Bayne buoyed by Las Vegas rally

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Holly Cain

Roush Fenway driver pilots battered car to fourth-place run

LAS VEGAS — Trevor Bayne’s crew chief Mike Kelley said he was impressed with his young driver’s perseverance in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

After all, Bayne rallied to a second consecutive fourth-place finish after hitting the wall, nearly hitting a crew member on pit road and having to fend off some ravenous competition in the waning laps as his car was running out of fuel.

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But it wasn’t until after the veteran Kelley looked over Bayne’s dinged and taped and scraped No. 6 World Financial Group Ford Mustang on pit road that he really gained an appreciation for this particular top-five finish.

“I didn’t realize it was as tore up as bad as it was, so to come back and finish fourth is a testament to the group I’ve got and our driver, Trevor Bayne, who stood up on the wheel all day and battled adversity and got us a top five,’’ a proud Kelley said.

The afternoon actually began quite promisingly. Bayne, who started on the outside of the front row, led twice for 21 laps and at times early looked as racy as anyone in the field, including winner Sam Hornish Jr.

But while racing for the lead on Lap 87, he collided in Turn 4 with rookie Kyle Larson. The two cars ricocheted into the wall and had to pit for repairs. Bayne’s Roush Fenway Racing team made quick work of his Mustang and he never went down a lap, while Larson’s car suffered more substantial damage.

“He (Larson) put it on my door,’’ Bayne said, still sounding a little frustrated with the situation after the race. “He’s gonna learn what air does. I had to learn the hard way and wrecked a few times and wrecked a few people. It just stinks we were battling for the lead there.

“He was really fast but I don’t think he quite grasps the concept of side force yet and he’ll get that. It’s not something you learn when you get here, in short track racing you don’t use that. So it’s just by experience you figure it out.’’

Bayne methodically worked his way up through the field following the incident as tape waved off the rear end of his banged-up car. He was already back running among the top 10 with 50 laps remaining and was fourth on the final restart with seven laps to go.

Even as his car was running out of fuel, he held off Elliott Sadler and challenged third-place Brian Vickers.

The fourth-place effort moved Bayne up three positions in the standings to eighth and he trails fifth-place Regan Smith by only eight points and leader Hornish by 32 in his quest to answer Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s back-to-back series titles in the car.

It’s definitely righted the ship after a disappointing 31st-place finish in the season opener at Daytona.

“Even with this thing all torn up, we had a chance at the end and I’m just so proud of these guys for not getting down on me and not getting down on the situation,’’ Bayne said. “We fought back and that’s what it takes to win championships.

“I couldn’t ask for anything more.’’

Kelley was equally as complimentary of the 2011 Daytona 500 winner Bayne. The new pairing had high expectations considering Kelley’s championship work with Stenhouse and Bayne’s eagerness at such a high-profile, full-season ride.

“For never working with him before, the last two weeks he’s proven to me he’s destined to be a champion in this sport and has earned his right to be a mainstay in the NASCAR series,’’ Kelley said. “He has all the qualities and things you look for in a great driver and I’m just fortunate I’m working with him.

“A day like today is what actually puts you in line to win championships. You don’t win championships for winning races as much as recovering from really bad days and getting decent finishes out of them.’’

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Posted on March 9, 2013 by Holly Cain

Yeley sits 13th in points entering Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400

LAS VEGAS — Parked on the far side of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s famous Neon Garage is a fittingly bright spot among the small teams and underdogs.

Driver J.J. Yeley, a former USAC champ who is still doggedly plying his way in the NASCAR establishment, couldn’t be more upbeat about the start of the 2013 Sprint Cup season.

Essentially overlooked in the Daytona 500 history-making “Danica Mania” and Jimmie Johnson triumph, was Yeley’s own super achieving moment — a 10th-place finish for the small, under-funded, super-committed Tommy Baldwin Racing team. In NASCAR’s biggest race of the year, Yeley bettered six former series champs and seven former 500 winners.

