Truex conquers Darlington, drama builds for Chase

On a NASCAR weekend where just about everything went 1970s retro – from the drivers to their cars to the guys in the NBC broadcast booth – Darlington Raceway gave us a Southern 500 on Labor Day eve that proved the modern drama of today is only just beginning.

First things first: Martin Truex Jr. joined the two-win club with a great finishing run that held off Kevin Harvick over the final 15 laps. After the heartbreaking near-miss at Daytona in the 500, he’s only won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in a dominating performance (392 of 400 laps led) and tamed the track that only calls itself “Too Tough to Tame.”
Not only is Truex a multi-time winner in a season for the first time in his career, but he’s the sixth Cup driver with two victories. It was a finish that left Harvick – who led a race-high 214 laps – just a wee bit perturbed at the end, and the blame went straight to his pit crew.
Slow stops on pit road tend to do that to a driver. Case in point: With 85 laps to go in the 367-lap race, Harvick came in leading, but a 16.6-second stop pushed him all the way back to 12th.
“Did we just lose this race?” Harvick asked on his team radio, as reported by FoxSports.com.
He did, but Harvick rallied back to give himself a chance, closing within six-tenths of a second for his fourth runner-up finish of the season, including to Truex Jr. at Charlotte. The 2014 Cup champion also has three fourth-place runs and and three fifth-place efforts.
That’s a total of 12 top-5 runs for the No. 4 car in 25 races. You can rest assured he’d much rather pad the winning number than any of the others.
And as they head to Richmond on Sept. 10 for the final race before the Chase begins, there are still just three open spots remaining. Jamie McMurray, who finished 15th at Darlington, was a victim of his own late-race pit-road mistake and is on the bubble at only seven points in front of Ryan Newman.
As for the 13th driver with a victory, Chris Buescher managed to improve his position as he looks to seal the deal after 400 laps at Richmond. He finished 17th at Darlington and added four points to his cushion over David Ragan.
Buescher – the winner at the rain-shortened Pocono race last month – is still 30th, but in front by 11 points. He knows that margin won’t be easy to maintain. When they raced at Richmond in April, Buescher finished 34th and Ragan came in 23rd.
A tie will obviously benefit Buescher by virtue of his earlier victory, but anything worse means Newman can still slip into the Chase even if he doesn’t earn eight more points than McMurray.
Going down the other series, there was some serious controversy in the Camping World Truck Series Chevy Silverado 250 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park near Toronto. On the final lap, John Hunter Nemechek got into a major battle of beating and banging with Cole Custer.
It got so bad, the pair ended up crossing the finish line on the grass and not on the track. After a review, Nemechek was awarded his second win of the season and denied Custer a win that would have given him a Chase spot.
Custer was so mad, he went after Nemechek and gave him a flying tackle before team members and officials quickly separated the pair. The 18-year-old vented to reporters afterwards.
“I was expecting it, kinda, because he’s raced a lot of people like that but it’s just a shame because it was a great chance to get into the Chase and he took it away from us,” Custer said in a NASCAR Wire Service story.
In spite of the frustration, Custer gets one more shot for a win at Chicagoland Speedway in two weeks to make the Chase. At the moment, Timothy Peters and Daniel Hemric are the two non-winners who are in the eight-driver field to determine the 2016 title.
And on the XFINITY Series side, Elliott Sadler beat Denny Hamlin and scored his second win of the season to solidify his Chase position. With 12 drivers in that field, there are two races left – at Richmond and Chicagoland – before the run to their championship begins.
At this point, nine non-winners are in on points, and Ryan Sieg is on the bubble. He has an 18-point cushion on Dakoda Armstrong.
With all that going on, it’s time to get the belts tight and start thinking about what championship glory lies ahead.

Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @Tomzsports or email tominator19@yahoo.com.

NEXT WEEK'S RACES

Richmond International Raceway (.75-mile oval), Richmond, Virginia.

-SPRINT CUP: Federated Auto Parts 400, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 400 laps, 300 miles.

2015 champion: Matt Kenseth

-XFINITY SERIES: Virginia 529 College Savings 250, Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 250 laps, 187.5 miles.

2015 champion: Chase Elliott

-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Off until Sept. 16 for the American Ethanol E15 225 at Chicagoland Speedway.

