Just good ol’ boys, Never meaning no harm...

RICHMOND, VA – Saturday night at Richmond reminds me of that Waylon Jenning’s song “Just good ol’ boys, Never meaning no harm, Beats all you ever saw, Been in trouble with the law, sInce the day they were born.”  Short track racing certainly can bring out the tempers, and last Saturday night was no exception with Brad Keselowski waving his finger at Matt Kenseth and Marcos Ambrose and Casey Mears throwing punches in the garage.  “Those 43 NASCAR drivers gave us some aggressive driving” commented Darrell Waltrip, “there is an old saying ‘kick the tires and light the fires.’ Well, they didn’t even need to kick them for the fires to happen!”

Joey Logano seemed to be able to stay out of trouble the best and was awarded a hard fought win with Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch taking 2nd and 3rd.  Following a late caution period for JJ Yeley’s engine failure, the restart with only seven laps to go resulted in a four way fight between Kenseth, Keselowski, Gordon, and Logano.  Kenseth was on top at the restart with Keselowski hard on his tail.  Keselowski was running fast at the top of the track, but Kenseth was no way going to let him by, putting some blocking moves on the Ford.  Keselowski didn’t appreciate Matt’s move and gave him a hard check to let him know.  During the melee, Logano was in the opportune spot able to pass the duo with four laps to go.  Gordon and Busch came up strong also getting around Kenseth and Keselowski.  Kenseth ended up fifth behind Keselowski.

But it didn’t end there.  Keselowski still upset that he was not able to win the race, slammed on his brakes in front of Kenseth causing contact with Gordon and Earnhardt.  “The extracurriculars,” Kenseth said, “pushed the confrontation over the line.“  Of course Kenseth and Keselowski weren’t the only hot tempers at the track.  Mears was upset following a move the Aussie made during the race when he dove down under Mears going three wide in a corner.  Mears felt that was an unwise move, and when they saw each other in the garage, they became heated with Ambrose throwing a punch resulting in a black eye for Mears.  The two have talked it out since, and NASCAR is reviewing the incident.

Tires were the other big topic for the weekend with several tire failures that ended in fires.  Clint Bowyer, Ricky Stenhouse, Cole Whitt, and Reed Sorenson all had their tires go up in smoke.  Goodyear brought out a new multi-zone tire combination.  The tire had a 10” section of a known compound, with a 2” inner section of a new, high temperature compound.  It appears that the tires were coming apart, and as the treads came entangled in the wheel and suspension, caught fire from the heat of the brakes.  Kyle Busch commented “(It’s) really tough for all of us to, for one, keep the tires under our cars, and for putting a harder compound on the outside edge (and) having it cord and come apart, and actually it's supposed to be more durable, I think was just not the right way to go obviously for Goodyear.”  Goodyear commented that the well balanced cars did not have issues.  I am sure this won’t be the last we hear of this.

Another 1-2 Sweep For Mercedes

SHANGHAI, CHINA - That Mercedes is setting the pace for the 2014 Formula One season was confirmed by Lewis Hamilton’s brilliant run in Shanghai.  Hamilton, who has moved one ahead of Jim Clark with most poles by a British driver, finished a full 18 seconds ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg.  This is the third race this season that the German marque finished 1-2.  “This is a team on a roll, that’s for sure,” Hamilton said. “I’m going to be working hard, we’re going to keep working hard because obviously the others are pushing hard to catch us.”  Rosberg worked hard for his second place finish starting 4^th on the grid then dropping to seventh after a poor start.

It was a better weekend for Ferrari achieving its first podium finish in 2014 with Fernando Alonso finishing 3^rd.  Ferrari appeared to make some good improvements in the car after Bahrain.  “It was a good weekend,” said Alonso. “We did improve the car a little bit compared to the first three races, so we felt more competitive and now in the race being here on the podium is some kind of surprise for us, a nice surprise finally. http://www.autoweek.com/article/20140420/f1/140429996#ixzz2zYHFAIJC . 

Teammate Kimi Raikkonen could manage no better than eight place, 50 seconds behind Alonso. Rumors that the Swede is losing focus and determination were strongly rejected by Raikkonen, though he does admit that his driving is struggling. "In the race I was just too slow, but there is not one big problem that we have found,” he said.

