Brad Keselowski Snapped Carl Edwards’ Two-Race Winning Streak

Posted on May 2, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Brad Keselowski snapped Carl Edwards’ two-race winning streak on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, surviving a near-record number of cautions to notch his second victory of the season and take a firm hold on one of the sixteen spots available in the post-season Chase. Keselowski started seventh and led a race-high forty-six laps, including the final seventeen trips around the sprawling Alabama oval. The last of the day’s ten caution periods unfolded in Keselowski’s rear-view mirror with the checkered flag in sight. The accident along the frontstretch involved seven drivers including Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth. The ten yellow flags were one shy of the Talladega track record of eleven that was set in April 2004. Forty-one of the race’s 188 laps were run under caution, with a pair of major multi-car accidents disrupting the afternoon.

Less than thirty laps from the finish, Kurt Busch tapped Jimmie Johnson to trigger a twenty-one-car melee, more than half the starting field. Twenty laps later, a twelve-car incident on the backstretch took out Kenseth, who had led thirty-nine laps. Earlier, with the race at its halfway point, Chris Buescher took the brunt of a seven-car crash that ended with his Number-34 Ford barrel-rolling three times after contact from Michael Annett. None of the drivers involved in the numerous accidents were seriously injured … Edwards’ hopes for a third straight victory were finally dashed when he blew a right-front tire and collided with Dale Earnhardt Junior, saddling Edwards with a thirty-fifth-place finish … The race ended under caution with Kyle Busch grabbing second place. Austin Dillon, Jamie McMurray and rookie pole sitter Chase Elliott completed the top five.

Next Stop Texas Motor Speedway

Posted on April 8, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Next s top Texas Motor Speedway, for Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500, the seventh race of the 2016 Sprint Cup Series. Jimmie Johnson leads all drivers with six victories on the mile-and-a-half Fort Worth oval including three in a row and five of the last seven. Carl Edwards is next in line with three wins … There’s competitive balance among NASCAR’s three participating manufacturers with each brand winning the track’s spring race once over the last three seasons: Chevrolet with Johnson last year, Ford with Joey Logano in 2014 and Toyota with Kyle Busch in 2013.

Sprint Cup Series teams got the weekend started early Thursday with a late-afternoon practice session. Martin Truex Junior set the pace with a lap of 192.892 miles per hour. Brad Keselowski was second at 192.164 miles per hour. Logano, Austin Dillon and Brian Vickers – still subbing for the injured Tony Stewart – completed the top five. Johnson was sixth on the speed chart.

From Martinsville Half-Mile To High Speeds In Texas

Posted on April 6, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

From the Sprint Cup Series’ shortest track, Martinsville Speedway, NASCAR now moves to one of its fastest ovals with this coming weekend’s Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. The preliminary entry list shows forty drivers led by defending race winner Jimmie Johnson and regular-season points leader Kevin Harvick. The four non-Charter drivers on the list are rookie Ryan Blaney, Cole Whitt, Josh Wise and Reed Sorenson.

Johnson leads all competitors with six victories on the mile-and-a-half Fort Worth oval including three in a row and five of the last seven. Carl Edwards is next in line with three wins … There’s competitive balance among NASCAR’s three participating manufacturers with each brand winning the track’s spring race once over the last three seasons: Chevrolet with Johnson last year, Ford with Joey Logano in 2014 and Toyota with Kyle Busch in 2013.X-FINITY Series teams also will be competing at T-M-S with Friday night’s O’Reilly Auto

X-FINITY Series teams also will be competing at T-M-S with Friday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300. There are thirty-nine drivers on the preliminary entry led by defending race winner Erik Jones and points leader Daniel Suarez, teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Johnson, Blue Bunny Ice Cream Are Teaming Up Again

Posted on March 31, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson has launched his ninth annual “Blue Bunny Helmet of Hope” campaign which will award 125 thousand dollars to five non-profit organizations. Fans and consumers nationwide still have two weeks to nominate their favorite education-focused charities by visiting Jimmie Johnson Foundation-dot-org. The deadline is Thursday, April 14th. Each of the five

Each of the five winning organizations will receive a twenty-five-thousand-dollar grant, an ice cream party and recognition on Johnson’s race helmet … Johnson heads to Martinsville Speedway for Sunday’s S-T-P 500 as the winningest active driver on the Virginia half-mile. He has eight victories there, including a stretch of three in a row in 2006 and 2007.

Jimmie Johnson Takes Auto Club 400

Posted on March 21, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Jimmie Johnson charged past Kevin Harvick coming out of an overtime restart and pulled away from the field Sunday at Auto Club Speedway, becoming the first repeat winner of the 2016 season. Johnson’s margin of victory was three-quarters of a second over Harvick, giving Chevrolet a sweep of the top two spots. Denny Hamlin came home third with Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Junior completing the top five. Johnson started nineteenth and led just twenty-five laps, including the final two trips around the two- mile Southern California oval. Sunday’s race was extended five laps beyond its scheduled distance due to a late caution brought about when Kyle Busch shredded a right-front tire. That was the last thing Harvick wanted to see.

He had led nearly three-quarters of the laps run to that point and seemed well on his way to a second straight victory on NASCAR’s three-race swing through the western United States, having won last weekend at Phoenix International Raceway. Instead, Harvick settled for second place behind Johnson – who notched his seventy-seventh Cup Series win and sixth at Auto Club Speedway.

For Harvick, all was not lost as he claimed sole possession of the points lead. He entered the weekend tied for first place with Busch and exits with an eleven-point advantage over Johnson, who advances from third to second.

