Harvick tops opening Michigan Cup practice

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Staff Report

SHR driver paces session with best speed of 202.094 mph

Rain halted the opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Michigan International Speedway twice on Friday afternoon, but Kevin Harvick had already established a formidable speed atop the leaderboard that stuck through the remainder of the session.

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The Stewart-Haas Racing driver paced the field with a best speed of 202.492 mph, achieved in just five laps in prep for Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 (1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM).

Joey Logano was second in the session at 201.607 mph, followed by last week’s winner Martin Truex Jr. (201.157 mph), Denny Hamlin (200.921 mph) and Jeff Gordon (200.781 mph).

Clint Bowyer struggled in the session with his new crew chief, Billy Scott, as the No. 15 Toyota came in 27th on the leaderboard at 197.055 mph.

With 25 minutes left in the session, Kurt Busch lost control of his No. 41 Chevrolet, sending it into the outside wall.

"Went down in there and was a little twitchier when it turned in and then it went full on left," Busch radioed to his team after the hit. "Sorry … it’s pretty much ruined."

Crew chief Tony Gibson decided to switch to a backup car, which the 2004 Cup champion will test run during Coors Light Pole Qualifying at 4:15 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 2.

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Staff Report

Phoenix International Raceway to be called Jeff Gordon Raceway for one day

BUY: Phoenix tickets

Phoenix International Raceway will be called Jeff Gordon Raceway for the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Nov. 15, a track representative announced Friday. The race is No. 35 of 36 in the 2015 season and also Gordon’s penultimate race as a full-time driver.

Gordon has two wins and 23 top 10s in 33 career Cup starts at Phoenix. It was also the site of one of the most controversial moments of his distinguished career in 2012 when he wrecked championship contender Clint Bowyer in the closing laps.

Since he announced his intention to step down from full-time competition (although he still hasn’t used the word "retire") in January, tracks have honored Gordon in a variety of ways.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway gave him a customized blackjack table and changed the speed limit around its facility to 24 mph; Atlanta Motor Speedway offered a red No. 24 Bandolero car, with the names of Gordon’s two children, Ella Sofia and Leo, over each door; and Bristol Motor Speedway had Ella Sofia and Leo give the command prior to its April race.

This story will be updated.

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Zack Albert

GM Joe Garone discusses whether team is looking to change manufacturers

BROOKLYN, Mich. — A matter of weeks ago, the direction of Furniture Row Racing centered on potentially expanding to a multi-car organization. Now, just days removed from the team’s first victory in four years, the tenor of that discussion surrounds which automaker’s badges will be on those cars.

Furniture and mattress magnate Barney Visser told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio earlier this week that his No. 78 Chevrolet team was exploring a potential change in manufacturers. The car owner’s remarks came while the Colorado-based team was still in the honeymoon phase of Martin Truex Jr.’s feel-good victory last weekend at Pocono Raceway.

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Friday at Michigan International Speedway, Furniture Row general manager Joe Garone elaborated on the team’s exploration, saying that it was looking into options that make financial sense.

"It is. It’s about business," Garone said. "We are in a sport that is real expensive. We truly can’t afford to do it. We can do it. When I say we can’t afford to do it, I mean at the level we want to push it to in order to be able to be in position to win a championship. We need more resources. Chevrolet has been a great partner. We have been together for 10 years now. But they are spread across … they do a great job; look at all the championships they have won. But to get to the level we need to get to, we need to get a lot more support. We are open and have been looking to try and get that just to push our team forward further."

Going further would mark an even more pronounced performance pick-up for Truex, who has run at the front of the pack in recent weeks, leading gobs of laps before finally cashing in last weekend at Pocono. The victory virtually assured Truex a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs, where Furniture Row will make only its second appearance since the organization’s formation in 2005.

