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Week of 6/25/06
Dale Jr. dominates Daytona Busch race
Race Recap: Earnhardt Jr. Wins Winn-Dixie 250 at Daytona
Despite his dominant performance, Dale Earnhardt Jr. survived a scare of a potential tire problem to score an “overtime” NASCAR Busch Series win at Daytona International Speedway Friday night.
Earnhardt drove his DEI Menards/Johns Manville Chevrolet to victory in the Winn-Dixie 250 presented by Pepsico for his 21st career NASCAR Busch Series win, matching the number of wins posted by his father, Dale Earnhardt and retired driver Harry Gant. It was also his fourth career NASCAR Busch Series win at Daytona.
The 100-lap, 250 mile race was extended to a three-lap “overtime” period after a spin by Jason Leffler with three laps to go in the scheduled distance, necessitating the three-lap green-white-checkered finish.
Earnhardt was able to hold off the final-laps bid by Brian Vickers in the Ore-Ida/Heinz Chevrolet to take the win. Earnhardt’s perceived tire problem was never an issue, although the car’s transmission broke during his celebratory victory burn-out. Earnhardt walked from the start finish line to victory lane, while his car was eventually freed from it’s locked position and pushed to the winner’s celebration.
Fifth-place starter Vickers finished with a strong second place performance followed by series point leader Kevin Harvick in his own U.S. Coast Guard Chevrolet. Harvick started 42nd in the field as penalty for irregularities found with his car during inspection that caused his crew chief, Shane Wilson was ejected from the speedway earlier in the day.
Pole sitter J.J. Yeley finished fourth followed by Carl Edwards. Completing the top-10 were Clint Bowyer, Mike Wallace, Martin Truex, Jr., Greg Biffle, and series rookie John Andretti who started 30th. Eighteen cars finished on the lead lap.
Earnhardt led 88 of the race’s 103 laps, taking the lead from Denny Hamlin on lap 17. Yeley led the first 16 laps.
The race was punctuated by two non-injury multi-car accidents, two cautions for debris, and one for Leffler’s late race solo spin.
Harvick departed the event with an unofficial 388-point lead in the series standings, pending any further penalty for the earlier inspection infraction. Edwards is second in the points standings followed by Bowyer, Hamlin and Yeley. July 1, 2006
Said shocks, wins Cup poll
Boris Said Pole Winner Quotes
BORIS SAID – No. 60 Sobe No Fear Ford Fusion (Qualified 1st) –
“We knew we had a good car. This is actually the car that Greg Biffle ran the Bud Shootout in and we bought from Roush.”
HOW WAS THE LAP? “It was really easy. This Sobe No Fear race team has done an unbelievable job in eight weeks. We’ve gotten a lot of help from everyone at Roush Industries and all the guys back in the body shop in Concord at Roush. They really gave us a great car and these Roush-Yates engines are the best, so I feel pretty good to have that under the hood. I feel like the chimp that gets to fly the rocket, I just sat in there and held it wide open. Frankie (Stoddard) and all our guys in the shop did such a great job and they make me look like a hero. I don’t know if it will stick for the pole, but I feel pretty good right now being ahead of Jeff Gordon.”
WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO WIN THE POLE? “It would be pretty cool because I’d like to do the Bud Shootout, but I know there are a lot of fast cars to come. Hopefully one of these Roush teammates will knock me off, if anybody. I’m sure they’ll drop kick me to the back pretty quick in the race, but I don’t care, I’m gonna use it as a learning experience the first 100 to 200 miles and, hopefully, use my head and get this Sobe No Fear beverage car to the front. I just want all these fans to stop buying Red Bull. Buy Sobe No Fear beverage. If we sell a few more cases, we can do more races. I’ve got to throw that pitch in there.”
MAYBE THEY WON’T DROP KICK YOU TO THE BACK WITH A CAR LIKE THIS? “Yeah, it’s true. My restrictor plate race experience is two races, so I’m under no false impression that I can contend with these guys right away, but if I can learn – my realistic goal, if I could be 15th to 20th, that would feel like a win for me. Just to be in the show is a weight off my shoulders. That’s the toughest thing for our team with no points. We’ve done a lot of work these last eight weeks. We’re one race into our four-race deal and it’s just really exciting to have my own deal and be partners with Frank Stoddard and Mark Simo and everyone at Sobe Beverage Company. I’m just real excited.”
HOW MUCH OF THIS IS ROUSH AND HOW MUCH IS IT FRANK’S WORK? “A lot of it is Roush. We didn’t have time to build a speedway car, so Roush sold us one. This is the car Greg Biffle ran the Bud Shootout in, so it’s pretty much all their work. We just did a lot of modification so I could fit a little better in the car, and the body stuff – we asked for some changes and they worked extra hard on it, the Roush body shop, to do this stuff for us. We’re a customer, but they give us great stuff. It’s really exciting to have that affiliation.”
