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Richard Childress Racing driver survives with Nationwide points lead, but his pursuers gain ground

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WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Considering all the obstacles he overcame in Saturday’s Zippo 200 at The Glen, Austin Dillon will take his 12th-place finish and three-point championship lead and high tail it to next week’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race in Ohio. Thank you very much.

Dillon’s No. 3 AdvoCare Chevy fought a fuel cell problem all day and had to dodge a close call racing for position midway through the event on the winding 2.45-mile road course through the scenic Western New York countryside.

So after a short post-race debrief with his team, Dillon emerged from the Richard Childress Racing team hauler wearing his signature cowboy hat, breathing a sigh of relief, and feeling like perhaps he got away with one.

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Meanwhile, his closest challengers in the Nationwide Series standings were standing by their cars on pit road. Four of the top-five finishers Saturday are ranked among the top-five in the championship, and only 18 points now separate Dillon and fifth-place Brian Vickers, who finished third Saturday.

Saturday’s runner-up, Sam Hornish Jr., nearly erased Dillon’s 14-point lead heading into the race and is now second in points, three back. Fourth-place finisher Regan Smith is now ranked third, only five points behind Dillon.  And Elliott Sadler, who finished fifth, remains fourth in the championship but now trails by only 12 points instead of the 19 points he trailed before Saturday.

“Our goal was 10th, we finished 12th, two positions out of that,’’ Dillon said. “Last year we ran 23rd here or something crazy like that and were 30 points out of the lead. Now we’re three points in the lead so I’m happy with it.

“Other than the fact we had a problem with our fuel cell we could have finished 10th, we lost a lot of time with that.

“We’ll go to Mid-Ohio and figure out what’s wrong with our fuel cell and we’ll be fine. I think (that track) is a more level playing field.’’

It’s been a high-pressure, rising-stakes kind of season for these title contenders — an honest and gritty championship battle not just for the rankings but also for the race wins, week-in and week-out.

You could see it on their faces as the drivers climbed out of their cars Saturday afternoon. A quick glance at the car behind and in front testified to the closeness of this competition. No one is running away with anything.

There have been three different points leaders in the last five weeks alone.

“It’s as tight as it’s going to get,’’ said Smith, who sat atop the standings only three weeks ago. “And if you ask any of us, we anticipate it being this way right to the end. Every position is going to matter.’’

No one disagreed.
“Look at everybody the way they are running, four of the top-five guys today are running for the championship,’’ said Sadler, who has only two finishes worse than ninth in the last three months in his No. 11 OneMain Financial Toyota.

“It’s good race car drivers, great race teams, pit crews. … and it’s going to be a heckuva championship battle all the way to Homestead.  I don’t really see anyone pulling away from anyone else because we’re going to different tracks that are stronger for different people and I think it’s all going to even itself off by the time we get to Homestead.’’

The series heads for its debut on the historic Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course next week. And Hornish, who led the points for eight weeks — including the first seven — says he’s still not quite of the mindset to take crazy chances for big points gains. He fully expects it to be close-quarter racing from here on out.

“I think you take the chances when you’ve got the car to do it,’’ said Hornish, driver of the No. 12 Penske Truck Rental Ford. “Today, I felt like this was a great opportunity for me to get a couple extra points and try to get the win, so I pushed hard to try to make it happen.

“But it’s really about. … minimizing your bad days. That’s really been our Achilles’ heel this year. We haven’t had any mediocre ones (races). They’ve either been really good or really bad. Our bad days need to be a 15th-place finish and not a 35th.’’

For Dillon, still looking for his first Nationwide victory in 2013 despite having won won a series-best six poles, consistency and tempered strategy seem to be working.

And he said Saturday he’s feeling better about his chances with each week. If only the others didn’t feel the same.

“Our motto this whole time is these two road races can lose us the championship, but they can’t win us the championship,’’ Dillon said.

“Next weekend we’ll have a more level playing field and we have speed at these other ovals we’re going to and those are the ones that will decide if we win the championship.

“It’s good. It’s tough competition and we’ll separate the men from the boys here shortly. We’re getting close to the end of this thing and we’ll see how we do.’’

