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kyle_busch_chicagoBy Seth Livingstone
NASCAR Wire Service

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – There’s no telling where a younger, less mature Kyle Busch might have been this week.

For all his talent, he probably wouldn’t have been at Thursday’s Championship 4 Media Day session in preparation for Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 (3 p.m. ET on NBC) and his shot at a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

Team owner Joe Gibbs sees the difference in his driver, who has overcome extreme adversity to put himself in position to battle defending champion Kevin Harvick, four-time champ Jeff Gordon, and Martin Truex Jr. for the title – about the only crown that’s eluded Busch during his career.

At 30, Busch owns 153 career victories in NASCAR’s three national series, including 33 in Sprint Cup competition. But he’s never finished higher than fourth (2013) in the final standings. Sometimes, equipment has let him down. Other times, he’s been his own worst enemy, letting emotions get the better of him.

“Kyle, for the last couple of years … reacts in the car differently,” Gibbs says. “He seems to have more of a patience and is willing to think things through. He’s still very aggressive, but the way he deals with things are much more even now. I think he’s definitely in a different place than he was 10 years ago.

“I think he’ got the talent (to win a title). … You see it in the NFL. I think everybody looks at championships as the way you’re judged. I think (a Cup title) would be a big deal and a big statement for him.”

In some ways, Busch has already delivered that statement. That he’s even positioned to race for a championship is a minor miracle and a tribute to his own and his team’s perseverance. Busch broke his right leg and left foot in a crash during the season-opening XFINITY Series race at Daytona in February and missed the first 11 Sprint Cup races of the season.

“I wouldn’t say that I could have (imagined being here),” Busch said. “(After the crash) we were trying to figure out whether or not I was going to be eligible, when I was able to return, and whether or not I could make up enough points to get myself in contention to be Chase-eligible come Richmond (the final race of NASCAR’s regular season).”

Busch remembers NASCAR Vice Chairman Mike Helton visiting him in his hospital room the day after his Daytona crash, still uncertain what waiver process, if any, the JGR driver might have at his disposal. For a time, even after he returned to the cockpit of the No. 18 Toyota Camry, it didn’t look like it would matter.

“After Michigan, when I crashed out there and finished dead last, we were like: ‘OK, we’ve got to reboot here and figure out what we’re going to do to make the Chase,’” Busch said. “But things went well. We won at Sonoma and won four out of five weeks and it just turned us around and put us where we needed to be.”

Needing to not only register a victory but earn enough points to crack the top 30 of the driver standings in order to qualify for the Chase, Busch reeled off four victories in a five-race stretch during the summer, including consecutive victories at Kentucky, New Hampshire and Indianapolis.

“He came back, roaring,” Gibbs says.

Now, Busch says he feels like he’s playing with “house money.” But did his comeback peak too early?

Although he’s posted five top-five finishes in the first nine Chase races, Busch hasn’t won a race since his July 26 victory in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“I feel like we’ve done some good things through this Chase,” he says. “We’ve run up front, we’ve run strong and we also had a couple mishaps. Fortunately they weren’t big enough that they eliminated us.”

Busch and JGR have already posted one significant victory this week, announcing that the team has finalized a multi-year deal with Mars, Inc.to keep Busch in a candy-coated Camry for the next several seasons.

But nothing would be sweeter than a victory on Sunday. Busch’s best run at Homestead came in 2012 when he led 191 laps but settled for fourth.

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Harvick 4Nov. 19, 2015

By Seth Livingstone
NASCAR Wire Service

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – Experience tells Kevin Harvick that there’s only one sure way to lock up his second consecutive NASCAR Sprint Series title. That’s to win Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET on NBC).

Experience is also why his team owner, Tony Stewart, thinks Harvick is the favorite to do just that.

“I do (think he’s the favorite), mainly from the standpoint that he’d been through this scenario and through this week last year,” said Stewart at Thursday’s Championship 4 Media Day.

