Pastrana blames self for shortened run

Posted on May 4, 2013 by

Not following team’s strategy hurts driver more than wreck

TALLADEGA, Ala. — The impact with the wall was nothing compared to the way Travis Pastrana beat himself up afterward.

One day after winning his first pole position in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, Pastrana’s hopes of a first race victory ended Saturday when he was caught up in an accident not of his own making on the giant 2.66-mile track at Talladega. Brian Scott and Reed Sorenson tangled, and Pastrana barreled into the No. 43 car hard enough to lift it off the ground. The former X Games star then rebounded into the outside wall before coming to rest in soggy infield grass.

On a track where cars compete in such close proximity to one another, there was virtually nothing the Roush Fenway Racing driver could do to avoid Sorenson’s car abruptly turning sideways in front of him. But that didn’t stop Pastrana from blaming himself, believing he should have been in a better position to stay clear of the accident.

"Nowhere to go when the crash happened, but we shouldn’t have been there. … That’s entirely my fault."

— Travis Pastrana

“We had a strategy — hey, let’s try to stay in the back after we try to lead a lap,” said Pastrana, who drafted with teammate Trevor Bayne for much of the race. “I don’t know what happened, but we were up there in the front and got tangled in somebody else’s mess, and we’ve got the two fastest cars on the track. For me to be out already is just stupid on my part.”

Indeed, after winning the pole Friday, Pastrana said the plan was to lead early, drop to the back and then make a charge late. Pastrana led the first four circuits around NASCAR’s biggest track, and then dropped back in the field when he and Bayne became separated. He was running seventh just before Scott wobbled into Sorenson, who was struck broadside by the onrushing No. 60 car.

Pastrana took a hard hit into the outside wall, but afterward only his pride was aching.

“Nowhere to go when the crash happened, but we shouldn’t have been there,” he said. “There’s no reason we should have been there. That’s entirely my fault. I knew Trevor was going to be running up front, but we could be sitting a half-lap back and we still could have had a chance to go for the win. We had a great car and could have met up with him later. But I didn’t stick to the strategy, and that’s why I’m being hard on myself. There was a strategy that would have had us with a chance with a couple laps to go. And now I’m sitting in the pits.”

Standing outside the Talladega infield care center, this wasn’t the happy-go-lucky Pastrana people have seen so often since his transition from extreme sports to NASCAR. Teaming up with car owner Jack Roush came with the caveat that it was time to get serious, a mental shift that Pastrana — who earlier in his career thrived under no-nonsense motorcycle program manager Roger DeCoster — was more than willing to make.

All of which might explain why Pastrana was so hard on himself even in the aftermath of an accident that wasn’t his fault, and he couldn’t avoid. “It’s stupid,” he said. “I just feel like a complete idiot. I mean, the race is going on and I’ve got to watch the rest of this thing. Trevor’s got a great car, but it would have been awesome to put our two cars together.”

Bayne would join him in the garage soon enough, after the No. 6 car was caught up in an 11-vehicle accident that knocked out several contenders — including former series leader Sam Hornish Jr., who left down 27 points to race winner Regan Smith. As Pastrana was hurtling toward the wall, he wasn’t thinking about how much the impact was going to sting. He was thinking about how painful it was going to be to lose such a good car.

“At the meeting on Monday, Jack’s going to say, ‘You two guys had the two fastest cars and should have put them 1-2,’ ” Pastrana said. “And we doggone should have put them 1-2. Just devastated for the team.”

Talladega shaped up as Pastrana’s best chance to contend for a race victory since the season opener at Daytona, where he evaded the big wreck on the final lap that sent Kyle Larson’s car into the catchfence to finish 10th. He was coming off his best career finish in the series, ninth a week ago at Richmond, and was clearly elated after winning his first pole Friday.

Late Saturday afternoon, that accomplishment seemed very far away — a feeling only accentuated by gloomy skies and rain earlier in the day that delayed the start of the Nationwide race, which finished at dusk.

“You’re only as good as your last performance, and we put this one into the side of a backward 43 car,” Pastrana said. “Yeah, I’ll always have that I led the (field) to the green. It’s just a shame. You don’t get great cars every race. You’re lucky to get the two best cars on the track on your team at any event for the year. To have that at this event and to be watching the race is just devastating.”

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Posted on May 4, 2013 by

Harvick shrugs off Talladega talk; others remain leery

TALLADEGA, Ala. — So much goes into a successful run at Talladega Superspeedway. There’s the strategy of whether to stay at the front of the pack, or when to make the move to try and get there. There’s position and sheer good fortune in relation to the Big One. There’s recognition of the placement of the start/finish line, which is not at the top of the tri-oval, but pushed all the way over toward Turn 1.

And then there’s attitude — reaching a peace with a facility so many wrestle with, grabbing on with both hands and enjoying NASCAR’s wildest ride.

Kevin Harvick is able to do that, even on what is perhaps the most polarizing facility on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule. There are some who struggle to get past the somewhat capricious nature of Talladega, the fact that a driver can do everything right and still end up with a wadded hunk of metal. There are some who have endured more than their share of Big Ones here, and allowed it to color their perception of the place.

And there are some who simply give themselves over to the whims of speed and aerodynamics, who surf that roiling wave wherever it takes them, and who accept the randomness as a matter of course.

