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Sprint Cup
CUP: Sunday Kansas Notebook
Paul Menard had his best finish since winning the Brickyard 400…
Paul Menard finished third in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
MENARDI GRAS TIME — This time of year, drivers not in the Chase for the Sprint Cup typically don’t get a lot of attention in the media. But Paul Menard and his Richard Childress Racing crew had a sensational Sunday afternoon at Kansas Speedway, where Menard finished third in the Hollywood Casino 400.
It was Menard’s best finish of the season and his first top five since winning the Brickyard 400 last year. And it came in crew chief “Slugger” Labbe’s first race back from a NASCAR mandated suspension after one of the team’s cars was caught with illegal chassis modifications following the second race at Michigan International Speedway in August.
Needless to say, Menard was happy with the outcome. “This year RCR as a whole has kind of lacked speed,” he said. “We found some things in the last month or two that's helped us pick up just overall speed. Then our consistency this year we've had — even though we haven't been as fast, we've been more consistent. This is just one of the weekends where we put it all together. “
As for the record number of cautions in the race (14), Menard said several factors contributed to it.
“I don't know. People impatient. A lot of restarts,” he said. “Doesn't matter what track you're at, if there's a restart, you have to get all you can. Carrying a lot of speed here, so it's hard to pass. Very aero dependent. I'm sure everybody was going for it.”
ANOTHER STRONG DAY FOR TRUEX — For whatever reason, Kansas Speedway is a place Martin Truex Jr. runs extremely well. Earlier this year, Truex led the most laps and finished second here in his No. 56 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota. And even though the track was torn up and reconfigured immediately after that race, Truex finished second again in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400.
Truex dodged a couple of dicey moments this time out, including a four-car crash in Turn 4 on Lap 182 that put Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman out of contention.
There's a lot of luck involved in racing,” said Truex, who has had his two best finishes of the 2012 season come in the two Kansas races. “Obviously you have to be well prepared, have a great team, do everything right. But there is some luck involved in racing. You get a guy that crashes in front of you, you have nowhere to go, a guy that gets loose underneath you, none of it's your fault. A lot of times luck can dictate your racing.”
On this day, though, Truex had some better racing luck than he’s had for much of the year.
“I think the (bad) luck, when it happens to you, you always think you're the one that has all the bad luck,” he said. “I've said it a million times, that I wish I had better luck. There's some things you just can't change. You have to go out, do your job the best you can, have the best team you can, drive your butt off.”
Which is what Truex did. And he got some good fortune along the way. “When the 18 (Busch) and them guys all crashed off (Turn) 4, I was right behind them,” Truex said. “Had a little bit of luck. They went down the track, not came back up into me.”
SEVENTH FOR SMITH — If all goes as planned, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be behind the wheel of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet again next weekend at Martinsville Speedway. Sunday at Kansas Speedway, Regan Smith came up big in his second race subbing for Earnhardt, who is recovering from a concussion.
Smith finished seventh in the Hollywood Casino 400, an excellent result given the fact that he and the No. 88 crew are just starting to get to know one another.
“All the guys on the National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevy did a hell of a job,” said Smith. “These past two weeks we had arguably a better car last week had we had a chance to run the whole race. It’s been nice to be able to step in and have them treat me like their normal driver. I know Dale is excited to get back so that is going to good for him. Looking forward to whatever comes next for me.”
HARD DAY FOR HAMLIN — Denny Hamlin won the first race at Kansas Speedway this year in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, and he figured to be good as well, even though the track has been repaved and reconfigured between the two races. But from the time he had a hard crash in testing here Thursday, Hamlin never was on pace with the fastest cars for any length of time.
With points leader Brad Keselowski finishing eighth, one spot ahead of second-place Jimmie Johnson, Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing team had a golden opportunity to pick up points in the championship hunt on Sunday.
Instead, Hamlin finished 13th and fell to 20 points behind Keselowski and 13 back of Johnson. In the era of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, no one has ever been the equivalent of 20 points of more out of the lead at this point in the year and won the title.
After the race, Hamlin knew a chance to gain ground was lost.
“Well, this is a race where when you got the other guys you’re racing finishing eighth and ninth — you’ve got to beat them, especially wrecked race cars shouldn’t be there, so we just shot ourselves in the foot a lot today,” said Hamlin.
It was a long, difficult afternoon.
