For Busch, no real choice but to move on

Posted on August 27, 2013 by

Putting his success with Furniture Row in the past, Busch now must make history with SHR

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — In theory, it sounds like a heartwarming idea — stay with the smaller team you’ve helped to reach new heights, and build it into an organization capable of unseating the sport’s traditional powers. Kurt Busch’s run with Furniture Row Racing has been the kind of underdog story everyone loves, the tale of a program that might be at a disadvantage in terms of manpower and money, but has made up for it through chemistry and grit.

It’s understandable, then, why some might have thought he should stay. The reality is that it was never a choice to begin with.

That much became clear Tuesday, when Busch walked onto a stage at Stewart-Haas Racing wearing a golf shirt emblazoned with the insignia of the team which will employ him beginning next year. After tumbling down the career ladder following his nasty split with Penske Racing following the 2011 campaign, the 2004 champion of the Sprint Cup Series has worked his way back up. Next season SHR promises to feature a trio of serious title contenders in Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Busch, all of them outfitted with engines and chassis obtained from Hendrick Motorsports.

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That’s a powerhouse if there ever was one, and we haven’t even mentioned Danica Patrick. SHR offered a championship pedigree, a team stocked with proven race-winners, and a direct pipeline to the best organization in NASCAR. Furniture Row offered promise. When we’re talking about a driver of Busch’s caliber, that’s simply no contest, regardless of what emotions might come into play.

No question, Busch certainly has a fondness for the guys at Furniture Row, just as he developed a fondness for the crewmen at Phoenix Racing the year before that. Those are the people who helped Busch reclaim his career, whose equipment allowed him to remind everyone just how spectacular he can be behind the wheel, whose programs made Tuesday possible. Busch has embraced his experience with the Denver-based No. 78 team, visiting Broncos training camp, throwing out the first pitch at a Rockies game, spearheading the organization’s first push for a bid to the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

But it would have been unrealistic to expect him to stay there long-term. That’s not a knock on Busch or Furniture Row, just as him leaving Phoenix Racing late last season wasn’t a knock on the No. 51 team. It’s the way of the sports world. Sure, the notion of him staying to help build something in Colorado is a charming one. It’s also fantastical. Competitors at the highest level want to win, and they want to be in an environment most conducive to winning, which is why they almost always make a jump like the one Busch is making to SHR in 2014.

Because it’s stratified much like auto racing, college sports offers an apt parallel. Brian Kelly builds a contending football program at Cincinnati, but leaves for Notre Dame. His successor, Butch Jones, keeps it going and moves on to Tennessee. Dave Doeren earns a Bowl Championship Series berth with Northern Illinois, and parlays that into a job at North Carolina State. Andy Enfield is the darling of the NCAA basketball tournament with Florida Gulf Coast, and then the head coach at Southern California. Brad Stevens seems set at Butler until the phone rings, and it’s the Boston Celtics on the other end.

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, they go. They have to. Sports careers are relatively short, and windows of opportunity relatively narrow. Opportunities must be seized upon, because there are no guarantees they will present themselves again. Besides, building from the ground up with one of the little guys is a hard, a romanticized concept that obscures just how large the gap can be between the establishment and everyone else. Cincinnati football has improved by leaps and bounds over the past decade, but it’s still not Notre Dame. Furniture Row Racing has made great strides in just two years, but it’s still not Stewart-Haas.

That much was evident again this past Saturday night, when a bad wheel hub knocked Busch out of a race at Bristol Motor Speedway that he was leading when things began to go awry. Just as a slow pit stop kept him from a chance at winning the Sprint All-Star Race when he had the best car in the event. Just as a dead battery knocked him out of the contention the next week in the Coca-Cola 600, which he was also leading when it all went wrong. If Busch fails to make the Chase, it won’t be because the driver isn’t good enough, or because the cars aren’t fast enough. It will because Furniture Row is showing obvious growing pains trying to get to the next level, and in turn emphasizing just how difficult that leap is to make.

Now, that shouldn’t detract from the progress the No. 78 bunch has made, which is substantial. But this is also a program that started up its own pit crew only this season — prior to that, it used one obtained from Stewart-Haas. No question, big teams certainly aren’t immune from the dropped lug nuts or mechanical failures that can cost a driver a race. But what we’ve seen from Furniture Row this season gives the impression of a driver who can carry a program only so far. The rest has to catch up on its own, and there are no guarantees that would happen by next season should Busch have elected to stay.

Tuesday, it was clear that the moves which brought Busch to SHR were in motion well before this past Saturday night. Although Busch signed only Monday, getting there had been a month in the making. When it came to the final decision, he credited the opportunities before him rather than the shortcomings behind.

“Nothing that happened Saturday was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he said. “We’re not going to look at one circumstance and say it affected a future plan to where you have a long‑term commitment and such an exciting opportunity that you can team up and drive cars with Tony Stewart, with Kevin Harvick. The 78 car is as good as anybody. The part that failed on Saturday night is something that you might see more in quality control if you are burning up four sets of hubs each week. Four times four would be 16. That’s what we’re going to have here next year. It’s something that slipped through the cracks. You have those part failures. Right now, since we haven’t built any cushion to have those pitfalls and still make the Chase, that’s why it makes it so significant.”