"It is just a race. It really is."

— Kevin Harvick

“You see a lot of guys drive themselves crazy about having to come to Talladega and complaining about what they think is right, or what they think is wrong,” said Harvick, a 2010 winner at the track. “It is just a race. It really is.”

Harvick said his attitude stems from team owner Richard Childress, a former driver himself whose cars have been a force on restrictor-plate tracks since the glory days of Dale Earnhardt. Sometimes moves pay off, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes cars get wrecked, sometimes they finish the race with hardly a mark on them. You put feelings and rivalries and egos aside, get in the best position possible and go for it.

“My approach to these types of races has always been just, you don’t worry about the things you can’t control, which is a whole lot here,” Harvick said. “You go out, and go in with a mindset of that I enjoy restrictor-plate racing. … I know that a lot of people might think that you are crazy for thinking like it’s fun. But it is fun. I know that the end result doesn’t look like it is fun. It is a lot of work for the guys that fix the car. It’s dangerous. But … I’ve always just tried to approach it with that I-don’t-care attitude, and just do whatever you have to do to try to put yourself in position. And when you leave here, if you wreck, you can’t be mad. It’s part of the game.”

Mentally, that can be a difficult place to reach — the NASCAR garages are full of drivers who have a conflicted relationship with this facility, either because of their own personal experiences or philosophies on plate racing. Just ask Ryan Newman, a former Daytona 500 winner who’s had just one top-10 in his last seven starts here, and a few times has finished the race on his roof.

“I wouldn’t say I dread coming to Talladega,” he said. “It’s not my favorite race track, but I don’t say I dread it. I love doing what I do. I love driving a race car, even at Talladega. I think the difference is, there’s more potential to get involved in something not of your own making (here), and that’s frustrating to me. But that’s not just me.”

Understandably so, given how this track can play on a driver’s mind — before, during and after the race.

“There’s a lot of guys that come to this track worried, nervous and … scared that they’re going to lose points, they’re going to get caught up in a crash and it’s going to cost them and take them a month to overcome a bad race,” two-time Talladega winner Clint Bowyer said. “Looking at my Chase last year, this race right here cost me a shot at a championship. This was the one race that I felt like we lost enough points that we couldn’t make up for it racing against the caliber of teams that we were.”

Last year’s big crash cost Bowyer 15 points in a championship race he would ultimately lose by 39 to Brad Keselowski. And yet, that episode hasn’t impacted his opinion of the place. “It’s a fun situation, but you better make sure that you’re having fun with it,” Bowyer added. “If you’re miserable the whole time you’re here, you’re not going to make the right decisions and probably not going to have the success.”

Of course, attitude can’t prevent another car from changing lanes at the wrong time, or keep a driver from getting sucked to the back of the pack if he falls out of the draft. There are forces at work at Talladega that seem to defy explanation. But clearly, there’s something to be said for embracing the experience of that impossibly wide pack of cars roaring through those impossibly high banks — even if it’s on the heels of a 25-car crash and a concussion.

That’s the case of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who unleashed some pointed comments on Talladega and restrictor-plate racing in general after being caught up in the 25-car melee that occurred on the final lap last fall. The aftermath found him angry and frustrated, sitting on the steps of his transporter with his head in his hands. Later it would be revealed that he had suffered his second concussion in six weeks, and he would have to sit out two races as a result.

“I don’t even want to go to Daytona and Talladega next year,” he said then. “But I ain’t got much choice.”

Looking back, he regrets those words. That was the frustration and the concussion talking, he said. Which explains why the five-time Talladega winner is back at the same track this weekend, and in good spirits as he chases his first victory here since 2004. After all, at Talladega, attitude can be everything.

“I always feel confident when we come here, that we are going to have a good car, going to know how to use it, and I think we feel that way coming in this weekend,” Earnhardt said. “… Hopefully, we get an opportunity to race on Sunday and go to Victory Lane. We really feel like we have a good shot at it, and feel like it is about that time for us to win one here at Talladega.”

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Posted on May 4, 2013 by

Team owner hopes to keep Martin’s fill-in in MWR fold

TALLADEGA, Ala. — If Michael Waltrip had his choice, Brian Vickers would drive his No. 55 car full-time on the Sprint Cup Series in 2014, with longtime sponsor Aaron’s on the front of the vehicle.

Waltrip, making a rare start this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, said Saturday his hopes are to bring Vickers and Aaron’s together full-time at Michael Waltrip Racing in 2014, using one driver in a ride now split between Vickers, Waltrip, and Mark Martin, who is in his final season with the organization.

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Martin is running 24 of 36 points races this year in the No. 55 car, in addition to the exhibition Sprint Unlimited and Sprint All-Star Race. Waltrip, a two-time Daytona 500 champion, takes the wheel for restrictor-plate events like Sunday’s race at the 2.66-mile Talladega track. The remaining events are filled by Vickers, who also pilots a Nationwide Series car full-time at Toyota stablemate Joe Gibbs Racing.

Next year, Waltrip hopes to have Vickers in the vehicle full-time as teammates to current MWR drivers Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr.

“We’ve raced with Aaron’s for 14 years, and we hope that we can sign something that will put that deal together for the near foreseeable future to come, three years or so,” Waltrip said. “We’re working hard with Aaron’s. We’ve targeted Brian Vickers as the guy we want to drive our car. We think Brian is a future champion in the Cup Series. We want Brian to drive it and we want Aaron’s to sponsor it. That’s the news, and that’s where it’s at.”

