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July 14th, 2014
Volume VIII, Edition CXIII
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Sprint Cup Race Recap: Flawless, Keselowski Romps to Weekend Sweep at Loudon
by Justin Tucker
Flawless is the only word you can use to describe Brad Keselowski's weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
After starting from the pole and dominating Saturday's Nationwide race, Keselowski would up the ante on Sunday with a repeat performance, holding off Kyle Busch after a late race restart en route to leading a race-high 138 laps and scoring his third win of the 2014. The victory ties Keselowski with Jimmie Johnson for the series lead.
Keselowski also became the first driver in the 21 year history of New Hampshire Motor Speedway to sweep a race weekend. The weekend could be summed up as to who would finish second behind Keselowski as he was at or near the top of the speed charts in all three practices and led the five, ten, and fifteen lap averages on Saturday.
"It is every driver's dream," Keselowski said. "Every once in a while, you get these cars and thankful and try like hell to not screw them up."
"We've been really good here at Loudon the last few years but were unable to close out," said the 2012 champion, "Today, we were able to do that."
When asked about the Chase race in September, Keselowski said he hopes Sunday's win would pay dividends, but doesn't guarantee the same success.
"I think it is definitely good for when we come back here in September, but past success doesn't guarantee future success," he said. "We have to keep working and plugging away. I am sure a lot of guys will be stronger and hopefully we will be too."
Pole sitter Kyle Busch would come home second on the day after leading the first 62 laps, but had nothing for Keselowski in the closing laps.
"I don't think anybody had anything for Keselowski," Busch said.
Rounding out the top 5 in Sunday's Camping World RV Sales 301 were Kyle Larson in third, Matt Kenseth fourth, and Ryan Newman with another strong run at Loudon in fifth. Clint Bowyer would come home sixth, while Tony Stewart was seventh. After a late pit stop, Denny Hamlin rallied to finish eighth, while Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. was ninth. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. would round out the top 10.
For as great as Keselowski's day was on Sunday, the same could not be said for six-time champion Jimmie Johnson.
Johnson's day took an immediate turn south after a flat left rear tire on lap 8 would force Johnson to bring his No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet to pit road, putting him one lap down. It didn't take long for Johnson's day to go from bad to worse after another left rear tire went down, forcing Johnson's car into the fence on lap 14. ending Johnson's day before it really got started. Johnson said he didn't think it was a setup issue after being released from the infield care center.
"I can promise you one thing,'' Johnson said, "it wasn't (because of) too low left rear tire pressure.''
"You can look at the second tire and think that maybe some damage was done from the first to cause the second one to go so quickly,'' Johnson said.
Goodyear's Greg Stucker disagreed with Johnson's assessment.
"The tires failed in a manner consistent with low inflation pressure,'' Stucker said.
Denny Hamlin, who started the race behind Johnson said that it appeared that the air pressure in the left rear tire on the No. 48 seemed to be very low and Hamlin's crew chief Darian Grubb believes Johnson's team didn't have enough time to change the air pressure in the tires after the first tire went down.
Joey Logano appeared to be in line for a great finish along with his Penske teammate, but found trouble on lap 209 after being wrecked by Morgan Shepherd. Logano finished 40th and was obviously frustrated with not just Shepherd but the fact a car that many laps down and that slow was still on track.
"The slowest car on the racetrack took us out," Logano said in a television interview after the race. "Go figure. … I feel like there should be, like, a driver's test before you get out in a Cup car and make sure you know how to drive before you drive one. But I don't know. I guess there isn't."
"If you can't control your stuff, don't even be out there," Logano continued. "If you're 10 laps down, what are you doing? Whatever. It is what it is."
"You would think there would be some courtesy to the leaders," Logano said. "We were in second place. He gets out of the way on the straightaway and then goes into the corner and slides right up into the lane I was in. … It is just dumb that it happened. I feel like that should be stuff that shouldn't happen at this level of racing."
