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Truck Series regular wins for Penske at Kentucky; Dillon finishes second, Crafton third

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It wasn’t a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competitor that the NASCAR Nationwide Series field had to worry about at Kentucky Speedway. Instead, it was a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standout, Ryan Blaney, who stole the show and won Saturday night’s Kentucky 300.

Blaney’s first Nationwide Series win came in his 15th career start and just his second start of 2013. Blaney’s triumph in the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang marked Penske Racing’s 10th win of the year with its fourth different driver. AJ Allmendinger, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski collectively made up for nine of those victories.

The win didn’t exactly come easy for Blaney, a development driver for Penske Racing. Blaney, was nearly collected by teammate and current NNS point’s leader, Sam Hornish Jr. on a restart with 15 laps to go. As Hornish Jr. attempted to inherit the lead from Blaney, Hornish Jr.’s Ford broke loose on the bottom of the track and immediately walked up the racetrack, nearly colliding with Blaney. While, Hornish Jr. faded, Blaney kept his foot on the gas and kept Austin Dillon in his rearview mirror until the caution flag waived a lap later, when Parker Kligerman pounded the frontstretch wall after contact with Cole Whitt.

In the early stages of the Kentucky 300, Hornish Jr. appeared to have the car to beat in his No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Mustang and even fended off challenges from the RCR duo of Dillon and Brian Scott, but Jeremy Bullins, Blaney’s crew chief kept making adjustments to his rookie’s blue oval, which allowed the High Point, N.C., native to methodically work his way to the front and overtake Dillon for the lead on Lap 101, just past halfway.

Blaney continued to lead the way until Harrison Rhodes brought out the caution for dropping fluid on the racetrack on Lap 107. The yellow flag sent the leaders to pit road, where Elliott Sadler opted for a different pit strategy from his competitors and assumed the race lead.

Blaney, the son of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Dave Blaney, rocketed by Sadler immediately after the restart and held the point until final pit stops occurred with 38 laps to go following a caution when Brad Sweet crashed on the backstretch. Quick work by the Penske Racing organization allowed the 19-year-old to remain first for the series of late-race restarts.

On the final restart of the night, Dillon in the No. 3 AdvoCare Chevrolet Camaro attempted to make the pass on Blaney entering Turn 1, but Blaney powered the outside line and pulled ahead from Dillon and the rest of the field over the final nine Laps to net Ford’s 12th win in 27 races.

"Yeah, we had a great car all night," said a relatively calm, but jubilant Blaney as he debriefed with reporters. "We kept working on it throughout the race, just little tweaks here and there. We were really strong to start out the race and just got better and better as the runs went on. It was really tough the last few restarts to really know what was going to happen. The way the restart rule is now, you never know how big of a push someone can get. I was a little worried being on the outside, but we had a great car to be able get through one and two good and be able to clear them by three and four."

Austin Dillon, Hornish’s rival for the Nationwide championship, finished second, ahead of Richard Childress Racing teammate Matt Crafton in third. Hornish Jr. rebounded for fourth, while Alex Bowman in the RAB Racing entry posted his first top-five run since the season-opener at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in February.

Dillon, the grandson of Richard Childress, failed to record his fourth series victory at the 1.5-mile, but did however notch his 10th top-five of 2013 and capitalized on his sixth place run at Kentucky in June.

"We knew we would be good coming here, it’s one of our better tracks and I’m just thankful we had a good run tonight," said Dillon, still winless in his sophomore season. "It was a solid run, there was just one car better. We needed something. Just a little bit more, we were too tight all night on exit and we tried to get it out of the car and (we) just couldn’t. That 22 has been very tough all year long, no matter who’s gotten in it. They’ve won with four different drivers this year. That’s pretty impressive."

When asked about his deficit to Hornish Jr., with less than two months of racing remaining, Dillon remained optimistic.

"Just let it (points) come to us. We’re going to stay here and keep running hard every week. We have to run top-five from here on out."