Waltrip, this weekend driving a No. 55 car with an Alabama Crimson Tide paint scheme to honor the reigning college football national champions, is optimistic the deal will come together.

“I think both Aaron’s and Brian are very into making that happen,” he said. “It would just be a matter of getting the details worked out in order to be able to announce it soon. So when it happens, it won’t be a surprise, because that’s what we’re after.”

Vickers, a two-time race winner in NASCAR’s premier series, has been without a full-time Sprint Cup ride since his former Red Bull team was sold. He competed in eight events in MWR’s No. 55 car last season, recording a top finish of fourth at Bristol and Sonoma. So far this year he’s made two starts, with a top result of eighth at Bristol. He’s also been substituting in JGR’s No. 11 car for Denny Hamlin, who has been recovering from a fractured vertebra, but will start Sunday’s event.

Martin, 54, is in the final season of a two-year deal with MWR. Although he has announced no plans for 2014, he is still expected to compete on a limited basis at NASCAR’s national level.

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Posted on May 4, 2013 by

One point separates driver from leader Sam Hornish Jr.

Related: Aaron’s 312 lineup, speeds

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Regan Smith had to stop and think. The last time he had led the points standings in a racing series? Not since his move into NASCAR, he knew. Perhaps more than a decade ago in his Hooters ProCup days. More likely, when he was a teenager in the Allison Legacy Series.

“It’s been a while,” he said. “It would be a cool deal, but it doesn’t pay anything to lead it right now. Our focus is further down the road.”

Even so, should Smith emerge as the NASCAR Nationwide Series points leader after Saturday’s event at Talladega Superspeedway, it would prove a notable first for both him and his race team. Despite a successful stint with future NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski, JR Motorsports has never seen one of its drivers atop NASCAR’s No. 2 circuit. But that possibility exists this weekend, given that Smith trails leader Sam Hornish Jr. of Penske Racing by a single point.

"It would be a cool deal, but it doesn’t pay anything to lead it right now."

— Regan Smith

Hornish and Smith have proven to be the class of the Nationwide field so far this season, with third-place driver Brian Scott 23 points off the lead. Being atop the standings is nothing new for Penske, which owns the most recent Sprint Cup title thanks to Keselowski, who also has a Nationwide crown to his credit. And although Hornish is chasing his first NASCAR title, he owns a trio of IndyCar championships — one of them for Penske — in addition to an Indianapolis 500 ring.

Then there’s JRM, which has competed at the Nationwide level since 2005, and restructured after last season to try and reclaim the form it showed a few years earlier. The changes have already borne fruit, given that Smith won last year’s Nationwide finale in his first start with the team, and has been a contender in almost every event since. Reaching the top of the standings — and taking a foothold toward a potential championship — remains the next step to take.

“I think it says a lot about the changes we made over the last several months to try to turn things around and get the program more competitive,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., who owns the team along with Rick Hendrick and sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller. “I think it raises awareness to potential partners for us to help us afford to put a great competitive team on the race track. It says a lot about Regan. It says a lot about the employees that we have there and how competitive they are and how talented they are. It says a lot. I’m excited about that. I’m excited about their potential this year.”

Although JRM has never led the Nationwide standings, it’s come close — Keselowski stood second for nine weeks of the 2008 campaign. Keselowski was also third for much of 2009, and Aric Almirola was third for two weeks in 2011. The organization slipped after that, leading to a flurry of personnel moves last year that included the departures of crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and competition director Tony Eury Sr. — also Earnhardt’s cousin and uncle, respectively. Smith was brought in after subbing for Earnhardt when the Sprint Cup star missed two races due to a concussion.

His victory at Homestead was the organization’s first since Jamie McMurray prevailed in 2010. Smith would likely have the Nationwide Series lead already had he not been involved in the massive final-lap crash at Daytona that sent Kyle Larson’s car in the catchfence — an accident that began with Smith, going for the victory, tried to block Keselowski off the final corner. Since then Smith and crew chief Greg Ives have been almost flawless, their only finish outside the top-10 an 11th-place result at Phoenix.

“We can’t get those points back,” he said of Daytona, where he wound up 14th. “We’d love to have them back, and that certainly hurts our average this year. We’ve only had one race we felt like was just off, and that was Phoenix. We had a three-hour car ride to Vegas, and we all talked about it, and talked about things we’d do different going back, and I think if we raced that race the next day, we’d have had a top-five car. Outside of that, it’s just been a steady process of, how do we get a little bit better next time, and things like that.”

It shows — the last five races, the No. 7 car hasn’t finished worse than the number on its door. In a series featuring many younger drivers, Earnhardt believes a veteran like Smith has an advantage, if he can overcome the frustration he sometimes feels inside the vehicle.

“He has a bit of a temper sometimes,” Earnhardt said. “If he can just kind of keep that in check, he has a great chance. He has got a good team around him. They are going to get better, I think, because they just started working together at the start of this year. The potential there is through the roof for those guys, if they can just all work together, and stay on a good positive path mentally with each other, and work together well. They have to go to the race track every week and try to do the best they can, and stay out of trouble.”

