“Five Things” is a daily column for NASCAR fans to get a recap of everything that happened the day before — such as races, practice sessions, memorable social media moments, and more! While mostly focused on NASCAR, this column may also feature other interesting and exciting moments from the world of motorsports. Enjoy!
Kentucky Winner Martin Truex Jr. Has — Er, “Interesting” Post-Race
Since the introduction of stage racing, no one other than Martin Truex Jr. has ever won a stage at Kentucky Speedway.
That trend continued on Saturday night. Truex led five times for 174 of the 267 laps on Saturday night, sweeping the first two stages in the process and denying his competitors access to any critical playoff points.
Though Truex did have to race against a handful of other drivers to get the victory, the hardest part of the race for the driver of the No. 78 car arguably came after the race.
After doing a burnout at the start/finish line, Truex got out of his car, stood on the driver’s side window, and raised his arms in the air in triumph.
While he was doing so, his car started to roll.
He jumped off almost immediately and allowed it to roll away while he fulfilled his post-race interview. No harm, no foul.
Then, as smoke and steam poured out of his racecar, he attempted to drive it to Victory Lane.
Key word “attempted”. According to Truex, he was given bad directions by a NASCAR official and and tried to drive into Victory Lane the wrong way.
Eventually he was able to make his way to his rightful place and celebrate the race win with his team.
The Competition Will Have To Put Up With Chad Knaus For At Least A Few More Years
We already knew Jimmie Johnson was going to be in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at least through the end of the 2020 season, but longtime crew chief Chad Knaus was still a question.
On Saturday, Hendrick Motorsports and Chad Knaus announced a two-year contract extension, meaning Knaus will also be in the sport at least through the end of the 2020 season.
Knaus and Johnson are currently in their 17th season together and have found themselves in a little bit of a dry spell as Johnson is in the middle of his longest career winless drought. The two have won seven MENCS championships together — including five in a row — and 83 race wins.
Johnson is currently 14th in the 16-driver playoff standings, 54 points above the cutoff line with only seven races left in the regular season.
Despite Top-Five Finishes, The Other Two Of The “Big Three” Left Unhappy
If you have watched any NASCAR racing at all this year, you know that all the talk right now is about the “Big Three”: Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, and Kevin Harvick.
And how could they not be? The drivers have combined to win all but five of the 19 races run so far, have won three of the last four championships, and are the only drivers to have earned more than 20 playoff points this season.
None of the three gave any reason for them to stop being a part of the conversation, as all three finished in the top five.
However, given Busch’s and Harvick’s post-race interviews, they were anything but happy following the race.
“We look at the same sheet of paper the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) does every week, and we just didn’t have anything for them tonight,” said Busch. “I don’t know what we were missing, but the SNICKERS Intense Flavors Camry was good, it was a top-five car. I thought it was a top-two car there for awhile, but the 12 (Blaney) was really strong. It kind of depended where people lined up on a restart. But overall a decent night for us; we made a few points on the 4 (Kevin Harvick) and lost some of our lead to the 78. We’ll just keep plugging along and try to hold onto this points lead.”
Harvick, meanwhile, was more than happy to leave Kentucky in the rearview mirror.
“It’s just hard to pass,” said Harvick. “It’s hard to make anything happen. I think for us we got worse the last run and got loose into three and that really just killed everything, and then I hit the wall with 15 laps to go and that pretty much ended everything we had.”
For the record .. Busch was fourth while Harvick was fifth. Hardly a bad day, but not good enough for the drivers who have dominated the season.
Alex Bowman’s Playoff Hopes Just Got A Little Harder
Prior to Saturday night’s race at Kentucky Speedway, Alex Bowman was the only driver who had been running at the finish of every Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race this season.
Unfortunately for Bowman, a blown tire put an end to that streak.
“I’m fine, Hendrick Motorsports builds good safe race cars,” said Bowman after being checked and released from the infield care center. “My Hendrick carbon seat held up well, everything is good. Unfortunate we blew a tire. Kind of looked like it might have broken a brake rotor before that, but it’s hard to say because you break the brake rotor when you hit the wall anyway, so part of it. We will move on and evaluate what happened. Pretty early to blow a tire. So, my Axalta, Hendrick Motorsports guys will work hard and we will be better next week.”
With only seven races left in the regular season, Bowman is currently the last driver within the top 16 in poins — the cutoff for the Playoffs — and holds only a 19-point advantage over 17th-place Ricky Stenhouse Jr. following the 39th-place finish in Kentucky.
Team Penske Shows Some Needed Speed
Team Penske has been good, but not great, this season. Of their three drivers — Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, and Joey Logano — only Logano has a win this year and is the only driver with an average finish inside the top 10.
The difference has been in top-fives verses top-10s. Though it may seem trivial, the difference between a seventh-place finish and a second-place finish is the difference between a decent points day and contending for the win.
