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A week after controversial restart costs him, Johnson gets third win of season

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LONG POND, Pa. — It’s not a good idea to rile up Jimmie Johnson.
 
A week after a penalty for jumping the final restart at Dover knocked Johnson out of a near-certain victory, Johnson absolutely scorched the field in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Party in the Poconos 400, beating Greg Biffle to the finish line by 1.208 seconds.
 
The win was Johnson’s third of the season, his third at the Tricky Triangle and the 63rd of his career. Johnson increased his series lead over second-place Carl Edwards (18th Sunday) to a staggering 51 points after 14 races.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran third, followed by Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman. Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano completed the top 10.
 
"What a race car!" Johnson said after climbing from the No. 48 Chevrolet in Victory Lane. "Not only a great race car but an engine. We had fuel mileage and plenty of power. It was awesome on the straightaways today to be able to do what I wanted around other cars.
 
"So hats off to chassis, aero and the engine shop for this awesome race car."
 
You might think winning at Pocono for the first time since he swept both races here in 2004 might assuage the sting of last week’s penalty. You’d be wrong.
 
"No, but it’s OK," Johnson said. "It doesn’t make up for much, but we know we’re a great race team. Things won’t keep us down. We had a great race car today and had a lot of fun. That was a lot of fun out there."
 
Johnson avoided a surfeit of action in the late stages of the race — because he was ahead of it. By the time Dave Blaney’s spin brought out the fourth caution on Lap 138, the five-time champion already had led 106 laps.
 
That yellow followed a caution for an accident in the Tunnel Turn on Lap 133, when Juan Pablo Montoya drove hard into the corner under Matt Kenseth, lost control of his No. 42 and started a synchronized spin with Kenseth.
 
Subsequently, Johnson had to endure four restarts but did so as the leader and quickly regained control of the race in each instance. All told, Johnson led 128 of 160 laps.
 
Biffle was happy with a runner-up finish that jumped him three positions to 10th in the standings, but he conceded that his No. 16 Ford was no match for Johnson’s Chevy SS.
 
"Jimmie was in a league of his own," said Biffle, who took the green flag from the fourth position on the final restart with four laps left and surged past Earnhardt and Kyle Busch in the first corner. "I was going to have to get up beside him, take the air off him–something to try and gain an advantage.
 
"But I gave him such a good push on the restart I couldn’t catch back up with him… I couldn’t get him."
 
Though Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Kyle Busch and Hamlin finished sixth and eighth, respectively, Hamlin said he could feel a reduction in horsepower in his TRD (Toyota Racing Development) engine, after the engines were detuned in favor of reliability in reaction to several recent valve train failures.
 
"Any horsepower change is going to be a difficult thing to overcome, especially this week and next week (at Michigan), our two horsepower race tracks," Hamlin said. "I wouldn’t be opposed to say that other guys probably stepped up coming to this race track, and we took a step back.

"It’s kind of a double whammy, but it’s something TRD’s going to work through."

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Moments that changed the course of the race in the Irish Hills

BIFFLE’S LATE-RACE RESTART
Greg Biffle feels right at home at Michigan International Speedway.

He took the lead for good on a late restart and ran away from the field in the closing laps to win Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400. The No. 16 Ford driver won his second straight race here and the 19th of his career. Four of those victories have come at MIS.

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"It’s definitely a special day," Biffle said after delivering Ford Motor Co. its 1,000th victory in NASCAR’s three national touring series. "Just super-excited for Ford and sure excited to be No. 1,000."

The win secured Biffle a berth in the 2014 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and moved him up a spot to eighth in the standings.

Second a week ago at Pocono, Biffle led the pack to the restart on lap 173 and outran Martin Truex Jr. to stay out front. He led a race-best 48 laps.

BLOWN TIRE NULLIFIES JOHNSON’S STRATEGY
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader Jimmie Johnson, with four fresh tires, was gaining on Biffle’s two in the final laps but a cut right front tire took him off the track with two laps to go.

Johnson took second a few laps before his misfortune, and Kevin Harvick backed out of the throttle to hold on to at least a third-place finish.

Biffle still was impressed with Johnson, whom he finished second to a week ago at Pocono.

"The guy was 10 (on the restart) and was catching me with 10 to go," Biffle said. "That’s a fast race car.

"We beat the 48 today and that says a lot. He was really, really fast."

Johnson ended the day 28th to wrap up a tough day for Hendrick Motorsports. None of the racing giant’s four entries cracked the top 25.

KURT BUSCH’S SPIN PROVES COSTLY IN THE STANDINGS
Kurt Busch swept Saturday’s practice sessions, started second and was running fourth when he brought out the yellow flag in the 28th lap with a spin and mild contact with the outside retaining wall.

The No. 78 driver had inched up nine places in the points standings over the last eight races, but Sunday’s 35th-place finish — seven laps down — pushed him from 15th to 20th in points, increasing his urgency to secure a win for his wild-card hopes.