Asked about his temper, Smith laughed and admitted sometimes he can vent over the radio. That’s when he’s helped by the presence of Ives, who won five Sprint Cup titles as lead engineer for Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 team. “He’s very calm, he’s very collected, he’s been in a lot of situations I’ve never been in,” Smith said. “He understands — OK, can’t fix that right now, just shut up and do your job. That’s one of his strengths.”

Smith can also bend the ear of his car owner. He said he and Earnhardt will chat or text after races, with the 19-time winner on the Sprint Cup tour providing whatever insight he can. “He’ll give me a straight answer,” Smith said. He hopes to keep leaning on Earnhardt for advice all the way down to Homestead — when taking the series lead would really mean something.

“Yeah, we’d love to lead the points,” he said. “… It’s good for all of our partners. Anytime you can lead the points, that means they’re chasing you, and you’re not the one chasing. There are (39) guys chasing, there’s one guy being chased. I think more than anything, that would put us in the position we want to be in of being chased. I think that’s the main thing. But if we can get to Homestead and be leading the points after that one, then it would be symbolic.”

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Posted on May 4, 2013 by

JRM driver avoids two major wrecks to take photo finish

TALLADEGA, Ala.–The delicious irony of Regan Smith‘s victory in Saturday’s Aaron’s 312 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Talladega Superspeedway wasn’t lost on the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.

With a push from teammate Kasey Kahne, Smith roared out of the pack during the final 400 yards of a green-white-checkered-flag finish and won a race decided when NASCAR called the seventh and final caution an instant before the four cars battling for the win crossed the finish line.

Smith was the leader as the field was frozen when NASCAR called the caution. Kahne was first across the stripe but was scored in third place behind Smith and Joey Logano, who were the two lead drivers when the caution lights came on.

This was the same Regan Smith who was deprived of victory in a race he thought he had won at Talladega in 2008, when NASCAR demoted him to the 18^th position for passing Tony Stewart below the yellow boundary line as the cars approached the checkered flag.

"I was having flashbacks, sitting on pit road–I’m not going to lie–when they were making the decision," Smith said. "I was like ‘Man, I hope we got it–I’m pretty sure we got it when the flag came out and I saw the lights come on… They only thing I didn’t know was if they took it all the way to the stripe.

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"I don’t know if it’s vindication or not. I think I’d gotten over that and gotten past that, but I definitely wanted to win here … but you want to win every week, and it definitely helps wipe that bad memory away of sitting on pit road and finding out you’re 18^th instead. So, yeah, that was kind of cool."

Smith took over the series lead, by 27 points over Sam Hornish Jr. in a race whose start was delayed three hours because of rain. It’s the first time JR Motorsports has led the Nationwide Series standings. It was also the first victory as a crew chief for Greg Ives.

Kahne was surprised NASCAR called the final caution instead of letting the race play out to conclusion.

"I think there’s been plenty of times (when) there’ve been wrecks in (Turn) 4 or 3, and we’ve just raced to the line at the end," Kahne said. "As soon as they started wrecking, I saw the caution. I still raced to the line, and we had a good enough run to get there and be first there, but I was surprised the caution came out.

"I knew I was third when the caution came out, and I knew I was first at the line… My spotter after the race was like, ‘I think we won,’ but I was thinking the whole time, ‘There’s no way. The caution was out.’"

Busch was leading on Lap 93 when contact between Hornish’s Ford and Eric McClure‘s Toyota ignited a spectacular 12-car wreck that sidelined the series leader entering the race (Hornish), among others.

NASCAR then opted to shorten the race by 10 laps because of impending darkness, but four laps after a restart on Lap 101, Joey Coulter‘s contact with the outside wall caused the sixth caution and set up the two-lap dash to the finish.

On Lap 14, Danica Patrick spun off the bumper of series rookie Kyle Larson, her Turner Scott Motorsports teammate-for-a-day and slid though the waterlogged infield grass, damaging her No. 34 Chevrolet extensively. After losing a lap on pit road, Patrick brought the car to the garage and called it a day.

Patrick, hardly a grizzled veteran herself, attributed the wreck to Larson’s inexperience with the tandem racing that characterizes the Nationwide Series at restrictor-plate tracks. Larson, who was attempting to push Patrick’s car when the wreck occurred, found trouble of his own on Lap 35, when he blew a tire, spun and took Jeffrey Earnhardt‘s Ford with him.

The hardest hit of the race, however, came on Lap 71 when pole sitter Travis Pastrana nosed into the outside backstretch wall during a three-car incident that started when Brian Scott turned the Ford of Reed Sorenson.

Sorenson hit the outside wall and spun back across the track into Pastrana’s path. Pastrana blamed himself for being in harm’s way and for not reacting quickly enough when he saw Sorenson spin.

"I just get an award for being stupid," Pastrana said after leaving the infield care center. "We had the two fastest cars on the track (with Roush Fenway Racing teammate Trevor Bayne). We could have been a half-lap down just pushing each other, not worrying about anything.

"We all said we were going to sit back the whole race, and then, all of sudden, we’re up there racing just like a bunch of fools up front… Everything kind of happened."

NASCAR Nationwide Series Race – Aaron’s 312
Talladega Superspeedway
Talladega, Alabama
Saturday, May 04, 2013

1. (20) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 110, $53445.

