Posted on by Staff Report

RCR driver becomes a father, team announces on Twitter

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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Paul Menard became a father Tuesday night as he and his wife, Jennifer, welcomed the birth of a daughter, Remi Barbara Christine Menard.

The couple’s first child weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces at birth.

Matt Crafton, the reigning NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion, will fill-in for Menard for Friday’s practice session and Coors Light Pole Qualifying at Auto Club Speedway, Richard Childress Racing tweeted on Thursday. Menard will arrive at Fontana on Saturday for the day’s two practices as well as Sunday’s Auto Club 400.

"Baby watch" first started at Las Vegas, where Menard drove the No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to a stellar third-place finish, leading six laps in the Kobalt 400 to record his best finish in the Sprint Cup Series since a third-place effort at Kansas Speedway in October 2012.

Menard competed that race with Crafton on standby as a potential relief driver.

At Bristol last week with standby drivers at the ready, Menard drove to a 21st-place finish.

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Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Busch won at Auto Club Speedway in the spring of 2013

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As March Madness begins, a quarter of NASCAR’s 16-driver Chase Grid bracket is filled in with four winners in four races of the season.

The First Four are Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Daytona); Kevin Harvick (Phoenix); Brad Keselowski (Las Vegas) and Carl Edwards (Bristol). Each driver has a championship pedigree with at least one title in NASCAR’s top-two national series with Keselowski earning honors in both the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

Here are five drivers who could join the Winner’s Club and all but clinch a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs. It should be another fight to the finish like last year’s last-lap battle so we’ll start with the two combatants in that drama.

Denny Hamlin
After winning the Coors Light Pole Award last Friday at Bristol, Hamlin was asked where he would most like to win a race: "California is No. 1 simply because we never made it to the finish last year. While we had a great shot to win it, we never made it. It would feel like you do have some redemption, and it would make a great story."

Hamlin should get off to a good start as he’s tied with Kurt Busch for most poles at Auto Club with three. Yet to win there, he has one top-five finish and four top-10s in 13 starts. It’s Toyota’s home track, and the manufacturer hopes to get its second consecutive and second overall win there this weekend. A victory also would practically place the first Camry in the 2014 Chase.

Joey Logano
Logano nearly beat and banged his way to a win at Auto Club Speedway last March, and he won last August at its sister track, Michigan Speedway. He has two top-fives and two top-10s and in seven races at Auto Club. His two Nationwide victories have helped Joe Gibbs Racing to its current nine-race winning streak at the track. Logano is looking to return current owner Roger Penske to Victory Lane for the first time since 2001 at the track he built.

Jimmie Johnson
The home track for the El Cajon, Calif., native, Johnson is Auto Club Speedway’s all-time leader in wins (5), laps led (851) and top-five finishes (12). He’s tied for most top-10s (14) and lead-lap finishes (19 in 19 starts). He also has the best average start (9.6) and average finish (5.7) of all competitors at the facility. It’s no wonder then that he’s tops in Driver Rating. At 119.6, he’s 10 points clear of his nearest challenger. Johnson hasn’t won there since the spring of 2010 though. If he misses out on Victory Lane on Sunday (3 p.m. ET on FOX), tune-in next week at Martinsville.

Matt Kenseth
Tied with Johnson for the most top-10s (14) and lead-lap finishes (19) at Auto Club Speedway, Kenseth has the third-best average finish (10.1) at the track, behind only Six-Time and Carl Edwards. Kenseth has finished all 21 of his Sprint Cup starts at the facility. Kenseth is one of four drivers with a Driver Rating over 100 at the track (105.5).

Kyle Busch
Rounding out the Joe Gibbs Racing roster, Busch earned his first career win at the track, becoming (at the time) the youngest Sprint Cup visitor to Victory Lane at 20 years, 4 months, 2 days in 2005. Earlier that year, he became the youngest Cup pole-sitter: 19 years, 9 months, 25 days. Busch is the defending winner of this race, and he has a Nationwide record six wins at the track, completing the weekend sweep there last season. Second only to Johnson in Driver Rating (109.2), he has seven top-5s and 11 top-10s in 16 starts.

Go deeper: Check out NASCAR’s Auto Club Speedway Statistical Analysis for more stats and notes for Sunday’s Auto Club 400.

Heading into the fifth race of NASCAR’s regular season, here is how the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings looks:

Pos. Driver Chase berth
1. Brad Keselowski Winner: Las Vegas
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Winner: Daytona
3. Carl Edwards Winner: Bristol
4. Kevin Harvick Winner: Phoenix
5. Jeff Gordon 4th in points
6. Jimmie Johnson 5th in points
7. Joey Logano 6th in points
8. Denny Hamlin 7th in points
9. Matt Kenseth 8th in points
10. Ryan Newman 9th in points
11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 10th in points
12. Kasey Kahne 11th in points
13. Greg Biffle 12th in points
14. Austin Dillon 13th in points
15. Kyle Busch 14th in points
16. Marcos Ambrose 15th in points

 

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Posted on by Nascar

Bruce: Noteworthy accomplishment will fade if continued success doesn’t follow

Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose finished in the top five at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday night, all in all a noteworthy accomplishment by the Richard Petty Motorsports teammates.