Which is exactly the point — at Furniture Row, his margin for error is smaller. Small mistakes, like a pit stop that’s a hair too long at Charlotte, loom much larger in scope. “We have to be perfect the next two weeks to make the Chase,” Busch said, while many of the teams around his simply just need to be solid. Such is the case for a team breathing such rarified air for the first time.

Of course, then you have a four-time champion in Jeff Gordon who needs to make a last stand this weekend at Atlanta, and a reigning champion in Brad Keselowski who at the moment is on the outside looking in. This isn’t easy for anyone. The difference is, we know those Hendrick and Penske programs will have next year. They’ve been there before, and will be there again. We don’t know that about Furniture Row, which won a race with Regan Smith in 2011, and then regressed. This is a better team now, no question. But in terms of contending for Chase berths, is this a one-year window that will close once Busch departs?

Those are the kind of unknowns that shouldn’t exist at SHR, where the expectations will be not to make the Chase, but to win it. Busch said he hopes he leaves the No. 78 team better than he found it, that they’ll be able to go to a track like Phoenix next season and look over setup notes they know worked the year before. Busch has likely raised standards at Furniture Row just by being there, given the expectations that race winners and champions carry with them. The team should be better for the experience, regardless of who is behind the wheel in 2014.

But Busch’s greatest gift to Furniture Row Racing will be on display over the next 12 weeks, as he tries to crash the Chase with a single-car team based in the Mountain Time Zone. Because once Busch embarks for the proven commodity of Stewart-Haas Racing, no one knows when — or even if — the No. 78 team will be back in this position again.

“We still have the present that’s right in front of us,” Busch said. “The next two weeks are the post important weeks of the 78 car’s career. If we find ourselves racing somebody heads up going into Richmond, that’s what I want to be there for, to deliver them into the Chase, and at the same time it’s the goal achieved of being in that position. … There’s no sense in giving up, then. We’ll keep plugging away and pushing. Time is now with the 78 car.”

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Posted on August 27, 2013 by

Putting his success with Furniture Row in the past, Busch now must make history with SHR

It’s understandable, then, why some might have thought he should stay. The reality is that it was never a choice to begin with.

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Posted on August 27, 2013 by

Move to SHR puts Kurt Busch on a "super team" for 2014

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — When Kurt Busch was thinking about car numbers for his debut season with Stewart-Haas Racing, his girlfriend’s eight-year-old son Houston suggested an unusual one: 360. Why?

“Because you’ve come full circle,” he said.

Leave it to a grade-schooler to drill right down to the essence of Tuesday, when the 2004 champion of NASCAR’s premier series returned to a premier organization after nearly two years in a professional wilderness. Beginning next season Busch will drive an SHR entry backed by Haas Automation, the company founded by Gene Haas — who put the deal in motion before even team co-owner Tony Stewart knew about it, and made it all happen in less than a month.

Busch joins what Haas called a “super team” for next season, one that will also feature drivers Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Danica Patrick. Although Stewart is out for the remainder of this season with a broken leg suffered in a sprint car accident, SHR is confident he will be back for 2014.

And then he’ll be joined by Busch, who won a title with Roush Fenway and was a perennial championship contender with Penske Racing before splitting from the latter organization in a spectacular fall from grace. After nearly a full season with mostly-unsponsored Phoenix Racing, and after carrying single-car Furniture Row Racing to the brink of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Busch now joins an outfit that won a title in 2011 and will feature 93 premier-series victories among its three top drivers.

Full circle, indeed.

“The opportunity is about people,” said Busch, who will finish this season with a Furniture Row organization and is currently 12th in points. “That’s what makes this so important, that I’ve neglected in the past. Understanding the people and knowing that makes the difference in whether you’re going to Victory Lane or not.”

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The deal came together in a stunningly short period of time. Haas spoke with Busch at a Chevrolet dinner at Indianapolis in late July, and was surprised to learn that the driver was working on a one-year deal at Furniture Row. SHR had shown some interest in Busch the previous year before outgoing driver Ryan Newman inked a one-year extension, but couldn’t put a deal together. That didn’t dull Haas’ interest in Busch, whose intensity and attitude he was a fan of, and whom he called “kind of a favorite of mine.”

One week later, Stewart broke two bones in his right leg in a sprint car race in Iowa, an injury which required two rounds of surgery to repair. Unable to communicate with his partner, Haas moved forward with the Busch deal on his own. When Stewart finally did find out, he urged Haas to wait.

Too late. The offer to Busch had already been extended. “If he takes it,” Haas told Stewart, “I’m not going to back down.” As a result, Stewart-Haas is expanding its shop to accommodate a fourth car — an undertaking which will require the construction of a new building next to its existing facility, which officials say can be completed by June of next year.

“I didn’t have the chance to talk to Tony about it all, since he really wasn’t really talking to anybody. So I pretty much did this on my own,” Haas said.

