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Larson to make Sprint Cup Series debut on Saturday night at Charlotte

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MARTINSVILLE, Va. — One year ago, Kyle Larson was within a few weeks of completing his debut season in the K&N Pro Series East, and Jimmy Elledge was preparing to move to California to become part of a business manufacturing winged go-karts. Saturday night, they’ll work together in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series effort that was inevitable for one, and wholly unexpected for the other.

A breakout star in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, the 21-year-old Larson will make his debut at NASCAR’s highest level Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, one of two races to prepare him for a full-time ride in Earnhardt Ganassi Racing’s No. 42 car next season. The other will come at Martinsville Speedway, where on Tuesday Larson was among 11 Sprint Cup drivers testing in preparation of the track’s Oct. 27 event.

Both those outings will take place in the No. 51 of Phoenix Racing, although the vehicle will bear the same Target sponsorship Larson will have on the No. 42 next year. And in a change announced Tuesday, Larson’s crew chief for his two Sprint Cup starts this year won’t be Nick Harrison, the longtime Phoenix signal-caller who has left to take over the No. 33 Nationwide program at Richard Childress Racing. It will be Elledge, who was debating leaving the NASCAR business altogether until he received a call from Phoenix owner Harry Scott Jr.

No wonder Chris Heroy, regular crew chief for Juan Pablo Montoya and the No. 42 car Larson will inherit next season, was at Martinsville on Tuesday helping to put the vehicle through its paces.

"Jimmy really hasn’t been in it since 2010, so he’s here learning kind of like I am," Larson said during a break in the test, which will continue Wednesday. "So it’s good to have Chris here to teach us both a little bit, and make us both better."

Elledge worked the previous two seasons on the No. 31 Nationwide car of Justin Allgaier at Turner Scott Motorsports, which Scott co-owns. Last year he bought into a business that makes winged go-karts, smaller versions of the sprint cars in which both he and Larson got their start. Elledge said he had spent the past 11 months focused on his new endeavor in California, "with the understanding that there was a very strong possibility I would never be back in NASCAR again."

Until Harrison left, and Scott called. "I’ve had a good relationship with Harry Scott over the years, and he was in a situation where they needed some help," Elledge said. "Why they called me, I don’t know. But I’m glad they did, and glad to be in a position to help them out."

Saturday night will mark Elledge’s first Sprint Cup race on the pit box since the final event of the 2010 season, with driver Kasey Kahne and the defunct Red Bull organization. The learning curve could be evident for both crew chief and driver, the former of whom hasn’t worked with the Generation-6 cars, and the latter who tested the vehicle on the 1.5-mile layout last week.

Larson, though, has made a habit of excelling along every step of a career path that became accelerated when EGR announced it wouldn’t extend the contract of Montoya, who will return to the open-wheel ranks next season with Roger Penske. One year ago, Larson was putting the finishing touches on a K&N title and had two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts to his name.

Saturday brings Charlotte, and his first taste of the big leagues. "I think I’m ready," he said. "We went and tested last week, and learned quite a bit. Got our car better. I’ve been there before in the Nationwide car, and I’ll get lots of laps this week. We’ll have lots of practice between the Nationwide car and the Cup car. So hopefully by Saturday at some point in the race, I’ll be battling maybe in the top 15. I’d be pretty happy with that."

Elledge, who’s known Larson for some time — perhaps another reason he got the call from Scott — is a believer.

"It wouldn’t surprise me for him to do really, really well," the crew chief said. "But then again, I don’t think you can put those kind of expectations on him in his first start, because a lot of circumstances can happen that are beyond his control. But he’s obviously handled everything to this point fairly easily. I’m sure there will be a learning curve at some point, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did really, really good."

Even so, a first Sprint Cup race can be a heady experience for a young driver. Kurt Busch remembered his, as a 22-year-old driving Jack Roush’s No. 97 car at Dover in 2000.

"It’s out of control with the nerves and the unknown factor. Making your first Sprint Cup start, in the top series of NASCAR, is something you’ll never forget," Busch said during a break in testing. "When you get into the race, you hope you settle in and knock out all those emotions and the energy, and you want to settle into a rhythm, and it was tough.