“The car just broke loose,” said Busch. “We had a really fast car all weekend and it’s a shame that we didn’t capitalize on what we had. The driver feels the hurt, the same way the crew and the entire organization does. But these things happen and all we can do is put this behind us and get ready with the same intensity for next weekend’s race.”

NASCAR.com’s Zack Albert and the NASCAR Wire Service contributed to this report.

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News and updates for the select group after Pocono weekend

Oh, there you are Stewart-Haas Racing. You too, Greg Biffle.

The Coca-Cola Racing Family had a stellar week at one of the trickier tracks on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuit — the Tricky Triangle, in fact.

Greg Biffle broke out of a six-week slump to finish second, his best showing of the year. Meanwhile, Tony Stewart finished fourth one week after his first victory, and fellow SHR driver Ryan Newman finished fifth, giving the Coca-Cola Racing Family three drivers in the top five.

That’s not all, either.

With Denny Hamlin taking eighth and Joey Logano coming in 10th, that put five Coca-Cola drivers in the top 10.

A roundup on the Coca-Cola Racing Family in order of how they finished at Pocono:

Greg Biffle (No. 16)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford 

Recap: There wasn’t a driver in the Coca-Cola Racing Family — and perhaps all of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series — that needed a strong finish more than Greg Biffle. Biffle, after all, had six consecutive showings outside the top 10, with four of those six finishes coming outside the top 20. The result was a tumble down the standings and out of the postseason picture. Thanks to his Herculean effort at the 2.5-mile triangle, Biffle climbed to 10th in the standings and solidified himself as a legitimate postseason threat.
Quotable: “It was definitely a struggle for us. We had two pit stops that weren’t the greatest. We hung a lug nut and we were struggling for track position all day. We were really, really good in Turn 1 and 2, and really good in the tunnel, which it’s been many, many years since I’ve been that good across the tunnel. I felt like I was as good as (race winner Jimmie Johnson), but he was driving away from everybody, so he’s got something figured out over there. But it was a good day for us.”
His standing: Biffle is 10th in the standings with 395 points.
Outlook: Biffle has momentum entering Michigan, a place he’s seemed to figure out. Not only did Biffle win the fall race last year, but he has three wins at the 2-mile facility.

Tony Stewart (No. 14)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Recap: With three consecutive top-10s, the man they call Smoke is on fire. And it’s not just him, either. One of the biggest story lines early in the year was how much Stewart-Haas Racing had struggled. Well, that may be a thing of the past. Not only did owner Tony Stewart finish fourth at Pocono, his buddy and teammate Ryan Newman finished fifth.
Quotable: “It’s one thing if one car runs good, but to have two or all three of us running good shows that we are gaining momentum. It’s not just one team, the whole organization is gaining momentum. Really proud of our group at SHR. The Hendrick engines today were awesome. There’s not doubt of having four of the top-five cars with Hendrick horsepower shows the strength there. Just happy and proud of that effort too.”
His standing: Stewart is 13th in the standings with 378 points.
Outlook: He has a victory, so Stewart currently owns one of the two wild-card entries into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. If he keeps driving this well, though, he likely won’t need to worry about the wild card because he’s within striking distance of the top 10, which carries with it an automatic entry into the sport’s postseason.

Ryan Newman (No. 39)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Recap: Newman is considered one of the smartest drivers on the circuit. Having a degree in engineering tends to do that. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that Newman’s team hit on pit strategy unlike any other team, and that it had the No. 39 group in position to challenge for a win before Jimmie Johnson asserted his dominance. Still, a fifth-place effort isn’t at all bad, and it keeps Newman in contention for the postseason with 12 races remaining in NASCAR’s regular season.
Quotable: “We had an awesome Haas Automation Chevrolet. Thanks to all the fans for coming out today. It’s good for the Quicken Loans group with their ‘Bring it Home’ sweepstakes. Five people are going to get their mortgage paid for a month as a result of this finish today. Go to QLRacing.com to find out more about that. And, obviously, it’ll be a Bloomin’ Monday for everybody from Outback Steakhouse. Strategy worked out to our benefit with the yellows there at the end. Just a good rebound day for us. That is something we definitely needed as a team. Matt (Borland, crew chief) and the guys did a great job on the strategy.”
His standing: Newman is 18th in the standings with 363 points.
Outlook: Newman’s top-five Sunday was his second of the year, but he has four DNFs. His Chase chances will almost certainly rely on a victory, which he has two of at Michigan.

