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Veteran driver captures third race of GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season

Read more: GRAND-AM racing news

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — After seven drivers took turns running up front in Saturday’s Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park, Max Angelelli found himself in the lead with 45 minutes remaining in the third race of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season.
 
The veteran never let up, leading the final 33 laps around the 2.3-mile circuit to post his 22nd Daytona Prototype victory in the No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette DP. Co-driver Jordan Taylor, who led five laps during the opening hour, scored his first DP triumph after winning twice in the GT division. It was Wayne Taylor Racing’s first win of 2013.
 
Angelelli was pressured most of the way by Alex Gurney, who closed the deficit several times in the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Corvette DP before running low on fuel in the closing laps.
 
“From my side, it was kind of easy because I only had to maintain the gap,” Angelelli said. “Jordan allowed me to have such an easy race, because he put the car in such a good position ahead of the No. 99.”

Angelelli and Taylor averaged a track-record 96.494 mph in the race, slowed by only one early caution due to Turner Motorsport BMW driver Michael Marsal being stuck in a gravel trap.
 
Gurney and pole-winning co-driver Jon Fogarty followed up their recent victory in Austin, Texas, to close to within two points of DP leaders Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas (93-91), with the TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates drivers finishing fourth.
 
Robin Liddell took Alessandro Balzan to school to win for the 19th time in GT competition in the No. 57 Stevenson Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro started from the pole by John Edwards. Liddell beat the Ferrari driver out of the pits after his second and final pit stop, and held him off to win by .733 seconds after the two ran nearly nose-to-tail throughout the final 30 minutes.
 
Balzan, co-driving the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458, had never driven a lap in dry conditions at Barber before Saturday’s race. The Italian driver said he learned the fastest line around the circuit by following Liddell after he took over from new co-driver Jeff Westphal. Boris Said and Eric Curran finished third in the No. 31 Marsh Racing Chevrolet Corvette.
 
Dr. Jim Norman took his third consecutive triumph in the new GX class, co-driving with fellow Austin winner Spencer Pumpelly in the No. 38 BGB Porsche Cayman. Both of the new SpeedSource Mazda 6 entries took turns in the lead earlier in the race. Tristan Nunez and Joel Miller finished second in the No. 00 Visit Florida Racing Mazda 6, but finished three laps behind due to a fuel line problem.
 
GRAND-AM next makes its first visit to Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga., for the Rolex Sports Car Series race on Saturday, April 20.
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Notebook: Martinsville site of where drama started last season 

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — With all the talk about controversy between Joey Logano and Tony Stewart — not to mention between Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin — the incident that lit the fuse between Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon has been shoved into the background.

Bowyer’s ill-fated three-wide move last spring at Martinsville Speedway, which wrecked Bowyer, Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, was the catalyst for Gordon’s revenge at Phoenix in the next-to-last race of the season.

Gordon had led 329 laps at the .526-mile short track before Bowyer’s dive-bomb move on a late restart. Though the resulting wreck may be on the back burner this week in light of more recent rivalries, Gordon recalls that it simmered throughout the 2012 season.

After contact between the Gordon and Bowyer cars at Phoenix ruined Gordon’s day, the feud ignited, and Gordon retaliated by wrecking Bowyer in Turn 4, ending Bowyer’s run at a possible NASCAR Sprint Cup title. 

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"Well, yeah, he wrecked us," Gordon said of the Martinsville restart. "So, whether it was intentional or not, it’s still something that was in the back of my mind. You could say it set the stage. But for me, it’s an accumulation of things, sort of like a three-strikes-and-you’re-out deal. And we just made contact too many times last year.

"But listen, he was racing hard. The thing that bothered me so much about it last year is that I really don’t know if we were going to win that race, because we were sitting ducks on old tires. He had it won — really, I think, pretty easily. But to try and make that move going into Turn 1 was very impatient, and it really cost him as much as it cost me.

"All he had to do was wait until we got off of Turn 2 and he probably would have driven by all of us down the back straightaway. So, certainly that’s not forgotten. But it’s nice to know that some of that attention is off of us. We’ll just go race hard like we have every other weekend."

