The Winning Edge Compiled by Dwight Drum
Images by Drum Web work by Drum & Larsen
NASCAR Reports
Winners: [Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Camping World Trucks]
Tony Stewart, Trevor Bayne, Kevin Harvick
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
NSCS Race Recap: By Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
Kahne Wins At Phoenix; Edwards, Stewart Race To Dead Heat
It was Ali-Frazier in the Garden. It was Celtics-Lakers with Bird and Magic.
It was NASCAR’s dream. Punch and counterpunch—the top two drivers in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup trading shots in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.
Yes, Kasey Kahne won the race—his first victory of the season and the 12th of his career—but Edwards and Stewart dominated the action as their battle for the 2011 championship remained as close as it was at the start of the day.
In a race between the only two drivers mathematically alive for the Cup championship, Edwards finished second and Stewart third, but Stewart led the most laps for the second straight week and leaves Phoenix three points behind Edwards as the drivers prepare to settle the issue in the season finale next Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Jeff Burton ran fourth at Phoenix with Ryan Newman in fifth. AJ Allmendinger, David Reutimann, Marcos Ambrose, Paul Menard and Clint Bowyer completed the top 10.
“We couldn’t ask for anything more,” Edwards said. “It’s going to be fun. It’s neat to be able to go to Homestead and race it out. I’m sure these guys (Stewart’s team) are going to be good down there—they’re fast on the mile-and-a-halfs.
“I’m just proud of my guys today. They did a great job on pit road. Tony was really fast, and we got our car tuned in, and we were able to go up there and race with them and compete. It was just a good hard-fought day, and I’m really pumped about Homestead.”
Stewart appeared poised to win his fifth race in the Chase before the handling on his No. 14 Chevrolet deteriorated slightly in the final 100 laps.
“We just came up two spots shy,” Stewart said. “It was just a little too loose on entry those last two runs there. I thought that Darian (crew chief Darian Grubb) made a really good call there with just gas only at the end (on Stewart’s final pit stop on Lap 294), and we were able to run Jeff (Burton) down there and get back to third.
“Every point counts right now, and that’s why we raced Carl so hard and Kasey so hard to make sure we led enough laps to lead the most laps today (160). We are going for every single point we can get.”
Stewart said the formula for winning the title is simple.
“Just keep doing what we’re doing,” Stewart said. “We’re going to keep the pressure on him, and we’re going to make him sweat it out.”
Seven more drivers, all of whom started the Chase nine weeks ago with hopes of hoisting the Sprint Cup, were eliminated from championship contention. Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch joined Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Newman in a group that will be fighting for positions in the standings but not for a title. In Johnson’s case, the run of consecutive championships ends at five.
Kahne, who will be Johnson’s teammate next year, chalked up a win for Red Bull Racing, whose owner/sponsor is withdrawing from that role at the end of the season, leaving the future of the organization in doubt.
Kahne pitted early during a late cycle of green-flag stops and took the lead on Lap 299 of 312 when Keselowski came to pit road. Edwards chased him for the final 14 circuits but finished .802 seconds behind.
“We have great cars,” said Kahne, who will leave Red Bull and its uncertain future for a stable seat at Hendrick Motorsports next season. “I feel like each week I’m going to the racetrack with as good a car as anybody out there, which has been really nice this season.
“We haven’t won in a while (since September 2009 at Atlanta). We put the whole race together today and then had a little luck. Everything that falls into winning a race, we had it today.”
Leading only those final 14 laps, Kahne stole the spotlight from the slugfest between Edwards and Stewart, but the action between the contenders overshadowed even Kahne’s win.
After a bold pass to the outside gave Stewart the lead over Kenseth, the polesitter, on Lap 36, Stewart began to rack up laps led, like so many sharp body blows to Edwards’ title hopes. But Edwards refused to fall.
Stewart dominated the first half of the race, but on Lap 167, Edwards passed Kenseth to lead for the first time. On that same Lap Stewart surged past Kenseth into second.
Edwards held Stewart at bay after a restart on Lap 173, but Stewart returned the favor after Brian Vickers wrecked Kenseth—belated revenge for an altercation at Martinsville—in Turn 3 on Lap 177. Stewart powered around Edwards on Lap 182, clearing him off Turn 4 with a make-yourself-stay-in-the-gas-and-hold-your-breath determination that brought fans in the grandstands to their feet.
