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8 – THE DERRICK. / The News-Herald Wednesday, March 19, 2014
FEUD OF THE WEEK
WHAT’S ON TAP?
Ken Willis has been covering NAS-CAR for The Daytona Beach News-Journal for 27 years. Reach him at [email protected]
QUESTIONS & ATTITUDECompelling questions ...
and maybe a few actual answers
SPEED FREAKSA couple questions we had to ask — ourselves
facebook.com/nascardaytona
@nascardaytona
news-journalonline.com/nascar
ONLINE EXTRAS
FEEDBACKDo you have questions orcomments about NASCAR This Week? Contact Godwin Kelly at [email protected] or Ken Willis at [email protected]
CUP POINTS
HOT TOPICS: 3 ISSUES GENERATING A BUZZ
BRISTOL REWIND
WEEKLY DRIVER RANKINGS — BASED ON BEHAVIOR AND PERFORMANCEJUNIOR
EARNHARDTStepped off the podium for a week
BRADKESELOWSKIMiddle name
is Aaron
CARLEDWARDSPunched his
ticket
JEFFGORDONMr. Top 10
JIMMIE JOHNSONHe gets his
win this week
MATTKENSETHFamily tree
branching out
JOEYLOGANO
We think he has started
shaving
DENNYHAMLIN
Virginia goes deep on his
NCAA bracket
RYANNEWMANCan’t even
fi nd Purdue in NIT pool
KEVINHARVICK
Hot streak will arrive, or else
One streak is over and another continues at Hendrick Motorsports. Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s streak of consecutive top-two fi nishes came to a thundering halt at Bristol Motor Speedway, where NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver fi nished 24th in the No. 88 Chevrolet. Earnhardt opened the season by winning the Daytona 500, then scored second-place fi nishes at Phoenix and Las Vegas.
For those fi rst three outings, the 39-year-old driver had an average fi nish of 1.3. Now add in the 24th at Bristol and Earnhardt’s average fi nish in 2014 is 7.0.
Jeff Gordon, who drives the No. 24 Chevy, kept his streak going at Bristol. Gordon has scored four con-secutive top-10 fi nishes since the season opened at Daytona. And just to show how stats can be skewed, Gordon now has a better fi nishing average than Earnhardt. Gordon’s average fi nish in 2014 is 6.25.
“The whole team did an awesome job,” Gordon said after his seventh-place effort at Bristol. “We had a really good race car at different times through-out the night. It’s crazy, when we went back racing after the rain delay we just completely wore out the left-front tire in just like 20 or 30 laps. I mean we were going backwards in a hurry. Thankfully for that competi-tion caution, but we fi xed that and got the car better, and drove up into the top fi ve, I was pretty happy.”
Earnhardt? No comment.
ROOKIE RUN-NERS
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year battle was defi ned at Bristol when Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon raced side by side in the closing laps in a heat-ed battle for 10th-place honors. Larson prevailed in his No. 42 Chevy while Dillon was 11th. “It’s crazy to think it’s kind of a disappointing fi nish for the way we ran for most of the race, but all in all it was a good race,” Larson said. “It was a lot of fun racing with Austin there at the end. I defi nitely had to get up on the wheel and get the elbows up and try not to make any mistakes.” Now each rookie has one top-10 fi nish. Dillon was ninth in the Daytona 500.
KENSETH’S ROUGH RIDEMatt Kenseth led a race-high 165 laps at Bristol,
but by the time the race ended, his No. 20 Toyota was battered and bent, and he fi nished 13th. Kens-eth was rear-ended at high speed during a caution when Timmy Hill, driving the No. 33 Chevy, blasted his rear bumper. Later in the race, Kenseth got into “the marbles” and tagged the wall a couple of times before regaining control of his Camry. When asked “How was the race?” Kenseth could only shrug. “I don’t think we have enough time for me to tell you all about it.” What about the hit from Hill? “He hit me going like 4,000 miles an hour,” Kenseth said.
NO SECOND THOUGHTS
NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton explained to the media why the caution lights came out for no ap-parent reason with less than three laps left in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
What happened?“After review of the situation post-race … it
appears that, in the fl ag stand, one of the fl ag people had leaned on the switch that is the manual override for the caution lights, and so that happened.
“At that time, when the fl ag stand realized that the caution lights were illuminated, the
fl ag man threw the fl ag, and then after that happened we froze the fi eld from the tower.
“Most of the fl ag stands have a manual override for the caution lights, and due to the weather and due to other things, it wasn’t secured properly, and the fl ag person leaned against the switch and turned the caution lights on.
“We tried to turn them off, and we realized that the override switch was on and they were hung on caution. It was a stupid error.”
Did you have to go to video, or did you just use the scoring line to set the fi eld?
