Dillon Breaks Sophomore Slump at Nashville

By Roger Faulkner

“Pawpaw warned me about the Sophomre slump, but I didn’t believe it until I was in it.” explained Austin Dillon as he addressed the media after his first win of 2011. He was in a slump compared to wins, but he was far from a down and out driver as he consistently runs up front each week.

Young Dillon made his intentions clear as he captured the pole for the Lucas Deep Clean 200 at Nashville Superspeedway on Friday afternoon. When the green flag dropped Friday night, he charged ahead to lead the field for the first 29 laps before giving way to Timothy Peters.

Throughout the night Dillon battled hard with Peters, Johnny Sauter, Ron Hornaday and teammate Joey Coulter to stay up front and in contention for the win. Four times Dillon charged to the lead, but the most important one was when he got past Sauter to lead the final 23 laps, including the checkered flag.

After his burnout on the front stretch Dillon exited his car and ran to the infield grass as he dove into the Camping World Series logo. It wasn’t a pretty slide and he nearly flipped over as his head and shoulders dug into the grass, but it was something different. One would not confuse this for the Carl Edwards back flip, but as he said later, “ I was , pretty good at the ‘Slip and Slide’ when I was a kid and I was looking for some kind of a signature celebration.”

This was Dillons first win and his sixth top 10 of the 2011 season putting within 18 points of series leader Sauter. Finishing behind Dillon were Peters, Sauter, Nelson Piquet Jr, Parker Kligerman (5th), Todd Bodine, James Buescher, David Starr, Elliott Sadler and Joey Coulter rounding out the top 10.

Four drivers from Friday’s Truck race will be on hand for qualifying for Saturday’s federated Auto Parts 300, they are Dillon, Sadler, Jennifer Jo Cobb and Johnny Chapman.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway Nationwide New England 200 Race

By Gary Buchanan

On a very warm and beautiful New England afternoon in Loudon, New Hampsire, Brad Keselowski ,in the Ruby Tuesday Dodge, took the pole for the 22^nd New England 200. His lead was short lived, however, as Kevin Harvick took the lead away on the very first lap and held that position for the next 33 laps.

By the 25^th lap, it was Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski pulling away from the pack. On lap Lap 33, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with a little bit of help spun to the inside of the track off of turn 4 and brought out the first caution of the race.

The leaders pitted to make much needed changes and get new tires with some teams experimenting with two tires and some taking four tires to see what was the magic formula to track position and winning the lobster and trophy at the end of this race. Karl Edwards and Trevor Bayne won the pit road chase and restated 1 and 2 on lap 38.

At the lap 50, it was Treavor Bayne, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Aric Amirola, Kasey Kahne, Read Sorenison, and Jason Leffler filling out the top 10.

Lap 56, Carl Edwards hit pit road with an engine failure and retired from the race a few laps later Jennifer Jo Cobb also retired from the race also for an engine failure.

Lap 75, it was Treavor Bayne, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski , Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Reed Sorenson, Aric Amirola, Kasey Kahne, Jason Leffler, and Justin Allgaier filling out the top 10.

Lap 95 caution came out for debris on the track at turn 3 with the running order Treavor Bayne, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski , Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Reed Sorenson, Aric Amirola, Kasey Kahne, Jason Leffler, and Justin Allgaier filling out the top 10.

After pit stops at lap as they went green on lap 100, the running order was, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski , Treavor Bayne, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Reed Sorenson, Aric Amirola, Kasey Kahne, Jason Leffler, and Elliott Sadler filling out the top 10.

Lap 102 Aric Almirola nearly wrecked and the 30 of Mikey Kile gets into the outside wall on turn 4 and brought out the caution.

At the drop of the green on lap 104, Jason Leffler in the 38 Great Clips car was hooked into the wall in turn 3 by Steven Wallace in the 5 Hour Energy car. A very unhappy Leffler brought out the caution once again and retired from the race with a badly damaged car.

Lap 111 they went back to green with furious racing on hot tires and even hotter drivers. Lap 116, Derick Cope in the 28 Maxelence.com Chevrolet blew an engine and brought out another caution.

During these pit stops, some teams tried fuel only for a strategy to gain track position. Brad Keselowski’s crew chief said they were good to go to the end of the race on fuel and tires. The cars restarted at lap 125 with the top 4 not pitting during the caution. The leaders, Kenny Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Mikey Kite, Jeremy Clements, Brad Keselowski the first car that pitted, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Trevor Bayne, and Elliott Sadler filling out the top 10.

By lap 130, Brad Keselowski, took the lead back for the first time of the race. Jason Leffler returned to the race on lap 133 in the “rambling wreck, from Georgia Tech”. A car that was loose and mostly taped together.

With 50 laps to go it was Brad Keselowski, Rick Stenhouse Jr. , Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Trevor Bayne, Reed Sorenson, Michael Annett, Kenny Wallace and, Kasey Kahne filled out the top 10.

