Keselowski, Kenseth clash in frantic finish

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Zack Albert

Kenseth: ‘I was the leader, and I was trying to protect my spot’

RICHMOND, Va. — Brad Keselowski was poised to have one of the biggest late-race jumps of the night at Richmond International Raceway, rising up from fifth place on the final restart to challenge for the win. After a spirited battle up front that knocked him from contention, his biggest jump was out of his car on pit road to confront Matt Kenseth.

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Both drivers’ chances for victory in the Toyota Owners 400 evaporated in the final sprint to the finish Saturday night, leaving both with hurt feelings and finishes below their potential. Kenseth, the leader as the field doubled up for the final restart, faded to fifth place, one spot behind Keselowski, who purposely roughed up his rival as the checkered flag neared.

"I just felt like he needed to know what was up, and I wasn’t going to put up with that," Keselowski said. "So I was going to make for damn sure he didn’t finish third or fourth, and not win that race."

Both cars limped back to pit road with significant damage after the finish, Keselowski’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford dented on the front end and Kenseth’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a crumpled left-rear fender above a shredded-bare wheel rim. Keselowski, still helmeted, charged at Kenseth’s car and pointed his finger as he yelled.

"I’m not sure why he’s so worked up, really, honestly," Kenseth said. "We race hard and yeah, I ran him up the track down there, and I understand being frustrated by that. He tried to wreck me back and cost me a bunch of spots, too. I was racing hard to get the win. I was the leader and I was trying to protect my spot as hard as I could. I’ve seen him do the same thing a bunch of times."

Kenseth restarted in the lead with nine laps left in the 400-lapper, but he quickly came under fire from Keselowski, one of the few drivers able to mount a challenge on the outside groove. Keselowski squeezed high on the backstretch, but Kenseth pushed up the track, taking the No. 2 Ford with him.

"Every race track you should race for the win, but you don’t run somebody off the race track to race for the win if you really aren’t fast enough," Keselowski said. "Three, four other cars passed him so it didn’t win him the race running me off the race track. He probably finished where he was going to finish anyway. It just cost me the win, and I don’t think that’s very smart. That’s something I’ll remember."

Keselowski expressed his displeasure with a sizable shove, allowing Joey Logano — Keselowski’s Team Penske teammate — to pull away and post his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory of year and allowing Jeff Gordon to score his second runner-up finish in the last three races.

After the checkered, Keselowski gave Kenseth’s car one last rap for good measure, slamming his brakes in front of the No. 20 car and forcing contact with Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. The extracurriculars, Kenseth said, pushed the confrontation over the line.

"I think you race as hard as you can to win. I’m not going to go wreck somebody to win, and he certainly tried to wreck me on the race track," Kenseth said. "That’s one thing and then trying to wreck all those cars after the race is totally another. That’s always uncalled for. I can see he’s upset. I ran him up the track. I’d probably be upset, too, but like I said we’re racing as hard as we could to try to get that win."

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Posted on April 26, 2014 by Zack Albert

Runner-up finish to JRM teammate Harvick teaches valuable lesson

RICHMOND, Va. — Chase Elliott‘s two-race run of wins in the NASCAR Nationwide Series hardly ended with a thud as a rain-delayed Friday night start morphed into an early Saturday morning finish. But despite a solid runner-up finish behind dominant JR Motorsports teammate Kevin Harvick, the hotshot rookie was frank in taking the lion’s share of the blame for coming up just shy of a historic streak.

"I’ve just got to step up, man," Elliott said. "When your teammate goes to Victory Lane and he beats you, that’s all me. We’re driving the same cars. It’s up to me to get the job done. I don’t feel like I did that to the best of my ability tonight, so just got to step up next time."

Elliott entered the ToyotaCare 250 at rainy Richmond International Raceway with a head of steam, notching back-to-back victories in the series’ preceding two races at Texas and Darlington. He stood to become the first Nationwide Series regular to three-peat since Dale Earnhardt Jr., his team owner, did so in 1999.

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Despite the sour taste over the end of the streak, the 18-year-old phenom took some solace in the bigger picture — carrying a 19-point lead over JRM teammate Regan Smith into the second quarter of the Nationwide season and logging the organization’s first 1-2 finish.

