Daytona's Magical Aura: Jamie McMurray's 2010 Daytona 500Bleacher Report - 13/02/2011 Daytona has always had this magical aura with stories surrounding the Daytona 500 that everybody loves to tell over and over. ... Bleacher Report |
CUP: Montoya Needs Luck To Return To Chase, Victory LaneSPEEDtv.com - 12/02/2011 Juan Pablo Montoya won only once in 2010 and missed the Chase for the Sprint Cup... Juan Pablo Montoya has high hopes for 2011. ... SPEEDtv.com | ||||||
NASCAR Sprint Cup Daytona 500 qualifying
Race is Sunday, Feb. 20
In Daytona Beach, Fla.
At Daytona International Speedway
(Car number in parentheses) Listed by qualifying speed
Note: Top two spots are set. The 41 remaining spots will be determined Thursday after two 24-car races.
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1. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 186.089 mph. 2. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 185.966. 3. (21) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 185.445. 4. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 185.422. 5. (33) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 185.223. 6. (31) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 185.071. 7. (39) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 185.002. 8. (5) Mark Martin, Chevrolet, 184.991. 9. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 184.911. 10. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 184.911.
11. (22) Kurt Busch, Dodge, 184.896. 12. (42) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 184.763. 13. (9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 184.748. 14. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 184.740. 15. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 184.687. 16. (6) David Ragan, Ford, 184.612. 17. (09) Bill Elliott, Chevrolet, 184.532. 18. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 184.475. 19. (43) A J Allmendinger, Ford, 184.290. 20. (38) Travis Kvapil, Ford, 184.271.
21. (87) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 184.222. 22. (17) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 184.102. 23. (00) David Reutimann, Toyota, 184.019. 24. (2) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 184.008. 25. (15) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 183.966. 26. (36) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 183.793. 27. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 183.685. 28. (78) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 183.681. 29. (4) Kasey Kahne, Toyota, 183.602. 30. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 183.595.
31. (47) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 183.576. 32. (83) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 183.557. 33. (56) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 183.456. 34. (20) Joey Logano, Toyota, 183.206. 35. (60) Todd Bodine, Toyota, 183.057. 36. (97) Kevin Conway, Toyota, 182.949. 37. (13) Casey Mears, Toyota, 182.867. 38. (34) David Gilliland, Ford, 182.697. 39. (77) Steve Wallace, Toyota, 182.574. 40. (66) Michael McDowell, Toyota, 182.434.
41. (7) Robby Gordon, Dodge, 182.120. 42. (32) Terry Labonte, Ford, 181.492. 43. (37) Robert Richardson Jr., Ford, 181.466. 44. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 181.316. 45. (46) J J Yeley, Chevrolet, 180.977. 46. (71) Andy Lally, Chevrolet, 180.828. 47. (64) Derrike Cope, Toyota, 177.894. 48. (92) Brian Keselowski, Dodge, 177.581.
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NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BUDWEISER SHOOTOUT
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
February 12, 2011
REGAN SMITH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET
ON THE CRASH:
“Things happened pretty quickly out there so I am not exactly sure what happened,” said Smith. “Our crew chief (Pete Rondeau) said that the No. 88 (Earnhardt Jr.) got into me. But I have a feeling that somebody tagged him first. As I said, I am not really sure what happened. The one thing I do know is that I was having fun and felt that we were getting a better hang of the situation when we got wrecked. The first segment I was just not able to hook up with someone and make it work. I hate crashing a car, but it was still good experience as we plan our strategy for next week’s Daytona 500.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER/DUPONT CHEVROLET – FINISHED 6th
ON THE PAIRED RACING
“It’s interesting. It has its own excitement and interest that’s all new that all of us are trying to get adjusted to. But it’s wild out there; it really is. It’s a lot harder than it looks and it’s just trying to get the right guy to either push or push you. Right there at the end we had the right guy I thought, but he kept hitting the rev-limiter and every time he did he fell off me do I just having to back up to him and back up to him. We just couldn’t go anywhere. But we had a good, fast race car so I was excited about that.
IT SEEMS LIKE THIS IS A WHOLE NEW LEARNING PROCESS
“Oh, yeah; for everybody (including) the fans, for NASCAR, for us, it’s pretty crazy.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET – FINISHED 2ND:
FIRST IN LAST YEAR’S DAYTONA 500, SECOND TONIGHT, HOW DIFFERENT IS THIS TRACK FROM LAST YEAR? “Well the racing is a lot different. I hope it was exciting to watch because it’s so much different than what we had before. I had a really good time tonight. Johnny Morris was here from Bass Pro Shops and obviously McDonalds and Lift Master it was their first race with us so that was a great way to perform for them. I wish I could have pushed a Chevrolet to the front. Kurt (Busch) and I are really good friends though away from the race track.