Four time World Champion Sebastien Vettel, who last year appeared to be super-human, has struggled with the newly designed v-6 turbo cars. For the second race this year, Vettel has been asked to pull-over for his quicker teammate, Daniel Ricciardo. When first asked by team principal Christian Horner to allow Ricciardo to pass, Vettel was surprised, but after a few laps he understood that he was behind the pace. "I'm not yet where I want to be with the car, but it's an ongoing process,” said the champion.

Duck Commander 500 Won by Joey Logano

FORT WORTH, TEXAS – The Duck Commander 500 was run at…. What, Duck Commander?  What the heck is that?  Yep, The Duck Dynasty clan is now the official sponsor of a NASCAR race.  Can’t get more redneck than that!  I Digress…. Texas Motor Speedway.   It was a nice run for Joey Logano and the Team Penske who won the race following a strategic pit stop during the final caution period of the race.  "We've been in contention every race this year to win, and I'm proud to be a part of that," said Logano, who extended a streak that has produced seven different winners in as many Sprint Cup races. "I felt very confident about this race. For some reason, I told Todd, I said, 'We're going to win this week,' and I was mad when we didn't get the pole. But I felt like we had a car that could win today."

Logano and teammate Keselowski were running 1-2 when Kurt Busch played chicken with the wall in turn 2.  During the caution, the Penske cars chose to change 4 tires while Hendrick driver Jeff Gordon switched only their outside tires.  With a green, white checker restart, the quicker pits top got Gordon out in front, from sixth place, but the fresh rubber allowed Logano to run quicker and passing Gordon after two turns.  "I got a pretty good restart, so I was happy about that. Got through (Turns) 1 and 2. I was shocked I was leading off of 2, to be honest. I wish I would have run a little bit higher down (Turns) 3 and 4. I'm sure Joey was going to go wherever I didn't. Probably would have been a little bit better off on the top. He crossed over and got into the back of me pretty good. At that point I was just thinking, 'I want to finish.' Looked out my mirror, those guys were racing hard behind me. A great second-place finish for me."

Keselowski denied Penske a 1-2 finish earning a penalty for speeding in pit lane dropping him to 15th.  "That last caution was a shame," said Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford. "I was just trying to get a little too much on pit road and wanted to get us out front to be able to win the race and tried a little too hard. We're in it for wins. We're not in it for finishing second."

With Dale Jr. crashing on lap 12 dropping him to 43rd, Gordon has climbed to first place in points.  

Redneck or not, the grid girls are nice!

First Time Since 1955 – Mercedes 1-2 in F1!

SEPANG, MALAYSIA – The weekend belonged to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes.  Some may have questioned Hamilton’s departure from McLaren, but if Hamilton can continue to perform like this, a second Championship for the Brit may be a reality.  Hamilton needed this win after a disappointing race in Australia where he had to retire early.  Nico Rosberg also ran an amazing race coming is second behind his teammate.  "We're in the most difficult of conditions and the car was fantastic," said Hamilton as he celebrated his first win at Sepang. "It's probably the best car I have ever driven. "This is Mercedes’ first 1-2 finish in Formula 1 since 1955.

The World Champion Red Bull team had a good and bad day.  Sebastian Vettel was able to garner a 3^rd place podium finish behind the silver arrows, but teammate Daniel Ricciardo had another rather disappointing day.  After being disqualified for a fuel flow infraction in Australia, stripping the driver of his second place finish, Ricciardo suffered a pit-stop fiasco after the front left wheel was not mounted properly during the pit stop, requiring his crew having to push him back into his box.  Later, a tire puncture and front wing failure put the Aussie 6 laps down.  FIA decided that wasn’t enough, and has placed a 10 position starting penalty for an “unsafe release” for the Bahrain race.  Red Bull team boss, Christian Horner commented “The rules are pretty clear,” he said. “For an unsafe release, it is a stop-go penalty of 10 seconds and a 10-place grid penalty for the next race, so the punishment is harsh for the crime. It is the rules, so that is what it will be.”  