“Probably overstepped my authority a tick there. I’m not use to having too many authorities to work with, I’m pretty much on my own. I didn’t realize that Tony might be a little bit upset about it. And he was a little upset. At first he said, ‘Wow, we can’t really do this. This is going to be too much of a load on the team. We’re not prepared for it. We don’t have the space.’ He’s actually an astute businessman, he thought more about all these little things. ‘Where are we going to get the people? Where are the buildings going to come from? Where’s the money going to come from?’ I didn’t think about any of that. … I just thought, this would be kind of neat to have.”

Stewart, still in recovery from his injury, was unable to attend Tuesday’s announcement at the SHR facility. Team competition director Greg Zipadelli said the three-time NASCAR champion wasn’t against the idea of adding a fourth team, but was hesitant about the whether the organization could accommodate it for 2014.

“Tony was very much in favor of the fourth team,” Zipadelli said. “What Tony was against was us trying to get it done for next year. Just so you don’t read anything more into it. I had a couple weeks to process it. … Tony was in the hospital. Tony didn’t know the discussions that were going on. When we all met and talked about it and assured him we would do our best to make sure things didn’t slip through the cracks, it took him a couple days to process it. I was like, Are you kidding me? But it’s an opportunity of a lifetime for a race team to have a caliber of a driver like this. I know he’s very excited about it now. But it’s a little overwhelming when you’re first hit with it.”

Even so, it’s clear that this was all engineered by Haas, who founded the organization as Haas-CNC Racing in 2002, seven years before Stewart was added as a co-owner and helped it rise to prominence. The same opportunity wasn’t extended to Newman, Haas said, because he wanted a driver of his own choosing to represent a car with his company’s name on the hood. He added that Stewart was leery at first, but eventually came around.

“He has a lot of power. I have to admit, you know, I have some power, too,” Haas said of Stewart. “I think in a sense it’s a check‑and‑balance system where the two powers balance each other out. I have a lot of respect for Tony. He’s a great driver, past champion. Tony has a lot of respect for me. … Putting a super team together with four top drivers, what we have, I mean, that’s kind of like your Dream Team. I think initially, since it wasn’t Tony’s idea, he was taken aback a little bit by it. But I think he saw it wasn’t a bad idea. In retrospect it looks like it’s going to be a great idea. If we don’t win any races next year, hey, I’m going to look like an idiot. I take gambles, I made a decision, and I think I’m going to be proven right. I think we’re going to win a lot more races than anybody ever thought possible.”

That potential certainly seems to exist, given the job Busch has done elevating the competitive level of Furniture Row Racing. Beginning next season, Busch will be with a premier organization for the first time since his divorce with Penske, which forced the driver to take a step back and reevaluate both himself and his career in the process. Busch has not won a Sprint Cup event since his last victory with Penske, at Dover in October of 2011 — two months before it all fell apart.

“It’s easy as a 25‑year‑old to say you know everything, that you can do everything by yourself. That’s what I thought that I could do when I moved from Roush Racing to Penske back in 2006, to bring Roger his first championship. I thought I could wear all the weight on my back. That was not the case. That’s when you learn it’s about the people, team communication, how it filters through all the channels. The Penske thing, the image, all of that, it wasn’t your own identity, you were trying to be something else,” Busch said.

Racing with teams like Phoenix and Furniture Row “allowed me to stay focused on the car, to stay genuine, and to still allow myself to grow and develop into what I really am, and that is a true hard‑nosed racer that gives it their all,” Busch added. “You’ve got to let the rough edges drag sometimes. When you have a guy like Gene Haas that wants to make you part of a four‑car, super‑power team calling, you have the ability to be yourself, to work with guys that have those same edgy attitudes as yourself, that’s the journey I’ve been on over the last 18 months.”

That edgy attitude has sometimes been Busch’s downfall. But he’s clearly found a comfort level at Furniture Row, where owner and sponsor are essentially the same entity. He will work under a similar arrangement at Stewart-Haas, where Haas’ company will be on the hood of his vehicle. His new car owner clearly likes what he sees, rough edges and all.

“I know Kurt’s résumé as well as anybody,” Haas said. “I kind of like his attitude. He’s passionate about what he does. He likes to win. He’s not afraid to get in people’s faces. I think that kind of reflects my company a little bit. I think there’s a good match there. He’s a passionate person, and it takes a lot of passion to win these races.”

And given the equipment he’ll have underneath him at SHR — which gets engines and chassis from powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports — he should certainly have the chance to win more often. Busch’s car for 2014 doesn’t yet have a number, or a crew chief. But it has a rejuvenated driver, who received the call from SHR the Monday after a race, while he was gluing together pieces of a souvenir bowl he had bought on a trip to South America during an off week. He didn’t recognize the number, so he thought he’d better take the call.

On the other end was an invitation to come full circle.

“It’s a real story every driver talks about when they get a call from an owner. That’s the most exciting phone call you could ever receive,” Busch said. “There’s a thousand guys they could have called, and I’m glad they called me.”

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Posted on August 27, 2013 by

Team hires former Sprint Cup champ, will expand to four cars

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — To hear Gene Haas tell it, the idea to hire Kurt Busch for a fourth team at Stewart-Haas Racing took flight after a chance meeting at the Chevrolet dinner during the Brickyard 400 week at Indianapolis.

