Posted on by Holly Cain

After IndyCar success, stock car convert looks to add to resume

Sam Hornish Jr. laughed at the question. It wasn’t something he’d ever considered.

After collecting three IndyCar championships and racing to one of the most dramatic Indianapolis 500 wins (2006) in history, does Hornish consider himself a full-fledged NASCAR driver now that’s contending for the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship?

“I would say so,’’ Hornish said without hesitation. “When I ran IndyCars I looked at myself as an IndyCar driver, but that was in the past

“When I look at it from the outside perspective, more and more people look at me as a stock car driver.

“I don’t know if there ever was a moment where that all switched over but I think people will always associate Indy with me because I did it for so long and we were so successful at it.”

"A lot of people might argue with where we’re at. But I’m still getting to do what I always wanted to do and that’s drive race cars for a living."

— Sam Hornish Jr.

After spending the last six seasons in NASCAR — including 2008-2010 primarily at the Sprint Cup level — driving for the legendary Penske Racing team that fielded his winning Indy 500 car, Hornish is showing the same talents in a stock car that he did as one of IndyCar’s most decorated drivers.

It’s a transition that other open-wheel drivers have not been able to fully complete. And as fans around the globe prepare for racing’s biggest weekend of competition with NASCAR’s Charlotte doubleheader weekend and Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, Hornish is that rare driver who has even attempted to prove himself on the sport’s biggest stages in different disciplines.

And it has been humbling, invigorating and rewarding.

To Hornish, his road to stock car success has been as much a test of perseverance as talent.

By all accounts, his current situation driving the No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Ford is an example of tenacity and loyalty — that of both Hornish and team owner Roger Penske.

After running 22 races in Penske’s No. 22 Sprint Cup car last year when driver A.J. Allmendinger was suspended for failing a drug test and subsequently released from the Penske team, Hornish was hopeful he would have a shot a the seat fulltime in 2013 — a return to Cup competition after spending the better part of the last two years in Nationwide.

Instead, Joey Logano was hired for the No. 22 and Hornish was given a full-on shot at the Nationwide Series title this season — an opportunity he has seized without grudge.

He led the championship standings the first seven weeks of the season, won at Las Vegas and is 28 points behind current leader Regan Smith heading into Saturday’s History 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

It’s been confirmation to Hornish that he made the right career move — even if it hasn’t been as quick an ascent as he once envisioned.

“As far as I’m concerned, obviously a lot of me wishes I was on the Cup side, but I’m making the best of the situation,’’ Hornish said. “A lot of people might argue with where we’re at. But I’m still getting to do what I always wanted to do and that’s drive race cars for a living.

“I’m still challenging myself to get to where I want to be on the stock car side. I get to go out there and race every weekend and I’m not having to worry about how many races I can get in in a year. We’ve been strong everywhere we’ve went and we just need to continue this solid focus.

“There’s no reason we can’t win the championship if we just go out there and continue to have fun with it and work hard and make ourselves better. And if we end up in the Nationwide Series for another year after this one we’ll just try to keep enjoying it. It’s all about the end goal. It doesn’t always have to happen exactly when you want it to.’’

Hornish struggled initially moving directly from IndyCars in 2008 to NASCAR’s elite Cup level, collecting only nine top-10s in 130 Cup starts — the highlight a pair of top-10s in 2009.

“It was difficult for us because the normal transition would have been to run a year of Nationwide before Cup and it’s easy to say he should have done that or we should have done that for him,’’ Penske Racing President Tim Cindric said.

“The difficult thing was that at that point in time we had Exxon Mobil that was ready to sponsor his Cup ride. There wasn’t a guarantee that if we had waited until 2009 they were ready to wait that long. It was one of those things, where we had to make a decision.

“The unfortunate thing for Sam was not only did he not have the experience, the testing rules were such at the time we couldn’t test him places to get him ready. And our team, quite frankly, wasn’t very good with our on-track performance at that time. It was difficult even for the guys who had experience.’’

It was especially hard for Hornish, one of the most celebrated IndyCar drivers of his generation, who had grown so accustomed to winning.

“For my first couple years over here, it made it very difficult because I felt like I had more to prove — that if I didn’t have the success right away, people would look at it as a failure,’’ Hornish said.