And not because of some off-the-wall pit strategy, or a bizarre turn of events in the latter stages of the race (although bizarre was certainly an apt description of those final few laps).

No, Almirola and Ambrose, much like race winner Carl Edwards and runner-up Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and fourth-place Tony Stewart, drove their way into the top five and then managed to stay there.

Again, it was noteworthy. But the shelf life of such a feat has yet to be determined.

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NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series teams are already headed West once again, this time to Auto Club Speedway where conversations will likely be about SAFER barriers, the win-and-you’re-in (or so we’ve been told) Chase format and a regurgitation of last year’s Denny Hamlin/Joey Logano/Tony Stewart end-of-race spat.

A week-old top-five finish by both RPM drivers? We’ll see.

Similar results by some drivers would produce a week’s worth of copy. Take your pick. You know their names. Some are deserving, some are less so.

Top-five finishes by Almirola (a career-best third) and Ambrose (fifth) in the same race? It’s not rare. Before Sunday night’s Food City 500, it had never happened.

It was just the fourth career top-five for Almirola and the 16th for Ambrose in a pair of careers that don’t extend that far back.

Until he landed a full-time ride at RPM in 2012, Almirola was perhaps best known for winning a race in which he never saw the checkered flag – at Milwaukee in what is now known as the NASCAR Nationwide Series, circa 2007.

Ambrose is regarded as perhaps the most talented road-racer in the Cup Series, the downside being that the series competes on road courses only twice each season. Still, that’s been often enough for the 37-year-old to earn a pair of Cup victories.

The trick for both will be to back up last week’s results with something similar at Auto Club. It doesn’t have to be top-five material; a top-10 would say, ‘OK now we’ve got something to build on.’

It’s a tall order for the organization — Almirola, 30, cracked the top 20 at Fontana for the first time last year, finishing 14th. His other five finishes at Fontana had been 25th or worse.

Auto Club isn’t the worst track for Ambrose — but it’s close. His 28.8 average finish on the 2-mile layout rates just ahead of Homestead (30.2).

The track where Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch scored the first wins of their Cup careers, and where Kevin Harvick shot by Johnson in 2011 out of the blue and out of the final turn for the lead and the win has not been kind to RPM teams.

Almirola signed a three-year contract extension with RPM in January. Trent Owens is serving his first full tour of duty atop the pit box on the Cup side; he’s a five-time winner over in the Nationwide Series.

Ambrose and crew chief Drew Blickensderfer are entering their second full season together, having scratched out a 22nd-place points finish in 2013.

Neither team has gotten off to the best of starts this year, but they are far from the only ones. Maybe Bristol provides the push to get things turned around.

It was a noteworthy accomplishment. But unless the two teams continue to improve, the story of Bristol’s top-five finishes will be as stale as last week’s bread in no time at all.

It’s a sad fact, but a fact just the same.

The series moves on, waiting for no one.

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Posted on by Brad Norman

Jimmie Johnson the favorite; can JGR trio spoil his day?

1. Brad Keselowski (No. 2)

Penske Racing, Ford 

Standing: Keselowski leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with 163 points.
Past four races: 14th at Bristol, 1st at Las Vegas, 3rd at Phoenix, 3rd at Daytona.
Season stats: 1 win, 3 top-fives, 3 top-10s.
Track history: At Fontana, Keselowski’s average finish is 22.8 and his average running position is 19.9 over the past nine years. In five career starts at Auto Club, his best finish is 18th in 2012.
Quick hit: Based off his Fontana track history — four of five career Cup starts have resulted in finishes outside the top 20 — one might think Keselowski is in danger of losing the points lead. Here’s why that might not be the case: His lead is 10 points, and Team Penske is far ahead of the 2014 field when it comes to setups.

2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is second with 153 points.
Past four races: 24th at Bristol, 2nd at Las Vegas, 2nd at Phoenix, 1st at Daytona.
Season stats: 1 win, 3 top-fives, 3 top-10s.
Track history: At Fontana, Earnhardt Jr.’s average finish is 20.5 and his average running position is 19.7 over the past nine years. In 21 career starts at Auto Club, he has five top-fives and six top-10s.
Quick hit: Earnhardt Jr.’s history at Auto Club Speedway shows this to be one of his weaker tracks, but his showing there has improved dramatically since joining Hendrick Motorsports. Junior shares a shop with Jimmie Johnson, the California king, so he’s likely to have gleaned something over the years — his last two finishes here were third in 2012 and second last year.

3. Carl Edwards (No. 99)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford 

Standing: Edwards is third in the standings with 152 points.
Past four races: 1st at Bristol, 5th at Las Vegas, 8th at Phoenix, 17th at Daytona.
Season stats: 1 win, 2 top-fives, 3 top-10s.
Track history: At Fontana, Edwards’ average finish is 8.6 and his average running position is 12.2 over the past nine years. In 16 career starts at Auto Club, he has one win, eight top-fives, 13 top-10s and one pole.
Quick hit: Edwards has improved his finish over the previous week in every race this year. That’ll be impossible Sunday, considering he won at Bristol, but he has shot at tying his first-place effort from last week. He’s finished sixth, fifth and fourth at Fontana in the past three years.