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Danica Patrick: ‘Nobody at the team is mad or upset.’ A.J. Foyt: ‘He ain’t no prima donna and life is short…’

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Tony Stewart’s injury while racing a sprint car last Monday has incited a lot of debate on whether NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers should risk injury by moonlighting in other series — particularly when, like Stewart, they are also a team owner.

But none other than five-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson was quick to lead a strong and substantial defense of Stewart’s extracurricular activity on Friday, vehemently objecting to criticism of Stewart, who is still hospitalized with a badly broken leg and will see his consecutive Sprint Cup Series consecutive start mark end on Sunday at 521 races.

“I know that Tony is feeling bad about being injured and the effect that it has on his Cup team,’’ Johnson said Friday. “It’s crazy to think he won’t be a player in the Chase.

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“But you know, I look at the coverage and opinions that are flying around, and it’s troubled me some to see people giving him a hard time about his decisions to race other vehicles.

“We always praise him for his contributions to the motorsports world and his ability to drive and race anything and to own all these different types of vehicles. And then you look at the race tracks that he owns and his involvement with.

“The guy has done so much for our sport and of course we don’t want to see him injured, but I’ve been disappointed that people have given him a hard time over it.’’

Johnson wasn’t alone in his feelings. Drivers from Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon to his own teammates, Ryan Newman and Danica Patrick, voiced support for Stewart’s barnstorming around the country.

But it was perhaps racing legend A.J. Foyt who summed up the general feeling best.

“He ain’t no prima donna and life is short, and we don’t know how we are going to die or what’s going to happen,” Foyt told the Los Angeles Times. “I just hate to see anybody badmouth Tony for anything he’s doing."

Stewart had originally scheduled 70 sprint car races in addition to his Cup schedule, giving him well over 100 starts on the calendar year — a source of pride for Stewart, who has long maintained that his racing between Cup weekends is his version of golf, his get-away hobby, his guilty pleasure.

He isn’t married, has no children and because of that, has always insisted the free time those circumstances afford him allow him to race until his heart is content — or at least more than so many of his Cup competitors who have families or drive for team owners/sponsors that frown on the extra racing.

“I think Tony ought to do what he wants to do,’’ Earnhardt said. “I think if he wants to race everywhere every night of the week, that’s what he wants to do and that’s what makes him happy.

“He understands the risks and the situations that can happen, and it was worth it to put in that kind of effort and go do it. I know he’s upset that he feels like he’s let his team down, and that’s nothing you can do to make him change his mind about that because he understands that his top priority is his Cup program, especially being an owner.

“He wears a lot of hats and he wears them really well, and he’s such an asset to the sport as a driver and to come in as an owner and do the things that he’s done and have the success he’s had. He’s become even more important to the sport.’’

Earnhardt’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Gordon was equally adamant. Like several others, the four-time Cup champ feels that what’s been good for Stewart has been good for NASCAR. The exposure and attention Stewart generates every week in far-flung regions of the country only helps the sport’s popularity.

If anything, Gordon said he thinks Stewart’s accident Monday night in Iowa may draw attention to sprint car safety.

“When the conversation is on the flip side about who is a real racer in this garage area, who’s got the most talent, who’s out there doing the most for motorsports, then Tony Stewart rises to the top of that list of the great things he’s doing,’’ Gordon said. “Then as soon as he gets injured then you say, ‘Oh boy, maybe he shouldn’t have been doing that?’

“For me, I say that’s Tony, and I tell him all the time when he goes and runs the sprint car and wins or is competitive, I’m like, ‘Man, that’s awesome and that’s unbelievable.’

“That’s because I couldn’t do that and I don’t choose to do that because of different things that are happening in my life and the choice that I made, but I applaud him and definitely support him in that effort.’’

Another source of support — and for Stewart, perhaps the most important — has come from his teammates and his Stewart-Haas Racing team.

SHR Director of Competition Greg Zipadelli said Friday that Stewart felt as if he’d let his team down. But his teammates Newman and Patrick couldn’t disagree more.

“Obviously you get a lot of people on both sides of the fence about the safety of sprint car racing, but I said, ‘bleep happens,’ it just does,’’ Patrick said. “Nobody at the team is mad or upset. We feel bad for him. We all want him around. At the end of the day, the most important people are the people around you. None of us are mad whatsoever; we just feel bad for him.’’