First-time winner's hat trick caps great race weekend

The Race to the Chase may be winding down, but the racing that happened at Michigan International Speedway and Road America in Wisconsin provided a huge jolt of excitement for race fans everywhere.
The biggest moment of the weekend came in the Pure Michigan 400 on Sunday. Sitting on the outside of the Chase picture and knowing it was a clear sense of desperation mode, Kyle Larson helped his boss, Chip Ganassi, break a 99-race winless streak by taking the checkered flag ahead of Chase Elliott and elevating himself firmly into the championship playoff.
Larson looked like he’d finish runner-up as Elliott led from lap 169, but a caution for debris from Michael Annett’s car gave the driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet the break he needed. Larson got the jump ahead of Elliott on the race’s final restart with 10 laps left and pulled away for his first career win.
While Larson’s victory cut the remaining eligible spots for the non-winners down to three with two weekends left, there’s a small sliver of hope remaining for Ryan Newman, who was bumped off the 16th position.
Two pieces of good news are in play. While Newman finished 17th at Michigan, he trails new bubble driver Jamie McMurray by only 15 points. It’s not an insurmountable margin, but will need to be made up in noticeable chunks.
However, there’s the matter of Chris Buescher’s efforts for Newman’s team to consider. Buescher is still in the Chase, but lost a decent chunk of his cushion on David Ragan after finishing 35th at Michigan. His margin is just seven points heading to Throwback Weekend at Darlington next week.
Of course, it all changes again if someone like Elliott, Austin Dillon or McMurray can find their way to Victory Lane. Or maybe someone else like Kasey Kahne or Ryan Blaney will have their breakthrough. With all the retro paint schemes to look forward to, it’s all the more reason to tune in.
The other series had their own bits of craziness provided by two drivers who aren’t Chase eligible, but knew how to bring the dramatics at the right times.
In the Michigan Camping World Truck Series race – the Careers for Veterans 200 – Brett Moffitt seized the moment when he slid by Timothy Peters and William Byron on the high side of the track to steal the first victory of his career right out from under both drivers.
The best part of the moment: Moffitt was driving a one-off deal as Peters’ teammate with Red Horse Racing and only led the final lap. It was the first lap Moffitt has led in his entire career, which covers 45 starts between Cup (38), XFINITY (one) and trucks (six).
As for the Chase in the trucks, six of eight drivers have claimed their spots, with Peters and Daniel Hemric in as the non-winners. Cameron Hayley is the first off the bubble at 47 points behind Peters – well more than a full race – so it’s clearly go time at either Canadian Tire Motorsports Park or Chicagoland Speedway if he wants to get in the field.
In the XFINITY race, the Road America 180, Michael McDowell led more than half the laps and held off Brendan Gaughan by a half-second in an overtime finish. Not only did it deny Gaughan a chance to become the fourth driver to qualify for the Chase, but McDowell – who raced on another one-off deal for Richard Childress Racing – earned his first career victory in 298 starts between Cup (202), XFINITY (94) and trucks (two).
With efforts like those and the championship pressure creeping into another gear, fans should be looking forward to what’s next. I know I am.
Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @Tomzsports or email tominator19@yahoo.com.
NEXT WEEK'S RACES
Darlington Raceway (1.366-mile egg-shaped oval), Darlington, South Carolina.
-SPRINT CUP: Bojangles Southern 500, Sunday, 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT, NBC. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.
Race distance: 500 miles, 367 laps.
2015 champion: Carl Edwards
-XFINITY SERIES: VFW Sport Clips Help A Hero 200, Saturday, 3 p.m. ET/Noon PT, NBC. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.
Race distance: 200.8 miles, 147 laps.
2015 champion: Denny Hamlin
-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Chevy Silverado 250, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (2.459-mile road course), Bowmanville, Ontario, Saturday, 2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.
Race distance: 250 kilometers (157.4 miles), 64 laps.
2015 champion: Erik Jones.

Harvick finds way to win at Bristol – 24 hours later

Rain delays are an occasional fact of life race track owners have to deal with, although it hasn’t been nearly as prevalent in NASCAR in the 2016 season.

