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Harvick, Biffle, Truex make the big jumps this week, while Hendrick drivers Earnhardt, Kahne and Gordon all drop down

                                   

1. Jimmie Johnson       

Outlook: Hendrick Motorsports had a day to forget at Michigan, with all four drivers in good position to win before succumbing all sorts of maladies. Johnson’s had to be the most painful, as he looked to be closing in on Greg Biffle in the waning laps when  he blew a tire and hit the wall. 
Standings: 1st, 538 points
RELATED: Biffle, Johnson All Access

2. Carl Edwards          

Outlook: Greg Biffle may have won the race, but it was his Roush Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards who made the biggest headline. Edwards said of Biffle, “He ain’t our teammate” after the No. 16 car wouldn’t help the No. 99 remove trash from its grille. Stay tuned on this one.
Standings: 2nd, 507 points 
RELATED: Edwards Press Pass

3. Kevin Harvick            

Outlook: Harvick’s second-place finish at Michigan will go a long way toward his Chase for the Sprint Cup chances, as he is one of just four drivers with multiple wins and has recovered nicely from his two DNFs at Daytona and Talladega.
Standings: 4th, 476 points
RELATED: Harvick Press Pass

4. Matt Kenseth            

Outlook: After his win at Darlington, Kenseth took a bit of a step back at Charlotte, Dover and Pocono. He had an average finish of 26.7 at those races before changing direction and finishing sixth at Michigan.
Standings: 5th, 456 points
RELATED: Kenseth post-race reaction

5. Clint Bowyer         

Outlook: Bowyer still has yet to stand out after a string of races with no wins, but with pair of runner-ups at Martinsville and Richmond and only two finishes outside the top 20, he’s been consistently above average. His efforts have him in a remarkable third place, but a few wins would go a long way toward ensuring he stays there. 
Standings:  3rd, 489 points
RELATED: Bowyer Press Pass

6. Kyle Busch             

Outlook: Busch’s outcome at Michigan may have been the quietest fourth-place finish he’s ever had. He had no real run-ins with anyone, and kind of just happened to be fourth when the checkered dropped. Not what we’re used to from him, but he’ll take it. 
Standings: 6th, 452 points
RELATED: Busch post-race reaction

7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 

Outlook: As it turns out, Superman isn’t invincible. Earnhardt was leading the race and looked poised to repeat his Michigan success from last year when his engine blew. He’s still in seventh, both in the points standings and our rankings, but he may have missed his best shot at a win.
Standings: 7th, 447 points
RELATED: Junior Press Pass

8. Greg Biffle                  

Outlook: Biffle’s win on Sunday was huge for the Roush Fenway driver, who looks primed for a Chase spot with just 13 points separating him and fifth-place Matt Kenseth, who has three wins.
Standings: 8th, 443 points
RELATED: Biffle, Johnson All Access

9. Kasey Kahne              

Outlook: Kahne was one of the handful of drivers who ran into a bit of trouble while leading the race. His came in the form of a blown right front tire that sent him reeling into the wall and a 38th-place finish.
Standings: 12th, 407 points
RELATED: Kahne Press Pass

10. Brad Keselowski        

Outlook: It was a tumultuous week for Keselowski, as his comments on Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing subjected the defending champ to a load of criticism. A 12th-place finish at his home track had to be disappointing for him as well, considering he’s a poor race or two away from falling out of a Chase spot with no 2013 wins under his belt.
Standings: 9th, 430 points
RELATED: Keselowski post-race reaction 

11. Tony Stewart             

Outlook: Stewart, a former roommate of Jason Leffler’s, was very much affected by the passing of the driver. Smoke also crashed his car in the opening practice on Friday. Needless to say, there was plenty to distract him heading into Sunday. A fifth-place finish, however, has Stewart in the top 10 in points and looking pretty good heading into the summer months. 
Standings: 10th, 417 points
RELATED: Stewart post-race reaction 