Busch finished twenty-fifth on Sunday, the first time in five races this year that he’s been outside the top five, and slipped to fifth in the regular-season standings … Sunday’s race included twenty-six lead changes among eight drivers. There were six cautions for thirty-three laps.

Next Up Auto Club Speedway

Posted on March 18, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Next up, Auto Club Speeday for Sunday’s Auto Club 400, fifth race of the 2016 Sprint Cup Series and the last stop of a three-week tour of the western United States. Brad Keselowski was victorious in Las Vegas and Kevin Harvick won last weekend at Phoenix International Raceway. Sunday’s race will be contested on a wide, fast two-mile superspeedway – where Keselowski will be seeking his second straight victory. In winning last year’s race, the Team Penske driver gave Ford its first Fontana victory in the Sprint Cup Series since Matt Kenseth drove a Jack Roush-owned entry into the Winner’s Circle in 2009.

Jimmie Johnson leads all drivers with five wins at A-C-S and Rick Hendrick is Number-1 among team owners with nine victories … Kyle Busch continues to show early-season muscle in defense of his 2015 championship, posting four straight top-five finishes. He enters the weekend tied with Harvick for first place in the standings. They’re fourteen points ahead of third-place Johnson. Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards round out the top five. Edwards’ total of three top-five finishes through the first four races of the season is second only to Kyle Busch, who owns the Sprint Cup Series qualifying record at Auto Club Speedway. His quick lap of 188.245 miles per hour from 2005 still stands – eleven years later.

Brad Keselowski Takes Kolbalt 400

Posted on March 7, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Brad Keselowski charged past race leader Kyle Busch late in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and kept his Number-2 Team Penske Ford in front over the final six laps to notch his first victory of the young season. Keselowski overcame a speeding penalty on pit road to claim his eighteenth career Cup Series win and first since March of last year at Auto Club Speedway – thirty-four races ago. Keselowski’s margin of victory over teammate Joey Logano was sixty-seven one-hundredths of a second. Jimmie Johnson led a race- high seventy-six laps and finished third in his bid for back-to-back victories after winning last weekend in Atlanta.

Busch grabbed fourth place with Austin Dillon completing the top five. Pole sitter Kurt Busch led only the first thirty-one laps and finished ninth, one of twenty-two drivers running on the lead lap with Keselowski at the checkered flag … The afternoon began with forty-mile-an-hour winds whipping across the mile-and-a-half desert oval and it looked for a while near the end of the day that Busch would blow the field away after seizing the lead on a late restart with a daring three-wide pass and pulling away. But the Number-18 Toyota developed a vibration in the closing laps that forced the reigning Sprint Cup Series champion to eventually surrender the lead to Keselowski.

Despite missing his second trip to Victory Lane this weekend … Busch won Saturday’s X-FINITY Series face, he did hold onto the early-season lead in the standings and enjoys a seven-point advantage over Johnson and Kevin Harvick – who are tied for second.

Sprint Cup Series Power Rankings

Posted on March 2, 2016March 2, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

With a pair of third-place finishes to begin the season, Kyle Busch has climbed to the top of this week’s Motor Racing Network Power Rankings as he opens defense of his Sprint Cup Series championship. Martin Truex Junior, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick hold positions two through five. (For a complete list, visit http://bit.ly/1QS0wNV)

Folds Of Honor Quik-Trip 500

Posted on February 29, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Jimmie Johnson pulled away from the field on an overtime restart Sunday and was first to the white flag as a four-car accident unfolded along the backstretch – ending the race under caution and leaving Johnson with his seventy-sixth career win that ties the late Dale Earnhardt for seventh place all-time. Most of the race was caution-free with just one yellow flag in the first 323 laps. With Johnson in the lead less than two laps from completion of the scheduled distance, Ryan Newman’s spin brought out just the second caution of the day that would force overtime. Johnson pushed his Number-48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in front of Kyle Busch coming out of the final restart, and put some distance between himself and the defending series champion before the day’s final caution ended the race. Dale Earnhardt Junior finished second, giving Hendrick Motorsports a sweep of the top two spots.

Busch finished third, one position ahead of older brother Kurt – who had started from the pole. Carl Edwards completed the top five … Kevin Harvick started sixth and led a race-high 131 laps before settling for sixth place. Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin finished sixteenth in his bid to become the first driver with back-to-back season-opening victories in the Sprint Cup Series since Matt Kenseth in 2009.

Chase Elliott was the highest-finishing rookie in the forty-car field, running eighth … Sunday’s race marked the debut of NASCAR’s 2016 low-downforce rules package. It produced twenty-eight lead changes, identical to last year’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Next Stop Atlanta Motor Speedway

Posted on February 26, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Next stop Atlanta Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Folds of Honor Quik-Trip 500, second race of the 2016 Sprint Cup Series. NASCAR is debuting its low-downforce rules package. The so-called “low-drag” aerodynamic specifications were tested twice last year, at Kentucky Speedway and Darlington Raceway.

Those races were won by Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, respectively. Jimmie Johnson is the defending winner of Sunday’s race and has four career victories on the mile-and-a-half Georgia oval. He’s the last driver with back-to-back Cup Series wins there, sweeping both races in 2007 en route to the second of his record five straight championships. Bobby Labonte leads all active drivers with six wins at A-M-S, the last of those coming in 2003.

Chevrolet and Toyota have combined to win the last six Cup Series races in Atlanta. Ford hasn’t gone to Victory Lane there since 2008 … Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin is bidding to become the first Cup Series driver to open a season with back-to-back victories since Matt Kenseth in 2009.

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