“So I always wanted to push hard to make sure that didn’t happen. And I probably pushed myself too hard trying to make it happen too quickly. It’s a lot of learning you have to do to get to the point where you’re consistently competitive over here. It’s not something that happens overnight no matter how good you were in any other series.

“If I would have stepped back and said this is going to take two or three years or whatever it was instead of trying to make it happen in the first six days, I would have probably been better off because I pushed myself way too hard and didn’t give myself a proper chance to learn in those first three years.’’

And now Hornish is seeing the result of having re-adjusted his expectations to better suit his reality. Experience and proper opportunity have caught up to his talent level and Hornish is back where he’s spent the majority of his career, vying for victory and contending for a championship.

And as much as Hornish is enjoying the NASCAR scene, he hasn’t completely closed the door on Indy. The Memorial Day weekend double of running the Indy 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 is getting buzz again.

Former Cup champ Kurt Busch completed the Indy 500 Rookie Orientation Program driving a car for Andretti Autosport earlier this month. Shortly after climbing out of the car, he was calling for NASCAR and IndyCar to coordinate green flag starting times to facilitate the feat. Robby Gordon was the last to try it in 2004.

Since he already drives for the Indy 500’s all-time winningest team owner, Roger Penske, the logistics for Hornish to pull it off would seem easier than for most.

“If I hadn’t ever won Indy, I might lean a little more toward it,’’ Hornish said. “I know how stressed out I was when I ran the 500 though and I don’t know if I want to put myself through that again — the emotional side of it. It won’t just be a one-off race, I’d be thinking about it 12 months out of the year. That’s how much it means to me.

“I might wake up one morning and decide that’s exactly what I’ve got to do, but it wasn’t today.

After all, Hornish is first, a NASCAR driver now.

 

READ MORE:

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READ: Winless streak weighs
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Posted on by Staff Report

Paul Menard to keep No. 27 Chevrolet following multiyear agreement

Paul Menard has been in the top 10 of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings for most of the year, and he’s been a steady driver during his two-year stint with Richard Childress Racing.

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Now he’s getting rewarded. Menard will continue to drive the No. 27 Chevrolet for years to come as RCR and Menards, a home improvement store prevalent throughout the Midwest, agreed on a multiyear contract extension Friday.

"It is great to have Paul Menard back in the No. 27 Menards Chevrolet as our driver," said Richard Childress, president and CEO of RCR said in a team release. "He has shown his ability to be consistent, competitive and win on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series level. … Having ‘Slugger’ Labbe (crew chief) and the entire crew coming back gives us something to build on to win more races, make The Chase and contend for a championship.”

Menard has been with four teams since he began a full-time Sprint Cup Series schedule in 2008, and he’s found the most success with RCR. In 83 races with the organization, Menard has one win, five top-fives and 21 top-10s. His victory was a big one, too — the Brickyard 400 in 2011.

Currently, Menard is tied for 10th in the points standings with fellow Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick, although Harvick is ranked in the 10th spot due to his one victory this year. Following the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in March, Menard stayed in the top 10 in the standings for five consecutive weeks. He fell to 11th after Harvick won the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway, but hasn’t been lower since.

In 11 starts this year, Menard has four top-10s. He’s only finished out of the top 20 in two races and has logged 3,544 laps out of a possible 3,549.

"My family, all of our great team members at Menards and I are excited to extend our partnership with Richard and Richard Childress Racing," Menard said. "Being part of a family-owned and operated business I can relate to the team’s goals and objectives. We will continue to grow together and build our relationship, achieving even greater accomplishments in the future."

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Posted on by Zack Albert

Son of Hall of Famer looks to make an impact in first Nationwide start in over a year

CONCORD, N.C. — Steve Wallace has been in an underdog scenario before, but not one quite like this. The only difference this time around is that he can virtually count his crewmembers on one hand.

The third-generation driver will make his first NASCAR Nationwide Series start in over a year Saturday afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the History 300 (2:45 p.m. ET, ABC), hoping to make enough of an impression to attract more sponsorship to keep his shoestring operation going.

“I’ve got one bullet in the gun and that’s this race,” Wallace said. “We don’t have an option to run bad here.”

Wallace’s road back to the NASCAR garage is a winding one. He competed full-time in the Nationwide tour from 2007 to 2011, with a best finish of seventh in the series standings in ’09, driving for his Hall of Famer father, Rusty.

