Posted on by Brad Norman

At halfway point, fan favorite Earnhardt Jr. back in top five

1. Jimmie Johnson (No. 48)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Johnson leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with 658 points.
Last week: There was the usual at Daytona: wrecks, long runs and a complete shuffling of the standings. This time, though, positioning for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup got all jumbled, too. Amid that wreckage stood Jimmie Johnson, who won the Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola to become the first driver since Bobby Allison in 1982 to sweep the Daytona races. Through all the changes after one of the wildest races of the season, Five-Time remains a constant. He led 94 of 161 laps and perhaps put to rest any questions of whether his restart misfires in the past were in his head — Johnson was in the lead on the green-white-checkered restart and powered away from the field.
What he said: “I think that what we’ve done over the course of the year, leading the points like we have with a big margin I think probably sends the biggest message that we’re buttoned up and ready and in a position to win a sixth championship. But there’s a lot that can take place between now and Homestead.”
This week: In 22 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Johnson has three wins, eight top-fives and 15 top-10s. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Johnson ranks third out of 49 drivers with an average place of 9.7.
Last year: Johnson qualified seventh and ran in the top 10 through the first 230 laps (of 301) before taking his No. 48 Chevrolet into pit road for service for the final time during a green-flag run. At that exact moment, the day’s third caution flag came out for oil on the track, and Johnson was shuffled back to 18th place. He gained 11 spots in the final 60 laps and finished seventh.

2. Clint Bowyer (No. 15)

Michael Waltrip Racing, Toyota 

Where he stands: Bowyer is second in the standings with 609 points.
Last week: Over the past few weeks, Bowyer has stalked second-place Carl Edwards in the points standings. On Daytona, he passed him — and, several other drivers on the track during the Coke Zero 400. Bowyer’s fourth-place finish ties his career-best mark at Daytona International Speedway. The driver now has at least one top-five at short tracks, superspeedways, 1.5-mile track and road courses in 2013. He’s logged three consecutive top-fives at three very different track types, and being in second place without a win this season speaks to his ability to record high finishes consistently.
What he said: “I mean I was pushing Michael (Waltrip) and I got an opportunity to get to the bottom of him and got him passed. And, I was looking in the mirror and all hell broke loose (on the final lap). Man, that’s Daytona.”
This week: In 14 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Bowyer has two wins, four top-fives, six top-10s and one pole. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Bowyer ranks sixth out of 49 drivers with an average place of 11.9.
Last year: Bowyer qualified fifth at a venue that suits his short-track skills, but he slipped during the race. In 15th place nearing the final planned green-flag pit stop, Bowyer made enough of a move through the field to get good position and take two tires. He gained additional spots due to that strategy move and finished third. He would add another 2012 top-five at Loudon in the fall race.

3. Carl Edwards (No. 99)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford 

Where he stands: Edwards is third in the standings with 587 points.
Last week: Edwards’ ever-shrinking lead over Clint Bowyer is totally gone after the No. 99 finished 29th — 29th! — Saturday at Daytona, where he’s been so strong over the past two years. To make matters worse, Edwards also inadvertently ran over the foot of one of his pit crew members while leaving pit road. Heading to New Hampshire, Edwards has two consecutive finishes outside the top 20 and has two top-10s in his past seven races. And don’t look now, but his points lead over fourth-place Kevin Harvick is just two.
This week: In 17 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Edwards has two top-fives and three top-10s. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Edwards ranks 14th out of 49 drivers with an average place of 14.5.
Last year: Edwards felt like he had a fast race car and a good strategy; so why the 18th-place finish? The setup. On the final pit stop, Edwards and team took two tires. It made sense and gained him several spots. The problem, though, was that his No. 99 Ford became almost unbearably loose. The team put on four tires all day, so the issue was unforeseen until it was too late.

4. Kevin Harvick (No. 29)

Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet 

Where he stands: Harvick is fourth in the standings with 585 points.
Last week: Hey, at least Harvick got to finish this time around. The No. 29 Chevrolet may have been the class of the field in the season-opening Daytona 500, but a wrecked knocked him out of contention early … and the two points he earned put him in a major hole to start the season. Finishing third Saturday after qualifying 26th shows just how far Harvick and his team have come.
What he said: “I thought we were in a good spot. The whole thing on the restarts is just getting your line to form. Everybody on our Budweiser Chevrolet did a great job. We were able to hold Jimmie (Johnson) door to door until the exit of Turn 2, but both of those restarts the No. 14 and No. 15 and whoever was behind them just couldn’t get our line formed up.”
This week: In 24 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Harvick has one win, five top-fives, 12 top-10s and one pole. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Harvick ranks eighth out of 49 drivers with an average place of 12.7.
Last year: Harvick said he had a top-10 car going into the race, and that’s exactly how he performed. The driver gained four spots in the race, finishing eighth after starting 12th. It was Harvick’s third top-10 in the past five races at a track where he’s had some success (one win, five top-fives), but also some tribulations (six finishes outside the top 20).

5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Earnhardt Jr. is fifth in the standings with 548 points.
Last week: Junior moved back into the top five in the points standings and gained a bit of distance over the guys behind him with an eighth-place showing at the Coke Zero 400. That’s important, because Earnhardt still doesn’t have a win to fall back on. It was the third consecutive week in which Earnhardt not only ran well, but avoided incidents. And there were plenty of them at Daytona.
What he said: “Jimmie (Johnson) had great track position all night. We just didn’t really make our way to the front at all. I had fun; (it was a) pretty wild race there at the end. It was a good day. I’m happy for the National Guard and the entire team. (We are) just trying to get back on track and get some consistency going into next week.”
This week: In 27 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Earnhardt has seven top-fives and 11 top-10s. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Earnhardt ranks fifth out of 49 drivers with an average place of 11.8.
Last year: Earnhardt Jr. and his team wanted a win. They had previously tested at Loudon and were thrilled with their results. So Junior was a bit miffed when his car, he said, was a tenth of a second off all weekend. It still resulted in a fourth-place showing, however, on a day where Earnhardt felt he had the 10th-best car on the track.