If not for a last-lap move that backfired on him, Yeley might have finished seventh. Either way, he delivered on his car sponsor Golden Corral’s season pledge for kids to eat free on Monday when Yeley earns a top-10 in the four superspeedway races (at Daytona and Talladega).

"Ultimately in this sport it’s all about consistency."

—J.J. Yeley

“So as a race-car driver I was disappointed because I thought I could have been seventh instead of 10th,” Yeley explained. “But it’s been a good start and I know it’s helped the momentum of the team with some of the negotiations with the sponsors we have and with some we’re trying to work on to get some races throughout the year.

“So, so far everything has been really good.”

Entering Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas, Yeley (who finished 28th at Phoenix last week) is ranked 13th in the championship standings — 10 points behind 10th-place Aric Almirola and several positions ahead of preseason favorites Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.

To this, Yeley smiles but shakes his head in a cautionary gesture.

“I do (enjoy hearing that), but I know as time goes by they’ll chip away and it’s probably going to reverse,” Yeley said. “That’s just reality. But we’re going to continue working hard; we’re not giving up.

“Ultimately in this sport it’s all about consistency. It gives TBR that much more credibility when we perform like this.”

And the timing is significant. The introduction of the Generation-6 car has equalized the playing field initially until one organization figures out a competitive advantage. This is when smaller teams stand the best chance of running alongside — and in front — of the larger operations.

“As time goes by, the bigger teams will find those little things that make a difference because they have more resources,” Yeley said. “There will be a bit more of a separation. But for our team, the first part of the year, this is when we can do our best because it’s a little more of a level playing field.”

Unlike NASCAR’s larger uber-teams, a top result for Yeley and TBR teammate Dave Blaney directly translates into improved resources.

The team started with six employees five years ago and doubled last year’s 25-person payroll to 50 this season. Chevrolet has increased its technical commitment meaning increased time in the wind tunnel and more engineering help.

And while kids across the country were eating free at Golden Corral the day after the Daytona 500, the phones were ringing anew at the team’s North Carolina headquarters.

“Being a small team, obviously we have a lot of advantages the bigger teams don’t,” Yeley said. “We can put together small race packages for sponsors that really honestly can’t afford to go to some of the bigger teams.

“There are a lot of companies out there that can see the net worth of NASCAR, it’s just a matter of convincing the people in their company, and it’s been a little more difficult to write a huge check. Because of that I think we can capitalize on a lot of the sponsors that want to come in and enjoy being in the sport but can’t afford to do it on a level that some of the bigger teams do.”

“I’ve been on both sides,” Yeley continued. “I’ve been with big teams that have really good sponsorship and then I’ve been with small teams that had no sponsors that are just barely being able to survive. Because of that, I have more compassion for the sponsors that can afford to be there and benefit.”

As business savvy as Yeley is, however, he knows it all comes down to performance and that’s what encourages him so much about Baldwin’s operation.

A former Cup crew chief who won the 2002 Daytona 500 with driver Ward Burton, Baldwin is a racer first and foremost. And scaling back expectations with his small, new team has been an exercise in patience and persistence.

Despite Yeley’s impressive Daytona performance, the team goals remain modest: top-20 finishes and limited damage to the equipment.

“Top-20s nowadays are like top-10s twenty years ago,” Baldwin said. “There’s just so many good cars. Top-20s are a realistic goal and we’d like to finish between 26 and 30th in points this year.”

Just saying that aloud, however, is a fundamental mind-shift for the ultra-competitive Baldwin who as a crew chief wasn’t afraid to confront another crew chief on pit road when he felt his team was wronged.

“I get really mad on Sundays,” Baldwin said of not being able to challenge for race wins yet.

“It takes a good two hours after the race to pull my racing hat off and put my business hat on and get back the focus on our goals and where we have to be financially and the things we have to be and who we have to take care of.

