Posted on by Holly Cain

Driver’s streak of consecutive starts will hit 703 with Michigan race in Phoenix Racing car

Phoenix Racing General Manager Steve Barkdoll confirmed that Bobby Labonte will be in the team’s No. 51 Chevrolet this week at Michigan — extending Labonte’s consecutive start streak to 703.

And it won’t be the first time for the pairing.

Labonte drove 14 races for Phoenix Racing in 2010 — making his 600th start in the summer Daytona race that year — after his deal with TRG Racing ended midseason.

“We helped keep his streak going back then and he helped us because were able to get some sponsors with him driving for us,’’ Barkdoll said Tuesday, noting that so far the team had signed Labonte for just the Michigan race and that former world champion Jacques Villenueve would be in the car for the road course race at Sonoma in two weeks.

“Everything can change but we wanted to help keep Bobby’s streak going,’’ Barkdoll said.

Labonte has 14 previous starts for Phoenix Racing, and he expressed his gratitude to the team via a statement on Tuesday.
 
"James has always been one of the first to reach out to offer help in a situation like this," said Labonte. "I enjoy racing with Nick Harrison, Steve Barkdoll and the entire group of guys. I’m looking forward to this weekend."

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“A few years back you didn’t have the opportunity like this, but now there are lots of talented drivers that can do one-offs and things like that.’’

The JTG/Daugherty Racing team — where Labonte has been for the past three seasons — announced during the weekend it would put A.J. Allmendinger in Labonte’s No. 47 Toyota at Michigan hoping to get additional driver feedback on why the one-car team has struggled.

Labonte is expected to be back in the No. 47 at Sonoma and JTG co-owner Brad Daugherty insisted over the weekend that “Bobby’s our guy.”

"I enjoy racing for Tad (Geschickter), Jodi (Geschickter) and Brad," Labonte said in Tuesday’s statement. "They have given me a great opportunity to help this team grow. It’s where my focus has been since racing with the team in 2011. I want to see this team get better and will do what I need to do to make that happen.

"We just completed our first test at Kentucky, which was valuable time spent on the track, that should assist in improving our team performance starting this weekend and going forward."

Posted on by Holly Cain

Recent slide a source of concern for No. 5 team

TAMPA, Fla. — One by one drivers climbed out of their cars Sunday afternoon at Pocono Raceway and shook their heads in amazement and competitive frustration at the dominating way Jimmie Johnson raced to the win.

Greg Biffle said Johnson was in a league of his own. Matt Kenseth said Johnson’s Chevy had shown itself as the car to beat since teams unloaded there.

But there was at least one driver who absolutely still feels his car was every bit as strong as Johnson’s: his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne.

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Problem was, Kahne never got to challenge Johnson.  Instead he spent the whole afternoon laps down after a fluke mechanical problem with his No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevy on the race’s opening lap.

“I never watched him (Johnson) check out on the field because we were 20 laps down early and when I was on the track, we were the fastest car so I didn’t feel like that,’’ Kahne said. “I felt like I was the best car there, just 20 laps down.’’

While it was a highly uncharacteristic showing for Kahne’s team, it was troublesome because Kahne seems to have the fast cars, but not always the showings for it.

It was still on his mind Tuesday when he attended the Tampa Bay Buccaneers mini-camp, catching passes from Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman and helping to promote the July 6 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Kahne is taking nothing for granted and insisted that he is equally as concerned about making the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field this year as he was worried about it in 2012. That’s saying something considering he’s currently ranked eighth — solidly among the guaranteed top-10 positions — and was 16th at this point last season before pulling off a summertime rally.

After ranking as high as second — 37 points behind leader Johnson — in April, Kahne has slowly slid down the standings despite having good cars. His 36th place at Pocono was his fourth sub-20th effort in the last six races. While it dropped him only one position to eighth, it’s still the lowest he’s been in the championship since March.