6. Matt Kenseth (No. 20)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Where he stands: Kenseth is sixth in the standings with 540 points.
Last week: Kenseth has had outstanding cars at Daytona the past two years — and with two different teams. We’ll never know if Kenseth could have put himself into position to challenge Jimmie Johnson for the win Saturday, but the No. 20 did run as high as second and was nearing the top 10 when taken out during a six-car wreck 10 laps before the race was slated to end. Kenseth finished 33rd but is, of course, in no danger of missing the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup due to his four victories this year.
What he said: “I saw the side of the 11 (Denny Hamlin) car get turned and I tried — I was already around the top so I slowed down as much as I could and just got hit and was just kind of a ping pong ball. So, I’m not sure what started it, or really what hit me and got it. I just saw the wreck and tried to slow down and miss it. But there’s just not much I could do.”
This week: In 26 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kenseth has five top-fives and 12 top-10s. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Kenseth ranks 20th out of 49 drivers with an average place of 17.2.
Last year: Driving for Roush Fenway Racing, Kenseth made the second-largest gain of the afternoon behind only Brad Keselowski, finishing 13th after starting 27th for a gain of 14 spots. Still, Loudon remained an annoyance for Kenseth, who left the track with just one top-10 in the past nine races there.

7. Kyle Busch (No. 18)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Where he stands: Busch is seventh in the standings with 533 points.
Last week: Busch isn’t a huge fan of restrictor-plate tracks, but he continues to be among the best drivers at Daytona. First, Busch won the Coors Light Pole. Then, after leading 29 laps, his No. 18 Toyota was eventually caught up in a four-car wreck on Lap 99. His team got his car back on the track in 36th place, and Busch powered his way to a 12th-place finish — and was involved in the last-lap wreck, too.
What he said: “When Denny (Hamlin) and Martin (Truex Jr.) spun, we got a piece of it and it was pretty significant. But the guys did a nice job of patching it up and we were able to get back up there. We just didn’t have the track position there at the end and we didn’t have anywhere to go and got involved in the wreck there at the end.”
This week: In 16 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Busch has one win, four top-fives, six top-10s and one pole. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Busch ranks 16th out of 49 drivers with an average place of 15.0.
Last year: The 2012 Lenox Industrial Tools 301 wasn’t Busch’s best outing at Loudon. He won the Coors Light Pole, but then finished 16th. He’s finished in the top 10 at New Hampshire once in the past six races.

8. Greg Biffle (No. 16)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford 

Where he stands: Biffle is eighth in the standings with 516 points.
Last week: Biffle finished 17th in the Coke Zero 400, yet moved up one spot in the points standings. Such is life at Daytona, where some Chase contenders earned less than 10 points in a wild race. The No. 16 Ford was in position to challenge for another top-five at Daytona before getting stuck in the back after a caution flag came out while he was pitting. | Click here to read a roundup on the six members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family
What he said: “Crazy. I tell you, it was wild out there. We had really good track position running up front and then that caution came out on that pit cycle and got us to the back and we were just stuck back there. But … we didn’t end up hitting the wall or anything like that, so we’re good.”
This week: In 21 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Biffle has one win, five top-fives and eight top-10s. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Biffle ranks 13th out of 49 drivers with an average place of 14.4.
Last year: Biffle was hard on himself after finishing ninth, but perhaps he should have lightened up. “I’m a terrible driver when it comes to taking care of the brakes,” he repeatedly told the assembled media. And while his brakes did go in the final 50 laps, the veteran was cagey enough to lose only four spots, falling from fifth place on Lap 255 to ninth at the checkered flag.

9. Kurt Busch (No. 78)

Furniture Row Racing, Chevrolet 

Where he stands: Busch is ninth in the standings with 501 points.
Last week: The climb into the top 10 is complete for Kurt Busch. Driving for the small, one-car Furniture Row Racing outfit, Busch is ninth in the points standings after staying out of trouble on the green-white-checkered restart to finish sixth Saturday night. Getting here was no easy task. Busch has recorded consecutive finishes of fourth, sixth and sixth since Sonoma. In the past seven races, he has two top-fives, five top-10s and six finishes in the top 12. That’s good. But does he have staying power? We might find out starting this week at Loudon, where Busch has finished outside the top 20 in three consecutive races.
What he said: “That’s awesome to have a good run like that and stay out of trouble and post a nice top-10. When we start putting it together, it’s now starting to bear the fruit and we’ve moved our way into the top 10 in points. So that’s pretty cool. We have a long way to go, and yet we still are getting better. I’m just real proud of these guys and the effort that we’ve put forth. We’re there, but we’ve still got a bit of work to do.”
This week: In 24 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Busch has three wins, seven top-fives and 11 top-10s. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Busch ranks 10th out of 49 drivers with an average place of 13.7.
Last year: Driving the No. 51 for Phoenix Racing, Busch finished 24th after qualifying 14th on the grid.

10. Tony Stewart (No. 14)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Where he stands: Stewart is 10th in the standings with 499 points.
Last week:. A dynamo at Daytona, Stewart fell short of winning the summer race for the fifth time in the past nine races. His consolation prize? A second-place finish to Jimmie Johnson, who became the first driver to sweep the Daytona races since Bobby Allison in 1982. Stewart’s 42-point night was enough to bump him up to 10th place, from 16th, with eight races to go before the postseason field is set. | Click here to read a roundup on the six members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family
What he said: “I didn’t get as good a (final) restart as I wanted. I think it kind of worked to our favor there. It got Clint (Bowyer) a little bit ahead of me and it got Kevin (Harvick) a little bit ahead of Jimmie (Johnson). That let Jimmie and I both tuck down to those two guys and get going. Kurt Busch gave us a really good push from behind there and that got us back to getting Jimmie the shove he needed. It got us out there far enough ahead to where we could worry about racing him.”
This week: In 28 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Stewart has three wins, 14 top-fives, 17 top-10s and one pole. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Stewart ranks second out of 49 drivers with an average place of 9.2.
Last year: Looking for his second consecutive win at Loudon, Stewart finished 12th in the summer race. Still, this is one of his better tracks on the schedule and gives the veteran an opportunity to more firmly entrench himself in the top 10 of the points standings.

