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Drivers position themselves for stretch run to postseason

Three up

Three down

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STANDINGS *Wild Card

Pos. Driver Pts back +/-
1. Jimmie Johnson — —
2. Clint Bowyer -77 —
3. Carl Edwards -84 —
4. Kevin Harvick -97 —
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -116 —
6. Kyle Busch -126 +1
7. Matt Kenseth -134 —
8. Kasey Kahne -160 +1
9. Jeff Gordon -170 +1
10. Greg Biffle -173 -2
Pos. Driver Pts back of 10th Wins
11. Tony Stewart* -5 1
12. Brad Keselowski -7 0
13. Kurt Busch -11 0
14. Martin Truex Jr.* -15 1
15. Ryan Newman -24 1

In the green

Kasey Kahne (Change: Ninth to eighth)
The one-place change in the points standing isn’t what Kahne will take out of Pocono Raceway. Although he moved up to eighth, the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet more importantly increased his victory total this year from one to two by winning the GoBowling.com 400. Two wins should be enough for Kahne to punch his ticket into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, regardless of whether or not he stays in the top 10.

Jeff Gordon (Change: 10th to ninth)
Perhaps opposite from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne, moving up to ninth place in the standings was an important development for Jeff Gordon. Gordon, who turned 42 Sunday and was looking for a birthday breakthrough, finished second at Pocono. The finish slightly stung, because Gordon was the leader on a late restart. The No. 24 team needs wins, but if it doesn’t get them, climbing higher in the standings is of equal importance. With no victories to fall back on, Gordon put another space between him and the cut-off line for the 10 automatic bids into NASCAR’s postseason.

Brad Keselowski (Change: 13th to 12th)
Any more questions about Keselowski running double duty this weekend? It’s hard to imagine the past three days going any better for the defending series champion — except, of course, for a win at Pocono. But Keselowski did get a win at Pocono, of sorts. Ryan Blaney won the Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday afternoon, giving Keselowski a win as a team owner. The champ then flew to Iowa and won the Nationwide Series race later Saturday night. Sunday’s sixth-place finish capped a pretty remarkable weekend and perhaps reinvigorated the team after a 21st-place finish last week at Indianapolis. And more than gaining one spot in the standings, Keselowski cut his deficit behind the 10th-place driver (currently Greg Biffle) to seven points.

In the red

Greg Biffle (Change: eighth to 10th)
This is how tight things have gotten. Greg Biffle earned a top-10 at Pocono by finishing 10th, and he lost two spots in the standings. The Biff has a win in his back pocket should he fall out of the top 10, but even that doesn’t make him a postseason lock with so many other drivers running well and challenging for victories. Next week’s road-course race at Watkins Glen International could deliver a major shakeup to everyone.

Martin Truex Jr. (Change: 12th to 14th)
Truex Jr. recovered from a poor qualifying effort to finish 15th Sunday afternoon. Still, it must have been frustrating for Truex to see so many drivers near him in the standings notch strong finishes. Truex Jr. holds onto the second and final Wild Card spot for now, but Ryan Newman — who also has a win — is right behind him in the standings after finishing fourth Sunday. If Brad Keselowski or Kurt Busch finally break through and win in the next two weeks, Truex Jr. could see himself out of the Chase.

Matt Kenseth (Change: Sixth to seventh)
This is purely semantics. The points positions didn’t change all that much following a steady Pocono performance from most of the circuit’s top drivers. So yes, Matt Kenseth lost one spot in the standings after being involved in a wreck on the opening lap. He’s still 26 points above eighth-place Kasey Kahne, and he still has four victories this season. He’ll almost certainly be the No. 1 or No. 2 seed when the Chase starts.

Missed chances

Clint Bowyer (Remains second)
Points leader Jimmie Johnson had one of the best cars in the field and started on the Coors Light Pole before blowing a tire and hitting the wall on Lap 76. His No. 48 Chevrolet was taped up almost beyond recognition and Five-Time fell to 30th place before getting caught with too many men over the pit wall, sending him to the tail of the field on Lap 98. And yet Clint Bowyer, second in the standings, actually lost ground to Johnson in the points race. Bowyer withstood some hardships to finish 14th on the afternoon, but the No. 48 charged back through the field late to finish 13th. With the bonus point Johnson earned, he gained two points on Bowyer and increased his lead to 77 points.