"My first start at Dover, I qualified 10th. I had Jeff Gordon next to me … and Dale Jarrett’s right (ahead) of me, and they dropped the green and everybody went that way. I was like, ‘Why is everyone going so fast? I thought this was a 400-miler.’ You’re in awe, for one, that you’re racing with the big dogs. And then secondly, you don’t know anything about the car, the draft, the handling. It’s a different game. The only way I figured it out was, I radioed that I thought I was dead last. They said, ‘Yep, you’re 43rd.’ I’m like, ‘OK. Whew. Let’s go pick off one at a time.’ I got back up to 18th, two laps down, for my first race. It was pretty cool."

Larson is trying to keep his expectations in check. Tuesday marked the first time he had ever even seen the 0.526-mile Martinsville track, whose unique characteristics lured so many drivers to test. His one race at Charlotte was a fourth-place run in the Nationwide race in May — but in a field not as deep as the one he’ll face Saturday night, and in a car not as powerful.

"If I could run in the top 20, I think that would be pretty good for my first time," he said. "Really, just looking forward to getting out there and trying to finish the race and learn a lot to get prepared for next season. Running Charlotte and here is going to help out a bunch, just getting used to the different cars, and I think this style of racing is a little bit different. These couple of races I’m going to run are hopefully going to help me."

They’ll surely also help Elledge, who’ll work as crew chief for the No. 51 team through this season’s finale at Homestead. Getting to call two races for Larson is the biggest perk in his surprise fill-in role.

"He’s going to go far in his racing career," Elledge said, "and even to remotely be some part of that is really cool."

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Veteran wrench leaves Phoenix Racing, will guide No. 33 team

Nick Harrison has been named crew chief of the No. 33 NASCAR Nationwide Series team fielded by Richard Childress Racing, according to a news release from the Welcome, N.C.-based organization.
 
Harrison, who will begin his duties immediately, replaces Ernie Cope on a team that has fielded Chevrolet entries for nine different drivers in 2013. That likely won’t be a problem for Harrison, who had worked with nearly a dozen drivers this season while serving as crew chief for Phoenix Racing’s No. 51 entry in the Sprint Cup Series. Jimmy Elledge will serve as the crew chief for the No. 51 car for the remainder of the year.

"In our eyes, Nick has done a great job as crew chief with the No. 51 Chevrolet team in Cup," Eric Warren, RCR’s director of competition, said. "We have had several discussions with him and really enjoy his fresh attitude and strong work ethic. We believe he is going to be a great fit for RCR."

Harrison is a race-winning crew chief in Nationwide, having helped guide Kurt Busch to a victory in the July race at Daytona International Speedway last season.

Busch had nothing but great things to say about Harrison during Tuesday’s testing at Martinsville.

"I think that’s great for Nick," said Busch, whose current team, Furniture Row Racing, is allied with RCR. "Nick is definitely a crew chief who’s a real go-getter. He’s a hard worker. He comes from a background of hanging around with Sterling Martin, which is a fun group. Phoenix Racing … he fit in real well there, and he was a great leader to o as much as he could with what was supplied to him. And it’s great to see him take the next step to see him go up to RCR and be a full-time crew chief, week in and week out, worry about an assembly line of cars, an assembly line of people. I think he’s ready for it.

"And I think it will be a great combination for him to still relax and have fun, because they might not be racing for points, but if he starts to do too well, that 33 will be in the owners’ championship run, and he’ll have to balance that as well."

For his part, Harrison is excited about the opportunity with RCR.
 
"Having worked with a few of the smaller-sized teams, I can appreciate the resources and manpower RCR has throughout their shops," Harrison said. "They are known for their winning ways and I’m stepping into a Nationwide team which already has two victories this year."
 
Harrison will be working alongside crew chiefs Danny Stockman and Phil Gould, crew chiefs for the RCR Nationwide teams of Austin Dillon and Brian Scott, respectively. Dillon currently leads the series’ points standings while Scott sits seventh. The No. 33 team is eighth in owner points.
 
