just a few pics from Saturday morning at Auto Club Speedway, click any pic to see it full sized.
Podcast: Out of the Tunnel Show 42
This week Adam and I recount one of the best races we’ve seen in years – talk about the diva spat between Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin, the Hendrick tire woes and my good bet on Kasey Kahne.
All that plus… what’s up our butt!
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Kahne finally bags long-coveted Bristol Motor Speedway victory
[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Seth Livingston ]
Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Kasey Kahne checked Bristol Motor Speedway off his bucket list, winning for the first time in 19 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series attempts after a heated duel with Brad Keselowski.
“This is one of those track that, as a driver, you feel like you really need to win at,” said Kahne, who snagged the lead on a final restart with 40 laps left and held off both Kyle Busch and Keselowski in Sunday’s Food City 500.
“We’ve been trying for a long time. To pull it off, I feel is a big accomplishment for our guys and myself. There are so many things that are thrown at you when you come to this place. We’d been fast here other times and not able to finish the deal.”
Kahne, 14th in points after three races this season, had finished no better than fifth in any of his previous 10 Cup races at Bristol.
The final restart came after his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson blew a tire, bringing out the race’s 10th caution.
Prior to the race’s final green-flag run, Kahne and Keselowski had staged a furious short-track duel that rekindled memories of the door-to-door racing that had made Bristol famous.
“I’m (thinking) how can I get by and he’s (thinking) how can I hold this guy off,” Kahne said. “I reeled him in, but he was driving into the corners so hard, I really couldn’t do anything on the bottom, try a ‘slide-job’ or anything like that. I bumped him a few times. He was sideways a few times trying to hold us back.
“I felt like we got a really good restart, got the lead and, from there, it was just momentum and trying to drive away.”
Keselowski knew he was in trouble after spinning tires on the final restart and watching Kahne set sail.
“I don’t think I had anything for Kasey. I don’t know if anyone did,” said Keselowski, the defending race champion who finished third. “He was so good through the middle, really everywhere. He was kind of in a league of his own.”
Kahne credited his team, led by crew chief Kenny Francis.
“It’s fun to come to pit road and break even or gain spots,” he said. “The guys have just been nailing it on pit road.”
Not everyone made up ground in the pits.
Busch, who had won the pole in track record time on Friday, posted the fastest laps in both of Saturday’s practice sessions, then won Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series event and led the first 55 laps before a pit road speeding violation under caution shuffled him back to 32nd. He was undaunted in his recovery, clawing his way back to 16th in the next 40 laps and moving to second behind teammate Denny Hamlin on Lap 155 after the race’s fourth caution.
“We battled back. I wish I could have kept up with the 5 (Kahne) but he took off and left us all,” Busch said.
Hamlin led 117 of the first 189 laps before surrendering the lead in the pits to teammate Matt Kenseth, who suffered his own misfortune when race leader Jeff Gordon blew a right-front tire on Lap 391. Gordon climbed the track with his tire going down and Kenseth had nowhere to go, slamming into the rear of Gordon.
“Not a lot either one of us could do about that,” said Kenseth, resigned to a 35th place finish after winning a week ago in Las Vegas.
Joey Logano, who started 10th, had been making steady progress and was challenging Gordon for the lead on Lap 348 when he tangled with Hamlin, his former JGR teammate. That led to a post-race exchange between Logano, Hamlin and team members.
“It’s a little disheartening that we all can’t just get along,” said Busch, tongue-in-cheek.
Asked if he and Hamlin had a problem, Logano replied: “If we didn’t, we do now.”
Keselowski’s third-place finish vaulted him to the lead in the Sprint cup point standings, nine points ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished sixth after qualifying 32nd.
Johnson, who entered as the points leader, dropped to 22nd after running in the top 10 most of the day. Kurt Busch finished fourth (his best finish for Furniture Row Racing) and Clint Bowyer was fifth.
Podcast – Out of the Tunnel Show 41
This week the band is back together! Adam Lovelace and Hannah Rickards joined me LIVE at Las Vegas Motor Speedway about 1.5 hours after the race. We talked about the race, Denny’s fine and the Westboro idiots that popped up after our Keselowski interview.
We also had a special visit with Lewis Frank from Autoweek.com and talked about his thoughts after Kenseth’s win!