True, Haas had talked to Busch over lunch a year earlier, when Ryan Newman‘s status with the team was still up in the air. But after Haas learned at the Chevy dinner in late July that Busch’s contract with his current team, Furniture Row Racing, was up at the end of the 2013 season, he decided to act — and act quickly.

Not only did Haas push hard to add Busch to the Stewart-Haas roster — necessitating the creation of a fourth team with all the attendant complexities — he opted to bankroll Busch’s car through sponsorship from Haas Automation, the company he founded.

"I’m in this business to win races," Haas said Tuesday during the announcement of Busch’s hiring at the Stewart-Haas Racing shop. "I’ve talked to Kurt Busch over the years, and he’s been kind of a favorite of mine. I’ve seen his on-track performance, and I thought this was a great opportunity to pair him up with Haas Automation and for him to be the driver of my choice.

"It was an opportunity that I felt was just too great to pass up. I bent a few rules and pushed and had some conversations with Kurt, and everything started to line up, and we just needed to figure out how we were going to do this."

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For Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, the ride with Stewart-Haas marks a return to an elite team commensurate with his talent behind the wheel.

"The excitement is at an all-time high," said Busch, who will join owner/driver Tony Stewart, Danica Patrick and fellow new arrival Kevin Harvick for the 2014 season. "To be in this position, it’s amazing to have Gene Haas call you up and say, ‘Hey, let’s go do this. Let’s go try to win some races together.’

"To have the opportunity to have Stewart-Haas as the emblem on the door that I walk through each day and go to work and work on building faster race cars with all the team engineers and top mechanics, but also to work alongside Tony Stewart as a co-owner, as a driver — he sees things from the driver’s seat that I’ve been trying to explain for years to team personnel and to owners — that’s what makes his position so valuable."

Busch will finish out the season with Furniture Row, where he’s contending for a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. With two races left before the Chase field is set at Richmond International Raceway, Busch is 12th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, six points behind 10th-place Joey Logano.

"We still have the present that’s right in front of us," Busch said. "The next two weeks are the most important weeks of the 78 (Furniture Row) car’s career. If we find ourselves racing somebody heads up going into Richmond, that’s what I want to be there for, to deliver them into the Chase."

Busch’s deal with SHR firmly establishes him as NASCAR’s comeback kid. The eight-year-old son of Busch’s girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll, suggested that Busch drive car No. 360 "because you’ve come full circle."

In a sense, Busch’s one-year stint with Phoenix Racing in 2012 was prophetic, because, like the mythological bird, he has risen from the ashes, recovering from self-inflicted wounds to his own career that cost him a high-profile ride at Penske Racing.

What was even more striking about Tuesday’s press conference, however, was the emergence of Haas as a public face and as a major player in an organization where he previously had appeared content to let Stewart take the lead.

If Newman’s tenure at SHR is ending this year because of a sponsorship deficit, Haas made it clear that the creation of a new team for Busch was happening at his instigation — and with his money. After the Chevy dinner, Haas asked SHR general manager Joe Custer to approach Busch.

A week later, Stewart broke his leg in a Sprint Car accident in Iowa, one that would require two surgeries and sideline him for the rest of the 2013 season.

"I didn’t have really a chance to talk to Tony about it at all since he wasn’t really talking to anybody," Haas said. "So I kind of did this on my own, probably overstepped my authority a (bit) there. I’m not used to having too many authorities to work with. I’ve been pretty much on my own. I did realize that Tony might be a little bit upset about it. He was, he was a little upset.

"At first he said, ‘Oh, wow, we can’t really do this because this is going to be too much of a load on the team. We’re not prepared for it. We don’t have the space’"

By the time Haas got a chance to talk to Stewart in depth, he’d already made Busch an offer.

"When I finally did talk to (Stewart), he was saying, ‘Maybe we should wait a little while,’" Haas said. "I think he actually said, ‘You need to wait a while.’ I kind of made an offer to Kurt here, I don’t know if he’s going to take it or not, and if he takes it, I’m not backing down. That’s where we were.

"About a week later, Tony said, ‘Okay, all right.’ What are you going to do? Don’t have much choice. It’s a series of events. Chance meeting Kurt at the General Motors dinner, Tony being incapacitated where I couldn’t talk to him. I wanted to do something. I stepped up and said I would fund it.

"It’s very difficult to find a sponsor in less than 24 hours. So we did that, too. We did a lot of stuff. That’s why we’re here today."

In the press release announcing the move, Stewart was quoted as saying, “I’ve had a tremendous amount of respect for Kurt’s talent and determination for as long as he’s been racing in the Sprint Cup Series. Kurt is extremely knowledgeable, and his input will make all of Stewart-Haas Racing better.

“When Gene Haas laid out his plans for what he wanted to do in regard to this race team’s future, which included bringing Kurt on board in a fourth car, it was impressive. You can’t stand still in this business. You have to constantly improve. Gene’s investment in this race team ensures the success of Stewart-Haas Racing for many years to come.”

SHR will expand its physical plant with a new building on 30 acres the organization already owns. It will be competition director Greg Zipadelli’s task to oversee the new car builds — and to try to find a balance among four extremely competitive drivers.