Denny Hamlin (No. 11)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Recap: Hamlin couldn’t manage a win at one of his best tracks, but he still finished eighth. In his mind, though, that wasn’t enough, and he said as much in a post-race interview where he questioned the power in his engine. Again, Hamlin’s showing isn’t the issue, it’s just that he needs victories after missing four races with a back injury.
Quotable: “We weren’t competitive. Really, we were a little bit off all weekend. Really eighth is about where I thought we were going to end up. I’m proud of the whole FedEx Ground team. My pit crew gave me a chance to at least battle those guys for a few laps by picking me up like four or five spots on the last stop. We’re fighting it. We’re just trying to do everything we can and grind and finish good when we don’t have a winning car. And, by no means did we have a winning car this weekend.”
His standing: Hamlin is 25th in the standings with 285 points.
Outlook: It was a bit deflating for Hamlin to not seriously challenge for the win at a track that’s not only difficult to master, but a track where Hamlin seemingly had the nuances of the triangle figured out. He’s nearly 80 points out of 20th place, which is when he would become eligible for a wild card. It’s starting to look more and more like Hamlin will need to win twice.

Joey Logano (No. 22)

Penske Racing, Ford

Recap: Quietly, Logano has worked his way back into the Chase picture. The only reason it’s been a quiet ascent is because he’s still outside the top 15 in the standings. Remember, Logano was docked 25 points when his car failed an inspection. Without that demarcation, he’d be a top-11 driver and in the Chase. His 10th at Pocono was the third consecutive top-10 finish for the No. 22 team
Quotable: “It was frustrating. I really wish we had qualified because you think 400 miles would be enough time to get up there and it really wasn’t. It was just so hard to pass today. I felt like we had probably a seventh- or eighth-place car and we about got to where we needed to be. We were up there at one point and then we’d get a bad restart or something happens in front of you and you lose them back and you try to get them back again. I think what you saw were the restarts being so chaotic because it’s so hard to pass after four or five laps into a run. … I feel like we were better than we finished with the Shell/Pennzoil Ford, but, overall, a top-10 isn’t the end of the world but it’s not what we wanted.”
His standing: Logano is 16th in the standings with 369 points.
Outlook: Michigan calls for Logano, but the 23-year-old hasn’t done well at that track in a while. All three of his top-10s came in 2010 or earlier. In the past four races, Logano’s best finish is 18th.

Danica Patrick (No. 10)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Recap: As has been the case for most of the season, there were good things and bad things to take away from Patrick’s day. She got a compliment from boss Tony Stewart after her first go at Pocono, but the driver finished 29th after starting 30th. Still, it’s a learning process. The Tricky Triangle is difficult for veterans, and it was her first start there.
Quotable: “We just got shuffled back at the end on the restarts. It’s disappointing because we could have had a much better finish. It’s just part of the process, learning how to get better on restarts, especially at the end of races. That’s where you can really gain a lot of spots.”
Her standing: Patrick is 28th in the standings with 246 points.
Outlook: Patrick has no experience at Michigan, the 2-mile superspeedway just a few hours from where the driver grew up.

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Moments that changed the course of the race at the Tricky Triangle

JOHNSON HOLDS SERVE ON LATE RESTARTS
No. 88 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crew chief Steve Letarte knew his driver needed Jimmie Johnson to make a mistake — which he also knew was unlikely to happen. 

UPS

"Anybody can miss a shift, make a mistake, miss a groove. There’s a lot of opportunity,” the crew chief said. “We take for granted how easy Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and these guys make this look. They’re doing a lot of work out here. There’s a lot of opportunity for mistake. But that guy that won, he’s won a lot of then, so we weren’t expecting him to make too many mistakes.”

That doesn’t mean Johnson wasn’t concerned. “Restarts are so tough, and around here if you can get the clean air on a short run, especially with the series of cautions we had, it would be tough to pass him,” he said. “But even with having a dominant car, I didn’t want to be in that position of running second and have to worry about getting by somebody.  I learned a lot on the two restarts where I was on the outside of the (Ryan Newman), and that helped me a lot going into those final three with Junior on the outside of me.”

NEWMAN’S PIT STRATEGY
Ryan Newman parlayed an off-sequence pit stop strategy into a fifth-place finish. Overall, it was another strong performance from Stewart-Haas Racing, which seems to have turned a corner over the last three weeks.

“Definitely progress, for sure,” said Stewart, who followed his win last Sunday at Dover with a fourth in the Party in the Poconos 400. “It’s one thing if one car runs good, but to have two or three of us running good shows that we are gaining momentum.

“It’s not just one team. The whole organization is gaining momentum.”

TUNNEL TURN TUSSLES
The third caution for an accident in the Tunnel Turn on Lap 133 came when Juan Pablo Montoya drove hard into the corner under Matt Kenseth, lost control of his No. 42 and started a synchronized spin with Kenseth. Montoya finished 14th and Kenseth ended the day 25th, his third consecutive finish of 15th or worse after four top-eight results.