12. Martin Truex Jr.             

Outlook: Truex’s third-place finish in the Quicken Loans 400 was his second-best of the season, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. He jumped four spots in the standings and is now just one spot outside the Wild Card window.
Standings: 13th, 405 points
RELATED: Truex post-race reaction

13. Paul Menard             

Outlook: Menard had a fast car all weekend, practicing well and qualifying fourth. His 14th-place finish is almost a disappointment because of how well he had been doing heading into the race, but it was still enough to give him a provisional Wild Card spot.
Standings: 11th, 415 points

14. Jeff Gordon               

Outlook: It’s hard not to feel bad for Gordon, who was collected in Bobby Labonte’s spin and ended up 39th on Sunday. His crew was able to fix up his car enough to get it back out on the race track, but by then it was too late to make up much ground.
Standings: 16th, 398 points
RELATED: Gordon Press Pass

15. Joey Logano            

Outlook: After having a four-race stretech from Kansas to Charlotte that saw three finishes outside the top-20, Logano has quietly reeled off four consecutive top-10s to put him back into Chase contention.
Standings: 14th, 405 points

16. Kurt Busch             

Outlook: Like Earnhardt and Kahne, Busch was leading the race when he had his issues. After spinning out and taking serious wall damage, the car was fixed up on pit road but had missed too many laps to make any noise in the race. It’s too bad, because he may have had the fastest car all weekend.
Standings: 20th, 384 points
RELATED:Busch Press Pass

17. Ryan Newman             

Outlook: Newman’s fifth-place showing at Pocono had some believing that he’d gained a bit of momentum to carry into Michigan with him. An 18th-place finish in the Irish Hills proved otherwise.
Standings: 18th, 389 points

18. Aric Almirola         

Outlook: Almirola, who started the race fifth, had a great shot to do some damage at Michigan and pick up his first career win. He finished 17th, which isn’t terrible by any means, but it dropped him a spot in the standing and his Chase hopes are circling the drain.
Standings: 15th, 404 points

19. Denny Hamlin              

Outlook: Hamlin’s return from injury has been up and down in the five full races he’s run, lending some concern over any lingering back issues he might be experiencing. Crew chief Darian Grubb said they just couldn’t get the car right on Sunday (finished 30th). Whatever the problem is, it needs to be fixed if Hamlin plans on not missing the Chase for the first time in his full-time Cup career.
Standings: 26th, 299 points

20. Jeff Burton            

Outlook: Surprisingly, despite just three top-10 finishes this season, Burton continues to hang around and is just eight points behind Jeff Gordon in 16th-place. He’s run well the past four races and could help his cause by maintaining pace.
Standings: 17th, 390 points

In the rearview

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

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A 13th-place showing is just fine for Patrick, crew chief Tony Gibson

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Matt Kenseth’s sixth-place finish? Probably not one he’ll tell his grandkids about.

Carl Edwards in eighth? The word ‘angry’ would be an understatement when it came to the displeasure surrounding his result.

But a 13th-place finish in the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway for Danica Patrick was enough for her and crew chief Tony Gibson to go home happy, knowing they made some progress toward getting the ball rolling.

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The finish was Patrick’s best since the sixth race of the season at Martinsville, where she finished 12th. It’s the first time she’s finished inside the top 20 since then and just the third time all year, the other coming in the Daytona 500.

“We’ll take a 13th. Thank God we got something better than 29th,” Patrick said. “It’s nice to just get a decent finish for the team. It’s been rough going since Martinsville, so this will hopefully get everyone’s head up a little bit and we’ll go on. We’ve been strong lately, we just need to have days like today where we finish strong.”

Sunday’s race was a funky one that saw three Hendrick Motorsports cars (Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon) finish 37-39, one of the other fastest cars (Kurt Busch) finish 35th, and neither Jimmie Johnson nor Denny Hamlin finish inside the top 20.

So if there was ever a race for Patrick and Co. to sneak to a solid finish, this was it. But don’t let that deter from the improvements Gibson made to the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet since opening practices that saw Patrick’s speeds rank in the upper 30s.