2. (12) Joey Logano(i), Ford, 110, $39725.

3. (11) Kasey Kahne(i), Chevrolet, 110, $30500.

4. (9) Kurt Busch(i), Chevrolet, 110, $29275.

5. (5) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 110, $32550.

6. (18) Parker Kligerman, Toyota, 110, $28100.

7. (38) Mike Wallace, Chevrolet, 110, $26500.

8. (31) Jason White, Toyota, 110, $25850.

9. (37) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 110, $25225.

10. (2) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 110, $26825.

11. (7) Elliott Sadler, Toyota, 110, $25975.

12. (29) Jamie Dick, Chevrolet, 110, $18850.

13. (14) Alex Bowman #, Toyota, 110, $25675.

14. (24) Mike Bliss, Toyota, 110, $24500.

15. (21) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 110, $25050.

16. (27) Jeffrey Earnhardt #, Ford, 110, $24350.

17. (22) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 109, $18525.

18. (39) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, Accident, 109, $23975.

19. (36) Donnie Neuenberger, Chevrolet, 108, $17850.

20. (33) Robert Richardson Jr., Chevrolet, 107, $24400.

21. (10) Joey Coulter(i), Toyota, Accident, 104, $23550.

22. (15) Reed Sorenson, Ford, 103, $23400.

23. (23) Eric McClure, Toyota, Accident, 94, $23250.

24. (17) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 93, $23100.

25. (6) Sam Hornish Jr., Ford, 93, $23275.

26. (25) Johanna Long, Chevrolet, Accident, 92, $23000.

27. (8) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, Accident, 92, $22800.

28. (3) Trevor Bayne, Ford, Accident, 92, $22900.

29. (16) Nelson Piquet Jr. #, Chevrolet, Accident, 92, $22400.

30. (40) Tim Andrews, Ford, Accident, 91, $22475.

31. (26) Bobby Gerhart, Chevrolet, Accident, 91, $16125.

32. (28) Mike Harmon, Dodge, Accident, 91, $22050.

33. (34) Blake Koch, Toyota, Accident, 87, $22015.

34. (32) Hal Martin #, Toyota, 84, $21980.

35. (35) Morgan Shepherd, Dodge, Fuel Pressure, 72, $15940.

36. (1) Travis Pastrana, Ford, Accident, 71, $24580.

37. (30) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 64, $20695.

38. (19) Kyle Larson #, Chevrolet, Accident, 52, $20661.

39. (4) Danica Patrick(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 16, $14775.

40. (13) Jeff Green, Toyota, Vibration, 3, $14425.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 133.269 mph.

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 11 Mins, 44 Secs. Margin of Victory: Caution.

Caution Flags: 7 for 29 laps.

Lead Changes: 47 among 16 drivers.

Lap Leaders: T. Pastrana 1-4; T. Bayne 5; T. Dillon(i) 6; K. Busch(i) 7; K. Kahne(i) 8-12; E. Sadler 13; K. Kahne(i) 14; L. Cassill(i) 15; J. Logano(i) 16-18; J. Allgaier 19; J. Logano(i) 20-21; J. Allgaier 22-24; J. Logano(i) 25; B. Vickers 26; J. Logano(i) 27-33; K. Kahne(i) 34; J. Logano(i) 35-36; B. Scott 37; J. Logano(i) 38-41; E. Sadler 42-43; J. Logano(i) 44-54; E. Sadler 55-56; B. Scott 57; R. Sorenson 58; T. Bayne 59; K. Kahne(i) 60-62; R. Smith 63; K. Kahne(i) 64; R. Smith 65; K. Kahne(i) 66-67; R. Smith 68; K. Kahne(i) 69; R. Smith 70-71; K. Kahne(i) 72; J. Logano(i) 73-75; J. Coulter(i) 76-78; J. Logano(i) 79-80; P. Kligerman 81; K. Busch(i) 82; P. Kligerman 83; K. Busch(i) 84; P. Kligerman 85-86; K. Kahne(i) 87; K. Busch(i) 88-100; R. Smith 101; K. Busch(i) 102-104; A. Dillon 105-109; R. Smith 110;.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): J. Logano(i) 9 times for 35 laps; K. Busch(i) 5 times for 19 laps; K. Kahne(i) 9 times for 16 laps; R. Smith 6 times for 7 laps; E. Sadler 3 times for 5 laps; A. Dillon 1 time for 5 laps; J. Allgaier 2 times for 4 laps; P. Kligerman 3 times for 4 laps; T. Pastrana 1 time for 4 laps; J. Coulter(i) 1 time for 3 laps; T. Bayne 2 times for 2 laps; B. Scott 2 times for 2 laps; B. Vickers 1 time for 1 lap; T. Dillon(i) 1 time for 1 lap; L. Cassill(i) 1 time for 1 lap; R. Sorenson 1 time for 1 lap.

Top 10 in Points: R. Smith – 305; S. Hornish Jr. – 278; J. Allgaier – 265; P. Kligerman – 258; E. Sadler – 258; A. Dillon – 257; B. Scott – 254; B. Vickers – 252; A. Bowman # – 231; T. Bayne – 230.

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Posted on May 4, 2013 by Staff Report

Edwards to start first after leading first Sprint Cup practice

Related: Aaron’s 499 lineup

Steady rain at Talladega Superspeedway washed out NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying Saturday, meaning the starting lineup for Sunday’s race will be set according to the NASCAR rule book.

