2013 NASCAR race reviews and results

[Garrett Duke]

Well, if you'd read my post from yesterday in Nascar News you'd know all about the new qualifying format .

I saw that earlier, and it's very sad. He was only 10 minutes into the race and his Aston Martin hit the barrier hard on the driver's side. The rest of the team are carrying on at the request of Allan's family. It's the first death at Le Mans since 1997.

Well Hoss for your first remark...I did read that yesterday. Just didn't have time to write or add onto it.

[HossC]

I was just on NASCAR.com to check for last minute news and to open a Live Leaderboard window ready for the race when I got worried that I'd posted the wrong start time. Here's the front page I got:

And here's the schedule where I got my original information:

I thought I might have misread the time zone, but one clearly says 3 PM ET and the other 2 PM ET.

[Garrett Duke]

Forget the time start...dang I love that 24 car! Got to be the best looking car on the track.

Well it is 1:18 central time here...so that would be 2:18 ET. TVGuide.com says it will start at two my time...which will be 3 EST.

See Hoss, you got to have reliable information before posting...otherwise people will be disappointed when they turn it on and it is only TNT's pre race show. HA. I assume the 2:00 EST start included the pre race show...the three start time is the start of the race. Maybe? LOL

[HossC]

See Hoss, you got to have reliable information before posting...otherwise people will be disappointed when they turn it on and it is only TNT's pre race show. HA. I assume the 2:00 EST start included the pre race show...the three start time is the start of the race. Maybe? LOL

Next time I'll make sure I use NASCAR.com for my information as I can't rely on NASCAR.com .

For every other race this year I'm sure the times on the schedule has been the race start time. I'm pretty sure they usually agree with the front page.

[Garrett Duke]

Next time I'll make sure I use NASCAR.com for my information as I can't rely on NASCAR.com .

For every other race this year I'm sure the times on the schedule has been the race start time. I'm pretty sure they usually agree with the front page.

Dang it...guess I should have double checked that before posting it. HA HA...

Am sure it was probably a mistake on who ever does their website then...what ya know, I'm not the only one to make mistakes!

[HossC]

Am sure it was probably a mistake on who ever does their website then...what ya know, I'm not the only one to make mistakes!

To borrow a quote from Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz that I posted recently in another thread:

"I never made a mistake in my life. I thought I did once, but I was wrong."

[Garrett Duke]

To borrow a quote from Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz that I posted recently in another thread:

"I never made a mistake in my life. I thought I did once, but I was wrong."

HA HA ! I love that Hoss.

Well y'all...before the race has even started, there was an accident between two drivers as they went off pit road that had caused a delay to the start of the race as they had to clean the pit road. Bobby Labonte already having a bad day before the race has started. The race has started despite the rain. Now Bobby Labonte pulled off to the side, parked, saying engine problems. David Ragen just got spun out...crazy start to the race!

Oh and Juan Pablo Montoya has just spun out Kyle Busch...I can guarantee you that one Kyle Busch is NOT happy with JPM right now.

[Garrett Duke]

HA HA ! I love that Hoss.

Well y'all...before the race has even started, there was an accident between two drivers as they went off pit road that had caused a delay to the start of the race as they had to clean the pit road. Bobby Labonte already having a bad day before the race has started. The race has started despite the rain. Now Bobby Labonte pulled off to the side, parked, saying engine problems. David Ragen just got spun out...crazy start to the race!

Oh and Juan Pablo Montoya has just spun out Kyle Busch...I can guarantee you that one Kyle Busch is NOT happy with JPM right now.

The Sonoma race has just ended and as I posted earlier, it started off with a bang. Last year they said their first caution was on lap 87 or something like that, but their first caution today was on lap seven after Pablo spun out Kyle Busch. No retaliation on Busch's part, but Kyle had a horrible race that was filled with bad luck. Seemed like he spun out a lot either by the help of others or by his own.

Marcos Ambrose led the first few laps before Kurt Busch took over to lead a few laps. On lap twenty-four, Jeff Gordon goes in to make his first pit stop (he was tenth) and right before he made the commitment cone to pit road, NASCAR pulls the caution for rain...which put Gordon at the end of the longest line...and in 38th position. I bet you all can guess who was NOT happy.

Kurt Busch goes into pit, his crew chief, warns him to watch his speed that there were others were caught speeding on pit road. So what does Kurt do? He gets caught speeding on pit road. Not only that, but as he went to do his drive through penalty for speeding on pit road...he gets caught again for speeding on pit road. He was put a lap down after that, but he managed to race his way up to the lead lap again and for a top ten finish.