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Cup champ making most of double-duty weekend

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NEWTON, Iowa — Brad Keselowski made a busy weekend well worth the trouble.

The defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion was the lone driver making frequent trips between Iowa and Pocono Raceway, where he’ll compete in Sunday’s premier series event.

Keselowski will be toting a gas pump trophy back with him after winning the fifth annual NASCAR Nationwide Series U.S. Cellular 250 Saturday night at Iowa Speedway. He has won the last three Nationwide starts he has made for Penske Racing, despite not having a Sprint Cup victory this season.

"Flying back and forth is definitely work, but the work is worth the reward," Keselowski said. "That’s having a fast race car and a great team to be able to come here to come here to Iowa Speedway and win this."

Keselowski said that might grab more attention than it should, and that is the triumphant effort of everyone working with the No. 22 car Saturday.
"What should get publicity is having a fast car," Keselowski said, "and executing through some adversity."

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The key moment of the race came after the third caution, with the Discount Tire Ford starting seventh with less than 50 laps remaining. As Trevor Bayne and Brian Vickers were battling side-by-side for the lead, Keselowski made his move. He shot through the leaders, moving quickly to the front and grabbing the lead on Lap 216.

The choice to take four new tires proved to be a winning strategy, despite slipping a spot in order.
"It was hard-fought to make it happen," Keselowski said. "Certainly, that yellow was a turning point in the race for us."

Crew chief Jeremy Bullins may have been at the heart of the decision, but he credited Keselowski for taking advantage of the situation.

"He took care of the rest of it," Bullins said. "He did a great job all night."

Not only did Keselowski overcome the other 39 drivers in the field, but he persevered through a number of issues during the race. He received an early penalty, after running in the top five with a shot to jump a spot or two during a pit stop under caution. Keselowski was assessed an outside tire violation, falling to the rear of the field for the restart.
He also suffered an overheating problem that hindered him midway through the race. He remained patient before taking the lead and pulling away from the field.

While all the mishaps prevented him from contending early, he had to maintain focus. It was a struggle at times.

"As a driver, those are probably some of the most difficult moments, knowing you have a fast race car and circumstances are playing against you," Keselowski said. "There are two ways you can react to that. You can let the moment define you or you can define the moment."

It was Keselowski’s first win at Iowa Speedway since 2009. He noted the similarities to that victory to his most recent one. His team fought troubles that day, used different strategies and beat Kyle Busch’s team, which he called one of the best at the time.

"It was very much a defining moment," Keselowski said. "Especially with it being the inaugural race here. It was a win that, at that time, was the biggest of my career."

Penske Racing managed to sweep the top two spots with Sam Hornish Jr. placing second. Vickers was third, which is his first top-three finish at Iowa.

Hornish started 14th and came away with his fourth runner-up finish of the season, but said being the top Nationwide finisher was a boost for points, making second easier to accept.

"I felt we had maybe a third or fourth-place car and we finished second," Hornish said. "I’m pretty proud of the way the guys did a great job on pit road for us. I’m actually pretty happy with it."

For the second straight race at Iowa Speedway, Austin Dillon led the majority of the race but failed to seal the victory. He led 116 laps, but fell back to fifth for the final restart. It resembled his performance in June’s DuPont Pioneer 250, where he led 207 of 250 and was runner-up to Bayne.

Dillon decided to take four tires when many of the leaders — including Vickers, Regan Smith, Elliott Sadler and Bayne — took two tires to move ahead of him. Dillon’s fourth-place finish kept him in front of the season points standing with a 14-point lead over Smith.

Pole-sitter Drew Herring paced the field for the first 26 laps, surrendering the lead to Smith and dropping back. He spun out on Lap 55, bringing out the race’s first caution and ending the longest green-flag stretch to start a race this season.

 

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Johnson goes for Pocono sweep while Newman looks to build on Indy

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LONG POND, Pa. — Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson have come a long way since 2002.

