against teammates with a title on the line might be a delicate dance, Edwards said it would be a happy problem to have.

“No, I don’t think that would be weird,” Edwards said. “I think that was Matt Kenseth‘s statement the first meeting we had in the first 30 seconds of the meeting this year. He said that should be our mission and that’s what he believes we can do and we need to work towards that. I had fun racing with those guys when we were 1-2-3-4 at Richmond the other night. I mean, that’s as good as it gets.”

The team has benefited most from the healthy return of Busch, who missed the first 11 weeks of the season with severe leg injuries after a crash in the NASCAR XFINITY Series opener. Busch didn’t miss a step in his comeback, quickly developing a bond with new crew chief Adam Stevens to rattle off four wins in short order and cement his place among the top 30 in driver points in just 15 races.

Busch’s ascent dovetailed nicely with JGR’s improvement, but Kenseth suggested that each development fed off the other.

“Both — I think it kind of happened at the same time, but I think there was a lot of things that went to that, but certainly having the teammates that I have makes this all better,” Kenseth said. “All of them are capable of winning races on any given week and getting Kyle back in that car and getting him with Adam — obviously they’ve got great chemistry together and they were able to win right out of the gate. That certainly helped us all.”

The only potential distraction to Gibbs’ championship efforts — Hamlin’s ACL injury before the regular-season finale — was quickly put to rest. Hamlin, who placed sixth last weekend at Richmond, walked into Chase Media Day without assistance from crutches.

Both Hamlin and Busch are facing the likelihood of offseason surgery to further address their injuries, but Joe Gibbs Racing enters the playoffs at full strength.

“What I’ve seen out of JGR — being there in the meetings with Coach and TRD (Toyota Racing Development) and the drivers — we should win the championship,” Edwards said. “I mean we really should. These teams are so strong right now and the cars are fast and really we just keep doing what we’re doing, ignore the — whatever anybody says — the performance speaks for itself. It’s really cool.”

CHASE GAMES: Chase Grid Battle | Perfect Grid Challenge

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Pat DeCola

RELATED: Brett Eldredge to perform at Chicagoland Speedway pre-race concert

Country music star Brett Eldredge will kick off the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup on Sunday at Chicagoland with a pre-race concert.

Eldredge sat down for a conversation with NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola earlier this season at Kansas Speedway. True story: he stopped midway through the interview to take a selfie with the Spongebob Squarepants 400 trophy before continuing on.

PD: Have you been to Chicagoland before?

Brett Eldredge: Yes, I went to school in the suburbs of Chicago. I’m very familiar with Chicago, it’s my favorite city in the world. To be going and kicking off the Chase there and getting to play the show that kicks it off, that’s going to be kind of a dream come true as a kid growing up in Illinois and watching racing. It’s going to be quite the night; I’m fired up.

PD: So you grew up watching racing.

BE: Yup. I grew up next to Indianapolis, next to the Indiana border, which is an hour-and-a-half, two hours to the Brickyard. So I’d go there and see the Indy 500 and stuff growing up. Living there, you kind of at least somewhat have to be a fan.

PD: So then … Indy 500 or Brickyard 400?

BE: I would really have to say NASCAR, just because of the rub of the paint and it’s just a more gritty kind of a race to me. It’s more personal, I guess you could say. I love watching the Indycars and everything, but there’s just something about watching NASCAR and about that Brickyard race that I just … that was the first time that I got a feeling from going to a race that I thought to myself, “This is a unique experience; this is an adrenaline rush just from being a fan.” With playing music, people get a rush by watching you up there on stage. I get a rush being up there on stage. But I also get a rush as a fan of NASCAR because I get to feel what it’s like just by watching and seeing people bumping into each other at 200 miles an hour going around a turn and I can’t even imagine being those drivers. I just got to ride in a pace car with Michael Waltrip out there right now and we’re going like 120, 130 and it felt intense at that speed. So I’ve got a lot of respect for the guys driving at 200.

PD: Was that your first pace car ride?

BE: That was my second pace car ride, but it was my first one with somebody like Michael Waltrip. He’s an awesome guy and obviously his track record shows. He’s a great person, too. He was singing my songs as he was driving and he was like, “Let’s see what this baby can do,” and I was like “All right, you’re the pro so I’ll just sit back,” … it was great.

PD: Did you see him on “Dancing with the Stars” at all?

BE: No! That’s awesome. I’ve got to talk to him about that now. I’m always on the tour bus so I don’t watch much TV, but now I’ve got to ask him to show some of these dance moves off. Now we’re going to be buddies.

PD: He’s a tall, lanky guy, so the dancing was … interesting.

BE: That’s the wild thing. I’m a really tall guy, too, and I don’t really like small spaces. I can’t imagine as drivers, getting into those little cars and driving around, let alone somebody as tall as Michael Waltrip (6-foot-5) getting in that car. That’s impressive. Big ups to him.

PD: So, safe to say you wouldn’t get behind the wheel of a stock car, then?

BE: I like spectating. I love sitting on pit road and watching the cars come in. I did that last year in Kansas and it was like … that was intense. All these guys hopping over that wall and they get really mad if they miss one second and it’s a cool thing. It’s a sport. It’s really a sport.

PD: Which of your country music friends is the biggest NASCAR fanatic?

BE: Oh, Blake Shelton’s a huge fan. And Clint Bowyer, I think, is a good buddy of his. And his tour manager, Kevin, is a huge NASCAR fan. It’s cool to see, because they helped introduce me to some of these folks sometimes if I don’t know anybody, and they know everybody in NASCAR. It’s cool that they’re fans of something other than music. They’re fans of something else, as well.