LISTEN: THE FINAL LAP WEEKLY – HOMESTEAD MIAMI SPEEDWAY PREVIEW

“Even Jeff (Gordon’s) championships were not in a format like this. They didn’t have the pressure that he faces this week. The 18 (Kyle Busch) and 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) have never been in this scenario before. Having a driver who has been through this, knows how to handle it and what to expect, that’s a big advantage in a week like this.”

Beyond that, Stewart drew comparisons between Harvick and two of the sport’s greats.

“I kind of compare him as a cross between Dale Earnhardt (Sr.) and Terry Labonte,” Stewart said. “You’ve got a guy that the circumstances don’t rattle him. It doesn’t matter what task is ahead. It doesn’t matter if they’ve had pit strategy that’s got him in the back. It just doesn’t faze him. He’s someone who has that calm, cool nature like Terry Labonte but has that aggressive nature like Dale Sr., as well.”

In reality, all Harvick has to do is finish in front of the three remaining championship contenders – Gordon, Busch and Truex – to claim his second consecutive series title. But he knows that racing to win at Homestead-Miami Speedway takes the ambiguity out of the process.

“I think that’s definitely the way you have to approach this race,” Harvick said. “Last year, you saw all four (contenders racing) 1-2-3-4 at certain points in the race. Jeff led a lot of this race and ran really well. I just believe you’re going to have to win the race to win the championship.”

Harvick did just that in 2014 to fend off Ryan Newman for the title. Strategy played a huge role, as Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers opted for four tires on the final pit stop, enabling Harvick to surge from 12th place with 16 laps to go to the lead with seven laps left.

“That was a very quick call from Rodney, on radio. He said: ‘Pit, take four tires,’” Harvick recalled. “We came out something like 14th and I’m like, ‘Man, I don’t know if I can make up all that ground.’ But, at that point, you reboot and refocus on the things you need to focus on. We got a good restart and we were able to have it all line up.”

Harvick has been rock solid throughout his 2015 season, pacing all Sprint Cup drivers with 12 second-place finishes, 2,248 laps led, and a career-high 27 top-10 finishes in addition to his three race victories. He’s the first driver to lead 2,000 laps in consecutive seasons since Gordon in 1995-96.

He’s beaten all of the remaining challengers in 17 of the season’s first 35 races and, of the four championship-eligible drivers, only Truex owns a better driver rating at HMS (106.6-102.5).

Moreover, Harvick is making a habit of coming up big when he needs it most. In the Chase, he overcame a 42nd at Chicagoland by delivering in a must-win situation at Dover (leading 355 of 400 laps). He advanced to the Championship 4 with the 15th he needed at Talladega and nailed down his spot in the race for the championship with another dominant performance at Phoenix. Even though he didn’t win, he led 143 of 219 laps.”

No matter how it turns out, Harvick and Stewart both have a sense of the history involved in Sunday’s race, with Gordon racing for a potential fifth Sprint Cup title in his final season.

“For me, it’s an honor,” said Harvick, careful not to throw any barbs Gordon’s way on Thursday, when all four drivers shared the Diplomat Hotel stage for questions and answers. “Forever, you’ll be part of Jeff Gordon’s last race. Obviously, you want to be the guy that wins the championship, but in the end, this is a big moment when you look at what Jeff’s meant to our sport, the things he’s done and things he’s accomplished. For this to be his last race, that’s a big deal.”

For that reason, Harvick isn’t expecting to see anyone spin Gordon out of the way if it comes down to a last-lap battle for the title.

“I think a lot of guys racing in this series grew up Jeff Gordon fans in some way, shape or form,” Harvick said. “From a competitor’s standpoint, looking at the things he’s done and doors he’s opened, we’re lucky to be in this spot. I want to win the race, but you also want to be very respectful to what is one of the legends of our sport.”

Stewart, who intends to conclude his own remarkable NASCAR career next season, said he was glad that Gordon will be among those battling his driver for the title.