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Carl Edwards will start from first in the Aaron’s 499 (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, FOX) by virtue of his fastest lap (199.675 mph) in Friday’s first practice session in the No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Edwards — who has not won at the 2.66-mile track in 17 tries — does not win the Coors Light Pole Award, but will start first for the first time since the 2012 Daytona 500.

Because the probability of rain on Saturday was high, there was considerably more intrigue in practice than is typical at a restrictor-plate track.

"It was actually pretty exciting for all the teams, because we looked at this forecast, and we were all concerned that there wasn’t going to be single-car qualifying," Edwards said. "It was like a heat race out there. Everyone was doing everything they could to lag back and partner up and get the fastest lap times they could.

"It was pretty exciting. We got the fastest lap with about one minute to go. That was our whole mission (Friday), and I’m pretty proud of the fact that we ended up with the fastest time."

Martin Truex Jr., second-fastest in opening practice, will start alongside Edwards on the front row in Sunday’s race, the 10th of the season for the Sprint Cup tour. Marcos Ambrose, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman complete the top five starters.

Rain began falling in the area Friday night, and continued into Saturday. NASCAR cancelled qualifying after every car had passed technical inspection and shortly after the session was scheduled to begin at 12:10 p.m. ET, as rain continued to pelt the facility.

Denny Hamlin will start seventh in his first Sprint Cup effort since suffering injuries in a last-lap crash at Auto Club Speedway on March 24. Hamlin plans to start the race then give way to relief driver Brian Vickers; the two practiced making the driver change yesterday, with Hamlin exiting through a special roof hatch and Vickers entering through the driver’s door window.

Series points leader Jimmie Johnson will start eighth. Defending race winner and reigning Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski, fastest in the second practice, will start 11th.

Elliott Sadler, scheduled to enter a fourth car for Joe Gibbs Racing, was the only driver who failed to qualify for the 43-car field.

Saturday marked the second time this season that Sprint Cup qualifying has been rained out. The last time was prior to the March 10 event at Las Vegas. Keselowski started that race from the front because practice was washed out as well, leading NASCAR to set the field based on the previous season’s car owner points.

Contributing: Wire reports

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Starting Lineup – Aaron’s 499
Talladega Superspeedway
Talladega, Alabama
Friday, May 03, 2013

    1. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 2013 Owner Points 2nd.
    2. (56) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 2013 Owner Points 18th.
    3. (9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 2013 Owner Points 25th.
    4. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 2013 Owner Points 20th.
    5. (39) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 19th.
    6. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 2013 Owner Points 14th.
    7. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 2013 Owner Points 16th.
    8. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 1st.
    9. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 17th.
    10. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 3rd.
    11. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 2013 Owner Points 6th.
    12. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 4th.
    13. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 2013 Owner Points 7th.
    14. (55) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 2013 Owner Points 13th.
    15. (21) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 2013 Owner Attempts 3.
    16. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 10th.
    17. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 2013 Owner Points 8th.
    18. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 2013 Owner Points 11th.
    19. (34) David Ragan, Ford, 2013 Owner Points 31st.
    20. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 2013 Owner Points 5th.
    21. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. #, Ford, 2013 Owner Points 21st.
    22. (13) Casey Mears, Ford, 2013 Owner Points 27th.
    23. (10) Danica Patrick #, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 28th.
    24. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 9th.
    25. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 24th.
    26. (35) Josh Wise(i), Ford, 2013 Owner Attempts 9.
    27. (30) David Stremme, Toyota, 2013 Owner Points 33rd.
    28. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 12th.
    29. (31) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 22nd.
    30. (42) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 26th.
    31. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, 2013 Owner Points 35th.
    32. (93) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 2013 Owner Attempts 9.
    33. (78) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 23rd.
    34. (51) Regan Smith(i), Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 15th.
    35. (83) David Reutimann, Toyota, 2013 Owner Points 32nd.
    36. (95) Scott Speed, Ford, 2013 Owner Attempts 6.
    37. (32) Terry Labonte, Ford, Series Champion.
    38. (98) Michael McDowell, Ford, 2013 Owner Attempts 8.
    39. (47) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 2013 Owner Points 29th.
    40. (7) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 30th.
    41. (87) Joe Nemechek(i), Toyota, 2013 Owner Attempts 9.
    42. (33) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 36th.
    43. (36) JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 2013 Owner Points 34th.

1 drivers failed to qualify.

44. (81) Elliott Sadler(i), Toyota, 2013 Owner Attempts 1.

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Posted on May 4, 2013 by Nascar

As Smith, other leaders crossed finish line, chaos trailed around final turn

TALLADEGA, Ala. — A quarter-mile? Less perhaps?

Mike Wallace couldn’t be certain, and not because darkness had almost fully enveloped Talladega Superspeedway.

Race officials were still sorting out the finishing order of a slam-bang ending to Saturday’s Aaron’s 312 NASCAR Nationwide Series race as Wallace and a handful of other competitors eased their way out of the infield care center.

Wallace, Landon Cassill, Brian Vickers, Mike Harmon … seven drivers in all, came within a whisker of surviving yet another typically wild race at the 2.66-mile track.