4. Jeff Gordon (No. 24)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet 

Standing: Gordon is fourth in the standings with 152 points.
Past four races: 7th at Bristol, 9th at Las Vegas, 5th at Phoenix, 4th at Daytona.
Season stats: 2 top-fives, 4 top-10s, 1 pole.
Track history: At Fontana, Gordon’s average finish is 13.3 and his average running position is 10.4 over the past nine years. In 24 career starts at Auto Club, he has three wins, 10 top-fives, 11 top-10s and two poles.
Quick hit: Nearly half of Gordon’s career starts here have resulted in a top-10, but four of the last five finishes have been 11th or worse. Either the veteran has lost a bit of an edge at the 2-mile track, or he’s due for a strong showing.

5. Jimmie Johnson (No. 48)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Standing: Johnson is fifth in the standings with 143 points.
Past four races: 19th at Bristol, 6th at Las Vegas, 6th at Phoenix, 5th at Daytona.
Season stats: 1 top-five, 3 top-10s.
Track history: At Fontana, Johnson’s average finish is 5.1 and his average running position is 6.1 over the past nine years. In 19 career starts at Auto Club, he has five wins, 12 top-fives, 14 top-10s and one pole.
Quick hit: Like so many tracks, Johnson dwarfs all other drivers here when you look at the Loop Data. His stretch from 2007-2010 is incredible — four wins, one runner-up finish and two third-place efforts in eight races. As it seems so often to be the case before teams unload, he’s the favorite to win.

6. Joey Logano (No. 22)

Penske Racing, Ford 

Standing: Logano is sixth in the standings with 141 points.
Past four races: 20th at Bristol, 4th at Las Vegas, 4th at Phoenix, 11th at Daytona.
Season stats: 2 top-fives, 2 top-10s, 1 pole.
Track history: At Fontana, Logano’s average finish is 15.4 and his average running position is 18.4 over the past nine years. In seven career starts at Auto Club, he has two top-fives and two top-10s.
Quick hit: It’s easy to remember the battle with Denny Hamlin, the last-lap wreck and the pit-road brouhaha with Tony Stewart from last year. Remember, though, that Logano had one of the best cars last year, was fighting for the win and still finished third. Expect more of the same Sunday.

7. Denny Hamlin (No. 11)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Standing: Hamlin is seventh in the standings with 140 points.
Past four races: 6th at Bristol, 12th at Las Vegas, 19th at Phoenix, 2nd at Daytona.
Season stats: 1 top-five, 2 top-10s, 1 pole.
Track history: At Fontana, Hamlin’s average finish is 19.0 and his average running position is 13.9 over the past nine years. In 13 career starts at Auto Club, he has one top-five, four top-10s and three poles.
Quick hit: Hamlin has finished outside the top 10 in the past three races here, with one finish of 25th (crash) and one finish of 39th (engine). In those same three races, he qualified second in 2011 and was on the pole in both 2012 and 2013. The big takeaway — if he stays in the race, he could record his first top-five at the track since 2008.

8. Matt Kenseth (No. 20)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Standing: Kenseth is eighth in the standings with 138 points.
Past four races: 13th at Bristol, 10th at Las Vegas, 12th at Phoenix, 6th at Daytona.
Season stats: 2 top-10s.
Track history: At Fontana, Kenseth’s average finish is 9.1 and his average running position is 9.4 over the past nine years. In 21 career starts at Auto Club, he has three wins, eight top-fives and 14 top-10s.
Quick hit: Kenseth is one of only three drivers to have a number lower than 10.0 in both average finish and average running position at Auto Club Speedway since the inception of Loop Data. With his strength here complementing teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing as a team might be the favorite to come away with the win.

9. Ryan Newman (No. 31)

Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet 

Standing: Newman is ninth in the standings with 125 points.
Past four races: 16th at Bristol, 7th at Las Vegas, 7th at Phoenix, 22nd at Daytona.
Season stats: 2 top-10s.
Track history: At Fontana, Newman’s average finish is 17.5 and his average running position is 16.6 over the past nine years. In 19 career starts at Auto Club, he has four top-fives, eight top-10s and one pole.
Quick hit: Although Las Vegas isn’t a true comparison to Fontana, it’s the closest one we can make after just four races. Richard Childress Racing had two of its three drivers finish in the top 10 in the desert, which bodes well for the ‘Rocket Man’ this week.

10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (No. 17)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford

Standing: Stenhouse Jr. is 10th in the standings with 122 points.
Past four races: 2nd at Bristol, 27th at Las Vegas, 18th at Phoenix, 7th at Daytona.
Season stats: 1 top-five, 2 top-10s.
Track history: At Fontana, Stenhouse Jr.’s average finish is 20.0 and his average running position is 19.2 over the past nine years. In one career start at Auto Club, he finished 20th in 2013.
Quick hit: Until Stenhouse Jr. slips up, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s improved his showing at two marquee tracks — Daytona and Bristol — from last year, so expect him to improve on his 20th-place finish at Auto Club in 2013.

