Working On My Redneck ™ » nationwide series

Phoenix Racing Announces Nationwide Schedule

Leon — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:18:49 +0000

Kurt Busch's new Sprint Cup ride

(WOMR file photo)

Phoenix Racing announced Monday that, in addition to running the complete NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule with Kurt Busch, they will field the #1 Chevrolet in a limited amount of NASCAR Nationwide Series races. The first of the those Nationwide races will begin with the NNS race at Daytona in February. Phoenix Racing is planning to run all the major NNS races, and are actively seeking sponsorship to that end.

“Everyone at Phoenix Racing is excited about competing on the Nationwide circuit this year,” said Steve Barkdoll, General Manager of Phoenix Racing. “Our Nationwide Series team is a proven, winning organization and we’re looking forward to Busch continuing the tradition. This is a great opportunity for a company to partner with a top-notch program.”

With this latest announcement, it is now known that KuBu will be in the driver’s seat of Phoenix Racing’s Sprint Cup car, as well as in the Nationwide Series car with James Finch, as well. Therefore, the rumor of KuBu driving a Kyle Busch Motorsports Nationwide car is now moot.

It will be very interesting to see how long this new driver/owner relationship will endure! Can KuBu control his radio tirades? Will KuBu be able to keep his razor-sharp tongue zipped this year? Hmmmmmmmm…….

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Trevor Bayne Rustles A Victory Away From Edwards At Texas

Leon — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 22:41:30 +0000

(photo courtesy Christa L. Thomas)

The NASCAR cinderella story of of the decade has now come full circle.

Saturday Trevor Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner, finally posted his very first victory in the Nationwide Series. After starting off the 2011 race season with a most improbable and spectacular win at Daytona, the future looked so very bright for this Knoxville 20 year old.

However, what was to follow was a drastic change of luck! Within just a few weeks of winning the Daytona 500, Bayne found himself in the Mayo Clinic trying to find answers to blurred vision and fatigue. The illness left him on the sidelines of the race track for five weeks. For the remainder of this season Bayne has experienced set backs and near misses. All the while, Bayne has been playing catch-up in the Nationwide Series, trying ever so desperately to try to fulfill the legacy that looked to be within his grasp back in February!

Notwithstanding all the bad luck that has visited Trevor in the last eight months, today Bayne won the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at the Texas Motor Speedway. The win today is only the first step in trying to remove the huge monkey, rather make that a gorilla, that has been hanging on his back since his win at the Daytona 500 back in February.

In light of Friday night’s NASCAR parking of ol Kylie Busch for his “anger management” issues, it is great to celebrate another “feel good story” in NASCAR!

Here is the unofficial results of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at the Texas Motor Speedway.

See you next weekend from the Phoenix International Raceway!

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Kenseth Fills In For Bayne With A Win At Charlotte

Leon — Sat, 28 May 2011 23:12:54 +0000

(photo courtesy nascar.com)

Matt Kenseth passed his Roush-Fenway Racing teammate with three laps remaining to secure a win in the Top Gear 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the RFR #16 Fastenal Ford Mustang.

The victory was the first of the year for Kenseth in the Nationwide Series, who was named to replace Trevor Bayne in the #16 car earlier in the week. It was the 26th NNS victory of Kenseth’s career.

“When you can beat him, you know you had a good day,” Kenseth said of being able to edge past Edwards, who has won three NNS races this season.

Roush-Fenway Racing had a great afternoon at Charlotte finishing first,second, and fourth.

Here is the unofficial results of the Top Gear 300 at Charlotte.

Never forget what this Memorial Day weekend is really all about… our military men and women.

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Edwards Survived The Monster Mile Carnage

Leon — Sat, 14 May 2011 23:37:18 +0000

(photo courtesy nascar.com)

Carl Edwards survived a last lap mass carnage and won the 5-Hour Energy 200 Nationwide Series race at Dover International Raceway Saturday afternoon. It was Edwards’ third victory of the 2011 Nationwide season.

However, because of the strewn wreckage, his partial involvement, and his rattled nerves, Edwards dispensed with his traditional victorious back flip at the start/finish line. Instead, Edwards stopped his race car at the site of the carnage to see if Joey Logono and Clint Bowyer were safe and sound.

As Edwards was being interviewed in Victory Lane, he got a chance to view the video tape of the final lap of the race.