MORE: Truex takes long road back to Victory Lane

From those origins, however, the team has been exclusively linked to Chevrolet for its decade-plus in NASCAR’s top division. For the majority of the team’s lifetime, it has also carried the colors of Furniture Row and Denver Mattress, Visser’s own companies. Garone — who was quick to distinguish that the operation was definitely looking, not definitely changing automakers — said that the scope of the team’s search included both new manufacturers and new sponsors.

"One of the things about the No. 78 car is because it has always had Furniture Row and Denver Mattress on it, everybody assumes it is sponsored," Garone said. "It has made it tough to find partners, but again Barney owns those companies. We need to get the word out that we are actively looking for sponsorship to come on board. Not just for the No. 78, but to expand the company into a multi-car team. It is for the long-term growth of the team. We will just see what plays out and just keep pushing the button and try to expand this thing."

RELATED: Is second car in the cars for Furniture Row?

For Truex, his focus remains trained on improving over the second half of the regular season and making a move for his first Sprint Cup championship in the 10-race Chase. But he also acknowledged that teams, regardless of their position in the garage’s pecking order, are continually searching for an edge.

"More of what we are doing and just continuing to get better and push hard and try to find more speed," Truex said. "I think everybody is looking right now. Everybody is constantly working hard. Things change a lot in this garage area. There are a lot of smart people that are always working and always pushing to find more. We just have to keep doing that. I think that we have shown this year that we are capable of it. Certainly the last four weeks have been great. I feel like we have shown and proved that we can battle with them week in and week out.

"Honestly we just have to keep our eye on the prize, stay focused and keep working hard. I know for a fact the team has it in them. It’s just a matter of whether we get it done or not."

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Zack Albert

Roush teammates move past Monster Mile incident, look towards Michigan

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Chris Buescher and Darrell Wallace Jr., teammates-turned-rivals two weeks ago, said Friday they’ve put their Dover differences behind them, turning their focus toward an all-important track for their Roush Fenway Racing organization.

Buescher enters Saturday’s Great Clips 250 Benefiting Paralyzed Veterans of America (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1) at Michigan International Speedway as the NASCAR XFINITY Series points leader. Wallace, in his first year driving for Roush Fenway, ranks 49 points behind his teammate in fifth place.

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Their proximity in the standings aside, the two teammates were not exactly chummy after clanging fenders in the latter stages of the series’ most recent race at Dover International Speedway. Buescher drove away to his second victory of the season while Wallace faded with a flat tire.

The run-in made the Roush Fenway camp’s Monday morning meeting after Dover an awkward one, but two weeks later, the waters appear to have smoothed.

"It was hard racing is what it comes down to," Buescher told NASCAR.com before Friday’s rain-delayed XFINITY practice on the 2-mile track. "We’ve had a talk about it and obviously it was not an ideal situation and we don’t ever want to be in the same situation again. We’ve talked and we’re going to put it behind us. We’re going to go into Michigan and treat it as another race where we need to go be teammates again and go perform at our highest level. And we’ll be OK. We’ve talked about it a little bit, and it’s just a racing deal, you know? You’ll go through that sometimes."

Wallace’s easy-going Friday demeanor was in direct contrast to his dismay after the checkered flag at Dover. After joking about how "interesting" the Monday meeting was, Wallace said the team was ready to move forward.

"Dover’s definitely behind us," Wallace said. "We didn’t see eye-to-eye in that meeting. We still know we’ve got to be smart, but I told them they’ve got a lot more to lose than me."

Both Roush Fenway drivers may be feeling more burden to perform this weekend at Michigan, a longtime stronghold for team owner Jack Roush. The premium on running well in the showcase event for manufacturers Ford and Chevrolet is a tall order, a team edict that places a little more pressure on Saturday’s 250-miler.

"Every time we talk about Michigan, this exact subject comes up," Buescher said. "It’s Jack’s home track, it’s Ford’s home track — we’re expected to come here and perform at our highest level. This is one that, it’s a tough race to win. It’s a lot of momentum, it’s a lot of drafting, which has been difficult for me to get a hold of at a place like this. We try really hard to make sure we bring the best stuff possible here and get the win.