11. Martin Truex Jr. (No. 56)

Michael Waltrip Racing, Toyota 

Where he stands: Truex Jr. is 11th in the standings with 493 points.
Last week: Boy, that win at Sonoma takes on an even bigger meaning after Truex Jr. earned just three points at Daytona for his 41st-place finish in the Coke Zero 400, knocking him out of the top 10. As it stands now, Truex Jr. has one of two Wild Card spots to the Chase thanks to that victory. The Daytona wreck wasn’t even Truex’s fault, but he was sent hard into the inside wall off of Turn 4 in the Lap 99 incident.
What he said: “I couldn’t really even tell if he (Denny Hamlin) hit us or not, or if it was just an error. It was strange. It felt like my left rear tire blew out — it happened so fast. … We definitely needed the finish. This is going to hurt us pretty bad.”
This week: In 14 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Truex Jr. has three top-fives and five top-10s. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Truex Jr. ranks 12th out of 49 drivers with an average place of 14.2.
Last year: Truex Jr.’s success at New Hampshire came early in his career, especially during an impressive stretch from 2007-08. His 11th-place finish in last year’s summer race came after he qualified fourth. In the past eight races at the track, Truex has one top-10.

12. Kasey Kahne (No. 5)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Kahne is 12th in the standings with 490 points.
Last week: Kahne was in position to challenge teammate Jimmie Johnson for the win in a No. 5 Chevrolet that was blazing-fast all night. Then it happened. Marcos Ambrose challenged Johnson for his lead spot as the final laps ticked off, and Johnson swerved down toward the middle. Kahne was running on the inside, and Ambrose was in the middle on the rear of both drivers. Though none of the three drivers saw the incident the same way, the result was that Ambrose came down on Kahne, sending him careening into the inside wall and bringing out the caution flag that necessitated the green-white-checkered restart. Running second at the time of the incident, Kahne finished 32nd.
What he said: “I felt really good with our Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet. Next thing I know I got slammed and shot left. It was the end of our night. It’s kind of how these races go. You don’t have a lot of control over some of the things that happen here.”
This week: In 18 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kahne has one win, three top-fives and eight top-10s. He is the defending race winner. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Kahne ranks 15th out of 49 drivers with an average place of 14.7.
Last year: Kahne officially put behind him a terrible start to the season and won his second race of the season, all but solidifying his place in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Kahne assumed the lead on a restart after the third caution of the day and led the final 66 laps, holding off a charge from Denny Hamlin. It was a bit of a break for Kahne, as leader Kyle Busch had pitted just when the caution came out. It was a breakthrough showing for Kahne at Loudon; previously, he had finished outside the top 10 in eight of the past 10 races at the track.

Five in the rearview mirror …

Brad Keselowski (No. 2)

Penske Racing, Ford 

Where he stands: Keselowski is 13th in the standings with 488 points.
Last week: Maybe this isn’t just Keselowski’s year. His No. 2 Ford showed speed at Daytona and ran in the top five, then finished 21st. Keselowski is in the middle of a group of drivers totally bunched in the standings. A win soon would almost certainly vault Keselowski past 11th-place Martin Truex Jr. (five points ahead) or 12th-place Kasey Kahne (two points ahead) in the Wild Card pecking order. Then again, the defending Sprint Cup Series champion is a mere six points ahead of 16th-place Ryan Newman.
This week: In seven career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Keselowski has two top-fives, four top-10s and one pole. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Keselowski ranks 19th out of 49 drivers with an average place of 16.8.

Jeff Gordon (No. 24)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Gordon is 14th in the standings with 487 points.
Last week: Gordon was among the drivers taken out on a wreck that brought out the caution on Lap 150. The 34th-place finish wasn’t exactly what Gordon needed, but he’s still in the thick of things. Consistency, though, has been missing from the No. 24 team this year. In the past four races, starting in Michigan, Gordon has finished 39th, second, eighth and 34th. He’s heading to Loudon, where he has among the best records on the circuit.
This week: In 36 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Gordon has three wins, 16 top-fives, 21 top-10s and four poles. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Gordon ranks first out of 49 drivers with an average place of 7.2.

Joey Logano (No. 22)

Penske Racing, Ford 

Where he stands: Logano is 15th in the standings with 483 points.
Last week: Logano’s streak of good finishes ended with a thud — a resounding thud, actually, as a cut tire sent Logano hard into the outside wall midway through the race. The resulting 40th-place finish — and four-point evening — dropped Logano five places in the standings, and out of the top 10. At least he’s heading to New Hampshire, a track he likes given that it was the site of his first Sprint Cup Series victory. | Click here to read a roundup on the six members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family
This week: In nine career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Logano has one win, two top-fives and four top-10s. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Logano ranks 21st out of 49 drivers with an average place of 20.6.

Ryan Newman (No. 39)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Newman is 16th in the standings with 482 points.
Last week: Newman was among the cars involved in a last-lap wreck, but it happened so close to the start/finish line that it didn’t drastically alter his standing. In fact, with Saturday’s 10th-place showing, Newman ensured he would have two top-10s in the two 2013 races at Daytona — only Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. can match that feat. | Click here to read a roundup on the six members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family
This week: In 22 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Newman has three wins, six top-fives, 15 top-10s and six poles. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, Newman ranks seventh out of 49 drivers with an average place of 12.5.

Jamie McMurray (No. 1)

Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet 

Where he stands: McMurray is 17th in the standings with 475 points.
Last week: McMurray’s seventh-place showing in the Coke Zero 400 puts him within striking distance of a Wild Card for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Of course, the driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet will still likely need a win over the final eight races before the postseason field is set. That’s not out of the question, either, given that McMurray finished second at Kentucky prior to his top-10 at Daytona.
This week: In 20 career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, McMurray has two top-fives and four top-10s. In the past eight years at New Hampshire, McMurray ranks 27th out of 49 drivers with an average place of 23.1.

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Wild Card hopes on life support as Hamlin can’t break out of bad pattern

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — For Denny Hamlin, the hits keep on coming.

The wrong kind.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, trying to make a charge from deep in the standings to keep alive his perfect streak of qualifying for the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup, instead keeps finding more adversity to overcome. One week after suffering a pair of tire failures at Kentucky — the latter resulting in a hit that led him to visit the care center on his own — Hamlin was involved in a pair of scrapes at Daytona International Speedway, the latter producing another big impact that may have KO’d his playoff chances once and for all.