But a firestorm of metal and smoke erupted on the frontstretch as the leaders chased the checkered flag, sending cars spinning across the asphalt, crunching fenders and denting egos.

"It’s kind of one of those deals (where) you’re almost predicting it’s going to happen."

— Mike Wallace

“We did the strategy move to stay in the back most of the day,” Wallace said of his JD Motorsports team. By the time the field was turned loose for a green-white-checkered finish, he was running inside the top 10.

“(Coming to the finish) I was at the top all by myself and all of a sudden the 11 (of Elliott Sadler) came across. It’s kind of one of those deals (where) you’re almost predicting it’s going to happen.”

Contact between Vickers and Sadler turned Vickers as the two chased Joey Logano, Kurt Busch and eventual race winner Regan Smith through the dogleg. As his Joe Gibbs Racing entry shot up the track, Vickers clipped Alex Bowman, who spun and collected Sadler. Justin Allgaier, Wallace and the rest had nowhere to turn.

“I didn’t think that group that was up front would wreck,” Wallace, who still managed to finish seventh, said. “I just thought, ‘OK, they’re going to be fine. It’s dark. Everybody’s just going to say let’s take what we can get here. Well …”

Cassill, 17^th, called it “probably one of the hardest hits I’ve ever had.

“I was ready for that to happen,” he said. “I just tried to make a move when I saw them wrecking … and it didn’t work for me. “

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Posted on May 4, 2013 by Nascar

Hendrick goes from unknown owner in 1983 to being one of the most famous, respected in the sport

TALLADEGA, Ala. –- He has helped prolong the careers of some of the sport’s biggest stars. He has helped launch the careers of numerous others.

But in 1983, Rick Hendrick was an unknown car owner without a driver. Harry Hyde was a veteran crew chief with 45 wins but none in the previous six years.

Before Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson became champions multiple times over, before Terry Labonte became a two-time title holder and even before Tim Richmond brought Hollywood to the NASCAR hardtop, Hendrick harbored hopes of landing the biggest fish in the pond.

They were an odd pairing to be sure, but Hendrick and Hyde were on the verge of signing NASCAR’s most successful driver of all time. A new page in the record book of the sport was about to be written.

There was only one problem.

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Richard Petty, winner of 198 races and seven NASCAR Cup titles, stood just outside one of the garage bays inside Charlotte Motor Speedway. His winning car was the focus of NASCAR officials, who scurried around the familiar No. 43 as it sat parked nearby.

“Richard was supposed to be my first driver,” Hendrick recalled May 2 during his induction speech for the International Motorsports Hall of Fame here on the grounds of Talladega Superspeedway. “It didn’t work out.”

On that October evening in 1983, officials discovered an oversized engine under the hood of Petty’s Pontiac.

Hendrick and Hyde were unaware of the situation.

“I was actually in the garage area with Harry … to sign Richard that night,” Hendrick said. “And Richard comes up to the window and we said “Richard, what’s the problem? We need to go sign the contract.’

“And Richard said, ‘Well, my motor is a little big.’”

Hyde wasn’t overly concerned, Hendrick said, telling Petty “Well, when it cools off, it’ll check OK.”

Petty knew otherwise.

“Richard said ‘You can take that one to Alaska and it ain’t gonna check right,’” Hendrick said.

Petty eventually signed with team owner Mike Curb, capping off a spectacular career with win No. 200 the following year at Daytona International Speedway with President Ronald Reagan in attendance.

Hendrick survived the setback as well, winning three times the following season with little known Geoff Bodine behind the wheel, then going on to become one of the most successful car owners in the sport.

Hendrick, whose teams have won 10 NASCAR Cup titles and 212 races, was one of four men inducted into the IMHOF. He was joined by 1989 Cup champion Rusty Wallace, eight-time championship winning crew chief Dale Inman, and drag racing legend Don Schumacher.

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Posted on May 4, 2013 by Nascar

X Games star sees full-plate of worldwide travel while balancing NASCAR ride

TALLADEGA, Ala. –- Scott Speed’s racing schedule for 2013 will take him to a variety of venues and locales.

Brazil. Barcelona. Munich. Loudon.

No, not London.

Loudon, as in New Hampshire.

The Leavine Family Racing driver is supplementing his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series effort this year with competition in Global Rallycross, a series of nine international events. This year’s X Games effort incudes a number of GRC stops.

In his first appearance last month in Brazil, Speed brought home the gold medal.

“It all came together at the last minute,” Speed said Friday at Talladega Superspeedway. “Never got the chance to drive the car until I got there. It was a steep learning curve; it still is a steep learning curve. But it was one of those things that once I got a couple of laps under my belt, it was something that suited my driving style really well.”

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Speed qualified second for his heat race in his Rdio-sponsored Ford Fiesta, and won that event, earning the pole for the main event.

“The laps were about, I want to say 40 seconds, so it’s a sprint,” he said. “When I went into the main event, and knowing I had the pole position, I thought it was wrapped up. I thought if I could just stay on the bottom, with the way passing worked, it was going to be solid. But as it turned out, some people were moving people out of the way and passing was a lot easier than people expected it to be.”

Travis Pastrana, a veteran of the X Games and action sports, called Speed’s efforts “amazing.”

“He was the only person that was able to make a pass all week,” Pastrana said.

