Keselowski wins at Loudon, sweeps weekend

Posted on July 13, 2014 by

This marks the first time a driver has swept a weekend at New Hampshire

LOUDON, N.H. — For Brad Keselowski, it’s beginning to look an awful lot like 2012 when everything went right on the way to a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.

Keselowski led 138 of the last 232 laps to win Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 301 for his third Sprint Cup victory of the season. He held off Kyle Busch on the final restart and pulled away to win by three-quarters of a second in a green-white-checker finish.

"I’m not thinking of anything else right now (other) than how thankful I am to have a team and a car that is clicking well," said Keselowski from Victory Lane. "It’s every driver’s dream.

"I think, in a lot of ways, we’re stronger than (2012). I don’t think we’ve had this much speed before. I feel like I’m in a really strong rhythm right now. I think some of last year’s struggles put me in a spot to work harder and become a better race car driver. I think we’re combining all those things and we’re seeing the fruits of that labor — with more to come."

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Keselowski, 30, captured his first Sprint Cup championship in 2012 on the strength of five victories and 23 top-10 finishes in 36 starts. After failing to qualify for the Chase last season, he’s produced 10 top-10 performances in 19 races this season.

"We were fast last year at this time, but we weren’t executing," said Keselowski, who also won Saturday’s Sta-Green 200 Nationwide Series race and had dominated the speed charts during Saturday’s Sprint Cup practice sessions. "This year we’re executing and we have a lot of momentum. It really feels like we have hit our stride.

"At the same time, we have a lot of potential still left in our team. Everybody is going to turn it up a notch when the Chase comes and we know that. You’ve got to have a good horse and we had that today. (But) we know we have to have another gear to grab to be able to run for a championship. I think we’re close but I want to keep pushing."

Presuming they attempt to qualify for the next seven races, Keselowski and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (10th) became the first two drivers to clinch spots in the Chase thanks to their showings on Sunday.

"I’m proud of our team for that," Earnhardt said. "Hopefully we can improve before we come back here (for the second race of the Chase). That was the hardest I’ve ever worked for a 10th-place finish. We (were) off all weekend — a real frustrating weekend to be honest."

Keselowski seemed to be in cruise control, leading Denny Hamlin by 2.91 seconds with four laps remaining. But Justin Allgaier spun and struck the wall, bringing out the race’s seventh caution flag and necessitating the fifth green-white-checker finish of the 2014 season and juggling the field.

As soon as the yellow flag came out, Hamlin headed to the pits for a splash of gas and settled for eighth place. Jeff Gordon, who had been running third, ran his Hendrick Chevrolet out of gas and was relegated to 26th place. Kevin Harvick started second alongside Keselowski but ran out of fuel on the restart.

"We had what I thought was the second-best car," Hamlin said. "I had to save fuel and couldn’t push it. I would have liked to have seen if we could have raced with the (No.) 2, but he obviously had a very dominant car."

The fuel situation left Busch and Clint Bowyer as the only drivers with a real shot at Keselowski in the final two laps.

In the end, neither had anything for Keselowski.

"I don’t think anybody did," said Busch, whose Joe Gibbs Toyota was strong enough to sit on the pole and lead 62 laps.

"We made a gusty call at the end to stay out and see if we could make it on fuel. We barely made it — ran out right at the start-finish. All in all, a decent day to be coming home second."

Bowyer, who led 36 laps after leading a total of 12 in the previous 12 Cup events, faded to sixth behind rookie Kyle Larson, Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman.

Keselowski’s power was evident when crew chief Paul Wolfe opted to give up the lead and take four tires when the race’s second caution came on Lap 113. It took Keselowski 13 laps to drive from 10th place to third and 10 more laps for him to get to the rear bumper of the leader, Kenseth. Throughout the race, Wolfe opted for fresh tires over track position.

"I really was not sure how that was going to work out and unfold," Wolfe said. "Seeing that, I felt pretty good about the strength of our car and what Brad was able to do moving through traffic."

