NASCAR Notebook: Halfway Home, Wild Card Watch Begins

With half of the regular season in the record book, the road to the 2013 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup figures to take a variety of twists and turns through the next 13 races, beginning with Sunday’s Party in the Poconos 400. Pocono Speedway’s first of two events kicks off TNT’s NASCAR Summer Series of six events at 1 pm EDT.

The Chase lineup will be set Sept. 7 at Richmond International Raceway. The top 10 in points automatically qualify for the Chase. Two Wild Cards – drivers ranked 11th through 20th with the most wins – fill out the field of 12.

By points margins, the current top 10 is unsettled. From eighth – Kyle Busch – to 13th – Greg Biffle – the spread is just 21 points. A year ago, nine of the 10 drivers qualifying for the Chase by points occupied a top-10 position entering the regular season’s final 13 races.

So it’s not too early to consider the Wild Card scenarios.

Tony Stewart, until recently outside the top 20, is the current Wild Card leader (16th) following Sunday’s victory at Dover International Speedway.

Jeff Gordon, 11th in the standings, holds the second Wild Card based upon his points position.

David Ragan won at Talladega but ranks 27th and is 113 points outside top-20 eligibility.

Stewart’s Dover victory was his first top-five finish of the 2013 campaign – the slowest start in 15 seasons for the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion. To say Stewart-Haas Racing has struggled would be an understatement, but Stewart said last month at Charlotte his team had turned the corner.

Only 33 points outside the top 10, Stewart may not be a Wild Card hopeful for long. He finished third in Pocono’s first race a year ago, fifth in the second. Stewart counts two victories at the track and a fifth-best Driver Rating of 98.6.
Of Stewart’s 48 career victories, 42 have come after June 1.

Gordon, likewise, is trending upward. A trio of accident-caused DNFs has offset three third-place finishes, the most recent coming last Sunday. He’s gained 10 positions in the points since Bristol, where Gordon suffered one of three finishes of 34th or worse.

The four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion won last August’s weather-shortened Pocono event, his second victory in the last four races and sixth overall at the 2.5-mile track. Gordon enjoys a third-best Pocono Driver Rating (100.9) and series-best top-five (18) and top-10 (28) finishes.

Hamlin Reboots Chase Quest After Dover Stumble

Two steps forward, one giant step back for Denny Hamlin and his bid to qualify for this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Last Sunday’s 36th-place Dover finished virtually wiped out the success he enjoyed – and points gained – at Darlington and Charlotte, Hamlin’s first two full races since his back injury in late March.

Hamlin’s only Chase opportunity will come through the Wild Card process. But to gain eligibility, he must reach a top-20 ranking. Seventy-six points out of 20th entering May’s Darlington race, Hamlin had cut the deficit to 53. He now trails 20th-place Ryan Newman by 74 markers.

Pocono would appear to offer Hamlin a great opportunity to regain momentum. It’s long been one of the Virginian’s best tracks – beginning with a sweep in 2006, Hamlin’s rookie of the year campaign. Hamlin dominates Pocono statistics: four victories, top Driver Rating of 115.1, series-best Average Running Position (9.1) and fastest Average Green Flag Speed (160.936 mph).
All well and good, but Hamlin, addressing media members last week, tossed out a caveat. Today’s Pocono, following repaving after the 2011 season, isn’t the same. Any advantage a driver enjoyed, he said, has vanished.

“We had a leg up; we had two legs up on everyone when we went there with the old pavement,” Hamlin said. “I think now we’re better than average but we’re not the best anymore at that track.”

A year ago, after repaving, Hamlin finished fifth in June’s race. He qualified second in August and led three laps but was eliminated in a late-race accident.

Qualifying remains Hamlin’s ace – especially on a new surface where track position is paramount. He’s qualified among the top 10 in eight consecutive Pocono events and won his second straight Coors Light Pole last weekend at Dover.

“Track position is total key,” he said. “And you have to be the fastest car.”

NASCAR’s Best Hunting For First Win At Pocono

What do Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have in common?

Answer: All are winless at Pocono Raceway.

Martin, who’ll make his 53rd Pocono start on Sunday, posted his seventh second-place finish in last year’s spring race. That set an unfortunate record – most runner-up finishes at a single track without a win. Martin’s first Pocono visit came in 1982.

