Rubbing is Racing

Boris Said and Greg Biffle weren’t talked about much during the race. Said spun early and ran in the back most of the day. Biffle ran out of gas early and ended up losing several laps. For them, the action heated up after the checkered flag. After Said spun, he spent the rest of the day racing near the back.  Biffle, who ran out of gas on lap 28, was also racing at the back, two laps down.  Said radioed to his spotter and said that Biffle was racing him “dirty” and let it be known that he would find him after the race to take care of it.

As soon as the race was over, Said parked his car in front of the No. 16 hauler to have it out. According to Said, Biffle threw some punches at him and then took off.  Said then got out of his car and took off angrily towards Biffle.  Pit crews from both teams restrained them and the drivers were sent separate ways.

Said let his voice be heard  in his post-race interview.  “He’s the most unprofessional scaredy cat I’ve ever seen in my life.  He wouldn’t even fight me like a man after (the race).  I won’t settle it out on the track. It’s not right to wreck cars, but he’ll show up at a race with a black eye one of these days.”

Said then went on to say he would get Biffle’s home address and give him a visit Wednesday for a ”whipping.”  Biffle responded via twitter, calling Said “unprofessional and disrespectful.”

NASCAR said let the boys “have at it”, but are they allowed to make threats towards other drivers?  I’m curious to see how far NASCAR will let this go.

Wild Wrecks

I’ve seen some crazy wrecks in my ten years of being a fan, but today’s wrecks rank as some of the wildest.  It started with Kurt Busch on lap 49.  Busch had a brake failure and crashed hard into the Turn 5 tire barrier.  Denny Hamlin, who also seemed to have a brake failure, had a very scary crash into the Turn 1 barrier.  The crash was so hard that it buckled the guard-rail behind the tire barrier.

The biggest crash of the day happened when Boris Said and David Ragan got together on the final lap.  Said and Ragan went for the same real estate at the same time. Said got his nose up to Ragan’s left-rear quarter panel. The two made contact, which ended up hooking Ragan causing him to bounce off the left rail.  Ragan then slammed into Reutimann, sending him into the right guard-rail.  The impact caused Reutimann to go airborne, then crash viciously into the fence.  Both Ragan and Reutimann walked away from the accidents sore, but okay.

The Tasmanian Devil

It’s no secret that when the NASCAR series comes to a road course, Marcos Ambrose is a contender.  He was able to beat last week’s winner, Brad Keselowski to get the win.  Ambrose is the fifth, first-time winner this year.  This puts him, along with Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard, into the Sprint Showdown, which pays a $3 million bonus if one of them were to win the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Amborse is also locked into the 2012 All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Suprising Contenders

Brad Keselowski isn’t just the surprise of this weekend, he’s the suprise of the month.  Racing hurt hasn’t phased him at all.  Keselowski finished a hard-fought second at the Glen.  He has moved up four spots in the chase to 14th position.  If he keeps this up, he may make his way into the top 10 in points!

Martin Truex Jr also deserves a shout-out for his fourth place finish.  Truex ran in the top five for most of the day and drove a clean race.  Martin has always been a good road course racer, having road course victories in the Nationwide series.  Hopefully this is the medicine this team needs to turn their season around, and finish the year out right.

Also, give a call to Dale Earnhardt Jr. The team was fortunate when the caution came out for Biffle running out of gas while Earnhardt was on pit road. When the race went green, he found himself in fourth. Several thought it would only be a matter of time before he started losing positions. But, he didn’t. He maintained his position in the top 5, holding off Truex Jr, Tony Stewart, and Jimmie Johnson.

Unfortunately, his pit strategy late in the race backfired, and he wound up 15th. Still, 15th place is his best finish at the upstate New York road course since 2005, and he moved up one position in points to ninth, 36 points ahead of 11th place.

The beginning of the race saw more caution laps than green-flag laps, with three caution flags flying in the first 12 laps. Marcos Ambrose and Jacques Villeneuve had the strongest cars to start the race, with Ambrose dominating. But, the pit strategy of some of their competitors put Ambrose and Villeneuve in 14th and 15th after pitting.

Ambrose powered through the field, as did Villeneuve albeit a little less aggressively than Ambrose. As Villeneuve made his way to the front, he got into the corner a little too hot behind Said and started wheel-hopping. He made contact with Said, sending him around. Both were able to right their cars and continue on.

Ambrose took the lead from Carl Edwards on lap 36, but one lap later, he reported that he thought there was something wrong with the battery or alternator. Edwards was able to get by him for the lead, and Ambrose pitted on lap 45 for a battery change. But, damage to the car prevented the crew from making a quick change, resulting in Ambrose losing two laps on pit road under green.

About six laps later, Ambrose broke something in the suspension, ending his day. He finished 33rd.

With 10 laps to go, Edwards, who looked poised for victory with Ambrose out, was leading when he broke a track bar mount. He went behind the wall for repairs.  He finished 20th.

Robby Gordon assumed the lead when Edwards had his problem, but was iffy on fuel. He conserved over the last two cautions. But, when Trevor Bayne hit the wall and Jason Leffler wrecked, the race was red flagged. Gordon didn’t have enough fuel for the upcoming green-white-checkered finish. 