“They just showed the replay and I didn’t touch them, so I am happy for that,” Edwards said. “What a wild finish. I apologize for not doing the back flip there guys. I thought that I wrecked them and I didn’t want to be celebrating over that but it looks like we didn’t hit them, we won the race in our fast Ford Mustang and that is good.”

As a recap, the race was started over one hour late because of a very persistent morning rain. At lap 140 of the scheduled 200 laps, Justin Allgaier blew a right front tire that slammed him hard into the wall.

The cars at the front of the field headed to pit road when the yellow came out. Josh Wise did not and inherited the lead. Before the race could restart, it began to rain and the cars were red flagged and parked.

The race restarted with Edwards in the lead as Wise had to pit before the green dropped. Logano quickly took the lead and held it until 15 laps to go. He and Edwards went door-to-door for a lap before Edwards eased into the lead.

With three laps to go, Michael Annett crashed to bring out a caution to set up a green/white/checkered restart.

Edwards got a great restart and jumped to a couple-car lead but a stalled car on the apron brought out another yellow and that set up a second green/white/checkered restart.

On this, the second of as many as three green/white/checkered restarts, Logano and Edwards went door-to-door, with Logano easing slightly ahead down the back straight. As the two cars went through turns #3 and 4, Logano and Edwards battled door-to-door. As the two were beginning to exit turn #4, Logano got loose. As he was correcting, Clint Bowyer slammed hard into Logano’s left rear quarter panel, destroying that part of the car, rocketing Bowyer’s car up on its left side, hurtling Bowyer’s car into the inside crash wall, and then getting T-boned by Steven Wallace’s car.

“That was pretty wild,” Bowyer, who said he feared his crashing car was going to jump the pit wall and cause a tragedy on crowded pit road.

The race ended under the yellow flag, since the leader had taken the white flag as all the carnage began to unfold behind Edwards.

Here is the unofficial results of the 5-Hour Energy 200 at Dover.

What did you think of the 5-Hour Energy 200 at Dover.?

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Edwards Dominates At Texas

Leon — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 15:42:22 +0000

(photo courtesy Leon Hammack)

Carl Edwards dominated the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 by leading 169 laps of the 200 lap race Friday night at the Texas Motor Speedway enroute to his first victory, the Ford Mustang’s first victory, in the Nationwide Series in 2011.

“This is a huge night for Mustang and Ford and this is a true team effort,” Edwards said. “A year ago we were struggling. We were not fast enough and Jack (Roush) and all the guys at the shop, the engineers, Doug Yates and everyone pulled together. We have great engines now and great pit stops and Mike Beam puts the fastest car on the race track underneath me every week and Jack lets us go do all this. The pole today we talked about that pole run being a true team effort. It is a good day. It ended the way you wish every race would. Teamwork led us to victory lane.”

What started out to be a duel between the Ford Mustang of Carl Edwards and the Toyota Camry of Kyle Busch, ended abruptly on lap 88. Busch was tagging along on Edwards rear deck lid, in second place, when the pair came upon a straggler. Just as Edwards was passing, and Busch was approaching, the soon-to-be lapped car, Tim Schendel, the lapped car blew a right front tire. Busch was unable to avoid Schendel’s car and piled directly into that car and ultimately ended up end the fence. That wreck brought Kyle Busch’s evening to an abrupt halt!

“There was no time to react,” Busch said. “You can’t just stomp on the brakes and turn left, you’re already maxed out with your tires. It’s real unfortunate – these guys did a great job working all weekend to get the car capable of running with Carl (Edwards) there. They unloaded a lot better than we did and we just worked really hard getting to that point where we could run with those guys. I felt like we were better on the long run with this Z-Line Designs Camry, just didn’t quite make it, obviously. It’s going to go down as a wreck, but I felt like we were fast enough to win.”

Edwards admitted that Busch could have given him trouble had he not crashed.

All in all, the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 was a very good race. However, it would have been a much more exiting race had not ol Kylie crashed out early in the race. I think that it would have been a “Carl and Kyle Shootout” in the end for the victory.

What are your thoughts?

Here is the unofficial results from the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at the Texas Motor Speedway.

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Why The NASCAR Nationwide Series Ticket Is A Great Deal

Bruce — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 05:20:43 +0000

(workingonmyredneck file photo)

Hi, this is Bruce from NASCAR Bits & Pieces on Brusimm.com, sticking a guest post into Leon’s site. (Teach him, giving me a password!) Today I want to chat about how a the NASCAR Nationwide Series ticket is sometimes the better ticket for the weekend!