“I bite my tongue a lot,” he said with a smile.
“But we’re realists, we understand what we’re doing and what we’re trying to build on and that’s fine. It’s good for us because we’re doing well. We’re attracting a lot of attention on the business side. We have a lot of partners and we have a lot of people we’re talking to.

“I’m a realist I know all this takes time to do it right. We’re just methodically working trying to work our way to get better every year.”
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Posted on March 9, 2013 by Staff Report

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Posted on March 9, 2013 by Staff Report

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Posted on March 9, 2013 by Staff Report

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Posted on March 9, 2013 by Staff Report

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Posted on March 8, 2013 by

Several big names find themselves toward the bottom of the standings

LAS VEGAS — It’s a field full of contenders for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, but at the wrong end of the standings. Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. — all of them star drivers with hopes of vying for the series championship, and all of them 30th or worse in points entering Sunday’s event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

No question it’s early, and there are plenty of examples of drivers who have stumbled out of the gate only to recover — a task made somewhat less daunting by a Chase wild-card system that awards two playoff berths based on race victories. But there are also many others who plummeted into early holes never to climb out, their title aspirations ultimately doomed by shortcomings in events that seemed distant memories by the time the championship field was set.

Clint Bowyer has been there. Last year’s series runner-up missed the 2011 Chase in part because of a sluggish start to the season that forced him to play catch-up for the remainder of the year. And remembers the feeling very well.

"This is a mental game, and if you get yourself beat up early, sometimes you don’t ever get out of it as a group."

— Clint Bowyer

“Whatever the case may be — it may have just been you just got caught up in two bogus crazy things that happened. But nonetheless, you’re panicked,” Bowyer said. “Here you are, your peers, the guys that you’re going to be racing for a championship with, have had two good runs. You can see those smiles on their faces. They’re happy-go-lucky. And your guys are miserable. Somehow you got to get that train turned back around and pointed in the right direction.”

It’s very easy for a driver to fall behind, given the somewhat capricious nature of the Daytona 500. And indeed, all those title contenders currently at the wrong end of the standings were victims of incidents in the season opener — Busch and Truex engine issues, Harvick and Kahne accidents. But regardless of how those early struggles unfold, recovery isn’t always immediate. And the longer it takes, the longer the doubts begin to play on a driver’s mind.

“It’s so important to get that momentum and the points base established,” Bowyer said. “We’ve already seen teams struggle the very first two races and get themselves behind. If you look, these points are hard to accumulate, and you have two bad races in a row — that’s a month of really solid, really good runs to get yourself catapulted back up to where you need to be. Not to mention, just the momentum, the psychological part of it. This is a mental game, and if you get yourself beat up early, sometimes you don’t ever get out of it as a group.”

No question, it’s possible — Kahne and Jeff Gordon did just that last season, both of them overcoming snake-bitten starts to 2012 and rallying in time to claim the wild-card berths to the Chase. And reigning champion Brad Keselowski’s breakout season of 2011 opened miserably, with him standing 25th in points on Memorial Day weekend before he won three times and vaulted into the thick of the championship race.

“It can either tear you completely apart, or make you stronger,” Gordon said of the experience. “And I think in our case, it made us stronger, and I think that’s just a sign of how strong-knit a team we are and how we communicate. Because we were challenged every weekend with good race cars and bad results. We just kept fighting through it. But in this sport, in this day and age, it’s so competitive so far back, it’s hard to fight your way out of that type of a hole if you get into one early in the season. You have to perform really well and really go on a streak to get out of it.”

And not every team is capable of doing that. Last season, Gordon and Kahne were both buoyed by the knowledge that their cars were much better than their finishes, which gave them hope that a recovery was ultimately possible. But that’s not always the case, and teams that struggle for reasons relating more to performance can find it very difficult to make the kind of run or knock out the number of race victories it may take to get back in contention.

“Two races in, not a big hole. But when you get three or four races in and you’re still 30th in points, you’re starting to dig a big hole, and you’ve got to go. To overcome that, you have to have really good finishes, and you probably have to have wins. You probably at that point have to start looking at wins,” said Jeff Burton, who has endured his share of tough starts in recent years.