With 40 laps to go the leaders were Rick Stenhouse Jr. , Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Trevor Bayne, Brad Keselowski, Reed Sorenson, Michael Annett, Steven Wallace and, Aric Almirola filled out the top 10.

Debris on the front stretch brought out the caution with just 34 laps to go. The top 5 stayed on the track and a lot of the rest of the field pitted to try to find something to help them finish in the lead.

The field restarted with just 28 laps to go Rick Stenhouse Jr. , Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Trevor Bayne,Michael Annett, Steven Wallace, Brian Scott Justin Allgaier, and Mike Bliss completed the top 10.

The restart was a crazy 3 wide and some times 4 wide for the next several laps. Surprisingly without a caution. With 26 laps to go, Kyle Busch took the lead and started driving away.

With 15 to go, Steven Wallace was involved in another wreck that took tagged Kasey Kahne as well as several other cars including his uncle Mike Wallace.

With 6 laps to go, Steven Wallace himself was spun and the race ended up under a green white checker. Kyle Busch pushed past Kevin Harvick to take the lead with two laps to go and to finish with his 49^th nationwide win to tie Mark Martin for the most wins in the series.

The final grid was Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Aric Almirola, Kenny Wallace, Michael Annett, Brad Keselowski, Steven Wallace, and Justin Allgaier finished the top 10.

STATEMENT FROM KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY TO FANS

Statement from Kentucky Speedway General Manager Mark Simendinger regarding yesterday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series "Quaker State 400" traffic:

"Kentucky Speedway regrets the traffic conditions surrounding the ‘Quaker State 400.’ We’re committed to working with NASCAR, state and local officials and traffic experts to assure that this never happens again. The details of these improvements will be announced over time as they are formulated.

“We also recognize the traffic problems resulted in some fans not being able to attend the ‘Quaker State 400.’ We are gathering information on this and will announce a policy for these affected fans within seven days.

“Our ‘Quaker State 400’ ticket holders are invited to share their experiences with us through fans@kentuckyspeedway.com. We thank all our fans for giving the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series such a great welcome to our venue.”

Kyle Busch Wins Inaugural race at Kentucky

By Shaun Burke

At the conclusion of the inaugural Quaker State 400, it appears Kyle Busch will be about the only person that remembers this race in a positive manor.
After dealing with traffic problems all day, lack of on-track action prompted many fans to leave the track and sit in traffic in a futile attempt to get home early.
Per usual of races lately, there was a great two lap shootout between Busch, David Reutimann and Jimmie Johnson which prompted fans standing on the feet in eager anticipation.
Reutimann finished second followed by Johnson. Coming home fourth was Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards was fifth.
After a late race caution jumbled up the field, points leader Kevin Harvick finished 16th and lost the points lead to Kyle Busch. Busch now leads by 4 over Carl Edwards. Rounding out the top five in points are Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson.
Next week New Hampshire hosts the Sprint Cup Series and hopes they can provide some on-track excitement.

Kentucky's first Cup date comes with headaches

By Shaun Burke

After talking to a few fans it became apparent many are not impressed with the inaugural Quaker State 400. The most significant complaint about the race weekend was the traffic.

It became apparent during last night’s Nationwide race that Kentucky Speedway had a traffic problem. As the green flag for the Feed The Children 300 flew, thousands of fans were sitting in their cars on Interstate 71 listening on the radio. While the track has hosted Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series for ten years, this is the track’s first weekend hosting a Sprint Cup race.

In preparation for the event, Kentucky Speedway added several thousand seats. The unfortunate thing they did not build additional parking spots. The lack of parking caused a massive traffic jam which spread for miles on all incoming roads. Additionally, when you get to a parking lot, there are barricades up all around the lots meaning there is only one way in and one way out of each lot.

Personally, it took myself four hours to arrive at Kentucky Speedway. I left my hotel in Cincinnati at 10:30 EST for my trek to the Speedway. As traffic began backing up about eight miles from the track, I exited and took an alternative route which took me along some beautiful country roads. All appeared great until I got about 2 miles away from the track. Traffic began backing up and the waiting game began. I proceeded to move less than a mile in an hour and a half. It was at this time, I saw a guy selling parking spots in his front yard. I decided to park the car and take to foot.

As I was walking to media center, I began reading tweets from some of the cup drivers. Denny Hamlin, Landon Cassill and Andy Lally all tweeted about traffic woes. I also encountered something I never imagined I would see: Bruton Smith was at an intersection talking on the radio attempting to get another lane of traffic open.

Traffic wasn’t the only complaint on fans minds. I spoke with a fan at the tweet-up that told me there was a line with 20-30 people waiting for a porta potty. She said instead of toilet banks, they had just two or three toilets together and that they were overflowing.