RCR Cup driver Kevin Harvick is scheduled to drive the No. 33 entry in Friday’s Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

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35th-place finish at Kansas bumped Newman to 12th in the standings

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CHARLOTTE, N.C.– It was an unfortunate turn of events that turned Justin Allgaier into the wall, and then Allgaier’s No. 51 Chevrolet into Ryan Newman.

Not that Newman, one of 13 drivers in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, had any grand designs on making a trip to victory lane Sunday at Kansas Speedway, given the performance of his No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet up to that point.

But one never knows. Drivers have come from further behind with fewer laps remaining to suddenly find themselves spraying a celebratory beverage or two in the winner’s circle.

"I don’t think that our car was great," Newman said Tuesday during an appearance at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, "but I know we were capable of a top 10 run because I know we were better than some of those guys that finished in the top 10."

The difference being of course that those in the top 10 weren’t slammed unexpectedly and unintentionally from the side.

The incident, which unfolded just after the halfway point of the 267-lap race, didn’t end Newman’s day. After extensive repairs to his car, the 35-year-old returned to the track (he would end up running 188 of the 267 laps) and finished 35th. 

It wasn’t Newman’s worst finish of the year, but it was likely the most damaging. His deficit to point leader Matt Kenseth increased from 48 to 73 points with only six races remaining. He fell from seventh in to 12th in the standings.

"We’re mathematically a long ways out, but we’re mathematically not out of it," he said. "Realistically, yeah, it’s going to be a challenge, but we can move up."

The focus for this year’s winner at Indianapolis is on a strong finish. There is no next year for Newman and SHR – at season’s end they go their separate ways. Kevin Harvick, Sunday’s race winner, is one of two new Sprint Cup Series drivers in the 2014 SHR program; Newman will begin his career anew at Richard Childress Racing.

Until then, however, the driver who once won a race with a stuck throttle ("I ran the last nine laps with the kill switch," he recalled.) said he is "entirely 100 percent focused on 2013 and having an opportunity (to succeed)."

"We still have a lot of great opportunities, a lot of great race tracks to go to," he said. "As I said before … Indianapolis was a great weekend for us, and we need to show we can duplicate that again."

Newman said he hasn’t been shut off from the weekly gatherings at SHR, but hasn’t pushed to speed up the process of getting settled at RCR either.

He doesn’t make himself "privy" to information regarding possible technical changes with his current employer, he said, "because that’s not my job. My job is to drive the race car."

And any trips to RCR, he said, "was strictly to work on paperwork; we did a photo shoot and that was it. I haven’t looked at their cars or anything else."

Newman will be searching for career win No. 18 this weekend when the Sprint Cup Series turns to Charlotte Motor Speedway for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500. Nine of his 51 career poles have come at the 1.5-mile track, but he has yet to score a victory there.

"I hope we can just build off of where we were in the Coca‑Cola 600," he said of a sixth-place finish in the spring event. "… I’ve been in position several times at the Coke 600 and actually I think about five years ago led everything – led coming to the white and then crashed in Turn 1.  I’ve been close at Charlotte. 

"Just a good rebound weekend from what we had in Kansas would be good, not just for me but for everybody."

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Johnson is also the only driver to post four consecutive wins at Charlotte

Jimmie Johnson has the most NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins among active drivers at Charlotte Motor Speedway with six. He is also the only driver to post four consecutive victories at the track (winning both Cup races at the venue in 2004 and 2005). Johnson also has 11 top-five finishes and 15 top-10 finishes in 24 Cup races at Charlotte. With Johnson nearing the points lead in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, will he be able to use his favorable history at Charlotte to take the lead?

 

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Logano finishes fourth, Biffle 13th

With the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway being the fourth race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup this season, drivers’ outcomes and triumphs are becoming more crucial to their chances for the Cup.

Chase rookie Joey Logano led the Coca-Cola Racing Family with a fourth-place finish at Kansas Speedway and for the first time since the start of the Chase, he was able to move up in the standings.