  

Fernando Alonso was able to capitalize on Ricciardo’s bad luck finishing in fourth place.  But it was not easy as Nico Hulkenberg drove an impressive race with a fifth place finish for the up and coming Force India team.  “Today was a super team effort and I’m very happy with fifth place. We were the only team among the frontrunners to do a two-stop race and we had good pace all afternoon. It shows that the team’s hard work over the winter is paying off and it feels great to be so competitive and fighting up at the front. We showed that we could manage the tyres well, although I felt a bit more comfortable on the medium compound tyres than on the hards, but we always had the tyre management under control. So I’m feeling happy that we can take all these positives to Bahrain and leave Malaysia with a good helping of points.”

Ganassi Wins Sebring 24 Hour in Debut

SEBRING, FL – The 62^nd Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race was a different race this year with nearly half the race run under a yellow flag.  At the top of heap was the Ganassi No. 01 Riley-Ford of Franchitti/Pruett/Rojas with a Roush-Yates Eco-Boost engine. Franchitti clinched the victory when the Tequila Patron HPD ARX-03B/Honda into pit row for a final service with 40 minutes remaining – though the margin of victory was only 4.682 sec over the HPD, the tightest in Sebring history.   The Ganassi win also gives Chip and company the first team to win Sebring, The Rolex 24, the Indy 500 and the Daytona 500.  Quite an impressive feat!  “It’s incredible,” Pruett said. “After all those victories you hope to get, this was still one on my bucket list. I’ve won here in class but never won overall. It’s even more exciting to win it overall, and to win it for Ford both times. I can’t say enough about the Ganassi group. We all worked together as a team and kept digging.” 

The Action Express DP Corvette of Barbosa/Fittipaldi/Bourdais started at the podium and finished third in a strong debut at Sebring.  The Corvette led nearly 1/3 of the race, which is pretty impressive with 11 lead changes in the race.  The team was set for a victory as they were able to conserve fuel allowing them to run one less pit stop than their competitors, but a misplaced caution period dashed their hopes.  "Just before that last caution we were feeling pretty good about our chances,” said Team Manager Gary Nelson. "We were running second and had been saving fuel for several hours… That yellow would not have changed things for us had it come out one lap sooner or 3 laps later. It just hit at the worst time for us. When you don't get the breaks and still finish on the podium it shows Action Express is a great team. We congratulate Chip Ganassi and his 01 team for their historic win.”

The GTD category was won by the Magnus Racing no.44 Porsche 911GT America from the 10^th starting position.  This was a hard fought victory with the Magnus team having to overcome a series of obstacles.  The first was contact made with the No. 94 Turner BMW of Dane Cameron which sent the Porsche spinning into the dirt damaging the left rear and right-front grill.  They were able to make some initial repairs to the grill, but it was to remain to be a problem, but with all the cautions, they were able to baby it through the race.  Then, during Andy Lally’s stint, the air compressor for the transmission failed.  The team was able to execute repairs only losing one lap, but with 5 hours left, the team was confident they were still in the running for a win.  “I still can’t believe it. We won Sebring,” stated Lally. “I just don’t have the words to describe it, what a team effort. Everyone on this team was just perfect. Perfect job by John and Marco, perfect pit stops, fast repairs, and a brilliant call at the end. Sebring has always been the one that escaped me, and we finally, finally did it. I can’t thank everyone at Magnus, and everyone at Flex-Box, enough for making this a reality.” 

One of the more exciting moments of the race was experienced by Ben Keating when his No 33 SRT Viper GT3 caught fire when the Viper broke a drive shaft yoke.  The driveshaft apparently severed a fuel line, causing two flaming tire streaks from behind the Viper. We’ve got a solid bulkhead for situations like this so I have a rearview camera,” Keating said. “I looked in my rearview mirror and it was like Back to the Future! I saw the two streaks of flames coming out of the back of the car in the camera before there was any smoke. So I got on the radio and said, ‘guys I’m on fire. I’m getting out.’ I hit the fire button, hopped out, but there was no flames or smoke inside the car when I got out. No smoke inhalation, no burns, no issues other than a melted car.” 