For anyone who has been to a NASCAR event for a full weekend or has at least experienced both shows on Saturday and Sunday, you probably will get what I’m talking about. For those who don’t know, Saturday is usually the NASCAR Nationwide Series race day and Sunday is the Sprint Cup Series race day. But so much more happens than just the races.

Each track wants to put on a show so that their customers come away feeling like they’ve had a great experience.

Yet having been to both, each has its pluses and minuses and obviously the big guns come out to race on Sunday but if you’re on a budget, I have to say that the Nationwide Series (Saturday) ticket has to be one of the best deals in town if you’re a race fan. And if you’ve never been to a NASCAR event because of limited funds, it is one of the best ways to experience the splendor, power and experience of NASCAR at a track.

My first NASCAR at-track experience was on a Saturday at Loudon, New Hampshire. I remember that first moment vividly as I walked up to the track, the parking lot overlooking the track and the roar of the Cup Series cars during practice blasting up at me as I crossed over the edge of the surrounding embankment. I was hooked from that moment on. It was magical. You have to at least check out one race and then you can say you did it.

If you’re considering hitting up a NASCAR race in person, pick a Saturday. If you oddly end up not liking it, you haven’t dropped a chunk of change on the experience.

Why Saturday’s Are The Better Deal?

Saturday tickets are a lot less expensive.
Tickets don’t usually sell out.
If it’s a rain-out, it’s less money to lose!
You get to watch the Sprint Cup drivers practice.
Some tracks have Cup qualifying on Saturdays*.
Street traffic to the track is less hectic.
The crowd is less intense.
Thinner crowds means you don’t have to always sit in the assigned seat.

In a nutshell, On Saturdays, you get to watch Sprint Cup practice, Nationwide qualifying, more Sprint Cup practice (unless its one of the tracks that moved Sprint Cup qualifying to Saturday, then it’s an even better deal!) then you get the Nationwide race. And more than likely the Nationwide race will have some name drivers from the Cup series so you do get to watch them race.

If you get to the track early enough, you pretty much can have run the place. One weekend at Auto Club Speedway, I hit up all the areas. I started at the souvenir haulers, hit the stands for some practice watching, cruised the garages, then back to the stands. It was a fun day. And I wasn’t feeling overcrowded. (I have to admit that different levels of crowd can be distracting for me.)

As far as having to stand to watch the race, you usually have enough room in the stands to move around if the folks around you stand up. It’s not that we’re all that excited about a race, but that a few people in the lower rows stand up, thinking it helps them see better. Then that blocks the folks behind them and they, in turn stand up. Next thing you know, everyone is standing for the whole race. But if you’re there on a Saturday, all you have to do is move.

I spent the day at Infineon last year and I had run of the stands and got some great pictures, including some great pics from above the garages at one end of the stands.

After hitting up the track on Saturday, then on Sunday, you can watch the Cup Series race from the comfort of your couch. One year that paid off when I was at Fontana on a Saturday and that Sunday, temps in the stands were hitting 105. I was super glad I was kicking it on my couch for that one, for sure!

So that’s why I think Saturday NASCAR Nationwide Series tickets are your better deal, because there is a lot to take in and is well worth the bang for the buck!

Footnote: I kept mentioning Nationwide races are on Saturday. That’s true unless the Cup Series races Saturday night or has an off weekend, then the Nationwide race takes place Friday nights or on the Sunday that the Cup series vacates for their off weekend. If they run Sundays, then it ‘ain’t’ the better deal. Just sayin’!

“Blazingly Bad” Brad Delivers For The Captain

Leon — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 14:49:10 +0000

(photo courtesy Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images)

“Blazingly Bad” Brad Keselowski has finally done something that no other driver has done. “Bad Brad” K. drove the Roger Penske Racing #22 Discount Tire Dodge to a third place and produced the first NASCAR championship for Roger Penske Racing!

“It’s hard to give a billionaire something, you know?” said Keselowski, referring to team-owner and motorsports mogul Roger Penske. “What do you give this guy? Well, here’s a trophy, and it’s pretty cool.”