Danica Patrick spun out a couple of times today...She was helped put back on the main lap when car owner Tony Stewart caused an accident when he rear ended another driver. (Can't think of who it was at the moment.)

Denny Hamlin got into the wall or grass area and caused an infield grass fire...which was quickly put out.

Jeff Gordon on the other hand raced his way from 38th position to lead lap before the caution goes out with thirty laps to go...comes back out second to Joey Logano. Martin Truex Jr at some point took the lead and never looked back...breaking his two hundred plus winless streak. Juan Pablo Montoya ran second for a long time before his car ran out of gas on the last lap...which gave Jeff Gordon a second place finish. (Bet y'all can't guess who is excited about that?!)

FINAL RESULTS AT SONOMA:

1. Martin Truex Jr.

2. Jeff Gordon

3. Carl Edwards

4. Kurt Busch

5 Clint Bowyer

6 Kasey Kahne

7 Marcos Ambrose

8 Greg Biffle

9 Jimmie Johnson

10 Kevin Harvick

11 Joey Logano

12 Dale Earnhardt Jr.

13 Brian Vickers

14 Paul Menard

15 Ryan Newman

16 Casey Mears

17 Travis Kvapil

18 Boris Said

19 Matt Kenseth

20 Aric Almirola

21 Brad Keselowski

22 Ron Fellows

23 Denny Hamlin

24 David Gilliland

25 Jamie McMurray

26 David Reutimann

27 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

28 Tony Stewart

29 Danica Patrick

30 Justin Marks

31 Jeff Burton

32 Josh Wise

33 David Ragan

34 Juan Pablo Montoya

35 Kyle Busch

36 David Stremme

37 Victor Gonzalez Jr.

38 Tomy Drissi

39 Paulie Harraka

40 Alex Kennedy

41 Jacques Villeneuve

42 J.J. Yeley

43 Bobby Labonte

We will be back to making only left turns next Sunday at Kentucky!

[HossC]

Was it my imagination, or were there even more commercial breaks than usual today? I'd swear that several times they only showed two laps of racing between commercials.

Garrett, I'm sure you're happy with the result, but you forgot to mention DW jointly giving the command "Drivers, start your engines" and saying "Boogity, boogity, boogity! Let's go racin' boys and girls" - I bet you liked that bit too .

[Garrett Duke]

Was it my imagination, or were there even more commercial breaks than usual today? I'd swear that several times they only showed two laps of racing between commercials.

Garrett, I'm sure you're happy with the result, but you forgot to mention DW jointly giving the command "Drivers, start your engines" and saying "Boogity, boogity, boogity! Let's go racin' boys and girls" - I bet you liked that bit too .

Dang it...you are right. I forgot to mention DW was the grand marshall! I was sooo excited when he got up there...it was great to hear his boogity boogity boogity again. I really miss that...I miss him. Musta been all them commercial breaks that got me distracted...think you are right Hoss. Feel like TNT shows more commercials than they do the race and feel the announcers are more negative than the ones on FOX. As I said, really wish FOX aired all the races...but that is my opinion for how little it is worth.

You are right...I did like seeing DW and his command.

[RogerDuke]

Congratulations on Jeff Gordon finishing second Garrett.

After a banner week at fantasy NASCAR two races ago I returned to my normal pathetic self with my Sonoma picks.

But the good news is that you didn't beat me in our match up in fantasy baseball. I came from behind for a 6-6 tie. If I would have lost you'd be teasing me for the next 9 weeks (when I beat you in our rematch).

Sorry to change the subject but I'm so bad at fantasy NASCAR I just can't help myself.

[Garrett Duke]

Congratulations on Jeff Gordon finishing second Garrett.

After a banner week at fantasy NASCAR two races ago I returned to my normal pathetic self with my Sonoma picks.

But the good news is that you didn't beat me in our match up in fantasy baseball. I came from behind for a 6-6 tie. If I would have lost you'd be teasing me for the next 9 weeks (when I beat you in our rematch).

Sorry to change the subject but I'm so bad at fantasy NASCAR I just can't help myself.

You mean...you mean...you mean I lost...to you?! In fantasy baseball...? LOL. Congrats on the win...but it will be fun beating you in nine more weeks. I better to tune up my team before then. Since this team has failed me... LOL.

As for NASCAR, thank you Roger. Second place finish feels like a win...best finish of the season as of yet. The win has to be around the corner somewhere soon. Right? I was and am very excited with yesterday's race...for Gordon and the rest of team Hendrick.