"We built a rubber room upstairs — that’s the first thing we did," Zipadelli quipped. "When you have four passionate drivers, I would much rather deal with that than to try to figure out how to get them going. You’re born with that. The competitiveness that these guys have, that’s what you need in this sport."

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Posted on August 27, 2013 by

Kurt Busch drops five spots; Johnson, Kenseth tie for first place, tie-breaker goes to Five-Time for earning three first-place votes to Kenseth’s two

1. Jimmie Johnson

Outlook: The table was set for Johnson to bounce back from a poor Michigan showing, and then David Reutimann had to go and ruin everything. Now that his points lead stands at a very vulnerable 18 points, he can still take comfort in the fact he is in the Chase no matter what.
Related Video: Johnson post-race reaction
Standings: 1st, 821 points.

2. Matt Kenseth

Outlook: And just like that, Kenseth is your new leader in 2013 wins after landing in Victory Lane at Bristol. After holding off Kasey Kahne in the waning laps of the Irwin Tools Night Race on Saturday, Kenseth has positioned himself in a favorable spot, despite being sixth in the standings.
Related Video: Kenseth victory news conference
Standings: 6th, 736 points.

3. Clint Bowyer

Outlook: Sure, he clinched a Chase spot, but that wasn’t enough for Bowyer. Last season’s runner-up had a legitimate shot at bringing Jimmie Johnson’s points lead to single-digits before being spun while in the lead.
Standings: 2nd, 803 points.

4. Kyle Busch

Outlook: There was no shortage of drama for Busch this weekend, as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver came super close to earning his second Bristol sweep. There was the spin at the finish in the Truck Series race. Then he crashed in Sprint Cup qualifying. Then there was Busch winning yet another Nationwide race in perfect fashion. Then he made contact with Joey Logano and still finished 11th. No sweep, but impressive nonetheless.
Standings: 5th, 739 points.

5. Kasey Kahne

Outlook: Whether you’re on the side of the fence that believes Kahne should have been more aggressive as he barreled down on Matt Kenseth in the final laps, you have to give him some credit. We could be witnessing Kahne’s most consistent season as a Cup driver, as he’s on pace to notch the most top-five finishes in a single season in his career — and this, without earning a single pole all year.
Related video: Kahne post-race reaction
Standings: 8th, 701 points.

6. Kevin Harvick

Outlook: While his mix-up with Denny Hamlin certainly could have gotten much, much uglier, Harvick’s time at Bristol wasn’t at all pleasant. His 34th-place finish kept him in fourth place, though the time is nigh for when he’s finally able to leapfrog Carl Edwards.
Standings: 4th, 760 points.

7. Carl Edwards

Outlook: Losing an engine at Bristol couldn’t have come at a worse time for Edwards. Sitting in third place he doesn’t need to sweat just yet, but the fact that the three drivers directly behind him in the standings have 10 combined wins has to be on his mind.
Standings: 3rd, 768 points.

8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Outlook: Last week Earnhardt alluded to being worried about missing the Chase, but then went out and had a pretty nice Bristol race, even leading for a bit. Still, his points cushion in the Race for the Chase is almost gone.
Standings: 7th, 714 points.

9. Joey Logano

Outlook: Following his fifth top-10 finish in a row, Logano enjoyed another jump in the standings, this time for a total of three spots to vault into the top 10 and out of Wild Card territory.
Standings: 10th, 685 points.

10. Kurt Busch

Outlook: Sure, he dropped five spots here and tumbled out of his Chase spot at Bristol, but something tells me Busch woke up Tuesday morning feeling like a million bucks. With his 2014 fate about to be tied to Stewart-Haas Racing contract, he can focus on the big picture — and right now, that’s competing for his second championship.
Related video: Up to Speed: Busch joins SHR in 2014
Standings: 12th, 679 points.

11. Greg Biffle

Outlook: Despite being in ninth place and close to that Wild Card window, Biffle’s Chase chances are looking pretty good. With a 35-point lead over first Wild Card holder Martin Truex Jr., if he can avoid major wreckage these last two races, the Roush Fenway Racing driver should be a lock to make it into the Chase.
Standings: 9th, 698 points.

12. Brad Keselowski

Outlook: Keselowski missed out on a great opportunity to earn his first win of the season at one of his better tracks, an opportunity that he couldn’t really afford to squander. But to be fair, it’s probably time we retire the “#BlameJJ” hashtag and work on making “BlameReutimann” a thing.
Standings: 11th, 681 points.

13. Jeff Gordon

Outlook: Much like Keselowski, Gordon was counting on Bristol to be a spot to earn his first victory and failed to do so, but at least his seventh-place finish netted him 37 total points. He’s still within reach of a top-10 Chase spot (11 points behind 10th-place Joey Logano), which is becoming more and more likely to be his only way in.
Standings: 13th, 674 points.

14. Martin Truex Jr.

Outlook: If it weren’t for Truex’s Sonoma victory back in June, he’d likely be muddled in with the Jamie McMurrays and Paul Menards of the roster (at least in terms of points). Instead, the Michael Waltrip Racing driver is holding on strong in 14th place with a Chase spot in sights. Basically, as long as Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch or Jeff Gordon don’t see Victory Lane at Atlanta or Richmond, he’s in.
Related video: Truex Jr. on Childers to SHR
Standings: 14th, 663 points.