“By the end of the race, we had gotten the car to a good spot and I felt pretty good,” Patrick said. “At the end of the day, it’s very simple. By making the car more comfortable to drive, you can put it in more positions and carry more speed through the corner.”

“I don’t think you ever get comfortable in these things … you’re only going to get it so good,” Gibson added. “It was a good day for us, she stayed in there and she drove her ass off.”

As Patrick’s 2013 Sprint Cup Series rookie season — a season that has seen more downs than ups  –soldiers on, the lessons she learns each week continue to be implemented as she picks up on certain “tricks of the trade” other drivers are using to beat her.

“(These cars) don’t drive very good in traffic because you can take the air off of people really early and she’s still learning that,” said Gibson. “She’s still learning when guys get on your left rear it dumps all the air off the blade back there, the shark fin, and she’s learning that. As she learns to do that to other people, she’ll get better and better about how to position herself in traffic and getting herself separated from those guys.”

And at this point of the season, with Patrick’s 27th-place spot in the standings making a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup berth look like a long shot at best, that’s what she has to be striving for — the lessons.

Now, with close to half of the season in the books, it’s time for this branch of Stewart-Haas Racing to take what they’ve learned thus far, apply it to the remaining races to figure out what they can do best and look forward to being competitive on a regular basis in the future.

“It’s a good weekend to build on, going into Sonoma,” said Gibson. “So we’ll take this and hopefully we can build on it and go there and have another top-15, top-20 run. That’s what we’re here for.”

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Part-time NASCAR driver answers warrant in connection with theft of racing equipment

NASCAR driver Mike Harmon answered arrest warrants Monday, turning himself in to authorities in Shelby, N.C.

The 55-year-old driver was released on a $10,000 bond shortly after additional warrants were issued earlier in the day by the Rowan County sheriff’s office for both Harmon and business partner David Novak. Both were charged with breaking and entering and larceny.

Warrants for Harmon were previously executed in May for breaking and entering a motor vehicle and felony larceny in connection with the December 2012 theft of race equipment belonging to rival Jennifer Jo Cobb. He was released on bond.

Novak is a former business associate of Cobb’s who now is aligned with Harmon. Novak has filed suit against Cobb in U.S. District Court in a dispute over ownership of the assets of JJC Racing, which the two former partners formed before the 2010 season.

Harmon said May 15 through his Twitter account that he was not involved in the theft. “I want it known that I have never stolen so much as a piece of bubble gum in my life,” he tweeted.

Harmon is an occasional competitor in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR Nationwide series. He last raced May 31 at Dover in the truck tour, finishing 32nd.

Cobb currently ranks 27th in the Truck Series points, having failed to qualify for one of the seven races this year. Her best finish this season is 17th at Kansas Speedway in April.

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Truck Series champion diversifying skill set

Related: Nationwide Series entry list

Defending NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion James Buescher will try his luck in a NASCAR Nationwide Series car this weekend for the first time all season.

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With limited road-course experience, Buescher will pilot the No. 34 Chevrolet for Turner Scott Motorsports in the Johnsonville Sausage 200 presented by Menards (5 p.m. ET, ESPN) at the 4-mile Road America course.

Buescher has Nationwide Series experience, having competed in 54 races since 2008. He has one victory to his credit — the 2012 season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway — in addition to three top-fives and 13 top-10s. Buescher contemplated making a full-time move to the Nationwide Series in 2013, but stuck with his guaranteed truck ride.

The 23-year-old was among the drivers at an open test session last month at Virginia International Raceway, a 3.27-mile road course near Danville.

Buescher could use the experience on a road course, given that the Camping World Truck Series will compete at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park on Sept. 1. The road course in Ontario is nearly 2.5 miles long.

In seven Truck Series races this season, Buescher has finished in the top 15 in every event. He has three top-10s, including a pair of sixth-place finishes. Buescher is fifth in the points standings with 235 points, 50 behind leader Matt Crafton.

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Splitting time between Road America, Sonoma presents challenges

As the only driver pulling double duty across half the country this weekend, Brian Vickers is well aware of the special challenges ahead. Still, he’s more aware of some challenges than others. 

