Jay Busbee
Jay Busbee is a writer and columnist for Yahoo! Sports, as well as an avowed …
It's time for Power Rankings! After every race, we'll opine about who we think is at the top of the Sprint Cup heap and how and why they got there. Remember, this isn't scientific, as our formula is the perfect blend of analytics and bias against your favorite driver. So let's get on with it, shall we?
1. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 1): At one point during Saturday night's NRA 500, Fox TV analyst Darrell Waltrip opined that the rest of the field needed to capitalize on Jimmie Johnson's struggles. He was sixth at the time. Waltrip quickly corrected himself, seemingly after taking a glance at the scoring monitor or getting word from the production truck that Johnson was much closer to the front than he was to 20th. But such is the NASCAR world that we live in where the first instinct is to call running just outside the top five a "struggle" for the 48 team.
2. Kyle Busch (LW: 5): Hello, Kyle. You've got some elite company above and below you. We're not doubting that you belong here by any means,
Brad Keselowski won't be fined for his comments but he may be missing Paul Wolfe for a while. (Getty)
NASCAR has a chance to set a precedent for penalties for violations with its new Sprint Cup Series car. And it can possibly reinforce one for crashing a driver under caution. But before those rulings have been announced, the lines for what can and can't be said about the sport by its drivers have become muddled even further.
Saturday night, after the conclusion of the NRA 500 at Texas, defending Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski was outspoken in his frustration with how he feels his team has been targeted. Before the race, NASCAR officials had the Penske teams make modifications to the rear-end housings on its cars, after NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said that what the Penske cars had done to their cars was "not in the spirit of the rule."
After finishing ninth, Keselowski said to a group of reporters that "There's so much stuff going on you have no (expletive) idea what's going on. And that's not your fault and that's not a slam on you. I could tell
Read More »from It’s shaping up to be an intriguing week for NASCAR rulingsThe death of a man in the infield of Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday night during the Sprint Cup Series NRA 500 has been ruled a suicide from a gunshot to the head, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's office.
The incident happened late in the race when Kirk Franklin, 42, of Saginaw, Texas, apparently got into an argument with other campers, according to the Associated Press. Track spokesperson Mike Zizzo said Saturday night that the incident happened "in or around a pickup truck" in the infield.
Firearms were prohibited by Texas law from being brought in to the track by fans. The NRA's sponsorship of the race came under scrutiny when it was announced earlier this year after Michael Waltrip ran a Sandy Hook benefit car at the Daytona 500 encouraging fans to text to give to Newtown, Conn. It was the NRA's first Sprint Cup Series sponsorship; it sponsored the Nationwide Series race at Atlanta Motor Speeedway in September.
As is custom for all race sponsors, the NRA was
Read More »from Man shoots self in infield at NRA 500A week after finishing outside the top 10 for the first time all year, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was working his way towards the front of the field during Saturday night's NRA 500 when his race went awry.
Junior was running third when the main battery on his car started to fail. Without power, Junior elected to take his car to his pit thinking that something else was amiss. But when he got to his stall, he and his team deduced that it was a battery issue and Junior could have switched his car's power supply to the backup battery from the driver's seat.
"We just had a battery go dead and didn't diagnosis it correctly to just switch it," Junior said. "We have two batteries in there we have a switch in the driver’s seat that goes from one to two. I didn't know it was a battery until we got down on pit road and I got to looking at the gauges and really understanding."
Then things got worse from there. Because he was without power coming down pit road, Junior didn't have a working tachometer
Read More »from Dale Earnhardt Jr. loses battery power while running third, finishes 29thJoey Logano's car was rolled to the grid after the field fired its engines for Saturday night's NRA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway because of a rear-end housing issue that was found during pre-race inspection on both Penske Racing cars.
NASCAR officials confiscated parts from the backs of Logano and teammate Brad Keselowski's cars Saturday afternoon, and the teams then scrambled to change the configuration and parts in the rear of their cars to be ready to race. After Saturday's race, Keselowski was angry and said that his team has been targeted over the last week in the garage area.
"I have one good thing to say and that's my team and effort they put in today and fighting back with the absolute bull(crap) that's been the last seven days in this garage area, the things I've seen in the last seven days have me questioning everything that I believe in and I'm not happy about it," Keselowski said. "I don't have anything positive to say and I probably should just leave it at that"
But he
Read More »from Craziest Moment: Logano barely starts race on time after inspection issues, Keselowski furious
Kyle Busch celebrates his NRA 500 win appropriately. (Getty)
Saturday night's Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway looked a lot like Friday night's Nationwide race.
On Friday night, Kyle Busch drove away from the field after a late race restart to grab the win. And on Saturday he did the same thing, taking advantage of a super fast stop by his pit crew to snatch the lead from Martin Truex Jr. under caution and speed away when the race went green with 16 laps to go.
Truex was leading at the time of the caution with 21 laps to go, which came when Mark Martin hit the wall in turn 4. But Busch's team was quicker than Truex's as the entire field hit the pits and Busch led the pack out of the pits.
That preferred inside line was all he needed, as Truex was never able to mount a serious charge for the win.
"But if it wasn't for my pit crew, who is the most awesome group ever, and since 2008 we've been together, haven't had any changeover, those guys are just awesome," Busch said. "They pulled out one heck of a stop right there at the end to
Read More »from Kyle Busch completes weekend sweep at TexasMatt Kenseth's pit stall caught on fire after he left it following a pit stop early in Saturday night's NRA 500 and that fire briefly spread to his gas man John Eicher's shoes as he leaped back across the pit wall.
Pit stall fires sometimes happen when the accelerating rear tires of a car run over a lugnut from an old tire lying in the pit stall. The force from the lugnut getting shot backwards cause sparks, and if those sparks hit any spilled gasoline, a fire quickly ignites. In this case, it happened before Kenseth's crew had a chance to jump back over the wall.
Eicher was unhurt and the fire on both his shoes and on pit road was quickly extinguished.
Kyle Larson avoided a Juan Pablo Montoya-like incident after blowing a tire on the backstretch under caution during Friday night's Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Just laps earlier, Larson had caused the caution after spinning off of turn four. He didn't hit anything, and to stay on the lead lap, his team only changed right side tires. As Larson was accelerating coming out of the pits to catch back up to the field, his left front tire blew and his car went sliding towards the sweeper truck that was hugging the inside wall.
As the car was careening towards the truck, it wouldn't turn back to the right because of the blown tire. Though thankfully at the last moment, it appeared that Larson was able to get the car to dart to the left and miss hitting the truck, and his car pounded the inside wall.
In last year's Daytona 500, a part failed on Juan Pablo Montoya's car as he was speeding to catch up to the field under caution and he went sliding into a jet dryer in turn
Read More »from Kyle Larson blows tire and narrowly misses safety truck during Texas Nationwide race
Kurt Busch (L) starts second. Kyle Busch (R) starts first. (Getty)
Kyle and Kurt Busch will start on the front row for Saturday night's Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Younger brother Kyle swiped the pole from Kurt seven cars after Kurt's run, as the setting sun led to cooler temperatures on the TMS asphalt. Kurt Busch previously took the pole from Aric Almirola, who went out very early in the session.
It's the second time that Kyle and Kurt have started on the front row together. Previously they did it at Las Vegas, their hometown, in 2009.
It's Kyle Busch's 12th pole of his Cup Series career. He's won two races from the top starting position; at Las Vegas in 2009 and Richmond in 2010.
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