That was the season they took NASCAR’s premier division by storm, combining to win four times and battling for top rookie honors in a campaign that saw Newman prevail in a panel of voters. Since then Newman has gone on to a steady and successful career that’s seen him net 17 race victories, while Johnson has gone on to a spectacular one that’s seen him secure five championships and a place among the sport’s all-time greats.

These days, they’re in very different places — Johnson holds a 75-point lead over the competition in his bid for a sixth title, while Newman is trying to shore up both a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and a ride for next year. And yet in some ways it feels a little like 2002 again, given how these two old rivals have suddenly found themselves battling head-to-head with regularity.

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That was certainly the case two months ago during the most recent Sprint Cup event at Pocono Raceway, where Johnson and Newman were the only two drivers to lead double-digit laps on the 2.5-mile layout. Johnson led 128 en route to a dominant victory, while Newman used pit strategy to pace 19 and earn his first top-five of the season. The tables were turned last week at Indianapolis, when Newman edged Johnson in pole qualifying with a track-record lap, and then used a late two-tire stop to outrun the five-time champion for a victory at the Brickyard.

And now it’s back to Pocono (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, ESPN), where the triangular track may very well pit Johnson and Newman against one another yet again. It’s perhaps no coincidence that the drivers’ last two showdowns have come at Pocono and Indy, two venues that bear plenty of similarities to one another — a corner at Pocono is even modeled after one at the Brickyard — and where performance often translates.

"I think it helps, no doubt. I think the tracks are closer than they have ever been basically on the premise of grip and ride quality. But it doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen," Newman said. "We can mess it up way easier than we can make it right when it comes to the car and the chassis, and everything else. But yes, based on our experience in the first race and carrying that same car and information over to Indianapolis, it has great potential for this weekend, and that is why I am looking forward to it."

The link between the two tracks was further strengthened by a resurfacing of the Pennsylvania facility last year.

"It’s more translatable since they’ve paved this track," veteran Sprint Cup driver Jeff Burton said. "I never understood how Indy had anything to do with Pocono when this track was as rough as it was and this track had zero grip compared to Indy. Now that this track was paved, there are some similarities in the sense that you have long straightaways."

"It’s all about aerodynamics, that’s what it boils down to. How you can get your car to sit down the straightaways verses the way it sits in the corners. Because you have long straightaways at both race tracks and both race tracks are smooth, both race tracks have limited banking, that opens the door to similar philosophies from one race track to the next. That’s really what it boils down to — banking, smoothness, grip level. Those kinds of things are what make the track. So you can use a basic philosophy from one race track to the next."

No wonder, then, Newman and Johnson are both optimistic about Sunday’s event in the Poconos. Newman is using the same chassis he drove to both a fifth-place result here in June, as well as his victory a week ago at the Brickyard. Johnson used his race-winning car from the most recent Pocono race last Sunday at Indianapolis, but isn’t driving it this weekend because his team couldn’t turn it around in time. Instead he’s using his primary chassis from Kentucky, where Johnson led 182 laps and finished ninth after having an issue on a late restart.

And yet Johnson believes the Generation-6 car rolled out for this season is more easily adaptable to individual tracks, making up for the fact he won’t be driving the same vehicle he used in June at Pocono.

"We would have loved to have brought that race car here," he said. "We feel like in today’s world in the rules and the templates and everything it takes to bring a race car to the track today, it’s much easier to repeat and bring a car as good if not better than five, six years ago, especially the Gen-4 race car. It was very tough to repeat with those cars. We definitely did have a favorite there. Anymore, I can’t tell the difference. I know that we have our latest package on this car and it shouldn’t be a lot different than what we had before."

Johnson, who has three career wins at Pocono, is aiming for the first season sweep at the track since Denny Hamlin did it in 2006. Toward that end, the proximity between the facility’s two races on the calendar certainly helps.

"There is not a lot of change between the first race and the second race," he said.

Newman, meanwhile, is looking to become the first driver to win Indy and Pocono back-to-back since Bill Elliott did it in 2001, though in the opposite order since the two races were flipped on the schedule at the time.

