Monday, October 12, 2015

The Frontstretch Newsletter: Joey Logano Dominates the Rain-Delayed Bank of America 500

THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Oct. 12, 2015
Volume IX, Edition CLXXXII

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What to Watch: Monday

- Today is prep day at the shops for the Sprint Cup and XFINITY series teams ahead of this weekend's action in Kansas

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Monday's TV Schedule can be found in Couch Potato Tuesday here.

Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff

Joey Logano Cashes In With Dominant Charlotte Victory

With passing at a premium Sunday Joey Logano used pit strategy to put himself at the front of the field early at Charlotte.  Once there, only green-flag pit stops could pull the No. 22 off the point.  Logano led 227 laps to claim victory and his spot in the Eliminator Round of the Chase.  Kevin Harvick was second followed by Martin Truex, Jr., Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch.  Further back, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Matt Kenseth experienced problems that put them well outside the top 8 in points heading to Kansas.  Read more

Austin Dillon Wins Race for the Cure 300, Sweeps Charlotte XFINITY Races

Austin Dillon took advantage of an incident between Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne to take his second consecutive XFINITY Series victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway Friday night.  Erik Jones was second followed by Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez and Regan Smith.  Read more

Have news for The Frontstretch?  Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com with a promising lead or tip.

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Chasing the Chase: Logano's Maximum Points Put Him On Top
by Phil Allaway

The 12 remaining Chasers started Sunday's rescheduled 500-mile race on equal footing.  That meant Joey Logano shot up to the top of the standings, earning maximum points at Charlotte by winning and leading the most laps.  Kevin Harvick finished second, stalking Logano for much of the final 100 miles but did not wind up leading a lap.  As a result, Logano's margin is six points over Harvick.  Martin Truex, Jr. finished third and is thus third in points, one behind Harvick.  Denny Hamlin is fourth after running fourth, the best of the four Joe Gibbs Racing entries.

Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards are tied for fifth after finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.  Edwards managed to lead a lap during a round of green-flag pit stops to even the two drivers up.  Jeff Gordon is seventh after finishing a consistent eighth on Sunday while Brad Keselowski finished ninth and is now eighth in the standings.

Ryan Newman is the first driver below the new eight-driver cutoff.  He had contact with Matt Kenseth on lap 176 that resulted in both drivers hitting the wall exiting turn 4.  Despite the damage, Newman wound up 15th.  Kyle Busch ran very well Sunday; however, he never recovered from contact under caution with Kyle Larson.  The incident, which happened as both drivers tried to enter pit road would eventually leave Busch in 20th. At least that was better than Dale Earnhardt, Jr., sitting 11th after multiple encounters with the wall dropped him to a 28th-place finish.  Matt Kenseth brings up the rear after hitting the wall multiple times, the last of which occurred due to a broken suspension part that ended their day.

Chase Point Standings after Charlotte: 1) Joey Logano 3048, 2) Kevin Harvick -6, 3) Martin Truex, Jr. -7, 4) Denny Hamlin -8, t-5) Kurt Busch -9, t-5) Carl Edwards -9, 7) Jeff Gordon -11, 8) Brad Keselowski -13, 9) Ryan Newman -19, 10) Kyle Busch -23, 11) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -32, 12) Matt Kenseth -45.

Best of the Rest: 13) Jamie McMurray 2130, 14) Jimmie Johnson -38, 15) Paul Menard -47, 16) Clint Bowyer -48, 17) Aric Almirola -1329, 18) Kasey Kahne -1359, 19) Kyle Larson -1388, 20) Greg Biffle -1404, 21) Austin Dillon -1445, 22) Casey Mears -1480.

Regular Point Standings (1-16): 1) Joey Logano 1110, 2) Kevin Harvick -14, 3) Brad Keselowski -105, 4) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -108, 5) Martin Truex, Jr. -150, 6) Matt Kenseth -158, 7) Denny Hamlin -161, 8) Jimmie Johnson -178, 9) Carl Edwards -213, 10) Kurt Busch -221, 11) Jamie McMurray -223, 12) Jeff Gordon -236, 13) Ryan Newman -244, 14) Clint Bowyer -287, 15) Aric Almirola -309, 16) Paul Menard -317.

Drivers Outside the top 16 in the Chase: 23) Kyle Busch -484.

