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Incident sent ‘Rowdy’ to garage early and he couldn’t recover

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Kyle Busch was enjoying one of his best efforts ever in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, with five consecutive top-10 finishes and a second-place position in the points standings.

Then came Talladega, and the wreck, and the mad scramble to repair a car that looked beyond repair.

Busch was able to return to Sunday’s GEICO 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, but the 40th place finish proved too damaging to overcome.

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Seemingly headed for the Eliminator Round of the Chase, Busch instead now joins six-time champion Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne as those who are no longer in contention for the series title.

"We were riding around back, Kyle was just playing it conservative … they wrecked in front of us, we got slowed up and the guys in back didn’t," said crew chief Dave Rogers.

"It’s part of speedway racing; you know someone is going to wreck out, you just hope it’s not you."

Busch, whose car was nicked only slightly in a six-car incident on Lap 60 when Jamie McMurray appeared to have a tire go down, wasn’t nearly as fortunate on Lap 103.

Contact between Aric Almirola and J.J. Yeley on the backstretch started a chain reaction incident that swept up Tony Stewart, Casey Mears, AJ Allmendinger, Busch, Terry Labonte, Alex Bowman, Clint Bowyer, Austin Dillon and Brian Vickers.

Busch and Almirola were the only two to spend an extensive amount of time in the garage, but both eventually made it back on the track.

While Busch did gain three spots after his car was repaired — he finished ahead of Michael McDowell, Yeley and Bowman — he was four points behind Kahne and seven behind Jeff Gordon, who was eighth in the standings before the Eliminator Round reset.

"It was a tough day for the crew but we’ll gather ourselves back up tomorrow and we’ll race them hard at Martinsville," Rogers said. "We’ll try to advance in points and get to fifth, do the best we can the rest of the year."

Busch, 29, was making his seventh Chase appearance. He finished a career-best fourth in the championship battle a year ago.

He qualified for the Chase thanks to a win earlier this season at Auto Club Speedway, and advanced out of the first three-race round with finishes of seventh, eighth and 10th at Chicagoland, Loudon and Dover, respectively.

A third-place finish at Kansas and fifth-place run at Charlotte in the Contender round left him second in points heading into Sunday’s race.

Busch did not comment publicly after the race.

"I can’t praise him enough," Rogers said of his driver. "He’s really stepped up to be a great leader of this race team in the Chase.

"We’ve had a couple of things go against us — getting the nose knocked off at Loudon (and) today, and Kyle’s done a really good job of biting his lip and just backing the race team to let us do our job.

"I can’t say enough good about him. I’m really proud of him. It’s been a lot of fun working with him and we’re not done yet."

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Grant Lynch: ‘What they can do here is special’

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TALLADEGA, Ala. — Five minutes, five laps and the fastest lap of the five determines where you stack up in the 43-car lineup. Maybe that’s the next qualifying format change for restrictor-plate tracks in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

"If you don’t make five laps, you don’t count any of them," an exasperated Grant Lynch, chairman of Talladega Superspeedway, said Sunday morning.

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Lynch said he thought the format used Saturday failed to achieve the desired result, which was to have multiple cars on the track for much of the opening round with speeds more closely resembling those seen in race conditions.

Instead, some teams waited until the last possible moment to make a qualifying run and came up short when they were unable to get up to speed before the session ended.

Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson and Jeff Gordon qualified for today’s GEICO 500 at Talladega based on their position in owner points, not by virtue of their qualifying lap speeds.

Five of the seven drivers are championship contenders.

Two full-time teams, the No. 17 of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and the No. 51 of Justin Allgaier, failed to qualify because of how the owner points fell.

"It’s frustrating," Lynch said. "I’ve said this many times — what they can do here is special. To see them have the opportunity to go out and finally … qualify at the speeds we race at … is disappointing.

"But I understand strategies; I understand there are different people in the draft that will get different benefits."

Drivers were no less taken with the new format, which broke the teams into two groups for the first session.

"You don’t really feel like you are doing your part as a race car driver in a qualifying session like this," six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson said. "But it is plate racing and if it’s entertaining I guess I’m OK with it."

AJ Allmendinger, third fastest behind pole winner Brian Vickers and Johnson, the No. 2 qualifier, called it "a weird format."

"I’m not sure it’s any better than single-car qualifying," he said. "It’s hard to say, but it is what it is."

Former series champion Brad Keselowski said the bigger question was whether the fans liked the format change "because that is who we do everything for."

"If the fans like it, then I’m happy, and if not, I am not," the Team Penske driver added.