With this weekend’s Bass Pro Shops/NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, that notion was completely thrown out the window.
Rain messed with the track enough to stop the 500-lap battle after only 48 trips around the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile” on Saturday. Then came the attempt to restart the race the next day, and more rain added to the waiting game.
Finally, nearly 24 hours after the scheduled start, the Bristol Night-Turned-To-Day-Turned-To-Late-Afternoon-Early-Evening Race saw Kevin Harvick make the trip to Victory Lane, his second of the season.
And the wait for those who stayed at the track and eventually found it on TV (CNBC, after originally being set for NBC Sports Network) was more than worth it.
Before we settle in with what Harvick did, there were enough surprises in the final finishing order to give the skeptics less reason to be picky. The first one came with the runner-up effort from Ricky Stenhouse Jr., by far the best of his career.
Stenhouse delivered a top-5 run for just the sixth time in 135 career starts and matched what he did in the Bristol spring race in 2014. In the greatest of ironies, he started 25th, and none other than Harvick was just in front of him on the grid.
There were the usual suspects from the Joe Gibbs Racing camp who were high in the final order. Denny Hamlin made up two laps, led 19, and finished third. Pole sitter Carl Edwards led 31 laps and finished sixth.
But shocker No. 2 of the race came as Kyle Busch led 256 laps, but a broken suspension part and the appearance of Justin Allgaier’s No. 46 car at the worst possible time – lap 359 – led to a 39th-place finish. It only added to the frustration at Bristol for the defending Sprint Cup champion.
“We’ve been having parts failures here, so something we’ve got to address and fix,” Busch said in a NASCAR Wire Service story. “I’m really tired of losing races here with parts falling apart, so they’ll hear about it on Tuesday.”
Busch wasn’t happy with Allgaier and his spotter, either.
“I’ve been wrecking for half a lap and they just come on through and clean us out,” he said. “That’s stupid, so I don’t know – frustrating day. Let’s go home.”
The stat book shows Busch’s frustration with Bristol pretty clearly, in spite of his five Cup wins there. Since the last one in the spring race of 2011, his average finish over the 10-race span is 21.5, and he’s been 29th or worse in four of his last five races at BMS.
Once Busch found himself out of contention, Harvick led 104 of the final 153 laps (128 in total) and became the fifth driver in the two-win club in 2016, joining Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Edwards and Hamlin.
But the most impressive story in a non-winning role came from Chris Buescher. He fell back to mid-pack through the early portion of the race at Bristol, but somehow ended up finishing fifth. It was just as good as Matt DiBenedetto’s sixth-place run in the spring, but this one carries a little more impact for Buescher because he zoomed past David Ragan into the top 30 in points, where he is eligible for the Chase.
Buescher’s cushion isn’t quite secure with three races remaining until the Chase, but a 13-point edge is a pretty good foundation to build on. It also gave drivers like Kyle Larson and Trevor Bayne more reason to worry.
With Buescher in the Chase as the 12th driver with a win, that leaves Ryan Newman as the last of the four non-winners who would advance. His lead is at 35 points over Bayne, while Larson is tied with Kasey Kahne, 39 off the pace.
That’s basically a full race with three challenging tracks left: Michigan (a 2-mile party of speed), Darlington (two unpredictable ends), and Richmond (go or go home). A win will change things for the better, and it may be the only option they have left.

Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @Tomzsports or email tominator19@yahoo.com.

NEXT WEEK'S RACES

Michigan International Speedway (2-mile oval), Brooklyn, Michigan

-SPRINT CUP: Pure Michigan 400, Sunday, 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 400 miles, 200 laps.

2015 champion: Matt Kenseth

-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Careers for Veterans 200, Saturday, 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 200 miles, 100 laps.

2015 champion: Kyle Busch.

-XFINITY SERIES: Road America 180, Road America (4.048-mile road course), Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Saturday, 3 p.m. ET/Noon PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 182.2 miles, 45 laps.

2015 champion: Paul Menard

And now, the fun really begins

As we hit the stretch drive for NASCAR's Chase across all three national series, there are story lines that have potential to intrigue, shock, awe, and occasionally infuriate. The push begins with the Camping World Truck Series UNOH 200 at Bristol tomorrow night, so now's as good a time as any to break it all down.

On the Sprint Cup side, chaos reigns supreme. Right now, there are 12 drivers who have won a race, but one is still on the outside looking in because he's not in the top 30 in points. As they head to the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol on Saturday, Chris Buescher sits just three points away from getting in and potentially putting serious pressure on drivers like Kyle Larson and Trevor Bayne. 

Since Buescher is where he is, Larson is in the Chase with the last of the 16 spots. He's eight points in front of Bayne. Whenever Buescher -- last year's XFINITY champion -- gets past David Ragan and into the top 30, that opens up an ugly can of trouble for Larson.
Don't put it past Buescher that he'll make the top 30. Even with his struggles at Watkins Glen, he still chopped three points off the deficit. Buescher was 21st at Bristol in the spring race while Ragan was 39th. The night race at the "World's Fastest Half-Mile" is a different animal, and the track will have a polished lower groove that should prove interesting.
When Buescher reaches the top 30, that will put Jamie McMurray in as the last driver in the Chase field. He's got a somewhat comfortable 30-point cushion on Larson.
As for the XFINITY Series, their racing has been Kyle Busch and everyone else, but there are some -- not a lot, but some -- drivers who have asserted themselves as Chase contenders when they start at Kentucky Speedway next month.
Heading to Bristol, points leader Elliott Sadler (one win), Daniel Suarez (1) and Erik Jones (3) would be locked into the 12-driver field. Not 100 percent sure on this, but Justin Marks' win at Mid-Ohio should also make him eligible, but he's only started 12 races. Clarification is welcome.
That said, Ryan Sieg would be the final Chase qualifier if Marks' win counts, and Blake Koch would be in if that's not the case. Five races are left to run until the cutoff.
On the Truck Series side, five drivers -- William Byron (five wins), Matt Crafton (two), Johnny Sauter, Christopher Bell and John Hunter Nemechek (one each) -- have grabbed Chase spots, and only three remain open with four races left. Right now, the non-winner Chase spots would be filled by Timothy Peters, Daniel Hemric and Cameron Hayley.
Hayley, who hails from Canada, is tied with Ben Kennedy in points, but he has a runner-up finish on his resume while Kennedy's best was fourth.
XFINITY will eliminate four drivers from title contention after the race at Charlotte in October, then set the Championship Four after Phoenix. The Truck Series will eliminate two drivers after Talladega, then the final four will be locked in after Phoenix.
For the trucks, the Rhino Linings 350 will be the second race of the opening Chase round Oct. 1. It will be intriguing to see how that race sets up the chances for those in survival mode heading to NASCAR's craziest track.
Then again, racing is always worth watching. With the Chase figuring in across all three series, it will only add to the fun.
Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @Tomzsports or email tominator19@yahoo.com.
THIS WEEK'S RACES
Bristol Motor Speedway (.533-mile oval), Bristol, Tenn.
-SPRINT CUP: Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, Saturday, 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local PRN affiliate.
Race distance: 500 laps, 266.5 miles
2015 champion: Joey Logano
-XFINITY SERIES: Food City 300, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT, USA Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local PRN affiliate.
Race distance: 300 laps, 159.9 miles
2015 champion: Kyle Busch.
-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: UNOH 200, Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local PRN affiliate.
Race distance: 200 laps, 106.6 miles.
2015 champion: Ryan Blaney.