Don't beat yourself up about your NASCAR Fantasy performance...road coarses are different where as there is a select number of drivers that excel at them while the others kinda suffer through them. I will be glad to give you pointers when they go to their second road race next month if you want. But don't be mad if I end up being wrong...I am wrong more than right. I thought I did pretty good with my team, but instead, I ended up slipping. Was disappointed in that...guess havign Juan Pablo Montoya run out of gas on the last lap didn't help me.

[RogerDuke]

You mean...you mean...you mean I lost...to you?! In fantasy baseball...? LOL. Congrats on the win...but it will be fun beating you in nine more weeks. I better to tune up my team before then. Since this team has failed me... LOL.

You'd better reread my post. We tied 6-6. Although beating you certainly would have been nice. Hopefully beating you in the playoffs is in my future! By the way, nice pick up with Josh Donaldson. I might regret dumping him.

[Garrett Duke]

You'd better reread my post. We tied 6-6. Although beating you certainly would have been nice. Hopefully beating you in the playoffs is in my future! By the way, nice pick up with Josh Donaldson. I might regret dumping him.

Oops...glad I missread that. I thought you said we were tied once and then you won...well I guess I can celebrate the weekly victory last week. Seeing how I am losing pretty bad this week. And I would love to make it to the playoffs...don't know if I ever made it that far in baseball.

I was excited to get Donaldson...do you have any good players you would be willing to give me?

[RogerDuke]

...do you have any good players you would be willing to give me?

I don't have any players who are on the Cubs.

Are you implying that there are good players in baseball who aren't on the Cubs?

I thought you were too loyal to have such terrible thoughts.

But let's stay on the thread's topic and discuss how bad I'm going to beat you in fantasy NASCAR this weekend.

[HossC]

Here's the provisional starting order for tomorrow's Quaker State 400 at the Kentucky Speedway:

1. Dale Earnarhdt Jr

2. Carl Edwards

3. Jimmie Johnson

4. Kyle Busch

5. Marcos Ambrose

6. Denny Hamlin

7. Ryan Newman

8. Brad Keselowski

9. Brian Vickers

10. Juan Pablo Montoya

11. Joey Logano

12. Jeff Gordon

13. Ricky Stenhouse Jr

14. Jeff Burton

15. Clint Bowyer

16. Matt Kenseth

17. A.J. Allmendinger

18. Aric Almirola

19. Martin Truex Jr.

20. Greg Biffle

21. Kasey Kahne

22. Kevin Harvick

23. Jamie McMurray

24. Paul Menard

25. Tony Stewart

26. Austin Dillon

27. Kurt Busch

28. David Stremme

29. Danica Patrick

30. Landon Cassill

31. Casey Mears

32. Dave Blaney

33. Michael McDowell

34. David Gilliland

35. JJ Yeley

36. David Reutimann

37. Josh Wise

38. David Ragan

39. Mike Bliss

40. Travis Kvapil

41. Joe Nemecheck

42. Scott Riggs

43. Ken Schrader

I think the commentator said that the top nine drivers broke the lap record. I tuned in just in time to see Ricky get third, but he got pushed down to 13th by the end. Garrett, can you ask Jeff to get out of Ricky's way at the start? - I don't want him being held up .

According to NASCAR.com, the race will be on TNT at 07:30 PM ET, but after last week it might be best to check your listings.

[Garrett Duke]

Roger - Dang it, I thought you had some Cubs players. So in other words, you must have terrible players because we all know all the best players are on the Cubs.

As for our NASCAR league...you better run and hide because I am in dire need to get back to first place.

Thanks Hoss for posting the line up for tonight's race...I didn't get home til way late last night and didn't even look at where my drivers started not alone to think of posting them. And sadly, I am going out again tonight...so I will most likely miss tonight's race. Dang I hate missing a race...ESPECIALLY a NIGHT race. Ah well perhaps Jeff Gordon and team Hendrick will do better without me . Kentucky is the ONLY active track that Jeff Gordon has yet to win at (they just started racing here a couple of years ag) so I am really hoping he will get his 88th win tonight so he can say he has won at all tracks. I will read up on it and can and will write my review on that...sorry for all of this.

Hoss - you are worried about Jeff Gordon holding up Stenhouse Jr? Not a chance...Gordon is going to go straight to first once the green flag drop.

[HossC]

Rain delay in Kentucky - it'll probably start too late for me to see all of it .

When the race does start, there will be a competition caution at lap 30 to check tire wear. No re-fuelling will be allowed until then.