"You’ve got to take it on a week-by-week basis," Elliott said. "I hate we didn’t get the win tonight but it is good to have a teammate go to Victory Lane. We know what they ran, so it’s good coming back to know where we need to be. Like I said, there’s definitely positives to take from tonight. Obviously you want to win every week, but I feel like we gave it our best effort but we didn’t exactly have what we needed to beat Kevin, but we did have a car good enough to finish second and that’s what we did."

Elliott’s stunning rise as a two-time winner this season coincides with the prospect of major upheaval to the driver roster in NASCAR national series. On the day that the newest class of the NASCAR Next youth initiative was announced at Richmond, Elliott was tops among the three Next alumni to finish in the top 10 — Kyle Larson wound up fourth, with Ryan Blaney fading late to snag ninth.

But Elliott’s ascent also dovetails with a show of strength for JRM, which has four victories in just eight Nationwide races so far and boasts one of the strongest stables of drivers on the circuit. Having a stacked lineup of Harvick, Earnhardt, Smith and part-time driver Kasey Kahne as a sounding board has helped Elliott mature as the team continues to find a rhythm.

It’s a mutually beneficial relationship so far, one that Harvick said has pushed him to be a better driver, even at one of his best tracks.

"I told Chase in Victory Lane, in this sport you’re not going to win all the races, but he wants to know why and what he needs to do to get better," Harvick said. "He’s been here before, but he’s never raced anything like this before. … He adapts very well and does a very good job and gives good feedback. It doesn’t take him long to pick up on things.

"It’s our job to help make sure his learning curve is not very steep, but it’s our job as the 5 car and his job, and Kasey’s job and Regan Smith’s to make sure we accelerate that to help them race for this championship and minimize mistakes and the learning curve, so that they can be in the right spot at the end of the year to win a championship."

With seven top-10 finishes in eight events to start his Nationwide career, Elliott is in prime position to contend for the season-long prize, but the balance of the long 33-race schedule looms. He leaves Richmond with what he called "a lot of positives" as the circuit heads to Talladega Superspeedway next weekend.

"You’ve just got to take what’s given to you some weeks and unfortunately that might not be the win in tonight’s case," Elliott said, "but we’ll take it and move on."

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Zack Albert

Support Our Troops logo will appear on tires for the fifth straight year

Photo credit: @GoodyearRacing

RICHMOND, Va. — With the calendar set to dig deeper into the heart of spring, certain annual racing traditions associated with the month of May take hold. Goodyear started one of the newest institutions as a simple expression of gratitude and awareness five years ago. Now it’s accredited as a nearly seven-figure fundraiser for America’s military.

The Ohio-based tiremaker announced Saturday at Richmond International Raceway that the logo for the Support Our Troops Foundation will adorn its racing tires for the fifth straight year in all three of NASCAR’s national series. The program will roll out in conjunction with the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 race weekends at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

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Goodyear’s involvement is part of an annual NASCAR industry-wide movement that often reaches its height around Memorial Day and July 4 weekend. In the coming weeks, patriotic paint schemes, military salutes and more details will emerge to raise awareness and support.

"It kind of gains momentum, doesn’t it?" said Stu Grant, Goodyear’s general manager of worldwide racing. "It’s not just the ‘Support Our Troops’ on the tires, there’s logos on the cars and themes by a lot of different people in the sport. It’s so good to see all that effort for such a good cause."

Grant helped unveil the new tire design Saturday afternoon with former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Matt Kenseth in attendance, accompanied by Toyota Owners 400 grand marshal Dakota Meyer, a sergeant who became the first living Marine in 38 years to receive the Medal of Honor in2011.

Not only does the new tire logo help to generate awareness, it’s also raised funds. Grant said that more than $800,000 had been raised to benefit the foundation over the course of the program’s existence.

"I think there’s certain months and certain holidays that mean certain things, and certain sports and organizations grab on to different things, and fortunately the military is one that’s really close to NASCAR that they work with and that people like to help a lot," Kenseth said. "So I think it’s cool that Goodyear does their program — it’s certainly something they don’t have to do. They’ve raised a lot of money and awareness."

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