Newman found out about the accident about 2 a.m. ET Tuesday morning — a phone call from Iowa asking for use of the Newman’s plane. He’s been in contact with Stewart and assures, “He sounds fine to me. Same ol’ Tony with the way he texted me.

“I think he knows what he has ahead of him. He’s no fool.”

Obviously, with Stewart sidelined indefinitely and the rookie Patrick ranked 27th, Newman becomes the organization’s only shot at making the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. He’s currently 15th in the standings, coming off a huge win at Indianapolis two weeks ago and sits only 24 points out of 10th place — the final guaranteed Chase berth.

And even with the impact it makes on the organization having potentially only one car in the Chase instead of two (Stewart holds one of the Wild Card positions entering the weekend), Newman doesn’t fault his friend and team owner one bit for passionately pursuing his hobby. Quite the contrary.

“Tony Stewart is Tony Stewart, and he can lead his own life,’’ Newman said. “He has the talent that he can do what he wants. And everything in life has a byproduct if it doesn’t go right. There’s nothing to say his airplane wouldn’t have a malfunction on the way to Iowa before he even races a sprint car.

“The people that chime in like that (criticizing Stewart) are the people that never get off the couch, sitting there eating bonbons and watching (Jerry) Springer all day.’’

“He’s actually got a pretty good track record for all the laps he’s run and not having the injuries. His last injury that sidelined him I believe was in an IndyCar 15 years ago before his Cup career.’’

For all the Monday morning quarterbacking about the situation, it was abundantly clear in the Sprint Cup garage this weekend that the NASCAR community considers the benefits and rewards of Tony Stewart being Tony Stewart far outweigh the risks.

“When we talk about personalities and how that drives the sport, he’s definitely (at) the top of the list as one of the more important ones and the more influential ones that drive the needle,’’ Earnhardt said. “I think that he’s got to do what makes him happy and that’s why you like him. That’s where the appeal is with Tony. I think he is a racer’s racer.

“He’s leveraged his life to where he can make those kinds of decisions and be able to enjoy that part of it.

“I think more power to him.’’

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Earnhardt Jr. would support move, if offered; Larson also open to seat

Related: Full Tony Stewart coverage | Video of wreck | Watkins Glen practice results

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — While Stewart-Haas Racing Director of Competition Greg Zipadelli didn’t offer to name names or project duration, he did make it clear Friday at Watkins Glen International that there is a short list of drivers to consider for Tony Stewart’s prized No. 14 Chevrolet while the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion recovers from a broken right leg.

NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers Regan Smith and rookie Kyle Larson are widely speculated to top the team’s wish list. And there is a lot of speculation.

Scheduling may be a challenge if SHR opts to go with a Nationwide regular, however. That series races at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course next Saturday while the Cup series is in Michigan. The other conflict is next month. Nationwide races at Kentucky on Sept. 21 and the Cup Series is in New Hampshire for a Sept. 22 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup date.

There is still no timeline on how long Stewart will be sidelined. He remains hospitalized in North Carolina recovering from a second surgery on his broken right leg. Road racing ace Max Papis is in the famed No. 14 Chevy this week, but Zipadelli said the team would like to name a more permanent replacement even as soon as Monday.

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“We would love to put somebody in the car until Tony comes back,’’ Zipadelli explained Friday, stating his preference to find one driver instead of rotating several. “The problem we are faced with next week is if you look at the schedules and you lay out the Nationwide schedule at Mid-Ohio and us in Michigan, they don’t match up very well.  Somebody would do two half-assed jobs; or we can try and find somebody that is out of the norm and put them in the car and try to go to Michigan and do the best we can. 

“Then hopefully maybe Bristol we could pick up with one person that maybe able to do the rest of it and obviously it would be a Nationwide driver. There are a couple of really good people that we have talked to. There are an awful lot of people that have reached out and obviously a lot of people would love to get in that car. 

“Right now we are taking it slow; we spent a lot of time on this week. Obviously we had a lot of stuff with our sponsors and we are trying to keep them as involved as we can. They are very important partners to Stewart-Haas and our future. We are trying to weed out, give them some options and get their input. Just try and do everything in the right way.”