11. Kasey Kahne (No. 5)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Standing: Kahne is 11th in the standings with 120 points.
Past four races: 8th at Bristol, 8th at Las Vegas, 11th at Phoenix, 31st at Daytona.
Season stats: 2 top-10s.
Track history: At Fontana, Kahne’s average finish is 15.5 and his average running position is 14.4 over the past nine years. In 17 career starts at Auto Club, he has one win, four top-fives, 10 top-10s and one pole.
Quick hit: Kahne is another driver who has improved — or at least equaled — his finish in every race this year. He’ll need to finish eighth or better to continue that trend, which is something he’s accomplished in six of 17 starts at Auto Club.

12. Greg Biffle (No. 16)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford

Standing: Biffle is 12th in the standings with 118 points.
Past four races: 12th at Bristol, 22nd at Las Vegas, 17th at Phoenix, 8th at Daytona.
Season stats: 1 top-10.
Track history: At Fontana, Biffle’s average finish is 14.4 and his average running position is 12.8 over the past nine years. In 19 career starts at Auto Club, he has one win, four top-fives and seven top-10s.
Quick hit: Biffle has been beyond frustrated at times this season, yet he’s still 12th in the standings, which says something about his ability to overcome and adapt. With consecutive top-five starts and sixth-place finishes at Fontana, this could be the week he breaks out.

13. Austin Dillon (No. 3)

Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet  

Standing: Dillon is 13th in the standings with 117 points.
Past four races: 11th at Bristol, 16th at Las Vegas, 24th at Phoenix, 9th at Daytona.
Season stats: 1 top-10, 1 pole.
Track history: Dillon has never started a Sprint Cup Series race at Fontana.
Quick hit: Dillon’s best performance this year came in 2.5-mile Daytona, but Auto Club — despite being 2 miles — isn’t a true comparison. The D-shaped oval in Fontana is low-banked, for one thing, and has old pavement. That means lots of bumps — literally — for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender.

14. Kyle Busch (No. 18)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Standing: Busch is 14th in the standings with 111 points.
Past four races: 29th at Bristol, 11th at Las Vegas, 9th at Phoenix, 19th at Daytona
Season stats: 1 top-10.
Track history: At Fontana, Busch’s average finish is 9.8 and his average running position is 9.1 over the past nine years. In 16 career starts at Auto Club, he has two wins, seven top-fives, 11 top-10s and one pole.
Quick hit: Last year, Busch became the first driver to win a Sprint Cup Series race at Fontana in a Toyota. This year, he could become the first driver since Jimmie Johnson (fall 2009, spring 2010) to go back-to-back at the track. Johnson is the only driver to accomplish that feat in 24 Cup races.

15. Marcos Ambrose (No. 9)

Richard Petty Motorsports, Ford 

Standing: Ambrose is 15th in the standings with 108 points.
Past four races: 5th at Bristol, 24th at Las Vegas, 21st at Phoenix, 18th at Daytona.
Season stats: 1 top-five, 1 top-10.
Track history: At Fontana, Ambrose’s average finish is 28.8 and his average running position is 26.1 over the past nine years. In eight career starts at Auto Club, his best finish is 21st in 2012.
Quick hit: Fontana is one of five tracks on the tour in which Ambrose has not recorded a top 10. Among those five circuits, Auto Club is the only place in which the driver hasn’t recorded a top-20.

16. Jamie McMurray (No. 1)

Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Chevrolet  

Standing: McMurray is 16th in the standings with 100 points.
Past four races: 38th at Bristol, 15th at Las Vegas, 10th at Phoenix, 14th at Daytona.
Season stats: 1 top-10.
Track history: At Fontana, McMurray’s average finish is 19.8 and his average running position is 20.4 over the past nine years. In 18 career starts at Auto Club, he has three top-fives, five top-10s and two poles.
Quick hit: McMurray’s best stretches at Fontana came from 2003-2005, so it’s been a while since he has consistently performed well there. The good news for the No. 1 team is that those showings came during his first iteration of driving for Chip Ganassi, his current team owner.

21. Kevin Harvick (No. 4)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Standing: Harvick is 21st in the standings with 89 points.
Past four races: 39th at Bristol, 41st at Las Vegas, 1st at Phoenix, 13th at Daytona.
Season stats: 1 win, 1 top-five, 1 top-10.
Track history: At Fontana, Harvick’s average finish is 12.1 and his average running position is 12.0 over the past nine years. In 20 career starts at Auto Club, he has one win, four top-fives and nine top-10s.
Quick hit: Harvick is the first driver to truly bask in the new Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format. He’s had one of the best cars for three consecutive weeks, yet issues have relegated him to consecutive finishes of 39th or worst. Because of his Phoenix win, though, he’s currently in the postseason field. He and crew chief Rodney Childers have nothing to worry about at Auto Club.

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‘Good Points Day’ could make its return if different drivers keep seeing Victory Lane

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Win and you’re in?