A look at Sunday's Camping World RV Sales 301 by the numbers. There were 18 lead changes among nine different drivers and seven cautions for 35 laps slowed the race pace to 108.741 MPH.
The Sprint Cup Series has the weekend off next weekend but will return on July 27th at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Crown Royal Presents John Wayne Walding 400. The Green flag is scheduled for 1:20 P.M. ET.
Justin Tucker is a Newsletter Contributor at Frontstretch. To reach Justin, please contact Newsletter Manager Phil Allaway at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chasing the Chase: Gordon Loses Chunk of Lead With Fuel Woes
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch.com. He can be reached via email at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Critic84.
Never Fear, The Underdogs Are Here: Daytona-2 Edition
by Amy Henderson
Are you a fan of a driver from a smaller team? Do you ever see one of these guys on the race results and wonder how he got there? NASCAR's small teams may not get much airtime during the race broadcast, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to talk about. Each week, we take a peek into how the little guys fared in the race.
Underdog Selection No. 1: AJ Allmendinger for JTG-Daugherty Racing; started 20th, finished 18th
Loudon is one of those tracks that's been really rough on the smaller teams in the past, and the latest edition was no exception. Allmendinger ran right around 20th place for most of the day, and was able to take home the only top-20 finish for a small team this week. Allmendinger's spring hot streak hasn't carried into summer, and he's fallen from an outside shot at the Chase on points to 26th, second among the small teams to the No. 13. He's still a talented driver, but his team is still learning how to compete at a higher level. He could heat up again, though, as the growing pains ease and the schedule hits some tracks that favor his style.
Underdog Selection No. 2: David Gilliland and David Ragan Front Row Motorsports; started 33rd and 26th, finished 24th and 25th
This team has had some solid finishes in the mid-to-low 20's this year, and Gilliland, in particular, has been fairly consistent. The trouble is, the team seems to have about topped out where they're finishing. Still, both Gilliland and Ragan were decent if not spectacular, and both were able to improve in the late laps, which is important as it allows them to capitalize on attrition and to put up some good numbers among their peers as they did in New Hampshire.
Underdog Selection No. 3: Cole Whitt for BK Racing; started 35th, finished 28th
Since being shuffled from Swan Racing to BK earlier this year, Whitt has become the team's best driver, frequently putting up the best finish among his teammates, and this week, his solid run was one of the best among the small teams as well.
Underdog Pick of the Week-Indianapolis: AJ Allmendinger for JTG-Daugherty Racing
My pick for Loudon was Reed Sorenson, who, based on past performance, had a shot at a great day. Unfortunately, neither of the Tommy Baldwin Racing teams got a handle on the track, and Sorenson finished 33rd. You win some, you lose some…
Teams have a week off before heading to Indianapolis for 400 miles around the historic speedway. My pick for Indy is AJ Allmendinger, who has a respectable 18th-place average finish at the track and who also has some extra experience in an Indy car—he had a shot at winning the 2013 Indy 500 before a seat belt malfunction forced him to pit. Another advantage for Allmendinger is Earnhardt-Childress power, which he'll need on those long, flat straightaways.
Is your favorite driver among NASCAR's underdogs? Are you frustrated with the lack of coverage they receive during the race broadcasts? Amy has all the small teams covered each and every week in The Big Six. Be sure to check it out to see how your favorites fared!
Letter of the Race: Sunday's Camping World RV Sales 301 was brought to you by the letter "P" for Penske. Quite simply, Brad Keselowski was on another planet for much of Sunday's race. That allowed him to take four tires on stops when everyone else was more or less forced to take two. Usually, such a strategy would put a driver back in the pack and he'd be stuck there. There are plenty of examples of that in past New Hampshire races. Not Keselowski. Also, had Joey Logano not crashed, the race could have easily been a Penske 1-2. - Phil Allaway
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Sidebar Stories: Loudon
by Phil Allaway
"I got taken out by the slowest car out there," Logano said in the garage area. "You would think there would be some courtesy to the leaders. We were in second place. He gets out of the way on the straightaway and then goes into the corner and slides right up into the lane I was in. Whatever. I don't know. We will fix it and go at it again."