On the restart after that caution, Brad Keselowski was running fifth when he nearly wrecked in the same turn as he and Tony Stewart spun together before each saved his car. By lap 139, Keselowski lost plenty of ground with his remarkable save, sliding back to 15th and finishing 16th. Meanwhile, Stewart was able to hold on for his second consecutive top-five finish.

NASCAR.com’s David Caraviello and the NASCAR Wire Service contributed to this report.

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With 86 laps to go, rain stopped race for 1 hour, 9 minutes, but it’s back on

Related: Updates from Iowa

NEWTON, Iowa — The DuPont Pioneer 250 is back underway after being red-flagged on Lap 164 due to a sudden, but powerful, rain shower at Iowa Speedway. The delay lasted 1-hour, 9-minutes.

During the delay, the cars were called to pit road in the middle of a caution-flag period following a four-car incident that saw Travis Pastrana’s No. 60 Ford hit the high wall, then careen down the track and drill Max Papis, which sent the No. 33 Chevrolet airborne.

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Pastrana took an ambulance ride to the medical center, where he checked out OK. His car was a different story. His front hood disintegrated upon impact with Papis, spilling debris all over the track and bringing out the tow truck as the skies darkened overhead.
 
“It’s really unfortunate because we made great adjustments on the last pit stop,” Pastrana said after being cleared. “I was behind two guys I really trust a lot, the 99 (Alex Bowman) and the 20 (Brian Vickers). The 99 overshot his corner a little bit and hit the 20, and I just couldn’t get stopped before those two hit the wall.
 
“We made the call to come in because we knew there would be another caution, and we had a car we believed could run well in the top 10. … It is disappointing.”
 
Bowman instigated the incident when his Toyota got loose and nudged Vickers, sending both cars into the wall. It was the second spin of the day for Vickers, who also got free on Lap 51 while battling Trevor Bayne for fourth place. Vickers saved his car and stayed on the lead lap in the firstincident, but wasn’t so lucky the second time — his car needed a trip to the garage.
 
Austin Dillon wrestled the lead away from Bayne as the No. 6 battled with series points leader Regan Smith just before the caution for the four-car wreck. Dillon led 103 of the first 125 laps after starting from the pole for the third consecutive week.
 
“We’ve had a good car the whole day,” Dillon said during a TV interview in the midst of the red-flag period. “We made a good move to get us back in the lead, and we just want to go ahead and get this thing over with and win it one way or the other.”
 
The race was originally scheduled for Saturday night, but was postponed to Sunday at 11 a.m. ET due to rain.
 
NASCAR officials said Friday that Iowa Speedway takes approximately 90 minutes to dry, although the rain storm that caused the red-flagging dumped a large quantity of water on the track in a short period of time.
 
Six jet dryers began the drying process at approximately 12:35 p.m. ET. Drivers were called bck to their cars at approximately 1:30 p.m. ET.

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Johnson wins in Pocono; Bayne wins in Iowa

All three NASCAR national series are on the track this weekend, but for the first time all season, three different tracks will host the races.

In the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Jimmie Johnson won at Pocono Raceway, the Tricky Triangle, in the Party in the Poconos 400 Presented by Walmart.

In the NASCAR Nationwide Series, Trevor Bayne won at Iowa Speedway in the DuPont Pioneer 250.

In the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Jeb Burton won at Texas Motor Speedway in the WinStar Casino 400.

• Sprint Cup Series: Party in the Poconos 400 results | Standings

• Nationwide Series: DuPont Pioneer 250 results | Standings

• Camping World Truck Series: WinStar Casino 400 results | Standings

Johnson wins in Pocono

Jimmie Johnson won the Party in the Poconos 400 Presented by Walmart Sunday at Pocono Raceway, putting forth another dominant performance and rebounding from last week’s restart debacle at Dover. | Read the full story




Bayne wins in Iowa

Rain postponed the DuPont Pioneer 250 from Iowa Speedway to Sunday, but Trevor Bayne was right on time, catching Austin Dillon with 19 laps to go and winning less than week after getting married | Read the full story




Dillon wins pole

Austin Dillon won his third straight Coors Light Pole in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. He followed it up with a strong second-place finish in the Dupont Pioneer 250 in Iowa. | Read the full story




Nationwide’s time to shine

The NASCAR Nationwide Series has made quite a home for itself at Iowa Speedway, which began hosting the circuit in 2009. In a race largely free of Sprint Cup moonlighters, series regulars get their chance to perform in front of a packed house of avid fans in the Midwest. | Read the story

Edwards eager for more

It’s not time to hit the panic button yet, Carl Edwards insists. Even with his second-place rank in the Sprint Cup points, he’s hoping for better performance from his Roush Fenway Racing team and Ford as the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup postseason nears. | Read the story

Johnson, Kurt Busch show speed

Series points leader Jimmie Johnson and the resurgent Kurt Busch paced Saturday’s pair of practice sessions at Pocono Raceway as the Sprint Cup tour saw its first on-track activity of the damp weekend. Johnson was second-fastest behind Busch in the final session, and Busch was third-best behind Johnson in the first practice. | Read the story

Debate over Dover

Jimmie Johnson and Juan Pablo Montoya have a candid back-and-forth about their opinions on the restart last week at Dover where Johnson was black-flagged. Listen as they speak to media at Pocono Raceway. | Read the story | Watch the video




Career crossroads?