Smith, who spent seven years at the Cup level including four full-time, has won once in 171 Cup starts and has made no bones about his desire to return to the Cup level.

And his biggest supporter in that quest just may be his current boss in the Nationwide Series, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who said Friday he thought Smith would be a great fit for the 14-seat.

“I’d be the first to put Regan’s name in the hat for that kind of opportunity,’’ Earnhardt said Friday. “I understand that we are racing for a championship and I think that could actually help Regan understand. It would be a challenge, but I think it could help him on some ways and be an advantage to him maybe to have the extra track time and just be able to have some other ideas in his head about what can improve his car.

“I would be for that and it would also give him an opportunity to showcase himself and give himself possibly a chance to get some interest on the Cup side as far as ownership goes and get some guys maybe wanting to put him back in the car full time on this side of the deal. That would be good for him.’’

Smith — who has a pair of wins in Nationwide this season and currently sits second in the championship standings — said he has had no discussions with SHR, but was grateful for Earnhardt’s recommendation. Coincidentally, Smith filled in for Earnhardt for two races in 2013 when Earnhardt was sidelined following a concussion.

“Certainly I appreciate Dale saying that, you know, that means a lot to me and you know, it’s a situation where I think any driver would relish that opportunity,” Smith said. “It’s just unfortunate under the circumstances. I don’t think any of us — and unfortunately I had experience with this last year — none of us ever wish to get an opportunity because our competitors have an issue or get injured, and you know, first and foremost we’re thinking about Tony and him getting better as soon as he can and his safety and health.

“But outside of that it’s going to be a great opportunity for somebody to hop into a fast race car and get a chance to showcase themselves and you know, I certainly would be open to the possibilities of that.

“I haven’t even looked at the schedule for Mid-Ohio and Michigan personally, so I couldn’t even tell you how they line up. I didn’t figure they would, I know we got a lot of practice time at mid-Ohio so, you know, you just cross that bridge whenever it comes time and you know, you see how things line up.”

Larson, who is competing in sprint car racing’s marquee Knoxville Nationals this weekend in addition to his Nationwide duties, was similarly enthusiastic about the opportunity to drive Stewart’s car.

He actually finished second in the same race the veteran was injured in earlier this week. But like Smith, he said he personally had not had any talks with SHR.

"It would definitely be a great opportunity for me, but obviously not the opportunity you’d want to get with Tony getting injured,” Larson said Saturday morning. "But if that came up, it would be great. I’d get experience in a Cup car and that’s the main thing.

"I just hope Tony has a speedy recovery and comes back racing with us all.”

Asked directly about Larson, Zipadelli said he was open-minded in the search but seemed a bit cautious about having the 21-year old Nationwide rookie take on too much too soon.

“Kyle Larson is obviously an awesome race car driver. I think we are only seeing the beginnings of what he has to offer to the sport,’’ Zipadelli said when asked directly about Larson. “I think he is at a really crucial spot in his career of learning everything he can and not getting ‘fed to the wolves’ too soon would you say. 

“I think I would prefer to put from this point on put one person in that we felt was capable of doing a good solid job and trying to build some chemistry with the crew and the crew chief. There are a lot of those little details that make up for a good day on Sunday.”

As Smith cautioned, there are a lot of moving parts and even more speculation right now, but clearly anyone would consider the opportunity to fill-in for Stewart too good to pass up.

“I think it’s a lot of hypotheticals right now, you know,” Smith said. “I don’t know what the folks at Stewart-Haas are having to work around and things like that so I can’t speak to any of that, other than the fact that I know that it’s a situation where they’re concerned about their driver and getting him healthy.

“So short of just simply stating the obvious that it’s a fast race car and whoever gets that opportunity is obviously going to get a chance to showcase their ability and you know, that does not happen every day in our sport, that seats of that quality open up for whatever reason it may be.”

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Aussie will start first in bid for threepeat on N.Y. course

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Marcos Ambrose won the Coors Light Pole Award in Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying with a track-record lap of 128.241 mph at Watkins Glen International.

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The pole position was Ambrose’s first of the season, first at the 2.45-mile road course and third of his career. He’ll start first in the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford in Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at the Glen (1 p.m. ET, ESPN), the 22nd event of the 26-race regular season.