Race Winners: Joey Logano (Daytona-1, Watkins Glen, Bristol-2, Charlotte-2), Jimmie Johnson (Atlanta, Texas, Kansas, Dover-1), Kevin Harvick (Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dover-2), Brad Keselowski (Fontana), Denny Hamlin (Martinsville, Chicagoland), Matt Kenseth (Bristol-1, Pocono-2, Michigan-2. Richmond-2, Loudon-2), Kurt Busch (Richmond-1, Michigan-1), Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (Talladega, Daytona-2), Carl Edwards (Charlotte-1, Darlington), Martin Truex, Jr. (Pocono-1), Kyle Busch (Sonoma, Kentucky, Loudon-1, Indianapolis)

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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Bank of America 500 was brought to you by the letter "T," for "Tough to Pass."  Quite simply, it was very difficult to make any real progress for a good chunk of the race.  Seemingly every driver that could make passes (Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., etc.) ended up getting neutralized somehow.  For example, Larson never got higher up than 18th after getting spun entering pit road.  The lack of passing made for a rather unexciting race.  - Phil Allaway

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Quotes to Remember: Bank of America 500
compiled by Phil Allaway

"Anytime you have a race car that fast you just hope something doesn't go wrong. Everyone did a great job.  Todd made great calls.  The pit crew was on top of it today.  They've really been incredible most of this year  so it's special to have a perfect day in racing.  You don't have that very often.  Usually, at some point in a 500-mile race you have to overcome something, but today everything went as planned.  Obviously, getting this win at Charlotte means a lot.  I think it's on everyone's bucket list to win here, mainly because everyone's race teams are here.  This is home turf for everyone and you want to win in front of your race team that doesn't typically get to come to the racetrack and get to celebrate with guys that you typically don't get to have in Victory Lane when we travel far away from here - that's special.  Obviously, we can all talk about Talladega and how special it is to get through to the next round because the pressure that a lot of these drivers are gonna have on them, that we had on us when this race started, to get to the next round is big.  To be able to have that pressure off of us and to be able to relax and enjoy this next round... don't get me wrong, there are still two trophies to win, but to have that pressure off and be able to have our batteries charged up and ready to attack when we get to the next round is gonna pay big dividends." - Joey Logano, race winner

"We could hang with him (Joey Logano) but I would just lose him every once in awhile in traffic. It was just extremely hard to pass. But all in all, we weren't very good all weekend and the guys just did a great job on pit road and made our car better throughout the day and were able to make our Jimmy John's/Budweiser Chevrolet better as we went on. So, I'm just really proud of that. If those are the off days, we'll be just fine." - Kevin Harvick, finished second

"It was just hard work and a never-give-up attitude. I'm just really proud of my guys. They stuck behind me and we worked really hard on it all weekend long.  From the time practice was over on Friday until this morning, we were texting about the setup and what we were going to do and what we had to do and what to focus on. I'm just proud of those guys for what they did. It was a true team effort and a testament to this team and their fight. Honestly, this morning, I was really nervous going into the race thinking we'd be lucky to run 15th with what we had in practice. Jeff Burton asked me before the race what I thought about my car and I was like, 'I don't know; I don't feel too good about it.' So, I'm just really proud of the guys for working hard. The pit stops were great on pit road. This was a big hurdle and now we go to our best track at Kansas." - Martin Truex, Jr., finished third

"Just really tough to pass at the end. We did the best we could and I think if I would have got a better restart there at the end I think we could have been top 3. It was an OK day for us, a decent points day. We really wanted to win but I feel like there at the end I tried everything I could and I could not catch Kurt (Busch) there in front of me." - Carl Edwards, finished sixth

"It certainly was. I'm really proud of this 3M Chevrolet team. We didn't even start the race off very good, let alone starting 22nd didn't help us out. But they made some incredible adjustments and our pit crew was rock solid on pit road. I'm so appreciative of that. So, overall, it was a great team effort. Everybody wants to be sitting there where the No. 22 (Joey Logano) is. That's a great place to be; especially with Talladega looming, but I couldn't be happier with the entire effort that we put out there today. Alan (Gustafson) made some great adjustments to get us back in this thing. I'm real happy with eighth. The problem is you've got six of the guys we're racing in the championship right there ahead of us. But we didn't lose much to them and I thought it was a really strong effort." - Jeff Gordon, finished eighth

"It was a lot of work.  We weren't as fast as we wanted to be.  When we had green-flag pit stops we seemed to be really fast with the Detroit Genuine Parts Ford, but on restarts and yellow flags I'd just get stuck in the dirty air and couldn't move anywhere.  I think the No. 24 car looked really good.  He was the only guy I saw that was really able to pass today, but I just couldn't pass.  I thought we had a fast car and if we could have got out front maybe we could have stayed out front, but that wasn't the case today.  It was a good effort to keep the wheels on it on a rough day, so to speak, and make the most of it so we're not in bad shape for the next two races." - Brad Keselowski, finished ninth

"Another top 10 for us.  We've got some speed in our cars and they're driving good.  Trent and the guys have been doing a good job, so I'm really happy with our consistency and we just have to keep working at it.  We have a few more weeks to go to try and steal a win, but otherwise, I think we're on to something.  I think we're running a lot better and I'm really proud of everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports for bringing me these nice race cars these last six weeks." - Aric Almirola, finished tenth

"I didn't think we were bad all day.  We didn't start off too bad and we progressively made it better throughout the day, which I was happy with.  I was running fairly good there most of the day and we had one adjustment that wasn't good.  It was the second-to-last run and we lost track position.  We slipped from about 10th to 13th or 14th and it's just hard to get it back, especially when there are no more cautions and it's green flag sequences.  It's hard to get it back and pass everybody so I'm really happy to have PPG on our Ford Fusion today.  That was a lot of fun and it was nice to get a full race here.  It was a good job by my guys being able to compensate from preparing to race last night to the heat of the day today; they did a good job." - Ryan Blaney, finished 14th