Lynch said he’s certain NASCAR officials will look into possible changes to the format.

"They’ve already taken it down from 25 (minutes) in the first round to five," he said. "I’d rather die quick than from a bunch of cuts."

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Get caught up quickly before the GEICO 500 (2 p.m. ET, ESPN)

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What: 46th annual GEICO 500
Where: Talladega Superspeedway, Talladega, Alabama
When: Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014
TV/Radio: ESPN, Motor Racing Network
Time: 2:00 p.m. ET
Distance: 188 laps (500.08 miles)

Pit road speed: 55 mph
Caution car speed: 70 mph

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On the front row | Starting lineup
1. Brian Vickers, Michael Waltrip Racing No. 55 Toyota (196.129 mph)
2. Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet (195.732 mph)

Failed to qualify
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Roush Fenway Racing No. 17 Ford); Justin Allgaier (HScott Motorsports No. 51 Chevrolet); Joe Nemechek (RAB Racing No. 29 Toyota)

To the rear
Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski will drop to the rear of the field prior to the start of today’s race. Kenseth’s Joe Gibbs Racing team changed engines in the No. 20 Toyota Saturday morning while Keselowski’s Team Penske group made an alternator change before qualifying. Kenseth qualified 13th while Keselowski was fifth fastest.

Going out in style
Two-time NASCAR premier series champion Terry Labonte will make his final Sprint Cup start today, driving the No. 32 Ford fielded by Go FAS Racing. It will be the 61st start at Talladega for Labonte, tying the mark currently held by Dave Marcis, and Labonte’s 890th career Cup start. The decklid of the car features artwork depicting his first Cup entry, as well as the two in which he won championships in ’84 and ’96.

Fastest in practice
First Practice: Clint Bowyer, Michael Waltrip Racing No. 15 Toyota (200.385 mph)
Final Practice: Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota (195.205 mph)

Defending GEICO 500 Champion
Jamie McMurray, Chip Ganassi Racing No. 1 Chevrolet

Driver rating (Best driver rating average at Talladega Superspeedway based on past nine years)
Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet (94.8*)
Matt Kenseth, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota (90.9)
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports No 88 Chevrolet (90.3)
*Based on one career start

Former Talladega winners in the field
Jeff Gordon (6); Dale Earnhardt Jr. (5); Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte, Jamie McMurray, Brad Keselowski (2); David Ragan, Tony Stewart, Brian Vickers, Michael Waltrip, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin (1).

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Multiple drivers face different obstacles at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. — "Ladies and gentlemen, congratulations — you got your money’s worth," Spencer Gallagher exclaimed after the finish of an action-packed fred’s 250 powered by Coca-Cola at Talladega Superspeedway. The track threw its best at the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series title contenders, with penalties, wrecks and debris shaking up the points standings several times throughout the 95 laps.

It all started with points leader Matt Crafton. The No. 88 pitted under the race’s first caution and as Crafton pulled out of his pit stall, the neon yellow Menards/Fishers Nuts Toyota got into the back of the No. 99 of Bryan Silas as he turned into his own stall, doing damage to both trucks and turning around the No. 99. An additional pit stop was required to fix the damage of the No. 88, after which Crafton battled visibility issues.

"We definitely had a lot to overcome," Crafton said after the race. "We got our first pit stop, got tore up on pit road. Then after that, it was downhill. I had so much chatter on the radio. ‘What do I do? Do I wait back here? I’m stuck back here.’ "

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After making his way back into the top three, Crafton got an unwelcome push draft from the No. 8 of Joe Nemechek. The result was a black flag from NASCAR, which sent both cars to pit road to serve a pass-through penalty.

"They’re black-flagging us, and I don’t get it," the No. 88 crew chief Carl Joiner said over the radio to a furious Crafton.

"Tell Joe, ‘Thanks a lot, you (expletive) idiot.’ "

Crafton’s teammate Johnny Sauter didn’t have an easier time at the restrictor-plate track. He ran over debris 20 laps into the race, and a punctured radiator caused the No. 98 to fall off the pace at Lap 25 without any warning.

"Another kick in the (expletive)," Sauter said as his team worked in the garage. Sauter came to Talladega in second place in the standings, 19 points behind Crafton, with an anything-goes attitude, saying, "If it works out, great, if not, oh well. That’s just the attitude you have to have."

That attitude changed quickly.

"Championship’s over, and from here on out we can just race like hell," Sauter lamented from the garage.