“It makes you feel good for Jeff and everything that he’s done for the sport to be able to go out on his terms and to be able to go into his last race with an opportunity to race for a championship,” Stewart said. “That’s what you dream of.”

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Kobalt 400 - PracticeBy Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

HOLLYWOOD, Fla.—Does Martin Truex Jr. have a decent chance to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship?

There aren’t many who think so.

In a recent poll of 50 full-time media members and 50 denizens of the Sprint Cup garage, all asked to predict the winner of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Jeff Gordon got 40 votes, defending champion Kevin Harvick 37 and Kyle Busch 20.

That left three votes for Truex, who earned his title eligibility for Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 (3 p.m. ET on NBC) at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with single-car Denver, Colorado-based Furniture Row Racing.

LISTEN: THE FINAL LAP’S EXCLUSIVE MARTIN TRUEX JR. INTERVIEW HERE

Sitting at the end of the dais at the Diplomat Resort & Spa, with Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick to his right, Truex gave a succinct synopsis of others’ expectations.

“The way I see it, these three next to me are supposed to win the championship, and I’m probably not,” Truex said. “So that’s a pretty cool story in itself.”

True enough, Truex has three career victories at NASCAR’s highest level—compared with Gordon’s 93. But Truex does have a team and personal record 22 top-10 finishes during a breakout 2015 season for the Furniture Row outfit.

Nevertheless, when his stats sit side-by-side with the gaudy numbers posted by his Chase rivals, Truex knows he won’t be at the top of the list of likely title winners.

“There’s been a lot of ups and downs throughout my career,” Truex acknowledged. “I’ve never really been in a position like this before. For a lot of reasons, and I’ve said it since the Chase started, for a lot of reasons, we are the underdog.

“One car team from Denver, rookie crew chief (Cole Pearn), I’ve never raced for a championship in this series, so for a lot of reasons, we are the underdog.”

There are other factors that mitigate against Truex’s chances. On the personal side, Truex’s long-time girlfriend, Sherry Pollex, has been battling ovarian cancer. But the prognosis is encouraging. Pollex is scheduled to have the last of her three remaining chemotherapy treatments in February.

From a competition standpoint, Furniture Row will change manufacturers, from Chevrolet to Toyota, at the end of the season. Though a single-car operation, the team is affiliated with Richard Childress Racing, a Chevrolet team, and that relationship will end with 2015, too.

Nevertheless, when Truex and Pearn began working together this season, the relationship clicked, and a lackluster 2014 campaign gave way to a highly successful 2015.

Just because Truex has embraced the underdog’s role doesn’t mean he’s less motivated to win the championship than any of his rivals.

“We want this more than anything right now,” Truex said. “It’s all or nothing. This is the only thing that matters. Based on past history and just the things that I’ve been through, you never know when you’re going to get an opportunity like this again.

“All we can do is make the most of it and put our best effort out there. The guys have worked hard. They feel confident about what we’re going to have this weekend. It’s a huge deal. We may never get this opportunity again. That’s how big a deal it is to me.”

Furniture Row General Manager Joe Garone doesn’t mind the underdog status—but he doesn’t buy it.

“I don’t know how quite where Martin is on that,” Garone said. “I’ll tell you where I am. I think of the underdog… I like wearing that. I’ll take that.

“I don’t feel like we’re an underdog at all because we have the resources from our owner to get done what we need to get done to win the championship. We have the driver to do it. I can tell you our owner (Barney Visser) expects us to.”

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PIR_NSCS_Gordon_111515Nov. 19, 2015

By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

HOLLYWOOD, Fla.—If the four men on the dais at the Diplomat Resort & Spa had been a vocal group, rather than the four Championship Round drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Jeff Gordon provided a ready name for the ensemble.

“He’s the favorite,” Gordon said, pointing at reigning series champion Kevin Harvick. “We’re the sentimentals. That’s all there is.”

The “we” in this case referred to Gordon, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., all of whom will be attempting to dethrone the champion when Kevin Harvick & the Sentimentals race for the title in the Ford EcoBoost 400 on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET on NBC).