"There are no guarantees, but it’s the same race car, and I feel like we have been able to sharpen up some of the things that we did in the June race here," Newman said. "We have done a lot of testing since then, and obviously a lot of racing, and the Indianapolis race was huge. So hopefully we can make it happen, but like I said, there are no guarantees. It is probably the closest back-to-back races that we have in the season that are somewhat similar on the set-up side."

That much seemed evident in qualifying, where Johnson won the pole with a track-record speed and Newman took fourth. A victory Sunday would give Johnson his second career Pocono sweep, replicating that feat from 2004, and his second season sweep of a race track this year — he also became the first driver in over three decades to claim both yearly events at Daytona.

"I’ve personally enjoyed sweeps," Johnson said. "They have meant a lot to me, and I’m happy that I have one this year.  It would be awesome to have two sweeps in a year if that is possible this weekend."

 

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Dillon, Sauter wreck two weeks in a row, exchange words

LONG POND, Pa. — Johnny Sauter was angry, and Todd Bodine was crushed. While Ryan Blaney celebrated in Victory Lane on Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway, the emotions were much different down on pit road.

That was where NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship contenders Sauter and Ty Dillon exchanged words following their on-track contact during the first attempt at a green-white-checkered finish, and where the veteran Bodine lamented the spin that took him out of contention in a race he was leading — until a late caution changed everything on the 2.5-mile track.

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Bodine led 16 laps, and was out front until a restart with four to go when Blaney made the first of two big surges that resulted in his second career win. Bodine drifted up the track and spun, leading to a green-white-checkered attempt where Dillon and Sauter made contact to force double overtime, in which Blaney overtook German Quiroga for the victory.

Sauter and Dillon exchanged words on pit road, but there was no physical contact between the drivers or crews. It was a costly accident for Sauter, who claimed Dillon cut him off to cause the crash — which also involved Dominick Casola — and dropped five spots to 10th in points after his 19th-place result.

“It’s like I wasn’t even there,” said Sauter, whose ThorSport teammate Matt Crafton maintained the series lead. “The 3 truck (of Dillon) just drove across the front end and wrecked us. We wrecked two trucks. There’s nothing more to say. … I just told him he’d be wise to take some of that money he’s got and invest it in a new spotter.”

Dillon wound up 20th, dropping one position in points to fifth. “I hate our trucks got torn up,” the Richard Childress Racing driver said. “It was just a mistake.”

Sauter said Dillon apologized, but “that doesn’t fix a wrecked race truck. We’re running out of trucks. We work way too hard for this, and it’s starting to piss me off.”

Meanwhile, Bodine was smarting over his 11th-place finish in a one-off deal with Turner Scott Motorsports. The two-time Truck Series champion was leading on a restart with four laps remaining in regulation, but drifted up the track in Turn 1 and found himself on the outside of a three-wide sandwich with James Buescher in the middle. Bodine went around, and although he didn’t hit anything, his chances to win were done.

“Pretty crushed,” Bodine said. “… Came here last year, and I got crashed running second. Came here this year, and I got spun out running first. It’s pretty disappointing.”

Bodine has run eight races this year for two different teams, and is unsure of his forthcoming schedule — he hopes to run Michigan and Bristol, but Saturday didn’t know of when or if those deals might come together. Despite what might have been, his finish at Pocono still tied Bodine’s best of the season and was his best Pocono finish after two previous 12th-place efforts.

“It’s just so much fun to drive good equipment again,” he said. “After you drive junk for a while, you start doubting yourself and wondering. I proved today, I may be the second-oldest guy here … but I still can get it done.”

Bodine also wasn’t happy with the debris caution that prompted the restart where he spun out and Blaney moved to the front. “It’s one of them BS calls you’ve got to live with,” Bodine said. “Everybody knew we were here, and that’s what was important.”

As Bodine tries to piece together backing for another ride with Turner Scott, Sauter is trying to rebound after two difficult finishes in a row. He and Dillon also made contact in a qualifying heat nine days earlier at Eldora, and when they were involved in the same accident in the main event when dirt specialist Jared Landers spun and collected the two series regulars. Sauter finished 29th in that event.