Kenseth was unable to conquer Pocono as a Roush Fenway Racing driver. An 0-for-26 drought could end this weekend as Kenseth – already a three-time winner in 2013 – drives the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. JGR cars have visited Pocono’s Victory Lane nine times.

The JGR connection hasn’t helped Busch master the 2.5-mile Pennsylvania layout. Busch has four DNFs – three by accident – in 12 trips to Pocono, where his average finish is 19.2. Busch has been second twice but failed to finish either race a year ago. His 63 laps led are second fewest (to Indianapolis) on a series track.

Harvick’s Pocono drought is a head scratcher. He’s working a streak of 16 consecutive lead-lap finishes and 21 overall, the latter number the Bakersfield, CA, veteran’s best on a series track. His team, Richard Childress Racing, last won at Pocono with Dale Earnhardt in 1993.

Earnhardt Jr. won a pole and finished second in his final start with Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2007. His modest string of three top-10 finishes – Junior’s best with Hendrick Motorsports – ended with last summer’s 32nd-place finish in a weather-shortened event won by teammate Jeff Gordon. Earnhardt, however, led both Pocono races a year ago, the first time he’d led back-to-back events at the track since 2003.

At Midpoint, Stats Tell First-Half Story

It’s been quite the first half, with an abundance of competition statistics that illustrate the Gen-6 race car’s debut.

Speed thrills, and it’s a standout characteristic of the Gen-6 car in its debut season – seven track qualifying records have been set thus far.

Tight finishes have been the norm. Over the first 13 races, there has been an average margin of victory of .893 seconds, which is only the fourth time since the inception of electronic timing and scoring in 1993 that the average MOV has been under a second through 13 events.

Two statistics in particular highlight the Gen-6 race car’s ability to level the playing field – lead lap finishes and cars running at the finish. This season, 46.3% of the cars have finished on the lead lap, compared to 38.6% through 13 races in 2012. Through the first half, 81.2% of the cars have been running at the finish, the highest total through 13 races since 2009.

Passing figures have increased at a number of venues during the first half, most notably at intermediate tracks. At Las Vegas Motor Speedway, there were 31 green flag passes for the lead, a new track best since the inception of Loop Data in 2005. At Auto Club Speedway, there were 41 green flag passes for the lead, which tied a track record. The Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway saw 35 passes for the lead, which tied a race best.

And last Sunday’s race at Dover featured 25 passes for the lead, which set a track Loop Data record.

First Time’s A Charm: Tricky Triangle Kind To Rookies

Pocono Raceway defies logic. Its three-turn dilemma screams growing pains. Yet, that’s not the case for some. Often, first-timers fare just fine.

Take Denny Hamlin, the prime example in rookie success at Pocono. In 2006, Hamlin’s rookie season, he swept the Pocono races – winning each from the Coors Light Pole. In the first, he led 83 laps. In the second: 151.

Or sample Carl Edwards’ Pocono debut. In 2005, Edwards had already collected his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He entered Pocono with that one win, and marched his way through the field to win in his first Pocono start after starting 29th.

So, that might give some hope to Sunoco Rookie of the Year contenders Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Danica Patrick, neither of whom have raced at Pocono.

Patrick turned laps at Pocono last week during a test session and looks to become the first female to score a top-10 finish there in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Janet Guthrie is the only female to race in the Sprint Cup series, with a top finish of 11th in three starts.

Stenhouse, who has finished in the top 20 in each of the last six races but has yet to score his first career top-10 finish, leads the rookie standings by four points over Patrick.
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Notebook

Jeff Gordon notched his 301st top-five finish at Dover, tying David Pearson for third on the all-time list. Gordon has 18 top fives at Pocono, which ranks second all-time at the Tricky Triangle. Mark Martin stands first, with 20 Pocono top fives. … With his 99th top-five finish last Sunday, Kyle Busch aims to become the 35th driver to reach 100 career top fives this weekend at Pocono.

NNWS: Two Teams Approach Iowa Success Differently

One driver has never put down a lap at Iowa. The other driver takes over for a driver who won three consecutive races at the 0.875-mile track in Newton, Iowa.

