|
 In the first race of Round 2 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Chase
contenders ran into one another, there were crashes on re-starts and
crew chiefs made some seriously bad calls.
Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch were all considered
among the favorites to make it to the final one-race round at the
Homestead-Miami Speedway. But each was involved in incidents, not
necessarily of their own making, which will severely test their
ability to advance.
But even those who had a good day still face a lot of pressure
unless they advance by winning the race at the Kansas Speedway on
Sunday. The third race in the Contender round is at the Talladega
Superspeedway, where the draft and multi-car crashes can ruin a
driver's day in a heartbeat. Only a victory guarantees a driver will
advance to the next round.
"Logano's the only one is going to sleep for the next two weeks, you
know what I mean?" said Martin Truex Jr., who finished third in
Charlotte behind runner-up Kevin Harvick.
Is there too much pressure on drivers who earn hefty retainers and
purse money in the millions? While they may not face any more
pressure than Major League Baseball players in a Divisional Series,
the Sprint Cup drivers do carry far more of a team's responsibility
when it comes to the outcome. That pressure showed at Charlotte, the
home track for the bulk of the Sprint Cup participants.
Charlotte is also a 1.5-mile track where passing is difficult, which
moved the pressure up another notch, especially after the planned
Saturday night race was postponed until Sunday afternoon. With cars
impounded by NASCAR overnight, teams had to scramble to adapt their
chassis to warmer, sunny weather during the afternoon event.
After leading 72 laps, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kenseth got mired in
traffic due to crew chief Jason Ratcliffe's decision to bring him
into the pits while leading for four fresh tires on the day's third
caution while the rest of the leaders stayed out or took just two
tires. While struggling to get back to the clean air at the front,
Kenseth couldn't get his car to handle in traffic and eventually
tagged the rear of Chase contender Ryan Newman, hit the wall and was
forced to retire, finishing 42nd.
If ever there was an inopportune call to take the time to put on
four tires by a crew chief, this was it - although it was a move
probably designed to stay ahead of changing track conditions.
Kenseth will now have to win at Kansas or hope for a miracle at
Talladega to make it to Round 3.
Earnhardt Jr. ran afoul of an aggressive passing maneuver in Turn 1
as well - but not his own. Carl Edwards made a bid to the inside,
Earnhardt Jr. turned in and was knocked up the banking.
Despite a miraculous save, a cut tire eventually put him two laps
down. During his comeback, he hit oil near the wall at Turn 1 and he
eventually finished 28th.
Replays showed Edwards' move to be overly aggressive and without
much chance of success unless he forced Earnhardt Jr. to change his
line, which didn't happen. Edwards said he had already been blocked
once by the Hendrick Motorsports Chevy driver.
"I felt like he blocked me real hard the first time and so the
second time I got up there when he came down I just held my ground
and we got together," said Edwards. "He did an amazing job saving it
and I have a ton of respect for him so it stinks that it ruined his
day. I have to hold my ground when I've got my nose in there."
[to top of second column] |
Earnhardt Jr. said he would wait to view a replay before commenting
on Edwards' move. He remained upbeat about his chances after winning
two restrictor plate races this year already at the Daytona
International Speedway and Talladega.
"We don't have to go to Talladega and be nervous like those guys
that are going to have to play it safe," he said. "We can just go
hard. So, we've got a great car that can win that race. We can go to
Kansas and run great. I like that track and don't see why we can't
run great there and maybe win the race there."
Far less confident was Busch, who finished 20th and sarcastically
thanked NASCAR for its clean-up efforts on the oil in Turn 1. While
running third, Busch was hit by Kyle Larson's late entrance to the
pit road. Subsequent repairs to the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
put Busch behind, before he too hit the oil in Turn 1 and got into
the wall.
There wasn't much doubt that Larson caused the accident - although
Busch got collected because he faked an entrance to the pit road
before trying to return to the track. In this case, there was some
confused signal calling by a crew chief. At the last second, Chris
Heroy told Larson to pit even through the driver was nearly past the
commitment cone.
"They told me to do what everybody around me was doing and the No.
22 (leader Logano) was staying out," said Larson. "So I was
committed to staying out and as soon as I turned right to stay out
they said, 'Pit, pit, pit.' I hung a left and Kyle was there. I feel
really terrible to ruin their day and hopefully it didn't hurt their
chances of transferring through this round."
For his part, Newman finished 15th. He didn't lose ground due to his
contact with Kenseth in Turn 1. But he also finds himself to be one
of the four drivers below the cut line simply by not finishing ahead
of eight other contenders. Having advanced on points last year to
runner-up in the championship, on this day Newman lost points
primarily because his Richard Childress Racing Chevy just wasn't
quick enough on restarts.
Asked about so many contenders being involved in mistakes on this
day, Truex Jr.'s answer was not surprising. The pressure, he said,
keeps mounting.
"I think part of it is that they know that every spot is super
important, and if they get that chance to get in there and take a
position, they're going to go for it," he said. "That's probably
what it boils down to. I thought the restarts were as on edge as
ever, guys just trying to get everything they possibly could. There
was just so much on the line."
-----------------------------------------------
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