There’s the logistics of getting from one place to the other. There’s the transition from his full-time role in the NASCAR Nationwide Series to his part-time detail on the Sprint Cup circuit. The biggest hurdle, however, might be the actual task at hand, adapting from NASCAR’s longest road course — a circuit he’s never competed on — to its shortest.

Vickers goes into the great unknown in Saturday’s Johnsonville Sausage 200 (5 p.m. ET, ESPN) for the Nationwide Series at 4.048-mile Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., before he returns to a more familiar track — 1.99-mile Sonoma Raceway, site of Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3 p.m. ET, TNT) for the Sprint Cup tour. The unique Wisconsin-to-California doubleheader will mark the first time he’s competed in NASCAR national series events in different states in the same weekend.

“I’m looking forward to both of them,” Vickers said Tuesday in a weekly NASCAR teleconference. “It’s going to take a little different mentality and technique going from Road America which is a little bit faster place to Sonoma which is a slower, more technical road race, but I’m up for the challenge and excited.”

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Part of Vickers’ divide-and-conquer strategy includes making just one commute. He’ll start the weekend with his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team, focusing on regaining ground in the Nationwide title hunt. In the meantime, Jason Bowles will sub for him in the No. 55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota in Sprint Cup practice and qualifying, meaning Vickers will have to start Sunday’s race from the back of the field. 

“Obviously missing qualifying at Sonoma and starting last is not going to help, but there are benefits,” Vickers said. “I think there’s opportunities at Sonoma to get to do a little bit different pit strategy. Knowing that you don’t really have track position to protect kind of can create opportunities. We’ve been there in the past where we’ve had either bad qualifying or something happened during the race and we had to come in and pit or penalties on pit road, like last year we had the penalty on pit road and had to go to the back and we worked our way back up to fourth, but as much as it hurt us, it also created opportunities.”

If Vickers is to pounce on the opportunity to move up in the Nationwide points, it will have to happen on an unfamiliar circuit. Involvement in crashes in the last two races have knocked Vickers from third to 10th in the season-long standings, placing a higher premium on a rebound at Road America.

Vickers says he’s watched race footage from the picturesque Wisconsin track to help him prepare for the long, free-wheeling laps. But he also has some experience to draw on — this time last year, Vickers was turning laps in a Ferrari at the high-speed, 8.469-mile Circuit de la Sarthe in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“Obviously setting up for a track that long, you have a lot of give and take, right?” Vickers said. “You get a little bit here but you give up a little bit here when you make a change in the setup. The longer the track, the worse that is. 

“I would say the hardest thing for myself and I think a lot of guys going into this weekend is that we’ve never seen it. Most of the guys have not raced there, there’s a few that have. I believe maybe Sam Hornish has run there in other cars, Max Papis and a few guys, but most guys have not, including myself, and the hardest part is going to be just learning a new four‑mile race track.”

The opposite will be true at Sonoma, where Vickers has competed seven times. His efforts include a pole position in 2009 and his come-from-behind drive to finish fourth last season.

The Sonoma course has two fewer turns (12 to Road America’s 14), but the twists and turns are compacted into a layout that tips the odometer at less than half the distance. The track’s intricate nature, contrasted with the brute force of ground-pounding stock cars, can make for a sometimes-volatile mix, Vickers says.

“I love racing there, but it’s a short track road course,” he said. “I think the pros and cons come along with that. You’re almost inevitably going to come out of there mad at someone and someone mad at you, and you just hope it’s not too many and they’re not too mad. But it’s just part of it, which is ‑‑ it’s just that’s what the fans show up for, right?

“It’s that strong and entertaining competition, but it’s such a short track, and the field is so tightly packed and so competitive, you’re inevitably going to rub fenders with somebody.  There’s just no way around it.”

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HP To Become An Official Technology Partner of NASCAR

"NASCAR has proven to be an effective vehicle to drive innovation and will be a powerful platform for HP to showcase its state-of-the-art products, services and solutions."

