the night before Martinsville
Stock Car Racing History
Well now I see it two times but who knows -- that witch on the crooked broom stick might have bounced off my pine tree outside disrupting the airways
Well now I see it two times but who knows -- that witch on the crooked broom stick might have bounced off my pine tree outside disrupting the airways
Something a little different for the young ------ and old
~Update on Mr. WC Bell~
feeling thankful with Linda Bell .I am reading several different postsregardingMr WC Bell of the Bell n Bell series.
Seems as though he had a medical situation while racing at Fayetteville Speedway tonite. He hit the wall and was transported to the local hospital.
With one race down and two to go in the Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, four drivers find themselves on the wrong side of the cutoff for advancing to the Eliminator 8.
But who among the four -- Matt Kenseth , Dale Earnhardt Jr ., Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman -- is in the most danger of not moving on?
It's really all a matter of perspective.
Saddled last among the 12 championship-eligible drivers, and 32 points behind the bubble driver, eighth-place Brad Keselowski , Kenseth in all likelihood must win one of the next two races to keep his title hopes alive.
While winning the Oct. 25 elimination race at Talladega -- where he has just one victory in 31 starts -- will likely be a tall order for Kenseth, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver is a two-time winner at Kansas Speedway, site of Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400.
Kenseth, who won at the 1.5-mile track with Roush Fenway Racing in fall 2012 and with JGR in spring 2013, finished sixth at Kansas in May and boasts 11 top-10 finishes here in 19 starts.
With a series-high five wins in 2015, Kenseth is certainly capable of getting to Victory Lane on Sunday, which would automatically punch his ticket to the next round.
"I'm confident," Kenseth said after finishing 42nd at Charlotte Motor Speedway last Sunday. "I've never stood here after a race and been like, 'I'm really confident we're going to win next week.' It's way to hard to be that confident, but I'm just as confident as I was this morning. We've had really fast race cars and even when we've been off a little bit, the guys have been figuring out how to get the finishes and get some wins. We'll just go there (to Kansas), race as hard as we can and whatever happens, happens and we'll do the same at Talladega."
Earnhardt Jr., who is 13 points ahead of Kenseth and 19 behind Keselowski, doesn't absolutely need to win either of the two remaining Contender Round races to advance, but it's possible he might not be able to make up the points to advance without a win
So winning is the Hendrick Motorsports driver's safest best for advancing. Although the driver of the No. 88 Chevy has never conquered Kansas, he finished third here in the spring. But Earnhardt's more promising lifeline might be Talladega, where he's a six-time Sprint Cup winner and dominated en route to victory in May.
Assuming he doesn't score his first career Kansas triumph on Sunday, Earnhardt looks forward to being able to go for broke at Talladega while other Chase drivers inevitably take more conservative approaches to protect their position in the standings.
"These other guys are going to just try to take care of themselves, try to survive," Earnhardt said on "The Dale Jr. Download," his weekly podcast. "A few of us will be out there for blood, trying to claw our way back in. I like being able to race like that. I hate being nervous and worried."
Just six points behind bubble man Keselowski, Newman doesn't need to throw a "Hail Mary" in either of the next two races to reach the next round. In all likelihood, the Richard Childress Racing driver can advance by merely outrunning several of the drivers who are in front of him in the standings. Newman also has a decent track record at Talladega and Kansas, despite having never won at the former. In each of his last two starts at the two tracks, he's finished in the top 10.
Just behind Newman, in 10th, is Busch, who trails Newman by just four points but has struggled mightily at Kansas, where he carries an abysmal average finish of 21.4 and boasts just three top-10 finishes and just one top five in 15 starts.
The good news for Busch with Kansas? That one top-five finish -- a third -- came last fall in his most recent start here.
The JGR driver sat out this year's spring race at Kansas while recovering from leg and foot injuries. Erik Jones , who drove Busch's No. 18 at Kansas, ran competitively, however, which makes Busch not dread Kansas like he once did.
"I'm looking forward to getting back, especially with the speed that Erik Jones had with the limited experience he has in a Cup car," Busch said. "I felt like that was a positive for how (crew chief) Adam Stevens is and what he does with his race cars. And then we went there and tested just a few weeks ago, also for the single-day test that we had as part of the NASCAR plan, and things went well. I thought everything was pretty normal and we look forward to getting back there."
