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8 – THE DERRICK. / The News-Herald Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Ken Willis has been covering NASCAR for The Daytona Beach News-Journal for 27 years. Reach him at [email protected]
QUESTIONS & ATTITUDECompelling questions ...
and maybe a few actual answers
WHAT’S ON TAP?
FEUD OF THE WEEK
facebook.com/nascardaytona
@nascardaytona
news-journalonline.com/nascar
ONLINE EXTRAS
FEEDBACKDo you have questions orcomments about NASCAR This Week? Contact Godwin Kelly at [email protected] or Ken Willis at [email protected]
CUP POINTS
Godwin Kelly is the Daytona Beach News-Journal’s motorsports editor and has covered NASCAR for 30 years. Reach him at godwin.
GODWIN’S TALLADEGA PICKS
SPEED FREAKSA couple questions we had to ask — ourselves
HOT TOPICS: 3 ISSUES GENERATING A BUZZ
CHARLOTTE REWIND
WEEKLY DRIVER RANKINGS — BASED ON BEHAVIOR AND PERFORMANCE
SPRINT CUP: GEICO 500SITE: Talladega SuperspeedwaySCHEDULE: Friday, practice (Fox Sports 1, 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.). Saturday, qualifying (ESPNEWS, 4:40 p.m.). Sunday, race (ESPN, coverage starts at 1 p.m., green fl ag at 2:20 p.m.)CAMPING WORLD TRUCKS: Fred’s 250SITE: Talladega SuperspeedwaySCHEDULE: Friday, qualifying (Fox Sports 1, 5:30 p.m.). Saturday, race (Fox, 1 p.m.)
NASCAR wanted the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship to be exciting, but it got a burst of full-bodied, raw emotion from competitors in Sat-urday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Specifi cally, Brad Keselowski made sheet-metal contact with at least three other cars as his No. 2 Team Penske Ford ran amok after the checkered fl ag was displayed.
The top storyline should have been Kevin Har-vick’s victory, which automatically pushed him into the next round of the Chase.
Instead, he became a footnote to Keselowski’s antics on the cool-down lap, plus the bumping and banging Keselowski created on pit road after the 500-mile race.
“Kez” put dents into the cars of Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart — Stewart retali-ated by throwing his No. 14 Chevy into reverse and smashing the nose of the angry driver behind him.
Once in the garage area, Hamlin was restrained from attacking Keselowski. But no one — no one — saw Kenseth, your typical Bruce Banner sort of driver, transforming into the Incredible Hulk and physically lunging on top of Keselowski.
Kenseth, always known for his mild manner and composure, tossed all that decorum out the driver’s-side window and pounced on Keselowski in a fi t of rage after Keselowski was interviewed by ABC while standing in a nar-row lane between two haulers.
Kenseth was upset because he had removed all his safety gear after he got his No. 20 Toyota to pit road, then was slammed by Keselowski’s battered machine.
“If he wants to come and talk about it like a man, then go do that, but to try to wreck somebody on the race track and
to come down pit road with other cars and people standing around, with my seat belts off, and drive into the side of me is just inexcusable,” Kenseth said.
“There is no excuse for that. He’s a champion, and he’s supposed to know better than that.”
Hamlin used language that can’t be printed here, but made a Talladega prediction.
“My guess is that he (Keselowski) will probably try to wreck everyone; that’s his only shot,” he said. “He’ll just be out of control like normal.”
FOUR MUST GOScary Talladega Superspeedway will decide the
playoff hopes of all Chase drivers except Harvick and Joey Logano, whose victories the past two weeks sent them into the next round. Kasey Kahne currently is in eighth place and on the bubble. The four drivers below him are Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. All know the only sure way to the Eliminator Round is a victory. Asked about his ’Dega game
plan, Earnhardt said: “Go out there and win it. We can do it; we have won there
a lot of times.”
HARVICK SAYSWhen Kevin Harvick got to
Charlotte’s Victory Lane, it was more relief than joy. “This was the night that we needed to win,” he said. “I don’t want to go to Talladega next week.”
KEVINHARVICK
Shedding the bad luck just
in time
JOEYLOGANO
Suddenly may be Penske’s only hope
KYLELARSON
On fringes of Victory Lane; it’s coming
KYLEBUSCH
Look who’s a points racer
now
JEFFGORDON
Could be only Hendrick horse after this week
CARLEDWARDSThe moving van is still
idling
RYANNEWMAN0-for-47
MATTKENSETH0-for-39
DENNYHAMLIN
Hanging around longer than we
thought
BRADKESELOWSKIWinning friends in sheet-metal
world
Mad Matt
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was hoping to de-posit a victory in Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speed-way and advance to the next round of NASCAR’s elimination playoffs. Instead, the Daytona 500 champion was forced to fi ght through a night of adversity with his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. He fi nished 20th.
Now dead last (tied for 11th) in the Chase standings, Earnhardt likely needs a victory at Talladega Superspeedway to advance to the next elimination round. Hendrick’s driv-ers have struggled in the fi rst fi ve Chase
races. Jimmie Johnson also is ranked 11th and Kasey Kahne is on the Chase bubble in eighth place. Earnhardt talked to the media after the Charlotte race about his problems and outlook for Talladega.