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“It’s tough,” crew chief Darian Grubb said after a 36th-place finish. “I know he’s really tired of hitting the wall. We’re doing it every week, whether it’s his fault or not. So it’s tough, and it’s hard to keep him motivated with all that, but he’s still coming in with his game face on, and he drove his butt off tonight. He wanted to go to the front, and we ran to the front two or three times. Wish we could finish there.”

Hamlin, who missed four full races earlier this season with a back injury, needs to finish inside the top 20 and likely earn more than one race victory to have a chance at a Wild Card berth to the Chase. Saturday’s result dropped him one spot in the standings to 26th, 122 points behind 20th-place Paul Menard. Team president J.D. Gibbs said Hamlin was OK physically after the accident — but emotionally, he was still smarting.

“Heartbroken,” Gibbs called it.

Hamlin led 20 laps in the first half of the race, but was involved in his first run-in on Lap 98 when Martin Truex Jr. turned down across his nose. The No. 56 car slammed the inside wall in an accident that also involved Juan Pablo Montoya. Hamlin took a shot from behind from teammate Kyle Busch when he slowed in the fracas, and the ensuing stop for repairs sent him to 38th place and a lap down.

“Tell the 56 I apologize,” Hamlin told Grubb over the radio. “I just got bad tight. Went dead straight.”

Watch video of the wreck below:

Hamlin received the free pass back onto the lead lap, and was running between Clint Bowyer and Brad Keselowski on Lap 152 when the No. 11 car wobbled low and shot back up the track, impacting hard into the outside wall just shy of the flag stand. Gibbs driver Matt Kenseth, who until Saturday night owned the outright series lead in race victories, dived low to evade and slammed right into Jeff Gordon. Running right behind the initial accident, AJ Allmendinger had nowhere to go but straight into Hamlin’s car.

“I was already around the top, so I slowed down as much as I could, and just got hit, and was kind of a Ping-Pong ball,” said Kenseth, who won Friday night’s Nationwide race and started Saturday on the front row. “… There’s not much I could do.”

Allmendinger felt the same way. “It’s one of those things. It’s Daytona. I have no clue how the wreck got started,” said the driver, Saturday night piloting the No. 51 car for owner James Finch.

“It was like a ‘Days of Thunder’ thing,” he added. “All the cars moved, and Denny appeared in front of me, and I hit him about as hard as I could. Just disappointing. Would have loved to have given James Finch a win, or at least a good finish. All I can say is, I was going for the win. That’s all I can do.”

The wreck knocked the wind out of Allmendinger, who staggered to the ground after climbing out of the car. But he was more concerned about Hamlin, who missed four full races and most of another earlier this season while recovering from a fractured vertebra in his lower back suffered March 25 in a last-lap crash with Joey Logano at Fontana.

“I just asked him if he was OK,” Allmendinger said. “Obviously with his injuries this year and kind of how I hit him, when I saw him there I was a little bit scared he was re-injured. But he seemed fine. Just a hard hit. Unfortunately one of those racing deals.”

Hamlin didn’t speak to media Saturday night, buzzing by on a golf cart after leaving the medical center. “Sorry to the guys involved,” he wrote later on Twitter. His crew chief admitted that the last two weeks have taken a toll on a team that needs to make up ground quickly, but is struggling to do it. After Saturday, only eight more regular-season races remain before the Chase.

“We’re still going to fight until we get to Richmond, no matter what happens,” Grubb said. “And we’re not going to quit all the way to Homestead, even if we don’t make the Chase. We’re going to try and win as many races as we can. We’ve got fast cars, we just have to finish.”

Next weekend brings a glimmer of hope — New Hampshire, where Hamlin dominated both races a season ago, finishing second in the first event only because of a miscommunication with Grubb over pit strategy. As far as his Chase hopes are concerned, it may be Hamlin’s last stand.

“We know what we can do there,” Grubb said. “We’ve just got to go up there and make sure we do what we can do. We’ve got to get a top three out of it.”

 

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Posted on by Holly Cain

Sixth-place run at Daytona bolsters playoff hopes for No. 78 team

RELATED: Daytona results | Updated standings

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — With his sixth-place finish in Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, Kurt Busch high-jumped five spots in the Sprint Cup Series standings to ninth place — proudly taking his place in the championship top-10 among all of NASCAR’s elite teams, among all the large organizations and favored drivers that were "supposed" to be there.

Busch’s single-car Furniture Row Racing team is the only full-time organization not based in NASCAR’s more traditional North Carolina domain, but instead in its team owner — relative NASCAR newcomer — Barney Visser’s hometown of Denver, Colo.

So compared to NASCAR’s decades-old mega-teams such as Penske, Hendrick, Roush, and Gibbs — Furniture Row is small and remote.

But it should not be underestimated. Especially with Busch at the helm.

"… it was a solid finish with a lot of high-fives with team members after the race."

— Kurt Busch

The 2004 Sprint Cup Series champion will tell you this wave of success isn’t a case of over-achieving at all, but of fulfilling expectations. He told reporters all preseason that there was a renewed sense of confidence within the team and predicted that 2013 would be the breakout year. He promised this group was for real.

And it’s been a good reality so far.

“These Furniture Row guys have been working hard,’’ Busch said. “We’ve made little mistakes here, there, and everywhere. When we start putting it together, it’s now starting to bear the fruit and we’ve moved our way into the top 10 in points. So that’s pretty cool.

“We have a long way to go, and yet we still are getting better. I’m just real proud of these guys and the effort that we’ve put forth and just a big thanks to Barney Visser and Furniture Row and Chevy and everybody that’s on board.

“It’s great. We’re there, but we’ve still got a bit of work to do.”

The work he’s completed, however, is a statistical success and has his most ardent competitors mentioning his name each week in the same breath as other perennial favorites like Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart.

Despite several victory near-misses this year, there are still plenty of encouraging signs.

Busch’s four top-fives and eight top-10s this year are both season records for the team. Furniture Row had three top-fives and eight top-10s combined in 193 starts prior to Busch joining the team late last season.

And his ninth place in the standings is the highest he’s been since 2011 when he drove for Penske Racing — which, by the way, has no driver currently ranked among the top 10 (defending Sprint Cup champ Brad Keselowski sits 13th with teammate Joey Logano 15th).

Daytona is Busch’s third consecutive top-10, and each finish has come in three completely different styles of racing including the Sonoma, Calif., road course two weeks ago, the 1.5-miler at Kentucky last weekend and now Daytona’s superspeedway.