That certainly seems to be the conventional thinking under the new championship format for NASCAR’s premier series, one that promises to award the bulk of playoff berths to drivers who have won races during the sport’s 26-event regular season. Winning races at the sport’s highest level has always brought substantial degrees of gratification and importance, and all that is magnified now. These days, drivers don’t just celebrate race victories — they celebrate virtually guaranteed spots in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Indeed, that winner’s decal now affixed above the B-post in Victory Lane carries a significance well beyond a single afternoon.

"If everybody is telling the truth, we should be in it, so I’m not going to worry about it," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said of the Chase, just three minutes and 23 seconds into his media session following his Daytona 500 victory. And indeed, winners in subsequent weeks echoed that sentiment — they were now free to be aggressive, to not worry about points, to think more about the smaller picture that the bigger one.

That is, until Carl Edwards won Sunday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

"Everybody is assuming that you win and you’re in, and that’s definitely not the case," the Roush Fenway driver said afterward. "… But the first step is, you have to win. I think we’re proving that right now. You’re going to have to have a win, I believe, to be in the Chase, so now that we’ve checked that box, we need to go get another win, and I think then we will be guaranteed to be in it."

Perhaps Edwards was just being cautious there, still holding fast to the mindset popular under the previous Chase format that it would take a minimum of two race victories to secure a Wild Card berth. Everything has changed now, with the 16 spots in the expanded playoff going to winners first, and filled out with remaining drivers in order of points if necessary. One thing has been clear from the moment the current structure was announced in January — the route to the Sprint Cup championship now undeniably travels through Victory Lane.

Unless — there are more than 16 winners? That’s certainly the prospect Edwards raised at Bristol, given that he was the fourth different driver to win a race in as many weeks to open the season. "At this rate, there will be 26 winners and it’ll be a heck of a battle," he said. He was joking, of course. But if anything remotely resembling that scenario unfolds, this entire playoff race will become an absolute scramble, and good points days are liable to snap back into vogue like a trucker cap atop Kasey Kahne‘s head.

So, how realistic is all this? Is it possible that one of these race winners celebrating a likely Chase berth could actually be knocked out because too many drivers visit Victory Lane? Over the past decade, the average number of winners over the first 26 races has been 12.7. The totals vary from a low of 10 in 2008 — when the final nine events of the regular season were all claimed by multiple-time winners — to a high of 15 in 2011. The catch to that latter total is that Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne was ineligible for the Sprint Cup championship, so only 14 race winners that season would have qualified.

Still, that doesn’t leave much room for error. The modern-era record for most winners in a single season was set in 2001, when 19 different drivers visited Victory Lane, 15 of them over the first 26 events. Back then, though, there were more teams, and since-shuttered organizations like Bill Davis Racing, Dale Earnhardt Inc., Robert Yates Racing and Andy Petree Racing could be a threat on any given Sunday. And yet, that 2011 campaign saw the likes of Bayne and David Ragan win restrictor-plate events and Marcos Ambrose prevail on a road course, events that could absolutely repeat themselves and swell the list of winners once more.

Hey, 13 different drivers won over the first 26 races last season, and had a few completely plausible things broken differently — Kurt Busch’s battery doesn’t die while he’s leading the Coca-Cola 600, Earnhardt gets a little more of a run in the Daytona 500, Ambrose doesn’t get trapped by a caution at Watkins Glen — suddenly those 16 lines on the new Chase bracket are maxed out, leaving no room for anyone else who might potentially break through. Now, is all that incredibly unlikely? Of course. But strange things can happen. This is a sport, after all, where a race car once ran into a jet dryer.

Having two plate tracks and two road courses in the regular season certainly increases the potential for improbability. Still, the prospect of having 17 or more race winners in a span of 26 weeks seems doubtful at best. Jimmie Johnson, the six-time champion who has yet to receive his own winner sticker this season, certainly does not appear concerned.

"I haven’t put much thought into it," he said at Bristol. "The main reason is, 16 transfer, and it’s pretty rare that we have 16 different winners in the course of a season. So points still have a pretty big impact on where you are at. … There is nothing to be concerned about yet — one, because the year is early, and two, I feel like at least one or two positions will go in via points.”

So much depends on how the season goes. If this turns into one of those years when a handful of drivers dominate the schedule — as was the case in 2008, when Johnson, Edwards, and Kyle Busch won 24 times between them — the race winners should be able to breathe easy. If it’s one of those campaigns where the trophies are more spread out — like 2012, when the first seven events were claimed by six different drivers — some of those guys with winner decals might be fretting right down to Richmond, as if nothing had changed.

For the time being, though, drivers with race victories under their belt are cutting it loose. Earnhardt lost the points lead to Brad Keselowski at Bristol, and scarcely anyone noticed.

"You either win, or you don’t win. Second (through) last doesn’t really matter," the Daytona 500 champion said afterward. Under this playoff format, winning is indeed everything and the only thing. At least, that’s what everyone thinks right now.

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Posted on by Holly Cain

Harvard scholar and contest winner in pursuit of medical degree, NASCAR ride

As he studied for classes with such daunting titles as: "Multivariable Calculus," "The Neurobiology of Behavior Physics" and "Crime and Horror in Victorian Literature & Culture" while an honor student at Harvard University, Patrick Staropoli’s mind was always racing.