Hamlin comes through chaos, wins at Glen

For race fans who found a way to watch NASCAR’s second and final road course race of the 2016 season, the Cheez-It 355 at the Glen – the 2.45-mile, 10-turn bit of mayhem that was Watkins Glen – the trip over to USA Network was well worth the time.

After all, NBC’s Olympic coverage was only in its second day, so all the good stuff from Rio hasn’t happened yet, right?
Let’s grab a grip on our collective steering wheels for a minute. The 90-lap tilt at the Glen had plenty of prize-fight punch and enough twists and turns that made slipping away from swimming qualifiers an easy choice.
In the end, Denny Hamlin kept himself free from the trouble and put himself in Victory Lane for the second time this season, first since the memorable run past Martin Truex Jr. at the Daytona 500.
There were plenty of potential pitfalls Hamlin had to dodge along the way, including seven of the race’s eight cautions that happened over the final 40 laps. Two yellow flags came inside 10 to go, and the field couldn’t complete a full lap each time, including a seven-car wreck that collected Chris Buescher and David Ragan.
Oh, yes. Even guys well back in the field were part of the race drama, as we’ll discuss in a moment.
As for those who were up front most of the way, Brad Keselowski had the lead from Lap 54 until Hamlin took it away on a restart at Lap 81. With Martin Truex Jr. trying to pressure Hamlin at the front, Keselowski got into the No. 78 Toyota and sent him into a spin.
Keselowski’s Penske Racing teammate, Joey Logano, took advantage of the fracas and finished second, while Keselowski finished third, which was where he started at the white-flag lap. Truex somehow held on to his sanity and ended up seventh.
With no new addition to the race winners list, Kyle Larson may be the one thanking his good-luck charms he still has his spot in the Chase with four races left. Larson – who qualified on the outside pole – got tangled up with A.J. Allmendinger in the late-race chaos and finished 29th.
Larson’s cushion: Eight points over Trevor Bayne, but only three in front of Buescher, and it could have been worse.
Buescher, who won last week at Pocono, had a golden opportunity to slip into the top 30 and become eligible for the Chase, but lost it when he was in the wrong place at the wrong time only five laps shy of the finish.
Helped by a 17-minute red flag, Buescher’s crew on the No. 34 Ford worked furiously and got him back on track to finish 30th, one of three cars one lap down. Ragan wasn’t as fortunate, ending up seven laps down in 33rd.
As we head to Bristol in two weeks, Buescher still has to make up three points to get into the top 30 and get into the Chase. Once he gets in, that will leave only four non-winner spots left to claim.
After Bayne, Kasey Kahne – who is closing in on the two-year anniversary of his last win – is 11 points behind Larson. The sad part for all three drivers is once Buescher becomes Chase-eligible, that leaves them with a huge climb. Jamie McMurray is the next driver in front of Larson in the standings, and he’s up by 30 points.
With the high drama of two excellent road-course races in the rear-view mirror for another year, the final off week of the season couldn’t have come at a better time. Those with championship aspirations know that the final four races before the Chase will make or break their seasons.
We’ll definitely need some time to make sense of it all.

Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @Tomzsports or email tominator19@yahoo.com.

NEXT WEEK'S RACES

-XFINITY SERIES: Mid-Ohio 200, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (2.258-mile road course), Lexington, Ohio, Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT, USA Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 203.2 miles, 90 laps.