Fellow Chaser Greg Biffle made his way though traffic on Sunday after starting 26th and eventually finished 13th. Unfortunately, his hard effort to make it into the top 10 wasn’t recognized in the standings and he saw no change this week.

A roundup of the Coca-Cola Racing Family in order of how they finished at Kansas:

Joey Logano (No. 22)

Penske Racing, Ford

Recap: The Chase rookie jumped two positions in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup to 10th. Logano saw his first top-five finish at Kansas by finishing fourth. 
Quotable: "It was pretty crazy out there. Every restart you had to be so aggressive to pass people because that was your best shot to pass them and everyone realized it. There wasn’t much grip out there and everyone was doing that and you are going to have a crash. We proved that fact multiple times today. Everyone did a good job on the Shell Pennzoil Ford and gave me a really fast car and I feel like if you put it in the lead it was going to win the race but if you put it fourth it was going to finish fourth. It was hard to pass cars and I really feel like the 48 was probably the fastest car out there. Todd did a good job calling the race and trying to figure out the strategy. I couldn’t imagine trying to call a race like this. It is nuts because one minute you are first and the next you are 15th and you hope you cycle out to the lead at the end."
His standing: Logano is 10th in the standings with 2,124 points.
Outlook: Moving forward, Logano has seen three top-five finishes at Charlotte and will need to have more performances like Kansas in order to get back to a more competitive playing field with the other Chase contenders.

Greg Biffle (No. 16)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford 

Recap: Biffle qualified 26th for the Hollywood Casino 400, but unfortunately for the Roush Fenway Racing team, a 13th-place finish will have to do. Biffle saw no change in the standings this race, while a handful of his fellow Chase contenders saw positive movement.
Quotable: "We weren’t very good all weekend. I am really happy with a 13th-place finish to be honest with you. We fought hard to get that. I drove hard and we had about a 30th-place car and finished 13th with it, so I am pretty happy with that."
His standing: Biffle is sixth in the standings with 2,139 points. 
Outlook: Biffle knows he has to step it up. Even though they fought hard for 13th, they will have to fight even harder at Charlotte to start making an impact in the standings.

Denny Hamlin (No. 11)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Recap: Qualifying 10th, Hamlin had as good as a chance as any other driver to come out on top. However, his performance at Kansas (23rd) and at the past few races can only make you wonder if Hamlin has lost hope in trying to prove himself.
Quotable: Hamlin was unavailable for comment.
His standing: Hamlin is 25th in the standings with 573 points.
Outlook: Hamlin has yet to claim a win at Charlotte in his Sprint Cup career, but he did win the pole earlier this year and eventually finished fourth. Perhaps a quick reminder of what he’s capable of will motivate him to be more aggressive on the track. 

Ryan Newman (No. 39)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Recap: Everything was going fine for Newman in the Hollywood Casino 400 until Lap 136 when No. 51 Justin Allgaier made contact with Newman on a spin out and sent both drivers to the garage with significant damage.
Quotable: "There’s not much to say other than we were in the wrong place at the wrong time and got caught up in an accident not of our making."
His standing: Newman is 12th in the standings with 2,110 points.
Outlook: The best part about hitting rock bottom is there’s no where to go but up. In Newman’s case, just about anything could be better than his 35th-place finish at Kansas and perhaps he could see his first win at Charlotte Motor Speedway next weekend. 

Danica Patrick (No. 10)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Recap: Patrick’s day at Kansas ended early after she got loose on the first lap and slammed into the wall. This was Patrick’s 100th Sprint Cup Series career start, but a combination of new tires and unfortunate handling sent her to the garage and eventually out of the race with a 43rd-place finish.
Quotable: "I knew that, going into the race based on practice and everything we’ve seen from practice in Cup to the Nationwide race, losing grip was going to be not that hard to do," Patrick said. "And so — I said that before the race even — I said make sure that we’re on top of who is on my door and who is behind me. And I knew all that was going to be happening on the start. And I had enough momentum to go to the middle because I got a run on the car in front of me but I had to wait past the start-finish line. I lifted going into Turn 1 and all I can say is that, you know, I didn’t try and do anything. I just found myself sideways in the middle of the corner and that was it."
Her standing: Patrick is 28th in the standings with 530 points. 
Outlook: Going into Charlotte, Danica’s best finish at that track is 29th. There is plenty of room for improvement, especially if she wants a shot at Rookie of the Year against beau, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Tony Stewart (No. 14)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Recap: Stewart missed his ninth consecutive race this past weekend and watched Mark Martin pilot his No. 14 Chevrolet to a 22nd-place finish. Stewart is still nursing his broken leg and won’t return in 2013.
His standing: Stewart is 24th in the standings with 594 points.