BORIS SAID POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE – “It feels damn good. I’ve been trying to do this for so long, break into NASCAR from road racing. I was getting a lot of, ‘You’re too old. You’re too tall. You’re too poor.’ A lot of those things, so I don’t feel like I had a lot to do with driving on the pole today, but what it had to do with was putting a deal together with Jack Roush three months ago and making a deal to buy cars from him and engines. I always say it’s like the American Express commercial. Jack said, ‘Cars, $150,000. Motors $75,000,’ but the fact that he offered me his little black book with all the setups in it, that’s priceless. So we formed a team with the No Fear guys – Mark and Brian Simo, Frank Stoddard, my crew chief from last year with me – and it’s just been a whirlwind the last three months. I’m just delighted and have a lot of pride and satisfaction with what our little team has done in the last eight weeks – to get a top 10 last week at Sears Point and run in the top six all day, and then to come here and beat all these guys for the pole is just a dream come true. It’s really, really exciting. To be in the Pepsi 400, that’s the parent company of our energy drink – Sobe No Fear. We’ve got a lot of people here from there. Hopefully if we can talk them into our team is a great team and the help we get from Roush is gonna make us a front-running team next year, we can do more races. Hopefully we talk all of these great NASCAR fans into buying our product instead of those funny bulls with wings and all those other nonsense energy drinks out there on the market – get some fan support behind it we’re gonna be here next year more and more and more. Right now it just feels awesome. I’m gonna sleep like a baby tonight. I’ll be a little nervous tomorrow for the race starting in front of all those guys. I’m sure they’re gonna put me through the school of hard knocks and drop me to the back, but I’m prepared for that. I hope to run a good, clean race and gain some respect. I think last week I turned the corner. Actually Dale Jarrett said to me in the qualifying line, ‘I give you a lot of credit last week for holding your emotions in and not taking all of your emotions out on that orange car because you would have deserved it.’ So I think, hopefully for a speedway race, I can just keep my head on and run the first couple of hundred miles and learn, and then the last 100 or 200 miles just try to get up in the top 15 or 20 and that would be like a win for our small No Fear racing team.” July 1, 2006
Harvick Busch chief ejected from Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 30, 2006) – Shane Wilson, crew chief of the No. 21 Chevrolet driven by Kevin Harvick in the NASCAR Busch Series, has been ejected from the racing premises at Daytona International Speedway for rule violations found following impound Friday.
Wilson was found to be in violation of Sections 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4-Q (car, car parts, components and/or equipment used that do not conform to NASCAR rules – unapproved aerodynamic modification) of the 2006 NASCAR Busch Series rule book.
As a result, the qualifying time for the No. 21 Chevrolet was disallowed and that car will start tonight’s race from the 42nd position. July 1, 2006
France says Chase changes are coming
Brian France says changes are coming to The Chase for the Championship's format for 2007.
BRIAN FRANCE: We'll be looking at nothing new. Everything we'll be looking at has been brought up by various people in the last couple years. We'll be looking at, is ten the right number, as an example. We'll be looking at the 400 point margin. We'll be looking at, you know, the final ten races.
I think we have the right mix, and I don't think we'll be changing that, but we'll be thinking about the points structure; you know, should we add a little more to the win in the final ten. Just various things we think will build what we're hoping for, which are big moments and a bigger stage for the drivers. That's what the Chase has always been about. It's about showcasing their skills.
What I kind of like, that was frankly a little unexpected, is how it's broken the season up the way it has. You had the first half, which we've now completed. Now you have what it typically would be, you know, a time of the year that, you know, it's a long season situation. Now you have going into July and August, drivers now are figuring out that, you know, being on the bubble going to Richmond is not a comfortable place to be. And no one wants to do that.
So I think the June, July, August events, meaning a whole lot more than they ever have before, they are already historic events for the Brickyard, Bristol and so on. But now that drumbeat going into September is pretty impactful. We like that.
So we'll be looking at everything to see if we can make it a little bit better. There won't be a dramatic changes because the basic format is working well. June 29, 2006
ODDS 'N ENDS
Kyle Petty will make his 50th Daytona start this weekend
Bobby Labonte will drive at Chicago and Michigan for Brewco's Busch car
Terry Cook will tie Rick Crawford's CTS record of 209 straight starts June 29, 2006
Who's hot going into this weekend?
Certainly Jeff Gordon has momentum on his side after winning last weekend
Greg Biffle has scored 7 top-10's in a row
Jimmie Johnson has won the last two restrictor plate races this year June 29, 2006
TRACK STATS | DAYTONA | PEPSI 400
Distance: 2.5 Mile Oval
Banking/Turns 1-4:31
Banking in Tri-oval:18
Banking/Backstretch: 3
Length/Frontstretch: 3,800 ft.