15. Ryan Newman

Outlook: Newman has certainly seen his share of whirlwind drama and confusion this season, but it has to feel pretty good knowing that despite the winless Kurt Busch likely inhabiting his old stomping grounds in 2014 while his own future is uncertain, at least he’s won a race and holds onto a Chase spot. For now, at least.
Standings: 15th, 659 points.

16. Jamie McMurray

Outlook: The door is still at least cracked open for McMurray’s Chase hopes, though there’s hardly any shot of him making it without a victory. With no top-five finishes and just seven top-10s in 40 combined races at Atlanta and Richmond, that door may as well be closed, locked and dead-bolted.
Standings: 16th, 647 points.

17. Juan Pablo Montoya

Outlook: Give Montoya a hand. After learning that his 2014 Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing ride would no longer have his name on it, he could have easily just mailed in the rest of the season and set sail into the sunset, but he’s doing the exact opposite.
Standings: 21st, 590 points.

18. Paul Menard

Outlook: Menard had led five laps all season heading into Bristol, so naturally he came out and led 64 more of them at the World’s Fastest Half-Mile. Still, even that wasn’t good enough to pick up his second top-five finish this year, placing sixth.
Standings: 17th, 638 points.

19. Aric Almirola

Outlook: Apart from Jeff Gordon’s five, Aric Almirola’s four DNFs are the most among the top-20. He certainly hasn’t lit the world on fire when he has finished races — placing in the top-10 just five times — but it’s interesting to think about where he’d be even if, say, two of those races were completed.
Standings: 20th, 561 points.

20. Marcos Ambrose

Outlook: Ambrose has finished in the top 20 four out of the past five races, with two of them resulting in top 10s. The only race he failed to do so in was at Watkins Glen, easily his best track. Had he won there, he still wouldn’t have been holding onto a Chase spot, but he’d at least be in the conversation.
Standings: 22nd, 590 points.

In the rearview

Note: These rankings have been determined by a poll that included writers Kenny Bruce, Holly Cain, David Caraviello and Zack Albert, and video host Alan Cavanna.

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Posted on August 27, 2013 by Staff Report

MRI confirms Martin Truex Jr. suffered scaphoid fracture of wrist

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Martin Truex Jr. will pursue a berth in NASCAR’s postseason wearing a cast for the indefinite future after suffering a fractured and sprained wrist in last Saturday night’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Doctors confirmed the broken scaphoid bone in his right wrist Monday and fitted Truex with a cast Tuesday, Michael Waltrip Racing said in a team release. The team said Truex, who will be better able to grab the steering wheel with his specially made cast, worked closely with NASCAR officials and has been cleared to compete in Sunday night’s AdvoCare 500 (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The team said it has not determined whether Truex will need a relief driver in Sunday’s race.

Truex ranks 14th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings, and he currently holds one of two provisional Wild-Card berths in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoff field. His victory at Sonoma Raceway in June snapped a 218-race losing streak and gave him a leg up on his postseason rivals. Just two races remain before the 12-driver field of championship-eligible drivers is locked for the final 10-race stretch.

Truex was injured in a multicar crash on Lap 448 of the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol after heavy impact with the outside retaining wall. He gingerly exited his battered No. 56 Toyota and was treated and released at the Tennessee track’s infield care center.

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Posted on August 27, 2013 by Staff Report

With Montoya leaving EGR after this season, speculation for the replacement has swirled

Juan Pablo Montoya’s future in NASCAR may be in limbo, but the status of the team he’s departing will be known soon enough.

Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates has scheduled a news conference Friday afternoon at Atlanta Motor Speedway to announce the driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2014. Online users can watch the news conference live starting at 2:35 p.m. ET at NASCAR.com/presspass.

EGR announced Aug. 13 that Montoya, a former Indianapolis 500 winner and Formula One driver, would be leaving the No. 42 team at year’s end. The 37-year-old Colombian driver is currently in his seventh full season with team owner Chip Ganassi, netting two Sprint Cup victories — both on road courses — over that span.

Montoya currently ranks 21st in the Sprint Cup standings with four top-five finishes. Twice this season, Montoya has been leading with 10 laps remaining only to come up short. He pitted out of the lead in April at Richmond during a late caution with four laps left in regulation, and was passed by Tony Stewart at Dover in June with three laps remaining.

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Speculation has swirled around possible replacement drivers for the Earnhardt Ganassi seat. Candidates include Ryan Newman, out at the end of the season at Stewart-Haas Racing, and 21-year-old prodigy Kyle Larson, currently under contract to EGR as a developmental driver full time for Turner Scott Motorsports in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

Sabates, the team’s founder and now a minority partner, said Aug. 13 when the move was announced that it was time to make a change. He also told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that several potential replacements were in the mix.

"There’s a lot of options out there," Sabates told the satellite radio station. "There’s just not one person, and we’re going to keep all our options open. That’s the truth. We don’t know ourselves what we’re going to do. You’ve got several drivers out there, good drivers, that (will) be available that would fit our organization. Kyle Larson is one of the prospects, but he’s one of several."

