NASCAR Podcast
SHOW #377 – Guest: John Hunter Nemechek – We recap Chicagoland, Kerry defends Jimmie over and over again, Bowyer Busted again, Hamlin bets Michael Jordan, Jeff Gordon is the new ironman, Jeff’s final paint scheme is revealed, plus a full New Hampshire preview…hint…it’s flat. Hosted by Kerry Murphey and Toby Christie
( Roughly 48:00 mins)
SHOW #368 – Guest: Brian Scott – We recap New Hampshire, Danica does a hand stand (forearm stand?) drivers are litterbugs, Brad is smashed by a shark, Johnson needs a contract, and a full, and massive preview of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Hosted by Kerry Murphey and Toby Christie
( Roughly 48:00 mins)
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race – 5-hour ENERGY 301
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Loudon, New Hampshire
Sunday, July 19, 2015
1. (4) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 301, $271031.
2. (10) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 301, $214416.
3. (12) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 301, $184550.
4. (2) Joey Logano, Ford, 301, $161258.
5. (19) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 301, $127600.
6. (8) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 301, $144026.
7. (1) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 301, $107315.
8. (24) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 301, $137601.
9. (23) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 301, $137901.
10. (6) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 301, $107415.
11. (26) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 301, $124590.
12. (15) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 301, $117485.
13. (22) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 301, $121898.
14. (5) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 301, $102615.
15. (29) Aric Almirola, Ford, 301, $125251.
16. (21) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 301, $111548.
17. (32) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 301, $95515.
18. (3) David Ragan, Toyota, 301, $115309.
19. (9) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 301, $100590.
20. (25) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 301, $113804.
21. (37) David Gilliland, Ford, 301, $112898.
22. (7) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 300, $129826.
23. (16) Ryan Blaney(i), Ford, 300, $81665.
24. (20) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 300, $92965.
25. (28) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 300, $92665.
26. (11) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 300, $114356.
27. (14) Greg Biffle, Ford, 299, $115048.
28. (33) Cole Whitt, Ford, 299, $95373.
29. (27) Sam Hornish Jr., Ford, 299, $109685.
30. (13) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 299, $84590.
31. (17) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 299, $110298.
32. (31) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 299, $124190.
33. (34) Brett Moffitt #, Ford, 297, $80890.
34. (18) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 297, $113348.
35. (35) Matt DiBenedetto #, Toyota, 296, $88537.
36. (38) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 296, $78760.
37. (41) Eddie MacDonald, Ford, 295, $78542.
38. (43) Timmy Hill(i), Ford, 292, $73727.
39. (42) Derek White(i), Chevrolet, 290, $69655.
40. (30) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 284, $73655.
41. (36) Jeb Burton #, Toyota, 239, $61655.
42. (40) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 230, $57655.
43. (39) JJ Yeley(i), Toyota, Rear Gear, 202, $54155.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 108.504 mph.
Time of Race: 02 Hrs, 56 Mins, 06 Secs. Margin of Victory: Caution.
Caution Flags: 7 for 34 laps.
Lead Changes: 9 among 7 drivers.
Lap Leaders: C. Edwards 1-19; Kyle Busch 20-66; B. Keselowski 67-88; J. Gordon 89-90; A. Allmendinger 91-103; B. Keselowski 104-178; J. Logano 179-190; B. Keselowski 191-193; K. Harvick 194-252; Kyle Busch 253-301.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): B. Keselowski 3 times for 100 laps; Kyle Busch 2 times for 96 laps; K. Harvick 1 time for 59 laps; C. Edwards 1 time for 19 laps; A. Allmendinger 1 time for 13 laps; J. Logano 1 time for 12 laps; J. Gordon 1 time for 2 laps.
Top 16 in Points: K. Harvick – 734; J. Logano – 665; D. Earnhardt Jr. – 655; J. Johnson – 646; M. Truex Jr. – 628; B. Keselowski – 603; M. Kenseth – 578; Kurt Busch – 576; J. Mcmurray – 574; J. Gordon – 573; D. Hamlin – 552; K. Kahne – 538; R. Newman – 530; P. Menard – 528; A. Almirola – 502; C. Bowyer – 500.
July 19, 2015
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
LOUDON, N.H. – The odds in Kyle Busch’s favor made another dramatic surge on Sunday afternoon at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
In winning for the third time in eight starts since returning from an 11-race injury absence, Busch solidified his chances of qualifying for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with a serendipitous victory in the 5-Hour ENERGY 301 at the Magic Mile.
Two critical moves were essential to Busch’s winning for the second time at New Hampshire and the 32nd time in his career. First, with the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota sliding in a patch of oil and thinking he had a tire going flat, Busch brought his car to pit road on Lap 244, sooner than planned.
That allowed Busch to gain time on the track while other contending cars stayed out on old tires. The spur of the moment “strategy” ultimately played out in his favor.