All that PLUS, a pace car ride with Brett Bodine and an interview with Scott Speed…… you don’t wanna miss this show!
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Kenseth Celebrates 41st Birthday with Win at Las Vegas
[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]
credit Tim Curlee - LVMS
Happy birthday, Matt Kenseth!
Kenseth held off Kasey Kahne in a 26-lap green-flag run to the finish Sunday to win the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
In winning the 25th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of his career, Kenseth, who turned 41 Sunday, became the third driver in series history to win on his birthday, joining Cale Yarborough and Kyle Busch in that exclusive club.
Kenseth crossed the finish line .594 seconds ahead of Kahne, who led a race-high 114 laps. Defending series champion Brad Keselowski ran third, followed by Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards. Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick and Paul Menard completed the top 10.
Johnson leaves Las Vegas as the series leader, five points ahead of Keselowski and 10 ahead of third-place Earnhardt.
The victory was Kenseth’s first in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry after an offseason move from Roush Fenway Racing. It was also Toyota’s 50th triumph in the Cup series.
“I’m not a goal person, but my goal was to win and win early,” said Kenseth, who visited Victory Lane in his third strat with JGR. “Nobody put any pressure on me except for myself, but I also know that Coach (Joe Gibbs) hired me to come here and climb in the car and win races. You certainly want to do that—you don’t want to disappoint people…
“It’s still only week three, but I feel like this is the beginning.”
Both Busch and Keselowski overcame issues on pit road to post their top-five finishes—Busch an early speeding penalty and Keselowski a dropped lug nut that cost him 10 positions during pit stops under caution on Lap 161.
The rally from the mistake left Keselowski ambivalent about the result. He was happy with the third-place finish but felt his car was capable of more.
“Yeah, I want to win,” said Keselowski who finished fourth in the first two events of the season, at Daytona and Phoenix. “It’s a different perspective, because I’m not happy with top 5s–I want to win. The last three weeks, really the last two weeks–and I’m sure when I get home tonight I’m going to go home and throw around some pillows and punch some things–because we’ve had a shot at winning all three races and come up short, whether it’s circumstances or bad luck or, today, just a little bit of execution.
“In retrospect, once you get a day to cool off from it, you say, ‘Wow, that’s really good, three top 5s; that’s how I’d have wanted to start the year.’ But with the way I finished last year, I wanted to win. I wanted to win all three of these races, and I’m not happy unless we can do that.”
Kahne said Kenseth raced mistake-free in the closing run, despite having older tires.
“I was like, ‘Man, this is not the guy you want to have to race with 10 to go because, he’s going to do everything right,’” Kahne said. “You’re going to have to figure out how to squeeze by him. And you know he had a fast car, too, so it was difficult.
“He did a perfect job, and we came back second, but still a good run. I think we were seventh maybe after that one restart (actually sixth for a restart on Lap 231) and fought back to second, so we had a great car, did everything right. We just didn’t quite get there.”
Kahne had opened a lead of more than two seconds over Johnson when the engine in Travis Kvapil’s Toyota exploded in Turn 4, trailing smoke and dropping oil on the track.
During pit stops under caution on Lap 226 of 267, Kenseth and Keselowski opted for fuel only and left pit road 1-2, with Johnson, Edwards, Earnhardt and Kahne—all of whom took two tires—trailing behind them.
Kahne lost five spots in the pits after his egress from his pit stall was blocked by Tony Stewart, who had to slow down on the way to his pit box to avoid Kenseth, who was leaving after the fuel-only stop.
Kahne got two spots back after the restart on Lap 231, but his progress was interrupted on Lap 235 when Ryan Newman’s Chevrolet blew its engine on Lap 235.
After the subsequent yellow, Kahne restarted fourth on Lap 242. Kenseth kept the No. 5 Chevrolet at bay the rest of the way.
Pics: Tweet-Up – LVMS – March 2013
click any image to see full sized:
Pace Car Lap with Brett Bodine Around Las Vegas
Brett Bodine talks with Kasey Kahne - credit Jared C. Tilton / NASCAR
This morning I took pace car ride around Las Vegas Motor Speedway with NASCAR legend Brett Bodine.
I grabbed the mic and had Brett talk us around the 1.5 mile Speedway.