“It’s a 26-race (regular-season) schedule, so when you’re five in, and you’re 30th in points, you’ve got to pass all those people in 21 races to get where you need to be. And that’s very difficult to do. Kahne and them did it last year, but they won races. You’ve got to be on your game to overcome that big of a hole. We’re not there yet. Two races in, we’re not there yet. Someone will leave here in a bigger hole than they’re in today. Not us. But it gets harder and harder as the weeks go by.”

Even an eventual recovery can come with a price — Gordon’s team spent so long trying to make up their deficit, making the Chase by the barest of margins on the final night of the regular season, it was clearly spent when it became time to decide the championship. Even so, he believes that experience strengthened the bonds between members of his race team, which paid off in the form of a victory in the season finale at Homestead and a much more promising start to this year.

“I think that is the best thing that happened to us, even though I don’t like the way we ended up the season,” said Gordon. Of course, it certainly didn’t seem that way at the time, as the hole got deeper following one misfortunate event after another. Some teams are staring at that exact circumstance now, although the level of concern can vary.

“It’s so early right now,” said Tony Stewart, 23rd in points after a crash in the Daytona 500 and a top-10 run at Phoenix. “There are so many things that can happen. I think it’s way too early to be thinking about that. I think if you’re a team that’s worrying about it right now, I think you’re worrying about making it in to begin with. I think the teams that have confidence that they’re going to be in or should be in the Chase probably aren’t too concerned about it.”

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Posted on March 8, 2013 by

Burton’s crew chief remains on baby watch; could miss second race in a row

LAS VEGAS — It was truly a team effort last weekend that helped Jeff Burton record his first top-10 finish of this season. Two engineers and a competition director sat on the pit box, crunching numbers and recommending changes to the car. A substitute crew chief made strategy calls. And the regular crew chief monitored radio communication back home in North Carolina, using instant messenger to send in recommendations.

The result was a 10th-place finish at Phoenix International Raceway, Burton’s first top-10 on a venue other than a restrictor-plate track since Richmond in September of last season. And with crew chief Luke Lambert’s wife still expecting the couple’s second child, the No. 31 Sprint Cup Series team could end up employing the same group approach this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Lambert and Burton flew to Las Vegas together on Wednesday, and the crew chief was at the speedway as on-track activity began. But with his wife Jamie still expecting, the chance remains that he could once again fly home on short notice, as he did last Saturday night when she began having contractions and birth seemed imminent. It proved a false alarm, so Lambert came to Las Vegas.

"Yeah, he should be home with his wife. And if anybody questions that, I don’t give a damn."

— Jeff Burton

“He intends to stay,” Burton said. “Now if something starts, we’re going to support Luke being at home. I got some questions from fans, you must not be committed to racing, you say your crew chief should be at home. Yeah, he should be home with his wife. And if anybody questions that, I don’t give a damn. Because racing is important, but being a father, there are things that are more important. And if things get going at home, we’ll get him home as quick as we can.”

If that happens, Burton said his team will employ the same setup as it did last week. Ernie Cope, crew chief for Richard Childress Racing’s No. 33 Nationwide Series car — driven this week at Las Vegas by Ty Dillon — worked in that same capacity Sunday on the No. 31 team and called the race. Engineers Matt McCall and Ryan Baldi, as well as RCR competition director Eric Warren, sat on the box making decisions on the car. And Lambert watched from home, following team audio and the race leaderboard via NASCAR.com, and using instant messenger to make suggestions.

Cope is a veteran crew chief who has won eight races on each of the Nationwide and Camping World Truck circuits, including Tony Stewart’s Nationwide victory in the No. 33 car two weeks ago at Daytona. Burton said RCR teammate Kevin Harvick is a big proponent of Cope — understandably, given that the two have won seven times together — and Lambert was comfortable with him on the pit box calling the race. The possibility exists that Cope could do the same again Sunday, should Lambert’s wife go into labor.