Second, Busch got back on the lead lap with a gutsy pass of race leader Kevin Harvick and second-place Brad Keselowski, weaving through traffic on the frontstretch seconds before NASCAR called a caution for fluid on the track on Lap 251 of 301.
Busch inherited the top spot when the rest of the lead-lap cars came to pit road on Lap 253, and he stayed up front the rest of the way. After taking the white flag, Busch won the race under yellow when Alex Bowman’s accident in Turn 2 on the final lap caused the race’s seventh caution.
Given the discussion on team radios about the probability of that Lap 251 caution being called, Busch felt a strong sense of urgency to make what proved to be the decisive pass.
“I knew I’d been running it hard and I’d been trying to catch (Matt) Kenseth in front of me that entire run, and I had just been so tight that I couldn’t get going and couldn’t get a rhythm going to close in on Kenseth. And I figured I just chewed the right front off of it, because I went into the corner and the thing just went straight one time so I was like, ‘Man, I’m down to cords now, that’s it, it’s done.’
“We shot to pit road and got it changed there, and evidently it was oil on the race track that just made the car slip so bad from out from under me. We got a lucky break and I hauled butt, man, those five laps I ran were five qualifying laps through traffic trying to get back up to the front and pass Harvick to stay on the lead lap. That was our saving bucket right there. That was what we needed to do.”
The offshoot of the victory is that Busch’s hopes of making the Chase now are better than realistic. To qualify, he must finish the first 26 races in the top 30 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings. With seven races left before the cutoff, Busch is 33rd, trailing 30th-place David Gilliland by 58 points.
“This is such an awesome win and such an awesome comeback,” Busch said. “I just can’t say enough about everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, the work that they’ve put in. Our cars are a lot better than what they were last year.
“It’s so much fun to win these races and to win with this group of guys – (crew chief) Adam Stevens and this bunch, all my pit crew since 2008, they deserve all this.”
Keselowski, who got two fresh tires on the last pit stop, was closing on Busch at the end of the race but ran out of time and finished second. For the second straight week, Keselowski failed to win in what was arguably the best car.
“We had a really fast car and led a lot of laps (a race-high 100),” Keselowski said tersely. “I’m really proud of the team for bringing me two fast cars these past two weekends.”
“It’s a joy to drive cars that fast,” added Keselowski, looking less than joyful.
Asked whether he was frustrated, Keselowski replied, “I’m ready to go home.”
Asked whether taking four tires instead of two on the last pit stop might have made a difference, Keselowski said, “It probably didn’t matter, so it’s hard to say. It is what it is.”
Harvick came home third, followed by Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kenseth, polesitter Carl Edwards, Austin Dillon, Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch completed the top 10.
July 18, 2015
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
LOUDON, N.H. – To Denny Hamlin, it was just hard short-track racing for the win.
To runner-up Austin Dillon, it was unnecessarily aggressive driving that led to Hamlin’s victory in the Lakes Region 200 NASCAR XFINITY Series race on Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
On Lap 179 of 200 at the Magic Mile, Hamlin drove his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the inside of Dillon’s No. 33 Chevrolet. Hamlin slid up the track into Dillon, broke the No. 33’s momentum and took the lead.
Eventual third- and fourth-place finishers Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch also passed Dillon, who later regained the positions he lost to Keselowski and Busch but ran out of time in his pursuit of Hamlin.
Earlier in the race Hamlin had two similar incidents with Busch, his teammate. And though Busch didn’t appear particularly annoyed with Hamlin’s tactics, Dillon was incensed.
“He got to me, and I figured he was going to race, but he never even wanted to,” Dillon said. “He wrecked his teammate and then proceeded to try and wreck me, and if I had gotten back to him, it would have happened to him.”
Hamlin wrote off the contact to all-out racing at a one-mile flat track.
“The bottom line is, if you don’t have any air on the outside of you, you just can’t hold it,” Hamlin said. “There was an example of that about three times today … I want to thank ‘Wheels’ (crew chief Mike Wheeler) for giving me the dominant car. We had the best car, and just, wow, what a day.”
In Hamlin’s view, Dillon wasn’t blameless either.
“Well, he jumped the restart, for one,” Hamlin said. “I’m the control car, but that’s fine. Eventually I was going to get back around him anyway. Same thing—I was a fender ahead, and he drove in there knowing that he was going to have to hold me low to hold the position, and I just washed up into him.
“But that’s two guys on a short track racing for the win.”
Dillon clearly had a different opinion.
“What is racing, if you can’t race side-by-side for more than a corner?” Dillon asked rhetorically. “He never even went through a corner with me, the whole race. He didn’t want to. He just moved me. Missed the corner. Wrecked me.
“I’m fine with racing rough. I promise you, I can do it to anybody. But if we’re going to race like that, I need to know before you get to the first corner. Give me a corner at least.”