And so was his heart — more figuratively speaking.

While managing a full course load at one of the world’s foremost academic institutions in preparation for medical school, Staropoli was simultaneously calculating a course that would allow him to pursue his passion for racing — a lifelong aspiration to compete in NASCAR’s highest levels.

He’ll suit up for Saturday’s NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Irwindale Speedway — about 30 minutes away from this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series venue, Auto Club Speedway — thanks to an "opportunity of a lifetime," one on which this 24-year-old Floridian continues to capitalize.

Now a second-year medical student at the University of Miami, Staropoli petitioned his professors to allow him to spend a semester focusing on research while he competes for the stalwart California-based Bill McAnally Racing team in at least five K&N Pro Series races as a Michael Waltrip Racing development driver. Any potential future races depend on finding sponsorship.

"I shuffled everything around in my life, taking time off school," said Staropoli, who is currently doing research for the world-renowned Bascom Palmer Eye Institute as part of his medical school educational arrangement. "I subleased my apartment in Miami so I can spend time with my race team, started working on the cars and really immersed myself as much as possible.

"There’s definitely a lot of pressure to perform, but I feel like whether it was interviewing for Harvard or getting into med school, or now trying to make this happen on the racing side, I’m kind of used to it and up to the challenge."

"There’s definitely a lot of pressure to perform but I feel like whether it was interviewing for Harvard … or now trying to make this happen on the racing side, I’m kind of used to it and up to the challenge."

— Patrick Staropoli

It would be hard to argue.

Coming from a typical American middle-class upbringing in Plantation, Fla. — minutes inland from Fort Lauderdale’s famous beaches — Staropoli established a name for himself coming up through the ranks at his home track, Hialeah Speedway, and winning late model races at short tracks around the state.

But financing for his family-owned team was as limited as the mostly local exposure.

He needed something to happen if he was going to take the next step in racing. And he made it happen.

In 2013, Staropoli prevailed over more than 6,000 other entrants in a unique national talent search, the PEAK Stock Car Dream Challenge — the prize being a chance to compete in a PEAK sponsored entry in one 2013 K&N Pro West Series race.

The video he made presenting his case for a shot at the one-race deal earned enough votes to make him a finalist. Then his driving skill impressed judges such as Waltrip and fellow PEAK-sponsored driver Danica Patrick enough to land the ride.

But Staropoli — applying the same focus to his racing that he has to academics — showed so much promise as a competitor that what was supposed to be a one-time, largely promotional long shot has now turned into a partial 2014 season and a driver development opportunity with a premier Sprint Cup team in MWR.

His fifth-place finish in his first K&N start last year piqued PEAK’s interest and earned him an unplanned second try. He answered with a sixth-place in his next race — two showings especially impressive considering he was completing a degree in Neurobiology at Harvard and starting his first year of medical school, not racing every week like most of his competitors.

So PEAK upped its commitment and Staropoli has rewarded the faith with two top-10s in three 2014 starts — including an impressive sixth-place run at Bristol Motor Speedway this past Saturday — and he sits fourth in the series’ driver standings.

"PEAK thought this competition would be a cool way to meet some unique racers," Waltrip said with a slight laugh. "I think we met one. It’s just really, really fun for me to see the results of this competition and we had a whole lot of people to chose from. There were four or five on the track whose skills were similar with Patrick, who was at the top of the class. But he just had something about him, just a glow, an energy, a respect and appreciation for it that made a difference for me."

Those qualities are immediately evident when you meet Staropoli, who is engaging, well-spoken and humble about his academic background.

And he is driven, in every sense of the word.

Staropoli’s parents, Arlene and Nick, say they noticed that "something" different Waltrip is referring to from the time their son was old enough to talk and walk. He would watch races on television and then act them out in his room with tiny Matchbox cars. But, not with the wreck ’em-and-laugh short attention span you might expect of a young child.

"He would re-enact every race he watched on TV and every race he saw his father in," Arlene Staropoli said. "And by re-enact, I mean if there were 32 cars in the race, he had 32 race cars on the floor and would push them around his track"

His father Nick laughed recalling the scene.

"He’d have cars, grandstands and even people’s faces drawn into the grandstands," Nick Staropoli said. "Everything had to be in its place. It all had to come together, then he’d put on a show, be the race announcer and analyst. He’d put on a race for hours, and I mean hours.

"We’d say, ‘Are you tired yet?’ and he’d say, ‘No, we have some laps to go.’

"Everything he’d do was that way. His attention to detail and his focus to be the best he could be at all times never seems to waver. He won’t settle for less than 100 percent of what he can do, whatever it may be."

His parents discovered that it would be a recurring theme when they casually offered to keep him in race cars as he moved up the ranks — as long as Staropoli earned straight As in school. It turned out to be the ultimate motivator — the good grades not only helped his racing opportunities, they earned him admission to one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

"From the day he stepped into school in kindergarten both things were already in his head, to be good at school and to race," Arlene Staropoli explained. "The very first week of school his teacher said to us, ‘you’ve got quite a kid here.’ And we didn’t even realize it until each year went by and each report card came."