These are two drivers JR Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing will be fielding during Saturday’s DuPont Pioneer 250 at Iowa – Regan Smith and Trevor Bayne, respectively.

Brad Keselowski, who drove for JRM in 2009, won the inaugural series event at the track that season. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. drove the No. 6 RFR car to three consecutive wins at Iowa, sweeping both events in 2011 and winning the spring race last year. Both years, he also took home the series titles.

In 114 races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, Smith, the driver of the No. 5 JRM Chevrolet, has never competed at the site of this weekend’s race. The New York native, who currently holds a 27-point advantage over Sam Hornish Jr. in the standings, arrives with a streak of nine consecutive top-10 finishes, dating back to the Las Vegas race in March.

At the three tracks with similar lengths to Iowa – Phoenix (one mile), Richmond (.75 mile), Dover (one mile) – that the series has already visited in 2013, Smith has finishes of 11th, fifth and ninth, respectively.

Bayne, who is coming off sixth- and fourth-place finishes over the past two races, has done an admirable job in replacing Stenhouse in the No. 6 RFR Ford. Through 11 races, the Tennessee native has three top fives, five top 10s and one pole.

In three career starts at Iowa, he has finishes of fifth, 25th and 26th. By piloting Stenhouse’s old car this weekend, perhaps Bayne will be able to replicate some of the past driver’s successes at the track.

Stenhouse was promoted to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for 2013. In 2011, Stenhouse’s two victories at Iowa were his only two en route to his first championship. His Iowa win in 2012 was the third of his six victories that season.

Iowa’s First NASCAR Winner Logano Returns

On May 20, 2007, history was made in the small town of Newton, Iowa. On that day, NASCAR came to town and has remained a mainstay ever since.

By the time the NASCAR K&N Pro Series race that combined the East and West factions of the series finished, NASCAR’s inaugural jaunt to the .875-mile track was a success and a youngster by the name of Joey Logano stood victorious.
Logano went on to win that year’s NASCAR K&N Pro Series East title on the strength of five wins and 10 top-five finishes in 13 races.

This weekend, the now-NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular returns to Iowa and will be pulling double-duty by competing in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series DuPont Pioneer 250 at Iowa and Sunday’s Party in the Poconos 400 Presented by Walmart at Pocono Raceway.

The Iowa race will be Logano’s first appearance at the track in one of NASCAR’s three national touring series. Last year, Logano won a series-high nine races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series while only competing in 22 of the 33 events. He’s currently ranked 18th in points in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

NASCAR Nationwide Series Notebook

It will be a homecoming of sorts this weekend for NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers Michael Annett (Des Moines) and Joey Gase (Cedar Rapids). In six starts at Iowa, Annett’s best finish is a fourth place in 2012. Gase has competed in three races with a best finish of 20th. … This event will feature a new winner as Ricky Stenhouse, who won the first two editions of this race, has moved up to a full-time ride in NSCS.

NCWTS: Texas Winners Likely To Revisit Victory Lane

At Texas Motor Speedway, the wins come in bunches. Three drivers – Todd Bodine, Brendan Gaughan and Ron Hornaday Jr. – have won 13 of the track’s 30 races.

All three will compete in Friday night’s WinStar World Casino 400 along with Johnny Sauter, who swept both of last year’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events at the 1.5-mile superspeedway.

Sauter, who opened this season with victories at Daytona and Martinsville, isn’t the first competitor to post a Texas two-step. Hornaday was the most recent driver to accomplish the feat, in 2008. Bodine won back-to-back as well – in the fall of 2005 and spring of 2006 – and six times overall.

Gaughan, however, remains the standard by which the Texas track’s statistics are measured. The Las Vegas veteran became the track’s first two-time winner with a season sweep in 2002, the year he also claimed rookie of the year honors. Gaughan returned the following season to record yet another sweep and in the process erased Jack Sprague’s then record of three consecutive wins, set at Phoenix International Raceway in 1996-97.

And by any measure, 2013 has become a vintage year for Gaughan, despite a 29th-place finish in Daytona’s season-opening race. A fifth-place finish at Dover extended Gaughan’s top-five finishing streak to four races. He’s gone from 28th in the standings to third, 35 points behind leader Matt Crafton but five markers out of second.