Even Ryan Blaney, who made his way into Sauter’s second-place position in the points standings, 16 points behind Crafton, had to battle his way up the points standings. En route to his 19th top-five finish of his Truck Series career, the Brad Keselowski Racing driver earned a speeding penalty during green-flag pit stops on Lap 44, sending him a lap down after running at the front for 30 of the race’s first 43 laps.

"We gained about 10 (points) on Matt so that was good," Blaney said. "We had a great … truck. I made a mistake early and sped on pit road and that kind of put us back a little bit. But we got right back up to the front really fast."

Darrell Wallace Jr., hoping for his first champagne celebration in Victory Lane after turning 21 earlier in the month, started the race in 27th, but teamed up with eventual race-winner Timothy Peters early on to move into the top 10 by Lap 4. Wallace ended the day in third place in the standings, 28 points behind Crafton after a ninth-place finish, while Peters earned the title of biggest mover toward the top of the points standings, moving into fifth from seventh, cutting 18 points off his deficit.

"Obviously we know that the championship might be out our reach, but who knows, maybe we could pull the Hornaday and win the rest ’em and be right back in it," Peters said.

After picking the wrong line on a final restart, Crafton went home with a 14th-place finish. Thorsport Racing teammate Sauter was unable to get back onto the track, finishing 71 laps down in 31st. When the dust settled at one of NASCAR’s most unpredictable tracks, however, Crafton lost only three points of his buffer at the top of the leaderboard.

"At least we got out of here somewhat in decent shape," Crafton said.

As his teammate knows, Talladega could have done much worse.

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Two-time champion to run his 890th career race and 61st at Talladega

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TALLADEGA, Ala. — In 1979, Terry Labonte climbed into a car to compete at Talladega Superspeedway in NASCAR’s premier series for the first time. Sixty starts later, he’ll be doing it for the last time Sunday, tying the record for most career starts at the 2.66-mile track at the same time as he ends a storied career. After 37 seasons of racing, Labonte is retiring — and this time, he says, it’s for good.

Labonte first announced his retirement during his last full-time season as a driver in 2004, but it didn’t take much for the veteran driver to heed the call to return to the track.

"The first time, I guess, it was about halfway through the next year and Rick Hendrick called me, and Michael and Darrell (Waltrip) had asked him if he’d give me a call and see if I’d go run Michael’s car," Labonte said. "So I ran a few races in that car and then I thought, ‘You know, that was kind of fun, just running a few races here and there.’ "

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The two-time premier series champion, who topped the circuit in both the 1984 and 1996 seasons, has been a constant in the sport across changes in safety, race car technology and rules, as well as a generational change of competitors. Among the 12 remaining drivers in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, six had not yet been born when Labonte began his premier series career: Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne and Brad Keselowski.

Despite his age difference compared to many of today’s top contenders, Labonte said he still would want to compete in this year’s new elimination-format Chase, but he also enjoys watching the added pressure and excitement of the playoffs.

There is, however, one thing that makes Labonte happy he missed the current format: Winning the title hangs on a track he’s not so strong at. Of all the tracks on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule, his worst average finish is at Homestead-Miami Speedway at 26.1.

"The only thing I don’t secretly care about is, I think they should take the last race and move it around to different tracks, kind of like the Super Bowl does," Labonte said. "So I think it would be really cool, because when you’ve got three or four guys that are really good at that track, and I’m never very good at that track, I would not look forward to that last event going up there against some of the guys that are very good up there."

Labonte also addressed rumors that circulated concerning a life in public office, something his brother and nephew took advantage of, making yard signs and posters for Labonte’s "campaign."

"I’m like 90 percent of the people in here — I’m way too overqualified for that," Labonte joked in the media center. "I had no idea how that started or where it came from."

The Corpus Christi, Texas, native plans to be around the garage every so often, but as a member of his marketing company, SSG/Brandintense. The North Carolina-based firm works to bring marketing to live events for a face-to-face interaction between a company and its customers.

In February, Labonte was added to the list of names under consideration on the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2015 ballot. With 22 wins and 361 top-10s in now 890 starts — not to mention two championships — his career features a long list of accomplishments. His favorite memory of that career, however, has less to do with himself than his supporters.