Listen to the lap:
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Westboro Baptist Church Plans NASCAR Protest at Kansas Speedway
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Maggie Phelps, spokeperson for the Westboro Baptist Church and their endless “God Hates Fags” campaign that have plagued the funerals of US Soldiers and the children in Newtown have turned their eyes on NASCAR. The daughter of the Church’s founder says that they are planning a protest at a NASCAR race. Tueday, Phelps Tweeted. “NASCAR is racing fag cars.”
Whew @noble_jim @dustinlong -looks like we scheduled @nascar @keselowski picket just in time!New sign: NASCAR ???? FAGS.Catchy,no?#staytuned
— MargiePhelps (@MargieJPhelps) March 5, 2013
It’s not clear what set them off, but it appears it may have been an interview by Queers4Gears with Brad Keselowski in Phoenix. The current Sprint Cup Champion said there was room for an openly gay driver in the sport. In a seperate tweet, Phelps linked to an SB Nation/Outsports article that had picked up on the Keselowski interview, adding, “Next they’ll have a splashy fag wedding.”
Next they’ll have a splashy fag wedding.MT @wbcfredjr: Who knew @nascar race car was a fag car?#godhatesfagsdotcomoutsports.com/straight-allie…
— MargiePhelps (@MargieJPhelps) March 5, 2013
The leader of the “church” tweeted that the injury of the fans in Daytona was a punishment from God because NASCAR is pro-gay (follow the link in his tweet)
No wonder God kills & maims these idiot race car drivers & their fanatics on a regular basis!#godhatesfagenablers!outsports.com/2013/3/9/40836…
— Fred Phelps, Jr. (@WBCFredJr) March 9, 2013
As of now, there is no indication of what race the Westboro Baptist Church plans to protest.
Queers4Gears spoke to NASCAR this morning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, they agree with what Keselowski said and will stand with their driver.
UPDATE:
The Worstboro Baptist Church will be picketing at the Kansas Race on April 21st. You can read the announcement from their site – note their note at the end: “God Hates Brad Keselowski”
Queers4Gears reached out to Kansas Speedway to ask if the Westboro Protesters would be welcome on the Speedway grounds or required to use a public space outside of the Speedway.
Kelly Hale, Director of Public Relations said, “We do have a spot on speedway grounds that groups that want to protest are welcome to use. We worked closely with our local law enforcement to make sure the area is safe for the groups but also doesn’t create congestion for traffic (we’re located across the street from restaurants, retail destinations and hotels).”
DO YOU DISAGREE WITH THE WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH? THEN SUPPORT Queers4Gears in the 2013 AIDS Walk! What better way to send that “church” a message than donating to a pro-gay NASCAR Charity effort – and it’s a GREAT cause!
Click Here to Donate!
Every dollar you give will be matched by Penn and Teller!
Podcast: Out of the Tunnel – Show 40 / Special Track-Side Edition
Due to the rain, qualifying was canceled today at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – and I wasn’t sure they would even get practice in….
So I decided to set-up the portable studio and record a quick podcast from the track.
Stand-up Comedian and NASCAR contributor to Jay Mohr Sports on Fox Sports Radio joined me and talked about his trip to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
I also had a chance to speak with ESPN’s Jamie Little about her new book, “Essential Car Car for Women” - available at Amazon! Click on the amazon banner right here on Q4G and get yourself a copy.
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Taste a Gen 6 Square
Surfer / Gen 6 Squares
Last weekened in Phoenix, in order to maintain Q4G’s low budget, I crashed at my friend, Not-On-Twitter-Keith’s house.
Not-On-Twitter-Keith is a phenom in the kitchen and made a batch of what he called “Surfer Squares.” These tiny morsels were the best things I had ever eaten so I asked for the recipe.
Last night, I tried to make these Surfer Squares on my own – but the experiment in the kitchen made me realize I am a better cook than a baker. I like cooking, the directions usually include subjective steps: Season to taste… or add a little garlic if you are so inclined.
Baking on the other hand, requires a precision that caused this cook problems.
My first attempt at Surfer Squares came up a little short. While all of the flavors are there – the texture and appearance is off. Basically, it needs a little more work. It is gonna take a little bit more time for me to get them dialed in.
That being said, I am going to rename my first batch of Surfer Squares….. I am gonna call them “Gen 6 Squares.”