Team owner Roger Penske also liked what he was seeing.

"Paul made great calls today," he said. "Watching Brad — and I got to see it from up on top — I can tell you there was nobody that could beat him. It was just great execution from everybody."

Keselowski became the 13th different winner in the last 13 Cup races at New Hampshire, tying a record set at Texas Motor Speedway. Busch has now finished second at New Hampshire in three consecutive races.

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Posted on July 13, 2014 by

Joe Gibbs Racing using teamwork, testing to conquer short tracks

LOUDON, N.H. — Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth have a combined 31 career victories at Bristol, Dover, Loudon, Martinsville, Phoenix and Richmond.

In short — pun semi-intended — they aren’t a trio of slouches when it comes to short tracks.

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With a runner-up finish by Busch, a fourth-place effort for Kenseth and what very well could’ve been a top-three result for Hamlin if a late-race fuel strategy went differently, the JGR drivers showed once again in Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway that they know how to handle themselves when there’s less asphalt to work with.

So it was interesting to hear two of their drivers have differing opinions on the state of the Toyota-backed organization’s short track programs, given the history of success they’ve all enjoyed.

"I think our package is getting quite a bit better on the short tracks," Hamlin said. "The last couple years I feel like we’ve fallen off as an organization on the short tracks and we did some testing here in the last few weeks and found some things that worked and obviously had a great day today overall, so I’m pretty happy with that."

Overall, it’s tough to say what state the team is in when it comes to NASCAR’s smaller venues. Its two most recent wins on short tracks came last year via newcomer Matt Kenseth — one at Bristol, where he’s always been great, and the other during the Chase at Loudon, which he’d considered among his worst tracks during his Roush Fenway Racing tenure. But for Busch and Hamlin, who have long considered them among their forte, both have been held winless since 2012.

So while Hamlin thinks the tide is turning in their favor, Busch isn’t so sure.

"Well, we’d actually say (our short track program has) decreased," said the driver of the No. 18 Toyota. "Last year and the early part of this year — Martinsville, Richmond — I’d say that our short‑track program has decreased, unfortunately. You know, we haven’t seen the 11 and the 18 winning as many short tracks like we used to be so dominant at."

Even though Busch isn’t sold on how the organization has been putting together their short track races — and he probably does have a point that they haven’t been as good lately in them — there is reason to believe things are starting to turn a corner.

Those types of races are more physically demanding than at, say, a 2.5-mile superspeedway, where there’s little braking and the throttle is wide open at all times, so the further removed Hamlin gets from the back issues that plagued his 2013 campaign, the better. The Virginia native also participated in a Goodyear test last week at Richmond, which clearly helped the entire group at the Magic Mile, seeing as they were within reach of putting all three cars in the top-five for the first time all season, at a track of any length.

With Busch and Hamlin already in position to make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with their respective Fontana and Talladega victories, the information gathered from that test could pay dividends seven races from now if Kenseth is still winless heading into the regular season finale.

"Denny went and did a test for us at Richmond last week for Goodyear and learned some things that he brought here, and so today was just a true testament to teamwork," Busch said. "What we did with our race car was somewhat to try to mirror what the 11 was doing this weekend and put some of their stuff in. Real proud of the effort there that we had somewhat similar race cars, all three of us did for that matter, I think we were second, third, fourth for a part of the race because there was only one car that was lights‑out on the rest."

That car was the race-winning No. 2 Ford of Brad Keselowski, which kept Team Penske in the headlines with its fifth win of the season and each of its drivers — the other being Joey Logano — looking like strong championship contenders.

It isn’t time to count out JGR, however, especially if this particular aspect of its arsenal winds up being fine-tuned to the same degree that it once was.

"At this time last year, Kenseth and myself and the races that Denny was able to make, we led a lot of laps.” Busch said. "Unfortunately we just haven’t quite seen that yet this year.

"(We’re) trying to get better, and once we do, I think everybody will see, and you’ll start hearing the name JGR a little bit more.”

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