You can watch a live stream of Earnhardt Ganassi Racing’s announcement at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday at 2:35 p.m. ET.

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Posted on August 27, 2013 by Nascar

Combining Stewart, Harvick and Busch could be a recipe for disaster or a winning idea

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – What do you get when you put three tempestuous drivers who haven’t always seen eye-to-eye on the same NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team?

Is it a recipe for success or an impending disaster? Can three firebrands peacefully co-exist under the same roof while seeking to beat each other – and everyone else – on the race track each week?

Fans of Stewart-Haas Racing, along with the rest of the NASCAR world, will find out in 2014 when Kevin Harvick and now Kurt Busch join co-owner/driver Tony Stewart at SHR.

Busch was officially introduced as the newest Sprint Cup addition, a move that will expand the three-team Cup outfit by one. SHR currently fields entries for Stewart (on the mend from a broken right leg), Ryan Newman (on the way out) and rookie of the year candidate Danica Patrick.

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From a competitive standpoint, there’s little doubt that Stewart, Harvick and Busch are among the most talented drivers in the series today. Stewart’s a three-time Cup champion with 48 career wins; Busch won the Cup title in 2004 and has 24 victories; Harvick, with 21 career wins, has yet to win a championship but he has contended for the title – finishing third in 2010 and ’11. He is currently fourth in this year’s points battle.

It’s also true that the three have had their issues on the race track – with one another as well as theirfellow competitors.

Nearly every driver in the garage has had an issue with a competitor at one time or another. It’s simply the nature of a business that involves high speeds and higher expectations.

Every driver isn’t competing for the same team, however.

But there are no lingering concerns with his soon-to-be teammates, Busch said Tuesday at Stewart-Haas Racing.

“I got a bunch of phones calls the last couple of weeks … and the last one before I came in here today was (from) Kevin Harvick,” Busch said. “Ten years ago, we weren’t in a place in our careers to do this. We’ve had different roads we’ve been on, but at the same time they’ve paralleled one another.… I think we’re in a great spot in our careers now to join another fierce competitor such as Tony and look up to Tony as a co-owner … to know that our spot here is to build these four cars together and make them as fast as we can.”

Co-owner Gene Haas, who brokered the deal to bring Busch in-house (the 2004 champ currently drives for the Denver, Colo.-based Furniture Row Racing), said he had no qualms about Busch’s fiery demeanor on the track. It was, he said, a plus instead of a negative.

Busch was released from Penske Racing following an obscenity-laced tirade with ESPN reporter Dr. Jerry Punch at Homestead-Miami Speedway at the end of the 2011 season.

Last year he was suspended for one race for threatening remarks he made to a reporter on pit road.

“I know Kurt’s resumé as well as anybody and I kind of like his attitude,” Haas said. “He’s passionate about what he does and he likes to win. He’s not afraid to get in people’s faces. I think that kind of reflects my company a little bit. I think there’s a good match there. He’s a passionate person and it takes a lot of passion to win these races.

“The fact that he runs into his friends at 200 mph once in a while and he has a few tough words with them, they all do that. So I don’t have any problems with that either, because at the end of the day, they all seem to get along and they’re always there at the next race.”

The organization certainly has the potential for success, but potential and reality haven’t had a chance to get acquainted just yet at SHR.

There will be growing pains – the addition of a fourth team will require more floor space, more personnel and an influx of finances. Haas, whose Haas Automation builds cutting-edge machining equipment, says the financials won’t be an issue.

Greg Zipadelli, SHR’s competition director, said expansion of the complex – which currently contains 140,00 square feet – could be completed by mid-season of 2014. Concerning personnel, he said he’s been flooded with resumes since word of the fourth team broke.

But how best to deal with his potentially volatile driver lineup going forward?

“We built a rubber room upstairs, that’s the first thing we did,” Zipadelli said.

“When you have four passionate drivers, I would much rather deal with that than to try to figure out how to get them going. You’re born with that. The competitiveness that these guys have, that’s what you need in this sport. We’ll deal with what comes our way on a weekly basis and we’ll continue to race. It’s as simple as that. I think what makes this unique is there’s three guys and Danica that all had their days. I think they can all help each other."

“At least that’s the theory I’m going with.”

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Posted on August 26, 2013 by

With crew chief headed to Stewart-Haas, 55 team adjusts personnel

With crew chief Rodney Childers headed to Stewart-Haas Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing has turned to Scott Miller to oversee its No. 55 car.

Miller, a former race-wining crew chief and currently MWR’s executive vice president for competition, will oversee the No. 55 entry beginning this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the team announced Monday. Childers, who next year will work with Kevin Harvick at SHR, spent his last day at the MWR shop Monday. He remains under contract with MWR through Dec. 31.

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MWR added that Billy Scott, a race engineer with the organization who has worked exclusively with the No. 55 team the past two seasons, will take an elevated role in car setup and race weekend preparations.

Childers had been with MWR since 2009, winning three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races with the organization — two with David Reutimann and one earlier this season at New Hampshire with Brian Vickers. The 37-year-old native of Mooresville, N.C., will team with Harvick next season as part of a four-car organization that will also include Tony Stewart, Danica Patrick and Kurt Busch.