When sponsorship and economic woes forced the team to suspend its racing operations after the 2011 season, Wallace’s career took a hiatus and the team regrouped. In the interim, the younger Wallace became more hands-on in what he calls a “two men and a truck” effort by himself and crew chief Blake Bainbridge to get back to a NASCAR national series race.

"I feel like we’ll have a shot to have a really good run."

— Steve Wallace

“I never saw that day coming,” Steve Wallace said of the team’s closing. “It’s just hard to explain how appreciative I am and how thankful I am for these guys to come help me. The whole family’s standing behind me, and we’ve just got a lot of countless hours just the two of us trying to get to this event. I can’t explain how thankful I am to be back in NASCAR, even just for this one race. It just feels great. I took a lot of stuff for granted before, but man, I’ve worked my ass off to try to get back.

“I wasn’t really worried about me or my dad, I was worried about the 55 employees we had and their families. It’s just so hard to get a job in racing right now with the economy so bad. … It seems like most everybody landed on their feet and we were able to regroup our program and learn to do a lot more with a lot less. It’s definitely been an eye-opener for sure.”

Rusty Wallace will be the car owner of record for his son’s No. 66 Ford Mustang at Charlotte, but he insists that when it comes to the car’s preparation and sponsorship recruiting efforts, he’s been a silent majority partner. Now he’s ready to sit back and see how his son’s determination on multiple levels pays off.

“Overall, I think he’s paid his dues. That kid got roughed up because they thought he was Daddy’s boy and Daddy’s paying the bills, and that’s not the case,” Rusty Wallace said. “I said, ‘I’m not putting any more money into the racing.’ They went out and looked for the sponsors, I helped them with the car, but had nothing to do with putting the car all together. They did it all by themselves. …

“He has absolutely matured a ton. He knew what it was to be full-time and now he’s been humbled. There’s not a bolt on this car that his hand hasn’t touched.”

Wallace has received plenty of support from family and friends, including some of his former Rusty Wallace Racing crew on loan from other teams. The No. 55 Michael Waltrip Racing crew for Sprint Cup veteran Mark Martin will handle pit-road duties for Wallace Saturday, and plenty of refurbished Roush Fenway Racing parts will be on the car for its first race since it finished 11th last spring at Richmond International Raceway. The team also has backing from mortgage broker Richard Tocado, with the hopes that more sponsorship help could be on the way with a solid performance Saturday.

Early indications are that the team may have found speed on the 1.5-mile track, clocking the 10th-fastest lap in a 43-car test session Wednesday and running well in a private test two weeks ago. If nothing else, it helped Wallace become more acquainted with a Nationwide car on an intermediate speedway after months of barnstorming short tracks across the Southeast.

“When we came out here and practiced two weeks ago, my second lap on the track was the fastest we went all weekend,” Wallace said. “I thought maybe I’d be a little gunshy or antsy or a little timid, but I jumped right back in it and was just as fast as some of these guys. I feel like we’ll have a shot to have a really good run.”

No matter the result Saturday, the work in simply bringing a race-ready car to the track has been worth it for Wallace.

“We’ve learned a ton from it. We’re getting back, it just took a little longer than we thought,” Wallace said. “Can’t explain how happy I am to have a sponsor and two really good Ford Mustangs to race. I’m looking forward to Saturday, for sure.”

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Posted on by Nascar

Strong start not key for No. 5 team

Related: WATCH: Can Kahne repeat?

CONCORD, N.C. — You can be too good too soon, says Kasey Kahne — and as a three-time winner of NASCAR’s most grueling race, the Hendrick Motorsports driver has the resume to back up the remark.
 
The Coca-Cola 600, scheduled for May 25 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, is the longest race for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series teams. It’s an event that, barring weather issues, begins under the glare of the sun and ends long after darkness has begun to creep into the corners of the 1.5-mile speedway.
 
Drivers chase drivers while crew chiefs, armed with a laundry list of possible adjustments, chase ever-changing track conditions.
 
The additional distance can mean heartache for some, heroics for the chosen few.
 
“You’re definitely not riding, but you don’t need to go out there and lead the first 200 miles,” Kahne said. “They don’t mean anything. You’ve still got 400 more.
 