“Frustration — just never got a chance to race,” said Hamlin. “Every run I either had to save fuel or get caught by a caution and then go a lap down, get a wave around and it’s just — got caught by two cautions today — we had good track position. I drove to the top-five on the first run and then we took four (tires) and the entire field took two (tires) and put us in the back of the pack and we were no better than the back-markers at that point.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
It was Menard’s best finish of the season and his first top five since winning the Brickyard 400 last year. And it came in crew chief “Slugger” Labbe’s first race back from a NASCAR mandated suspension after one of the team’s cars was caught with illegal chassis modifications following the second race at Michigan International Speedway in August.
Needless to say, Menard was happy with the outcome. “This year RCR as a whole has kind of lacked speed,” he said. “We found some things in the last month or two that's helped us pick up just overall speed. Then our consistency this year we've had — even though we haven't been as fast, we've been more consistent. This is just one of the weekends where we put it all together. “
As for the record number of cautions in the race (14), Menard said several factors contributed to it.
“I don't know. People impatient. A lot of restarts,” he said. “Doesn't matter what track you're at, if there's a restart, you have to get all you can. Carrying a lot of speed here, so it's hard to pass. Very aero dependent. I'm sure everybody was going for it.”
ANOTHER STRONG DAY FOR TRUEX — For whatever reason, Kansas Speedway is a place Martin Truex Jr. runs extremely well. Earlier this year, Truex led the most laps and finished second here in his No. 56 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota. And even though the track was torn up and reconfigured immediately after that race, Truex finished second again in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400.
Truex dodged a couple of dicey moments this time out, including a four-car crash in Turn 4 on Lap 182 that put Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman out of contention.
There's a lot of luck involved in racing,” said Truex, who has had his two best finishes of the 2012 season come in the two Kansas races. “Obviously you have to be well prepared, have a great team, do everything right. But there is some luck involved in racing. You get a guy that crashes in front of you, you have nowhere to go, a guy that gets loose underneath you, none of it's your fault. A lot of times luck can dictate your racing.”
On this day, though, Truex had some better racing luck than he’s had for much of the year.
“I think the (bad) luck, when it happens to you, you always think you're the one that has all the bad luck,” he said. “I've said it a million times, that I wish I had better luck. There's some things you just can't change. You have to go out, do your job the best you can, have the best team you can, drive your butt off.”
Which is what Truex did. And he got some good fortune along the way. “When the 18 (Busch) and them guys all crashed off (Turn) 4, I was right behind them,” Truex said. “Had a little bit of luck. They went down the track, not came back up into me.”
SEVENTH FOR SMITH — If all goes as planned, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be behind the wheel of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet again next weekend at Martinsville Speedway. Sunday at Kansas Speedway, Regan Smith came up big in his second race subbing for Earnhardt, who is recovering from a concussion.
Smith finished seventh in the Hollywood Casino 400, an excellent result given the fact that he and the No. 88 crew are just starting to get to know one another.
“All the guys on the National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevy did a hell of a job,” said Smith. “These past two weeks we had arguably a better car last week had we had a chance to run the whole race. It’s been nice to be able to step in and have them treat me like their normal driver. I know Dale is excited to get back so that is going to good for him. Looking forward to whatever comes next for me.”
HARD DAY FOR HAMLIN — Denny Hamlin won the first race at Kansas Speedway this year in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, and he figured to be good as well, even though the track has been repaved and reconfigured between the two races. But from the time he had a hard crash in testing here Thursday, Hamlin never was on pace with the fastest cars for any length of time.
With points leader Brad Keselowski finishing eighth, one spot ahead of second-place Jimmie Johnson, Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing team had a golden opportunity to pick up points in the championship hunt on Sunday.
Instead, Hamlin finished 13th and fell to 20 points behind Keselowski and 13 back of Johnson. In the era of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, no one has ever been the equivalent of 20 points of more out of the lead at this point in the year and won the title.
After the race, Hamlin knew a chance to gain ground was lost.
“Well, this is a race where when you got the other guys you’re racing finishing eighth and ninth — you’ve got to beat them, especially wrecked race cars shouldn’t be there, so we just shot ourselves in the foot a lot today,” said Hamlin.
It was a long, difficult afternoon.
“Frustration — just never got a chance to race,” said Hamlin. “Every run I either had to save fuel or get caught by a caution and then go a lap down, get a wave around and it’s just — got caught by two cautions today — we had good track position. I drove to the top-five on the first run and then we took four (tires) and the entire field took two (tires) and put us in the back of the pack and we were no better than the back-markers at that point.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
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