“I hate it for my guys more than anything,” he said. “They work way too damn hard for this. It’s just disappointing.”

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Defending Sprint Cup champ honors Nationwide promise

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LONG POND, Pa. — Following Friday afternoon’s qualifying session at Pocono Raceway, Brad Keselowski jumped on an airplane and arrived at Iowa Speedway in time for final NASCAR Nationwide Series practice. It’s a double-duty weekend for the reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, who is juggling two races across as many time zones as his hopes of defending his title near a critical stage.

Keselowski is the only prominent premier-series driver making the back-and-forth trips this weekend to Iowa, a Nationwide race (8 p.m. ET, Saturday, ESPN) that was added to his schedule in the spring — well before anyone realized the champion would be among those scrapping to get into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Why still do it, with the playoffs now just six races away?

“I made a promise I would go there, and I am going to make good on my promise,” Keselowski said. “That is just as important as anything else I do.”

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That’s Keselowski, resolute as ever, even as he risks becoming only the second defending champion of the Chase era — joining Tony Stewart in 2006 — to miss the playoffs the following season. Last weekend’s 21st-place finish at Indianapolis dropped him four spots in the standings to 13th, and Ryan Newman’s victory added another driver between him and a potential Wild Card berth.

Although very much still in the hunt — just six points separate Keselowski from 10th-place Jeff Gordon, who right now owns the final guaranteed Chase berth — the Penske Racing driver still doesn’t have a victory, and he’s finished 21st or worse in four of his last five starts. Circumstances have certainly played a role in some of those results, such as at Indianapolis when his No. 2 car wound up on the wrong end of fuel strategy.

Keselowski will admit, he hasn’t felt as comfortable in the new Generation-6 car as he did in the version he drove to a title a year ago. “Areas where we were ahead … were not allowed to be used, and areas where we were behind are areas where this year’s rule package seems to really favor,” he said. A change of manufacturer from Dodge to Ford only added to the transition, and heaped atop that were occasional mechanical issues and a 25-point penalty for a rear-end violation, which certainly looms large now.

And yet, despite it all, Keselowski believes the pieces remain in place.

“There have been a lot of circumstances, but I thought we had the car to win the race probably five or six times, and half of those the yellow came out at the wrong time, or I didn’t execute the restart, or we had a bad pit stop. There has been a lot of talk about how Jimmie (Johnson) or Kasey (Kahne) or Matt (Kenseth) could easily have five or six wins. I think we could have five or six wins, and things just haven’t all come together,” he said.

“The races where we have had the speed and execution, the strategy hasn’t gone our way, and the breaks haven’t gone our way. The races where we haven’t had speed to win, we have caught the strategy and execution, but it didn’t matter because we weren’t fast. We haven’t put all the pieces together, but I know they are there and that is why I am more confident than perhaps those on the outside.”

Still, crew chief Paul Wolfe is well aware that his team’s margin for error is growing thinner with each passing week.

“We just need to have some solid runs,” he said. “If we continue to put ourselves in the top-10 and top-five for the next six weeks, then we will surely have the points it takes to get in there. … Obviously we can’t afford to continue to have any 20th- or 30th-place finishes in the next six races. That would put us in a mode of having to win to get in the Chase. I wouldn’t say we are panicked, but we are definitely not where we want to be, and we know it is going to be tough.”

To be fair, Keselowski is far from the only driver struggling to generate enough momentum to lift himself above the glut of Chase hopefuls all hovering right around the two Wild Card positions. Just 19 points separate ninth through 13th in the standings, a narrow gap that’s shuffled almost every week. The one consistent theme in this Race to the Chase has been the inability of any driver in that range to build any consistency.

“I think there is a lot of inconsistency this year. You look at the teams that are from 10th to 20th, there’s just a great deal of inconsistency in there. None of those teams has shown the ability to maintain momentum. None of those teams has shown the ability from a speed standpoint or a reliability standpoint to get on a roll. Someone will, but I don’t know who that is,” said Jeff Burton, 20th in points.