2015 champion: Regan Smith

-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Off until Aug. 17 for the UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

-SPRINT CUP: Off until Aug. 20 for the Bass Pro Shops/NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Buescher’s win shakes things up in race to Chase

Over the last two NASCAR Sprint Cup seasons, we’ve had medical waivers granted to two of the sport’s biggest stars after they endured lengthy recovery periods.

They had two basic stipulations to become eligible for the Chase. Win a race and get to the top 30 in points by the Richmond cutoff.
Now we have a whole new scenario to deal with, thanks mainly to Mother Nature.
Chris Buescher, racing for the underfunded Front Row Motorsports team, won Monday’s rain-delayed Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway that was called 22 laps short of the finish after fog enveloped the 2.5-mile tri-oval track.
Talk about a truly lucky break. Buescher, the 2015 XFINITY series champion, grabbed the lead at lap 124 after a cycle of green-flag pit stops, and the caution came out nine laps later for the weather issues.
Five laps after that, the race was officially called and Buescher was awarded the victory, his first as a Sprint Cup driver.
In terms of the Chase standings, the win was nice – even if it wasn’t done in a full race, which doesn’t matter at all – but Buescher isn’t in just yet.
With five races left to run until the top 16 are set, Buescher sits 31st, but only six points behind David Ragan. In the greatest of ironies, Ragan has the only other win earned by Front Row Motorsports when he went to Victory Lane at Talladega in 2013.
Seems like it should be a piece of cake to make up the deficit, right? That’s true, but the remaining tracks between now and Chicagoland are more than challenging.
Next week, the series hits the road course at Watkins Glen in upstate New York. That track featured a wicked wreck by Brad Keselowski in a test session last week and offers a ton of unpredictability, rain or shine.
After the season’s final off week, they’ll head for Bristol on Aug. 20 for the Saturday night race. We know the history there and the beating and banging that goes on.
Then the final three races before the Chase happen at Michigan (2-mile), Darlington (1.36 miles with two ends as different as night and day), then the ¾-mile at Richmond.
Buescher has been running at the finish in 17 of the 21 races this season, but Monday’s win was his first top 10 with the first laps he’s led (12). Prior to today’s win, his best finishes were 14th at Indianapolis last week and 18th at Dover.
As for Ragan, who drives for BK Racing along with Matt DiBenedetto, he’s been inside the top 20 just twice all season – 16th at Daytona last month and 17th at Dover.
Right now, Kyle Larson is the driver who’s sweating serious bullets on the Chase bubble, the last of five who don’t have a win but would still get to run for the 2016 title.
Adding to the stress, even if Buescher slips into the top 30, there’s no guarantee someone else higher in the points won’t earn a win in the next five races.
We could get Kasey Kahne, the seemingly forgotten one at Hendrick Motorsports. He hasn’t been to Victory Lane since Atlanta in 2014, 69 races ago. Trevor Bayne still has only the 2011 Daytona 500 on the resume, but he was fifth at the Bristol spring race.
Buescher also beat two more highly-touted rookie drivers to the win column. Chase Elliott would be in the running for the title at this moment, but he’s only 25 points clear of Larson. Ryan Blaney finished 11th at Pocono, his best since he was 10th there in June.
Elliott has been in a major slump since he was runner-up at Michigan. In the six races since, his average finish is 27.6. Blaney, who is tied with Bayne and 28 points behind Larson, was 35th at Kentucky and 36th at Indianapolis.
We may see some serious movement in the standings between now and Sept. 10. Everything could flatten out and become predictable, too.
Only one thing is certain. We’ll be watching, speculating and keeping the tinfoil conspiracy hats tucked away in our anxiety closets.
Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @Tomzsports and email tominator19@yahoo.com.
NEXT WEEK’S RACES
Watkins Glen International (2.45-mile, 10-turn road course), Watkins Glen, N.Y.
-SPRINT CUP: Cheez-It 355 at the Glen, Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT, USA Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.
Race distance: 220.5 miles, 90 laps.
2015 champion: Joey Logano
-XFINITY SERIES: Zippo 200, Saturday, 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT, CNBC. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.
Race distance: 200.9 miles, 82 laps.
2015 champion: Joey Logano
-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Off until Aug. 17 for the UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Keselowski gets breakthrough win at Daytona

For Brad Keselowski, restrictor-plate racing at NASCAR’s two main tracks has been a mixed bag of success. More like polar opposites, in fact.