On the restart, Said got by Gordon for the lead. Gordon gave him a shot in the rear bumper before running out of fuel and coasting while cars blew by him. He finished 14th.

Said took the lead, but Max Papis was all over Said’s rear. Papis passed him under braking  heading into the final two turns. But, Papis swung a little wide coming off of the final turn allowing Said to pull along side of him. The two had a drag race to the finish with Said getting the edge by a nose.

Top 5: Said, Papis, Villeneuve, Brad Keselowski, and Paul Menard.

Joey Logano, JR Fitzpatrick, Parker Kligerman, Justin Allgaier, and Trevor Bayne rounded out the top 10.

Notables: Kenny Wallace (13th), Robby Gordon (14th), Mike Bliss (15th), Mike Wallace (17th), Carl Edwards (20th), Jason Leffler (21st), Colin Braun (22nd), Tayler Malsam (23rd), Ricky Stenhouse Jr (24th), Michael Annett (25th), Brendan Gaughan (27th), Joe Nemechek (28th), Ron Fellows (30th), Patrick Carpentier (32nd), Marcos Ambrose (33rd), and Steve Wallace (38th).

Stremme said:

We always had to do more with less, but in the last month and a half, ownership hasn’t really wanted to make things better. Bill Jenkins has not been willing to make the correct decisions, and it has affected the performance of the team. We’ve barely been making it to track the last few weeks. At Pocono, we didn’t even know if we were going to have tires to race on.

He then told Jenkins that if things weren’t going to change, he didn’t want to stay with the team. Jenkins and Stremme sent a timeline to find another driver, according to Stremme. But, he started looking for a replacement right away, Stremme said.

For his part, Jenkins said:

We are in a funding fight every day, and we haven’t been able to fund the team at the level David expected. We’ve had some good things happen, and some bad things. We had to pull a sponsor off the car two weeks ago (GTW GPS) after a conflict emerged between their products and Sprint. We were counting on them to help get us over the hump, but those are the bumps in the road that you hit.

This news comes a week after Boris Said indicated that he would not drive for Latitude’s No. 26 team because Jenkins did not pay him. Stremme indicated that he, too, had not been paid.

Patrick Carpentier has been tagged to replace Stremme during this weekend’s Carfax 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Montoya’s win also adds to the banner year Chip Ganassi is having, with his IZOD Indy Car team wining the Indy 500, and Montoya’s teammate winning the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400.

Top 5: Montoya, Kurt Busch, Marcos Ambrose, AJ Allmendinger, and Carl Edwards.

Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top 10.

Notables: Kevin Harvick (11th), Ryan Newman (12th), Matt Kenseth (13th), Sam Hornish Jr (14th), Martin Truex Jr (15th), Kasey Kahne (17th), Mark Martin (19th), Patrick Carpentier (21st), Max Papis (22nd),  David Reutimann (23rd), Greg Biffle (24th), Dale Earnhardt Jr (26th), Jimmie Johnson (28th), Clint Bowyer (32nd), Denny Hamlin (37th), and Boris Said (38th).   

On lap 66, Tony Stewart and Boris Said were battling for position inside the top 10. Stewart and Said got together slightly coming out of turn 1 when Said forced Stewart to the outside. Heading into turn 2, Stewart bumped Said, sending him spining into the outside wall. There was heavy damage to Said’s car.  He finished 38th, while Stewart finished 8th.

On the first lap back to racing after Said’s wreck, Kyle Busch dove to the inside of Jeff Burton and Jimmie Johnson to make it three-wide. Burton held his line, but in doing so made contact with Johnson, who spun into the wall. Just as his car came to a rest, Denny Hamlin, who couldn’t see anything because of the smoke from Johnson’s car, hit him hard. Johnson made repairs and continued on while Hamlin took his car behind the wall. They finished 28th and 37th, respectively.

Top 5: Ambrose, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, and Kyle Busch. 

Ron Fellows, Nelson Piquet Jr, Jacques Villeneuve, Steven Wallace, and Michael McDowell rounded out the top 10.

Notables: JR Fitzpatrick (11th), Tayler Malsam (12th), Tony Ave (15th), Paul Menard (17th), Michael Annett (19th), Kenny Wallace (21st), Boris Said (22nd), Ryan Newman (25th), Trevor Bayne (29th), Brendan Gaughan (30th), Carl Edwards (33rd), Justin Allgaier (34th), and Jason Leffler (35th).

A 10-car pileup on lap 24 caused a red flag that stopped the race for 25 minutes. It appeared that Jason Leffler made contact with Colin Braun as he was coming back onto the track after getting wide coming off of Turn 1. The contact sent Leffler hard into the outside wall and sent Braun into the inside wall.

Leffler bounced off the wall and slid back into Trevor Bayne, sending Bayne spinning. Justin Allgaier then ran right into the back of Leffler. Allgaier’s badly damaged Dodge slid sideways, blocking part of the track. As the cars close to the incident attempted to stop, other cars ran into them, lifting them onto the hoods of the cars that hit them.