“We didn’t quite have the speed and momentum to break through at the end and challenge Jimmie (Johnson),” Busch said Saturday night. “But it was a solid finish with a lot of high-fives with team members after the race.”

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Posted on by Holly Cain

Running in the top 10 on the final lap, Patrick finishes race in wreck, but holds onto 14th

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Danica Patrick climbed out of her crumpled Chevrolet and went immediately to the neighboring team transporter to watch a video replay of Saturday night’s last lap crash at Daytona International Speedway.

Running among the top 10 and hitching up to draft with Daytona ace Dale Earnhardt Jr. she was making good on her pre-race promise to be more aggressive in the waning laps.

Unfortunately for her, the ride ended abruptly. Her No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevy bobbled, slid across the track and the last “Big One” of the day produced another half dozen wrecked cars.

As Patrick stood with the small group of reporters for her interview after the Coke Zero 400, she kept glancing over her shoulder to see the massive scoring pylon — her car number “10” slowly dropping down the scoreboard tower as she spoke.

“We got the GoDaddy car in a decent position (at the end), but I feel like every time I look at the board right now, I’m further down,’’ said Patrick, who was ultimately scored 14th. “But we ran strong, and that’s what we wanted to do. All in all, a solid day."

"But we ran strong, and that’s what we wanted to do. All in all, a solid day."

— Danica Patrick

After winning the pole position for February’s Daytona 500 and making history with an eighth-place finish, much was expected of Patrick — by others and herself — for the summer’s second act at NASCAR’s most famous track.

 

Despite using the Daytona 500 backup car (the original was wrecked at Talladega in May) she qualified a respectful 11th for Saturday’s Coke Zero 400. After working her way up and gaining track position when some of the leaders got caught on pit road during a caution, she ran as high as second place with 50 laps remaining.

 

She was eighth on a restart with seven to go. Her crew chief Tony Gibson telling her on the radio, “Go get ’em girl.’’

 

On the final restart — a green-white-checkered free-for-all — she hooked up with her former Nationwide Series team owner, Earnhardt Jr.

 

“Well, it was a green-white-checkered so it’s always exciting,’’ Patrick said describing the last lap. “Junior and I had a good run through the middle then up high and I just watched the replay and it felt like I had a run just along the wall. It could have been me that came down in front of the 38 (and caused the wreck)."

 

"That definitely wasn’t what I was trying to do. I was just trying to follow the 88. If that’s what happened, I definitely apologize. I lost spots doing it.’’

 

"I did make a run in that last lap. It didn’t end up like I wanted. But I think it was all right. You’ve gotta do what you gotta do on those last laps. Nobody really has a plan. It’s really hard to plan for what 42 other guys are going to do out there.’’

 

Her 14th-place effort is among her best of the season. She was 12th at Martinsville, Va., and 13th at Michigan, in addition to her season-best eighth-place finish in February at Daytona.

 

And Gibson was certainly more encouraged than frustrated walking from the track to the team’s transporter, even as he spotted Patrick’s banged-up car.

 

“We had good speed and she did a really nice job all night and ran top 10 most of the time,’’ Gibson said. "You never know at the end of these things where you’re going to end up. One line moves and the other doesn’t. She did a really good job and I’m proud of her. We didn’t get the finish we wanted, but it could always be worse. I thought we were better than that (14th).

 

"But we’ve got fast cars and she can draft the hell out of these things. One of these times we’re going to be in the right line at the right time and take advantage of it.’’

 

Gibson said he was impressed the more assertive style his Sprint Cup rookie showed, even it didn’t get the intended results this time. It was equal parts progress and education.

 

“Sometimes it hurts you, but at the end of the day you’ve got to make moves, you’ve got to be aggressive,’’ the veteran Gibson said. “I felt like she was aggressive when she needed to be and sometimes you come out on the good end of that stuff and sometimes you don’t."

 

“I’m happy with our finish.’’

 

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Posted on by Zack Albert

No. 5 team’s front-running performance meets smoky end at Daytona

RELATED: Daytona results | Updated standings

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader Jimmie Johnson led a race-high 94 laps in Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway. For many of those laps, teammate Kasey Kahne dutifully kept the aerodynamic advantage in the Hendrick Motorsports camp, slipstreaming behind him in second place.

Lap after lap, the Daytona scoreboard displayed “48 5” at the top. But Kahne wasn’t around to see Johnson drive to the checkered flag first.

On a night where several Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoff hopefuls encountered problems, Kahne was unable to capitalize, sidelined by a crash six laps shy of the 161-lap distance. The No. 5 team’s 32nd-place finish dropped him one spot to 12th in the standings with eight races left before the 12-driver postseason field is set.

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Kahne still holds one of the two provisional Wild-Card berths into the Chase, but it’s a less-than-secure grip. Instead of putting some distance on his rivals, Kahne now has five drivers close on his back bumper within 15 points of his position in the standings.

Kahne’s otherwise promising day soured in the 156th lap in a contest for the race lead. Marcos Ambrose challenged Johnson’s race-long supremacy with a stout run off the second turn.

Johnson changed lanes to block Ambrose’s advances on the backstretch. Whether they collided depends on which driver you ask (Ambrose claimed Johnson bumped into him; Johnson disagreed), but the fact remains that the No. 9 Ford of Ambrose sideswiped Kahne’s Chevy, sending it on a prolonged slide into the inside retaining wall.

“I had followed Jimmie a lot throughout the race. I felt really good with our Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet. Next thing I know, I got slammed and shot left,” Kahne said after he was evaluated and released from the track’s infield care center. “It was the end of our night. It’s kind of how these races go. You don’t have a lot of control over some of the things that happen here. I’m happy our car was fast, and we put a good showing out. We ran up front the whole race.”

A lack of control in events at Daytona and sister track Talladega Superspeedway has been the theme of the year for Kahne, who has crashed out of all three events where restrictor plates limit horsepower. Saturday night’s failure to finish left him 0-for-39 on restrictor-plate tracks for his career

Kahne will likely have a friendlier venue next weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he is the defending race winner.