“Video. We treated it just like the freeze at
the end of the race if there was an accident or something.”
What do you do moving forward to pre-vent this from happening down the road?
“We learn a lot of lessons, and when we learn a lesson like this we’ll go in and further investigate some things.
“As you know, all the electronics that we have installed in the trailers for ‘freeze the fi eld’ and all these other things, you still have to integrate into the track facilities.
“So there’s probably some things that we needed to do to better secure that area where the manual override is on the lights.”
NASCAR fl ag man inadvertently delivers a cautionary tale
Getty Images/TODD WARSHAW
Tony happily limped away from Bristol with a 4th-place fi nish.
Did you ever think you’d see Tony Stewart happy after a fourth-place fi nish?GODSPEAK: I didn’t think I’d see Tony get a top-fi ve fi nish until we got to about June on the Cup schedule. Bristol sort of fell in his lap.KEN’S CALL: When a batter is in a slump, a bloop single to right fi eld can look like a gapper to left-center. Baby steps were needed for the hobbling Tony.
How is that Kurt Busch deal working out at Stewart-Haas?GODSPEAK: You have to remember this is a team built from scratch in the offseason, so Kurt’s guys will be in a mad scramble until, say, Daytona’s Coke Zero 400 in July.KEN’S CALL: It’s easy to pile on, but everyone knows Kurt is capable of winning at any time, and a win changes a season more than ever, doesn’t it?
CLINTBOWYER
DANICAPATRICK
Clint Bowyer vs. Danica Patrick: Pat-rick’s No. 10 Chevy clipped and dam-aged Bowyer’s No. 15 Toyota on pit road during a late pit stop at Bristol.Godwin Kelly gives his take: “After the race, Patrick went straight to Bowyer, explained what happened and apologized in a quick attempt to snuff a bad-blood situation.”
SPRINT CUP: Auto Club 400SITE: Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, Calif.SCHEDULE: Friday, practice (Fox Sports 1, 3 p.m.), qualifying (Fox Sports 1, 7:35 p.m.). Saturday, practice (Fox Sports 1, 1:20 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.). Sunday, race (Fox, coverage starts at 2:30 p.m., green fl ag at 3:16 p.m.)NATIONWIDE: TreatMyClot.com 300 SITE: Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, Calif.SCHEDULE: Saturday, race (ESPN, 4:30 p.m.)
Associated Press / WADE PAYNE
Mixing Cheez-Its with Frosted Flakes? Now there’s something that deserves a caution fl ag.
Is it time to do something about bump-drafting in the fl ag stand?
Let’s assume NASCAR offi cials will take a wait-and-see approach to this one. If it happens again, expect drastic measures: That’s right, a press release announcing immediate changes.
What triggered this possibility?Sunday night at Bristol, with the
500th and (long-awaited) fi nal lap approaching, someone in the fl ag stand apparently leaned into an over-ride switch that turned on the track’s caution lights. Once the error was uncovered, but before NASCAR could gather everyone back together for a return to green, the rains returned and Carl Edwards carried his big smile to Victory Lane. Right now it’ll be viewed as a freak accident, but if it happens again, expect NASCAR’s Boys in R&D to develop an offi cially licensed Cau-tion Light Underride Switch to go in the tower, where it will take prece-dence over the Override Switch. Or something like that.
Can you get me excited about Fontana this week?
Here’s your good news: NASCAR’s great “unforeseen” doesn’t know geography. It can show its face at any longitude or latitude. The unpredict-able wins, tumbles and personality clashes — all part of NASCAR’s time-honored recipe — often happen when (and where) you least expect them.
1. Keselowski* —2. Earnhardt Jr.* -103. Edwards* -114. Harvick* -745. Gordon -116. Johnson -207. Logano -228. Hamlin -239. Kenseth -2510. Newman -3811. Stenhouse Jr. -4112. Kahne -4313. Biffl e -4514. Dillon -4615. Kyle Busch -5216. Ambrose -55* Has victory, currently qualifi ed for Chase
AP/ROSS D. FRANKLIN
Jeff Gordon hasn’t fi nished outside the top 10 since November. A big pile of points could come in handy in September, but a win would be nicer.
Godwin Kelly is the Daytona Beach News-Journal’s motorsports editor and has covered NASCAR for 30 years. Reach him at [email protected]
GODWIN’S FONTANA PICKSWinner: Jimmie JohnsonRest of the top fi ve: Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne, Matt KensethDark horse: Aric Almirola
Disappointment: Jeff GordonFirst one out: David GillilandDon’t be surprised if: Johnson checks out on the fi eld to plant his fl ag for the Chase.
Getty Images/ROBERT LABERGE
Robin Pemberton, vice president of competition for NASCAR, speaks to the media.
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