"There is pressure here. We keep it circled. We know that we need to come and win this race, not only for Jack but for Ford and for our race team."

Wallace said he participated in a private fantasy league among family members growing up, making sure to stock his lineup with heavily favored Roush drivers for each Michigan race. While Roush Fenway’s XFINITY efforts — with three drivers in the top eight in standings — may be outpacing their Sprint Cup Series brethren (no drivers better than 18th), Wallace suggests that side of the operation may be ready to turn the corner.

"We’ve actually found speed fairly quick," Wallace said of his XFINITY No. 6 team. "It’s been cool to see (Greg) Biffle finish second in the 600 there, and he was strong during the All-Star Race. They continue to show speed. It’s starting to improve, so it’s cool to see that for the future. Hopefully we can continue to find more speed as a team overall."

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Nascar

Truex Jr., Gordon, Kahne and Edwards speak out on possible changes

BROOKLYN, Mich. – The on-again, off-again 2016 rules package for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series appears to be on again.

Only this time, teams might put the package on the track before 2016 arrives.

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Talk in the garage Friday at Michigan International Speedway indicated that the package could be put into play next month when the series visits Kentucky Speedway on July 11. And it would be only for that event.

"We’ll have to see how that goes," Martin Truex Jr. said Friday at Michigan, site of Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 (1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM). "I don’t know. I have as many questions about it as everybody else. What’s it going to be like? Is it going to do what they think and what some of the drivers think it’s going to do?"

NASCAR officials initially considered implementing the changes, which are expected to further reduce downforce, for this year’s Sprint All-Star Race, a non-points-paying event hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway last month. That idea was eventually tabled.

"You always want to be able to go and test it and understand it," four-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon said. "I’m fine with what I’m hearing about a reduction in downforce if they can bring a softer tire. To me that is the whole key in kind of where we are at today.

"We knew the power was being reduced. A lot of the drivers were really asking for less downforce if the power was going to be reduced, but the key component to that was being able to get Goodyear to match the tire up for that to have a little bit more grip at the beginning of a run and maybe have some fall off. That has been one of the biggest challenges this year is that we are actually running harder tires."

NASCAR officials would not confirm that a change would be forthcoming during the 2015 season but acknowledged that the sanctioning body has been actively involved in dialog with teams with the goal of making racing as exciting as possible. As such, they are looking at various scenarios to accomplish that goal.

Steve O’Donnell, Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer for NASCAR, said earlier this year that rising corner speeds, an unintended consequence of the current rules package, was a concern and the ’16 package would be fashioned to "affect the aero … and match that up with the tire."

While straightaway speeds have fallen this season, drivers can drive deeper into the corners and don’t have to stay off-throttle as long, resulting in the higher corner speeds.

Speaking with "Downforce Radio" recently, O’Donnell broached the possibility of track-specific rules package for the series.

"Not to have it be 36 individual packages, but potentially look at some lower downforce at some (tracks) … kind of cater it to certain tracks," he said.

The ’16 aero package was tested briefly earlier this year at Charlotte. Kasey Kahne, the pole winner for Sunday’s race, was one of those participating.

"I really liked it," the Hendrick Motorsports driver said. "I ran by myself and felt like it was the first time I could really drive the car, control the car, lift and things to make the car work rather than just run super hard like we’re doing. …When I came into the sport, that’s how it was, you drove more with both feet. You found speed in different spots in the corner and you weren’t wide open."

While drivers might see the move as beneficial, on-track testing with the setup was halted earlier this year, so the risk of the unknown has some in the garage not as eager to see the rules package modified during the middle of the season. No extensive wind tunnel testing has been done, and there is some concern that the changes could benefit one of the three automakers in the series, Chevrolet, Ford or Toyota, more than others.

It’s also been noted that implementing changes for a points-paying race could adversely impact one or more team’s chances at qualifying for this year’s 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Carl Edwards, already all but locked into the 16-team Chase field with a victory at Charlotte, said he has no such concerns.