TEAR DOWN

Consistency matters: Another feature of Johnson’s season sweep of races at Daytona is a peerless streak this year on restrictor-plate tracks. Saturday night’s win made him the only driver with top-five finishes in all three plate races this season. He was fifth behind race winner David Ragan in May at Talladega Superspeedway.

McMurray’s move: It isn’t leaps and bounds in improvement, but Jamie McMurray will take it. The Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver led 10 laps to finish seventh, right on the heels of his runner-up finish the previous week at Kentucky. The modest streak marks his first back-to-back top-10 finishes since he placed eighth at Las Vegas, then seventh at Bristol in March 2012.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

5. The number of spots in the Sprint Cup standings lost by this weekend’s biggest stumblers. Joey Logano skidded five places to 15th after scraping the wall and exiting with a 40th-place finish. Paul Menard’s engine failure after just 23 laps left him with a last-place finish, causing him to plummet to 20th in the points.

9. The finishing position of Casey Mears, who drove the No. 13 Germain Racing Ford to his first top-10 finish in the Sprint Cup Series since Aug. 16, 2009. That day, Mears finished sixth at Michigan International Speedway in a No. 07 Chevrolet owned by Richard Childress. Saturday night marked only the second top-10 finish in 154 Sprint Cup starts by the Germain team.

29. The number of laps led by Kyle Busch, a distant second to Johnson’s 94 out front. Busch, the Coors Light Pole Award winner at Daytona, recovered from front-end damage in an early wreck, but crashed across the finish line behind Johnson for a 12th-place run.

CHASE WATCH

Kahne wasn’t the only Hendrick Motorsports driver with trouble making strides in the Wild-Card hunt. Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon also endured a lackluster night after a late wreck relegated him to 34th on the rundown.

Gordon slipped two spots to 14th, currently out of a Chase position. Race runner-up Tony Stewart still holds the last spot among the top 10 automatic qualifiers, having gained six spots with his podium finish at Daytona. Martin Truex Jr. dropped from the top 10, but holds a Wild-Card spot thanks in part to his win last month at Sonoma Raceway.

THEY SAID IT

“It’s not as aero as you would think, but just very proud of the night.” — Johnson, after joining his crewmembers in flipping up their hats’ bills in Victory Lane.

“I had a ball. I asked my crew when the checkered fell to remind me why I do this.” — team owner and occasional driver Michael Waltrip, after finishing fifth.

“Danica … call me!” — Shaquille O’Neal, NBA legend and Coke Zero 400 co-grand marshal.

COMING UP

The Sprint Cup Series heads for the first of two stops this season at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which also hosts the second event in the 10-race Chase in September. Denny Hamlin ruled the 1.058-mile track in Loudon, N.H., last season, finishing second to Kahne in July then backing up his guarantee with a “called shot” win there in the fall. … Hamlin’s win in a Toyota last September broke a six-race string of victories at New Hampshire by Chevrolet drivers. … Ten different drivers have won the last 10 Loudon races. The track’s winners (in order) since 2008: Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle, Logano, Mark Martin, Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman, Stewart, Kahne, Hamlin.

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Three-time champ regains Chase footing after runner-up effort at Daytona

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Tony Stewart had lost six points positions in his last two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts.
 
He gained all six back Saturday night, thanks to a workmanlike second-place finish in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
 
As a result, he heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the July 13 New Hampshire 300 10th in points and gaining steam.

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“If you can’t win, you always want to run second,” the three-time Cup champion said. “With these things being as crazy as they are, if you can end up with a top-two (finish), you’re pretty happy when you leave here.
 
When that’s the case, he said, then it’s also likely that “you’ve got a straight race car, too.
 
“One out of three isn’t bad in the organization there. The other two got watered up pretty good.”
 
The “other two” would be Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Ryan Newman and Danica Patrick, both collected in a last-lap crash that capped the 161-lap race. Newman still wound up 10th and Patrick 14th in spite of their mangled entries.
 
A four-time winner of the July classic, Stewart had two opportunities on late restarts to reel in race leader, and eventual winner, Jimmie Johnson. But each time he came up just short.
 
Stewart said the fault lay with the driver.
 
“I honestly didn’t feel like I got good restarts each time,” he said. “I felt like I missed — it wasn’t the car or gear or motor or anything like that — I just felt like I didn’t time them right.
 
“Luckily guys behind me were able to help get me recovered there, but I didn’t feel like I had the best restarts tonight. I … just never could get the timing right. We’ll try to get that straightened out for next time. “
 
Crew chief Steve Addington said there was nothing the team could do but sit back and watch as the final restarts unfolded.
 
“Just hoping for the best,” Addington said, watching as his car went through post-race technical inspection.
 
“Tony is awesome at this type of racing. It was in his hands. It was all we could do. He took care of the car all night long and then finally made his run to the front.”
 
Thirteenth in qualifying two days earlier, Addington said the team had “an issue” in practice on opening day, ”but we got that straightened out.
 
“We ran the second practice and knew we were OK.”

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No. 15 driver climbs to second in standings with fourth consecutive top-10 finish

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Michael Waltrip was headed back to the garage when he saw Rodney Childers, his crew chief, headed toward the inspection bay for post-race teardown.

“Amazing,” Waltrip said as he draped his arm across Childers’ shoulder. “You fixed my car! With a block of wood!”

Childers could only grin. It was quite the comeback.

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Waltrip, making one of only a handful of starts for the team he co-owns with Rob Kauffman, had just finished fifth in Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway. It was his second top-five in three starts this season in restrictor-plate races.

Clint Bowyer, his teammate at Michael Waltrip Racing, finished fourth.

The results came in spite of a pit-road accident involving both drivers on lap 129 of the 161-lap event.

Bowyer’s car suffered no visible damage when he made the move toward his pit stall, collecting Waltrip.

Waltrip, whose No. 55 Toyota was spun around and wound up rear-end first in his pit box, wasn’t as fortunate.

“He didn’t know I was pitting, I guess,” Waltrip said. “He said it surprised him that I turned, but my pit box was there. He just didn’t realize it.

“Luckily I’ve got an amazing crew because they put some packer in the front because the front end was clobbering the ground. And then they dropped the nose on the jack.”

The incident dropped Waltrip from 19th to 36th. But with 28 laps remaining (before a green-white-checkered finish pushed it to 29), Waltrip quickly made his way back through the field with drafting help from David Gilliland.