—Steve Phelps, NASCAR chief marketing officer


DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 17, 2013) – NASCAR announced a new multi-year official agreement with HP, aligning two brands that are committed to innovation. The new alliance designates HP as an Official Technology Partner of NASCAR and marks the expansion of a relationship that began one year ago when the companies collaborated on the development of the Fan and Media Engagement Center (FMEC). The agreement is structured to incentivize continued investment in the FMEC while exploring areas for future innovation throughout the sport.

“The expanded alliance underscores our commitment to accelerate the adoption of cutting-edge technology across our sport,” said Steve Phelps, NASCAR chief marketing officer. “NASCAR has proven to be an effective vehicle to drive innovation and will be a powerful platform for HP to showcase its state-of-the-art products, services and solutions.”

The FMEC formally launched in January 2013 and has already benefitted the NASCAR industry by providing business-impacting information tailored to specific audiences within the NASCAR ecosystem, including race teams, tracks and partners. The state-of-the-art facility enables near real-time analysis and response to traditional, digital and social media. Housed in a 500-square-foot, glass-enclosed area, outfitted with state-of-the-art touch screens, television monitors and multiple seated viewing areas and work stations, the FMEC is the centerpiece to the newly designed offices that house NASCAR Digital.

“As the largest spectator sport in the U.S., NASCAR needs to stay on the cutting-edge of technology to innovate and deliver an engaging, fulfilling experience for its fans around the world,” said Charles Salameh, vice president, HP. “As the only company that can provide access to such a broad portfolio of products and services, HP will work with NASCAR to drive and accelerate innovation.”

As part of this integrated collaboration, HP will make its debut as a member of the NASCAR Fuel For Business Council at the event in San Francisco and participate in a Technology and Innovation panel. The Council brings together an exclusive group of more than 60 Official NASCAR Partners four times per year to buy and sell products and services from one another. This exclusive business-to-business environment offers unique opportunities for many FORTUNE 500 companies to bypass the time and layers of corporate coordination that may exist to construct customized deals that help address specific business needs.

The world’s largest technology company and an industry leader in IT services and product development, HP becomes the second blue-chip brand to join the stable of NASCAR Official Partners in the past two months. According to a recent analysis of sponsors currently in the sport, nearly one-in-four (117) FORTUNE 500 companies use NASCAR as part of their marketing mix. HP currently ranks 15th on the FORTUNE 500 list, joining Official Partners Mobil 1, General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Bank of America as companies that rank in the top 25.

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Superman falters as NASCAR enters summer stretch; plus more from Sunday

RELATED: Quicken Loans 400 results | Updated Sprint Cup standings

It was a tough day to be Superman.

No, not the cinematic version — although his day riding on the hood of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car surely came to a premature end as well — but NASCAR’s version of the Man of Steel, who over the past decade has proven capable of leaping just about anything in single bound. One week after reminding everyone of how dominant he can be, Jimmie Johnson suffered a finish Sunday that brought back some painful reminders of last season.

Johnson’s hopes of winning at Michigan, a track that’s bedeviled him for years, ended with three laps remaining Sunday when he cut a tire and hit the wall trying to run down leader and eventual winner Greg Biffle. On a day when mighty Hendrick Motorsports saw all four of its cars limp back to North Carolina, Johnson withstood a blow which reminded everyone that not even this Superman is indestructible, after all.

For the five-time champion, what a massive swing of emotions over the course of seven days. The week prior he had been untouchable at Pocono Raceway, and left with a points advantage so large he spoke about potentially skipping the regular-season finale in case his wife goes into labor earlier than anticipated. There was no such talk of that at Michigan, when pit-road strategy forced Johnson to rocket up through the pack at the end, getting him within reach of Biffle before the No. 48 wound up in the wall.

It was a scene reminiscent of last year’s penultimate event at Phoenix, another race where Johnson was asked to try and squeeze everything he could out of the car, and where he also ended up in the wall with a cut tire as a result. And surely no one has to remind Five-Time of the races that got away late last summer, and the bonus points he left on the table, and how those might have factored into his title clash with Brad Keselowski.