At Talladega Superspeedway, Keselowski earned his first career Sprint Cup win in 2009 and has added three more since. At Daytona, he had managed only three top-10 finishes in 14 prior starts.
Everything changed for the better on a night when the rain stayed away.
Keselowski was finally able to answer any and all challenges as he won the Coke Zero 400 on Saturday night on the 2.5-mile oval. It’s not the 500, but it certainly doesn’t matter, especially when it gave team owner Roger Penske his 100th win in the Sprint Cup Series.
The driver of the No. 2 Ford Fusion was so good, he led 115 of the 161 laps, almost three times as many as in his previous Daytona starts combined (38). What likely helped was his ability to stay away from trouble.
More than half the field – 22 of the 40 cars – got involved in a huge pileup at lap 90. Keselowski, who qualified fifth, was in front at the time and stayed there. Not only that, it was just the second time he started inside the top 10.
In the 2012 July race, BK qualified ninth and finished eighth. Considering his average finish in 14 prior trips was 22.1, it’s no coincidence that starting near the front makes a difference when any mistake, no matter how small, can take out a lot of cars.
Case in point was the Lap 90 mishap. Jamie McMurray got loose as Jimmie Johnson closed in, made contact with teammate Kyle Larson, and ignited the chain reaction.
Such is the fact of life at Daytona and Talladega. Restrictor plates keep the field in big packs, and any politeness the drivers may have had in the earlier stages of the race goes away when it’s go time.
The perfect symbol of what the big wreck does came when Brian Scott’s No. 44 car ended up on top of the hood of Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 for a short period of time. Better that than in the fence like Austin Dillon at last year’s rain-delayed Coke Zero 400, but we digress.
“You really think it’s going to happen from Lap 1,” said Harvick in a NASCAR Wire Service story. “It’s hard to make ground, so you have to be pretty aggressive when you start making ground.”
There are now nine races to go until the Chase field is set. Tony Stewart, who won a week ago at Sonoma Raceway to end a three-year drought, wrecked with 11 laps left and finished 26th. In spite of the bad break, Smoke is officially in the top 30 in points and eligible for his last title shot.
Stewart is only three points in front of Scott, and as we said last week, backsliding isn’t an option. The No. 14 car got as high as fifth by lap 140, but couldn’t hold on to the momentum.
As for the race broadcast, NBC Sports took over the coverage for its second season of work. Let’s just say they need to shake the rust off a little bit.
We get there is a need for commercials on a broadcast. What we don’t need is commercial breaks that don’t allow the storylines to truly develop.
According to the web site cawsnjaws.com, there was 47 minutes of commercial time out of 190 minutes that were measured during the Coke Zero 400. Race fans didn’t get to see nearly a full quarter of the race so the advertisers could make their money.
In total, there were 124 commercials, up from 96 last year. That’s way too much.
It’s another part of a big puzzle as to why NASCAR is struggling to regain the foothold it had on the fan base through the early part of the last decade. Fans aren’t buying seats at tracks with the voracity they once did, and when they can’t see the good parts of a race on TV, it only adds to the problems.
New drivers like Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney are giving fans hope for a brighter future for the sport. It’s time for the broadcast partners – TV or radio – to ensure it remains vibrant for generations to come.

Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @Tomzsports or email tominator19@yahoo.com.

NEXT WEEK'S RACES

Kentucky Speedway (1.5-mile oval), Sparta, Kentucky.

-SPRINT CUP: Quaker State 400, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local PRN affiliate.

Race distance: 400.5 miles, 267 laps.

2015 champion: Kyle Busch

-XFINITY SERIES: Alsco 300, Friday, 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local PRN affiliate.

Race distance: 300 miles, 200 laps.

2015 champion: Brad Keselowski

-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Buckle Up in Your Truck 225, Thursday, 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 225 miles, 150 laps.

2015 champion: Matt Crafton.

Logano rules youth movement at Michigan

Joey Logano won six races in 2015, nearly made the final four for a second time, and had an all-around successful year.