“That’s tough at times. If you’ve got a car that’s capable, you’re going to go there. And usually if it’s capable at that point and time, you’re probably not going to be good late at night. I haven’t … I doubt I’ve led 20 laps during the day of the 600 and we’ve led a lot at night.”
 
While he hasn’t exactly been a pushover during the early stages of previous 600s, Kahne seems to have paced himself, saving up for those late-race, late-night charges.

"You’re definitely not riding, but you don’t need to go out there and lead the first 200 miles. They don’t mean anything. You’ve still got 400 more."

— Kasey Kahne

The defending race winner led 96 laps last year, including 74 of the final 100. In 2008, he led 66 laps — only 21 during the first half of the race. And while he led 158 laps in 2006, when he scored his first 600 title, he didn’t surface out front until the race was nearly 200 laps old.
 
“You’re kind of always chasing it throughout the whole 600,” said Kahne, who will start sixth on Sunday. “I’ve never been good through the whole (race); usually we’re not very good until the last 200 miles. That’s fine with me.
 
“It’s actually a little discouraging because you have to race 400 miles and you’re really not in the hunt, you’re seventh to 15th. I got lapped one year and still came back.”
 
Ray Evernham, the former championship-winning crew chief turned car owner, fielded the No. 9 Dodge Kahne put in victory lane at the rack  in ’06.
 
During his tenure as crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports, Evernham and driver Jeff Gordon won the 600 on three occasions. Evernham’s gamplan was to break the long race into segments of 200 miles each.
 
“From 0 to 200, you’re riding,” Evernham said. “I want him not to wear himself out, I want him not to wear the car out. I want him to keep decent position. …Just keep the car safe and wait until the race track changes. The first 200 miles the track is going to be nothing like it’s going to be at the end.
 
“The second segment you’re really talking to this guy. Now you’ve got to be listening to your driver, looking at your tires; to me tires tell the story. As the race goes on, the track picks up rubber. Your tire pressures, the way the tire wears really tells you what the car is doing.
 
“If you’ve got a good car in the first segment … and you don’t touch it, you’re done. You’re not going to win the race. Right here you’ve really got to figure out what your final adjustments are; if you’re putting spring rubbers in (or) out, things like that, giving up positions on pit road, that’s the time to do it.”
 
The final 200 miles, he said, “you’re racing."
 
“You don’t want to give up time on pit road; you don’t want to make big adjustments. You want to make small changes. Tire pressure, wedge, things like that.”
 
Gordon, 14th in Thursday’s qualifying, said it’s “harder to pace yourself” today. The adjustability still needs to be there to allow teams to stay on top of the changing conditions, he said, as the pace of the race picks up quickly.
 
“That is why I love the All-Star race,” Gordon said. It really tells us about the night conditions. We don’t get any night practice so it’s the one practice that we have to know what the track should be like when the sun goes down.”
 
Denny Hamlin will be on the pole, with Kurt Busch alongside him, when the race gets under way on Sunday. Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin and Clint Bowyer will start third through fifth, respectively.
 
Kahne, just outside the top five, plans to ride. There’s no rush to lead. Sixth in points, and with one win already in the books, the 33-year-old knows what’s required to win the lengthy race.
 
“It’s definitely my best track as far as winning goes,” he said. “For some reason, it’s always been a good track for me.”

 

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Posted on by Brad Norman

Suspensions issued after parking lot scuffle at Richmond International Raceway

CONCORD, N.C. — A National Stock Car Racing appeals panel reduced the punishment to a pair of Richard Childress Racing crew members Friday at the NASCAR Research & Development Center.
 
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Michael Scearce and Thomas Costello, who both work on Brian Scott’s NASCAR Nationwide Series team, were originally suspended for four races each and fined $15,000 for actions detrimental to stock car racing following their roles in a post-race altercation at Richmond International Speedway on April 26.
 
Both crew members were arrested following a physical encounter with driver Nelson Piquet Jr. and one of his friends at the driver/owner motorcoach lot after the ToyotaCare 250 had ended.
 
Scearce, a mechanic for Scott’s No. 2 team, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of assault; Costello, an interior specialist, was charged with one misdemeanor assault count. No one else was charged.
 