"It was actually the first time, I think, I ever noticed the crowd. I was passing Dale Jarrett," he said, recalling a 1999 race at Texas Motor Speedway. "We had been running really good all day and they had just beat us on the pit stop, and I ran him down and passed him with less than 10 laps to go, and I saw the whole place stand up. And I had never seen the crowd, actually noticed the crowd stand up at the track, and I thought to myself, ‘Oh, man, I better not screw this up, ’cause I think there’s 200,000 people there pulling for me, and they’re gonna be mad if I don’t win this thing.’ "

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Hendrick teammates are on their own when the checkered flag flies

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TALLADEGA, Ala. — For Dale Earnhardt Jr., the only realistic way to keep the championship hopes of the No. 88 team alive is to win Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET on ESPN).

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If Earnhardt wins, however, there’s a good chance he’ll knock teammate Jimmie Johnson out of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

But Earnhardt isn’t about to let that thought affect his approach.

"We all sort of just race our own races and run our own seasons," Earnhardt said Saturday morning at Talladega. "I would never expect any of my teammates to do anything differently. They’re supposed to go out there and run as good as they possibly can run and finish as well as they possibly can finish every week.

"I’ve been in situations in years past, with Michael (Waltrip) in particular, at race tracks where we’re working together, and it’s five laps to go and I’m driving the Bud car and the Miller car (with Rusty Wallace) is behind me. If I pull out, he’s not going to go with me. Do I help my teammate?"

Over the years, Earnhardt has found a clear-cut answer to that question.

"I’ve been in those situations before, and there’s really no other (solution) than all you have to do in that situation is to think about the team on pit road, and all the guys that are working in that shop and the fabricators that work on your car, individually, that are at home watching. And they want you to win.

"And those are the people that matter. So, you’ve got to go and try to do whatever you need to do. That particular night, I pulled out and Rusty (Wallace) didn’t go and we sent to sixth. And I think Michael won. But we tried. I felt so much better having tried than to sit there and run right behind my teammate and not have tried."

Even though Hendrick Motorsports prides itself on a spirit of cooperation between its teams, when it comes down to the final laps, it’s every man for himself, particularly when the championship is on the line.

"I think that’s the mentality that you have to have, and we are one great company that we all try to work for and try to improve and help," Earnhardt said. "But when it comes down to individual races, you’ve got to do everything you can for the guys that are putting your car together.

"And you want it, too. I definitely need to move forward. I need to get into the next round. We want to get into the next round, and we can’t worry about anybody else to make that happen."

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Veteran holds off Malsam, Gallagher for first win of 2014 season

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TALLADEGA, Ala.—Holding off all challengers in a race that went four-wide on the final two laps, Timothy Peters won the fred’s 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway.

Peters arrived at the finish line .143 seconds ahead of second-place starter and finisher Tayler Malsam. Spencer Gallagher ran third, followed by Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney, who trimmed 14th-place finisher Matt Crafton’s lead in the series standings to 16 points with four races left in the season.

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

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After ducking onto the apron to ensure a strong flow to the fuel pickup in his No. 17 Toyota, Peters, who had charged forward from the 26th starting position, led the field to a green-white-checkered-flag finish on Lap 94 of 95, after Norm Benning‘s spin in Turn 2 slowed the field for the sixth time.

With a strong push from Malsam, Peters hugged the inside line into Turn 1 with Ryan Blaney to his outside. As the field spread out over the final two laps to three-wide and even four-wide, Peters doggedly held the lead and took the checkered flag with Malsam in his tow.

"Chris Lambert, who spots for me, did a great job from the time the green flag fell till the checkered flag waved," Peters said. "It was system overload, telling me everything, how far apart they were in front of me, how close the guy behind me was, what run was coming on the outside coming to the checkered flag…

"We were making our Toyota Tundra as wide as we could (on the final two laps), and so it feels really good to come across the start/finish line and kind of wipe missing the Daytona/Talladega sweep by (16) hundredths of a second (Peters finished second at Daytona by that margin earlier this year).

"It just felt really good to go to Victory Lane."

On the final restart, Blaney got a push from sixth-place finisher Erik Jones and thought he was in position for the win but acknowledged he didn’t expect a third line to develop to his outside as quickly as it did.

"I thought we were in the perfect spot, leading the outside line into Turn 2," Blaney said.

But the side draft from the outside line separated Jones from Blaney and broke their momentum, dropping them out of contention for the win.

A rare engine failure torpedoed Johnny Sauter‘s championship hopes. Sauter’s Toyota slowed on Lap 24 and coasted onto pit road. His resulting 31st-place finish left him fourth in the standings, 36 points behind Crafton, his ThorSport Racing teammate.

"Whatever… the championship’s over," a disconsolate Sauter said in the garage as his team worked on his Tundra. "From here on out, we can just race like hell."