“It just knocked the nose down about three inches on the front,” Childers said. “It bowed the hood up. The guys did a good job getting the hood screwed down to the cowl and taping it down.

“Basically we just had to put a lot of ‘packer’ in the right front just to try to hold it up. We got some in it; didn’t get enough.”

Although the splitter was making contact with the racing surface, Childers said he knew it would eventually wear down and not be a concern.

“A place like here, it doesn’t really hurt you as bad,” he said. “Once he got the splitter worn down, it was back to being fast again.”

Bowyer’s fourth consecutive top-10 and sixth in the last seven races helped move him from third to second in the points standings. He trails race winner and points leader Jimmie Johnson by 49 after 18 of this season’s 36 points events.

“I was pushing Michael, got against the bottom of him and got him passed,” Bowyer said of the final charge that saw multiple cars crash moments after Johnson had taken the white flag. “I looked in the mirror and all hell broke loose. Man, that’s Daytona.”

Although he qualified third, Bowyer spent much of the race running near the rear of the field in an effort to avoid potential problems while saving his equipment.

By lap 150, he was back inside the top 10.

“I made a rule with myself at restrictor-plate tracks to be easy (and) ride around,” Bowyer said. “It’s boring, you hate to do that for your sponsors and the team, (they) want to be up there racing … but it’s just kind of been working for me.”

Drafting with Marcos Ambrose, Bowyer was in contention as finish neared, but a late caution involving the Richard Petty Motorsports driver and Kasey Kahne put Bowyer on the inside row on the final restart.

“I knew we were going to be in trouble because I wouldn’t be able to use that middle (lane),” he said. “They came through that middle, and I was like ‘Oh no!”

“I was lucky to get back up there. Hey, I’ll take a top five.”

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Even former winners at Daytona rue the moves that didn’t work

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Matt Kenseth figured he had learned from his mistake.

Leading the race last summer at Daytona International Speedway, one of the best restrictor-plate drivers of his era dragged his brake ever so slightly, trying to stay hooked up with Greg Biffle on the final lap. It was a tactic born of experience, given that two months earlier at Talladega, Kenseth had chosen to not wait on his then-teammate — and been freight-trained by Kyle Busch and race-winner Brad Keselowski as a result.

Later at Daytona, he was in an almost identical situation, leading another restrictor-plate race on the final restart with the No. 16 car on his back bumper. This time, Kenseth chose the opposite course — he slowed ever so slightly, keeping Biffle behind him under the belief that two cars hooked together were faster than one. But nobody told Tony Stewart, who zipped by on the high side and passed both of them to win the race.

Two different races, two different strategies — same result.

“One way I did it once and lost, and the second time I did the way I thought I should have done it the first time and lost, too,” Kenseth said. “So, I think you’ve just got to not overthink it, and just try to take your best guess where the momentum is, and try to keep your car in the best spot you possibly can. You can’t really control what everybody else is doing around you. You’ve just got to try to pay attention, and try to get yourself what you feel like at the time is the best spot.”

"I wish over and over I could have … tried something. Might have gotten wrecked doing it, but I wish I would have at least tried."

— Tony Stewart

Restrictor-plate races in NASCAR’s premier series are often referred to as crap shoots or lotteries, as if the outcomes are decided by the pull of a slot machine handle. In reality, the determining factor is often one move — a block, a lane shift, or a tactical decision made or not made, each of which can mean the difference between Victory Lane or watching a line of cars go by on the outside. It’s a murky business, given the speed and unpredictability involved. There’s no playbook, no course of action guaranteed to produce results. Only a winner, and many others left to second-guess themselves.

Just ask Stewart. The three-time champion of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has won 19 times across all series at Daytona, most recently in the Sprint Cup event last summer. His total is second only to NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt for most victories ever at the sport’s most famous track. But he still lacks a Daytona 500 crown, and he still remembers 2008 — when he led at the while flag, went low to block the onrushing Busch, and had Ryan Newman overtake him at the top to snatch away the victory.

“I wish over and over I could have … tried something. Might have gotten wrecked doing it, but I wish I would have at least tried,” Stewart said of that race. “There are times when I’ve tried things that didn’t work, and there are times when I wish I would have tried things that may have worked. But a lot of it is instinct and trial and error. Anybody who sits there and says they know what to do at what time is pretty much lying to you.”

“It’s guesswork,” added the driver, who has four victories in Daytona’s July event, only one fewer than NASCAR Hall of Famer David Pearson.

“A lot of it is the right circumstances at the right time. You can do the right thing as a driver, but there are still 10 guys or 20 guys behind you that, their decisions may be different and may alter what your decision was. I call it the (Denver Broncos quarterback) Peyton Manning deal — you’re constantly calling an audible in those last two or three laps. It may work, it may not work. But you can’t sit there and say, ‘OK, this is the playbook, this is what we do, this is where want to be on that last lap.’ There are no guarantees. It’s just literally adjusting what you do based on what you see in the mirror and what you see in front of you.”

Jimmie Johnson can relate. The five-time Sprint Cup Series champion has twice won the Daytona 500, but like Stewart, he can also remember one that got away. Entering Turn 3 in the lead, he drifted to the outside, expecting the field to follow him based on how things had played out earlier in the race. Instead, everyone else stayed in line, and Johnson was hung out. He had made his move too early — looking back, he thinks had he waited one more corner, things might have turned out much differently.

“You are thinking about yourself,” Johnson said. “Well, the guy behind me is like, ‘Well, I’m going to push you to the lead, and then it’s you and I stuck in the outside lane dropping like a rock. Why am I going to do that?’ You need to have a vision in some respects where, why would somebody want to follow you? Why are they going to work with you? If you have from Turn 3 to the finish line, that is a long gap. You need to wait until you get over (to Turn 4) where it’s a little shorter distance.”

It can be like trying to wrap your arms around a ghost. Perhaps nobody knows that more than Kenseth, who also owns two Daytona 500 titles, and has been the driver to beat on plate tracks the past two seasons — over his last eight races at Daytona and Talladega, he’s led 508 laps and owns an average finish of 9.1. And yet, there were the back-to-back events where he and Biffle were unable to maintain a late lead. And there was the most recent plate race at Talladega in May, where Kenseth led 142 laps but was in the high lane when winner David Ragan and teammate David Gilliland came bursting through the middle on the final lap.

