Backstretch Motorsports

KANSAS CITY, KS. (Oct. 4, 2009) — Two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart took two tires on his final pit stop and held off hard-charging Jeff Gordon, a four-time champion himself, at the finish to win the Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway Sunday afternoon.

Stewart, a first-year car owner/driver, raced hard all afternoon with the frontrunners and gambled with crew chief Darian Grubb on the two-tire strategy at the end.

“Darian (Grubb, crew chief) made it.” said the driver of the No. 14 Office Depot Chevrolet “We got two tires earlier in the day and were able to go really quick on them so it was pretty much in our opinion a no-brainer of what to do. The guys that took four could just never gain the track position back. We had a really good car on two tires. Darian and these guys on the pit crew, they are the ones that got us the win. They got us track position and I was able to pick which line I wanted on the restart and that won us the race.” [read more...]

OK, everybody sing along, you know the tune:

“I’m going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come - they got a winning little speedway there and I’m gonna get me some…”

No?.. well.. it was worth a shot… (apologies to the late, great Wilbert Harrison)

If the ’stock-car’ racing standards are set in the way many have historically classified them, it breaks down this way: [read more...]

Qualifying Fast Facts
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
SYLVANIA 300

Coors Light Pole Winner: Juan Pablo Montoya
Age: 33
Team : No. 42 - Target Chevrolet
Owner: Teresa Earnhardt
Crew Chief: Brian Pattie [read more...]

“Do not go gentle into that good night” .. I doubt Dylan Thomas could’ve ever imagined his words would be used as a racer’s mantra for making the NASCAR playoff series.

But they work.

In truth, nearly all of the top finishers in the Sharpie 500 race at Bristol Motor Speedway could lay claim to the sentiments expressed in that poetic phrase. [read more...]

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (Aug. 10, 2009) — Tony Stewart’s dream season continued unabated in Monday’s rain-delayed Heluva Good! at the Glen.

After a major adjustment early in the race got Stewart’s No. 14 Chevrolet handling the way the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader wanted, Stewart held off Marcos Ambrose during a 17-lap run to the finish and crossed the finish line 2.969 seconds ahead of the Australian road-course ace. [read more...]

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 20, 2009) – Though only 15 races old, the Allstate 400 at The Brickyard has produced a number of statistics befitting a track as historic as Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Already, Indianapolis has become a house of NASCAR champions. Of the 15 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, 13 have been won by series champions.
The only Brickyard winners who are not also series champions are Ricky Rudd (1997) and Kevin Harvick (2003). [read more...]

JOLIET, Ill. (July 11, 2009) — Body-slamming and bump-drafting were the order of the day — at 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway, no less — and 50-year-old Mark Martin was the last man standing in a wild LifeLock.com 400.

Pulling away after a double-file restart with two laps left in Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race, Martin won his series-best fourth race of the season and the 39th of his career. Martin gained two positions to 11th in the standings and will have at least 40 bonus points for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup seven races hence, if he can hold a position in the top 12. [read more...]

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 6, 2009) – Kasey Kahne’s 15th-place finish at Daytona International Speedway last Saturday night was enough to vault him back into the top 12 of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings. His entry inside the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup cutoff made it seven different teams in the top 12, the most after 18 races since the Chase field was increased to 12 in 2007. Here’s the breakdown:
2007: Five (Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush Fenway Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Dale Earnhardt Inc.);
2008: Five (JGR, HMS, RCR, RFR and Gillett-Evernham Motorsports); [read more...]

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 4, 2009) — With Kyle Busch slamming the frontstretch wall after an unsuccessful attempt to block, Tony Stewart won Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

The victory was Stewart’s second of the season, his second as an owner/driver for Stewart-Haas Racing and the 35th of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. [read more...]

SONOMA, Calif.—How strange was it for Kasey Kahne to win a road-course race?

The driver of the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge had to ask his crew chief for directions to victory lane after taking the checkered flag in a green-white-checkered finish in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.

Kahne held off road-course ace Tony Stewart through a succession of four late-race double-file restarts, the final time after Scott Speed’s spin on Lap 108 caused the seventh caution of the day. After starting from the rear because of an engine change, Marcos Ambrose chased the top two finishers to the line to claim third place, matching the best result of his Sprint Cup Series career.
[read more...]