HIGHER PROFILE FOR A PIONEER

Frank Scott, son of racing pioneer Wendell Scott, hopes the recognition his father received Friday in Danville, Va., will help in the push to add the only African-American driver to win a race in NASCAR’s highest classification to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Friday was Wendell Scott Day in Danville, where the ceremony included Scott’s restored No. 11 dirt modified car (as opposed to his customary No. 34 stock car) and the unveiling of a historical highway marker commemorating Scott’s 1965 win in Jacksonville, Fla. Scott’s wife Mary attended the ceremony with her children.

Scott, who posted 147 top-10 finishes in 495 career starts, was nominated to the NASCAR Hall of Fame last year but not inducted.

"As I reflect back, my mind goes to my mother," Frank Scott said Saturday at Martinsville Speedway. "The fact that she was there to witness all of this … when the songs were being sung, she was singing along, clapping her hands, and that’s what’s important to us as her children.

"Hopefully, yesterday’s occasion will give more of a drive to get my father inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Hopefully, as more attention is given to his legacy, the things that he’s done to promote community relations throughout the South — and even throughout the country — people will realize that he deserves that. And we hope that my mother will be there for that occasion as well."

DIFFERENT STROKES

As NASCAR Sprint Cup practice progressed on Saturday, Mark Martin was working hard to find a happy medium for the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota he’ll drive in Sunday’s STP Gas Booster 500 as a substitute for injured Denny Hamlin.

Martin started out Friday with Hamlin’s baseline setup, and it wasn’t to his liking. Unable to overcome a tendency for the car to drag the race track, Martin qualified 35th Friday afternoon.

"So far, I haven’t really gotten comfortable yet," Martin said on Friday.  "It’s pretty different, and the way Denny runs here is quite different than my style. We’ll have a lot more time (Saturday).  We’re working on getting it to feel like I need it to feel …

"We just drug the race track so bad. At the start of practice, the front drug the race track so bad it was unbelievable. We’ve got to get that better." 

Toward that end, Martin and crew chief Darian Grubb made progress on Saturday. In the final session, the dragging problem ameliorated, and Martin liked the way the car was turning through the corners.

Regardless, winning the race in Hamlin’s stead will be a tall order. In 128 Cup races at Martinsville, only one driver has won from a starting position outside the top 24. Kurt Busch accomplished the feat in 2002 from the 36th spot. 

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Sauter wins Kroger 250 at Martinsville, backing up his season-opening Daytona victory

Read more: Results | Video: Victory Lane | Final Laps | Burton-Hornaday crash

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Johnny Sauter grabbed the lead from rookie polesitter Jeb Burton with 17 laps left in Saturday’s Kroger 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway and pulled away to keep his 2013 perfect record intact.
 
Sauter won the season opener at Daytona, and after a break of 43 days, won the second race of the season at the .526-mile short track. Sauter won for the eighth time in the Truck Series and posted his first back-to-back victories. It was only the second time in series history that a driver has opened the season with back-to-back wins; the first was in 2006 by Mark Martin.
 
Sauter’s ThorSport Racing teammate, Matt Crafton, passed Burton for the second spot with four laps left. Burton held third, but his top-five finish was clouded by an accident on Lap 103, when he turned Ron Hornaday Jr. into the Turn 3 wall while battling for the lead.
 
Timothy Peters and Darrell Wallace Jr. completed the top five.

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Though Sauter and Burton were on equal tires at the finish in terms of the timing of their last pit stops, Burton had put more stress on his right rear as he worked his way through the field.
 
"We all knew today was going to be about tire management, just from the tire wear we saw (Friday in practice), moreso than ever before that I can ever remember here at Martinsville," said Sauter, a perennial hard charger. "The first part of the race, we ran 80 percent, just trying to maintain and not lose too much track position, but still try to run as fast as we could.
 
"That’s really hard to do, because you’ve got to keep the people behind you behind you, and you don’t want to use too much of your equipment up. … With about 45 or 50 to go, I put the hammer down and was picking them off. I still can’t believe we did it."
 
With two straight wins, Sauter holds a 12-point lead over Burton in the series standings.
 
"I really wanted to win," Burton said. "We have ’em covered half the race. We were really good at the beginning, and we adjusted to the track half way (through the race). Everything was good, and we still had ’em covered, I thought, and then I used the right rear tire a little bit too early when I had to get back through there.
 
"That was my fault. I thought there was 40 (laps) to go, and there was actually 60 to go, and I went a little harder than I needed to."
 
About the contact with Hornaday, Burton’s explanation was short and simple.
 