At a track legendary for wild action, Ben Kennedy sustained the hardest hit on Lap 65, when Joe Nemechek lost control of his truck and knocked Kennedy’s Chevrolet into the outside wall.

Nemechek’s first concern was for Kennedy’s safety. After learning he had walked away from the wreck, Nemechek radioed, "Put all of the blame for that one right square on my shoulders," indicating his Toyota had been sucked around in turbulent air.

Note: Daniel Suarez finished 15th in his NCWTS debut. On Sunday, he races in his native Mexico in the NASCAR Toyota Mexico Series.

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Charlotte combatants together again after unapproved adjustments

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After a precautionary engine change on Saturday, Matt Kenseth will start from the rear of the field in Sunday’s GEICO 500 (2 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Talladega Superspeedway. He will be joined by Brad Keselowski, the man he confronted in the garage after last week’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

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Kenseth’s crew found issues in the bottom of the engine and made the change, rather than risk a failure during the race. Kenseth currently is ninth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, one point behind Kasey Kahne and one position away from transferring to the Eliminator Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

"…we didn’t have anything to gain because we have to start in the back with the engine deal, but you get in it and you get competitive and you’re getting mad and you’re trying to lay back," Kenseth said following Saturday’s qualifying session, who was 13th-fastest.

Keselowski’s No. 2 crew, parked next to Kenseth in the garage this weekend, made an alternator change that will send him to the back at the start of Sunday’s race. The 2012 champion must win Sunday’s race to be among the eight drivers who will remain title-eligible in the Chase next weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

"…we broke an alternator or something," Keselowski said. "I don’t see how it impacts anything. I guess it is an earlier (pit stall) pick for (crew chief) Paul (Wolfe) so he can go home earlier tonight."

After qualifying fifth, Keselowski’s team chose the 16th pit stall at the end of the first group of pit stalls at the Turn 1 exit of pit road. Meanwhile, Kenseth will pit back in the 41st stall at the entrance to pits off of Turn 4.

In May at Talladega, a laps-down Keselowski triggered a 14-car wreck, collecting Kenseth, who wasn’t complimentary of his competitor’s actions following the race.

"Well, I will say one thing, if it was the other way around and it was anybody else except for him (Keselowski) we’d all be getting lectured,” Kenseth said. "I didn’t know he was that many laps down, honestly.

"He came down across the front of Danica’s car early (in the race) and spun in front of the field and thankfully didn’t collect any cars. This time we weren’t so lucky. He was driving really, really, really aggressively to try to get back up there."

NASCAR Wire Service contributed to this report.

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No. 29 car failed post-qualifying inspection, shuffling lineup


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Joe Nemechek‘s qualifying time for the GEICO 500 (Sunday, 2 p.m. ET, ESPN) was disallowed, NASCAR officials said after Coors Light Pole Qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

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Nemechek’s No. 29 car, which had qualified 24th, failed post-qualifying inspection for an improperly sealed oil tank encasement. Reed Sorenson, who was initially thought to have missed the race, was replaced in the field based on his qualifying speed. Sorenson posted a speed of 189.305 mph in the opening round of group qualifying.

The driver of the No. 36 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet will line up 36th in Sunday’s field. Sorenson has one top-10 finish at the 2.66-mile track, which came in 2007. By making the GEICO 500 grid, Sorenson has now been in the starting lineup for every race this year.

Nemechek has made 15 Sprint Cup Series starts this year but has failed to make it into the field in both of his tries in the No. 29 Toyota.

Nemechek joined Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Justin Allgaier as the drivers who failed to make the 43-car field at Talladega.

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See where your favorite driver will pit for Sunday’s race (2 p.m. ET, ESPN)

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Brian Vickers won the Coors Light Pole Award and the right to the first pit-stall pick for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET, ESPN). His No. 55 team chose the first stall at the exit of pit road.

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Six-time champion Jimmie Johnson, in a must-win situation, qualified second and chose the 17th stall, the first one on pit road with a front opening. Johnson will pit across the opening from another driver who has to win to get into the Eliminator Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup as former champion Brad Keselowski will park in the 16th stall.

The rest of the 12-driver Contender Round will pit in the following stalls:

Kasey Kahne, Stall 7
Kevin Harvick, Stall 11
Denny Hamlin, Stall 13
Ryan Newman, Stall 14
Kyle Busch, Stall 15
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Stall 21
Joey Logano, Stall 32
Carl Edwards, Stall 36
Matt Kenseth, Stall 41
Jeff Gordon, Stall 42

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