"[Shepherd] was above minimum speed, he pulled over to let Joey go by and it's a responsibility for all competitors, everybody has their responsibility to lay off each other," said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's Vice President of Competition, after the race during an impromptu conference with the gathered media. "It's an accident. Those things happen. It could happen to anybody. It could happen with any competitor."
"Morgan Shepherd has always been approved [to race]," Pemberton continued. "He's been approved for decades. And so under our situation here, if you take a physical at the beginning of the year, you pass your physical, you pass inspection with your car, you qualify for the race and you run the event. And so he met everything he needed to meet."
"I'm not really sure. It just went soft on me. I don't know why. But I can promise you one thing, it wasn't due to low left rear tire pressure, which is what a lot of people are speculating. We've been here for two days running and I had no issues. It's unfortunate, regardless. And then you can look at the second tire and think that maybe some damage was done from the first tire that caused the second one to go so quickly. That's a good argument but I just don't know at this point. I don't know if we'll ever know. Unfortunately, two tires went flat in a matter of laps."
"The team was just really on it today. It really feels like we hit our stride, and I'm kind of quiet and somber because I want to soak it all in. I don't want this moment to go away so quick. Seems like you get in victory lane and you're rushed around left and right you don't really get a chance to soak it in. This was just such a phenomenal weekend, and these don't happen that often, and that's what makes it special, and you try to appreciate them and enjoy them and hope that there's more but not count on it, because these are big deals, winning races at the Sprint Cup level, sweeping a weekend, and it's all possible because of the hard work and effort from everyone at Team Penske." - Brad Keselowski, race winner
"Well, [the race] was good. You know, we started out early obviously qualifying on the pole, leading some laps there, and felt like we had a good car, but late in the runs it would just seem like I was burning up the front tires a little too much, and those guys were able to get by me and I could somewhat maintain with them, but then throughout the race we just really couldn't make any adjustments that would help the race car. Just seemed like we kept making adjustments that would either keep it the same or screw up something else but help something else, so you were always kind of running the same lap time. It never really gained any speed. It was just a little bit easier to drive in the beginning part of the race, and a little bit there at the end, saving fuel and whatnot, just trying to bide our time as much as we could and make sure we were easy on that gas pedal, just trying to make to the end.
Had a late caution there that we probably should have pitted, but we had that win, so you'll do stupid things with that opportunity when it presents itself, and we stayed out, and lo and behold, it worked for us. We ended up coming home second today, running out right at the start‑finish. Perfect time." - Kyle Busch, finished second
"Green-white-checkers on 80 lap tires are always exciting. I got a good move in (turns) one and two and got a couple of those there and Kyle (Larson) and I got racing. I had a good run off of (turn) two and was going to try to go in the corner and use him up as much as I could — and he got up in the third groove and grabbed that sticky stuff and raced it off the corner. So, we both raced as hard as we could there without wrecking. That was fun, except for him beating me — that part was no good. The rest was fun. Overall, it was a good day for our Dollar General Camry. I thought we really gained on it. Denny (Hamlin) and them guys really helped us a lot this week. I felt like all three cars were top-five race cars today. I feel like we're definitely moving in the right direction." - Matt Kenseth, finished fourth
"Just frustrating. Kind of our M.O. This year, nothing goes right. We got into position to get a top-five and a solid run and the 4 (Kevin Harvick) runs out of gas and stacks us all up on the bottom and a bunch of them get around us. We got the consistency down — we just got to keep gaining on it. We're here to win races for 5-Hour Energy and everybody and all our partners on this Toyota. We're just not quite there yet. We still got some work to do to catch up to the Fords and the Hendrick cars. We're gaining on it. We got the consistency." - Clint Bowyer, finished sixth