“My (points outlook) is not that great right now,’’ said Kahne. “We’ve dropped so much in points in the past couple weeks I feel like we’re on the verge of really needing to get a ton of points to get back to where we need to be. I don’t feel any better now than I did last year at this time.’’

The good news for Kahne, is that his cars have been fast. He has a win at Bristol and a pair of runner-ups (Las Vegas and Charlotte).

“At Pocono, once we came back on track we were the fastest car there but we were too far behind because of a mechanical problem at the start,’’ Kahne said. “I feel like we’ve been as good as anyone all season long, we just don’t have the results to show for it. And that’s what gets me.

“So as far as points go, if we keep doing that, we’re going to miss the Chase. We’ve got to work on some things and if we can start finishing where we’re running it will be simple to make the Chase.

“I do feel like we can go out and win any given weekend.’’

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman trades a jersey for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kasey Kahne’s fire suit on Tuesday at the Bucs’ training facility. (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

(Center) Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano welcomes NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kasey Kahne (left) and Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood III, a Tampa native, to the Bucs’ training facility on Tuesday. (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

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Junior rises five spots following impressive Pocono showing; Truex tanks seven

                    Change            High/Low           

         

1. Jimmie Johnson       

Outlook: Johnson’s lofty lead of 51 points over Carl Edwards means that, yes, he could miss an entire race and keep his hold of first place; which he may have to do because his pregnant wife is due in September. It’s as if he planned this all along.

Standings: 1st, 521 points

2. Carl Edwards          

Outlook: Edwards admits in his “Big Brain Theory” appearance that he’s crashed a car in basically every way possible. Luckily, he didn’t crash at Pocono, but he still ended up 18th.
Standings: 2nd, 470 points

3. Matt Kenseth            

Outlook: Another week, another unfortunate occurrence for Kenseth, who seems to either win a race, get knocked out by an accident he doesn’t cause or have a blown engine. This week’s culprit? Juan Pablo Montoya.
Standings: 6th, 418 points

4. Dale Earnhardt Jr.    

Outlook: Most expected to see Junior get his mojo back soon, but according to most predictions, it came a week early at Pocono. With Michigan International Speedway, the site of his last two wins, on the horizon, Earnhardt has a chance to really pick up some steam.
Standings: 4th, 439 points

5. Clint Bowyer             

Outlook: Whether or not Bowyer was trying to match his car number or he was just tired from wheeling around a shopping cart late last week, 15th-place finishes aren’t what he is looking for right now.
Standings: 3rd, 452 points

6. Kyle Busch             

Outlook: Naturally, in Busch’s first week of looking for his 100th career top-five finish in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, he placed sixth. He could have to wait another week for the century mark, as just three of the 99 have come at Michigan.
Standings: 7th, 412 points

7. Kevin Harvick             

Outlook: Now that Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth each have a trifecta of victories, the page turns to the next trio of drivers with a shot to join the club in Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne. What do you think?
Standings: 5th, 434 points

8. Kasey Kahne            

Outlook: Stricken by mechanical issues on the very first lap, Kahne had no realistic shot to make any progress in the standings. He does run reasonably well at Michigan, however, so it could be a good week to make up some of the ground he lost.
Standings: 8th, 400 points

9. Brad Keselowski     

Outlook: Keselowski and Harvick nearly smashed each other up pretty bad on pit road, but the reigning champ still finished 16th despite the miss. Still, it was enough to move up a spot in the standings ahead of his home race.
Standings: 9th, 398 points

10. Tony Stewart        

Outlook: And this is why Tony Stewart is a three-time champion. The driver/owner was able to steer out of a swerve in traffic on a restart that likely would have ended his day. Instead, he finished fourth and has risen seven spots in the standings in the past two weeks alone.
Standings: 13th, 378 points

11. Jeff Gordon             

Outlook: Gordon’s primary sponsor recently renewed its contract with Hendrick Motorsports through 2016. For the soon-to-be-42-year-old, it called into question if he’d be around to see the end of the deal. Fortunately for the sport of NASCAR, it sounds like he could.
Standings: 11th, 393 points