When the dust settled, 10 cars were involved including Said, Brendan Gaughan, Tony Raines, Victor Gonzales Jr, Bill Johnson, among others.

Under caution, Ambrose switched his car off, which is routine for drivers trying to save fuel. But there was no reason for Ambrose to do that, as he had plenty to last through a green-white-checkered finish. When he went to re-fire it, it wouldn’t start.

He slowed allowing six cars to pass him. When it re-fired, he tried to get back into the lead, but NASCAR rules state that he has to maintain a reasonable speed. And since he didn’t, he had to restart seventh, giving Johnson the lead.

Johnson drove away from the competition over the final laps and earned the first Sprint Cup road course victory of his career. The win is also Johnson’s first since NASCAR switched to the spoiler on the COT.

Top 5: Johnson, Robby Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, and Jeff Gordon.

Marcos Ambrose, Greg Biffle, Boris Said, Tony Stewart, and Juan Montoya finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

Notables: Dale Earnhardt Jr (11th), Jan Magnussen (12th), AJ Allmendinger (13th), Mark Martin (14th), Jamie McMurray (15th), Ryan Newman (16th), Jeff Burton (27th), Carl Edwards (29th), Matt Kenseth (30th), Clint Bowyer (31st), Kurt Busch (32nd), Joey Logano (33rd), Denny Hamlin (34th), Kyle Busch (39th), and Martin Truex Jr (42nd).

Around lap 11, AJ Allmendinger got into Clint Bowyer, spinning him out. Elliott Sadler, Jamie McMurray, and Kyle Busch stacked up behind them. Busch made contact with McMurray, spinning him out. Busch got heavy damage to his nose. 

Denny Hamlin suffered nose damage early in the race. Rather than fix it during a green-flag stop, the team decided to wait for a caution. A few laps after Hamlin made his pit stop, his hood flipped up. Hamlin drove to pit road with his hood obstructing his view. His team fixed the car while he was on pit road. He finished 34th.

Martin Truex Jr was running well for most of the day. He was in the top 10 when Jeff Gordon got into him, spinning him around. He was furious with Gordon and Juan Montoya, vowing to wreck them over the radio. 

On a restart on lap 64, Boris Said didn’t get going. Cars stacked up behind him. Truex Jr, Regan Smith, Max Papis, Paul Menard, Sam Hornish Jr, and Denny Hamlin all got together, causing a pile up at the start finish line. The race was red flagged for clean up. Truex Jr and Smith got the worst of it.

Joey Logano spun off the bumper of Juan Montoya on lap 85. Mattias Ekström spun off the bumper of Brad Keselowski while Carl Edwards and David Gilliland also got back together on lap 92.

In the closing laps, Elliott Sadler and Clint Bowyer, who were running in the top 10, got together and spun. Sadler finished 17th while Bowyer finished 31st.

Give a call to Robby Gordon, Marcos Ambrose, Boris Said, Jan Magnussen, and AJ Allmendinger for all finishing in the top 15 despite not being in the most competitive equipment. Good for them.

The No. 5 Chevy will be split among team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr, all-time series wins leader Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, and Scott Wimmer.

Jr will drive at Texas Motor Speedway in April, Talladega Superspeedway in April, Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May, Daytona International Speedway in July and Atlanta Motor Speedway in Sept. in Chevys that will be sponsored by Fastenal, Godaddy.com, and Unilever.

Martin will drive the Chevy at Richmond International Raceway in May with Lipton as a sponsor. Tony Stewart will drive at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Oct. with Delphi as a sponsor. Stewart already has one victory in the series this season, winning the Camping World 300 at Daytona in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevy.

Newman will drive the No. 5 Fastenal Chevy in four races: Dover International Speedway in May, Chicagoland Speedway in July, Michigan International Speedway in Aug., and Kansas Speedway in Oct.

Wimmer will also pilot the No. 5 Fastenal Chevy for six races: Darlington Raceway in May, The Milwaukee Mile in June, O’Reilly Raceway Park in July, Iowa Speedway in Aug., Bristol Motor Speedway in Aug., and Richmond International Raceway in Sept.

Wimmer said in a JR Motorsports press release:

I am really excited to be associated with JR Motorsports and a great sponsor like Fastenal. I will be running at tracks that have been good for me in the past and look forward to my first event with JR Motorsports at Darlington in May. Hopefully, we can get the Fastenal car in the Winners Circle.

The announcement leaves two races without a named driver — the road-course events at Watkins Glen and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, both in Aug. Drivers for those races will be announced at a later date. Last season, Ron Fellows drove the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevy to victory in the NAPA Auto Parts 200 presented by Dodge at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, so he may be considered for that race.

Earnhardt Jr. drove at Watkins Glen last year, presumably to get more experience at road courses, so he may take one of those races.

Also, anytime you mention road courses, you have to mention Boris Said’s name. He could also be considered.

Earnhardt Jr said:

This No. 5 team carries a strong tradition and a lot of expectations, and we are fortunate to attract such quality talent to help carry on that tradition. We had a similar set-up with this team last year, and we were able to go to Victory Lane twice. Obviously with this driver line-up, there’s no reason we can’t exceed last year’s win total.