It just all goes to show how quickly things can change on a week-to-week basis in NASCAR’s top series, even if the cast of characters dueling for the victory remains the same. At Pocono the focus was on Toyota Racing Development, which retuned its engines for more reliability after a spate of failures, and for the first time all year didn’t place a car in the top five. At Michigan it was Earnhardt trailing white smoke behind one of the event’s best cars, a rare Hendrick blowup that left crew chief Steve Letarte slamming his clipboard.

No question Hendrick’s 48/88 shop is still formidable, as a Pocono event owned by Johnson and Earnhardt might suggest. At Michigan, though, a little of that shine was rubbed off. Now it’s on to the road course at Sonoma, where neither driver will be a favorite. This summer in NASCAR is only beginning, and if Sunday in the Irish Hills is any indication, it could be heated in more ways than one.

Tear down

Trickle-down effect. Danica Patrick enjoyed her best finish in weeks with a 13th-place run at Michigan, and unlike the last time she ran that well — 12th at Martinsville in April — this one should have been less of a surprise. Patrick is at her best on wide, fast race tracks, and it seemed only a matter of time before the improvement at Stewart-Haas Racing trickled over to her No. 10 car. Her team owner also continued his roll, with Tony Stewart notching his third consecutive top-five result.

Just gets tougher. Denny Hamlin’s hopes of making the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup seem to get a little dimmer with each passing week. Last week at Pocono, an eighth-place run netted him only one position in the standings. Sunday he gave it back in a 30th-place run that included an in-race shock change. Good news: Stewart is now in the top 10, meaning he may not have to rely on his Dover victory for a Wild Card berth. Of course, Hamlin still has to win to have any chance at all.

Slick and sideways. A fast Michigan track that was resurfaced last season had its slick spots, something seen time and time again on Sunday. “Just broke loose on us,” Kurt Busch said after spinning out early in the race. And Jeff Gordon’s trying season continued when Bobby Labonte spun in front of him, wrecking the No. 24 car just six laps into the race. It was a costly blow for Gordon, who dropped five spots to 16th in the standings as a result.

Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 Chevrolet needed a tow off the track following his wreck with Bobby Labonte. Gordon’s crew got his car in drivable condition, and the veteran returned for an additional 46 laps to at least gain a couple of spots at Michigan.

Inside the numbers

11. Finishing position of NASCAR Nationwide Series championship contender Austin Dillon, his best ever in a Sprint Cup event. His previous best in seven starts had been 21st, at Las Vegas earlier this season. The Richard Childress Racing driver will move up to NASCAR’s premier series next year.

0. DNFs this season by Paul Menard, who is back in the second Wild Card position. Of course, he doesn’t have any race wins or top-fives, either, and he returns to Chase position thanks to Stewart moving into the top 10. But Sunday’s 14th-place finish at Michigan was a rebound of sorts for a driver who had placed 30th and 20th over the past two weeks.

11. Average finish over the past four weeks for Jeff Burton, whose 10th-place run at Michigan was his first top-10 since Richmond in April. He’s finished 12th, 11th, 11th and 10th over the past four events, and improved from 20th to 17th in points in the process.

Paul Menard has no victories or top-fives, but he also has no DNFs. That consistency is enough to put him back in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup … for now.

They said it

“I feel pretty young still. I feel like I’m in good shape. I feel young in my mind.  I feel like I have good energy. I’m not burning out.” — Dale Earnhardt Jr., when asked if he felt his window in which to win races is closing.

“Race car drivers don’t work hard enough to be crew chiefs. We don’t get up early enough to be crew chiefs.” — Jeff Gordon, when asked why drivers don’t become crew chiefs when they retire, like players in other sports becoming coaches.

“I am as careful as I am when I get in a car on a city street.” — Tony Stewart, on his level of caution when competing on a dirt track, in the wake of the fatal crash of NASCAR driver Jason Leffler at a sprint-car event last week in New Jersey.