12. Greg Biffle               

Outlook: Given all the issues that Roush Fenway Racing and the other Ford teams have had this season, it was huge for Biffle to earn his first top-10 since Texas.
Standings: 10th, 395 points

13. Kurt Busch             

Outlook: Busch is certainly pleased with his seventh-place finish (even if it did come a spot behind his little brother) and from the sounds of it, he knew nobody was beating Jimmie Johnson.
Standings: 15th, 374 points

14. Denny Hamlin               

Outlook: Hamlin needs wins. There’s no way around it. He’d even be willing to risk blowing an engine if it meant he’d have a better shot at getting one.
Standings: 25th, 285 points

15. Paul Menard            

Outlook: Thanks to a tire problem on the last lap, Menard’s 30th-place finish has him dropping even further down the standings. His early-season success is becoming a distant memory and it’ll be tough to regain it with other drivers heating up.
Standings: 12th, 385 points

16. Joey Logano             

Outlook: Logano wasn’t able to commit to his full weekend plan of running in both the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Iowa and the Cup race at Pocono where he was the reigning winner, but his substitute filled in admirably.
Standings: 16th, 369 points

17. Ryan Newman             

Outlook: It wasn’t conventional by any means, but it worked. Newman’s pit strategy was a huge factor in his top-five finish and his squad may want to consider more Hail Mary-type moves if he plans on making the Chase.
Standings: 18th, 363 points

18. Martin Truex Jr.         

Outlook: No, Truex didn’t blow his engine on Sunday. A 23rd-place finish ahead of a Michigan track he’s only mediocre at (four top-10s in 14 tries) doesn’t bode well for a return to a Chase spot.
Standings: 17th, 364 points

19. Aric Almirola              

Outlook: Dave Blaney might not be happy with Almirola after sending him for a spin, but it isn’t like the driver of the No. 43 did so hot himself. Almirola finished a paltry 21st.
Standings: 14th, 377 points

20. Juan Pablo Montoya   

Outlook: The momentum that Montoya has been building didn’t take much of a hit with a 14th-place finish, but it’s tough to really say he kept the momentum he had after a solid Dover run. It’s a fair assessment that he has June 23 circled on his calendar when the first road-course race of the season takes place at Sonoma.
Standings: 22nd, 337 points

In the rearview

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

Posted on by Nascar

Automaker ready for offseason addition of Penske team to pay dividends

The addition of Penske Racing to the Ford camp for 2013 was part of a push by the automaker to deliver a manufacturer’s championship to the Detroit-based company.
 
But with Penske drivers Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano winless through the first 14 races, the move has yet to produce much in the way of tangible results.
 
That’s not to lay fault at the feet of the Penske organization, as Roush Fenway Racing, the anchor of Ford’s NASCAR platform, has had its share of struggles this season as well.

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Ford teams have just two wins — Carl Edwards (Roush Fenway Racing) at Phoenix and David Ragan (Front Row Motorsports) at Talladega – and three drivers in the top 10 in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series points standings. Edwards is second, Keselowski ninth and Greg Biffle (RFR) climbed back to 10th this past weekend after spending four weeks on the outside looking in.

In the battle for the manufacturer’s title, Ford trails both Chevrolet and Toyota.

Jamie Allison, director of Ford Racing, said June 11 that there have been “moments in time” this season “when we were in contention to win races.” But those wins have failed to materialize, he said and “overall … we have not had the performance that we had expected coming out of the gate this year.”

Allison said Ford officials met with teams owners Roger Penske, Jack Roush and key team personnel June 10 in an effort to identify “projects based on the analysis we have done and based on the gap that exists and the opportunities in front of us.

“I know there is not a lot of patience by the fans or by us and there is not a lot of patience by the teams,” he said. “Everybody expects immediate results and that is our expectation. … We will address the issues we have identified and advance our program more cohesively.”