"I really feel that the way racing works, as long as the teams are able to implement the changes logistically and financially without a huge burden, change anything you want anytime you want," he said. "As long as it’s the same for everyone, who cares?

"As far as I’m concerned, you could make up rules or have changes five minutes before the race starts."

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Nascar

After heated exchange at Pocono, the pair look ahead to Michigan

BROOKLYN, Mich. — The much ballyhooed “heated” radio conversation between four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon and crew chief Alan Gustafson has been put to rest.

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“If anything,“ Gordon said Friday at Michigan International Speedway, “I think it’s been more positive that we kind of got that out there and had this heated moment and said some things and got them off our chest. I think it’s actually helped us coming into this weekend really focused and excited about it.”

During the eighth and final caution of Sunday’s Axalta 400 at Pocono Raceway, and with Gordon running 21st, Gustafson called his driver in for four tires.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver questioned the decision, and the radio conversation quickly became heated before spotter Eddit D’Hondt stepped in to try and settle the pair down.

“It’s intense out there,” Gordon said Friday. “We had a car far better than what we finished (14th). I would say (it was) a little bit of a build-up with the type of season we’ve had so far.

“It seems like every time we have a car that’s capable of either winning or running in the top five some circumstances come about that take us kind of out of that. That’s frustrating. When you’re in the closing laps of a race, coming down to kind of the final pit stops and you’re making choices and decisions you’re not always going to like those decisions. You have to play a role in it. At that point, I think both Alan was frustrated and I was frustrated. The restarts weren’t going great; we took a risk on the pit strategy (earlier), the caution came out that blew that strategy and that put us back. We saw how hard it was to pass, track position being really, really important especially in that final run.”

The winningest active driver competing in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series today with 92 career victories, Gordon, 43, is stepping out of the car following the 2015 season. While he is 10th in points heading into Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 (1 p.m. FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR), he’s yet to win a race this season. To qualify for this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup, a driver must be in the top 16 in points or have at least one win after the 26th race of the year.

Gordon said he felt his car was good enough to stay out and maintain its track position at that point in the Pocono race.

“I rarely ever question those calls — he’s the crew chief and he makes great calls,” Gordon said. “But at that point I felt like I needed to stay out. It got a little heated.

“But it’s all good. We’re big boys; we respect the heck out of one other. We’ve had great conversations this week.”

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Nascar

Visit to Boys & Girls Club comes with red tutu

Editor’s note: Photos via Jessica Christian, MLive

ADRIAN, Mich. — She played air hockey and helped build paper race cars, mixing and mingling with youngsters while wearing jeans, a black T-shirt and a red tutu.

"That’s part of the fun … you can be silly," NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Danica Patrick said of her outfit. "It also just helps the kids feel relaxed. If I’m willing to be silly, then they can be silly and we don’t need to be serious, we can just have a good time."

The Stewart-Haas Racing driver will compete in this Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway (1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM), stop No. 15 of 36 on this year’s schedule. But on Thursday, Patrick spent the afternoon at the Boys & Girls Club of Lenawee. Along with Alba Colon, General Motors’ program manager for its NASCAR Sprint Cup Series effort, the pair entertained and informed approximately 200 kids taking part in the after-school program.

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"I’ve done lots of Boys & Girls Club appearances. They’re easy, they’re all about having fun," she said. "It’s all about kids that want to be and can be inspired. The time always goes really quickly with them, and you kind of feel like you’re really making an impact."

Some recognized her, some didn’t. Nearly all seemed impressed.

"She’s that famous race car driver," her air hockey opponent said. As for her skills at the table? "Yeah, she’s really good," he admitted.

"My grandpa is a big fan," another youngster offered. "I can’t remember his favorite driver. He drives that Mountain Dew car."

"Dale (Earnhardt) Jr.," Patrick said.

"Yeah, that’s him," came the reply.

The 90-minute session passed quickly as kids of various ages each got a chance to spend time with the driver.