“It just seems nobody can get in a rhythm. Someone will, but I expect to see a lot of inconsistencies. Now we’ve got Ryan winning last week. That puts more pressure on more teams. That more pressure forces people to do things that otherwise they wouldn’t do and mistakes pop up. So, I think the next six weeks are going to be really interesting. I think it’s going to be a dogfight.”

And Keselowski is right in the middle of it. “I know we are doing the right things,” he said. “I am not panicked from that sense. I know when it clicks, it is going to click really hard and heavy, and we are going to rattle off some really strong finishes, and potentially a lot of wins.”

Toward that end, Wolfe believes the cars have been solid. A bigger headache has been pit road, leading the crew chief to shuffle his over-the-wall lineup for the last several races. He’ll have another new combination in place for Sunday’s event at Pocono (1 p.m. ET, ESPN). Keselowski, though, has remained his steady and confident self.

“I haven’t really seen it a whole lot with the driver,” Wolfe said. “I feel like he has been pretty steady through it all.”

No wonder, then, Keselowski never considered asking out of Saturday night’s Nationwide event at Iowa, where he’ll compete in Penske’s No. 22 car. In fact, he’s bringing a few members of his Sprint Cup pit crew with him to the Hawkeye State, as Wolfe continues to shuffle personnel looking for the best combination on the No. 2 car.

“I had committed, and Iowa is a special track to me, and the Nationwide program is important to me as well,” Keselowski said. “We have been having some struggles on pit road, and that has led to part of our struggles, and we are using this as a weekend for the Cup pit crew to go out there and pit the Nationwide car and try to get better on pit road. Going to Iowa is a way for me to support that cause. I am trying to look at the positives that way.”

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Blaney avoids two wrecks in final four laps to capture second Truck victory

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LONG POND, Pa. — Ryan Blaney and his father, NASCAR veteran Dave Blaney, discussed one particular point of emphasis before Saturday’s Pocono Mountains 125 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Pocono Raceway.
 
"We actually talked about restarts and choosing the right line," said 19-year-old Ryan, who grabbed the lead from rookie German Quiroga on a restart that began the second attempt at a green-white-checkered-flag finish and held on to win the fourth NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race stage at the 2.5-mile triangular track.

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"It was pretty funny that we were talking about restarts before the race, and that’s what it came down to."
 
Driving the No. 29 Ford owned by Brad Keselowski, Blaney, 19, beat Miguel Paludo to the finish line by .271 seconds to earn his first victory of the season, his first at Pocono and the second of his career in the Truck Series. Blaney gave Ford its first victory in the series since Colin Braun won at Michigan in a Roush Fenway Ford on June 13, 2009.
 
The runner-up finish was a career best for Paludo.
 
Quiroga, who lost three spots on the restart and regained one before the checkers, finished third, followed by Joey Coulter — last year’s Pocono winner — and Ross Chastain, Blaney’s teammate. Ron Hornaday Jr., Darrell Wallace Jr., series leader Matt Crafton, Brendan Gaughan and Brennan Newberry completed the top 10.
 
Newberry’s top 10 was his first in 21 Truck Series starts.
 
With a push from Paludo, Quiroga had taken the lead from Blaney on a restart on Lap 50. After the fourth and final caution of the race, Quiroga chose the inside lane for what turned out to be the final restart, and Blaney took command entering Turn 1.
 
"It’s hard to keep the lead on a restart if you’re the leader, but we were fortunate enough to be on the front row on that last restart and capitalized on it," Blaney said.
 
Quiroga, on the other hand, felt he had little chance to keep the lead when the race went green for the final time.
 
"Everybody that started first, they lost a lot of positions on every restart," said the rookie from Mexico City. "I would say (the inside lane) was a little bit better than starting on the outside. We just have to learn a little bit more."
 
After a spin by Ricky Ehrgott on the opening lap, the race was caution-free until Lap 42 of a scheduled 50, when NASCAR threw a yellow because of debris on the track.
 
Todd Bodine, driving in a one-race deal for Turner Motorsports, held the lead at the time, but during a scramble for the lead in Turn 1 after a Lap 47 restart, Bodine spun after contact from James Buescher’s Chevrolet to bring out the third caution.
 