Keselowski’s third-place finish in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge sealed the 2010 NNS title with two events to spare at the expense of race-winner Carl Edwards. The series champion in 2007, Edwards snapped Kyle Busch’s five-race series winning streak at TMS via a green-white-checkered finish that the latter charged was illegal.

“Carl Edwards jumped the restart by about three lengths before the double red marks,” a visibly agitated Busch said during his post-race interview in the infield media center.

Asked if he had relayed that opinion to NASCAR officials, Busch whined: “Does it (f ——) matter? Race is over. Guy’s in Victory Lane.”

And Busch, whose bid for a record sixth consecutive win fell short by 0.702-seconds, promptly exited-stage right.

“I don’t expect him to be happy,” Edwards said when informed of Busch’s remarks.

“I did what I had to do to win the race,” said Edwards, driver of the Roush-Fenway Racing #60 Copart.com Ford Fusion. “It really doesn’t matter what he (Busch) says.”

Notwithstanding the win, Edwards has still an insurmountable point difference, 465 points, to try to overcome with just two races left in the 2010 race season. Ol Kyle Busch is back in third place despite a staggering 12 victories, 21 top 5′s, and 24 top 10′s in 27 starts!

Those stats compare most favorably to those of “Blazingly Bad” Brad Keselowski, a 26-year-old native of Rochester Hills, Mich. “Bad Brad” has compiled six wins, 24 top-five and 27 top-10 results in his third full season in the series and first with Penske Racing.

“He’s ‘The Captain,’ ” Keselowski said of Penske, who now can count 23 national championships, more than 330 victories and nearly 400 poles across various stock car, open-wheel and sports car series. “This was awesome and it’s incredible that we were able to get him a championship.”

But Roger Penske made his reputation at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where generations of Indy-car heroes ranging from Mark Donohue to four-time Indy 500 winner Rick Mears to Helio Castroneves have presented him with a record 15 Indy 500 poles and as many victories. A championship in any of NASCAR’s three national touring series remained the one domestic racing bauble to elude him, until Saturday.

“We’ve been in NASCAR a long, long time,” said Penske, who first entered cars in the series in 1972. “To me, it’s like winning the Indy 500 for the first time. What can you say; it’s a team sport and a team effort. To me, that’s what we came here for. (Crew chief) Paul Wolfe, the whole group, they worked their heart out and we got the results.

“Obviously, Brad is a great driver. Paul and all the team members that put this together…this deal came together quickly. At the beginning of the season, we had a vision on how to win this championship. We had the reliability and our guys put it together.”

“Coming to Penske Racing I told Roger I wanted to do this Nationwide deal and he looked at me like I was crazy,” said Keselowski, a second generation racer.”Why not? Might not ever happen, but all you can do is lay the foundation for it.

“It’s just awesome to think and reflect. It’s here, it really happened. I feel like I should be going to Disney World or something. And you think back on what it means to be a champion in any sport, how few people get that opportunity. You think about the people who make sacrifices for you…so many pieces it takes at this level. I’m really humbled and thankful for everyone,” said a jubilant Keselowski!

Here is the unofficial results of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge from Texas Motor Speedway.

What is your opinion of “Blazingly Bad” Brad and Penske Racing logging their first NASCAR championship?

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

“Blazingly Bad” Brad Wins At Gateway

Leon — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 01:52:14 +0000

(photo courtesy Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)

It was quite a contrast today in the 5-Hr Energy 250 at Gateway compared to the last Nationwide Series visit to this track back in July. Keselowski left the track back in July quite dazzed, and extremely sore from the results of a very horrific crash precipitated by the front bumper of “Cousin Carl” Edwards.

Remember in July, Keselowski was 200 yards from victory in the July Nationwide race at Gateway when he was knocked into the wall by Carl Edwards and finished 14th. Saturday, Keselowski started in the back of the field Saturday after arriving after qualifying from the Sprint Cup Series event in Martinsville, Va., but still was able to lead 83 of the 200 laps en route to his second consecutive victory and sixth of the year.

Keselowski was running second to Penske Racing teammate Justin Allgaier with 10 laps remaining when the final caution came out. Allgaier, Keselowski and third-running Edwards pitted and took four tires. When they came out, they were behind Reed Sorenson and Josh Wise, who stayed out, and Bliss and Jason Leffler, who took two tires. Keselowski was fifth, Edwards sixth and Allgaier sixth for the restart on Lap 196.