"For anyone that wanted to look at the stats this has not been the best qualifying track for me, so I’m proud of today," Ambrose said. "I think that getting the pole was awesome. The car certainly felt great and felt like it was up to the challenge, so I think that bodes really well for tomorrow."

Ambrose was the fastest of 10 drivers who broke the previous qualifying record of 127.020 mph, set by Juan Pablo Montoya last August. It marked the 12th time this season that a track record has fallen, thanks to the advent of the lighter, fastest sixth generation of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car this year.

"These new Gen-6 race cars are a lot faster around here and the speeds are record speeds," Ambrose said. "The cars still handle with the same issues that we normally have here, but certainly we’re just going faster when we encounter those problems. I think the new car really suits this race track. I think it’s more comfortable for the drivers to be aggressive, and today I was very aggressive today to try to throw down a fast lap. We were the lucky one on the day to get the pole, so I’m very proud of our day."

Clint Bowyer will start second in the No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota after a lap of 127.958 mph. Martin Truex Jr. — Bowyer’s MWR teammate and a winner earlier in the year at Sonoma Raceway, the other road course on the Sprint Cup schedule — qualified third. AJ Allmendinger and Kyle Busch completed the top five.

Bowyer has become a road-course prodigy of late, winning at Sonoma last year and finishing fourth in his last outing at the Glen.

"These road courses have become something I look forward to — I never thought I’d say that," Bowyer said before confessing that his lap was fraught with tension. "Fear and being scared is a big part of that — just trying not to mess up, man. You’ve got one lap to get it all. Look how many opportunities you have to mess up out there."

Max Papis, subbing for the injured Tony Stewart, qualified 29th in the 43-car field for his first Sprint Cup start since August 2010. Series leader Jimmie Johnson, who carries a 77-point lead into Sunday’s race, qualified 18th.

The qualifying session was the second in the history of the Sprint Cup tour to use the European-style, group qualifying format for road courses. Drivers hit the track in eight groups of five or six cars. The series debuted the new qualifying system at Sonoma in June.

Brian Keselowski spun at the end of the first qualifying group, sliding to a stop in the Turn 5 retaining wall. He will start last in Sunday’s 220.5-mile race.

With 43 drivers competing for 43 starting spots, no drivers failed to qualify.

Contributing: NASCAR Wire Service

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Hornish sets track record at Watkins Glen at 123.291 mph

Related: Qualifying results | Weekend Schedule

Sam Hornish Jr. took the pole for the Zippo 200 in record-breaking fashion Saturday, speeding past the qualifying record set by Kurt Busch in 2011 with his best speed of 123.291 mph and a lap of 71.538 seconds. Kyle Busch took the second spot, with Joey Logano in third and the rest of the final group — Regan Smith and Brad Keselowski — rounding out the top five.

In the first group to qualify, Morgan Shepherd did not complete a lap. Jeff Green ran the fastest time at 76.106 seconds at 115.891 mph. Bryan Silas took the top spot when the second group took its qualifying laps, with a best lap of 76.055 seconds at 115.969 mph.

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The third group entirely changed the top five, as Kyle Kelley’s 119.308-mph lap at 73.926 seconds led Mike Bliss, Mike Wallace, Jeremy Clements and Reed Sorenson. Kenny Habul saw engine issues, causing him to qualify 10th after his group left the track and bringing track officials out to ensure oil had not been dropped on the track.

Kyle Larson, Brendan Gaughan, Cole Whitt, Travis Pastrana and Andrew Ranger rearranged the leaderboard again as part of the fourth group to qualify. Larson’s lap of 120.916 mph in 72.943 seconds gave him the pole until the next group qualified.

Larson was the only driver able to hold on to a top-five position after the fifth group, which included points leader Austin Dillon, ran its qualifying laps. Nelson Piquet Jr. took the fastest speed in his group with a lap at 122.420 mph, with Elliott Sadler, Trevor Bayne and Dillon falling in line behind him.

Logano held the provisional pole after the sixth group, with Justin Allgaier second on the leaderboard and one group left to qualify.

The Zippo 200 begins at 2:15 p.m.ET on Saturday and will be aired on ABC.