[HossC]

Just seen that the race has been postponed until tomorrow (Sunday) at noon ET.

[Garrett Duke]

Just seen that the race has been postponed until tomorrow (Sunday) at noon ET.

Well looks like Mother Nature has finally came to my rescue...will be able to watch the race afterall. Hate to miss a night race, but at least will be able to watch it now. If I remember right next week's race at Daytona is normally Saturday night...

[Garrett Duke]

Well the Kentucky race has just finished after ten or so cautions. Mostly for tire issues. Kyle Busch had spun out towards the start of the race...came home fifth.

Denny Hamlin was having tire issues and went into pits when the skeleton (the rubber) flew off and hit Jr's car and Johnson's (they were running one and two at the time.) Johnson was able to go on with little damage while it held Jr up a bit.

The major accident was towards the front too when Kurt Busch got into the back of Brad Keselowski and sent Keselowski up the track into oncoming traffic and Greg Biffle got into the back of Keselowski before Keselowski hit the wall. Both cars caught fire...also took out Paul Menard and Landon Cassill. It had red flagged the race for a little while but luckily everyone was OK...Keselowski and Menard came back out into the race.

And well, you know what Waylon use to say about the Dukes? About if there wasn't bad luck, the Dukes wouldn't have any luck at all? Well that saying seems to fit true again for Jeff Gordon. After getting stuck in pits for green flag pit stops by a caution coming out a couple of times so far this year...Jeff Gordon got stuck TWICE in pits due to a caution going out while he was in there. Luckily the second time he was in the lucky dog position and was at least able to stay on the lead lap. All the same, it caused for some frustrating moments for this 24 fan. Though am proud that he was able to race himself forward for another top ten finish.

Denny Hamlin, who had a back injury earlier this season, hit the wall pretty good and was in the in field care center for a while. Denny didn't say anything was wrong, but he was there for a while which had me worried. But he says everything is good.

Brian Vickers hit the wall for the second to last caution...and after leading 182 laps today, Jimmie Johnson loses the lead to Matt Kenseth who didn't take any tires during the final pit stop when everyone else took two. Johnson came out second and didn't have a good restart. Then as he tried holding his position away from Joey Logano, Johnson spun out and brought him all the way back to twenty-fifth (I think they said) with only fifteen or so laps to go. (Another very highly frustrated moment for this fan...LOL) Not the win he should have had, but Johnson was clearly driving mad. And when JJ drives mad, well, he normally gets the job done. In only fifteen or so laps, JJ went from 25th or so all the way up to ninth. At least got a top ten out of it...

Matt Kenseth somehow made his no tire call work and grabbed his fourth win of the season...a year after he had announced he was leaving Rousch, the team where spent his entire NASCAR Cup career at to Gibbs, where he is racing now.

Here is the official results:

1. Matt Kenseth

2. Jamie McMurray

3. Clint Bowyer

4 Joey Logano

5 Kyle Busch

6 Kurt Busch

7 Martin Truex Jr.

8 Jeff Gordon

9 Jimmie Johnson

10 Kevin Harvick

11 Kasey Kahne

12 Dale Earnhardt Jr.

13 Marcos Ambrose

14 Ryan Newman

15 Aric Almirola

16 Juan Pablo Montoya

17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

18 Casey Mears

19 Jeff Burton

20 Tony Stewart

21 Carl Edwards

22 A J Allmendinger

23 Danica Patrick

24 Austin Dillon

25 David Stremme

26 David Ragan

27 David Reutimann

28 David Gilliland

29 Ken Schrader

30 Paul Menard

31 Brian Vickers

32 J.J. Yeley

33 Brad Keselowski

34 Greg Biffle

35 Denny Hamlin

36 Landon Cassill

37 Joe Nemechek

38 Michael McDowell

39 Josh Wise

40 Dave Blaney

41 Mike Bliss

42 Travis Kvapil

43 Scott Riggs

(Hoss...you may want to tell Stenhouse Jr to watch his speed in pit road. He was one of five to get caught speeding on pit road on the last pit stop...)

We are back to restrictor plate racing next Saturday night at Daytona!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully weather will not intervene this time.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=9422599

[HossC]

It's another Saturday night race this week (as long as there's no rain ). The 'Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola' from Daytona International Speedway starts at 07:30 PM ET on TNT.