Contact between the trucks of Ty Dillon and Johnny Sauter, as Dillon moved up the track believing he had a clear lane to the outside, caused the final caution on Lap 50 and extended the race four laps beyond its posted distance.
 
Crafton extended his series lead to 52 points over second-place Jeb Burton, who finished 12th Saturday. Blaney gained five spots in the standings to third, 62 points behind Crafton.
 
The ride height of the No. 17 Toyota driven by Timothy Peters was found to be too low in post-race inspection. If penalties are forthcoming, they will be announced during the week.

 

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Drive for Diversity graduate adds name to impressive list in the No. 33

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NEWTON, Iowa — Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Paul Menard … Ryan Gifford?

The 24-year-old Drive for Diversity and NASCAR Next driver added his name to a pretty exclusive list Saturday night, as he piloted the No. 33 Menards Chevrolet to a ninth-place finish in the U.S. Cellular 250 presented by Enlist Weed Control System at Iowa Speedway — in his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut.

Gifford became the eighth driver of the season to drive the Richard Childress Racing No. 33, and his short stint behind the wheel may have been the most memorable — and that includes Stewart’s season-opening victory at Daytona.

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“I’m just super pumped,” said Gifford, whose confidence was on a clear and steady incline throughout the weekend. “I feel like I learned more in these past 250 laps in a race car than I have in a long time. These Nationwide cars are so much fun to drive and difficult too; I mean you really have to be on your toes. I can’t thank Drive for Diversity and Menards enough for putting me in this race.”

Midway through the race, it appeared Gifford may have been a little overwhelmed at first. He fell off the lead lap, but had the support of his crew and a certain driver he’s known for a long time.

“(My crew said) if you’re running 20th at the first caution, we’ll try and get you a few spots and so on,” he said. “But the key point of the race for me was when I got (the beneficiary). Fortunately, we got the caution right there. When Austin (Dillon) got behind me, right when he got by me he kind of stuck his hand out the window and said ‘Hey, this is where you need to be right here’, and it kind of all clicked and that helped me a bunch. Then we got four fresh tires and freed the car up a little bit and it took off, so I got lucky there.”

It was a weekend of learning for Gifford, who also improved upon his practice times Friday from 24.253 (22nd) to 23.567 (14th). It was just a quick sample of what this brand of racing is all about, but now that Gifford’s got the taste, it may not be too long before we see him again.

“Man, I wish I could go back out there and run some more, it’s so much fun,” Gifford said. “I’m looking forward to more. I feel like I’m in a good position, I’m with good people and I try to surround myself with good people. So who knows what the future holds? Right now I’m having fun, I’m running good and I’m enjoying life. We’ll just have to see (if I will get another chance in the No. 33), I hope so. It was awful fast. I just tried to drive the wheels off it and put it in position and we finished all the laps and we finished top-10.”

As for now, Gifford will continue his K&N Pro Series East season, where he currently stands fourth in points and has a win at Richmond in the books.

With the experience of running a bigger, faster Nationwide car, it’ll be tough for him to focus on the present without looking toward the future.

“These cars are way different than the K&N cars and you can’t compare them at all,” Gifford said. “I learned how to drive with the brake and gas and be patient with a lot bigger car. These are cars that I’m going to be racing, hopefully in the future, so that’s the main thing.”

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Driver increases points lead, but still can’t find Victory Lane

Latest news: Race results | Updated standings | Full weekend coverage

NEWTON, Iowa — If there ever was a slam-dunk pick for a driver to win a race, you could’ve done a whole lot worse than putting your money on Austin Dillon in Saturday’s U.S. Cellular 250 presented by Enlist Weed Control System at Iowa Speedway.

After earning the Coors Light Pole in June’s NASCAR Nationwide Series event here and leading 207 laps only to give way to eventual race-winner Trevor Bayne and come away with a bittersweet second-place finish, it’s safe to say Dillon had this race marked on his calendar.

And it showed.

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The driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing AdvoCare Chevrolet opened up the weekend by outclassing the field and topping the charts in Friday’s two practice sessions. It seemed a foregone conclusion he would at least start on the front row, if not the pole.