Crafton, the current NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points leader, tied his best career finish (third) in the NNS. The driver of the No. 33 Rheem/Menards Chevrolet Camaro also finished third in the tripleheader weekend at the Sparta, Kentucky-based track in June.

"We were tight, tight, tight, for most of the race until the last stop," Crafton said. "I then got loose, but went back to tight, but I can’t thank Menards, Rheem and RCR for the opportunity. A good night."

Drew Herring, taking the reins for Kyle Busch this weekend, finished sixth, followed by Brian Vickers, Jeb Burton in his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut, Whitt, driving for Tri-Star Motorsports, and Michael Annett.

While, Blaney has led only 65 Laps in his full-time campaign on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series tour, he led a race-high 96 laps Saturday. Blaney last competed on the circuit in June at Iowa Speedway, where he finished ninth after starting sixth.

With six races remaining on the tour, Hornish Jr. leads Dillon by 15 points.

In the race for the owner’s championship, Roger Penske (No. 22) leads J.D. Gibbs (No. 54) by 23 markers.

Next up for the NASCAR Nationwide Series is their annual fall trip back to Dover International Speedway for the running of the 5-Hour Energy 200 Benefiting Living Beyond Breast Cancer, set for 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday, Sept. 28.

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Chase driver hoping early struggles subside by Sunday

Related: Practice results and lineup | Full Chase coverage

LOUDON, N.H. — Carl Edwards‘ two wins this season were separated by exactly 23 races — the sort of dry spell that seldom will net a driver a championship.

In search of his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title and just nine events left on the 2013 schedule including Sunday’s Sylvania 300 (2 p.m. ET, ESPN), Edwards can’t afford to suffer a similar relapse.

Despite the forecast of early morning Sunday showers, another drought may be in store for the Roush Fenway Racing driver, as New Hampshire Motor Speedway hasn’t been kind to Edwards in the past. Early returns this weekend don’t indicate a change in fortune.

Edwards chugged his way through three practice sessions in which he averaged a leaderboard spot of 15th, culminating in Saturday’s final run-through in which his speed of 131.688 mph paled in comparison to Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s session-leading 133.059.

"This weekend is not good because we’re struggling. We thought we’d be a lot better," Edwards said. "If there’s one thing (crew chief) Jimmy Fennig and my crew can do, they can make up a lot of ground through strategy and pit stops, so we’ve got our work cut out for us, but we’ll just go do it."

Currently fifth in the standings, Edwards’ stock appeared to be trending up with a win at Richmond — the ultimate momentum builder to head into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with — but a finish outside the top-10 at Chicagoland in the Chase opener and a rough start to the weekend at Loudon are worrisome.

While Edwards has finished every race he’s run at the Magic Mile, in 18 starts he’s earned just four top-10 finishes — only two of which were top-fives. As a notoriously difficult track to pass on, you can point to the fact that Edwards has qualified outside the top 10 a dozen times when trying to analyze his poor finishes here. When Edwards has qualified in spots 11-20, he’s finished in the top 10 only twice, while leading just two laps total the six times he’s qualified outside the top 20.

The No. 99 brushed the wall during qualifying, forcing a rougher-than-expected lap. Despite his starting position of 26th being a cause for concern, Edwards remains positive.

"That didn’t go very well. At least we’re looking at the good side of my race car, the clean side because I hit the fence with the other side," he said Friday. "That was a pretty tough lap, but Jimmie Johnson showed us you can come from the back here. He had an engine change in the earlier race and did a great job, so we’re gonna have to fight for this one."

As the season winds down, every subpar finish is magnified tremendously — as illustrated by the DNFs of Joey Logano and Earnhardt last week that have all but buried their title hopes — so Edwards and his crew need to find a way to make the necessary adjustments to salvage a decent race.