What happened during the race?“The vibration broke the shifter in half,
and it just wasn’t a good night. The car just wasn’t handling well, and the vibration was really giving us a lot of problems. We had it in practice, but we still couldn’t fi x it. So, I don’t know.
“We had a real bad vibration and broke a transmission shifter off. We only had third
and fourth gear there and lost a lap trying to get off pit road on a green-fl ag stop.
“We had a pretty good car; a top-10 car. The vibration issue was causing a lot of bal-ance issues, and grip issues. But we had a good-enough car to run in the top 10. This isn’t what we need to do.
“I don’t know. We’ve had some phantom vibrations throughout the year and not re-ally had those until the last year and a half, or two years. So it is hard to say.”
What’s Talladega mean now?“Go out there and win it. We can do it; we
have won there a lot of times. I know what
we need to do. We will just have to build a fast car and hope that we don’t have any gremlins and try to go out there and win it.
“We had a lot of gremlins tonight. We had a good car in practice, and we never could get a chance to show it. The vibration just tore the car all apart. Broke the shifter and made the car handle real bad.
“We did have a pretty good car all weekend; we were running OK there in the race. I think we could have easily fi nished in the top 10. The shifter slam broke in half. I mean it is steel, it shouldn’t be breaking, but the vibration was that bad.”
Junior talks about phantom vibrations and must-win situation
Winner: Dale Earnhardt Jr.Rest of the top fi ve: Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Denny HamlinDark horse: Jamie McMurray
Disappointment: Kyle LarsonFirst one out: Josh WiseDon’t be surprised if: You see coordinated teamwork to draft to the front for valuable points.
Getty Images/ROBERT LABERGE
This was not the face Brad Keselowski saw Saturday night.
Was that really Matt Kenseth in the Dollar General fi re suit?GODSPEAK: It was interesting watching the Indistinguishable Sulk transform into the Incredible Hulk.KEN’S CALL: Either Mild Matt was pos-sessed, or Brad Kesel-owski can light a fi re.
Which of the current three bottom feeders can save his season at Talladega?GODSPEAK: Dale Earn-hardt Jr. said he’ll win. Give him his Babe Ruth moment.KEN’S CALL: Not Kesel-owski, who’ll be hurting for a running mate; I’m thinking Jimmie is the best bet.
MATTKENSETH
BRADKESELOWSKI
Matt Kenseth vs. Brad Keselowski: A lot of candidates, but when Kenseth physically jumped on Keselowski in the garage, they took top honors.Godwin Kelly gives his take: “Kez has set himself up for failure at Talladega. He has at least three drivers gunning for him after his post-race, pinballing antics.”
Associated Press/MIKE MCCARN
Kez might want to wear that helmet 24/7 for a while.
Has Brad Keselowski become the new menace?
It’s defi nitely a question worth ask-ing. When is the last time a driver left a track with three opposing drivers ready to have him tarred and feath-ered due to three separate incidents? OK, but when is the last time that hap-pened to a driver NOT named Busch? Kez even managed to break Tony Stewart out of his doldrums. Throwing it in reverse to slam a guy behind you is pure Demolition Derby. Tony’s back.
Great time for Talladega, right?Funny how it often works out this
way. Common sense tells you that Talladega is a scary place to attempt payback on Mr. Keselowski, if you’re one of the three aggrieved racers from Charlotte. And that’s why it’s unlikely, unless the rare but perfect oppor-tunity presents itself. Problem is, at Talladega and sister track Daytona, if you take out one car, you’ll likely take out 20.
Is this really what NASCAR wanted?
When NASCAR landed on this new Chase formula, it had to know (we assume) they could lose a swath of marquee stars in one swipe. Jimmie, Junior and Kez are all but done, with Kasey and Mild Matt tenuous. It all changes with a victory, however, and THAT’S the sort of thing NASCAR defi nitely had in mind when this was designed.
1. Joey Logano 3,0882. Kyle Busch 3,0823. Kevin Harvick 3,0814. Ryan Newman 3,0775. Carl Edwards 3,0766. Jeff Gordon 3,0747. Denny Hamlin 3,0738. Kasey Kahne 3,0579. Matt Kenseth 3,05610. Brad Keselowski 3,038T11. Jimmie Johnson 3,031T11. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 3,03113. AJ Allmendinger 2,14214. Greg Biffl e 2,12715. Kurt Busch 2,10916. Aric Almirola 2,09617. Kyle Larson 94018. Jamie McMurray 86719. Austin Dillon 84720. Clint Bowyer 84421. Paul Menard 81822. Brian Vickers 80623. Martin Truex Jr. 74924. Marcos Ambrose 74525. Tony Stewart 68926. Casey Mears 68227. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 65828. Danica Patrick 64329. Justin Allgaier 54830. David Gilliland 47231. Michael Annett 45432. Cole Whitt 43833. David Ragan 43634. Reed Sorenson 43035. Alex Bowman 37136. Josh Wise 35237. Michael McDowell 20238. Ryan Truex 19339. Travis Kvapil 17340. Jeff Burton 8741. Terry Labonte 7742. David Stremme 7543. Bobby Labonte 54
Getty Images/TOM PENNINGTON
We fi nally learned what it takes for “Mild Matt” to shed the calm demeanor and storm into a dark alley.