"I don't know. Just can't say enough about my guys – all the work that they put into these things. They don't deserve to be put in these situations year in, year out, but we are for some reason. It's tough and we're going to have to battle through with what we've got right now. I can't say enough about what they did on pit road getting us back salvageable. You now, can't pass anybody – single-lane race track and then you put oil on the top lane to try to make anything happen and then you put yourself in the fence, so thanks to NASCAR for cleaning that up." - Kyle Busch, finished 20th

"Yeah, I lost count of how many times we hit it (the wall) today. I don't know. We had a pretty decent car. Carl (Edwards) got a great run on me down the front straightaway and just drove in there and the left-rear quarterpanel, I have to look at that to see whether that was a racing deal or whatever. But, that put us in the wall the first time. And they didn't clean up the oil and we hit the wall again. A lot of oil up there. They put Speedy Dry where they thought there was oil, but I don't know. I went around the Speedy Dry where they laid it on the track, and man; I flew into the fence and ran over all kinds of fluid out there closer to the wall than where their Speedy Dry was. I couldn't see it and maybe the shadows were giving them a hard time also. We tried everything we could to get laps back because we had a good enough car to run in the top 20, even after smashing it into the fence after all them times, we still had OK speed but we just couldn't get an opportunity to get those laps back. Other guys had trouble. And it ain't over. Don't worry about that. I mean, we don't have to go to Talladega and be nervous like those guys that are going to have to play it safe. We can just go hard. We've got a great car that can win that race. We can go to Kansas and run great. I like that track and don't see why we can't run great there and maybe win the race there. It ain't over." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., finished 29th

"Well, we noticed a little bit of smoke from time to time and wasn't sure if it was just rubber on the headers or what it might be. Then coming down the frontstretch, the engine basically went into 'protection mode' and wouldn't let the engine have any RPM. Coming around, it thought it was some kind of electrical issue and I knew from all of our discussions that it had some protection mode stuff, it was in that function. The issue is that we lost oil pressure. We had a problem with the oil pump. The oil pump finally seized up and then the engine tried to protect itself and only let me have 2,000 RPM.  So, we're done. It's unfortunate. We had a race car. I really wanted to get to Victory Lane with this Red Vest Chevrolet. A big shout-out to the 265,000 people that work in the stores every day. We'll come back and go again next week." - Jimmie Johnson, finished 39th (engine failure)

"Yeah, I don't know. Everything kind of snowballed, you know? We were real fast out front, we were kind of tight in traffic and got behind pitting and then I missed the pit stall trying to come around the No. 21 (Ryan Blaney) and had to back up in the pit and that put us back there. But with Ryan (Newman), I honestly don't know. I've got to go look at it. He went up like I thought he was broke, so I went up through the middle and I thought I left him plenty of room and then next thing I know I was pointed at the fence, you know? I don't know. I've got to rewatch it. There's not a ton of room over there but I thought there was enough room for three of us. I just got it in the right rear and put it in the wall, so after that we had the front end bent and we just kind of blew a tire." - Matt Kenseth, finished 42nd (crashed)

"The first time, I was just coming out to the wall to enter the corner and I felt my right front drop a little bit. It didn't explode, but it started going down so I just hit the brakes full-on and didn't hit the wall too hard. And then the second time, I knew I needed to get by Matt (Kenseth) to get one of those laps back and just right in the center of the corner I was just going back wide-open throttle and it popped that time. Obviously, we're doing something wrong to have two tire failures like that. I don't know what happened. We had no issues in practice or anything. This HendrickRideAlong.com Chevrolet was really fast. It's discouraging, but that's the way it goes." - Kasey Kahne, finished 43rd (crashed)

Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager for Frontstretch.  He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.

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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:

Q:  In 2002, Jeff Gordon seemed to have the Protection One 400 won.  However, an incident set up a three-lap shootout.  What happened?

Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!

Friday's Answer:

Q:  The 2005 UAW-GM Quality 500 was slightly less of a wreckfest than the Coca-Cola 600 that year.  Regardless, there were still 15 cautions and the race took over four hours.  Jeff Gordon was one of the many drivers caught up in the crashes.  What happened?

A: Gordon was running well early on, but approached Bobby Labonte and Casey Mears, who just so happened to be racing for position.  The air was taken off of Gordon's Chevrolet and he shot into the wall exiting turn 4.  Replays of the crash (which happened during a commercial) can be found here. 

Despite all the other wrecks in the race this one did not draw a caution.  Gordon ended up going behind the wall for repairs and later returned.  However, he pulled out after finishing 151 laps and was credited with 38th.

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COMING TOMORROW

In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll have breaking news from Monday and S.D. Grady returns with Sitting In The Stands: A Fan's View.

On Frontstretch.com:
Danny Peters returns with Five Points to Ponder after Sunday's race in Charlotte.
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