"That’s something we’re going to look at is work on our strategy and work on the car to get it better so we can get back up front," said Fennig. "Track position is big anywhere, so you’ve always got to look at pit strategy no matter where you start. I’m still not happy. We need to be running better. We need to unload off the truck better, so we’ve got work to do."

That said, sometimes it doesn’t always come down to pit strategy or mechanical adjustments. The inspiration factor will occasionally make itself known and a fair amount of parallels exist between Edwards (who missed the Chase last year) and the 2013 Boston Red Sox, who Friday night earned their first American League East division title since 2007 after a last-place finish just a year ago.

"We’ve got (Red Sox owner and Roush Fenway Racing co-owner) John Henry and all the folks at Fenway Sports Group that back us up — the Red Sox Nation — everybody is so great to us up here that we’d love to get a win for them."

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Blaney qualifies second, Dillon third

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SPARTA, Ky. — Drivers hoping to gain ground on NASCAR Nationwide Series points leader Sam Hornish Jr. will have some work to do Saturday night.

Hornish won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Kentucky 300 (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPNEWS) with his best lap speed of 179.235 mph on a sunny afternoon at the 1.5-mile tri-oval.

It’s the third pole of the season for Hornish, who finished ninth in the first Nationwide Series race at Kentucky in June.

Hornish was sixth in the only practice session Friday; he leads Austin Dillon by 17 points in the standings. Dillon, who was attempting to become the first driver in track history to win four consecutive pole awards, will start third on the grid in his No. 3 Chevrolet following a qualifying speed of 178.042 mph.

Joining Hornish on the front row is Ryan Blaney, making his second Nationwide Series start of the season in the No. 22 Penske Racing Ford. Blaney, who pilots the car that leads the owner standings, had a best speed of 178.159 mph.

Blaney was one of three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regulars to qualify in the top 10. Matt Crafton, the series points leader who led Friday’s lone practice session, starts fifth on the grid in his No. 33 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. His best lap speed Saturday afternoon was 177.357 mph. Joey Coulter (176.490) will start sixth in the No. 18 Toyota.

Brian Scott completes the top five after his lap of 177.702 mph in the No. 2 Chevy put him fourth on the grid.

Rounding out the top 10: Drew Herring (176.482 mph) is seventh, followed by Travis Pastrana (176.401 mph), Justin Allgaier (176.378 mph) and Brian Vickers (176.338 mph).

Drivers haven’t had much time on track this weekend due to weather. Friday’s first practice, scheduled for 90 minutes, was halted at the halfway point when storms came through. The scheduled second hour-long practice was also washed out.

The track temperature was cooler Saturday than it was during Friday’s session, and should continue to drop — the temperature is expected to plummet by 20 degrees throughout the night.

Elliott Sadler, fourth in the points standings, will start 12th and Regan Smith (third in the standings) will come off the grid 14th. 

Jeb Burton, making his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut,qualified 13th in the No. 34 Arrowhead Chevrolet.

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Adjustments place No. 88 atop final leaderboard in New Hampshire

Newman on Coors Light Pole | Starting lineup

LOUDON, N.H. — A day after being frustrated with his speed in the weekend’s opening practice and qualifying, whatever adjustments Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his team made seem to be working as the Hendrick Motorsports driver earned a pair of top-two finishes in Saturday NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practices at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Clint Bowyer took the opener with a speed of 132.688 mph, but Earnhardt improved upon that in the final practice at 133.059 mph lap. With a starting position of 16th in Sunday’s Sylvania 300 (2 p.m. ET, ESPN), it looks like he’ll have his No. 88 Chevrolet in the shape necessary to  move up the field and recover from last week’s DNF in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup opener at Chicagoland Speedway.

Points leader Matt Kenseth improved his speed from 131.966 in the morning session to 132.938 to place second on the final leaderboard. Kasey Kahne, who has shown serious speed all weekend and will start alongside pole-sitter Ryan Newman on the front row Sunday, was third in the final session.