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Coors Light Pole-Sitter Marcos Ambrose picks first stall at pit out

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Marcos Ambrose will attempt to complete a three-peat at Watkins Glen International in the Cheez-It 350 at The Glen (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, ESPN) from the Coors Light Pole.

Ambrose will be pitting in stall 1, which is the first stall at pit in off of Turn 7. Immediately in front of him will be reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski.

Michael Waltrip Racing drivers Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. qualified second and third and will share an opening in between stalls 37 and 38. Bowyer will have the opening behind him in 38, and Truex will have the opening in front of his stall. It’s the only opening on the Watkins Glen pit road.

Jamie McMurray, who qualified sixth, will be the first car at pit out in stall 43. Immediately behind him will be Danica Patrick, who will be making her NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut at the Western New York road course.

Behind Patrick will be Dale Earnhardt Jr. in pit stall 41. The third Michael Waltrip Racing entry, the No. 55 car driven by Brian Vickers, will be in stall 40.

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Coors Light Pole-Sitter Sam Hornish Jr. takes the first stall heading into Turn 1

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With all three cars in the top five, Penske Racing had plum pit picks for Saturday’s Zippo 200 (2:15 p.m. ET, ABC).

Coors Light Pole-Sitter Sam Hornish Jr. and the No. 12 team chose the first pit stall heading into Turn 1. It’s actually the second pit stall as the first and 43rd stalls are not used in NASCAR Nationwide Series competition.

Running the No. 48 car, Joey Logano and his team chose the fourth stall, which is the third one closes to the Turn 1 exit of pit road at the Watkins Glen International.

Brad Keselowski, driving the No. 22, chose the 38th pit stall, five cars away from the entrance to pit road at Turn 7. There’s an opening in front of him, and across the way is new father Justin Allgaier and the No. 31 team in the 37th stall.

The other opening on pit road is at the start/finish line. Kyle Busch, the second-fastest qualifier, takes the 25th stall with the opening in front of him. New York native Regan Smith is across the opening in the 23rd stall.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s championship contenders Brian Vickers and Elliott Sadler have chosen the 16th and sixth pit stalls respectively.

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Road course practices give fantasy players a better idea than oval tracks

Better late than never.

For the second week in a row, weather threatened on-track activities, but NASCAR showed dogged determination in getting the track dry and ready for practice. In order to maximize practice, they sent cars out onto the track with a few damp spots, but that only served to give the drivers a feel for how to handle in loose conditions.

On most tracks, top speeds are not particularly helpful because they are usually set in qualification trim that is widely different from the conditions in which the cars will race. That variance is less dramatic on road courses than ovals, so fantasy owners can learn quite a bit from the speed charts.

Martin Truex Jr. surprised the field by winning the Toyota / Save Mart 350 at Sonoma this June, but he proved that his victory was not a fluke. In the first practice session on Friday, he posted the fastest speed by a wide margin. In fact, he was nearly two miles per hour faster than the second-place driver, who happened to be road racing expert Marcos Ambrose and any time a driver can beat him in any session, it must feel great. Truex was also the only driver in that session to run 10 or more consecutive laps and his average speed of 123.293 mph was better than 19 drivers’ fastest lap in the early afternoon.

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Carl Edwards is not necessarily the first driver who comes to mind on road courses, but he was fast in both practice sessions. He posted the third-best time in the first session and topped the charts in final practice. His speed of 128.397 mph was the fastest lap of the day and since he will qualify in the final group on Saturday morning, he is a good bet to start on the front row.

It would have been nice to see a little more speed out of Max Papis in Tony Stewart’s No. 14. His top speed in the first session was good enough for only 27th on the chart and he is going to be among the early qualifiers on Saturday. He picked up a little speed in the final session, but so did everyone else and he dropped to 30th on the speed chart. The hidden good news in his practice times is that if he qualifies poorly, he is liable to earn place-differential points in the NASCAR Fantasy Live game, but a top-10 finish could be difficult to achieve.

The road racing specialists became relevant again at Sonoma and they could be a great way to stretch players’ salary caps on Sunday. Making his Sprint Cup debut, Owen Kelly was the best of the ringers with the 20th-fastest lap of 126.415 mph in Happy Hour. With a bargain basement price tag of $7.50 in the Fantasy Live game, he could be hard to pass up.