Edwards chased Stewart for 39 laps thereafter, getting an eyeful of the TV panel on Stewart’s No. 14 as he tried everything in his repertoire to make a pass. Robby Gordon’s crash in Turn 3 on Lap 220, however, changed the game in Edwards’ favor.
On Lap 225, Stewart and Edwards restarted third and fourth, respectively behind Kurt Busch and Paul Menard, both of whom had used two-tire stops to get to the front of the field. Edwards moved forward, but Stewart fell back, as his handling started to suffer.
With an aggressive pass of Burton with nine laps left, however, Stewart made sure that Edwards wouldn’t leave Phoenix with a net gain in points—not even one.
“It may come to that,” Stewart said after the race.
NASCAR Nationwide Series [NNS]
NNS Race Recap: By Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
Hornish wins at Phoenix; Leffler KO’s Sadler's title hopes
Sam Hornish Jr. celebrates his first victory in NASCAR—Saturday’s Wypall 200 Nationwide Series race at Phoenix International Raceway
Sam Hornish Jr. cruised to his first Nationwide Series victory Saturday as Elliott Sadler’s championship hopes crumbled behind him. Taking the lead after a two-tire stop on Lap 131 put him on the front row, Hornish held off teammate Brad Keselowski to win the Wypall 200 at Phoenix International Raceway.
Carl Edwards ran third, followed by Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who all but locked up his first series championship with one race left.
The victory was Hornish’s first in NASCAR racing, but the driver of the No. 12 Dodge scored two IndyCar Series wins at the one-mile track. In fact, Hornish got his first victory in the open-wheel series at Phoenix in March 2001.
"It feels great to be able to race Brad and Carl there at the end," said Hornish, who has been driving part time in the Nationwide Series this season. "I’m just so happy. These guys have all worked so hard. We’ve been on and off all year long. It’s been a tough year for us for a lot of different reasons.
"Every 10 years, I guess, I get to come to victory lane here for the first time in a different kind of car, so it’s pretty special." Sadler, who entered the race 17 points behind Stenhouse, saw his championship hopes disappear on Lap 175. After cutting across the backstretch dogleg, Sadler moved back up the track well clear of Jason Leffler and polesitter Aric Almirola, who were racing side-by-side.
At the entrance to Turn 3, a tap from Leffler’s Chevrolet spun Sadler, whose No. 2 Chevrolet slammed into the outside wall, collecting Almirola in the process. Morgan Shepherd’s Chevrolet was destroyed when the 70-year-old driver got up into the marbles trying to avoid the wreck. Sadler finished 27th and trails Stenhouse by 41 points.
"I’m sure that the video shows that the 38 (Leffler) just ran right into the back of us," Sadler said. "Not much respect for guys running for the championship. It’s very frustrating. You work all season long to put yourself in a situation, and it all goes away in a split second."
Leffler accepted responsibility for the wreck.
"I was racing Aric, but I take full responsibility," Leffler said. "I ran right into the back of him. It wasn’t on purpose. It was a mistake on my part. I feel bad for him and his guys. When a guy slides across like that, it kills all the momentum. He’s a good driver, a smart driver, so obviously he lifted early to keep from blowing the corner.
"I was racing Aric and just made a mistake. It’s all my fault. That’s the last thing I wanted to do to Elliott and his guys."
The race was less than a lap old when an eight-car wreck in Turn 3 ruined Danica Patrick’s day. Patrick backed into the outside wall and lost three laps to Almirola, who led the first 66 laps, as her car was being repaired. She finished 21st.
Almirola surrendered the top spot to Stenhouse on Lap 67. Stenhouse pulled out to a lead of more than two seconds before caution for D.J. Kennington’s collision with the Turn 2 wall on Lap 84 bunched the field.
Stenhouse stayed out front after pit stops and again pulled away after a restart on Lap 91. Keselowski passed Almirola for the second spot on Lap 107 but couldn’t close significantly on Stenhouse, who maintained an advantage of approximately three seconds as the top two cars worked traffic.
A violent wreck on Lap 130 involving Derrike Cope and Mike Bliss brought out the fourth yellow. Stenhouse was first off pit road under the yellow, and Sadler gained eight positions with a two-tire stop. He restarted fifth behind Stenhouse, Hornish, Keselowski and Logano when the field took the green flag on Lap 140.
