Saturday Bristol Motor Speedway Notebook:
Strong Run For Roush Fenway Racing:
In a season mirrored with frustration, Roush Fenway Racing can leave Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway content knowing that it was a good night. For the first time this season, all three Roush Fenway Racing cars finished inside the top-10 in Saturday night’s IRWIN Tools Night Race.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led the way in his No. 17 Fifth Third Bank / Ford EcoBoost Ford Fusion with a sixth-place finish, while Spring Bristol winner Carl Edwards was seventh and Greg Biffle striking 10th.
Over the past few weeks, the Roush Fenway Racing brigade has made strides in their racing program and while there’s still tons of work to do, Roush Fenway Racing appears to be heading into The Chase with two of their three cars ready to contend.
“We started off not very good at all,” said Stenhouse Jr. of his best finish since a runner-up performance at Bristol in March. “Mike made a lot of changes. Our pit crew did an awesome job on pit road and gave me some fast pit stops, and Mike made a good call to take the wave around to get back on the lead lap and then the caution came out quick and we were able to make our car a little bit better. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but definitely really pleased with how we finished with how the car drove, so we’ll get it better and we’ll keep working on it.
“Bristol is a lot of fun,” he added. “When you’re able to turn your car all over the place, I was able to run in on the top, turn and drive across the bottom and make up a lot of ground and pass some cars. That felt really good to pass some cars. It was a great night. We needed it. We had a decent week at Michigan, so we’ll just keep trying to build on it.”
Edwards in his final season with the Concord, North Carolina-based team didn’t lead a lap on Saturday night, but the consistency in his No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion showed that the team is improving their on-track product not only on the bigger tracks, but the smaller ones too.
Biffle struggled the most out of the RFR bunch this weekend at Bristol. After starting eighth, the No.16 3M Hire Our Heroes Ford Fusion never rocketed to life, but the newly re-signed driver did manage his ninth top-10 finish of the season and fourth consecutive.
On Friday, Roush Fenway Racing announced that Ortho, a division of Scott Products would return to the organization after a couple years break and serve as the anchor partner for the team in 2015.
Ideally, the strong runs of all three competitors gives the teams, drivers and fans something to build on, but with The Chase looming and only two events remaining before it’s go time, the dots have to be connected and Jack Roush’s parade has to unleash their fire in Chicagoland with more heat than they’ve ever delivered before.
The team undoubtedly is taking the right steps to do that as on Monday and Tuesday, Roush Fenway Racing will join Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Stewart Haas Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports for a two-day test at Chicagoland Speedway for the first of 10 races in The Chase seed.
It wasn’t just a good weekend for Roush Fenway Racing, it was an even better weekend for manufacturer Ford.
Joey Logano scored his third victory of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and by doing so, it was the first time that Ford has swept all three races in a weekend since August 2006 at the 0.533-mile concrete oval. Eight years ago, Matt Kenseth won the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, while former RFR driver Mark Martin won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series contest.
McMurray’s Playoff Bid Comes Up Short:
For a long while, it appeared that Jamie McMurray would seal the deal and deliver a Chase surprise and win Saturday night’s IRWIN Tools Night Race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, but pit strategy worked against the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates team and instead left them with a eighth place finish.
In typical McMurray fashion, the No. 1 McDonalds Chevrolet SS came to life from nowhere with McMurray grabbing the lead from Kasey Kahne under green on Lap 238 and even though he gave up the lead under racing conditions to Brad Keselowski 28 laps later, McMurray flexed his muscle and wrestled the lead back from the 2012 Sprint Cup Series champion on Lap 312 and held it for 71 laps before the final caution of the night waived for debris.
Under the yellow, varying pit strategies shuffled the leaderboard with McMurray just outside the top-five. Despite his best efforts, the Joplin, Missouri native could not pedal through traffic again to contend for the win, but more importantly earn his first spot into The Chase.
“I don’t know what happened,” said McMurray. “Our car got really tight with about 100 laps to go. We freed it up on the last pit stop and it didn’t really help. But I’m really proud of everybody on our McDonald’s Chevrolet. McDonald’s has been in this sport for so long and they’ve only won a few races and I really thought tonight was going to be our night to put them back in Victory Lane.
“But we had a good car. It was a lot of fun. But it’s a hard race track to pass at; but when our car was good, it was a really fun track.”
Still, despite posting his seventh top-10 finish of the season, the team’s surging performance in “Thunder Valley” could be the leaning motivation to carry the team to Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway next weekend and look to pull a strategic move that opens McMurray a shot at his first Cup championship in 13 years.