Sorenson jumped into the lead, but Bliss passed him and had the lead halfway through the 199th lap.

Coming through Turn 4, Keselowski got a strong run on the outside and passed Bliss for the lead within sight of the white flag. Keselowski pulled ahead by a couple of car lengths and won by .227 seconds in front of Bliss.

With this win, Keselowski has all but wrapped up the Nationwide driver’s championship. However, the owner’s championship is still a very hotly contested race between Penske Racing’s #22 Discount Tire Dodge and Joe Gibbs Racing’s #18 Nos Energy Drink/Z-Line Designs Toyota.

What is you thoughts on “Blazingly Bad” Brad Keselowski winning his first Nationwide Series championship?

Here is the unofficial results of the 5-Hr Energy 250 from Gateway International Raceway.

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

“Blazingly Bad” Brad Wins At Charlotte

Leon — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 14:33:49 +0000

(photo courtesy Jason Smith/Getty Images)

“Blazingly Bad” Brad Keselowski won the Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway Friday night and stretched his already big lead over the second place, Carl Edwards, to 450 points. The victory was the fifth win of the season for “Blazingly Bad” Brad K.

“We had some pit strategy there in the middle of the race which I thought was really going to pay off,” Keselowski said. “It didn’t quite work out perfectly. I felt pretty good.

“And then our last adjustment was just incredible and it really got our car going. Then it was just down to having perfect restarts there at the end. I don’t know if they were perfect, but they were sure exciting. Martin Truex Jr. ran a heck of a race. Without the pushes at the restarts by both my teammate Justin and Joey Logano, I couldn’t have won the race. I got by with a little help from my friends I guess you can say.”

Carl Edwards, second in points, finished 13th.

“It’s just frustrating,” Edwards said. “We’re a better team than that. To finish13th, we’re better than that, so we just have to figure out what we were missing and work on it. We’ve got a good bunch of guys at the shop, so we’ll get it. We just were not that fast. There at the beginning we got set back by me stalling it out of the pits, but we made all of that back up. We should have been able to run better than 13th for sure.”

Finishing second Friday was Martin Truex Jr.

“I have never been so disappointed to run second,” Truex, said. “It looked like if those last couple cautions hadn’t come out, we were going to be in good shape. Just a little too tight after that last run there. It’s a shame because on the green flag runs we were really fast and really just called off the adjustments and then we got too tight later. These guys did a great job – they’re a part time Camping World East team that won the championship so to run like this with them again for the second time is awesome and they do an awesome job. I can’t thank them enough. Just wish we could have done one stop better.”

Here is the unofficial results from the Dollar General 300 Friday night at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

As a distant side note, Danica Patrick and her #7 GoDaddy.com money and car finished 21st!

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Kyle Sets Another Record!

Leon — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 01:40:44 +0000

(photo courtesy Leon Hammack)

Kyle Busch thoroughly dominated the nationwide race Saturday in the Dover 200. Busch lead 192 laps of the 200 lap race! This was Busch’s 11th win in just 23 races and breaks the record for the most wins in a single season by a nationwide series driver. Ol Kylie has surpassed the record that was held by Sam Ard for more than 20 years.

The victory in the Dover 200 was Busch’s, 41st in the Nationwide Series, 30th in a Toyota since coming onboard with Joe Gibbs Racing, and 81st in NASCAR’s top three series combined.

“It’s very special,” Busch said of the record. “Sam is a great individual and was a great driver in his time [early 1980s]. For myself to be able to come out and compete at that level and get as many wins in a season is hard enough to do, but then to go out there and beat a record …

“From where Sam Ard was in his day and where we are today, I feel like a lot has changed in this sport, and, of course, it’s always challenging to go out and get a win on a given weekend. But for us to win 11 this year is very, very special to me, and that’s why I say it’s so special to [crew chief] Jason [Ratcliff] and to all these guys on the team, because they’re all part of it.”

Despite a vibration that gave him some nervous moments in the closing laps, Busch beat polesitter and JGR teammate Joey Logano to the finish line by .400 seconds, marking the 11th time JGR cars have finished 1-2 in the series.

Here is the unofficial results from the Dover 200.

Kyle has accumulated 81 victories in the three series at the tender age of 25 year old. Love him or hate him, his accomplishments speaks for themselves! Is he really that good?

What is you opinion of ol Kylie?

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!