"I know what it was like to watch TV and see someone on there and think ‘What are they like in person?’ or ‘How did they get there?,’ " Patrick said. "So it’s neat to be able to come to a Boys & Girls Club where it’s a different experience for them to meet someone that’s on TV. Just have them see that they’re just like them except that I had something that I really enjoyed doing. I just decided when I was 10 that I wanted to be a race car driver … you’ve got to have that dream. If you don’t have a goal, how are you going to reach it?"

Danica Patrick makes a connection at the Boys & Girls Club of Lewanee.

• Patrick enters this weekend’s event 20th in the points standings with a best finish of seventh (at Martinsville) this season. She was running just outside the top 10 during the second half of last week’s race at Pocono Raceway when she tagged the wall and ended up finishing 37th.

"It was definitely a heartbreaker," she said. "But those are the things that you just can’t do if you want to be in a position to be in the top 16, you can’t make mistakes. Especially for me, it’s not like I run top five or 10 every weekend and you just have bad ones and it’ll all balance out. It’s like I need every point I can get to hope for that.

"It’s part of the learning experience, too; with these stock cars you really have to push to the edge to be competitive, but pushing over the edge gets you in big trouble. I used to do it a lot more when I first started in NASCAR and it has gone down. But you sure find that when you’re trying to get that last little bit … and you’re doing really well that you sometimes go over that edge. Those are just mistakes that I need to avoid."

Patrick will be making her fifth Sprint Cup start at MIS. She finished 17th here last June and 18th when the series returned in August.

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Nascar

Manufacturer responds to team owner, would be disappointed if team left

ADRIAN, Mich. — Chevrolet officials took note this week when team owner Barney Visser broached the subject of a possible manufacturer change for his Furniture Row Racing No. 78 team.

Asked about retaining the services of driver Martin Truex Jr., whose contract is scheduled to end after the 2015 season, Visser told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Wednesday that re-signing the driver is "certainly something we want to do."

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"We just hate to screw around with anything right now, any negotiations, anything that might upset the applecart," he said. "… We’ll get it done. We’ll get in there and get started on this stuff. We’ll see."

Sponsorship, he said, was needed "to really negotiate the kind of contract we’d both like to see.

"It may involve a change in manufacturer here, we’re not sure. There just doesn’t seem to be any money out of General Motors and probably never will be for us. So something’s got to give."

Furniture Row has fielded Chevrolet entries since it debuted in 2005 and is one of approximately 10 full-time teams fielding its SS model in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

"We don’t want to lose them; we’ve been there with them in every stage of their business and we’re very happy to see they are doing that great," Alba Colon, General Motors program manager for its NASCAR Sprint Cup Series effort said Thursday during an appearance here at the Boys & Girls Club of Lenawee.

"It’s a little bit personal when you have seen how their team started with nothing and how far they have come; how that first day they came out to prove ‘we are a small team from Colorado and we can prove that you can have a team that’s not (based) in North Carolina.’"

Truex Jr.’s win last Sunday in the Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400 at Pocono Raceway was his first since joining the team at the beginning of 2014 and just the second for the single-car operation — current XFINITY Series driver Regan Smith scored its first, at Darlington in 2011.

RELATED: Truex’s long road back to Victory Lane

Second in points entering this weekend’s Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway (1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM), Truex has led the most laps in the last four Sprint Cup races. He is one of only four drivers, joining NASCAR Hall of Famers Lee Petty (1954, ’59), Richard Petty (1969) and Kevin Harvick (2015), to start a season with 13 top-10s in the first 14 races.

MORE: Schedule for Michigan, Gateway weekend

The only active full-time Sprint Cup organization based outside the Carolinas, Furniture Row is funded through Visser’s own business entities. It has a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing, which supplies engines and technical/engineering support.

GM officials don’t provide financial details of the group’s support, financial or otherwise, for the different NASCAR organizations with which the company is aligned. Nor does Ford nor Toyota, the two other auto makers currently competing in the series.

It would be disappointing if the relationship with Furniture Row came to an end, Colon said.