Length/Backstretch:3,400 ft.
Laps: 160 Miles: 400
Last year's poll sitter: Tony Stewart
Last year's winner: Tony Stewart
Up for grabs: Just over $6 million June 29, 2006
Truex and Dale Jr. to run Daytona Busch race
Mark McFarland has not been cleared to race this weekend after shoulder injuries from Milwaukee last weekend. Two time Busch Series Champion Martin Truex Jr. will take the wheel of the #88 Navy car at Daytona this weekend. Martin will go for his 4th plate win in a row for this series. His boss Dale Earnhardt Jr. is also entered into Friday's race. June 28, 2006
More SAFER walls to go up at Kentucky
SAFER barriers will be installed at Kentucky Speedway along the inside wall of the backstretch before their ARCA and Truck Series weekend July 7-8th. This was recommended by the wall developers after driver Jeff Fuller was injured in the recent Busch race there. June 28, 2006
PAINT SCHEMES - Daytona
Jeff Gordon will feature Superman on his 24 car this weekend
Points leader Jimmie Johnson will have a Shamu/SeaWorld look to it
Bobby Labonte will carry Cinnabon on the hood
Kevin Harvick will be decked out in Hershey's Chocolate S'More's colors June 28, 2006
POINT STANDINGS | BUSCH & TRUCK
BUSCH SERIES
5 J.J. Yeley
4 Clint Bowyer
3 Carl Edwards
2 Denny Hamlin
1 Kevin Harvick is 344 points up
TRUCK SERIES
5 Jack Sprague
4 Ted Musgrave
3 Johnny Benson
2 David Reutimann
1 Todd Bodine leads by 126 June 28, 2006
Haas pleads not guilty
Team owner Gene Haas has pleaded not guilty this week in Los Angeles. He is charged with tax fraud and witness intimidation but maintains the issue revolves around a former employee. Haas owns Jeff Green's Cup car, and Johnny Sauter's Busch ride. June 27, 2006
Double Duty - IROC / Cup
A few drivers will pull double duty this weekend, but it's not what you think. Tomorrow night they'll run the IROC race at Daytona, which is on their 3.56 mile road course this time, and then the Cup race on Saturday night. Drivers running both include Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, and Martin Truex Jr. June 27, 2006
TESTING | MILWAUKEE
At the track this week include Infineon winner Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Brian Vickers, Kyle Busch, Casey Mears, Kurt Busch and others. Teams are checking their setups for flatter tracks coming up like Pocono, Martinsville, and New Hampshire. June 27, 2006
POINT STANDINGS | CUP SERIES
10 Kevin Harvick
9 Greg Biffle
8 Jeff Gordon up 3 spots
7 Tony Stewart down 1
6 Jeff Burton
5 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
4 Mark Martin
3 Kasey Kahne
2 Matt Kenseth
1 Jimmie Johnson leads by 101 June 27, 2006
Vickers joins Red Bull, Toyota for 2007
Vickers Announces Move to No. 83 Team Red Bull Toyota in 2007
As revealed Sunday evening on Speed TV, Team Red Bull formally announces a multi-year agreement with NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver Brian Vickers, the 2003 NASCAR Busch Series champion, to race the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry starting with the 2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season. Rumors notwithstanding, more official information on the new team, including the second 2007 driver, will be made available later this year. June 26, 2006
Jeff Gordon wins Infineon
RACE RECAP | INFINEON
10 Jimmie Johnson
9 Boris Said
8 Elliott Sadler
7 Jeff Burton
6 Carl Edwards
5 Kurt Busch
4 Greg Biffle
3 Terry Labonte first top 5 in 71 races, and he did it with a low fuel tank
2 Ryan Newman best finish this year
VICTORY LANE
1 Jeff Gordon led the most laps to take home his 5th win at this track, and 9th career road course win, the most all time.
OTHER STORIES ON THE DAY
-A couple of huge wrecks brought out the red flag twice. In the first one Ken Schrader took a nasty hit, but is fine. In the second one a chain reaction took out the cars of Bobby Labonte, Dale Jarrett and J.J. Yeley with only 6 laps to go.
-Tony Stewart had a rough day, caught speeding on pit road, had a tire rub, and finally engine problems sent him to a 28th place finish.
-Kasey Kahne came to the pits with 2 laps to go with a flat tire, sends him to 31st.
