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.”

“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.”

On Friday night, Michael Self won the Casey’s General Store 150 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East-West combination race at Iowa Speedway, beating fellow NASCAR Next members Dylan Kwasniewski and Brett Moffitt to the line. Like Elliott, another second-generation driver in NASCAR Next, Jeb Burton, claimed his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win in the WinStar World Casino 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.

It wasn’t Chase Elliott’s first visit to Pocono’s Victory Lane. He celebrated there 11 years ago when his father, Bill, earned his fifth win at the Tricky Triangle. The younger Elliott appreciated following in his father’s tire tracks at the fabled facility.

“It wasn’t a little over 10 years ago I was sitting in Victory Lane with dad, and I have some pictures and I think that’s really, really cool to go to Victory Lane,” Chase Elliott said. “It felt so weird coming up here on Tuesday.  I’m always used to coming and hanging out and watching dad race.  For me to have a opportunity to race here at Pocono means a lot much less go to Victory Lane.”

Earlier in the day, the 1985 NASCAR premier series champion was reminded by a fan of the scene of his then-record fifth Cup win at Pocono.

“I autographed a picture earlier today from the last time I was in Victory Lane here in ’02, and Chase was about this big,” Bill Elliott said. “Now, 10 years later, here he is in Victory Lane himself in an ARCA car. He did a great job. I sat up on top of the truck and watched the race unfold.”

The elder Elliott’s win record was eclipsed last August when Jeff Gordon earned a sixth win at that three-turn track.

Chase Elliott dueled another 17-year-old, Erik Jones, who finished second. Elliott and Jones made their NASCAR national series debut in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway in March. The two may tangle again in the future, and Elliott appreciated the opportunity to gain the experience of racing on a track at the next level.

“To be able to come here, anytime you can come to a Sprint Cup track or Nationwide track or track you race trucks on, anything you can do to get more laps around that speedway is going to do nothing but help you down the road if an opportunity does come your way,” Elliott said.

 

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