Despite missing out on the Chase, defending race winner Denny Hamlin is still hoping to recover a lost season by earning a win for his Joe Gibbs Racing team. He was fourth in the late session. Bowyer backed up his early Saturday success by rounding out the top five with a speed of 132.591. It’s an improvement upon his qualifying position of 16th.

The biggest surprise of the two sessions was pole winner Newman placing 24th with a speed of 130.702 in the opener then 25th in the second. His qualifying speed of 136.497 in Saturday’s Coors Light Pole Qualifying was a track record.

A caution was thrown for debris on the track with five minutes remaining in the first session. Several drivers re-emerged from pit road to make a few final laps after NASCAR officials extended the practice by five minutes.

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If approved, move would likely occur in 2015

LOUDON, N.H. – New Hampshire Motor Speedway officials are interested in moving the track’s July NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race under the lights, according to Executive Vice President and General Manager Jerry Gappens.
 
The one-mile track, which debuted on the NASCAR calendar in 1990 with two Nationwide Series events, has been hosting Sprint Cup Series races since 1993. The track has held two Sprint Cup Series races a season since 1997. Sunday’s Sylvania 300 is the 28th Cup race of the season, and stop No. 2 for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. It is scheduled for a 2 p.m. ET start.
 
"We do a lot with our fans; I’m all over this place during race week interacting with fans and … that is the feedback I’ve gotten," Gappens said Saturday at NHMS. "I’ve learned one thing, New Englanders don’t like 90-95 degree heat and high humidity. And I’m seeing the (ticket) numbers reflect that in renewals for July. I get letters (and) a lot of people who say they had their father or their parents with them and it was just too hot (in July)."

The track currently does not have lights in place to accommodate night races. Gappens said before pursuing the matter any further, which would include receiving approval from local authorities, he wanted to put the idea in front of NASCAR officials.
 
"They’re working on sanctioning agreements and scheduling (for 2014)," he said. "But before I take any steps at this point, I want to make sure NASCAR is in agreement and our TV partners (are aware), because you’ve got a broadcast schedule also (that has to be considered).
 
"I thought maybe if we couldn’t do it for 2014, maybe 2015 when the new TV contracts start — because then Fox will be our partner instead of TNT, if that makes a difference. But get it out there."
 
Steve O’Donnell, vice president of racing operations for the sanctioning body, said via email that the 2014 schedule will be announced "once all the sanctioning agreements are complete."
 
Nine of this year’s 36 points races were scheduled to be run under the lights (not including the June race at Kentucky Speedway, which was washed out on a Saturday night and run the following Sunday in the afternoon). Two non-points events — the Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway and Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway — also had nighttime starts.
 
Next year’s Budweiser Duel at Daytona, twin 150-mile qualifying races that will help determine the starting lineup for the season-opening Daytona 500, is scheduled for Feb. 20 and will be run under the lights for the first time.
 
If NASCAR approves the NHMS move, Gappens would need to gain approval from local authorities because the original agreement when the track was built included a stipulation — the result of a lawsuit — that no races would be held at night.
 
"If you think about it, back in 1989-90 (when the track was built), night racing wasn’t as popular as it is today," he said. "So Bob (Bahre, track founder) probably didn’t feel like he was making a big concession when he agreed to that.
 
"Now, some 25 years later, I think the speedway has been a great community partner. … I’m in process of trying to navigate through that restriction. The town is supportive of the speedway in Loudon but it’s in our deed that we can’t do that. And the town obviously doesn’t want to re-open the lawsuit and have to defend itself. So we just have to navigate our way through … we have a couple of approaches that we are working on."
 
Gappens said it was likely that the move to racing under the lights, should it be approved, would take place in 2015.
 
"I don’t think it’s going to happen for ’14," he said.

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Former Cup champ back after breaking ribs in bicycle accident

LOUDON, N.H. — NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Bobby Labonte, sidelined for three weeks due to injuries suffered in a bicycle crash, is back behind the wheel for this weekend’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
 
Labonte suffered three broken ribs and a lung injury Aug. 28 when the front tire of his bicycle blew out.