-Robby Gordon had a strong car early but blew a tire and then hit the wall coming into the pits putting him at 40th June 25, 2006
Menard wins first career Busch race
Race Recap: Paul Menard Gets His First Career Series Win at Milwaukee
It was a wild night of racing action at America’s oldest race track with Paul Menard picking up his long-awaited first career NASCAR Busch Series victory in the AT&T 250 at the famed Milwaukee Mile. The day started off on a historic note as Aric Almirola, subbing for a traveling Denny Hamlin, became the first Cuban-American driver to win a pole in any of NASCAR’s three touring series. The field included two female drivers, Erin Crocker and Kim Crosby and a surprise entry, 71 year old James Hylton. The 1966 NASCAR premier series Rookie of the Year made his second career NASCAR Busch Series to become the oldest competitor in the history of NASCAR’s top three series. Sporting a yellow rookie bumper, Hylton took the green flag but dropped out of contention early in the event.
According to NASCAR rules Denny Hamlin was forced to start on the rear of the field but moved quicky through the pack to take the lead on lap 80. His Joe Gibbs Chevrolet looked like the class of the field, however, other competitors proved strong competition as the race unfolded. Series regular Jason Leffler took the lead with 83 laps remaing and seemed to have the race wrapped up making up a 2 ½ second deficit to leader Hamlin in just 10 laps. But a miscue on lap 205 caused Leffler to spin out at the entrance to pit road as he attempted to make a pit stop. Ironically, the spin came as his main competition, Hamlin, was making a green flag pit stop.
Wisconsin native Paul Menard took the lead on the restart as a series of caution periods unfolded.Points leader Kevin Harvick moved into second spot by taking advantage of the cautions as what seemed to be a sure win for Menard evaporated with Harvick on the tail of Menard’s electric yellow Chevrolet.
The field took the green for restart number nine on lap 243 as Erin Crocker was punted into the wall by Todd Kluever at the start-finish line. Another restart came on lap 247 with Harvick clawing the inside of the track in turn one. As the leaders hit turn two Harvick got Menard a little sideways as J.J. Yeley tapped the back of Harvick which caused a multi-car melee. This set up a green-white-checker finish with Menard, Yeley, Hamlin and Leffler the main players. Menard got a good jump on the pack at the restart and cruised to his first win in front of a home town crowd. It was the second consecutive victory by a series regular. Dan Stillman, Menard’s crew chief, is also a native of Wisconsin, which added a little spice to the win. A race-record 11 cautions periods caused 58 laps to be run under the yellow and expanded the event to 258 laps.
The top five finishing order was Menard, Hamlin, Yeley, Leffler and Mike Wallace. A total of eight regular NASCAR Busch Series competitors made up the first 10 finishing spots. Kevin Harvick held his lead in the points dropping 28 markers for a margin of 344 over Hamlin who took over second place from Carl Edwards who now sits third. Clint Bowyer and Yeley round out the top five. Menard is now sixth in points for the top series regular in the point battle.
The NASCAR Busch Series competes next Friday night at Daytona International Speedway in the Winn-Dixie 250. Martin Truex Jr. is the defending race champion.
June 25, 2006
Benson wins second CTS race in a row
Race Recap: Benson Winner for Second Straight Week
Johnny Benson required 60 starts to reach his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory. The second took six days as Benson, driving the Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota, swept past Budweiser Pole starter Ron Hornaday Jr. on the 160th of 200 laps to win Friday night’s Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200 at The Milwaukee Mile.
Benson started second and led twice for a total of 47 laps and carried a 2.249-second cushion to the checkered flag to become the track’s 11th winner in 12 races. Thirty-seven laps of caution held Benson’s winning average speed to 85.673 mph – second slowest in series history at the historic track.
Benson won $55,500 and moved up a spot in the championship standings to third behind Todd Bodine and David Reutimann. He became the sixth different driver to win his first two series races in back-to-back starts. The last was Kyle Busch in 2005.
"I can't believe it. The first one was pretty hard and everyone said that the second one would come a little easier," said Benson. "But I didn't think it would come today."
Former Milwaukee winner Mike Bliss, aboard the IWX Motor Freight Chevrolet, charged through the field from his 18th position on the grid, passing Hornaday’s Chevy five laps from the finish for the runnerup spot. Hornaday, who led a race high 102 laps in four stints at the helm, settled for third ahead of Jack Sprague’s Con-way Freight Toyota. David Reutimann was fifth in the Team Tundra Toyota.
Sixth through 10th positions were claimed by Timothy Peters, Dennis Setzer, David Starr, Rick Crawford and Terry Cook. Aric Almirola was the highest finishing Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender in 13th place.
Seventeen of the race’s 34 finishers completed all 200 laps.
Bodine, who led once, dropped off the pace at the three-quarter mark and spun out to trigger the final caution shortly after being lapped by Benson. He wound up 20th and off the lead lap for the first time in the season’s 11 races.
The night cut heavily into Bodine’s championship lead that stands at 126 points over Reutimann and another four ahead of Benson. He entered the race with a margin of 178.
The series next heads for Kansas Speedway for Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 250. Bodine is the defending winner. June 25, 2006
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