For the past two seasons Childers has overseen a No. 55 car split between Vickers, Waltrip and Mark Martin — who drove the bulk of the season before leaving last week to finish the year in the No. 14 of Stewart, out for the rest of the year due to a broken right leg suffered in a sprint car crash. The No. 55 stood 19th in Sprint Cup owners’ points following Vickers’ fourth-place run Saturday night at Bristol, which proved Childers’ final event with the team.

SHR declined to comment Monday on any pending personnel moves. The team has an announcement scheduled Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET at its Kannapolis, N.C., headquarters, where its expansion plans will be made public.

Miller won seven Sprint Cup events as a crew chief, six of them with Richard Childress Racing, before departing for MWR at the end of the 2011 season. Vickers, who is moving full-time into the No. 55 next year, will pilot the vehicle in every remaining race this season except for Talladega, where Waltrip will be behind the wheel.

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Posted on August 26, 2013 by

Formal announcement to come Tuesday; SHR will run four cars in 2014

Kurt Busch is back.

The 2004 champion of NASCAR’s top series is returning to a premier organization, this time with a Stewart-Haas Racing team that won the 2011 championship with driver and co-owner Tony Stewart. SHR has called an announcement for Tuesday afternoon at the team’s Kannapolis, N.C., headquarters to unveil the driver who will join Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Danica Patrick beginning in 2014.

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A 24-time race winner, Busch currently has single-car Furniture Row Racing in contention for a berth to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. That bid took a blow Saturday night in Bristol, Tenn., when a bad wheel hub knocked the Denver-based organization outside the top 10 in points. It was the latest in a series of miscues that have hampered the No. 78 team’s quest for a first playoff bid.

SHR’s pursuit of Busch has come to light in the past two weeks, and is being spearheaded by co-owner Gene Haas, who founded the organization before Stewart was brought on board. Haas will appear at SHR’s announcement at 2 p.m. ET Tuesday, along with team competition director Greg Zipadelli.

Last week at Bristol, Zipadelli made no secret that the team wanted Busch in a fourth car, even though a month earlier the organization had chosen not to retain current driver Ryan Newman for the 2014 season.

“Gene is obviously a partner who started this many years ago. He’s always liked Kurt. We talked about Kurt last year, putting him in the 39 (car), and things just didn’t work out,” Zipadelli said at Bristol. “It’s really nothing that Ryan did wrong. He’s done a great job, he’s a good guy, heck of a driver. This just kind of got sprung on us 14 days ago or less, this kind of all came down.”

Busch isn’t the only major addition on SHR’s radar. The team is also bringing in crew chief Rodney Childers to oversee Harvick’s team beginning next season. Childers has won three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races with Michael Waltrip Racing, most recently last month with Brian Vickers. Monday was Childers’ last day with MWR, although he’ll remain under contract with the team through Dec. 31. MWR’s vice president for competition, Scott Miller, will oversee the No. 55 for the remainder of this season.

There was no formal confirmation of any signings Monday by SHR, which deferred all questions to Tuesday’s announcement.

Joining SHR caps a career comeback for Busch, who was thrust into professional wilderness after the 2011 season when he split from Penske Racing. After nearly a full season of racing with cash-strapped Phoenix Racing — with which he nearly won at the road course in Sonoma, Calif. — the Las Vegas native joined Furniture Row Racing, who he’s carried into Chase contention. The team is currently 12th in points, but fifth in Wild Card standings because Busch does not have a victory on the season.

That quest for a first victory with Furniture Row — and Busch’s first victory since October of 2011 with Penske — has been hampered by issues beyond the driver’s control. A slow pit stop kept Busch from winning the Sprint All-Star exhibition, and a week later he suffered a dead battery while leading the Coca-Coca 600. Saturday at Bristol, he was again leading the race when he suffered what at first appeared to be a loose wheel, and turned out to be a bad wheel hub.

Beginning next season, Busch returns to a level where he should be able to contend for race wins and championships with more regularity. SHR has won 19 times since Stewart became part-owner of the organization prior to the 2009 season, including one each this year by Stewart and Newman. Three-time NASCAR champion Stewart is out for the remainder of this season with a broken leg suffered in a sprint car crash.

The hottest property on NASCAR’s free-agent market, Busch had no shortage of options for 2014. The driver had spoken with officials at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing about the No. 42 car which will become open when Juan Pablo Montoya parts ways with that organization after this season, and Furniture Row had hoped to retain Busch for next year.

“It was always our intention to extend Kurt’s contract with Furniture Row Racing," the organization announced in a press release. "We made him an offer last week to to continue as the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet in 2014 and beyond. Though he did not accept our offer we respect his decision and wish him future success. His driving skill and being a dedicated team player will always be appreciated at Furniture Row Racing. But for right now the main focus for Kurt and the team is to qualify for the Chase and contend for the 2013 Sprint Cup Series championship.

Furniture Row Racing’s technical and engineering programs along with a talented road crew have made great strides this season, which have been evident with the consistently fast race cars that we have brought to the track week in and week out. We, along with our technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing, are deeply committed to continuing the work in progress. We are currently in a search process for a new driver in 2014, one who shares the same commitment and winning attitude that we all do at Furniture Row Racing.”

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