Keselowski and Logano both have double-digit top 10s this year while Blaney isn’t far behind with nine. However, Logano and Keselowski only have five top-five finishes while Blaney has four.
The bright side is the three have already led quite a few laps this year: Logano has led 225; Keselowski has led 322; and Blaney has led 464.
Despite their time up front, the team has still not showed the dominance factor that the “Big 3” have and, as a result, Team Penske has had a hard time keeping up.
Kentucky may have been a bit of a bright spot, though. Blaney and Keselowski both finished in the top five, and Keselowski was even able to lead 38 laps along the way. Logano finished 10th and was also able to lead a handful of laps due to pit strategy.
A two-tire call by Keselowski’s crew chief Paul Wolfe at the end of Stage 2 helped the No. 2 team earn their fifth top-five finish of the year.
“It was a good call from my crew chief, Paul Wolfe,” said Keselowski. “We had better speed than we’ve had at the mile-and-a-halves, but not enough to run with the 78. He eventually got by us there and I thought we might have had a shot at it if we could have restarted fourth there, but we kind of cycled back to sixth and it wasn’t enough to be able to make something happen there. All in all, a decent day. I hate that I kind of dug a hole early in the race with the speeding on pit road. We were just racing the 18 off pit road and tried to get a little bit too much, but we’ll take this and hopefully build off of it for the mile-and-a-halves in the Playoffs. It’s gonna be really important and I’m looking forward to next week in Loudon. I think we’ll be really good there.”
Blaney’s second-place finish was his best result of the season, but still not quite what he was looking for.
“It’s not a win,” said Blaney. “It’s a positive, that’s for sure. I hate it. I thought we were in a good spot there restarting fourth and Martin struggled a little bit the first couple laps and I thought I could get by him, but just couldn’t quite get a run on him. His car came in and mine kind of faded a little bit and he won the race.That stunk. I thought we had a shot at it tonight, but I’m really proud of the gains we made all race though, to be honest with you. I didn’t think we were a second-place car at the beginning of the race, and we got a lot better throughout the night so (crew chief) Jeremy Bullins and everybody did a great job. I can’t thank DEX Imaging and Ford and Menards enough for what they do.You said it, after the last few weeks we’ve had this is a very good positive for us. Hopefully, we can keep it going in the right direction.”
While Logano’s win virtually locks him into the Playoffs, Keselowski is 189 points above the cutoff line, and Blaney has earned an 89 points cushion with seven races left in the regular season.
Five Things You Need To Know Today: July 15, 2018
“Five Things” is a daily column for NASCAR fans to get a recap of everything that happened the day before — such as races, practice sessions, memorable social media moments, and more! While mostly focused on NASCAR, this column may also feature other interesting and exciting moments from the world of motorsports. Enjoy!
Kentucky Winner Martin Truex Jr. Has — Er, “Interesting” Post-Race
Since the introduction of stage racing, no one other than Martin Truex Jr. has ever won a stage at Kentucky Speedway.
That trend continued on Saturday night. Truex led five times for 174 of the 267 laps on Saturday night, sweeping the first two stages in the process and denying his competitors access to any critical playoff points.
Though Truex did have to race against a handful of other drivers to get the victory, the hardest part of the race for the driver of the No. 78 car arguably came after the race.
After doing a burnout at the start/finish line, Truex got out of his car, stood on the driver’s side window, and raised his arms in the air in triumph.
While he was doing so, his car started to roll.
He jumped off almost immediately and allowed it to roll away while he fulfilled his post-race interview. No harm, no foul.
Then, as smoke and steam poured out of his racecar, he attempted to drive it to Victory Lane.
Key word “attempted”. According to Truex, he was given bad directions by a NASCAR official and and tried to drive into Victory Lane the wrong way.
Eventually he was able to make his way to his rightful place and celebrate the race win with his team.
The Competition Will Have To Put Up With Chad Knaus For At Least A Few More Years
We already knew Jimmie Johnson was going to be in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at least through the end of the 2020 season, but longtime crew chief Chad Knaus was still a question.
On Saturday, Hendrick Motorsports and Chad Knaus announced a two-year contract extension, meaning Knaus will also be in the sport at least through the end of the 2020 season.
Knaus and Johnson are currently in their 17th season together and have found themselves in a little bit of a dry spell as Johnson is in the middle of his longest career winless drought. The two have won seven MENCS championships together — including five in a row — and 83 race wins.
Johnson is currently 14th in the 16-driver playoff standings, 54 points above the cutoff line with only seven races left in the regular season.
Despite Top-Five Finishes, The Other Two Of The “Big Three” Left Unhappy
If you have watched any NASCAR racing at all this year, you know that all the talk right now is about the “Big Three”: Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, and Kevin Harvick.
And how could they not be? The drivers have combined to win all but five of the 19 races run so far, have won three of the last four championships, and are the only drivers to have earned more than 20 playoff points this season.