"First of all, they have been a Chevrolet team (from the beginning); pretty much 10 years I believe that they have always been a GM team," she said. "They started to build their engines themselves and after that they went to Hendrick Motorsports and now they have the alliance with RCR so they have been a part of the Chevy family since they started.

"Don’t tell me you don’t (build) relationships in 10 years. We have a good relationship with our teams; we don’t want to lose any of our teams. But at the end of the day, outside of the personal side, business is business and manufacturers and teams make the decisions that they think are the best for their circumstances.

"The biggest example — Joe Gibbs Racing when they made the decision (to switch from Chevrolet to Toyota in ’08) that they thought was the right choice for them.

"It’s just part of the business and we understand that."

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Staff Report

Keep up to date with what is happening in the Irish Hills

Posted on June 11, 2015 by NASCAR Official Release

Kim Brink departs NASCAR for COO role at Global Team Ford

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 11, 2015) — NASCAR today announced that Senior Vice President Jill Gregory, who currently oversees the company’s Industry Services department, will also assume leadership of NASCAR Marketing effective immediately. Gregory replaces Kim Brink, who was named Chief Operating Officer of Global Team Ford — the WPP-owned group of agencies dedicated to Ford — earlier today.

In her current role, Gregory oversees a group that includes Driver, Team and Event Marketing Services, as well as Industry Operations. She has led NASCAR’s Driver Star Power initiative and spearheaded industry integration on the rollout of numerous marketing initiatives, including the new NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase format in 2014. With her added responsibilities, she will now lead Brand Marketing, Marketing and Media Research, and NASCAR Creative Design. She also serves as a member of the board of directors for The NASCAR Foundation. Gregory will report to NASCAR Chief Marketing Officer, Steve Phelps on Marketing and continue to report to NASCAR Chief Racing Development Officer, Steve O’Donnell on Industry Services.

"Jill is an extraordinary leader with world-class marketing experience from the client, agency and sports property perspective who also has deep relationships across NASCAR and keen understanding of the needs of all our stakeholders," said Phelps. "Her combined skills, experience and ability to integrate make her a perfect choice to lead this critical discipline into the future. We can’t thank Kim enough for what she has built over the last four years and her new opportunity certainly reflects her immeasurable contributions at NASCAR."

Gregory joined NASCAR in 2007 after serving as Senior Vice President of Motorsports Marketing at Bank of America and prior to that served as Director of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Marketing at Sprint NEXTEL. Earlier in her career she worked in-house at Texaco, as well as top sports marketing agencies, GMR and Wunderman. She was among the inaugural class of "Game Changers: Women in Sports Business" by SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily and the California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo graduate stays active in the community, currently serving as corporate chair for LLS Light the Night Walk in Charlotte.

"NASCAR is a globally recognized brand and this is an important moment in our history so I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to lead marketing," said Gregory. "We have many strong assets in the sport right now and I look forward to integrating Industry Services and Marketing as we work across the industry to build our brand and the profile of our drivers, tracks and events to grow NASCAR."

Brink has led all marketing initiatives at NASCAR since 2011, spearheading award-winning advertising creative, the launch of NASCAR’s current Hispanic outreach efforts, as well as the development of NASCAR’s acclaimed youth marketing platform, Acceleration Nation. She also led NASCAR’s Agency of Record review that resulted in the selection of class-leading Ogilvy and Mather.

Brink joined NASCAR after a long tenure at General Motors in Detroit where she led global advertising and sales promotions campaigns for Chevrolet and Cadillac. As COO at Global Team Ford, Brink will report to Team Detroit CEO, Satish Korde, and play a lead role driving marketing support for Ford Motor Company worldwide.

"My experience at NASCAR has been outstanding and I look forward to staying connected to the sport through its relationship with Ford," said Brink. "The sport is headed in the right direction and I’m confident the team and marketing foundation that has been built positions Jill and the team for great success going forward. She is a talented leader with strong experience and relationships that will serve the sport very well."