Hornish powered around Stenhouse to the outside to take the lead, but the race was yellow-flagged for the fifth time on Lap 143 when contact from Steve Wallace’s Toyota sent James Buescher’s Chevrolet spinning into the frontstretch wall.
After the restart on Lap 151, Hornish opened a margin of more than a second over Keselowski, who surged from sixth to second in the space of two laps and then began to close on his Penske Racing teammate.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series [NCWTS]
NCWTS Recap: By Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
Kevin Harvick wins Texas
Mike Helton Statement
MIKE HELTON: During the truck race last night, we had an incident between the 18 and the 33 trucks that resulted in NASCAR parking the 18 truck for the balance of the event.
That's done under Section 9-12 of the Rule Book. That gives NASCAR the authority to react during a race weekend. Following the event and after a good deal of conversation and discussion, NASCAR has decided to maintain that parked position on the driver of the 18 truck for the balance of the weekend.
So basically what that means is Kyle Busch will not be participating today or tomorrow in the NASCAR event here in Texas.
THE MODERATOR: We have time for just a few questions.
Q. Mike, can you tell me what time the meeting was held this morning, where it was held, who attended it?
MIKE HELTON: The meeting was held at our hauler 15 minutes ago, 20 minutes ago. J.D., Coach Gibbs, and Kyle Busch were in attendance along with several NASCAR officials.
Q. In the year of 'boys have at it,' what were the specific reasons behind your decision to park Kyle as opposed to just letting 'boys have at it'?
MIKE HELTON: The responsibility over the past two or three seasons we've given back to the drivers came I think with a very clear understanding that there could be a line that got crossed.
As annoying as the comments that I've made personally in the past about 'we'll know it when we see it' might have been, we saw it last night. Obviously after the event, a lot of folks put their heads together to decide what, if anything, we would do. Then what I'm telling you today is our reaction.
Q. Mike, you guys in the past have let things that happen in one series stay in that series. It didn't cross over. Not to say you haven't ever done it. What was the reasoning behind doing what you did this weekend, letting it affect Nationwide or Cup?
MIKE HELTON: I think we've had occurrences - rare like you said - in the past where an incident would carry over for the balance of the event. Kevin Harvick in Martinsville from a truck race that involved the Cup race. Robby Gordon in a Montréal Nationwide race that involved a Pocono Cup race. Although be it very rare, we have had incidents that have carried over for the balance of the weekend like this one has. But they're rare.
Q. How, in your mind, serious is this situation for NASCAR to take this move? What kind of conversations did you have with Kyle, with Joe Gibbs Racing, their sponsor implications? How grave is this, in your mind, that you've gone to this level?
MIKE HELTON: Well, I think the volume of occurrences or reactions like I'm talking about this morning, the rarity of those times that we'd make a step like this speak to the uniqueness and the severity of the topic.
We understand the ramifications or the ripple effect of us making this type of a move. But we also take our responsibility very serious as to maintaining control of the event in all the garages. So it's a balance there that we ultimately have to make a decision.
At the end of the day, we're the ones that have to make that decision and go on.
Q. Will there be any other possible penalties to Kyle, say monetary, probation, anything else besides what's going on for this weekend?
MIKE HELTON: Under 9-12 it's just an event reaction. We'll have to wait and see what Monday morning brings. But right now this deals with the balance of this weekend.
Q. Do you feel like this will send a message on the whole 'have at it' situation, that there is a point where we're going to take severe action and maybe this will calm things down a little bit?
MIKE HELTON: I don't know. I think the garage areas, the drivers, the team owners, the crew members understand the difference between being responsible and crossing the line. I honestly believe that they understand the difference.
But we'll have to wait and see how the opinions react to this.
Q. Mike, I saw Richard Childress in the hauler this morning, as well. Did the Childress-Harvick camp also get admonished not to escalate this feud? Secondly, did the fact that what Kyle did last night have an effect on the championship, did that influence the decision today as well?
MIKE HELTON: To the first part, our reaction was specifically around the driver of the 18 truck, and that was the extent of it. Obviously, when an occurrence occurs at a racetrack, the NASCAR official community in general works to minimize the ripple effect of what actually might have happened, what might could happen afterwards during the event last night or any one going forward, for that matter.
The implication of the 33 truck being in the points battle in the Camping World Truck Series probably had a small impact on the reaction. But I think the bulk of the action in its entirety, all the circumstances attached to it just accumulated to lead us to the decision we made.