Keselowski Wins Las Vegas 400 as Jr. Runs Out Of Gas

LAS VAGAS, NV – The stars were aligned for Brad Keselowski Sunday who won the Las Vegas Kobalt 400 with a last-lap pass of Dale Earhardt Jr who ran out of gas.  "I think 10, 15 laps, whatever that was, and forced him to kind of get up into his speed line, and that was just taking fuel from his car," Keselowski said. "Once that happened, I knew we were in really good shape. It was going to play out one of two ways: He was going to have to get in fuel conservation mode and I think I could have passed him and drove away, or he was going to have to burn fuel to keep me behind him. At that point it was just a matter of whether a yellow came out or not because it was just a ticking time bomb, and it worked in our favor today."

Despite running out of gas, Jr. was able to hold on to a second place finish, followed by Paul Menard, Joey Logano and Carl Edwards.  "We weren't going to run first or second had we not stayed out on that strategy," said Earnhardt.  "We knew we were a lap short.  We tried to save as much (fuel) as we could.  We got it to about half a lap and it ran out off of (turn) two there.  We took a gamble and didn't win the race, but it still worked in our favor to run second.  It gave us a chance to win.”

The race-deciding move for Keselowski came on lap 156 when during a caution for track debris, stayed out while most drivers pitted.  The move put Brad in the top spot and on a different race-strategy.  Kevin Harvick, who had been running a strong race and appeared to be the best contender for the win, pitted after his front left-front hub locked up, dashing any chance to win. Harvick commented, “the car just kind of lost the handling in the last 15 or 20 laps before we went behind the wall. It started to get really loose, which makes sense with that left-front brake dragging like that.

Dale Jr. Wins His Second Daytona 500

DAYTONA BEACH, FL – Well at least it wasn’t snowing!  After the longest rain delay in Daytona 500 history, Dale Earnhardt Jr won his second season opener ever.  Dale led 6 times for 54 laps, but dominated the end of the race, when it counts most.  “Winning this race is the greatest feeling you can feel in the sport, aside from … accepting the trophy for the championship,” Earnhardt Jr. said in the winner’s circle.  “I didn’t know if I’d ever get a chance to feel that again and it feels just as good if not better than the first because of how hard we tried year after year, running second all those years and wondering why and what we needed to do.  “We got a little help from Jeff (Gordon) to get away on that restart and tried to take care of if from there. This is amazing. I can’t believe this is happening. I’ll never take it for granted because this just doesn’t happen twice.”  The intimidator must have a smile on his face.

Denny Hamlin had an impressive week winning the Sprint Unlimited last week and one of the Duel races and taking second place in the 500 with his Gibbs Racing Toyota.  Hamlin’s team suffered radio issues during  the race forcing Denny to act as his own spotter.  “I’m so 50/50 on whether I’m pissed off or I’m happy,” Hamlin said after his career-best finish in the 500. “I just don’t know.  Any other year I probably would have been like jumping up and down. We can hardly finish these races, much less have a shot at a victory.”  Hamlin continued, “I felt like our car wasn’t as strong as the week progressed.  The competition definitely caught up for sure.  Then … me not being able to drive to my ability because I was being conservative, trying to spot for myself, that’s not a way to race.”

Brad Keslowski finished 3^rd with Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson rounding out the top five finishers.  With Gordon and Johnson, it makes three Hendricks cars in the top five.  Looks like Hendricks will be the team to watch in 2014.  “The world is right, right now,” said Gordon, a teammate at Hendrick Motorsports. “Dale Jr. just won the Daytona 500 to kick off 2014. That is a sign that the NASCAR season is going to be a good one.”

Danica Patrick just catch a break.  After being thrown under the bus earlier in the week by Richard Petty, she was taken out of the race on lap 145 when Kevin Harvick drifted up on Brian Scott triggering a 12-car crash taking out Patrick, Menard, Dillon, Waltrip, Gilliland and more (Check out this great Fox Sports video - CUP: Danica Patrick and Austin Dillon in Huge Wreck - 2014 Daytona 500).  "Man, what the hell happened?" Patrick asked her crew after hitting the front stretch wall head on. She was not injured.  Can’t imagine that this was her fault!