Jeff Gordon received a shot in the arm before his arrival at Pocono Raceway this weekend as his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team inked a three-year extension with sponsor Axalta. But will the four-time Cup champ still be driving for the length of the deal? | Read the story




Rain washes out qualifying

Rain forces qualifying to be canceled on Friday at Pocono. The lineup for the Party in the Poconos 400 presented by Walmart will be set by owner’s points, with Jimmie Johnson taking the Coors Light Pole, while drivers like Joey Logano jet early to Iowa for Nationwide practice. | Read the full story

Burton wins at Texas

NASCAR Next driver Jeb Burton, 20, gets his first career victory in the WinStar World Casino 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. Burton edges Ty Dillon to get the historic victory and become the youngest Truck driver at Texas. | Read the full story

Dillon, Bowman fastest in Iowa

Austin Dillon and Alex Bowman continued their trend of fast practices as each took the top spot in Friday’s sessions at Iowa Speedway. | Read the full story

They’ve got next

NASCAR prospect hounds, listen up. NASCAR named its Next 13 at Iowa Speedway, i.e. future stars you’ll want to keep an eye on. Brad Norman was there to take notes. | Read the full story

New face of the No. 51

Chad Hackenbracht got his first big chance in his national series debut for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the WinStar World Casino 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. Kristen Boghosian checks in to see how his first day on the job went. | Read the full story




Sauter wins pole

Johnny Sauter wins his first pole of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season, turning the only lap in sub-30 seconds on Thursday at Texas Motor Speedway. | Read the full story

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Newlywed prevails in spirited battle, puts No. 6 team back in title mix

NEWTON, Iowa — It was simple mathematics. Trevor Bayne knew he was going to catch leader Austin Dillon.

His No. 6 Ford built for long runs, Bayne was in second place and gaining on Dillon at a clip of 0.3 seconds per lap, with Dillon out front by 2 seconds and less than 20 laps remaining.

So yes, the math told Bayne he’d be in position to challenge for the lead. Actually pulling off the pass for first place, though? Well, that was different. That was art.

In a thrilling finish to Sunday’s DuPont Pioneer 250 at Iowa Speedway, Bayne chased down Dillon on Lap 238. The cars touched, with Dillon’s machine shaking loose near the top wall. They bumped again.

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They dove down into Turn 1 on Lap 239, side by side with Bayne on the bottom and in position, but not pulling away. In a move he learned during a road-course test a few weeks earlier, Bayne waited for the perfect moment to pull away from Dillon, clearing the No. 3 Chevrolet and putting enough distance between the two cars that they were separated for good.
 
“We battled really hard, a little bit harder than I wanted to, I think we got a little bit of a tire rub there,” Bayne said following his first NASCAR Nationwide Series win of the season. “I knew we’d catch (Austin), but once I got to him, you could really see that he was frustrated. I just stayed behind him for a couple of laps to let him cool off. If he was frustrated, I didn’t want to take a chance on anything. There was a time where I cleared him and I was able to drive away enough to where he couldn’t get back to my bumper and try to cross us over, so that’s where I made the pass.”
 
The race was worth the wait for Bayne, who got married in North Carolina on Tuesday, watched the race get pushed back a day due to inclement weather and then waited out a red-flag period of nearly 70 minutes on Lap 168 because of a powerful rain shower.
 
But as much of a statement as the 22-year-old driver made with his performance on the race track, he made a bigger one when he confidently took the microphone in the media center following his celebration in Victory Lane.
 
“We’re back,” Bayne said. “I get to drive a championship-contending car with a team that just doesn’t give up.”
 
Bayne’s voice was powerful, reaching a crescendo when describing the No. 6 team’s belief in him and his ideas. He got emotional when talking about his wedding as his wife of five days, Ashton, stood 20 feet away responding to congratulatory text messages.
 
Meanwhile, Dillon spoke to television stations with a smile on his face. He led six different times for 207 laps, the No. 3 car so strong that the team made little changes during pit stops beyond fuel and tires. He said the right things.
 
About that late-race contact?
 
“Hard racing,” Dillon said. “Nothing wrong there.”
 
About that late pass by Bayne?
 
“We started fading fast at the end of long runs,” Dillon said. “That’s just part of it. It hurts a little bit.”
 
Away from the public, though, Dillon’s head dropped as he walked back to the garage. The smile turned into a hard line. His shoulders sagged.
 