None of the three gave any reason for them to stop being a part of the conversation, as all three finished in the top five.
However, given Busch’s and Harvick’s post-race interviews, they were anything but happy following the race.
“We look at the same sheet of paper the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) does every week, and we just didn’t have anything for them tonight,” said Busch. “I don’t know what we were missing, but the SNICKERS Intense Flavors Camry was good, it was a top-five car. I thought it was a top-two car there for awhile, but the 12 (Blaney) was really strong. It kind of depended where people lined up on a restart. But overall a decent night for us; we made a few points on the 4 (Kevin Harvick) and lost some of our lead to the 78. We’ll just keep plugging along and try to hold onto this points lead.”
Harvick, meanwhile, was more than happy to leave Kentucky in the rearview mirror.
“It’s just hard to pass,” said Harvick. “It’s hard to make anything happen. I think for us we got worse the last run and got loose into three and that really just killed everything, and then I hit the wall with 15 laps to go and that pretty much ended everything we had.”
For the record .. Busch was fourth while Harvick was fifth. Hardly a bad day, but not good enough for the drivers who have dominated the season.
Alex Bowman’s Playoff Hopes Just Got A Little Harder
Prior to Saturday night’s race at Kentucky Speedway, Alex Bowman was the only driver who had been running at the finish of every Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race this season.
Unfortunately for Bowman, a blown tire put an end to that streak.
“I’m fine, Hendrick Motorsports builds good safe race cars,” said Bowman after being checked and released from the infield care center. “My Hendrick carbon seat held up well, everything is good. Unfortunate we blew a tire. Kind of looked like it might have broken a brake rotor before that, but it’s hard to say because you break the brake rotor when you hit the wall anyway, so part of it. We will move on and evaluate what happened. Pretty early to blow a tire. So, my Axalta, Hendrick Motorsports guys will work hard and we will be better next week.”
With only seven races left in the regular season, Bowman is currently the last driver within the top 16 in poins — the cutoff for the Playoffs — and holds only a 19-point advantage over 17th-place Ricky Stenhouse Jr. following the 39th-place finish in Kentucky.
Team Penske Shows Some Needed Speed
Team Penske has been good, but not great, this season. Of their three drivers — Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, and Joey Logano — only Logano has a win this year and is the only driver with an average finish inside the top 10.
The difference has been in top-fives verses top-10s. Though it may seem trivial, the difference between a seventh-place finish and a second-place finish is the difference between a decent points day and contending for the win.
Keselowski and Logano both have double-digit top 10s this year while Blaney isn’t far behind with nine. However, Logano and Keselowski only have five top-five finishes while Blaney has four.
The bright side is the three have already led quite a few laps this year: Logano has led 225; Keselowski has led 322; and Blaney has led 464.
Despite their time up front, the team has still not showed the dominance factor that the “Big 3” have and, as a result, Team Penske has had a hard time keeping up.
Kentucky may have been a bit of a bright spot, though. Blaney and Keselowski both finished in the top five, and Keselowski was even able to lead 38 laps along the way. Logano finished 10th and was also able to lead a handful of laps due to pit strategy.
A two-tire call by Keselowski’s crew chief Paul Wolfe at the end of Stage 2 helped the No. 2 team earn their fifth top-five finish of the year.
“It was a good call from my crew chief, Paul Wolfe,” said Keselowski. “We had better speed than we’ve had at the mile-and-a-halves, but not enough to run with the 78. He eventually got by us there and I thought we might have had a shot at it if we could have restarted fourth there, but we kind of cycled back to sixth and it wasn’t enough to be able to make something happen there. All in all, a decent day. I hate that I kind of dug a hole early in the race with the speeding on pit road. We were just racing the 18 off pit road and tried to get a little bit too much, but we’ll take this and hopefully build off of it for the mile-and-a-halves in the Playoffs. It’s gonna be really important and I’m looking forward to next week in Loudon. I think we’ll be really good there.”
Blaney’s second-place finish was his best result of the season, but still not quite what he was looking for.
“It’s not a win,” said Blaney. “It’s a positive, that’s for sure. I hate it. I thought we were in a good spot there restarting fourth and Martin struggled a little bit the first couple laps and I thought I could get by him, but just couldn’t quite get a run on him. His car came in and mine kind of faded a little bit and he won the race.That stunk. I thought we had a shot at it tonight, but I’m really proud of the gains we made all race though, to be honest with you. I didn’t think we were a second-place car at the beginning of the race, and we got a lot better throughout the night so (crew chief) Jeremy Bullins and everybody did a great job. I can’t thank DEX Imaging and Ford and Menards enough for what they do.You said it, after the last few weeks we’ve had this is a very good positive for us. Hopefully, we can keep it going in the right direction.”
While Logano’s win virtually locks him into the Playoffs, Keselowski is 189 points above the cutoff line, and Blaney has earned an 89 points cushion with seven races left in the regular season.