The off-track incident occurred after an on-track one, when Scott and Piquet bumped cars late while battling for a spot in the top 15. Following the ToyotaCare 250, Scott approached Piquet on pit road, and Piquet kicked the driver in the groin, nearly causing a fight between the two pit crew teams.

 

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Posted on by Brad Norman

Penalties given after parking lot scuffle at Richmond International Raceway

CONCORD, N.C. — A three-member National Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel unanimously upheld suspensions and fines to a pair of Richard Childress Racing crew members that stemmed from a post-race altercation at Richmond International Raceway.

Following a hearing that lasted approximately two hours at the NASCAR Research & Development Center, the original penalties reaffirmed for crew members Michael Scearce and Thomas Costello are four-race suspensions and fines of $15,000.

Richard Childress Racing has the ability to appeal Friday’s ruling to the National Stock Car Racing Chief Appellate Officer John Middlebrook, something the team hasn’t yet decided.

“I need to go back and talk to Richard and consult with him, and we’ll decide if we want to go any further,” said RCR Chief Operating Officer Torrey Galida, who represented the team at Friday’s hearing.

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Both Scearce and Costello, who work for Brian Scott’s No. 2 NASCAR Nationwide Series team, were arrested following a physical encounter with Turner Scott Motorsports driver Nelson Piquet Jr. and one of his friends at the driver/owner motorcoach lot after the ToyotaCare 250 had ended.

Scearce, a mechanic for Scott’s No. 2 team, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of assault; Costello, an interior specialist, was charged with one misdemeanor assault count. No one else was charged.

“I just first wanted to say, everybody at Richard Childress Racing respects and supports the NASCAR appeals process,” Galida said following the hearing. “We also respect and fully support NASCAR’s right to protect the image for the sport both on and off the race track.

“We appealed the suspensions because we felt like it was unfair we were penalized twice, both with criminal action and with a penalty from NASCAR. We also felt like the penalty and the fine were excessively harsh.”

NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said the suspensions would go into effect next week at Dover International Speedway, because preparations at Charlotte Motor Speedway for Saturday’s History 300 began earlier in the week.

The crew members would be eligible to return for the June 28 Nationwide Series race at Kentucky Speedway. They have a court date for the criminal charges sometime in late June, Galida said, and will be on probation through Dec. 31 as part of the original punishment.

The three members of the National Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel were Dick Berggren, a motorsports announcer and magazine editor; Ed Clark, president of Atlanta Motor Speedway; and Doug Fritz, president of Iowa Speedway and former president at Richmond International Raceway.


The off-track incident that led to the punishment from NASCAR occurred after an on-track one, when Piquet bumped Scott late in the ToyotaCare 250 while battling for a spot in the top 15. Scott then cut across Piquet’s path on the cool-down lap.

Following the race, Scott approached Piquet on pit road, and Piquet first shoved the driver and then kicked Scott in the groin, nearly causing a fight between the two pit crew teams.

The two had a lengthy meeting with series director Wayne Auton in the NASCAR hauler, and Piquet has since apologized.

 

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NASCAR, Goodyear team up to offer uplifting message to troops

RELATED: Show your support with NASCAR: An American Salute

CONCORD, N.C. — On display at Goodyear headquarters in Akron, Ohio, is one of two tires that bear the autographs of Sprint Cup Series drivers, the signatures of soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the message of “Support Our Troops” scripted in camouflage on the sidewall. There are few items that better signify the bonds between NASCAR and the military.

“They were choppered all over the war zone, and hauled all over in trucks, and all the soldiers who could get their hands on them signed them and wrote whatever they wanted all over them on behalf of all the troops,” said Martin Boire, chairman of Support Our Troops, the organization that houses the other tire. “… Just something like that, to show up from home about a sport they’re so thrilled about, it made them feel like they were home again.”

No wonder Goodyear has kept the program going for four years, with that message of support for military members once again appearing on tires this Memorial Day weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It’s part of a larger military appreciation effort surrounding the Coca-Cola 600, one that includes patriotic paint schemes on many race cars, a military-themed pre-race show, several thousand active-duty troops in the grandstands, and the kickoff of NASCAR: An American Salute, a celebration of military service that runs through Independence Day weekend at Daytona.

"NASCAR’s respect for the military is in our DNA, and has been."