Ford’s current situation might be unexpected but isn’t unusual. A year ago, Ford drivers had two wins and held two spots in the top 10 after 14 races. In 2011, three wins and two spots in the top 10; in 2010, three drivers in the top 10 with no wins.

A Ford driver hasn’t won the Cup title since 2004 (Kurt Busch) and its last manufacturer’s championship came in 2002.

Penske Racing, previously aligned with Dodge, made the switch to Ford following the 2012 season — and a Cup championship for Keselowski.

It was unreasonable to expect that there wouldn’t be a period of adjustment, Allison said, but “we absolutely made the right strategic move by strengthening the caliber of championship-capable teams and drivers … into the lineup that we have.

“You can’t just have an addition to a family and expect everything to operate as it did before. We really do need to just give it a little bit of time to allow for the blended, broader family to come together a little more cohesively and get comfortable with each other and then allow for more synergy coming out of working together. It just takes a little time.”

In spite of the slow start, there have been highlights for Ford teams this season. Besides the two victories on the Cup side, Ford drivers also have a pair of wins in Nationwide competition, where Penske driver Sam Hornish Jr. holds down the No. 2 points position.

With the Cup series headed to Michigan International Speedway this weekend for the Quicken Loans 400, Ford teams will be seeking a second milestone in as many weeks.

Trevor Bayne’s Nationwide victory at Iowa Speedway June 9 gave Ford its 200th career win in NNS competition. And Ford teams have won 999 races across all three programs — Cup, Nationwide and the Camping World Truck Series. Snagging win No. 1,000 in the company’s backyard is clearly something officials would enjoy celebrating.

“It is less about bragging rights and more about wanting to showcase the best of what we are made of in front of all the people who follow us, support us and cheer for us,” Allison said.

Posted on by Staff Report

The former Atlanta Braves great and future Hall of Fame third baseman was on hand at Talladega Superspeedway

Chipper Jones retired after last season as one of the greatest players ever for the Atlanta Braves, and a likely future first-ballot selection to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The former third baseman and eight-time all-star has followed NASCAR since his days growing up in Pierson, Fla., not far from Daytona Beach. He gave the command to start engines as grand marshal for the recent Sprint Cup Series event at Talladega Superspeedway.

How did you become such a big NASCAR fan?

I grew up about 20 miles inland from Daytona Beach, Fla., and I think when they revved the engines up, you could hear them in my backyard, to be honest with you. It was always a fun time to go over to Daytona twice a year. Back then it was the Firecracker 400 in the summer, and obviously the big Daytona race every February. We always had a blast. That’s where my love of NASCAR started.

Who are your favorite drivers?

I was in the house for Richard Petty’s 200th win. Ronald Reagan flew in on Air Force One. Richard wasn’t my favorite, though. I was a Cale Yarborough fan. I loved Cale’s grit and determination. He’d fight you in a heartbeat on the backstretch if somebody wrecked him. That was always something that I liked. But I always thought he had one of the prettiest cars, to be honest with you. That Hardee’s 28 and Valvoline 27 were some good-looking cars. Now, I’ve gotten to know so many of the racers over the years going to driver’s meetings and going to Daytona so many times walking up pit road, it’s hard to put a finger on a favorite. I guess if you held a gun to my head, I’d probably say Jeff Gordon and I go back a long way. We’ve had some of the same representation, and he’s gotten me tickets in years past. So I’d probably have to say Jeff is my guy.

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How has life been post-baseball?

I’m knocking off bucket-list items left and right right now. I’ve been to Augusta (for The Masters), which I’ve never been able to do. Been able to go turkey hunting for the first time in my life — on purpose, anyway. I’ve always said, my love for NASCAR has never faded. I’ve wanted to hop in a bus or hop in a camper and do the tour. I’ve always wanted to go up to Bristol. I’m a big either short-track guy, or super speedway guy. I’m not big on the mile-and-a-halves, but I’d like to go to some and continue to make the circuit as much as I can.

What about jumping in a race car?