“Man, it’s hard being the leader sometimes. It’s even harder on those green-white-checkereds, because there are people hanging back, and there’s people getting momentum, and you can only see so much around you,” Kenseth said. “You can’t tell. Like Talladega with David and David — when they got teamed up, there was no way to know five rows back that they were going 8 mph faster than we all were. There is just no way to watch all that. There’s really no way to protect that or really to do anything about it.”

And that’s coming from a former series champion with a proven track record in plate races built over a decade in the sport. So imagine being a Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender — as was the case at this year’s Daytona 500, where Coors Light Pole-sitter Danica Patrick found herself third at the white flag. She stayed in line and wound up eighth, frustrated with herself for not bettering her position in the frantic rush to the finish. She felt better after speaking with Stewart and Johnson, both experts in the field, and who had each experienced their own share of second-guessing in the same event.

“I talked to Tony afterward. He said … ‘You could have just as well of been 20th in the end as opposed to where you did finish. You probably had more to lose,’ so he thought I made the right decision on what I did,” she said.

And Johnson “said that the two times that he has won now at Daytona were the two times he didn’t have any kind of plan," Patrick added. "I suppose it is about being at the right place at the right time and having the right people behind you. There is luck that plays into it that way. Although a lot of times, good drivers win so you still need to know what to do. Probably more than anything, it just means have a little bit of experience so that you can handle whatever situation comes up best.”

And yet, as last year’s Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona showed, even experience can work against a driver trying to master the vagaries of restrictor-plate racing. Given Kenseth’s recent history on NASCAR’s biggest tracks — he had the dominant car in the Daytona 500 until his engine expired — the first-year Joe Gibbs Racing driver may very well be in the mix to win again Saturday night. And off the final restart, it may once again come down to positioning and a move made or not made — after which everyone will be wondering what they could have done better, save the one driver in Victory Lane.

“You can sit and second guess when it’s over,” Kenseth said, “unless you win.”

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Joey Logano’s top-10 spot short-lived

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Three up

↑6  ↑5 ↑2

Three down

↓5 ↓5 ↓3

 

IN THE GREEN

 

Tony Stewart (Change: 16th to 10th)

What looked like a rough year has been turning around for Tony Stewart. He had four top-10s in a row between Charlotte and Michigan, and after two weeks of placing outside of the top 20, Stewart came back for a second-place finish at Daytona. The effort moved him into the 10th spot in the Sprint Cup Series standings, only two points below ninth-place Kurt Busch.

 

Kurt Busch (Change: 14th to 9th)

It’s been a big year for this small team. In the seven races before Daytona, the No. 78 Funiture Row Racing team had placed in the top 10 four times. He made if five-for-eight at the Coke Zero 400, finishing sixth as the field wrecked around him.

 

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Change: 20th to 18th)

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s 11th-place finish only bumped him up two spots to 18th in the standings, but he’s within striking distance of some powerhouses on the board. With 466 points, he’s only 21 away from catching up with Jeff Gordon in 14th place. For a rookie, that’s saying something.

 

IN THE RED

 

Joey Logano (Change: 10th to 15th)

Just last week, Joey Logano made it into the top 10 in the Spint Cup standings. He was running well at Daytona until he lost a front tire, sending him into the wall and back to the garage. He needs to nab some more strong finishes to separate himself from the close quarters of the drivers ranked in the teens.

 

Paul Menard (Change: 15th to 20th)

After losing an engine at Daytona 23 laps into the 160-lap race, Paul Menard finished in last place. He also lost several places in the points standings. With no top-10 finishes since Kentucky, the No. 27 team has a lot of work to do to reverse that trend.

 

Martin Truex Jr. (Change: 8th to 11th)

After getting caught up in a wreck that also took out Denny Hamlin and Juan Pablo Montoya, Truex was done for the night. His 41st-place finish only earned him three points, dropping him just outside of the coveted top 10. Luckily, with a win under his belt, a Wild Card bid is not out of the picture.

 

MISSED CHANCES:

 

Kyle Busch (No change)

Starting from the pole position with a TRD engine that seemed faster than ever, Kyle Busch looked in a position for his third win of the season. Unforunately, he couldn’t hold off Jimmie Johnson, and his 12th-place finish didn’t get him anywhere on the points chart. He could have used more points with Greg Biffle and brother Kurt closing in on him.

 

Brad Keselowski (No change)

The reigning Sprint Cup champion needs to make a move if he’s going to make it into the Chase this year. With a finish outside of the top 20 at Daytona, Ryan Newman and Jamie McMurray are now within reach of Kes and Jeff Gordon. The No. 2 was strong at Loudon last season; we’ll see if he can turn his season around next Sunday.

 

Juan Pablo Montoya (No change)

After the Hamlin-Montoya-Truex wreck, Montoya was the only one to get back out on the track. He only ran 126 of the race’s 160 laps, giving him a 39th-place finish and five points. But Daytona has never been his strongest track. He turned a pole at Loudon into a third-place finish in 2009; repeating that effort will go a long way in getting him back on the Chase track.

 

 

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On site to promote ‘Grown Ups 2’ the former NBA star talks about racing

Asked what he thought about NBA superstar Dwight Howard signing with the Houston Rockets this week, Coke Zero 400 honorary starter Shaquille O’Neal opted to take the conversation elsewhere.

"Well, I’m looking forward to seeing Dale Earnhardt Jr. today on the track. Danica Patrick is one of my favorites," said O’Neal, who appeared Saturday afternoon in the Daytona media center with "Grown Ups 2" co-stars and co-starters Kevin James and Adam Sandler. "I hope she wins. She’s very beautiful. She’s very feisty. I love the way she competes."
 
Asked what he likes about Patrick in particular, O’Neal responded: "Honestly, she’s hot — smokin’. Danica … call me!"
 
"Don’t do it, Danica!" chimed in Sandler.
 
Turning his attention to the NBA, O’Neal continued his stand-up act.
 
"The Dwight Howard thing? It was expected," he said. "We’ve all been in L.A., and not a lot of people can handle being under the bright lights.
 
"Everybody wants to do it, but when you get there, there are certain pressures. I think it was a safe move for him to go to a little town like Houston. That’s right. Little town. I said it."

 

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