— NASCAR President Mike Helton

“NASCAR’s respect for the military is in our DNA, and has been. It was founded not too long after World War II was over with, so all the energy that came back from that kind of went into the DNA of NASCAR. And our leadership since our beginning has always paid a great deal of tribute and reminded the generations to come of the sacrifices that the military make,” said NASCAR President Mike Helton.

“I think it just blends together. Certainly all sports are very eager to be able to thank troops and be respectful and remind their fans of the importance of the military’s responsibilities and duties because it gives us a freedom in all sports and even the business community gives us our freedom to do what we do. NASCAR likes to think that it’s maybe a bit more tied in, but the fact is that the military is important to everybody, and we just want to make sure that the military understands that they’re extremely important to NASCAR.”

From a Goodyear perspective, the message on the tires is part of a larger program that has raised over $700,000 for the Support Our Troops organization, which maintains morale through care packages and other initiatives. Goodyear is matching up to $50,000 raised through a charity auction, but it’s the message on the tires — in place of the familiar Eagle brand name — that generates the most attention.

“The reaction that we get is amazing,” said Stu Grant, Goodyear’s general manager of global race tires. “I remember when we first started this program, I would have people come up to me in the garage area, and around the race track, or even at the hotel that I didn’t know at all … and would (say), ‘Hey, I’ve got a relative in the military, I just want to thank you for what you’re doing,’ and so on and so forth. That happened more often than you think. It touched a lot of people, and really I guess reinforced the positive thing that we were doing with this whole program.”

The military appreciation theme will once again be evident in Sunday’s pre-race show, which will feature a flyover of 10 vintage aircraft — including two P-51 Mustangs owned by Jack Roush — and the participation of 600 soldiers from Fort Bragg, N.C. Race teams are following suit, with a number of cars outfitted in paint schemes featuring stars and stripes.

“It means a lot to me to race on Memorial Day weekend, and the patriotism that’s shown in this sport,” said reigning Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski. “Obviously, there are a lot of cars with special paint schemes and a lot of different things that the track does as well to really embrace what it means to race on Memorial Day weekend, and what the weekend means in general. That’s something I hold in the highest regard, and just proud to be a participant.”

NASCAR regularly welcomes and celebrates the military at its events, but Memorial Day at Charlotte is when that relationship traditionally reaches its peak. Thousands of active military members will be bussed in from bases throughout the Carolinas for Sunday’s event.

“From our side, I think it’s pretty easy and pretty obvious,” said Matt Kenseth, who has won three times this season. “Without the military and all the people and all the sacrifices they make and all the things they do, then we wouldn’t have the freedom to be able to go out here and race each and every weekend in front of them. I think it’s a good weekend to try to show your appreciation for the military and all the people and the sacrifices they make. You should do it every day, but certainly this weekend is always good for that.”

READ MORE:

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READ: Full coverage
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The 5?

READ: Winless streak weighs
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Despite a safe seventh-place in the standings, Keselowski looking for wins to back up title defense

Related: Brad Keselowski Press Pass

CONCORD, N.C. — Brad Keselowski has always been a big believer in mental strength.

“I feel like if you have mental strength, that you can do anything,” said the reigning Sprint Cup champion. “That doesn’t mean you can jump off this building and fly, but it does mean that you can overcome pain and you can essentially turn off your body’s sensitivity to it. So quite honestly, I’ve spent all of my focus on being as mentally strong as possible once I get behind the wheel. And once you can do that, the rest doesn’t matter.”

That trait has come in handy this season. Keselowski’s characteristic outspokenness has at times drawn criticism, particularly a misunderstanding over race winner David Ragan’s restart position at Talladega. Nearly halfway to the Chase for the Sprint Cup, he’s still without a victory. Crew chief Paul Wolfe is serving the third and final week of a suspension. And the No. 2 car has been forced to rebound from a string of issues on the race track, most recently a broken driveshaft that ended his run in the Sprint All-Star Race last Saturday night.

Heavy lies the crown? Perhaps not, but Keselowski has certainly felt the weight of it on occasion this year.

"I believe mental strength overcomes all and will always be your greatest asset."