As for Logano’s start to 2016, the wins were just a bit harder to come by. The newest incarnation of a lower-downforce package was a catalyst to end his drought.
Asserting his dominance on restarts to hold off all challengers, Logano cruised to the win in the Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on June 12, leading 138 of the 200 laps. He became the 10th different driver to win a race on the season and punched his ticket to the Chase.
And if anyone had doubts about the future of NASCAR, they needed to look at who ran up front at MIS. After the 26-year-old Logano, Chase Elliott (20) and Kyle Larson (23) combined to become the youngest top three finishers – average age: 23 – in a Sprint Cup race since 1951.
While the young ones were ruling the front of the field, some of the veterans weren’t nearly as fortunate, including Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch.
For the fourth race in a row, Busch finished 30th or worse. His No. 18 M&Ms Toyota lost the engine on lap 52 and he finished dead last in 40th. Earnhardt Jr. was the next car out of the race after his No. 88 collided with Chris Buescher at lap 62.
Adding insult to the injury, Buescher was able to have the damage repaired to his No. 34 and he went on to finish 20th.
As the series heads to the second off week of the year, the debate can officially begin on who will break through and change their zero in the win column to get into the Chase.
Here’s a stat to note: In the first two seasons with the new eliminator-style format, there were 13 and 11 drivers, respectively, who got into the Chase by winning a race in the first 26. So far in Year 3, there are some notable names still searching for that elusive checkered flag.
Earnhardt Jr. headlines the list. After three wins in 2015, Junior has been shaky of late. Although he has four runner-up efforts, the average finish for the 88 since Texas has been 16th and he’s led just 53 laps on the year.
Elliott is as close to having a breakthrough in the win column as any Cup rookie in a long, long time. The runner-up finish at Michigan was the best of his 15-race career and he’s had 11 top-10 runs.
After crashing at Las Vegas and ending up 38th, Elliott’s average finish since then has been 7.1. He should be Rookie of the Year in a stone-cold lock, although Ryan Blaney has potential to give him a run for his money.
Austin Dillon – love him or hate him – shook off three weeks of bad runs and grabbed an eighth-place finish at Michigan. He’ll need to put at least three weeks of solid runs together to stay in Chase contention.
As for Blaney, he would be the 16th and final Chase qualifier if it started today. Cliché aside, the Wood Brothers driver has seen mistakes at the worst times cost him shots at wins.
Blaney does have four top-10s in the last six races, but with the first of two road course races coming up at Sonoma Raceway in two weeks, the pressure to perform is officially on.
For all the remaining drivers with championship dreams, the race to the Chase begins right now.

Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @Tomzsports.

NEXT WEEK'S RACES

Iowa Speedway (.875-mile oval), Newton, Iowa)

-XFINITY SERIES: American Ethanol E15 250, Sunday, 1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 250 laps, 218.75 miles

2015 champion: Chris Buescher

-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Speediatrics 200, Saturday, 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 200 laps, 175 miles

2015 champion: Erik. Jones.

-SPRINT CUP: Off until June 26 for the Toyota/SaveMart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, Sonoma, Calif.

Darlington becomes Carlington at Southern 500

The Southern 500 returned to its Labor Day weekend roots Sunday night at Darlington Raceway. Everything about the race had a retro/throwback/time warp feel to it. All but a handful of the 43 cars had old-time paint schemes. The NBC crew donned sport coats that would have made Starsky and Hutch turn flush with envy, and the old peacock made a return appearance.
NASCAR broadcasting legends Ken Squier and Ned Jarrett joined in the fun, calling the race for about 35 minutes. The link of the segment is out there on the NASCAR on NBC Facebook page, and it’s definitely worth sharing.
Even the music selections used to lead race viewers in and out of commercials grabbed hold of the 1970s theme, which made for a Southern 500 that was awesome as much as it was long – nearly four and a half hours with a record-setting 18 caution flags.
Carl Edwards came through in the end and turned Darlington into “Carlington” for his first win at the legendary track dubbed “Too Tough to Tame” and second of 2015. It continued the dominance of the Toyotas in the Joe Gibbs Racing camp as the team has won seven of the last 10 races. Four came from Kyle Busch, two by Matt Kenseth, and Edwards joined in the fun.
As for the “Carlington” idea, it came when a crew member from his No. 19 Arris Toyota stuck just enough white tape – at least that’s what it looked like from the TV pictures – to turn the “D” on a portion of an infield wall into a “C.”
Darlington to Carlington, get it? All kidding aside, that was a great touch from a great broadcast of a darn good race in spite of the time length.
Thank goodness most of us didn’t have to work on Labor Day.
With Edwards’ victory secured, that means there are still five spots for non-winning drivers with one race remaining in the “regular season” on the way to the Chase. Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Paul Menard, Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer are just about locked in for NASCAR’s version of postseason play, but anyone else behind them within the top 30 has one last shot to get in with a victory at Richmond on Saturday night.
McMurray and Newman have their spots for the Chase in lockdown mode. Gordon is basically in unless he has enough of a bad finish to allow Bowyer and Menard to pass him along with someone from outside the top 16 winning Saturday’s race.
Bowyer is the only one with the most to lose in the final race of the regular season. Unless he surpasses Menard in the points – Bowyer trails by 10 – he’ll be the one forced into 2016 testing mode if someone like Aric Almirola or Kasey Kahne wins at Richmond.
Those outside the top 16 aren’t exactly instilling fear among the five non-winners who would be in the Chase, though. At the Southern 500, Kyle Larson was the highest finisher among the group, coming home 10th.
Heading to Richmond, Bowyer has a 29-point lead on Almirola and 31 over Kahne. Almirola was 11th on Sunday, Kahne came in 12th, and Bowyer finished 17th. It’s clearly all-or-nothing time now for those with dreams of winning the 2015 Sprint Cup title.
The likelihood of any serious drama may be low for the fans come Saturday night, but any driver worth his salt doesn’t need to worry about details or opinions
Get in, sit down, tighten the belts, and hold on. Hope can lurk around any corner.