As Staropoli got older, his mom offered to buy him a Corvette if he graduated from high school with straight As, even wondering if there was any possibility he’d take the new car in lieu of continuing to race.

"We worked all the way through from go-karts; the more he got As the more he kept going up the ranks," Nick Staropoli said. "When it got time, I asked him about that Corvette and he said, ‘no.’ He wanted the race cars. I had to hold up my end of the bargain and there were times along the way I thought, ‘Oh my God, will this kid ever get a B and we could maybe stop racing for a little while.’ Spending the time together was just invaluable though. We laugh that we probably could have bought him three Corvettes by now with what we spent on race cars.

"I thought that the more he got involved in school and progressed toward a career maybe the racing would taper off some, but he never slacked off," Nick Staropoli added. "His passion is just as great all the way through. When it was time for school he did that 100 percent and then when it was time for racing, he’d put school away and turn racing on 100 percent.

"He has such a great passion and I knew that’s what he wants to do deep down inside and now that he has this opportunity he wants to make the most of it."

Staropoli concedes that balancing a burgeoning racing career as a NASCAR development driver with a high-end organization along with the rigors of medical school is beyond tough. He joked, "Life would be too simple if I just do one thing."

But he also considers himself overwhelmingly fortunate to be able to follow his two passions — a real life lesson in what hard work combined with dedicated pursuit can produce.

In many ways it is full circle for Staropoli, who first became enamored with the idea of becoming a doctor after his father was in a serious racing accident. The throttle on Nick Staropoli’s late model hung open one summer evening in 2001 at Hialeah and he impacted the wall head-on at full speed.

Then 12 years old, Patrick watched as his father was taken from the car and airlifted to nearby Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. While his father spent four months hospitalized recovering from severe head and back injuries — even having to learn to walk again — Staropoli came to the hospital daily, fully captivated with the science that healed his dad.

"I remember as a kid being in awe of the whole process," Staropoli said. "That stayed in my mind. And now I’m at the very place learning medicine where they saved my dad’s life. Kinda weird how it’s all worked out.

"Looking back, (deciding to go away to Harvard) was one of the toughest choices I’ve made. I knew what it would do to my racing, being 18 years old and knowing that was my prime age (for young development drivers) and not wanting to leave if there was any hope for racing. That was the time I knew I’d need to make something happen. So I guess I made the responsible choice and I went to college and it’s funny how everything kind of worked out.

"Every day I think about racing and it just goes back to having the right opportunity with the right people. And I have the opportunity of a lifetime right now."

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NASCAR Chairman and CEO emphasizes importance of outreach to Millennials

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NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France kicked off the 2014 IMG World Congress of Sport on Wednesday in Dana Point, Calif. as part of a keynote panel of leaders in sports and entertainment. France addressed the importance of connecting Millennial fans with the sport’s live content at the track.

As NASCAR returns to the scene of one of its most dramatic finishes at Auto Club Speedway of Southern California, France asserted that NASCAR is in a unique position to appeal to Gen Y. In fact, drivers of that generation, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano, were the combatants in last year’s last-lap battle at the two-mile oval near Los Angeles.

Gen Y or Millennials, the generation born between 1980 and 1995, are "getting interested in sports differently," France said.

"We’re in a position because of all of the telemetry and data flying around as part of our events coming from the crew chiefs, the cars … to have a natural way to make the experience of NASCAR important (to the Millennial fan)."

"Sports is still the one thing you can’t miss live," France said, and the live event experience has stepped up with initiatives like DAYTONA Rising at Daytona International Speedway.

France said the effort to reimagine an American icon in Daytona Beach will "accommodate the social aspect of the sporting experience."

"This is all building off of the digital rights that all of us have been developing for quite a while," France said.

"(Millennials) want the device to have relevance to the actual game. That’s not going to be upon us tomorrow morning, but over the next decade and longer, it’s going to be a very big factor."

France cited the NASCAR Fan & Media Engagement Center powered by HP as an important resource to listen and respond to fans. The innovative facility also arms partners with insights into activating in the sport. 

"On a real-time basis … we understand where the sentiment is going on a particular topic," France said.

NASCAR understood the importance in addressing the changing complexion of marketing and selling the sport. The sanctioning body made the massive investment in reacquiring its digital rights to provide fans and the industry with tools and a platform to showcase compelling content.

When asked whether he was concerned about fans looking down at a device while attending an event, France said, "They are watching our races. They’re just watching it differently."

The NASCAR Chairman and CEO joined a panel of captains of the sports industry, including MLS Commissioner Don Garber Maple Leaf Sports + Entertainment President and CEO Tim Leiweke; Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Sounders President Peter McLoughlin and Google/YouTube Global Head of Sports Content Claude Ruibal.

In its 13th year, the IMG World Congress of Sports, a Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal conference, is billed as the place "where the leaders in sports business convene." In addition to the leaders listed above, this year’s speaker faculty includes NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

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Check out this weekend’s new looks presented by NASCAR ’14

SPRINT CUP SERIES PAINT SCHEMES | Entry list

Brad Keselowski will drive the No. 2 Wurth Ford.

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Kasey Kahne will drive the No. 5 Time Warner Cable Chevrolet.