Here's the starting lineup:

1 Kyle Busch

2 Matt Kenseth

3 Clint Bowyer

4 Kasey Kahne

5 Martin Truex Jr

6 Paul Menard

7 Michael Waltrip

8 Jimmie Johnson

9 Ricky Stenhouse Jr

10 Greg Biffle

11 Danica Patrick

12 Carl Edwards

13 Tony Stewart

14 Juan Pablo Montoya

15 Brad Keselowski

16 Dale Earnhardt Jr

17 Jeff Burton

18 Joey Logano

19 Casey Mears

20 Trevor Bayne

21 Ryan Newman

22 Kurt Busch

23 Jeff Gordon

24 Denny Hamlin

25 Marcos Ambrose

26 Kevin Harvick

27 Jamie McMurray

28 David Gilliland

29 Dave Blaney

30 Aric Almirola

31 Michael McDowell

32 J.J. Yeley

33 AJ Allmendinger

34 Bobby Labonte

35 David Stremme

36 Scott Speed

37 Josh Wise

38 David Ragan

39 Terry Labonte

40 Travis Kvapil

41 David Reutimann

42 Joe Nemechek

43 Landon Cassill

Great to see Ricky starting in 9th, except that he has Jimmie Johnson in front of him this week .

[Garrett Duke]

It's another Saturday night race this week (as long as there's no rain ). The 'Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola' from Daytona International Speedway starts at 07:30 PM ET on TNT.

Great to see Ricky starting in 9th, except that he has Jimmie Johnson in front of him this week .

Thanks Hoss for the update...was out last night and by the time I got home you already had it updated. Don't know how well I will be able to report next week pre race activities or if how much I will be able to watch the race. I have family coming over next weeks from out of state...so I will do my best. But no promises.

Well Hoss...you better tell Stenhouse to keep off of Jimmie's bumper. I have a feeling after last week, ol' Jimmie may be back for some redemption. You don't make Jimmie mad without some redemption. LOL.

If you haven't guessed...I am super excited for tonight's race! One it is a night race. Two it is Daytona!!!!!!!!!!! Granted at restrictor plate tracks such as Daytona, anything goes and anyone can win. The drivers have to rely on themselves but also drafting with a couple of drafting partners. Glad that NASCAR has fixed the restrictor plate races so they aren't completely relying on another car to push them up to the front...ask Jeff Gordon, that can come back to hurt you when your drafting partner leaves you out to dry to go and help another driver. It is still there, just not as much as it use to be a couple of years ago. (If that makes sense )

Am not a huge Kyle Busch fan (but am more of a one now than I use to be...) but his pole position he earned yesterday for today's race is his first restrictor plate race pole.

Thanks again Hoss.

[Garrett Duke]

Well the Daytona race has gotten over. And well...it was a typical Daytona race. Though I think the big story is that Jimmie Johnson is the first driver since 1982 to win both February's Daytona's race AND the July's Daytona race.

First half of the race was pretty uneventful. Carl Edwards ran over his tire changer's foot...the tire changer was taking the tape off of Edwards' grill and when the guy who holds the car up for the tire change, dropped the car, Edwards went. ( That is the driver's sign that it is time to go when they drop the car) So he dropped the car and Edwards went to run over his tire changer's foot that got caught on the splitter...luckily it was his shoe that broke to save him and not his foot.

And well things got a bit eventful towards the end of the race...and am sure will forget something. So please forgive me. LOL.

Martin Truex Jr got spun out by Denny Hamlin who in turn took out Juan Pablo Montoya.

Jeff Gordon came to pit road on a yellow third...going out of pits he tried to get passed Joe Nemechek and got into the grass which took him back to twelfth. A few laps later "the big one" came about with Denny Hamlin, AJ Allmindinger, Matt Kenseth,...and Jeff Gordon.

Kasey Kahne went up to challenge Jimmie Johnson only to get into Ambrose and slung out into the infield and out of the race.

And on the last lap...(if they wreck on the last lap, the race is over if the caution drops) two big accidents happen at two different places, but NASCAR keeps it green and Jimmie goes on to win the race. Tony Stewart came home second.

Daytona's final results

Sorry to tell you this, Hoss, but Ricky Stenhouse Jr was taken out on the last lap by his own girl friend...

[HossC]

Sorry to tell you this, Hoss, but Ricky Stenhouse Jr was taken out on the last lap by his own girl friend...

He soon pushed her to one side .

I'd swear Ricky crossed the line in 10th, but I see they gave him 11th in the end - I was hoping he'd get his first top ten finish. At least he had a pretty strong race. I used to dread restrictor plate races, but now they're really good (well the second half anyway ).

BTW. Your link goes to the standings. Here's the results:

Coke Zero 400 Results