Busch won at Talladega in 2008, and anything can happen at the notoriously unpredictable 2.66-mile track, so there's an opportunity for him there even if he reverts to his old Kansas form.
The bottom line?
All four of the drivers on the back side of the bubble could end up somehow advancing. Or it's possible that none of them will. Only this much is certain: They all have work to do.
You get set to watch a Saturday nite race at Charlotte and its on rain hold until ----- well 12:30 Sunday. Kinda long delay but it was pulled off with no rain in the air.
Cant say that the crowd was all there but the drivers were up and at it when the green flag fell.
Green flag fell and away they go,all 43 of them and it was one of Tims favorite cars out front leading the way.
But as luck will have it things went astray, cars hit the wall and hit each other messing up some chase favorites hopes of advancing into the next round.
But the Toyota was not to be in contention for the rest of the nite. Ford shined in its yellow paint job with a Chevy chasing it at the flag. All in all it was an interesting race with all the cars bouncing off the wall and into each other.
And if you are a 48 fan --- well he didnt finish as his ECM shut down his motor o--well Kansas here they come!!!
1. (3) Joey Logano, Ford, 334 laps, 48 points, $329,873.
2. (11) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 334, 42, $240,750.
3. (15) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 334, 41, $172,320.
4. (5) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 334, 40, $147,225.
5. (6) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 334, 39, $139,150.
6. (8) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 334, 39, $117,040.
7. (14) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 334, 38, $141,151.
8. (22) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 334, 37, $144,701.
9. (13) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 334, 35, $136,681.
10. (9) Aric Almirola, Ford, 334, 34, $133,651.
11. (23) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 334, 34, $124,198.
12. (30) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 334, 32, $117,891.
13. (25) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 334, 31, $94,850.
14. (16) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 334, 0, $80,200.
15. (10) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 334, 29, $115,475.
16. (17) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 334, 28, $114,033.
17. (18) Sam Hornish Jr., Ford, 333, 28, $117,470.
18. (21) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 333, 26, $104,733.
19. (24) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 333, 25, $88,575.
20. (2) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 333, 25, $132,066.
21. (31) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 333, 24, $107,258.
22. (33) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 332, 22, $120,100.
23. (34) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 332, 0, $78,625.
24. (4) Greg Biffle, Ford, 331, 20, $111,808.
25. (38) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 331, 19, $77,945.
26. (36) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 331, 18, $104,859.
27. (29) David Gilliland, Ford, 330, 17, $99,453.
28. (12) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 330, 16, $93,495.
29. (40) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 330, 15, $90,028.
30. (37) Brett Moffitt, Ford, 330, 14, $77,635.
31. (32) Michael McDowell, Ford, 329, 13, $73,420.
32. (27) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 329, 12, $82,742.
33. (35) J.J. Yeley, Toyota, 328, 0, $73,070.
34. (43) Alex Kennedy, Chevrolet, 326, 10, $72,945.
35. (42) Reed Sorenson, Ford, 325, 9, $72,795.
36. (26) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 325, 8, $80,615.
37. (19) David Ragan, Toyota, engine, 289, 7, $99,695.
38. (39) Cole Whitt, Ford, accident, 262, 6, $67,602.
39. (7) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, engine, 257, 6, $112,066.
40. (28) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 251, 4, $67,530.
41. (41) Jeb Burton, Toyota, 244, 3, $55,530.
42. (1) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, accident, 236, 3, $124,166.
43. (20) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, accident, 58, 1, $66,030.
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This may give you insight on why the race was not run--------You see Tim Leeming ran down in Savannah onoccasion and Nascar didnt want him to maybe run one ofRichard Pettys Grand American cars and proceed toplayhavoc on the dirt and may even win the race. You see Tim was quite a wheelman around that time as I found out the hard way, and he was always a front runner on the dirt tracks we raced on. So dont cut him short on any thing along that line,especially on dirt.
Pete Cory posted this on Facebook -- guesshe is ready and able to go sliding around in the mud,wonder how long it will take him to work this track back in?
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | October 11, 2015 05:48 PM EST |