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Tony Stewart will drive the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet.

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Clint Bowyer will drive the No. 15 PEAK Toyota.

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Greg Biffle will drive the No. 16 3M Aerospace Ford.

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Kyle Busch will drive the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota.

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Paul Menard will drive the No. 27 Duracell/Menards Chevrolet.

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AJ Allmendinger will drive the No. 47 Charter Chevrolet.

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Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will drive the No. 17 Ford EcoBoost Ford.

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Joey Logano will drive the No. 22 AAA So. California Ford.

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Jeff Gordon will drive the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet.

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Jimmie Johnson will drive the No. 48 Lowe’s "Spring is Calling" Chevrolet.

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Brian Vickers will drive the No. 55 Treatmyclot.com/Aaron’s Toyota.

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NATIONWIDE SERIES PAINT SCHEMES | Entry list

Brian Scott will drive the No. 2 Anderson’s Maple Syrup Chevrolet.

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Kevin Harvick will drive the No. 5 Taxslayer.com Chevrolet.

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Regan Smith will drive the No. 7 Best Food Chevrolet.

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Elliott Sadler will drive the No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota.

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Matt Kenseth will drive the No. 20 GameStop-Turtle Beach Toyota.

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Joey Logano will drive the No. 22 America’s Tire Ford.

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Dakoda Armstrong will drive the No. 43 Charter Ford.

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Chris Buescher will drive the No. 60 Roush Performance Mustang Ford.

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Brendan Gaughan will drive the No. 62 WIX Filters Chevrolet.

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Body of work in Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series improving with added track time

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Kyle Larson has heard the arguments from those who believe the participation of Sprint Cup Series regulars in the Nationwide Series should be curtailed. He hopes it never happens.

"I would be disappointed if they ever did that. I don’t see them ever doing it," he said. "I think the Nationwide regulars like Cup guys running with them. I know I do. I consider myself still young, I guess, in racing stock cars. Whenever I’m out there with guys like Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, I can see them in front of me, I’m learning a lot from them. I like it. I think it’s good for the development side of the young drivers, because it is a development series for those kids. I think it’s a good thing for NASCAR to have the Cup guys in there, because it’s just going to make their series more competitive when those young guys move up."

Larson, who broke through last year with a stellar Nationwide debut, certainly stands out as an example of that. The 21-year-old Chip Ganassi Racing rookie has been competitive in his first campaign at NASCAR’s highest level, notching a career-best 10th-place finish Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway. His development has been aided in part by a double-duty strategy in which he’s also running all Nationwide companion events this season for Turner Scott Motorsports.

"Chip Ganassi, he really wanted me to do double duty," Larson said Tuesday on a teleconference with reporters. "I think I read a stat somewhere — before the year, I’ve only ran 40-something stock car races in my career. I’m getting double the amount of experience in stock cars this year running both. I think it’s a good thing."

He’s certainly progressed more quickly at the Sprint Cup level than many forecasted when he was chosen to succeed Juan Pablo Montoya in the organization’s No. 42 car. After being involved in a crash late in the Daytona 500, he was caught a lap down on a pit stop at Phoenix, and then sped on pit road at Las Vegas. Still, his results gradually improved, and at Bristol he ran right behind leader Kenseth for a solid stretch of the race.

"Bristol was the first week of the season that was mistake‑free and drama‑free, I guess, and we didn’t have anything happen to us," he said. "Hopefully we’ll have more and more of those. After the first three weeks, I realized to even get a top 15, you have to be almost perfect or have a perfect race. It’s tough to come back from mistakes in this series. I learned that really quick."

Even so, toward the middle of Sunday’s race he allowed himself to think that he might have a chance of winning — which made his first career top 10 at the Sprint Cup level feel a little disappointing as a result.

"There at the end maybe we pitted when we shouldn’t have, and then it was tough to pass," he said. "It’s really actually exciting to be a little bit disappointed in a top‑10 finish in the Cup Series. Like I said, this series is really competitive and hard to do well in. I thought we had a top‑five race going for sure, and ended up 10th. Career‑best Sprint Cup finish for me, and a little bit disappointing, too. I guess that’s a good thing, though, from where this team has come from."

The No. 42 team finished 21st in points with Montoya last season. The Bristol finish gives Larson some momentum heading to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., where he will compete in both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup events again this weekend. The double duty benefits go both ways — he’s off to a tremendous Nationwide start, finishing fourth or better in each of his last three events.

"I really think it helps for my Nationwide race, running the Cup stuff," said Larson, a native of the Northern California town of Elk Grove. "Now when I get in the Nationwide car, it feels slow. Things happen slower. I have more confidence in that. That’s why I’ve been running really well in that car so far, too. I think it helps the Cup Series a little bit, but I think it helps the Nationwide Series a whole bunch."

Larson is battling with Austin Dillon of Richard Childress Racing for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award in the Sprint Cup ranks. Although he’s ineligible for the Nationwide title, his hot start in that series for Turner Scott has him hoping to claim some hardware nonetheless.

"I guess I can still try and get Harry Scott and Steve Turner the owners’ championship," Larson said. "Maybe I can help them accomplish that."

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