Related: Standings shuffle in Michigan

Chase watch

Outside looking in. Kasey Kahne’s cut tire and crash while leading Sunday dropped him four spots in the standings, and outside the top 10. He’s now the leader in the Wild Card standings, by virtue of his victory earlier this season at Bristol.

On the line. After a tremendous stretch kicked off with two near misses at Charlotte, front-row starter Kurt Busch spun and crashed Sunday, knocking him back five positions to 20th in points. The Furniture Row Racing driver needs to stay inside the top 20 if he hopes to use a victory to crash the Chase as a Wild Card.

Fighting back. He may be enduring an up-and-down season, but Martin Truex Jr. continues to fight his way into Chase contention. His third-place finish Sunday gained him four spots in the standings, and he’s now 13th. Truex stood as high as ninth in points after Charlotte, but fell to 17th after a tough day at Pocono last weekend.

Coming up

The road course at Sonoma, Calif., where Clint Bowyer is the defending champion. It’s potentially a golden opportunity for a former road-course racer like Marcos Ambrose or Juan Pablo Montoya to grab a victory and insert himself right in the mix for a Wild Card to the Chase.

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Proceeds go to the Charlie Dean Leffler Discretionary Trust

"Jason Leffler was a good buddy of mine, and it’s neat to see how the racing world and the fans and his friends and everybody has supported him…."

—Kasey Kahne


Kasey Kahne looked to Jason Leffler when he made the move to NASCAR as both began successful NASCAR careers in the early 2000s. Now, Kahne is looking out for Leffler’s son, Charlie Dean.

On Monday, Kahne tweeted: “#LEFturn hats can be ordered here. All proceeds benefit Charlie. Thanks for the support. bit.ly/11k1d76” (@KaseyKahne)

The embroidered flex fit hats can be purchased at Kahne’s online store, by phone, at Kasey Kahne Racing in Mooresville, N.C. or Kasey Kahne Merchandising in Enumclaw, Wash. and at the Daryn Pittman and Cody Darrah merchandise trailer at World of Outlaw races.

“We did a lot together at Indianapolis, and then as he moved to Charlotte," Kahne said last Friday. "I followed him down to Charlotte not long after. 

“Jason Leffler was a good buddy of mine, and it’s neat to see how the racing world and the fans and his friends and everybody has supported him for the last four or five days,” Kahne said after Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

“That showed the person and the racer that he was. I’m just glad I could say he was one of my good friends.”

Donations can be made to The Charlie Dean Leffler Discretionary Trust at:

The Charlie Dean Leffler Discretionary Trust
c/o SunTrust Bank

232 Williamson Road
Mooresville, NC 28117

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Phoenix Racing seeks win after third last year

Jacques Villeneuve, the 1995 Formula 1 champion, will pilot the No. 51 TAG Heuer Eyewear Chevrolet for Phoenix Racing in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

Villeneuve, 42, has three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts, nine Nationwide Series starts and seven Camping World Truck Series races to his credit. In Nationwide road-course competition, he has four top-five finishes – including three at his home track in Montreal — and six top-10s

“We wanted to put a driver in our No. 51 Chevrolet who would give us the best chance to win at Sonoma Raceway,” said James Finch, team owner. “When the opportunity came up to have someone like Jacques Villeneuve in our car, we were very happy to make that happen.”

Last year at Sonoma, Kurt Busch finished third and led two laps in the No. 51 for Phoenix Racing.

Posted on by Nascar

Sprint Cup trio grew up on Legends Car circuit as ‘Georgia Gang’

It was an unofficial title, likely created more in fun than in hopes it might strike fear into the competition.
 
Then again, any little advantage helps.
 
“We all lived in Georgia at the time, and we’d go up to Charlotte and run the (Summer) Shootout,” Joey Logano, youngest of the three, said. “And we were called the Georgia Gang. We’d try to go up there and kick everyone’s butt in Charlotte.”
 
Bandoleros and Legends cars. Not necessarily a feeder series for NASCAR hopefuls, but a steppingstone just the same.