Ron Fellows in the No. 33 was not far behind with a speed of 125.700 mph, but Boris Said seemed to struggle and posted only the 35th-fastest time in Happy Hour at 123.417 mph. Alex Kennedy and Victor Gonzalez, Jr. were in the same range of speed as Said, so it is difficult to recommend starting them for the Cheez-it 355 at the Glen.

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Looking to regain points lead, Smith is hoping to continue improvement at road course

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — “Seems like every time we go here or Pocono it rains,” Martin Truex Jr. said of Watkins Glen International.

Yet even with a typical gray sky looming over western New York, soaking the surface of The Glen, Regan Smith loves this place. Years ago, he sat in the grandstands here between turns 10 and 11, watching drivers whose shoes he would fill years later. He’s ready to race at his home track, in front of family and friends, trying to charge back into the Nationwide Series points lead.

“I look forward to coming here; this is obviously my home race track, so it’s a big deal for me to come back to it,” Smith said ahead of practice for the Zippo 200. “I wish it was an oval as a home race track because… road courses aren’t necessarily my strong point. But with that said, if there is a road course that I like and I’m comfortable at, it is The Glen.”

In last year’s Sprint Cup Series race, Smith took his best series finish at the track, passing the checkered flag in ninth. In each of his four Cup appearances, Smith has steadily improved, starting with 37th in 2007 and moving up to34th in 2010 and 23rd in 2011 before his career high in 2012. His two Nationwide appearances, in 2005 and 2006, gave him results of 19th and 23rd, respectively.

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To get the points lead back, Smith will have to emulate that trend once more. He lost the points lead after a 13th-place finish three weeks ago at Chicagoland Speedway, and hasn’t been in the top ten in either of the two following races. That ninth-place finish in the Cup Series, though, has given Smith belief that he can do even better.

"I’ve got a lot of laps around here and felt like last year with the Cup car, I really started to figure the place out, and that gives me a lot of confidence coming back in the Nationwide car — the car that we’ve got, the people that we’ve got,” Smith said.

Another boost of confidence came to Smith this week, as he is speculated to be one of the drivers under consideration to replace Tony Stewart in his No. 14 Chevrolet. Even with the potential Cup ride for the next few races, Smith knows his Nationwide team will remain just as much a priority.

“The obvious challenges (of driving the No. 14) would be the simple fact that you have a Cup program that’s going to be able to contend for the owner’s championship, possibly in the Chase if things work out well for it, and you’ve got a Nationwide program and team — which is my team — that’s contending for a championship as well. So you’ve got those two things that you’ve got to find the balance of, and make sure that both teams are getting 100% of your focus, and commitment at those times.”

This weekend, Smith’s commitment is to getting himself and his team back in the points lead after falling on some frustrating times.

“We’ve had a rough five or six weeks for our team, not performance-wise but just luck or little things happening. Last week, I thought we had one of our stronger cars of the year… we were in position to really do well and had a bad pit stop towards the end of the race that put us in the middle of the pack on two tires, and it was a tough situation to overcome. So, (I’m) ready to get all that behind us and start gaining back on first again.”

Some of that bad luck hit the No. 7 TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet in the season’s first road course in Elkhart, Wisc., at Road America, where the then-points leader was sent spinning after Parker Kligerman and Owen Kelly made contact. The wreck gave Smith his worst finish of the season — 32nd — and cut his points lead from 58 points to 28.

Smith’s third-place leaderboard spot in the sole Nationwide Series practice may be the first step towards undoing the trend of poor circumstances that finally lost his team the points lead.  Ahead of the Zippo 200, Smith looks to continue improving on his performances at The Glen — and he’s got an eye on every driver from current points leader Austin Dillon on down.

"My mentality is we’re coming here to gain points on all of our competitors,” Smith said. “When I say that road racing isn’t necessarily my forte, that doesn’t mean I’m not 100% confident when I get out there.”

With so many family and friends cheering him on from the grandstand, it will also be a reminder of the little boy sitting in the grandstands, watching “larger-than-life” drivers maneuver the turns of The Glen.
“Anytime you get to come to your home track and race at a place you grew up watching as a kid and being around as a kid, you get that extra level of excitement,” he said.

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