"That was frustrating. That was the hardest I've ever worked for a 10th place finish. But we have been off all weekend. It's been a real frustrating weekend to be honest. The guys worked real hard. Steve (Letarte, crew chief) and the engineers did their best to try to get the car more competitive. Just to be lacking that much speed against a lot of those guys. I had to drive so perfect every lap. That was really frustrating. I had a good race with the No. 42 Kyle (Larson) at the end there. He was real loose, I was way too tight, so that was a mixture for us just to get stuck together and not be able to work around each other. But I had fun racing him. I don't know I wish we were better. We are going to have to come back here and run better than that to have a shot in the Chase. We will keep working. 10th place I'm really disappointed, but I remember when we used to like these." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., finished tenth
"The biggest reason we gained 12 positions on the final restart is that we had fresh tires and got in the right lane. Never had good restarts all day. But once we settled-in and had a decent car, we made a move at the end. You have to keep fighting -- you never know what can happen. We dropped back late in the race (to 22nd) after getting involved with a couple of cars. I then put myself in a bad position, which was costly in regards to track position. However, we came back but still not where we want to be." - Martin Truex, Jr., finished 12th
"The whole race for us was just so up and down and crazy. There at the beginning, we had a leak in the right rear and went a lap down. I could barely hold onto it. I didn't know what was wrong with it. I just knew it was really hard to drive. I was doing everything I could to keep from wrecking. And we thought we just missed the set-up, but it was that tire. So we made an adjustment that probably over-compensated and we had to come from a lap down. But, the car, once we were able to tune on it and knew what we had, was actually really, really strong."
"We were able to show that towards the end, which was great. We didn't have the tires that those guys had, so they were a little bit better than us, but we held them off for a good while there in the Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet. We were looking good to finish third. I felt very confident we could finish third until that caution came out and then we just ran out under caution." - Jeff Gordon, finished 26th
"I'm not really sure. It just went soft on me. I don't know why. But I can promise you one thing, it wasn't due to low left rear tire pressure, which is what a lot of people are speculating. We've been here for two days running and I had no issues. It's unfortunate, regardless. And then you can look at the second tire and think that maybe some damage was done from the first tire that caused the second one to go so quickly. That's a good argument but I just don't know at this point. I don't know if we'll ever know. Unfortunately, two tires went flat in a matter of laps." - Jimmie Johnson, finished 42nd (Multiple tire issues, Crashed Out)
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TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
Thinkin' Out Loud – New Hampshire - Keselowski Turns the Competition Redd
by Mike Neff
Pace Laps: NASCAR Innovation, IndyCar Iowa, and More
by the Frontstretch Staff
The Big Six: Questions Answered After the Camping World RV Sales 301
by Amy Henderson
The Fallacy Of The Fastest 43
by Tom Bowles
by Matt Stallknecht
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: In 1999, Dario Franchitti led flag-to-flag to win the Molson Indy Toronto. However, eventual champion Juan Pablo Montoya's day started out just ok, but ended early. What happened?
Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Friday's Answer:
Q: If you look at the finishing order of the 2004 Siemens 200, you'll notice that Paul Wolfe, current crew chief for Brad Keselowski in the Sprint Cup Series, finished a decent 12th for Tommy Baldwin, Jr. Name the program that saw drivers like Wolfe share the No. 6 in the Nationwide Series at the time.
Frontstretch Trivia Guarantee: Take the shirt off our backs! If we've provided an incorrect answer to the Frontstretch Trivia question, be the first to email the corrected trivia answer to triviaanswers@frontstretch.com and we'll send you a Frontstretch T-Shirt ... FREE!
Coming Tuesday in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News by Greg Davis
-- Fan's View Commentary by S.D. Grady
-- Numbers Game: Camping World RV Sales 301 by Tom Bowles
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
Who's Hot / Who's Not in Sprint Cup: Loudon-Off Week 2 Edition by Brad Morgan
We'll take a look at which drivers are looking good as the summer stretch begins, along with who needs the week off to fix some issues..
Racing to the Point by Brett Poirier
Brett returns with another interesting commentary.
Jeff returns with his typical blend of sarcastic humor tilted towards one of NASCAR's controversial issues.
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
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