Q. Mike, I know you say 'when you see it, you'll know it.' Can you give a better clarification? Some fans will look back at the Carl Edwards-Keselowski thing and say there wasn't anything there done. What more did you see in this case with this situation? What was so different? And the accumulation of things that Kyle had been involved with this season, did that play a factor to park him?
MIKE HELTON: Yeah, I would answer that two ways.
It's natural in our industry and our sport, for NASCAR's regulatory responsibilities, to watch the evolution of a policy or procedure and learn from it and possibly react differently. Although I would remind you in the incident with Carl Edwards and Keselowski in Atlanta, there was a reaction for us. There was points and money involved in that reaction, so there was some sort of reaction.
There's been a lot of other occurrences that we felt like were more in opportunity to responsibility given to drivers along the way, but there are lines that have been crossed. The 18 and 29 in Darlington got a reaction from us. Today is the most severe reaction under these circumstances. But we felt like all the circumstances came together to warrant the reaction that we're talking about this morning.
The question about the accumulation of incidents around the driver leading to this decision-making process. I won't sit here and tell you that it's not an influence, but it's not an overriding influence. The reaction we're talking about today came more specifically from the set of circumstances that unfolded last night in the single event.
Q. Most of the time I assume you refrain from suspending people because you know the fans come to watch drivers, Kyle Busch being a very popular driver to some fans. How much did you weigh that in your consideration and what did you feel is the overriding factor in suspending him?
MIKE HELTON: Yeah, I would sit here and tell you that any violation that we have to react to, we consider the ripple effect of our reaction. Every incident that we have to react to, whether it's in an inspection, something that's happened on the racetrack or what have you, that's not our mission. But it is our responsibility as a regulatory group that manages the sport. We certainly take that very serious.
So the circumstances that we saw last night on the racetrack, we didn't take lightly what we saw, we didn't take lightly the necessity or the responsibility for us to react to it. We take those responsibilities very serious.
But more often than not, our responsibility is to officiate the sport, inspect the hardware that's involved in the sport in a manner that everybody feels like they're on an equal and level playing field. That's the sport's regulatory responsibility.
On occasion you have an incident to take the responsibility, to take the additional step like we're talking about this morning, and it's not an easy step to take. It's not something we enjoy doing. It's not an action that we would want to do. But we do take our responsibility to maintain control of the garage areas and the unfolding of the events very seriously which led us to this action.
WEEK 47, 2011
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
2011 NSCS Point Standings
[After Race 35 of 36]
Includes Points Behind Leader
1. Carl Edwards [Leader] [2359 points]
2. Tony Stewart [-3]
3. Kevin Harvick [-51]
4. Brad Keselowski [-65]
5. Jimmie Johnson [-68]
6. Matt Kenseth [-70]
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. [-102]
8. Kurt Busch [-107]
9. Ryan Newman [-107]
10. Denny Hamlin [-110]
11. Jeff Gordon [-112]
12. Kyle Busch [-135]
NASCAR Nationwide Series
2011 NNS Point Standings
[After 33 of 34 races]
Includes Points Behind Leader
1. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. [Leader] [1179 points]
2. Elliott Sadler [-41]
3. Justin Allgaier [-105]
4. Aric Almirola [-120]
5. Reed Sorenson [-136]
6. Jason Leffler [-183]
7. Kenny Wallace [-227]
8. Michael Annett [-261]
9. Brian Scott [-267]
10. Steve Wallace [-268]
11. Trevor Bayne [-320]
12. Mike Bliss [-379]
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
2011 NCWTS Point Standings
[After 24 of 25 races]
Includes Points Behind Leader
1. Austin Dillon [Leader] [854 points]
2. Johnny Sauter [-20]
3. James Buescher [-28]
4. Ron Hornaday Jr. [-48]
5. Timothy Peters [-58]
6. Todd Bodine [-79]
7. Matt Crafton [-95]
8. Joey Coulter [-97]
9. Cole Whitt [-112]
10. Nelson Piquet Jr. [-142]
11. Parker Kligerman [-156]
12. Brendan Gaughan [-166]
Top Ten Most Popular NASCAR Drivers
1. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
2. Jeff Gordon
3. Tony Stewart
4. Kasey Kahne
5. Matt Kenseth
6. Bobby Labonte
7. Michael Waltrip
8. Jimmie Johnson
9. Carl Edwards
10. Kevin Harvick
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Manufacturer & Team Recap
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