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Newman falls the hardest in the Chase standings

Updated standings | Full coverage

Three up

Three down

FULL SERIES COVERAGE
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Pos.

Driver

Pts back

+/-

1.

Matt Kenseth

—

0

2.

Jimmie Johnson

-3

0

3.

Kevin Harvick

-25

+1

4.

Jeff Gordon

-32

+1

5.

Kyle Busch

-35

-2

6.

Greg Biffle

-44

0

7.

Kurt Busch

-47

+2

8.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 

-54

+2

9.

Clint Bowyer

-55

-1

10.

Joey Logano

-59

+2

11.

Carl Edwards

-60

0

12.

Ryan Newman

-73

-5

13.

Kasey Kahne

-83

0

IN THE GREEN

Kevin Harvick (Change: 4th to 3rd)
After winning the Coors Light Pole going into the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, Harvick went all the way to Victory Lane on Sunday. It was Harvick’s first pole since 2006 and a career-first win at Kansas. His successful night upped him one position in the standings to third, taking Kyle Busch’s spot. Harvick led 138 laps in the 267-lap race and now sits 25 points behind Chase leader Matt Kenseth. 

Kurt Busch (Change: 9th to 7th)
With a rocky start to the weekend, Busch pulled through and finished second. Busch spun out in Saturday’s practice, which resulted in heavy damage and the need for his backup car. Because of this, Busch started in the rear and had to weave his way through traffic to make it into the top five for the first time at Kansas. Busch moved up two positions and now sits in seventh behind Greg Biffle with 2,136 points. 

Joey Logano (Change: 12th to 10th)
For the first time since the start of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Logano experienced positive movement in the standings. Jumping two positions to 10th, Logano placed fourth, his first top-five finish at Kansas. Moving forward, the Chase rookie will need to have more days like Sunday in order to get back to a more competitive playing field with the other Chase contenders.

IN THE RED

Kyle Busch (Change: 3rd to 5th)
Perhaps it was karma from the previous day’s Nationwide Series race or just the fact that Kansas has never been Busch’s strongest track. Whatever the case, Busch experienced nothing but hard times during the Hollywood Casino 400. It started in Saturday’s practice when, just like his brother, he spun out and hit the wall, causing him to have to resort to his backup car and eventually starting in the rear. Busch blames the track and the new Goodyear tires, but whatever the reasoning might be, he dropped back two spots in the standings to fifth. Perhaps he’ll see a happier ending at Charlotte and get back into his top-three placement once again. 

Clint Bowyer (Change: 8th to 9th)
The last time Bowyer was at Kansas Speedway he finished in the top five for the second time in his career, but this time around he wasn’t so successful. Qualifying 22nd in the field, Bowyer just couldn’t make any waves in the playing field and eventually finished 14th, sandwiched right in between Chase contenders Biffle (13th) and Kasey Kahne (15th). He now holds ninth in the Chase standings with 2,128 points, just one point behind Dale Earnhardt Jr. 

Ryan Newman (Change: 7th to 12th)
With the most dramatic fall in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, Newman drops five positions to 12th. Entering the race seventh in the standings, 48 points behind leader Kenseth, Newman was just at the wrong place at the wrong time when No. 51 Justin Allgaier’s car got loose and smacked into Newman, leaving not only his car, but his Chase standings position significantly damaged. Looking ahead, Newman has a history at Charlotte Motor Speedway of taking the pole — nine times to be exact — but not holding onto that lead spot. He’ll need to reverse that trend in order for him to have a chance at the Cup.