— Brad Keselowski

“Being the reigning champion, it’s a good position to be in, but there are some small downsides,” he said. “And certainly everyone wants to beat me, but they have to essentially have to beat 41 other teams as well. If they lose sight of that, they’ll be in trouble as well, so I can’t say I’ve been spending a lot of time (on it). I notice it, but I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it. I know at the end of the day if we go out and do our jobs, execute, have speed in our cars, and I don’t make any mistakes, that I can continue to win and be successful in this sport. That’s what really concerns me.”

Toward that end, the concerns are valid. Keselowski’s all-star hopes at Charlotte Motor Speedway ended two laps in last Sunday, when his driveshaft broke with a thud. Although that wasn’t a points event, it did curtail how much he could learn for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 on the same 1.5-mile track. And it was the latest in a string of on-track setbacks that includes a vibration at Darlington, a cylinder going down at Richmond, inspection holdups at Texas, and an engine issue at Fontana. After opening the season with four straight top-five finishes, things have become considerably more trying.

The good news is that Keselowski remains a relative safe seventh in points, and that his No. 2 car has shown plenty of speed — at Richmond, it was working its way from the back to the front for a second time before a cylinder went down. “Rallying is certainly not an optimal situation,” he said, particularly since it’s prevented him from pursing race wins. But Keselowski is comforted by knowing that the pace is still there.

“I feel like we’ve been very, very fast and very under the radar, because we one haven’t qualified well, or two, executed in the race,” he said. “… If there was a right-side seat in my car and you rode with me through the last two or three mile-and-a-halves, you’d go, ‘Damn, we’re the fastest car out here.’ Unfortunately, we haven’t produced those results, and that’s on us to get right. There are a number of reasons for that. I’m not going to sit here and make excuses, but I know the speed is there and speed is building block one of winning the race, and then you obviously have to have execution and luck, and we haven’t put two and three together to really build the house that it takes to win. I feel like this weekend, along with any other weekend, could be that chance and that opportunity.”

Charlotte is the third and final weekend Keselowski will be without Wolfe, suspended by NASCAR for violations discovered in the rear-end housing of the No. 2 car prior to the April 13 race at Texas. Former crew chief Kevin Buskirk has been filling that role since Darlington. Off the track, Keselowski has seen his profile and his platform increase markedly since becoming champion, and he hasn’t been shy about sharing his opinions on the state or direction of the sport.

Since clinching his first premier-series title last year, Keselowski has talked often of wanting to be a leader as well as a driver in NASCAR. Is he succeeding?

“If he’s called any meetings to order, I wasn’t invited to them,” deadpanned former champion Matt Kenseth. “I don’t know, I don’t know what that all means. Brad is very obviously opinionated, and he has definitely his own ideas, and I’m sure some of his ideas are shared by some, not sure by all necessarily. I think that’s a good thing. I think that’s what makes Brad Brad. I think everybody is different in this sport and different personalities are important and good. I don’t know what a leader means. I know he’s not my leader. I don’t know if he’s a leader of the drivers. I think being the champion … maybe his opinion carries more weight, or more people are listening to what you’re saying because you’re the champion compared to someone who is not.”

Keselowski understands it’s not going to happen overnight. To him, winning a title and being willing to share insights and opinions are first steps in a journey that may take several more years — and more accomplishments — to complete.

“Winning a championship is step one to have that opportunity to become a leader, but there are several other steps,” he said. “I’m a big believer, by the way, that anything you really want, you need to go out and really reach for it, and I’m the type of guy that reaches sometimes a little further than what I have for length in my arms. But if I could win another championship, win some more big races, do some other great things, certainly that goal of being a leader of the garage is obtainable. But step one is making sure that everybody knows what that goal is, and I hope that it’s known. But I’m smart enough to realize that I still have steps to go.”

One of them comes Sunday, when Keselowski tries to record his first victory at Charlotte. It wasn’t lost on him that several of the new Hall of Fame selections on Wednesday night were drivers who enjoyed success in major events like the Coca-Cola 600. The more he wins, the more weight his opinions carry, and the more he positions himself to be the leader he hopes to become. First, though, is the large matter of 600 miles. That mental strength will come in handy, in more ways than one.

“I believe mental strength overcomes all,” Keselowski said, “and will always be your greatest asset.”

READ MORE:

READ: Hamlin sets
qualifying record

READ: Full coverage
from Charlotte

WATCH: What Drives
The 5?