“When you lead a race like that and you dominate all day, and then 10 laps to go you see somebody catch you. Man, it’s heartbreaking,” Bayne said. “I know Austin has to feel that way.”
 
The feeling in the No. 6 garage was totally different, although it wasn’t an unusual one. Bayne’s crew chief Mike Kelley has won four of the past five races at Iowa, the previous three coming with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. driving the Roush Fenway Racing Ford.
 
The team’s Iowa dominance aside, it’s the third consecutive top-six finish this season for a group that is coming into its own.
 
The turning point? At Texas Motor Speedway one month ago, Kelley finally got the data he had been yearning for when Bayne and Stenhouse both drove in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
 
“We were able to look at some simulations,” Kelley said. “We could go home, take that Cup data and find differences in how Trevor and Ricky ran on the same track at the same day. I don’t want to say it was like a light switch went off, but it started answering a lot of the questions.
 
“(Since then), we’ve changed a lot of the ways we’re doing things on the 6 car. Trevor has stepped up to be a leader on the team. When he tells us what the car is doing, we make changes to what Trevor says, not to what Ricky was doing with the car last year.”
 
Stenhouse, of course, won two consecutive Nationwide Series championships in 2011 and 2012 before getting a full-time Cup ride.
 
The goal for the No. 6 team is clear — make it three in a row. Bayne moved closer to that Sunday, although he’s now ninth in the standings with 368 points, a full 80 behind points leader Regan Smith.
 
“We quit looking at points a few weeks,” Kelley said. “We just know our trailer is getting closer to the front, where it’s used to being parked. We’ve got this thing going in the right direction.”

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Joe Gibbs Racing driver needs to stem mistakes in long-odds postseason bid

LONG POND, Pa. — Physically, Denny Hamlin felt fine. Although his crash after cutting a tire last weekend at Dover was the first real hit he’d taken since missing several weeks with a fractured vertebra in his lower back, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said he emerged from the accident feeling better than he has following any event at the Monster Mile.

“I think physically, everything was good,” Hamlin said at Pocono Raceway, where he’s won four times. “It didn’t affect me at all.”

But emotionally? Well, that’s another story. In that respect the Dover accident was quite a blow for a driver who can hardly afford such missteps in his bid to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup after missing four full races because of the back injury sustained in a final-lap crash in Fontana on March 24. Hamlin returned to full-time competition with consecutive top-four finishes that showed just how well he’s capable of running in his No. 11 car.

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But the Dover wreck, which happened with 20 laps remaining and turned a potential top-five into a 34th-place finish, showed just how narrow his margin for error really is in this Chase quest. Not only did Hamlin drop two spots to 26th in points, but race winner Tony Stewart further complicated the playoff push for a driver who needs to be inside the top 20 just to qualify for a wild-card berth to the Chase, and now likely needs more than one victory to get in.

The Dover race emphasized how much of this is out of Hamlin’s control. Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kurt Busch were all in the running for the victory, and wins by any of them between now and September will place the JGR driver’s Chase aspirations in more serious jeopardy.

“It was a double blow with Tony winning,” Hamlin said. “I’m happy for him, but either way him and Juan at the end, it was not looking good for me, I guess you could say. I said earlier, we weren’t going to keep those guys from winning. They were going to win at some point. Same with the 78 (car of Busch), I feel like he’s going to win at some point. I’m going to need to get two wins. If I get one, then it will put me in the mix, but then I’d have to leapfrog those guys on points, and with the bad finish that I had last week, it’s going to be pretty hard to do. I’m going to have to rely on, I think, two wins and then barely getting in the top 20 at the end.”

And he has 13 events in which to get it done. Hamlin is 74 points behind 20th-place Ryan Newman, and made up 83 by finishing second and fourth in his first two full-time starts back in the car. But Dover was a reminder that not every race will go as smoothly. The accident knocked him back into the same 26th-place points position where he had been two weeks earlier.

“This point system is tough. It really is. We’re in a hole,” Hamlin said. “Obviously it gives us a chance, based on wild cards. But … I have an average now of two spots better in each race on performance, just because I had one bad finish for the next 13 weeks. That’s a crusher as far as that’s concerned. That part of it is tough. … Now we’ve set ourselves back to where we pretty much started again. We’ve done the math, we know what we have to do, but obviously we know that every bad finish it hurts us that much more.”

If there’s a consolation to all this, it’s that Dover is historically one of Hamlin’s worst tracks — although he certainly didn’t show it by winning the pole. His ticket to the Chase is through race victories, and the summer presents plenty of layouts where the No. 11 team is typically very strong. That stretch begins Sunday at Pocono, where Hamlin will have to start 17th due to the qualifying rainout, but where (along with Martinsville) he’s won more than anywhere else on the premier circuit.