"I ran in a little too hard and got into him, and there’s not much else to say about it," Burton said.
 
In a battered No. 9 Chevrolet, Hornaday rallied to finish 10th, making use of two free passes under caution as the highest scored lapped car.
 
Divergent pit strategies put Kevin Harvick in the lead for a restart on Lap 151 of a scheduled 250, but Harvick, who had stayed out on old tires, gave up the top spot to Nelson Piquet Jr. one lap later and began a freefall back through the field.
 
Three circuits after a Lap 162 restart following the eighth caution, Wallace snagged the lead from Piquet and opened an advantage of more than three seconds, but both Wallace and Piquet opted to come to pit road for fresh rubber on Lap 198, under the ninth caution for Max Gresham‘s spin in Turn 2.
 
That gave the lead back to Burton, who brought the field to green on Lap 203, with Wallace, Piquet and Harvick deep in the field on new tires. John Wes Townley’s hard crash in Turn 4 caused the 10th caution on Lap 206 and bunched the field for a restart on Lap 218.
 
Wallace restarted seventh on fresh tires and had worked his way up to third by the time Harvick tapped and spun Todd Bodine in Turn 3 on Lap 229 to bring out the 11th caution. By then, Sauter, who last came to pit road with Burton on Lap 146, had fought his way into second place and was challenging Burton for the lead when the yellow flag flew.
 
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race – KROGER 250 results:
 
1. (4) Johnny Sauter, Toyota, 250, $33680.
2. (7) Matt Crafton, Toyota, 250, $23295.
3. (1) Jeb Burton #, Chevrolet, 250, $23865.
4. (3) Timothy Peters, Toyota, 250, $16075.
5. (2) Darrell Wallace Jr. #, Toyota, 250, $11275.
6. (8) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 250, $9550.
7. (28) Dakoda Armstrong, Chevrolet, 250, $11650.
8. (29) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 250, $11600.
9. (19) Erik Jones, Toyota, 250, $9300.
10. (9) Ron Hornaday Jr., Chevrolet, 250, $10525.
11. (23) Todd Bodine, Toyota, 250, $11450.
12. (11) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 250, $11325.
13. (22) David Starr, Toyota, 250, $11275.
14. (20) James Buescher, Chevrolet, 250, $12225.
15. (15) Joey Coulter, Toyota, 250, $12225.
16. (14) Ryan Blaney #, Ford, 250, $11075.
17. (12) Miguel Paludo, Chevrolet, 250, $11025.
18. (6) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 250, $10975.
19. (13) Nelson Piquet Jr.(i), Chevrolet, 248, $8675.
20. (25) Ross Chastain, Ford, 248, $11475.
21. (24) Caleb Holman, Chevrolet, 248, $8575.
22. (36) Tim George Jr., Ford, 247, $10800.
23. (27) Jeff Agnew, Chevrolet, 247, $10775.
24. (26) Devin Jones, Chevrolet, 246, $10725.
25. (16) Kevin Harvick(i), Chevrolet, Tire, 245, $8550.
26. (32) Kenny Habul(i), Toyota, 245, $9350.
27. (31) Grant Galloway, Toyota, 243, $9325.
28. (33) Robert Bruce, Ford, 242, $8300.
29. (5) German Quiroga #, Toyota, 241, $8250.
30. (18) Max Gresham, Chevrolet, 226, $8725.
31. (10) Brennan Newberry #, Chevrolet, 210, $7780.
32. (17) John Wes Townley, Toyota, Accident, 205, $7750.
33. (34) Norm Benning, Chevrolet, Rear Gear, 135, $7725.
34. (21) Bryan Silas, Ford, Drive Shaft, 109, $7700.
35. (30) Scott Riggs(i), Chevrolet, Ignition, 36, $7675.
36. (35) Jennifer Jo Cobb, RAM, Clutch, 22, $7619.

Average Speed of Race Winner:  62.595 mph.

Time of Race:  2 Hrs, 06 Mins, 03 Secs.

Margin of Victory: 1.888 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 11 for 71 laps.

Lead Changes: 13 among 7 drivers.