In the end, Kentucky Speedway will learn and fix this problem. It’s important to remember this is Kentucky’s first Cup date and that SMI has owned the track for just over a year. I have faith Bruton Smith and all the folks at Kentucky Speedway will fix the problem and next season will go much smoother.

Kyle Busch Claims 5th Truck Victory of 2011

By Joe Dunn
As seen on Speedwaymedia.com

For Kentucky Speedway the UNOH 225 NASCAR Camping World Truck series race the kick off to the biggest weekend in the track’s history. The track joined a small group of NASCAR tracks that can boost of running all three of NASCAR’s top series on the same weekend and all night races at that.

To go along with the multi series events, Kyle Busch began the weekend by winning the Truck series race. The win Thursday night marks his 5th win of the 2011 Truck series season and his 29th overall in the series,

But Busch had to work a bit harder for this win. On a day where he ran a 4 hr Cup practice, two Nationwide series practices and then winning the pole in Truck series qualifying, he showed up seconds late for the driver’s meeting. That slip up forced him to start the race from the back of the field.

It took Kyle 61 laps to finally work his way back to the number 1 position, but he remained up front for the rest of the night leading twice for a total of 61 laps, the most by a single driver. He faced late race challenges by Nelson Piquet, Johnny Sauter, Joey Coulter and finally Parker Kligerman, but held them all off to take the checkered flag on a G/W/C finish at lap 152.

Following Busch across the line were Kligerman, Brendan Gaughan, Todd Bodine and Jason White. Rounding out the top ten were Elliott Sadler, Coulter, David Starr, James Buescher and Travis Kvapil.

The NASCAR Nationwide Series 11th annual Feed the Children 300 is up next Friday night at Kentucky Speedway as Busch looks to clain victory number two for the weekend.

Kyle Busch Claims Victory in the UNOH 225 at Kentucky

By Shaun Burke

It only took 61 laps for Kyle Busch to charge from last to first to take the win in the UNOH 225.

Busch led 61 laps in route to his 29th Camping World Truck Series race. It was also his 98th career win in the top three series and puts him third all-time in NASCAR wins.

The win wasn’t easy for Busch, however. After being a few seconds late to the drivers meeting, NASCAR penalized Busch and forced him to the rear of the field for the start of the race. Busch maneuvered his way through the field finally taking the lead on lap 61.

Unless you’re name is Kyle Busch, the top of any board was not the place to be tonight. Each of the top five in series points had some sort of incident. Several of the trucks in the top 10 also had disastrous finishes starting with pit stops with around 20 laps to go. Johnny Sauter, the leader pitted with about 20 to go. When he was leaving the pits, he broke his axle and was forced to finish in the garage with a DNF. Nelson Piquet, who was running third, overshot his pit stall and lost several seconds.

With seven laps to go, the 99 truck of Charles Vest stopped at the entrance of pit road. After several seconds of attempting to restart his truck, NASCAR was forced to throw the caution.

On the lap 145 restart, Joey Coulter missed a shift and stacked up the whole field. This resulted in Piquet getting loose and sliding up into the truck of Miguel Paludo. A five truck resulted.

On the final restart, Parker Kligerman was able to jump to the second spot and attempted to chase Busch. The attempt proved futile as Kligerman was unable to get to Busch’s bumper.

Each of the top five in points suffered disappointing nights. In addition to Sauter breaking an axle on the final pit stop, second place points man Cole Whitt was involved in an accident with third place points man Ron Hornaday Jr. Both cars spent considerable time behind the wall repairing damage. Fourth place points man Austin Dillon had his hood fly up during the final 20 laps and was forced to pit to have the hood cut off. Fifth place Matt Crafton’s night ended very early with a blown motor.

Look for more exciting action from Kentucky tomorrow!

Indiana based NASCAR Nationwide Series team digs in

By Shaun Burke

Over the past couple of years, one of the biggest controversies in NASCAR has been that of start and park cars. These teams drive across the country just to run a handful of laps, cash a check, and head back to Charlotte. Many times, these teams can be seen exiting the track before the conclusion of the race.

There are still a few teams, however, that struggle to find sponsorship yet continue to run an entire race. One of these teams is ML Motorsports.

Since jumping into the Nationwide series in 2006, ML Motorsports has fought the temptation to take “the easy road” and become a start and park team. They enter each and every race (sponsor or not) with the intentions of completing every lap.

After running four seasons as a true part-time Nationwide team, ML Motorsports made the commitment to run fulltime in 2010 with a duo of drivers. Shelby Howard would run his choice of races and Mark Green would run the remaining races. The deal proved productive as the #70 car finished in the top 30 in Owners Points in 2010.