“Obviously it’s a great opportunity to try to get a win. We feel like our cars are very strong and capable of that right now,” he said. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be coming in here with three consecutive top-fives, but circumstances took us out last week and now we just have to work that much harder if we want to achieve that Chase spot.”

Next week brings Michigan, where Hamlin has won twice. A few weeks after that comes New Hampshire, where Hamlin finished first and second last season, but was strong enough to sweep both races. Getting a first win by that first New Hampshire race in July may be critical for a driver who likes the string of nine tracks stretching from early summer and into the Chase. He’s won on six of them — Pocono, Michigan, Loudon, Atlanta, Bristol and Richmond.

“I think New Hampshire will be a key race for us,” he said. “Obviously we did win the two leading into the Chase last year between Atlanta and Bristol, and we should have won Richmond. We’ve got some really good ones down the stretch, but I don’t want to wait have three races to go and need to win two. That’s pressure for sure. We don’t want to wait that long.”

Which is why Hamlin may use some of JGR’s limited tests to fine-tune at tracks where he’s already strong. “We’re going to try to get some race tracks scheduled in the next couple months where we already run good, but we need to go there and dominate, similar to what we did in New Hampshire last year,” he said. “We need to capitalize on those type of race tracks, and we need to test at them.”

Right now Stewart and Aric Almirola occupy the two potential wild-card spots, the former based on his Dover victory and the latter because of his 11th-place standing in points. Pocono brings hope to Jeff Gordon and Joey Logano, the two winners here last season, and at the moment on the outside looking in. The looming road course races at Sonoma and Watkins Glen surely favor Montoya, a former Formula One driver whose NASCAR program has made great strides in recent weeks.

But none of them have more work to do than Hamlin, who has never missed a Chase in his full-time Sprint Cup career, and needs a huge push over the next three months to keep that record intact.

“We just reassess our goals and change them every single week,” Hamlin said. “Obviously every week I go out and drive as if I need the win, and it takes its toll maybe on your competitors because you don’t let as many pass you and things like that. We’re in a little bit different situation than everyone else is right now.”

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Gil Martin honoring his late father by being at race

LONG POND, Pa — Kevin Harvick’s race team was preparing to compete at Pocono Raceway without crew chief Gil Martin, whose father passed away Friday. But to nobody’s surprise the veteran signal-caller showed up for Sunday’s race.

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Martin had been absent from the track the past two days, attending to his family in his hometown of Nashville, Tenn. His father, Gilford Hicks Martin Sr., died Friday at age 89. In Martin’s stead, Harvick’s No. 29 team was overseen by car chief Chad Haney, with assistance from engineers Grant Hutchens and Josh Sell. A team representative said Martin was in touch with the crew via telephone and instant message, and watched Saturday’s final practice on television.

Harvick, fifth in Sprint Cup Series points and with two victories this year, ran 12th in Saturday’s final practice at Pocono. RCR had one of its airplanes on standby for Martin, just as it did a week ago at Dover.

“It’s up to him. It is 100 percent up to him,” Mike Dillon, vice president for competition at Richard Childress Racing, said Saturday. “That’s where we left it. We wanted him to be comfortable.”

RCR’s three cars tested last week at Pocono, and the No. 29 program was able to use that data to get a jump on preparing for the event weekend on the triangular track where Harvick has never won.

“It was really good,” Dillon said of the test. “We’re obviously trying to get our whole program going better, and we’re making a lot of advancements toward that, in my opinion. I think that test and the Kentucky test, which backed up this test with some good stuff we’ve done, have been very positive. That was a fortunate thing, because we had some speed.”

All three RCR cars this weekend bear a decal remembering “Dah,” as Martin’s son, Ford, referred to his grandfather. Gil Martin shared his grief Friday via Twitter. “Today I lost my best friend,” the crew chief wrote. “Thank you for all your condolences thoughts and prayers.”

Dillon said Martin was “upset, but I think he’s OK,” he said. “He knew his dad would want him to come to the race track, he said, so that’s why I say he’ll probably be here Sunday, but we’re having to plan like he’s not. And if he comes, great. He’s doing OK. As good as can be expected.”

Dillon added that Martin’s father was a big fan of what the crew chief does for a living. “His dad loved it,” he said. “Every week, he loved it.”

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‘Holding on’ to second in points, Edwards says ‘we know we can be better’

LONG POND, Pa. — Second in the standings and with a race victory to his credit, Carl Edwards hardly looks like a driver whose race team is suffering from a systematic problem. Certainly not compared to this time a year ago, when the Roush Fenway Racing driver languished in 13th. Only once has he enjoyed a better position at this point — 2011, when Edwards led the Sprint Cup Series for 22 weeks before losing a tiebreak to Tony Stewart for the championship.

And yet, Edwards is under no illusion as to how strong his No. 99 car might be should the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup begin tomorrow.