Lap Leaders: J. Burton # 1-76; R. Hornaday Jr. 77-95; K. Harvick(i) 96-101; R. Hornaday Jr. 102-103; J. Burton # 104-146; K. Harvick(i) 147-151; N. Piquet Jr.(i) 152-161; D. Wallace Jr. # 162; N. Piquet Jr.(i) 163-164; D. Wallace Jr. # 165-197; J. Burton # 198-217; T. Peters 218; J. Burton # 219-233; J. Sauter 234-250.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  J. Burton # 4 times for 154 laps; D. Wallace Jr. # 2 times for 34 laps; R. Hornaday Jr. 2 times for 21 laps; J. Sauter 1 time for 17 laps; N. Piquet Jr.(i) 2 times for 12 laps; K. Harvick(i) 2 times for 11 laps; T. Peters 1 time for 1 lap.

Top 10 in Points: J. Sauter – 94; J. Burton # – 82; M. Crafton – 77; R. Hornaday Jr. – 76; D. Wallace Jr. # – 72; R. Sieg – 70; T. Bodine – 67; T. Dillon – 66; M. Paludo – 64; R. Blaney # – 64.

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Stewart-Haas driver blows an engine during Saturday’s practice

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — The steep climb that Danica Patrick faces Sunday at Martinsville Speedway just got that much steeper.

Stewart-Haas Racing officials said that the team will change engines in the No. 10 Chevrolet ahead of Sunday’s STP Gas Booster 500. Patrick, who was scheduled to start 32nd after Friday’s qualifying, will now drop to the rear of the field before the green flag falls on the sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season.

Patrick had improved in Saturday’s practice, ranking 29th on the speed chart in the first morning session then 22nd in final practice.

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Unfortunately for Patrick, she’s no stranger to starting from the back of the pack. Since claiming a historic pole position for the season-opening Daytona 500, the rookie’s starting spots have been 40th, 37th, 41st and 40th in the last four races.

Patrick will be making her first start Sunday at the .526-mile track, one of NASCAR’s trickiest circuits.

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Johnson finishes second depsite contact with Logano

Read more: Practice results, lineup for race

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Clint Bowyer swept the speed charts Saturday, running fastest in both practice sessions for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway.

Bowyer, who stirred the pot with a controversial finish here last spring, turned a fast lap of 97.018 mph, slightly faster than his earlier pace of 96.681 mph.

Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano headed to the garage after Logano scraped the wall and slowed, resulting in contact with Johnson. Both drivers returned to the track, Johnson with tape on his left-front and Logano with repairs to his right-rear. Despite the incident, Johnson finished with the second-fastest lap and a top speed of 96.293 mph.

Drivers were also briefly slowed on the .526-mile track when a screwdriver made its way into the traffic.

After a strong Toyota showing in the earlier practices — Kyle Busch was second in the earlier practice clocking a best lap of 96.528 mph — Brian Vickers was the only other Camry in the top-10, finishing eighth, .216 seconds off Bowyer., while Busch finished 12th.

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Carl Edwards‘ No. 99 Ford was third-fastest with a best lap of 96.161 mph, followed by fellow Ford driver Greg Biffle at 96.151 mph. Defending Sprint Cup Champion Brad Keselowski just missed the top five, falling behind Jeff Burton’s 19.710-second lap by .004 seconds.

Jeff Gordon, a seven-time Martinsville winner, couldn’t better his earlier practice finish of third, taking the 16th-fastest run of the afternoon depsite running the most laps (96). Last year’s race winner Ryan Newman also ran slower this time around, finishing 14th in the final practice after a fifth-place run in the morning.

Mark Martin, subbing for the injured Denny Hamlin, was 20th-fastest in the later practice, following his 17th-fastest run in the No. 11 Toyota Saturday morning.

Sprint Cup points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished in the top-10 with a best lap of 95.927 mph in the later practice, a significant jump to ninth from his 28th spot in the earlier practice.

The STP Gas Booster 500 will take place Sunday at 1 p.m. on FOX.

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Johnson prefers to hash it out face-to-face; Burton says any talk is better than nothing

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — No matter where you work, one inevitability is office politics. The NASCAR garage is no different.

So when disputes arise, how best to handle differences?

The three-headed monster of a driver rivalry involving Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Tony Stewart has prompted hurt feelings, cross words and physical altercations in the last two races. Friday, all three said they haven’t spoken since arriving at Martinsville Speedway, focusing more on making their cars faster than mending fences.

