CUP: Friday Homestead Notebook

Sprint Cup

CUP: Friday Homestead Notebook

Rick Hendrick says trouble at Martinsville led to Jeff Gordon’s retaliation against Clint Bowyer…

Mike Hembree | Posted November 16, 2012 Homestead, FL

Rick Hendrick is the team owner of four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

HENDRICK: MARTINSVILLE HURT – Team owner Rick Hendrick, defending driver Jeff Gordon’s decision to retaliate against Clint Bowyer last week at Phoenix, said Friday his organization was still hurting from Bowyer’s actions in the closing laps of the spring race at Martinsville.

Gordon was fined $100,000 and 25 series points for crashing Bowyer in the Phoenix race.

Gordon complained that Bowyer had raced him improperly several times this season, including at Phoenix. In particular, Bowyer was involved in a crash that took away victory chances Gordon and teammate Jimmie Johnson had in the Martinsville race.

A win by Gordon or Johnson that day would have been the Hendrick organization’s 200th in Sprint Cup, and the disappointment was devastating, Hendrick said. On hand at the race were widows of two of the Hendrick personnel who died in the Hendrick team plane crash near Martinsville, and Hendrick said scoring the 200th win that day would have been remarkable for everyone concerned.

“The 200th win at Martinsville meant so much because we lost so much there,” Hendrick said. “I have never hurt as bad in my life leaving the race track as I did that day, just because we had it in our grasp. I think with that situation, along with some other things that happened along the way, you don’t forget it.”

Gordon said Friday that he “lost control of my emotions” when he decided to retaliate and wreck Bowyer last week.

“The thing that I regret and the thing I messed up on is I allowed my anger and emotions to put me in position to make a bad choice,” he said. “I feel like Clint needed to be dealt with, but that wasn’t the right way to go about it or the right time. What I hate the most is that other guys were involved with it. I certainly look back on it and wish I had done things different.”

Gordon added, however, that “I don’t think they’re going to be messing with me anytime soon. I think that message has been sent loud and clear."

He said he hasn’t talked to Bowyer since Sunday afternoon.

WILL PHOENIX IMPACT HOMESTEAD? – Will there be Phoenix fallout at Homestead?

Sprint Cup point leader Brad Keselowski was outspoken last week in his criticism of the late-race mayhem at Phoenix – he called it “borderline ridiculous,” among other things. Keselowski was criticized in some circles for aggressively racing Jimmie Johnson over the closing miles the week before at Texas, so he was locked and loaded when it came time to talk about the Phoenix chaos.

That was then, this is now. But memories of Phoenix remain.

“The last 10 laps or five laps, whatever that was, pretty wild,” Johnson said. “You know, I still haven't seen the clip. I understand if you watch it on television there's going to be a lot of beeps because you can't hear it all. But he (Keselowski) has a point, and he wanted to make a point, and he did.

“That's all relative to Phoenix. The thing I didn't understand was maybe some of the criticism he took for racing me at Texas. I guess I was in my bubble and didn't really see any of that. But, I mean, it was just hard racing there. I was shocked to hear that he was hazed for some of that.”

Johnson and Keselowski could race each other again Sunday, but, in that case, Johnson will be on the downswing. He needs to make up 20 points.

“If we're racing each other, I'm in trouble,” Johnson said. “We need a big gap between where I am and where he is. That's really the bottom line.

“You know, this is a different championship battle for me, and I have no problem doing things that I typically wouldn't do. I mean, if I was coming down here as the points leader I would want to limit these moments, and since I'm not, I'll do anything you guys want and need. It's different. I've got to play the hand that's dealt to me, and anything I can do to be effective, I'm going to take that opportunity to do it.”

PATRICK AFTER TOP-10 FINISH – Danica Patrick sits in 10th in Nationwide Series points entering Saturday’s season finale.

“It will be nice if we can get a top 10 in points,” she said Friday. “I feel like we should. You never know what’s going to happen. Of course, I always hope for more.

“I had a lot of expectations when I started the year off. That’s what put me in a little bit of an unhappy place after the second race at Phoenix (she was 38th at Daytona and 21st at Phoenix, putting her 21st in points). I expected it to go better, and it just wasn’t. After race two, I started setting more realistic goals again. Sometimes you have to change them a little bit.”

A top-10 points finish would give Patrick the best seasonal finish by a woman in a NASCAR series.

Patrick is winless with no top-five finishes and four top 10s.

“You have to find little victories every weekend because it’s a long season,” she said. “Even if making a mistake taught me a lesson, you have to take something away from that as a positive.”

She will move to the Sprint Cup series full-time next year but plans to run select Nationwide races.

THE WAYS TO WIN – Brad Keselowski (Sprint Cup), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Nationwide) and James Buescher (Camping World Truck) carry point leads into the weekend’s season-ending races, but each one faces a different scenario for walking out of Homestead-Miami Speedway with a championship.

Keselowski leads Jimmie Johnson by 20 points and will win the Cup tile with a finish of 15 or better. He also finishes first with a 16th-place finish and leading a lap or a 17th-place finish and leading the most laps.

Stenhouse leads Elliott Sadler by 20 in the Nationwide battle. Stenhouse will win the title by finishing 16th or better, 17th with a lap led or 18th with the most laps led.

Buescher has the toughest task. He leads Timothy Peters by only 11 points. Buescher will win the title with a finish of seventh or better, eighth with a lap led or ninth with the most laps led.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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Mike Hembree

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