MISSED CHANCES

Jimmie Johnson (No change)
Johnson knows what a win at Kansas Speedway feels like. He’s seen Victory Lane there twice — in 2008 and 2011 — but this time he settled for sixth after starting in the third position. Although his spot in the Chase standings remained unscathed, he missed a golden opportunity to take the lead from Kenseth had he come out on top in the Hollywood Casino 400. 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Change: 10th to 8th)
For the second week in a row Earnhardt Jr. climbed the standings, this time, two positions to eighth. Leading for 10 laps, Earnhardt Jr. was in a constant battle with his fellow Chase contenders to stay in the top five. With zero wins this season, Earnhardt keeps coming up short at the end. Trailing 54 points behind leader Kenseth, the seasoned driver will look for a win at Charlotte, or at the very least more positive movement in the standings.


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Win at Kansas moves Harvick into third place in points standings

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Meet Kevin Harvick, the Rodney Dangerfield of NASCAR racing.

More than anyone else in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Harvick uses "them-versus-us" psychology to get the most out of his prodigious driving talent.

After Harvick won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup pole in seven years Friday at Kansas Speedway, he was asked whether that achievement was a statement to those who had called the Chase a three-man race between Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch.

Harvick went straight into his "I don’t get no respect" routine, talking not about Friday’s accomplishment but about his first meeting with reporters before February’s Daytona 500.

"To be honest with you, I walked into media day, and there were two people standing in line to conduct interviews, so from day one of this year, everybody’s kind of written us off," Harvick said.

Then he returned to present tense.

"We’re three races into the Chase, and it is what it is," Harvick continued. "We’ve done our thing and put ourselves in position to just go out and race and enjoy it."

Why does Harvick feel reporters have discounted his chances for a first NASCAR Sprint Cup title? Because Harvick is a lame duck at Richard Childress Racing this year, having announced plans to join Stewart-Haas Racing at the end of the season.

Lame ducks don’t win NASCAR Sprint Cup championships. That, at least, is the conventional wisdom in the garage and in the press room.

But don’t tell Harvick that. And don’t tell him that the rest of the world isn’t out to get him. Those sorts of thoughts get his blood up, and for Harvick, that’s a good thing.

Harvick had plenty of reason to think everything from NASCAR to the forces of nature were conspiring against him at Kansas. After dominating the early stages of the race, Harvick brought his No. 29 Chevrolet to pit road on Lap 82 of 267, handing the lead to Jimmie Johnson.

During the cycle of pit stops, NASCAR called a caution for debris in Turn 3, debris that turned out to be a piece of duct tape. The caution buried Harvick in 25th place for a restart on Lap 92. On the team radio, Harvick left little doubt how he felt about the timing of the yellow.

An astute call by crew chief Gil Martin to keep Harvick on the track under caution put the 29 back in the lead for a restart on Lap 146. Martin was hoping for a long green-flag run, but a grass fire on the bank outside Turn 1 covered the track with smoke, caused another caution and foiled his plans.

Despite the adversity, Harvick persevered and won the race, notching his third victory of the season and moving into third place in the standings, 25 points behind Kenseth, the Chase leader.

In a calmer moment after the race, Harvick explained his feelings.

"Obviously, the first thing you think of is, ‘Man, I got screwed up there,’ or ‘Somebody is screwing us,’ and they were just calling the race," he said. "And us sitting in the car… it’s frustrating sitting on the pit box or sitting watching the race.

"You always think everybody is out to get you. But, luckily, today it all worked out."

That doesn’t mean that, next time, Harvick won’t think the world is out to get him again. That’s not a chip on his shoulder — it’s a two-by-four, and if you rile him, he’ll swat you with it.

If you tell Harvick he can’t do something, he’ll try twice as hard to prove you wrong.

So don’t tell the hardcore racer from Bakersfield, Calif. that lame ducks can’t win championships.

And don’t tell Harvick he’s out of contention in the Chase.

Unless you want him to win it.

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