One byproduct of the digital age is being able to connect instantly through text, Twitter or other social media. That doesn’t always mean it’s best to settle problems with other drivers electronically.

"Tweeting is definitely not personal enough."

—Jimmie Johnson

"The flip side to it as well is, pick up the phone and call a guy. Go find them," said Jimmie Johnson, who’ll start from the pole in Sunday’s STP Gas Booster 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX). "You don’t have to do it in front of the cameras; go find a guy and tell him how you feel. I think at the end of the day, that is the route that I have chosen. I think you can be far more effective by engaging with someone. A phone call is barely personal enough. Texting is not personal enough. Tweeting is definitely not personal enough, but engage."

Hamlin will miss up to six weeks with a back injury, but Friday he was at the track helping his Joe Gibbs Racing team with insights on getting around the .526-mile track. As fate would have it, Hamlin was acting as a consultant right beside the garage stall of his rival Logano, whose Penske team is just one position behind Hamlin’s JGR operation in the car owner points standings.

The drivers might not be close in friendship, but in terms of proximity, they might never be closer than this weekend.

"It would be real easy to slide next door and be like ‘Hey, look. We’ve got to bury the hatchet on this deal,’ " Johnson said. "Or drive to somebody’s house. We all live within 30 miles of one another. Or go sit at the bar and wait for him at the bar and punch him in the face. There are a lot of options."

For all the options, no clear-cut protocol exists on proper etiquette when egos and fenders are bruised. Brad Keselowski, Logano’s Penske Racing teammate, suggests that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

"It’s easy to bench race it and say how I would have handled it, but everybody is different and has their own style," Keselowski said. "It would be terrible if we were all the same, wouldn’t it? So to imply that every driver should handle the situation this way, that really sounds kind of asinine to me because that would be boring as hell to watch, it would be boring as hell to do. There are going to be different styles and different approaches."

So whether it’s a call, text, tweet or some other means, Jeff Burton suggests anything is better than doing nothing at all, lest an unresolved dispute turn the garage area into a toxic workplace.

"You need to reach out and try to make it happen," Burton said. "If you can’t have a logical conversation, then it’s best to pull back. We live together. We’ve got to race together. We’ve got to somewhat get along. Even if you don’t like the guy you still have to have some sort of professional respect for the guy. They’ll find a way through it but it’s probably going to take a little time. I’m sure Denny, in the position he’s in, is bitter about it. I think Joey has his feet dug in the sand, too. I do think over time it will get better. But when you screw up, you’ve just got to address it. You just do."

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Posted on by Zack Albert

The 22-year-old has quickly grown up in front of the other drivers

Read more: Schedule | Lineup | Drivers discuss feuds

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Joey Logano emerged from his bright yellow hauler Friday afternoon, right on the heels of Penske Racing crewman Dave "Mule" Nichols. He joked to the gathered media scrum that he thought reporters first wanted a word with the No. 22 Ford’s tire specialist.

If only deflecting the spotlight was that easy.

Scrutiny’s glare has never been brighter on the 22-year-old driver, who entered NASCAR’s top series four years ago as a plucky rookie with ballyhooed expectations and a catchy nickname. Now the intense light is focused on Logano for altogether different reasons after his involvement in post-race shoving matches in the last two events, but also for the glimpse at his potential to compete for victories on more than a slightly occasional basis.

"The last three weeks we’ve been fast enough to be in Victory Lane, so I feel like it’s right around the corner for us."

— Joey Logano

"The game plan is not to be out in the middle of the drama, but at least they’re talking about you," Logano said. "That’s a good thing."

Logano’s name hasn’t been the most talked-about name in the stock-car racing community for some time, largely attributable to his moderate but uneven success in his four-year stint with Joe Gibbs Racing — all while under the weight of lofty expectations. But five races into this season, his first with the Penske Racing organization, Logano has found himself near the front of the pack with much more regularity.

Sustaining that early performance will be a matter of meeting expectations again.

"I think in Joey’s case, he has had a lot of hype and he’s had a lot of success," said four-time series champion Jeff Gordon, "but in the Cup series, he has struggled. And I think there is a lot of question behind that and I think it’s been pretty tough on him to have all that success and hype along the way, and come into the Cup series and not be able to live up to it; whether it’s the team or him or whatever it is. Just the combination hasn’t been there. I think that now with this move to Penske, that there’s certainly a lot of pressure on him to live up to those expectations."