"We always hoped and believed, and certainly it was our dream that we would continue to progress up the ranks … to NASCAR racing"

—David Ragan

David Ragan, son of a former NASCAR Cup driver and native of Unadilla, was the oldest, although by only six weeks or so.
 
Reed Sorenson, a product of Peachtree City, had the edge in experience, the first of the trio to begin to progress through the racing ranks.
 
Logano was the Connecticut Yankee, hailing from Middletown, yet he quickly became a fixture inside the small circle of friends once his family relocated to the Peach State.
 
Imagine three youngsters competing in the same sport, on the same playing field, two and three times each and every summer. The kids grow up, grow apart, and perhaps one from the group continues to excel.
 
But all three?
 
“The chances of that happening aren’t very good, slim to none,” Sorenson said. “Just because of how many people race all over the country.
 
“For three people from the same state, let alone three that grew up racing Legends cars from the same area …”
 
“When you go to a Legends car race in Georgia, you wouldn’t think, ‘Oh, three of those guys are going to be Cup racing someday,’” Logano said.
 
“You’d never say that. So that’s pretty cool.”
 
Logano, 23 and driver of the No. 22 Penske Racing Ford, is a two-time winner in the Cup Series. He has 19 career Nationwide Series wins as well.
 
Ragan, 27, scored his second career Cup win earlier this year at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, driving for Front Row Motorsports.
 
And while Sorenson, also 27, is winless in Cup, where he has five career top-fives and 15 top-10s, he is a four-time winner in the Nationwide Series. He currently drives for The Motorsports Group in the Nationwide Series, although he filled in for the injured Michael Annett and Richard Petty Motorsports for seven races earlier this season.
 
“We always hopes and believed, and certainly it was our dream,” Ragan said, “that we would continue to progress up the ranks … to NASCAR racing.
 
“We were really fortunate that we hit it at a good time back in the mid- to early 2000s, where the economy was strong, teams were spending a lot of money on new young development drivers, and there was a wave of some of the older drivers that were retiring. So it was a perfect storm back then.
 
“I think Reed really led the way by going doing ASA racing, (then) he signed on with (team owner Chip) Ganassi. That kind of showed us, ‘Hey, we need to go run some ARCA cars or we need to run some ASA series and try to get on with a team.”
 
By 2009, the dream had become a reality as all three were competing full-time in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.
 
But it was the early years that laid the foundation.
 
Sorenson, who began competing in Legends cars in 1998, scored 84 career wins in the series and was the Atlanta Motor Speedway track champion in 1998-99 and ’01.
 
“We were pretty close, especially in the summer when we would travel up to Charlotte for 10 weeks (to race) on Tuesday nights,” he said of competing regularly with Ragan and Logano.
 
On Thursdays, the racing moved back to Atlanta. “And then on Saturdays, we’d all race somewhere too,” he said.
 
That the races were televised was a factor in helping each of the three continue to move up the ladder. That, and the fact that each was highly successful.
 
“In any type of racing series, to be able to be on TV, and for people to see you running well and winning races … that was non-existent for a series (until then),” Sorenson said. “That’s probably one of the biggest things that helped me, to be able to go out there and win races, and have it be on TV where people could see it.”
 
Ragan, the son of former Cup driver Ken Ragan, won the first Bandolero race held at AMS, while Logano holds the distinction of winning a record 14 consecutive feature races at AMS in Legends competition.
 
As they watched Sorenson continue to move up through the ranks, “that certainly gave myself, and I believe Joey, some confidence that if we could continue winning as we moved up, there would be some interest in us,” Ragan said. “And that’s ultimately what happened.
 
Although they’ve move upward and onward, they haven’t totally drifted apart. And they continue to race each other the same way they did when each was first starting out.
 
“We don’t race each other any differently than we did back then,” said Logano. “We raced each other clean, but hard. Nothing dirty, but we raced each other hard.
 
“I remember I pushed David to his first Nationwide Series win at Talladega; I pushed him across the line. That was kind of cool.”

By 2009, the dream had become a reality as all three were competing full-time in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.