Teen Rookie Battle Heads To Lone Star State

Youth continues to be served in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. And how. Dover’s front row of Darrell Wallace Jr. and Chase Elliott set a new NASCAR national series standard by average age at 18.5 years. Wallace became the series’ youngest 21 Means 21 Pole winner at age 19 years, seven months, 23 days. The average age of the top five qualifiers was an amazing 20.6 – skewed upwards by Kyle Busch, 28.

The battle for the checkered flag – unsurprisingly – wound up in the hands of veterans. Busch and Crafton finished one-two. But Ryan Blaney, the series’ youngest winner last summer at Iowa Speedway, drove his No. 19 Brad Keselowski Racing Ford to a third-place finish. Jeb Burton holds the No. 2 spot in points. The two 19-year-olds are deadlocked in Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings.

Burton has not competed at Texas Motor Speedway but the crew chief of his No. 4 Turner Scott Motorsports Chevrolet, Mike Hillman Jr., posted six victories there with Todd Bodine.

Minting Points-Eligible Winner A KBM Goal

Without a doubt, Kyle Busch remains the face of Kyle Busch Motorsports. Busch has posted 16 of the team’s 20 victories, the most recent last week at Dover. The organization ranks second among active owners behind Richard Childress Racing’s 28 wins. KBM, however, has yet to win with a NASCAR Camping World Truck points-eligible driver. That void could be filled soon, perhaps this week at Texas Motor Speedway.

Sunoco Rookie Darrell Wallace Jr. has been solid in his freshman season with a 21 Means 21 Pole, a fifth-place finish and three of six races led. He is eighth in series standings.

Joey Coulter, last year’s Pocono winner, got off to a rough start but righted the ship with a second-place finish in Kansas and another top-10 performance in Dover. Coulter, who’ll turn 23 on Saturday, has been the series’ most successful competitor at Texas Motor Speedway over the past two seasons with a best average finish of 5.2 and is the only driver to have posted four top-10 finishes.

KBM will field a third truck this week for Chad Hackenbracht, a 21-year-old ARCA race winner who is set to make four series starts in the No. 51 Toyota usually occupied by Busch.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Notebook

Houston native David Starr will compete in his record-extending 30th consecutive NCWTS race at Texas Motor Speedway. He missed only the track’s inaugural event in 1997. Starr’s best finishes are a trio of third-place finishes in 2001-02. … Reigning series champion James Buescher, along with his wife Kris, will travel to Moore, Okla., on Wednesday to assist with cleanup and rebuilding efforts throughout the community that was hit by devastating tornadoes last week. Buescher’s brother Michael lives in nearby Oklahoma City. … Buescher swept Keystone Light Poles at Texas in 2011. A victory Friday would give him wins on the facility’s short tracks, dirt track and road course.

K&N Pro Series Combo At Iowa

Iowa Speedway has become synonymous with the NASCAR K&N Pro Series as both East and West have annually convened in the nation’s heartland to compete head-to-head since 2007.

The Casey’s General Stores 150 on Friday, June 7, will be the first of two meetings at the .875-mile track in Newton, Iowa, with the second scheduled for Aug. 2.

The seven previous editions of the East/West combination race have produced a different winner. Chase Elliott picked up the win in the only visit to the track last season.

K&N East points leader Brett Moffitt, out of nearby Grimes, Iowa, looks to become the first repeat winner in the event having won there in 2011, while Derek Thorn, who tops the West standings, hopes to continue the previous trend.

Ben Kennedy, coming off a historic win – his second of the season – on June 1 at Bowman Gray Stadium, is the most recent East winner; and Michael Self claimed a road-course win at Brainerd, Minn., on May 25 in the last West outing.

The NASCAR Next 2013 driver roster will be unveiled earlier in the day at Iowa. NASCAR Next – an evolution of the Next9 program – is an industry initiative that has helped to spotlight NASCAR’s up-and-coming talent since 2011 such as current national series competitors Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson and Darrell Wallace Jr. Fans with access to the speedway’s Fan Walk are welcome to attend the announcement, which will take place in victory lane starting at 2:45 pm CT.