“We live just a block or so away from each other. And once Juan (Montoya) got wrecked you know I came on the radio and I told Lauren my spotter, I said listen Matt Kenseth or Kurt Busch will be the next two most loyal guys out here to me. So it just worked out that I got behind Kurt and I don’t think he had a very fast car but we put ourselves in the right position right there at the end to win it for him so I’m really happy for him.”
WHAT DID YOU SEE OUT THERE FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT? “Well, you know, we talked about it before that you use the Shootout and the Duel 150 to kind of determine where you need to be on the last lap.
I think you saw there that third place is kind of the place to be. You know that the guy in second is going to make the move to win. You just have to hope that the guy in fourth will stay on the guy in third. It worked out well. I am really happy for Kurt (Busch). I am good friends with him away from the race track. Once Juan (Pablo Montoya) got crashed (his teammate), I didn’t have a teammate out there. I told my spotter that we need to either get with (Matt) Kenseth or with Kurt. That would be the two most loyal guys to me. It just happened that Kurt wound up in front of me on the restart and I just shoved him around there and it worked out in the end. I am really happy for Bass Pro Shops, McDonald’s, Coke, Lift Master, there first race with us. It was a good night. I hope it was exciting for the fans to watch because it was a completely different kind of plate racing than we have had. But from the driver’s seat, it was actually really exciting to push two-by-two and do the side draft. It is awesome the runs you were able to get so I hope the fans enjoyed it.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 WIX FILTERS CHEVROLET – FINISHED 3RD:
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU COULD HAVE OR WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY IN THAT CLOSING LAP? “Well I knew I was a sitting duck. I wish it would have been just a two-car battle instead of a four-car battle but that’s selfish of me. I want to thank WIX first of all for the opportunity and to come here and sponsor us for this race, everybody from Chevrolet and everybody else. I didn’t know what to expect other than the fact that I knew it was going to happen off of (turn) four. I didn’t know if he was going to go high or low and I didn’t know if I was going the right way, pointed in the right direction that the No. 22 and the No.1 were going to go. It’s a unique race and I’m glad we got back to the finish line in the way we did. That’s the least scratched car we’ve ever had at a superspeedway in my history at Stewart-Haas Racing.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: WHEN YOU GET HOOKED UP WITH ANOTHER CAR, HOW GREAT IS THE SPEED DIFFERENTIAL TO PASS SOMEONE WHO MIGHT HAVE LOST THEIR PARTNER? “It looks like they are blowing up, they are going so much slower, that you have to really be careful. You go by them so fast that it is pretty amazing how fast you go by them. Then when you get detached it is pretty tough to realize how much slower you are going when you actually come apart from one another?”
IN THIS NEXT WEEK, HOW WOULD YOU LIKE NASCAR TO RESPOND TO THE SPEEDS, RPMS…ALL THAT STUFF? ‘It doesn’t really matter to us. We have to do a little bit better on some rev limiter stuff and we’ll be ready to go either way.”
HOW MUCH HAS THIS RACE MADE YOU RETHINK ABOUT PLATE RACING? “It’s different. When the pace picked up there at the end, we were up on the rev limiter and couldn’t go anywhere; that was what was holding us back. It actually just started there with 15 laps to go and had to manage that. I couldn’t push like I could with the No. 31 (Jeff Burton) in front of me with the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon). All-in-all, we have good stuff and we are right in there, we just have to do a little bit better on the rev limiter and we’ll be good.”
DID YOU REALLY PULL THE WIRES OUT OF IT? “I couldn’t reach it, but I would of, I will promise you that. I would have pulled them out. They gave me the green light, but I just couldn’t reach it.”
HOW MUCH DID YOU FIND OUT ABOUT HOW YOU COULD WORK WITH SOME CARS AND NOT WITH OTHERS? “Yesterday in traffic during practice, I worked just fine with the No. 24 too, it is just when it is up on the rev limiter like that…I was hitting it half way down the straight away and all the way to the end and we were just getting further behind.”
WAS THIS A GOOD TEST SESSION? “Oh yea, I think everybody was looking forward to tonight for sure. It is one of those deals where we needed tonight to figure out some things and we know what we need to do. All we need to do is change one rev chip and we’ll be ready.”
JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET, FINISHED 8TH: ON THE RACE: “Obviously we are disappointed with the finish. We are going to need to go back and analyze, figure out what didn’t work out. Kevin (Harvick) and I, for whatever reason, Kevin’s car pushed my car better than Clint’s car pushed my car. We need to figure that out. I don’t know why that was. I thought Kevin and I were in great shape. Once we got separated, he didn’t push me the car in front of him as well as well as he pushed me and I didn’t get pushed by Clint (Bowyer) for whatever reason. It is a car thing. That happened late in the race so, game over. We ran well. It is driving me nuts leading these laps and doing all this stuff and not winning races. We did a lot of that last year; it is not my intention to do it this year.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET – FINISHED 4TH
WHAT DID YOU LEARN OUT THERE? “It was a whole new game for sure. Interesting and fun to do something different. You can definitely tell the speeds are up so I am not sure what NASCAR’s opinions are going to be about all this. You had the three-four wide thing at the end of the race and that is what the fans came here to see. Exciting night for sure.”