I’ve done it in Las Vegas, actually. Did it a couple of years ago. I have a couple of outdoors shows on the Sportsman Channel, one on the Outdoors Channel. So the big Shot Show for the outdoor industry was in Las Vegas, and we jumped in a car out there. I think I got the most careful driver of the bunch. I probably went the slowest out of everybody. But I’d love to do it again. It’s something that if I wasn’t a baseball player, I’d have wanted to be a race car driver or a country singer or something like that. Not that I can sing. But I can dang sure drive. I like to go fast.

Where’s your favorite place to watch a race?

I used to watch from the stands as a kid at Daytona, and I thought that was great. But getting down on those pit boxes –I’ve stood on Richard Childress’ tower with him at Daytona, and being able to see those cars go all the way around … that’s a  thrill for me. I like to be down here in the midst of it.

Are you surprised your adjustment to retirement has been so smooth?

For the last 23 years I’ve been living out of a suitcase, playing the game of baseball. I’ve loved every minute of it. But I think now, just being able to set up some roots, being able to see my kids whenever I want to — I’ve got four boys, ages 15, 12, 8 and 7. Being able to go to games on Saturdays. Being able to actually sit down and watch a race on the weekend from the drop of the green flag to the drop of the checkered flag. Most of the time Sunday afternoons, I’m having to catch the last 50 laps on the radio driving home from the ballpark. There are a lot of cool things that I want to do. People are so surprised that I haven’t had more trouble adjusting to life after baseball. I wasn’t just a baseball player. I have a lot of other interests in life, whether it’s NASCAR, whether it’s deer hunting, whether it’s coaching my kids’ baseball team, or whatever. So I’m going to be just fine, and I’m having a blast thus far.

Posted on by Brad Norman

Perhaps the only driver in the garage to be excited to see the skies open up, Blaney uses opportunity to race to ninth-place finish

As the weather radars began to look less promising and as dark clouds rolled over the garage area of Iowa Speedway on Saturday evening, there was one driver who, amid the grumbling, was thrilled with the impending showers. 

And he wasn’t even in the field for the DuPont Pioneer 250. At least not yet. That changed, though, when the weather was as wet as projected, forcing the race to be postponed to Sunday.

Exit Joey Logano, to Pocono for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Enter Ryan Blaney, fresh from driving in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Texas Motor Speedway and Logano’s replacement driver in the No. 22 Penske Racing Ford.

“Oh, I was rooting for rain,” Blaney said with a grin after his ninth-place finish Sunday afternoon. “I was hoping on it, banking on it. I think I was the only one in the garage area that wanted that to happen. It did, and it was pretty cool. I thank everyone at Penske for giving me a chance to drive.”

"He drives with a little more finesse than I do. He just drives so much different."

— Ryan Blaney on Joey Logano

The ninth-place effort was Blaney’s second top-10 of the weekend in a NASCAR national series race — he finished eighth at Texas. Blaney, 19, caught a few hours of sleep after his Truck Series race and flew to Newton, Iowa, early Saturday morning.

He soaked in as much information about the car as he could from Logano, who was on the entry list as the only full-time Sprint Cup driver in the field. 

Then Blaney waited. Logano qualified sixth under cloudy skies Saturday afternoon, but wouldn’t get the opportunity to drive in the race.

“It’s funny because we were sitting there in the rain and Ryan Blaney … he’s a good kid and doesn’t talk much,” Logano told the media at Pocono following his 10th-place run in the Cup race. “He’s kind of a quiet kid and all of a sudden it started raining and he’s happy and talking and joking around. I was like, ‘What the heck?’ So it was funny. He’s hilarious and we had a good time up there joking around.”

When it became clear that it was Blaney who would be in the car at the white flag, the No. 22 team made a few adjustments. The first, and most important, had nothing to do with the car’s mechanical setup.

No, the No. 22 Ford had to undergo a more necessary alteration: a seat insert. The car was meant to hold Logano’s 6-foot-1 frame, not the 5-7, 140-pound makeup of Blaney.