LISTEN: THE FINAL LAP WEEKLY – HOMESTEAD MIAMI SPEEDWAY PREVIEW

Each of the “Sentimentals” has a story. Busch made the Chase after breaking his right leg and left foot in the Feb. 21 NASCAR XFINITY Series opener at Daytona, an injury that sidelined him for the first 11 Sprint Cup races of the season.

Truex drives for a single-car organization, Denver, Colorado-based Furniture Row Racing, and before this year has never been a contender for the title in NASCAR’s premier series.

But if there is a true sentimental favorite in Sunday’s decisive race, that honor goes to Gordon, hands down.

The Ecoboost 400 will be Gordon’s final race in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, the seat he has occupied for an iron-man record 796 consecutive events dating to the 1992 season finale.

The prospect of Gordon leaving the driver’s seat for the FOX Sports broadcast booth at season’s end already has conjured images of other rare athletes who have retired while at the pinnacle of their respective sports.

It’s a short list. Super Bowl champs John Elway and Jerome Bettis come to mind. So do Rocky Marciano, who retired as undefeated heavyweight boxing champion in 1956, and Byron Nelson, who left full-time competitive golf at age 34 after accumulating enough money to buy the Texas ranch he had always wanted.

Arguably, a Gordon championship would be a bigger story than those of his predecessors, because of the name-recognition he has earned as an ambassador for NASCAR racing for more than two decades.

But don’t think for a minute that Gordon will be satisfied simply to make the Championship Round and race for the title. Sentimental favorite or not, he wants to win it.

“If I could have scripted this thing in January or February, I don’t think I could have scripted it quite the way it’s going,” Gordon said on Thursday during Championship 4 Media Day at the Diplomat. “I never dreamed that we could have an opportunity to be battling for the championship in my final race.

“Is there pressure? I mean, I feel like there’s always pressure. By winning that race in Martinsville (Nov. 1) and putting us in this elite group, I mean, that right there just was an incredible moment and something I’ll never forget. And knowing that we were just going to come down here and be a part of that four, that right there in itself is a win.”

Clearly, though, Gordon hopes there’s another, more significant win on the horizon. And those who might discount his chances should remember that Hendrick Motorsports cars won all three of the races in the Chase’s Eliminator Round, which concluded last Sunday at Phoenix.

“If you don’t think that our team is working extremely hard and very focused and determined to be a real factor in this thing on Sunday, then you’re mistaken,” Gordon said. “And so that part certainly puts pressure on.

“I mean, I think, yeah, there’s a ton of pressure taken off all of us because we’re just a part of it, and we know that we can’t be worse than fourth when this thing is all over. But at the same time, there’s definitely pressure because we all want it. We all want it really badly.”

Gordon is 44, far older than the prime for athletes in most other major sports. In his retirement, he’ll have more opportunity to enjoy time with wife Ingrid, daughter Ella and son Leo. But Gordon also realizes that, because of his family, a championship this season might well be the most important accomplishment of his career.

“This one is so much different because (of) my final year, my final race, Ingrid and the kids,” Gordon said. “Kids motivate you in a whole new way, and no matter what, we’re going to go out and be happy and celebrate.

“But to do it as a champion, oh, my gosh, I just can’t imagine anything that would be more emotional and more exciting and more gratifying than to look at my wife in the eyes and see that reaction from her when that race is over—if we win it.”

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The Final Lap Weekly Podcast LogoSHOW #385 – Guests: Martin Truex Jr., Miss Sprint Cup Madison Martin, Ford’s Tim Duerr – We recap what there was of Phoenix, break down the Championship 4 drivers, Matt Kenseth called to NASCAR HQ, drivers on The Tonight Show, and tons more. Hosted by Kerry Murphey and Toby “Christmas Tree” Christie

( Roughly 48:00 mins)

Continue reading “The Final Lap Weekly NASCAR Podcast #385 – Martin Truex/Madison Martin/Tim Duerr – Homestead Preview”