But running fast has also meant that his aggressive style has been on display more in the camera’s view. An otherwise stellar day at Bristol Motor Speedway ended with a run-in with former Gibbs teammate Denny Hamlin. A week later at Auto Club Speedway, another bumping episode with Hamlin and a blocking incident with Tony Stewart only intensified the scrutiny.

Being in the middle of post-race altercations is probably not a regular appointment that one wants to keep. But as the saying goes, there may be no such a thing as bad publicity.

"It’s good for your sponsor and good for your team, I guess, to have a higher awareness, but we want to do it for being in Victory Lane and not for being almost close to being in Victory Lane," Logano said. "The last three weeks we’ve been fast enough to be in Victory Lane, so I feel like it’s right around the corner for us."

The focus on how Logano conducts business on the race track hasn’t been a polarizing issue in the garage, but it seems everyone has an opinion. Penske teammate Brad Keselowski knows first-hand how an aggressive style will draw fire from his rivals, most notably after his squabbles with Hamlin and Carl Edwards in the early stages of his NASCAR career.

"I think I probably had a little more experience with that than I’d like to have, but as far as Joey is concerned I think it’s typically old guard, new guard thing," Keselowski said. "Joey is trying to establish himself as an elite driver in this sport and trying to join that rank, whether that’s the top 12 that make the Chase or those that are capable of contending for race wins year-in and year-out. Certainly, there’s going to be resistance to that and he’s going to have to fight through that. I think it’s a real test of character for him and if he can get through this test with saying all the right things and doing all the right things — biting your tongue even though you know you’re right — if he can get through that test, I think he can graduate into an elite level."

Even if it means ruffling feathers?

"In some ways, he should be proud of the fact that he’s made a few people angry," Keselowski added. "It would be like if somebody came in and was a brand-new sports writer and wrote some bad-ass articles, you would probably be threatened, too. That’s where Joey is at. He’s running some good races. He’s got a great team and he’s got a chance to really stand out. I don’t know if that’s necessarily been the case before this year."

Whether Logano had a chance to shine at JGR is up for debate, but his results never seemed to match the hoopla bestowed on the rookie who entered stock-car racing’s biggest stage as "Sliced Bread," an allusion that he was the greatest thing since. In four years with Gibbs, though, his 18 victories in the Nationwide Series were supported by just two wins in Sprint Cup. He also has yet to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup postseason.

For as many years of experience as Logano has at the top level of NASCAR, it’s easy to forget that he’s still just 22 and has plenty of years of racing — and youthful exuberance — in front of him.

"I think a lot of it is he’s grown up in front of us," said Jeff Burton, the 1994 Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year. "We all make mistakes as we grow up. All in all, Joey is not a bad guy. He can be a little more receptive to listening rather than arguing. Joey is not a dirty driver. He’s not. Some of it is piling on and some of it he brings on himself. By any means, I have no problem driving into turn three at Daytona side by side, or turn two with him here. I’d race with him anywhere, any time. I’m not uncomfortable racing with him at all."

The balance of Logano’s season will potentially be determined by how well he handles the early bumps, manages expectations and earns respect. None of these are rapid processes, but so far, nothing in his career has happened overnight.

In the meantime, Logano doesn’t plan to alter his approach — or pass the spotlight toward his tire specialist. 

"I’m not going to change the way I drive," Logano said. "I don’t feel like I do anything that’s really disrespectful to other drivers out there. I race really hard. I’m fine with being known as a hard racer. That’s OK with me."

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Posted on by Nascar

First trip to Martinsville for 19-year-old driver considered success

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Darrell Wallace Jr. led twice for 34 laps, never ran outside the top 20 and finished fifth in his first NASCAR CampingWorld Truck Series start at Martinsville Speedway.

“A good day overall,” Wallace, 19, said as he stood alongside a Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota that showed the effects of a day spent racing on the flat, unforgiving half-mile.

The front of the No. 54 Tundra had taken a shot to the snout, it’s outside now more inside. A donut, courtesy of side-by-side contact with another competitor, adorned the door.

Wallace was fortunate. Most entries in Saturday’s Kroger 250 were much worse for wear. 

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“The truck just got wicked tight there at the end,” Wallace said, trying to explain how he went from leading the series’ second stop of the season to chasing the leaders in the waning laps. “Right at the end, it got hectic; those guys don’t play around.”