That didn’t happen, as Dillon qualified in eighth position earlier Saturday. Once the race started, Dillon managed his way to the front of the pack and ended up leading a race-high 116 laps.

So, what’s the story?

Well, that slam-dunk pick didn’t pan out, and it was Brad Keselowski burning tires in Victory Lane instead of Dillon, who finished fourth.

A pivotal late restart after Dillon decided to take four tires during pit stops, when many drivers in the top 10 elected to take two, kept Dillon from catching Keselowski and the others.

“You can’t regret (taking four tires instead of two); I mean we were sitting catbird right there against two tires and their two tires fired,” Dillon said. “(But I learned that) two tires is pretty good here at the end.”

As disappointing as the finish was for Dillon, he still increased his points lead from six to 14 after second-place Regan Smith finished 11th. Sam Hornish Jr., who is third and has the same total points as Smith, finished second.

One thing that’s still missing from Dillon’s resume, however, is a victory.

“I guess (I have) mixed emotions (about increasing my points lead), but you just want to win, man,” he said. “The car was that good early. At the middle, we figured it was going to be good for the last run and it wasn’t. It just wasn’t the car we had all night. Oh well, you go from here and try and win the next one.”

The next one is at Watkins Glen International, a road course in which he has just one career NASCAR race under his belt — last season’s 23rd-place finish in the Nationwide Zippo 200 at the Glen. Two weeks down the road is Mid-Ohio, a road course where he’s never run.

This was Dillon’s best chance to pick up his first win since Kentucky last September, and it’ll be on his mind for quite some time.

“Right now, I’m not even thinking about (Watkins Glen),” he said. “We just have to get out there and get two top-10s at the next two road courses and then we’ll be set for the rest of the year.”

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NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race to run when track ready

RELATED: Sprint Cup Series lineup | Camping World Truck Series lineup

LONG POND, Pa. — NASCAR activities at Pocono Raceway are currently being delayed due to inclement weather that moved through the area overnight.

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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams were scheduled to be on track at 9 a.m. for the first of two practice sessions (9-9:50 a.m. ET and 11:30 a.m.-12:20 p.m. ET). Both sessions were rained out, and the garage will close at 2 p.m. ET. Teams will use notes from yesterday’s one session and their June practice logs.

Also impacted by the rain was NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Keystone Light Pole Qualifying, which was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. ET. It was cancelled, and the field was set per the rule book with Miguel Paludo, fastest in practice, on the pole. With 36 trucks in Pocono, no one goes home.

Track crews began drying efforts before 9 a.m. on the 2.5-mile track.

Today’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Pocono Mountains 125, which can be seen on SPEED, is scheduled to start when the track is ready.

Jimmie Johnson will start on the Coors Light Pole for Sunday’s GoBowling.com 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Johnson, the series’ points leader, won the pole on Friday with a track-record qualifying lap of 180.654 mph.

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Points leader Dillon to start eighth, runner-up Smith in front row

Related: Full results

NEWTON, Iowa — Stop us if you’ve this before. The No. 54 car is dominating the NASCAR Nationwide Series field.

Only this time, it’s Drew Herring behind the wheel.

Herring earned the first pole of his NASCAR career on Saturday at Iowa Speedway ahead of the U.S. Cellular 250, making the 0.875 mile loop in 23.270 seconds with a best speed of 135.367 mph.

Regan Smith will start alongside Herring, placing second with a speed of 134.909 mph. Alex Bowman (134.823 mph), Brian Scott (134.667 mph) and Brad Keselowski (134.656 mph) round out the top five.

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Keselowski, who yesterday qualified 11th for tomorrow’s Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway, had a time of 23.393 seconds.

Trevor Bayne, who won here in June, qualified seventh, while points leader Austin Dillon, who took both of the weekend’s practices, pulled into pit road eighth on the chart. He took the pole for the track’s earlier race in record-setting fashion, but finished second after giving way to Bayne late.

Defending race-winner Elliott Sadler (133.900 mph) was 10th, X Games star Travis Pastrana (133.559 mph) was 15th and Drive for Diversity participant Ryan Gifford, making his Nationwide debut, qualified in 23rd with a time of 23.835.

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