The car itself was also built to suit Logano’s liking, and although mechanical changes were made to serve Blaney, it was still a loose race car.

“He drives with a little more finesse than I do. He just drives so much different,” Blaney said. “You don’t know how it’s going to be. We missed it a little bit the first run. It was really loose … but, just how he likes it. I couldn’t really drive it how I wanted to.”

You couldn’t tell. Although Logano qualified sixth, Blaney had to go to the back of the 40-car field due to the driver switch.

Through 15 of 250 laps, Blaney had already steered the car into the top 15. He cracked the top 10 by Lap 135 and stayed there for the remainder of the event, his first Nationwide Series race this year and 14th of his career.

Blaney was running as high as seventh-place until additional bad weather forced a red-flag period of nearly 70 minutes. On old tires, and with the built-up rubber washed off the oval, he slipped back a few spots in the race to the finish. 

“Well, I thought we would have been fine if the 77 (Parker Kligerman) wouldn’t have drilled us through the last restart,” Blaney said. “But it was a pretty good day. We didn’t come and get tires on the last pit stop, and most people got four or two. We had to clean the grille, too, so that’s another reason why we didn’t get any tires.

“When it rained, the track changed so much after that, we could just never get a handle on it and old tires made it worse. Still, it wasn’t a bad day for just jumping in it.”

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Wife’s labor could fall at Richmond, right before the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup

LONG POND, Pa. — Following his dominant victory Sunday at Pocono Raceway, Jimmie Johnson now enjoys his largest points lead of the season — a whopping 51 over second-place Carl Edwards. The five-time champion is well aware that most or all of that advantage could disappear when points are reset prior to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

But Johnson’s big lead may help in another, very different area — enabling him to relax a little as he and wife Chandra near the birth of their second child, a girl due in September. The final event of NASCAR’s regular season, which finalizes the playoff field, is set for Richmond on Sept. 7.

"My selfish motivation for that (points lead), if Chani goes into labor early, I don’t have to worry about Richmond, honestly. "

—Jimmie Johnson

Johnson wants to build as big a lead as he can, so he has the option of skipping the Richmond event in case his wife gives birth early or other unexpected issues arise. His current 51-point margin already exceeds the number of points one driver can gain on another in a single event, and 13 more races still remain until the Chase field is determined. His advantage over Edwards entering the day had been 30 points.

“Awesome,” said Johnson, who now has three wins, knotting him with Matt Kenseth for most in that category. “I knew we stretched it. I didn’t know it would be that much, so that’s great. My selfish motivation for that, if Chani goes into labor early, I don’t have to worry about Richmond, honestly. That is what I’m working so hard for. I always work hard anyway, but it sure takes some pressure off if we lock early and don’t have to worry about Richmond.”

Johnson’s daughter Genevieve will turn 3 next month. The drivers in the Chase will be seeded based on race victories prior to the Sept. 15 opener in Joliet, Ill., but in the meantime, the No. 48 team will take all the points it can get — for reasons professional as well as personal.

“As far as points go, it’s always important,” said Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus. “We’ve got some very tricky race tracks coming up, we’ve got road courses, we’ve got Michigan — which is very hard for us for some reason — and we want to make sure that we get as many points accumulated as we possibly can so that if Chani does have a problem around Richmond time, we can all relax a little bit and make sure everything is OK.”

Although Johnson had Aric Almirola available as a standby driver during the latter stages of his wife’s first pregnancy in 2010, Genevieve was born on a Wednesday, and her father did not skip a race. Johnson has not missed an event since beginning his full-time Sprint Cup career, to date competing in 412 straight since his second start, which came in the penultimate event of the 2001 campaign.

Meanwhile, there’s the other matter of trying to win a sixth championship, and toward that end, he believes stockpiling points continues to provide a snapshot as to how well his team is running — even if many of those points may ultimately be wiped away when the championship field is reset.