"I was just on an hour ride and got a little … there were different heights of asphalt, it skimmed the front tire and blew the front out," Labonte said Saturday at NHMS.
 
"I went over the handlebars and landed on the road."
 
Labonte last competed Aug. 24 at Bristol Motor Speedway, finishing 38th in the No. 47 Toyota of JTG Daugherty Racing. He did not compete at Atlanta, Richmond or last weekend at Chicago and is 36th in the points standings.
 
The injury shouldn’t pose a problem here at NHMS, a flat 1-mile track, he said.
 
"I don’t think it’s quite as bad, because the way the seats are, you’ve got pressure (against head, shoulder and hip)," he said, "so it’s all distributed evenly. It’s not like the old days when you’d be in the car hanging on."
 
It only hurts, he said, "if I sneeze real hard.
 
"It’s not bad at all. Whatever you can tolerate, I guess. I know a rib injury takes a while to heal; it’s been three weeks. Last week I felt about like I feel right now, so no different."
 
Labonte will not be in the No. 47 next weekend at Dover, and it was announced earlier this season that AJ Allmendinger will replace him behind the wheel next year.
 
Labonte has 21 career wins in Cup and is the only driver to win both Cup and Nationwide Series titles. While he said he would like to continue racing, he said his 2014 plans were to be determined.
 
"There are a lot of things that probably have to happen around the sport that we might not have a lot of control over," he said. "We’ll just see how things shake out and work on things at the same time."
 
Labonte won the 2000 Cup title while driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. Sunday’s race at NHMS will be his 712th career start. He is also one of only 23 drivers to win at least one event in all three of NASCAR’s major touring series — Sprint Cup, Nationwide and the Camping World Truck series.
 
He is the younger brother of two-time Cup champion Terry Labonte.

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Full Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup coverage

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Coors Light Pole Award winner Sam Hornish Jr. gets first pit pick

NASCAR Nationwide Series points leader Sam Hornish Jr. won the Coors Light Pole Award and the right to the first pick of pit stall.

With 40 in the field, Kentucky Speedway doesn’t use the first and 43rd stalls so Hornish and his No. 12 team chose the second stall, which is the first off of pit road into Turn 1.

His Penske Racing teammate, Ryan Blaney in the No. 22 car, chose the first stall with an opening, No. 14, which is eight stalls off of the start/finish line on the Turn 1 side.

The No. 22 team’s rival in the owner standings, the No. 54 driven by Drew Herring, will pit across the opening in stall 13.

The Kentucky 300, the final standalone in the NASCAR Nationwide Series this year, rolls off at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPNEWS

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Watch: Nationwide Series Kentucky 300 7:30 p.m. ET

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Ryan Newman gets first pit pick with Coors Light Pole Award

Ryan Newman‘s seventh Coors Light Pole Award at New Hampshire Motor Speedway earned him the first pick of pit stalls on the Magic Mile pit road.

The No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet will be in the No. 1 box at the exit of pit road, heading into Turn 1 in the Sylvania 300 (Sunday, 2 p.m. ET, ESPN).

The second-fastest qualifier, Kasey Kahne, chose the No. 32 stall, seven boxes off of the start/finish line toward the Turn 4 side of pit road. His Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jeff Gordon, qualified third and will pit across the front opening from him in stall No. 31.

The first opening on pit road, seven stalls off of the start/finish line toward Turn 1, five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson is in the 18th box with Martin Truex Jr. across the opening in the 19th stall.

Three stalls off of the start/finish line on the Turn 4 side is the No. 78 of Kurt Busch, who will pit with a front opening, and Denny Hamlin is across from him in stall 28.

Two stalls from the entrance to pit road, Paul Menard has a front opening with Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader Matt Kenseth across the opening in the 41st stall.

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