McMurray added, “I thought tonight (Saturday) would be a good night to be able to win. As we were running around there, I thought we had a legitimate chance to win tonight if we did everything right. It’s not like we did anything wrong, it’s just that as the track rubbered-up more and more. It just didn’t suit our car as much as it did for the other guys. In the middle of the race when I was lapping all these guys, I couldn’t figure out why they were slowing down so much. And then I was kind of in the same situation.”
The 38-year old though has his work cut off for him if he’s to make noise again in the Oral-B 500. In 20 prior starts at AMS, McMurray hasn’t led a single lap and owns just four top-10 finishes at the 1.5-mile oval, including a personal best of sixth in 2005.
On the flip side, McMurray with crew chief Keith Rodden won at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway for the Sprint All-Star race in May, another mile-and-a-half track. Just maybe, they can strike again.
McDowell Scores Top-20 Finish In Sponsor’s Debut:
It was a good weekend for Michael McDowell and his Leavine Family Racing team at the “World’s Fastest-Half Mile.”
The part-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team introduced a new sponsor to the industry in the first of a couple races for their No 95 Ford Fusion. The team capitalized on their debut with a solid 18th place performance under the lights at Bristol Motor Speedway.
McDowell stuck out on Saturday night as he took opportunities that others would second-guess and stuck the nose of his No. 95 Ford into places where others would gasp, but it paid off for the Phoenix, Arizona native for his best effort since a seventh at Daytona International Speedway in July.
“This is a big night for all of us at Leavine Family Racing,” said McDowell. “To get a top-20 at Bristol and be legitimately a top-20 car all night is amazing. We have great people and I feel like we are making big gains. Fun to have a great run for our new partner, Thrivent Financial as well. Hopefully, we can keep this momentum going into Atlanta.”
McDowell said he was aggressive, but that’s the nature and ultimate success to Bristol.
“We fought hard to get in a position and we didn’t want to throw away a good run like I did in the spring.”
The team will announce a new sponsor for the 25th race of the season in the coming days. McDowell has four prior Cup starts at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway.
Kyle Busch Parks Car; Storms Off Following Horrific Night At Bristol:
To the displeasure of his crew chief Dave Rogers and his No. 18 team, Kyle Busch parked his No. 18 Doublemint Toyota Camry in a pure moment of frustration.
Clearly showing he had one of the cars to beat, Busch suffered a pit road penalty for speeding on Lap 63, which sent him to the tail end of the lead lap. Through his charge through the field, Busch found himself collected in a Lap 126 accident in Turn 3.
Heavy damage to the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry would ultimately erase the Las Vegas, Nevada from competition, but it wouldn’t keep Busch from creating a heated conservation from within his own walls.
“I need a whole new right front suspension, a whole new right front suspension,’’ Busch said with about 50 laps remaining to crew chief Dave Rogers. “I will be behind the wall in about two (expletive) laps.”
Rogers responded: “Park it behind the truck and take your whiny little ass to the bus.’’
Well, Busch didn’t take the car to the truck. Instead, he brought the car to pit road and parked it. He and Rogers later talked, according to a story on MRN.com.
Team owner Joe Gibbs told the website that the two would be able to move on.
“I think it was just one of those things where it heated up. I think they handled it the right way, they went and had a good discussion.’’
Bristol Nuggets:
• A spokesperson for NASCAR confirmed that no further action was likely for Denny Hamlin after he threw a HANS device at fellow driver Kevin Harvick following a caution on Lap 162. Harvick misjudged an attempted pass on leader Hamlin, which sent the No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry careering towards the frontstretch wall. Hamlin climbed from his wounded machine and waited on pole sitter Harvick to return to the scene where he whistled the safety device towards Harvick’s No. 4 Chevrolet SS. Harvick noted post race that he didn’t even know Hamlin had thrown something at him.
• After a bumpy summer stretch which saw six-time and defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion carry five finishes outside the top-10, which included back-to-back finishes of 42nd at Daytona International Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Johnson racked in his first top-five finish since winning at Michigan International Speedway in June. Johnson’s seventh top-five of the year didn’t come easy as the Hendrick Motorsports driver had to battle back from two speeding penalties early into the 500-lap race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
• With just two races remaining before the start of The Chase, four drivers find themselves on the outside looking in. Kyle Larson, Kasey Kahne, Austin Dillon and Paul Menard are trailing Greg Biffle for the final spot in The Chase standings. Larson sits 26 points in the arrears to Biffle, while Menard finds himself a distant 45 markers back. Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer and Biffle are the four drivers who hold current Chase spots despite being winless in 2014.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