“It’s something we pay close attention to,” Johnson said. Rivals like Edwards and reigning champion Brad Keselowski “are the guys that I’ve got a close eye on right now, and just trying to make sure we’re putting points on them. If we’re doing that we’re doing our job. Even though the gap might change and look more dramatic at the top right now, we’ve got to keep a good eye on the past five races, past 10 races, to be sure we’re the ones earning the most points.”

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Drivers opt to learn from, compete against proven Sprint Cup star

When Kyle Busch isn’t racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, though the chance of winning may be higher, the victory isn’t quite as sweet. At Texas Motor Speedway this past weekend — the first race without Busch since he swept the previous two — the Sprint Cup Series driver was, surprisingly, missed.

“I want to get back to Victory Lane, but I want to do it when Kyle Busch or Mark Martin or Carl Edwards is out there,” Brendan Gaughan, a four-time winner at Texas, said. “You wanna race against the best, and right now, Kyle Busch is the best.”

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In the four Camping World Truck Series races he’s been in this year, Busch has won two, placed second once and crashed out of the other. He’s started in the top five twice, and led 153 laps. By comparison, Trucks Series points leader Matt Crafton has led 44 laps so far this season.
 
Veterans of the series say a win would mean more if it were against the best in the business. They’d rather chance losing to him than lose the chance of beating him.
 
Younger drivers enjoy having the chance to learn from a proven Cup driver — and there is a lot they can learn from Busch, the youngest winner ever at Texas Motor Speedway until Jeb Burton took that record on Friday night.
 
“…You’ve got to believe that you can just constantly learn off of them,” said Chad Hackenbracht, who ran Busch’s No. 51 truck at Texas, “whether it be how they race, how they pass you or, once they pass you, how you see them get around someone else. I can only see it as being a benefit.”
 
It’s also a chance for drivers to see how they measure up to drivers in NASCAR’s premier series, such as Busch and reigning Cup champion Brad Keselowski, another regular double-duty driver.
 
“I’ve always enjoyed it when the Cup drivers or Nationwide drivers come back and race in the Truck Series because it really gives you a chance to compare yourself 100 percent to the guys that are racing on Sunday,” KBM driver Joey Coulter said. “And, two, obviously if you beat ’em it looks really good, and if you don’t beat ’em, usually if you really pay attention, you can learn a lot from ’em,”
 
Busch has never run a full trucks series season. The closest he has come was in 2008, when he ran 18 of the season’s 25 races. That same year, he won eight races in the Sprint Cup Series — the most wins he has had in a season to date. In 30 Nationwide races that year, he nabbed 10 wins in the Series — his second-best season only to 13 wins in 2010, when he won eight Trucks races and three Cup races. Yet Busch isn’t the only one who benefits from racing in all three series.
 
“It does hurt (the KBM) organization as a whole when he’s not here, ’cause you know that he… can change things that well, and it is a good voice box for Joey (Coulter) and the kids (Darrell Wallace Jr. and Hackenbracht), so I think it kinda hurts them a little bit,” Gaughan said. “Not Joey so much; he’s got more experience, but Darrell and Chad, would be nice if they could have Kyle here to lean on.”
 
While there seems to be a line of age and experience dividing drivers who want the Joe Gibbs Racing driver there to provide competition and those who want to learn from him, the sentiment about his presence on the track with them is the same.
 
“Whether Kyle’s a Cup guy or not, he’s winning races,” James Buescher, currently sixth in the standings after a ninth-place finish at Fort Worth, said. “So, I don’t think it matters that he’s a Cup guy. I think it matters that he’s got it figured out how to win it in truck, and we gotta figure out how to beat him. … Just because he does something else on Sunday doesn’t make it him any different of a competitor on Friday night.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

The standings continue to fluctuate every week and Pocono was no exception

IN THE REARVIEW. …

Greg Biffle’s runner-up effort Sunday in the No. 16 3M Ford was only his second top-five on the season and his first top-10 since April 13 at Texas Motor Speedway.