WERE THERE CERTAIN GUYS YOU WORKED BETTER WITH OR WORSE WITH OR WAS IT ALL THE SAME? “As the races go on, everybody is going to understand how to make this work. Greg (Biffle) and I had worked really well together and came up through the pack. When I had a chance there near the end to work with him, I made sure that I did. Your friends change. It is whoever is close enough to you to work with you. Greg and I went out of our way to work together and it worked out for us.”
About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
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Jamie McMurray or Juan Pablo Montoya: Which Driver Will Be His Team's Top Driver in 2011?
Going into the 2010 season, it was widely expected that Juan Montoya was on the verge of really breaking out in the Sprint Cup Series. As the lead driver for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, he was expected to finally win an oval race and contend for a berth in the Chase for the Championship.
While Montoya was able to score his second career win, albeit another road course win, it was teammate Jamie McMurray that stole all the headlines. It was McMurray, not Montoya who had the breakout season, and in the process swept the sports two biggest races, along with an impressive win at Charlotte to cap his career year.
Written off by many, 2010 was a dream season for Jamie McMurray. After being the odd man out at Roush Racing after the 2009 season, in which the team was forced to downsize from five teams to four, McMurray spent much of that offseason, trying to find a steady ride for the upcoming season.
In January of 2010, it was announced that McMurray would be returning to drive for Chip Ganassi, the man that he broke into the series with in 2002.
That year, he filled in for an injured Sterling Marlin and promptly went out and won at Charlotte, in just his second career start. It was the shortest amount of time it took anyone to ever win their first career race. After that, he was tabbed as the next big thing in the sport, and much was expected of him from then on.
After seven years of mediocre performances, McMurray returned to his original car owner with just three total wins to his credit, and a best finish of 16th in the standings over the previous four seasons.
McMurray immediately proved that he was still capable of being the driver everyone expected him to be seven years prior. He went out and won the biggest race of them all, the Daytona 500.
Most people would have been content if that was the highlight of their season. But that was just the beginning for McMurray. When the series went to the famed Brickyard in August, McMurray backed up his first win of the season, by winning at the sports other most famous track.
Now, the year definitely belonged to McMurray. But even that wasn't enough. In the Chase's only night race, at the home track of NASCAR, Charlotte Motor Speedway, McMurray won his third race of the season. This marked the first time in his career that he won multiple races in the same season.
The year wasn't all perfect for McMurray though. Aside from the three wins, he was also plagued with some very disappointing runs. He had 13 finishes outside the top 20, and as a result he failed to qualify for the Chase.
This season brings high hopes for the rejuvenated McMurray. While it will be nearly impossible to repeat his performance from a season ago, he should still be counted on to win at least once, and if nothing else, at least contend for a spot in the Chase for the second straight year.
Juan Montoya also enters 2011 with high hopes. His 2010 season was similar to his teammates, with the exception that he won just once. Much like McMurray, he was plagued with a high number of poor finishes.
In his fourth full-time season in the Sprint Cup Series, Montoya had 13 finishes of 25th or worse in the 2010 season. A season removed from qualifying for the Chase for the first time in his career, Montoya could only muster a 17th place finish in the points standings.
The highlight of the season came at Watkins Glen, where for the second time in his career Montoya was able to drive into victory lane.
For the second straight year, however, Montoya was the car to beat at Indianapolis, the track that his teammate eventually won. Under a late race caution, Montoya came to pit road while leading and was given four tires by the Target team pit crew.
This decision forced Montoya to restart back in the pack, behind numerous drivers who took just two fresh tires.
Back in the pack, Montoya's car couldn't run with the dominance that it had out in clean air. Running in 10th, and with the laps winding down, Montoya began to really press the issue. He eventually lost control of his No. 42 Chevy and smacked the wall and then got hit from behind by Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had nowhere to go and was a victim of circumstances.
Montoya was relegated to a 32nd place finish, after being the dominant car all day.
During the final 10 races of the season, Montoya found many difficulties. He only managed to score one top 10 during that stretch, a third place effort at Talladega. So, if momentum carries over from one season to another, Montoya is certainly on the wrong side of that equation.
I feel that the new season will bring better fortunes for the Colombia native, however. Now entering his fifth season, I think he will finally break through and win a race on an oval. With as well as he has run at Indianapolis the last two years, it almost feels like that track owes him one.
So, who will be the top dog at EGR this year? I think that these two will be very close this season. I give the edge to Montoya, but by the slimmest of margins.
Combined, I expect these two to win three races. Give McMurray one, while Montoya will take two. The problem for both of them is their inconsistencies. I think that the amount of poor finishes that each of them accumulate will leave both of them outside the top 10 in points when the Chase field is set.
However, with the inclusion of the "wild card" rule, in which the two drivers outside the top 10 in points after Richmond that have the most wins are also included in the Chase, this will ultimately benefit Montoya and put him in the Chase.
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