Pit strategy helped put Wallace on the heels of race leader Nelson Piquet Jr., and the two briefly traded the top spot following a Lap-161 restart. When Wallace shot out front on Lap 165, though, he began to distance himself from the field.

An advantage of nearly three seconds evaporated when Max Gresham spun in Turn 2 to bring out the caution.

Wallace headed for pit road, hoping that fresh tires would enable him to regain any lost track position, and 50 or so laps remaining would be enough time.

That was almost the case, as Wallace raced his way from seventh to third in a handful of laps.

That’s when it got a bit tougher.

“I just wish there was a little bit more (racing) after that last restart,” team owner Kyle Busch said of a Lap-230 spin by Todd Bodine.

“(Darrell) looked good coming up there just before that and then the caution came out, we got back going and it just wouldn’t go forward. All those other guys were kind of knocking him around a little bit, forcing him to the top, which hurts your tires all the time anyway.

“He fought hard and finished fifth so a good top-five after coming off a good solid day down in Daytona, too.”

Daytona winner Johnny Sauter made it two wins in a row, and teammate Matt Crafton was second, giving ThorSport Racing a 1-2 sweep. Pole-winner Jeb Burton finished third, and led 154 laps while Timothy Peters was fourth.

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Father, son happy for success at home track

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MARTINSVILLE, Va. — The son was crying, the father was yelling. And while it wasn’t bedlam, it was close.
 
“I knew if I got the pole, I was going to be emotional,” Jeb Burton said, shortly after earning the No. 1 qualifying position for Saturday’s Kroger 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway. "Anywhere, but especially here.

“It means something to me. I live it, I eat it, I sleep it. If I’m not running good, I’m not sleeping at night. It’s just a passion of mine.”
 
Burton, 20, will be making only his seventh career start in the NCWTS. Before Friday’s track record-breaking qualifying run, his best start was seventh, which he accomplished on three occasions.
 
But this one was different. This one came at Martinsville, a tiny, flat and unforgiving half-mile that the South Boston, Va., driver considers his home turf.

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“It means a whole lot to me and my family,” an emotional Burton said afterward. “It’s really cool for my sponsor — they’re out of South Boston, too. I worked really hard to get here.”
 
Burton, whose No. 4 Turner Scott Motorsports Chevrolet is sponsored by Arrowhead, a brand of electronic cigarettes, needed only one lap to post his pole-winning speed of 96.666 mph.
 
“I had a little bit more (for) the second lap,” he said, “but there was no need to push it. I was just glad to get it and come in (to the pits).”
 
Darrell Wallace Jr. (Kyle Busch Motorsports) will start on the front row alongside Burton.
 
Timothy Peters (Red Horse Racing), Daytona winner Johnny Sauter (ThorSport Racing) and German Quiroga Jr. (Red Horse) completed the top five. (See full results.)
 
Ward Burton, Jeb’s father, was atop a pit box watching the action on the track when his son sped to the top of the scoreboard.
 
The elder Burton said he had clocked the warm-up laps of those qualifying ahead of his son, “and Jeb was a tenth (of a second) faster than anybody,” he said.
 
“Those times computed to their speeds on the real (qualifying) laps,” Ward Burton said. “So when he ran that 19.90 (lap), I was thinking, ‘Man, if you back that up …’. “And he did. He damn sure did.”
 
Ward Burton said he was yelling so loudly when his son won the pole that five-time Sprint Cup driver Jimmie Johnson, who had won the pole for Sunday’s Cup race earlier in the day, came over because he thought someone had fallen off the pit box.
 
When Johnson realized what the yelling was for, Burton said, laughing, “he was the first to congratulate me.
 
“Watching him be successful on the race track means more to me than anything I ever did on the race track,” said Burton, a former standout who counts a Daytona 500 victory among his five career Cup victories.
 
“All we ever wish for our children is for them to be successful and happy. Jeb’s been through a lot. I didn’t have the resources that he needed to really get him the kind of seat time and experience he needed to get to this point. But he always had the raw talent.
 
“He’s going to have his bumps like everybody does, even the veterans. He’s got a lot to learn, but he’s got all the talent in the world. He’s got great resources, a great sponsor with Arrowhead; we’re just lucky to be here, tickled to death that we are and him being successful while we’re doing it.”
 

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