“If the Chase started right now, I think we’d be in a little bit of trouble. I don’t think we are as fast as we need to be, and the way we look at it is we’re not getting beat by a driver or a crew chief, we’re getting beat by organizations. The Gibbs cars are very fast. The Hendrick cars are very fast right now. So we have to figure out — as an organization — how we just get that little extra bit,” Edwards said at Pocono Raceway.

"We’re not bad. We’ve won a race. We’re second in points. We’re not panicking or anything, but we’ve got to make slight adjustments now that will hopefully pay off when the Chase starts, because we don’t only want to be in the Chase, we want to be in this Chase and dominate it. We want to win three or four Chase races and win the championship."

—Carl Edwards

“We’re not bad. We’ve won a race. We’re second in points. We’re not panicking or anything, but we’ve got to make slight adjustments now that will hopefully pay off when the Chase starts, because we don’t only want to be in the Chase, we want to be in this Chase and dominate it. We want to win three or four Chase races and win the championship. We’re not there right now, so we don’t know exactly what it is. We’ve got some really good areas to work in and some directions, but we’ve got to go do it.”

Earlier this week, Edwards’ teammate Greg Biffle said Roush was dealing with a “systematic problem” hampering the organization’s ability to compete. Although reigning Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski and Penske Racing joined Ford prior to this season, only two drivers sporting blue ovals have won races so far — Edwards at Phoenix and Front Row Motorsports’ David Ragan at Talladega. With the exception of Edwards, the other drivers piloting chassis built by Roush (which includes Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose of Richard Petty Motorsports) rank 12th or lower.

Edwards has shaved Jimmie Johnson’s lead in the standings to 30 points despite finishes of 11th and 14th over the past two events. Prior to the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race a few weeks ago, Edwards, Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. met and came to the conclusion that they were missing something, a contention emphasized by the spectacular start former Roush driver Matt Kenseth is enjoying at his new home, Joe Gibbs Racing.

“We know that there is some parameter that we’re missing. The elephant in the room is that Matt Kenseth leaves, and he runs really well at a different organization. And not that Matt didn’t run well at Roush, but we know that we can perform at that level. So what we have to do is figure out what we’re doing differently,” said Edwards, a two-time Pocono winner, who will start second Sunday.

“Jamie Allison from Ford (director, Ford North America Motorsports) spoke to us in a meeting this last week, and he reminded us, he said, ‘Hey, everybody in this room has won championships and races and had spectacular years. There’s something in the way we work together and the way we spend our time that we can do better, and that must be what we’re lacking.’ So I think that’s what Greg is saying, it’s a process thing or a way that we go through information or a way that we solve problems. … It’s like (crew chief) Jimmy (Fennig) said, we’re just a little bit off. We just need to turn the ship a little bit and head the right direction, and I think we’ll be good.”

Roush isn’t the only Ford team searching at the moment. At Penske, reigning champ Keselowski and Joey Logano are both looking for their first race wins, although their cars have shown a little more speed than those of their Roush brethren. During an appearance earlier this week at Kentucky Speedway, Keselowski said the integration with Ford was still a work on progress. Logano agrees there remains work still to do.

“I guess if you look at it, the results don’t lie … but I do feel like we are working really hard and trying to make improvements, and trying to work together at one Ford and as one team and trying to figure out what we’ve got to do to go a little faster,” he said.

“That’s how it’s always going to be. We’re always looking for more speed. Even if we were the fastest cars out there, we would need more speed all the time. That’s how our sport is, and that’s how racing is. Are we where we want to be? No, we’re not where we want to be. We need to be faster. We haven’t really won the races that I feel like we should have won already this year as Ford in general, but I do not feel like we’re way far off. All the guys at Ford are working really hard and trying to pinpoint what we need and how we can improve on it.”

Although Biffle indicated the communication between Roush and new manufacturer stable mate Penske is a delicate balance — neither team wants to give away too many secrets — Edwards said he’s texted regularly with Logano, and spoke with Keselowski after the recent race at Darlington Raceway. “I believe from my perspective, we’re working well together,” Edwards said. “… It’s one more step (toward) sitting down on a weekly or biweekly basis and working through problems together. We’re not there yet, but I believe that we’re pretty close to that.”

And Edwards will take all the help he can get, as the No. 99 team tries to improve from the good one it is now to the great one it needs to be to contend for the championship.

“We talk about the struggles that we’re having and then I think, ‘Yeah, but we’re second in points,’ but that can sometimes be a little bit of false security,” Edwards said. “I’ve been a lot worse in the points and been having more fun, I’ll tell you that, because we’re not out dominating races and leading laps and winning races, and that’s what it’s about. If you can go out every week and have the fastest car and qualify on the pole and lead laps and be racing for the win, you really don’t think about points that much. So we’re holding on to that second in points and saying, ‘Yeah, that’s great,’ but we know we can better.”