Dillon indicated there might be some payback in the offing but wouldn’t reveal how or when.
“I’m not going to talk about it,” Dillon said. “He won’t be ready.”
Hamlin’s reply? “We’ve both got race cars.”
Dillon got the lead on Lap 175 moments after a restart following the sixth and final caution for Brian Scott’s blown engine.
Both Hamlin and Dillon had stayed out on old tires under the previous yellow, but Keselowski came to pit road for fresh rubber on Lap 142. As it turned out, the new tires made little difference.
“It was the right call and probably got us to third, instead of fourth or fifth,” Keselowski said. “We just weren’t as fast as the 33 and 20 were. … We just weren’t fast enough this weekend.”
Rookie Daniel Suarez ran fifth, followed by Ty Dillon, Regan Smith, Darrell Wallace Jr., Chase Elliott and Brennan Poole. Series leader Chris Buescher finished 14th, one lap down, and saw his lead in the standings shrink to 31 points over second-place Elliott.
NASCAR XFINITY Series Race – Lakes Region 200
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Loudon, New Hampshire
Saturday, July 18, 2015
1. (1) Denny Hamlin(i), Toyota, 200, $52101.
2. (6) Austin Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 200, $32261.
3. (4) Brad Keselowski(i), Ford, 200, $27038.
4. (2) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, 200, $26186.
5. (3) Daniel Suarez #, Toyota, 200, $27768.
6. (7) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 200, $23909.
7. (8) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 200, $23253.
8. (11) Darrell Wallace Jr. #, Ford, 200, $24948.
9. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 200, $23720.
10. (13) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 200, $23494.
11. (10) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 200, $22467.
12. (14) Ben Rhodes, Chevrolet, 199, $22341.
13. (21) Ryan Reed, Ford, 199, $22188.
14. (20) Chris Buescher, Ford, 199, $21935.
15. (19) JJ Yeley, Toyota, 199, $22209.
16. (15) Dakoda Armstrong, Ford, 199, $21681.
17. (17) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 199, $21755.
18. (28) Eric McClure, Toyota, 198, $21402.
19. (23) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 198, $21352.
20. (16) Blake Koch, Toyota, 198, $21802.
21. (25) Cale Conley #, Toyota, 198, $21200.
22. (24) David Starr, Toyota, 198, $21144.
23. (18) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 198, $21093.
24. (26) Dylan Lupton, Chevrolet, 198, $21028.
25. (27) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 197, $21142.
26. (31) Peyton Sellers #, Chevrolet, 195, $20957.
27. (36) Derek White, Dodge, 195, $20921.
28. (33) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, Clutch, 174, $20885.
29. (5) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, Engine, 165, $20850.
30. (35) Todd Peck(i), Chevrolet, Fuel Pump, 156, $21115.
31. (37) Mike Harmon, Dodge, Brakes, 111, $20779.
32. (38) Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, Brakes, 98, $14744.
33. (29) Matt Wallace, Toyota, Vibration, 84, $14723.
34. (12) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, Brakes, 46, $20703.
35. (40) Matt Frahm, Chevrolet, Brakes, 42, $14651.
36. (34) Morgan Shepherd, Chevrolet, Brakes, 40, $13234.
37. (22) Ross Chastain #, Chevrolet, Accident, 36, $18234.
38. (39) Josh Reaume #, Dodge, Brakes, 24, $11234.
39. (32) Harrison Rhodes #, Chevrolet, Engine, 16, $16234.
40. (30) Jeff Green, Toyota, Vibration, 3, $9234.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 98.342 mph.
Time of Race: 02 Hrs, 09 Mins, 06 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.516 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 6 for 38 laps.
Lead Changes: 12 among 7 drivers.
Lap Leaders: D. Hamlin(i) 0; K. Busch(i) 1-22; B. Keselowski(i) 23-39; D. Lupton 40-42; D. Hamlin(i) 43-44; K. Busch(i) 45-47; D. Hamlin(i) 48-119; B. Scott 120-121; A. Dillon(i) 122-123; D. Wallace Jr. # 124; D. Hamlin(i) 125-173; A. Dillon(i) 174-178; D. Hamlin(i) 179-200.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): D. Hamlin(i) 4 times for 145 laps; K. Busch(i) 2 times for 25 laps; B. Keselowski(i) 1 time for 17 laps; A. Dillon(i) 2 times for 7 laps; D. Lupton 1 time for 3 laps; B. Scott 1 time for 2 laps; D. Wallace Jr. # 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 10 in Points: C. Buescher – 623; C. Elliott – 592; T. Dillon – 585; R. Smith – 564; E. Sadler – 555; D. Wallace Jr. # – 547; D. Suarez # – 516; B. Gaughan – 506; R. Reed – 502; B. Scott – 494.
–30–
The Final Lap Weekly 