At the end of 2010, ML Motorsports driver Shelby Howard began coming on strong late in the summer. The team had a car that they had been developing over the course of a few races and it appeared ML Motorsports was on the verge of becoming a solid top 15 team. They were receiving solid cars from KHI and were able to fine tune cars instead of rebuilding them. Unfortunately, with the development of a new car for 2011, ML Motorsports was at a difficult crossroads; they could either continue to develop a “dying” car or begin development of the 2011 Impala.

When the 2011 season began, excitement was all around in the ML Motorsports; they were locked into the Top 30 which guaranteed them a starting spot in each of the first five races. This resulted in a new energy drink, Race Fuel Energy Drink, jumping on board the 70 team.

After just six races into the 2011 season, ML Motorsports was dealt an extremely difficult blow. Driver Shelby Howard stepped down as driver leaving the team without a driver for Talladega. The team scrambled and was able to get Dennis Setzer into the car while they searched for a driver to run the car in the remaining races.

Fortunately for the team, David Stremme was available. The opportunity to put Stremme in the car for a two race deal was a good chance for the #70 team to baseline their equipment. The results were immediate as Stremme finished 20th at Nashville and a ninth at Richmond. The Richmond finish was the first top ten for the team since 2008 and only the third in their existence. After the great results, Stremme was asked to race a few more races in the 2011 season. Scott Wimmer has also run a couple of races while Stremme was unavailable. The good runs have helped the team land a new sponsor for the Kentucky race. Keen Parts, Inc., a parts company for Corvettes, has come on to support the #70 completely for the race.

The #70 ML Motorsports team doesn’t know what the rest of 2011 holds for them, but one thing is for sure; they will continue to fight as a one car team to be recognized.

Ragan Gets Daytona Redemption

By Shaun Burke

As the sparks settled at the end of the Coke Zero 400, it was David Ragan (with a push from Matt Kenseth) winning his first career Sprint Cup race. After suffering a heartbreaking loss in the Daytona 500, Ragan finally claimed his first win in start number 163.

As usual for the plate races, all the pre-race talk was about the two car tangos. In the Daytona 500, there were 16 cautions, most single and two car incidents, as drivers were struggling to learn how to line up correctly with the car in front. Many times, a driver wouldn’t square up correctly and send the car in front of him spinning.

It was evident in the July race that the drivers have figured out how to handle this style of racing. Early in the race, Brad Keselowski bumped Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne effectively ending Bayne’s shot at repeating at Daytona. A few laps later, it was Biffle turning his teammate and points leader Carl Edwards with an ill-timed bump. After the restart on lap 52, the race went green for over 100 laps.

With two to go, things began getting dicey in the front of the pack and Jeff Gordon ended up with the short straw. Gordon went spinning being narrowly missed by most of the field. In the incident, Kyle Busch got caught up and was forced to restart at the back of the pack (with Gordon). This left Gordon’s drafting partner, Mark Martin and Busch’s partner, Joey Logano without the guy they had been working with all day. Curiously, Jimmie Johnson was called down pit road by his crew chief Chad Knaus leaving Dale Earnhardt, Jr. along for the restart. After the race, Jimmie Johnson tweeted his defense for what happened on the pit stop: “I didn't leave Jr. hanging, you people are crazy. When my crew tells me to pit, I pit. Steve and Chad sort out the details.”

On the first attempt at a green-white-checker, Martin tried to hook up with Logano. As Martin tried to drop down in front of Logano, he was not clear. This resulted in a huge old-style plate racing wreck. In the end most of the field was involved.

On the final restart, it appeared Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was going to be able to hook up with Jeff Burton and blast to the front. Unfortunately, the two drivers were not able to connect and began to fade to the back. As the drivers came to the checkered flag, Jamie McMurray made contact with Junior and sent him spinning. The wreck relegated Junior to a 19th place finish. After the race, Junior described this style of racing as a “foolish frickin' race”.

One of the more impressive runs of the race was that of Casey Mears and Landon Cassill. The duo hooked up for the long 100 lap run and ran inside the top ten for most of the run. They would fall back a bit after pit stops and work their way back into the top ten. On the first green-white-checkered, the duo was stuck on the high side with nowhere to go. In the end, Cassill came home with a 26th place finish and Mears finished 32nd.

After Carl Edward’s incident early in the race, he finished 37th and lost the points lead to Kevin Harvick. There are just 22 points separating points leader Harvick from sixth in points Jimmie Johnson. Ryan Newman holds a three point lead over Denny Hamlin for tenth in points, the final guaranteed chase spot.

The win by Ragan also vaults him into the wild car position for the chase. There are currently just four drivers outside the top ten who have won races: Hamlin in 11th with one win, Ragan in 17th with one win, Brad Keselowski in 22nd with one win and Regan Smith in 28th with one win.

Next week will be the inaugural Quaker State 400 at Kentucky. I will be at the track covering the race for OnPitRoad.com. Be sure to follow me on twitter at @jshaunburke for the latest news at the track!