Followers and comments are welcome on Twitter @Tomzsports.

NEXT WEEK'S RACES

Richmond International Raceway (.75-mile short track oval), Richmond, Virginia

SPRINT CUP: Federated Auto Parts 400, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance; 400 laps, 300 miles.

2014 champion: Brad Keselowski

XFINITY SERIES: Virginia 529 College Savings 250, Friday, 7:30 p.m, ET/4:30 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 250 laps, 187.5 miles.

2014 champion: Kyle Busch

CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Off until Sept. 18 for the American Ethanol E15 225 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Chase stress hits overdrive for some

On a bright, beautiful Sunday afternoon at Michigan International Speedway, the Pure Michigan 400 was as much about the continuing dominance of the Joe Gibbs Racing cars as it was about those who were fighting for their lives to be eligible to be in the Chase for the 2015 Sprint Cup title.
We didn’t have a change at the top. Matt Kenseth was dominant on the 2-mile oval, leading 146 of 200 laps and cruising to his third win of the season.
But what we saw toward the lower parts of the pack at Michigan was how some drivers saw their collars get just a little bit tighter after running into trouble on the track.
Among the casualties was Clint Bowyer. As if he didn’t have enough distraction with the Michael Waltrip Racing team situation hanging like a dark cloud over his head, the affable Kansas native got together with Ryan Newman at lap 127, hitting the inside wall after a spin at Turn 4. The damage done was more than enough to force the No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota into a 41st-place finish.
From a somewhat comfortable cushion as the 16th and last driver who would be in the Chase field, Bowyer saw a 50-point margin over Aric Almirola get sliced by more than half. With Almirola finishing 14th on Sunday, he gained a renewed sense of hope and closed the gap to just 23 points with still three races left to run.
As we’ve discussed with Kyle Busch – more on him shortly – there are no more mulligans left for anyone. It’s go time.
Adding to the pressure for Bowyer, Kasey Kahne saw a 15th-place finish turn into something more like a victory. He moved within 26 points of the last spot in the Chase field.
How good was Sunday’s result for Kahne? The No. 5 car had an average finish of 31st in the last six races, including 43rd at Pocono and 42nd at Watkins Glen.
Yet thanks to one competitor’s misfortune at Michigan, Kahne still has hope over the final three races before the Chase begins.
And then there’s Kyle Busch, who turned the misfortune of starting from the rear of the field (40th) after a Saturday practice crash into an 11th-place finish Sunday. He moved up a spot in the standings to 29th and increased his cushion on 31st from six to 23 points.
Even though Busch is weaving his way up the standings faster than a sprinter on a jet ski, there’s still one tiny part of the skeptical side of my brain that says the Las Vegas native won’t be able to keep up the pace.
So far, he’s proven everyone wrong, but any misstep – a wreck, pit road speeding penalty, blown engine, worn tire – could set all the momentum back into the mud.
And more importantly, anyone without a win in the top 30 who gets to Victory Lane over the next three races could spoil everything. Austin Dillon put a scare into some camps Sunday, leading 19 laps before finishing fourth.
But whatever happens from Bristol to Darlington to Richmond, the only guarantee is the final run to the Chase will require good working running shoes.

-The XFINITY series hit the second of three straight road courses Saturday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course near Columbus, and Regan Smith scored his ideal payback after his dustup with Ty Dillon, bumping Alex Tagliani out of the way in the closing laps and winning the Nationwide Children's Hospital 200.

Best lesson from the moment: Instead of letting the frustration of past injustice tear him up inside, Smith did what he had to do to get his car to the checkered flag first. Dillon was still a factor late, finishing third, but any gain on those at the top of the standings is a good gain.

Smith is fourth in the standings and trails Chase Elliott by 26 points, while Dillon is one point further up the line in second place.

-And from the "I should have paid attention" department: Kyle Busch denied Ryan Blaney another victory, this time in Saturday's Camping World Truck Series race at Michigan. The final margin was only .157 seconds, but it was an encore that probably felt like light years away to Blaney.

The kid shook off his disappointment of Indianapolis and won at Iowa. With the series hitting Bristol in rapid-fire fashion Wednesday night, it gives Blaney the ideal scenario. If he's on the entry list, don't be surprised if the young man finds a way to get himself back in the winning groove once more.

Followers and comments are welcome on Twitter @Tomzsports.

NEXT WEEK'S RACES

Bristol Motor Speedway (.533-mile oval), Bristol, Tenn.

-SPRINT CUP: Irwin Tools Night Race, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m, PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local PRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 500 laps, 266.5 miles

2014 champion: Joey Logano

-XFINITY SERIES: Food City 300, Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local PRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 300 laps, 159.9 miles.

2014 champion: Ryan Blaney

-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: UNOH 200 presented by ZLoop, Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 200 laps, 106.6 miles

2014 champion: Brad Keselowski