READ: Winless streak weighs
on storied No. 43

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Johnson unable to bring All-Star Race winner to CMS for a second week in a row, but he isn’t concerned

CONCORD, N.C. — Jimmie Johnson was back at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday, but without the car he drove to victory in last weekend’s all-star exhibition.

The six-time winner at the track will pilot a new car in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, because his No. 48 team didn’t have enough time to turn around the vehicle that won the Sprint All-Star Race. His victorious car from last Saturday night was released Tuesday from post-race inspection at the NASCAR Research and Development Center, and Sprint Cup Series haulers entered the 1.5-mile Charlotte track at 9 a.m. Thursday.

“With check-in today, there’s just not enough time to turn the car around,” Johnson said Thursday. “We have lots to work from, but it’s still a new weekend and the race is much different than before. But we feel like we have a good direction, and we’ll see where things stack up.”

"We feel like we have a good direction, and we’ll see where things stack up."

— Jimmie Johnson

Johnson last weekend won his second consecutive all-star event, streaking away in the final 10-lap segment. The five-time champion returns to a speedway where he once won five out of six races, but now hasn’t claimed a points victory since 2009. The most recent of his three career victories in the annual spring 600-miler came in 2005.

NASCAR begins inspecting the winning car from the previous weekend at 8 a.m. Tuesday, and the vehicle is typically on the way back to the team by noon that same day. Ideally, Johnson said he would have preferred to use the same car this week, but with opening practice and qualifying for the 600 set for Thursday, his team couldn’t turn it around in time.

“In the old days before, the cars would come home with us, and they wouldn’t go to the tech center until Tuesday,” he said. “We always would ask ourselves a question, even if we didn’t win — do we want to turn this car around and use it? When we won here and it didn’t go to the tech center, we brought that car back. You know where the gaps are (in what) at that time was the valance, now it’s the splitter. And those heights are so critical. You’ll waste two or three runs on a new tire today, where you could use those runs to really fine-tune you race car. So you’d much rather bring that car back, I think.”

Instead, Johnson will pilot a new chassis. His backup car this weekend won a pair of events last season, on the 1.5-mile Texas track and at Charlotte in the Sprint All-Star Race.

 

READ MORE:

READ: Hamlin sets
qualifying record

READ: Full coverage
from Charlotte

WATCH: What Drives
The 5?

READ: Winless streak weighs
on storied No. 43

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Posted on by NASCAR Wire Service

Nationwide runner-up two years in a row, time to strike is now for Sadler

The past two years Elliott Sadler has come so close to capturing the NASCAR Nationwide Series title, only to finish runner-up to Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

With Stenhouse now competing full-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, conventional wisdom would say it is Sadler’s crown to lose this year. And, he just might if he’s not able to carve out more top-five finishes with a win sprinkled in here and there.

It’s not that he’s having a bad season; it’s just not a blow-the-doors-off-the-competition, stop-the-presses kind of year many expected. When Sadler and the rest of his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team start Saturday afternoon’s History 300 (2:45 p.m. ET, ABC) at Charlotte, he’ll be third in the standings, 42 points behind leader Regan Smith.

In nine races this season, he has three top fives and five top 10s, including a runner-up finish in the most recent race at Darlington. His team’s strong performance at the South Carolina track should provide them a boost of confidence as they prepare for a stretch of 21 consecutive weeks in which the NASCAR Nationwide drivers will be on track.

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"This OneMain Financial team has a lot of momentum coming off our second-place finish at Darlington Raceway," said Sadler.

He has made 12 series starts at Charlotte with a driver rating of 93.8, but has never been to Victory Lane. His last three races here have resulted in a fourth, fifth and third, to go along with a second-place finish that came in 2005. In all, he has four top-fives and five top-10s with one pole.

So, he’s due to take the next step and claim the checkered flag.

Although Sadler will primarily be focused on getting his car to Victory Lane, he is quick to point out the importance of the weekend.

"The teams and the track do such a good job of inviting military members and their families, and celebrating the troops abroad all weekend long," said Sadler. "It’s a great weekend as an American and as a race fan to remember what our military does to keep us safe."

READ MORE:

READ: Johnson wins Sprint
All-Star Race

READ: Full coverage
from Charlotte

WATCH: Danica Patrick
Press Pass

READ: Faulty transmission
KO’s Keselowski

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