“That’s a tough situation to walk into,” Burton said. “We went to dinner Saturday night, and (Cope) said, ‘How do you want me to call this race?’ I said, ‘I want you to call the race the way you want to call it. You can’t second-guess yourself. If you’re going to do a good job as a crew chief, you’ve just got to call it and do what you think is best.’

“Our goal was to put ourselves in position to try to win the race, and have a solid day. Don’t do something trying to win the race that’s crazy, but try to win the race and have a good solid day. He called the race based on that, and that’s difficult, to step in and call a race for a team that’s trying to make the Chase. And he did an admirable job, he really did.”

That Phoenix performance was a needed rebound for a team whose Daytona 500 ended in a wreck not of their making. Now Burton comes to a Las Vegas track where he’s won twice, reasonably content with how he’s trending in the Sprint Cup point standings, and ready to once again lean on a team effort if need be.

“Things are heading in the right direction,” Burton said. “I’m not going to proclaim that we’re exactly where we need to be right now, but I feel like we’re headed in the right direction.”

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Posted on March 8, 2013 by

Keselowski on pole for Sunday’s 400-miler; Nationwide qualifying canceled

Starting lineups: Kobalt Tools 400 | Sam’s Town 300

LAS VEGAS — Reigning Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski will start at the front of the field for Sunday’s event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after all scheduled on-track activity on the 1.5-mile circuit Friday was canceled due to rain.

The rainout marked the first time in the track’s history that Sprint Cup qualifying was canceled due to weather. The starting grid will be determined by the NASCAR rule book, with the top 36 set by 2012 owners’ points and the remainder of the field set by owners’ points or qualifying attempts this season.

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“That’s one of the perks, I guess, of being the champion in the first few races,” Keselowski said. “With the rain, I got a great deal there. This is the first time I’ve ever had a decent starting position in a rainout. I feel pretty good about that.”

Persistent rain Friday canceled all scheduled activity at the speedway. NASCAR made an effort to dry the track and get in some Nationwide Series practice during a break in the weather late Friday afternoon, but rain began to fall again while the cars were rolling behind a maintenance vehicle with its caution lights flashing.

Because Nationwide cars have not yet been on the race track, NASCAR scheduled a practice session for that series Saturday rather than qualifying. The starting grid for the event was also set by the rule book, putting Brian Vickers and Trevor Bayne — who drive the cars that finished first and second, respectively, in the owners’ standings last season — on the front row.

Saturday’s schedule now consists of Nationwide practice from 8-9:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, followed by a pair of Sprint Cup practices at 9:40 and 11:35 a.m. The Nationwide Series race remains at 1 p.m. as originally scheduled.

Keselowski will start on the front row of the Sprint Cup event alongside Clint Bowyer, last season’s runner-up. Las Vegas marks the final week 2012 points will be used in the event of a qualifying cancellation. The series reverts to points in the current season beginning next weekend at Bristol.

Sprint Cup teams unloaded a day early for a test session Thursday, given that Las Vegas is the first 1.5-mile intermediate track event for the redesigned, more brand-identifiable Generation-6 race car. Although Sprint Cup teams have two practices slated for Saturday, drivers said the test session would help to make up for the lost track time.

“I’m glad we got on track yesterday,” said Jimmie Johnson, who will start third Sunday. “That was a good move by NASCAR to give us some extra time on top of the fact that if we did have rain or some issues, we would all have on-track activity.”

Even so, many teams will use different cars for the race weekend than they did for the test. “The car we tested yesterday is not the same we will run Sunday,” Keselowski said. “Certainly, we’d like to have all the track time we can get. It’s the same for everybody, the same circumstances, and it’s all about how you adapt to it.”

A total of 43 cars were entered for Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400, and the qualifying rainout means Mike Bliss will be the lone driver sent home early. Forecasts call for mostly clear skies and only a minimal chance of rain in Las Vegas for the remainder of the race weekend.

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