Speed is 40^th in driver points heading into Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega and the team is 40^th in owner points, running an abbreviated schedule.

That part-time status will allow Speed to continue to compete in future GRC events.

“For some crazy lucky reason, with the schedule we have at LFR moving forward … it worked out so I could do every single one except for one towards the very end of the year,” he said of the GRC’s nine-race schedule.

“So I will do all of the X Games, there are three more of those, and then there are 4-5 more GRC championship races. At this point, I’m scheduled to do all of them except for one.”

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Posted on May 3, 2013 by

No. 11 team hedges on specifics of Sunday’s plan

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Denny Hamlin spent part of Friday afternoon practicing climbing out of his No. 11 car through a roof hatch his team installed in the top of the vehicle. And yet, it’s still unclear when he’ll actually use it in Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Hamlin was back behind the wheel at the 2.66-mile facility, taking his first laps since suffering a compression fracture in a lumbar vertebra March 24 in a final-lap crash at Auto Club Speedway. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver made 17 laps in Friday’s opening practice before turning the vehicle over to teammate Brian Vickers, who has piloted the car for three of the four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events the regular driver has missed while recovering from his injury.

The plan is for the two to make a similar swap under caution Sunday, with Hamlin scrambling out through the roof hatch that teams by rule have the option to install. But exactly when that will happen remains uncertain — Hamlin has been cleared by doctors and NASCAR to run the whole event, and his team plans to play the mid-race switch by ear.

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“There’s going to be a caution at some point, and I’d like to get out and ensure myself of one more week of healing,” said Hamlin, who by starting the event will earn all the championship driver points accumulated in the race and bolster his hopes of challenging for a Wild Card in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. And yet, his joy over being back in the vehicle is obvious — had crew chief Darian Grubb not ordered him to get out in practice, Hamlin said, he’d have driven the thing until it ran out of gas.

“I am the most unenthusiastic person when it coms to superspeedway racing, much less practicing,” said Hamlin, who would up seventh fastest in opening practice Friday, and did not participate in the final session. “But last night it was tough to sleep, knowing I was going to get back in the car for the first time. This is an exciting time.”

Doctors originally projected Hamlin would be out until next weekend’s event at Darlington Raceway, but he tried to accelerate that timetable and return two weeks early at Richmond International Raceway, his hometown track. His physicians didn’t see what they wanted on a scan preceding that event, sidelining Hamlin for another week. But Thursday, NASCAR confirmed that the 22-time race winner — who has never missed a Chase since his full-time Cup career began in 2007 — was OK to return at Talladega. Hamlin is limiting himself to encourage another week of healing, and plans to return to full activity at Darlington.

“There is going to be risk. There is risk,” he said. “ I don’t know the exact science, I don’t know the exact percentages, nobody knows. That’s what makes this really, really hard. With bone healing, it doesn’t mater if you break your arm, or break your leg, or whatever — a bone takes a year to heal. That’s realistic. But as far as I’ve been told and understand, it would take such a significant hit that you would probably be injured from it even if you were 100 percent healthy. … The risk is so minimal, it’s almost not even there.”

In fact, Hamlin equates starting Sunday’s race to a quarterback taking the snap and then taking a knee. “We are very much going to minimize our risk of reinjuring ourselves, which gives us one more week to heal,” he said. Hamlin does have another scan scheduled for next week to ensure his recovery is progressing, though he expects no surprising news out of that procedure.

In the car, Hamlin said he felt no discomfort at all — the torn knee ligament he came back from in 2010 was much more painful behind the wheel, he said. The bigger issue is exiting the vehicle, which requires a degree of twisting and wiggling that can be painful. Toward that end, the No. 11 car has been outfitted with a roof hatch, which NASCAR made optional several years ago, and Michael Waltrip famously popped out of after winning here in 2003. Hamlin said he and Vickers have the driver exchange down to 1 minute and 6 seconds, which should prevent them from losing a lap if they do it under yellow.

Friday, Hamlin didn’t say exactly when he’d get out of the car — and even hedged just a little when asked if he’d definitely get out before the end of the race. His return comes at a 2.66-mile track where drivers often safely cruise around at the back of the pack, but also one infamous for massive pileups like the one that unfolded on the final lap last fall. Hamlin knows the Big One is a possibility, even if he tries to play it safe.

“It definitely could happen,” he said. “We’ve seen it here at this race track on Lap 1, we’ve seen it on the last lap. I’m obviously going to put myself in what I believe is a safe position. Obviously, you can’t help things like blown tires and things that could happen. But the equivalency of our risk this weekend will be (a quarterback) taking a knee.”

Next week, taking a knee turns into an all-out aerial assault. Hamlin is currently 71 points out of 20th place in the standings, the cutoff for Wild Card qualification. Hamlin said he feels confident he can get back into the top 20, but knows race victories are the key to everything. In the Chase’s Wild Card era, no driver with at least two wins has missed the playoff. Hamlin sees that as his goal, and plans to take an aggressive approach over the remaining weeks of the regular season to get there.

“We’re going to have to make a big, big run these next 17 weeks if we’re going to be part of the postseason,” he said. “I’m excited about the challenge. Our Chase has got to start right now. We’ve got to perform each week like it is a Chase race, and do everything we can to get wins. Because if we don’t win, it really doesn’t matter.”

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