The good news for Biffle, however, is that with all the movement among the Chase contenders this week, it put him right back into the thick of things — a three-position improvement to 10th in the championship standings, the final guaranteed spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

“We’re not quite there yet,’’ Biffle said. “Clearly we’re not celebrating that we finished second today quite yet. …but definitely, this is a step in the right direction.  We certainly ran better here than we have all season, and certainly that’s a positive for us going into next week, hopefully continue to build on that.”

TEAR DOWN …

Learning curve: There has been plenty of intrigue and expectation for this year’s Sunoco Rookie of the Year class. Despite all of the credentials two-time Nationwide Series champ Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and former open-wheel star Danica Patrick bring to the rookie competition — plus the added interest of the two being in a romantic relationship — it’s been a tough year as far as the actual on-track results.

It was no Party in the Poconos for Stenhouse or Patrick. He had the toughest points day of them all — his 26th-place finish in the race dropped him five positions to 20th. It was his second worst finish of the year (he was 40th at Texas in April). After a 29th-place finish at Pocono, Patrick is ranked 28th with only one top-10.

Stenhouse has been the top-finishing rookie in 11 of the 14 races, including Sunday’s 26th-place effort at Pocono, although Patrick made international headlines winning the Coors Light Pole Award and finishing eighth in the season-opening Daytona 500.

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Labonte-less Michigan? No driver has swept the season’s races at Michigan, the next stop on the Sprint Cup circuit, since Bobby Labonte all the way back in 1995. After 702 consecutive starts — the second-longest active streak and third all-time in NASCAR history — Labonte will be replaced in JTG/Daugherty Racing’s No. 47 Toyota with AJ Allmendinger next Sunday at Michigan.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS. …

1 — Number of cautions through the first 125 laps of the Party in the Poconos 400. 

5 — Number of cautions in the final 28 laps.

4 — Top-five finishes in the first four races of the season for Brad Keselowski. The reigning Sprint Cup champ has had only one (Dover) since. 

11 — Drivers ranked in the top-12 after this Pocono race last year who qualified for the Chase.  

128 — Laps Jimmie Johnson led Sunday, the most ever in his 23 Pocono starts.

CHASE WATCH …

Johnson now holds the largest championship lead he’s had all season. Amazingly, his 51-point advantage means he could essentially sit out a race and still maintain the lead.

As for other movers, Sunday’s third-place finisherDale Earnhardt Jr. and three-time race winner Matt Kenseth swapped places in the standings. Earnhardt is now ranked fourth and Kenseth is sixth.

Last week’s winner, Tony Stewart, continued a blazing run up the standings. His fourth-place effort moved him up another three positions, and he is now ranked 13th, only 17 points out of a guaranteed Chase berth in the top-10. Two races ago, he was winless and ranked 20th, more than 40 points out of the top-10.

Conversely, a tire problem on the very last lap Sunday dropped one of the season’s quiet achievers, Paul Menard, three positions in the standings — from a promising ninth place to 12th.

THEY SAID IT. …

“I’m not a dad, but I feel very much like a proud dad today.”

— Tony Stewart on his Stewart-Haas Racing team’s first double top-5 finish of the season. Stewart and teammate Ryan Newman were fourth and fifth, and it comes on the heels of Stewart’s victory last week.

“They are 43-wide going into Turn One.’’

–TNT analyst and former racer Kyle Petty joking about a late-race restart during the television broadcast.

“He was gone from the first practice yesterday. It was his race to lose all weekend."

— Matt Kenseth talking about winner Jimmie Johnson’s dominant win.

COMING UP. …

Next up, the first test of the Gen-6 car in race conditions during the Quicken Loans 400 at the super-fast, super-smooth Michigan International Speedway two-mile oval.

Nine different drivers have won the last 11 races there. Defending race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2008 and 2012) and Denny Hamlin (2010 and 2011) are the only multiple winners in that span.

Biffle has three wins at Michigan, most recently in August, the last time the series raced there.