nascar 2012 - race 13

RACING THE MONTSTER MILE

DOVER, DELAWARE - June 2, 2012 The Nationwide Series visited the Monster Mile International Speedway. The track is a one mile speedway. The race is 200 laps with pit road speed only being 35 mph. This creates the most speeding penalties of any track in the circuit. The Pole Sitter is a native of Delaware, # 20 Ryan Truex. Truex just had his appendix removed eleven days ago, but was not going to miss the chance to race at his home track. Brother Martin Truex Jr. was scheduled to race for him, in the case he was unable to get into his race car. Starting second was teammate # 18 Joey Lagono. In his very first Nationwide race was # 33 Ty Dillon, brother of series driver # 3 Austin Dillon. Both grandsons of owner Richard Childress. Ty would start third and finish eighth in his debut race. Prior to the race, during the ceremonies a C-17 flew over the track, from nearby Dover Air Force Base.

The first caution came out on lap 3, when the # 08 of Tim Andrews hit the wall, after a tire failure. The second caution came out for points leader # 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr., when he slid coming out of the corner, and hit the inside wall hard. He did leave the race, and come back 66 laps down. Due to the accident that Stenhouse had, # 2 Elliott Sadler was able to take over the points lead, finishing in the top ten. During the caution # 7 Danica Patrick was caught speeding and fell from 17th to 27th on the re-start. On lap 41, NASCAR threw a competition caution, due to the track being green after plenty of rain fell at the track the evening prior. Caution number four came out on lap 120, when # 41 Timmy Hill was spun into the wall by # 12 Sam Hornish Jr. Hornish was the reason for the next caution on lap 132 as well, when he ran into # 7 Danica Patrick and # 38 Brad Sweet. On lap 150 # 18 Joey Lagono ran into the back end of the lap car of # 24 Tim Bainey Jr., bringing out the sixth caution of the race. Rookie Ryan Truex was able to take over the lead after the pit stops were made, but lost the lead when he ran up on two lap cars fighting for position. When Truex was forced to let off and allow them to get in line, teammate Joey Lagono took advantage of his slowing and passed him for the lead. Lagono went on to win the race unchallenged.

The rest of the top ten were: # 20 Ryan Truex, # 11 Brian Scott, # 54 Kurt Busch, # 31 Justin Allgaier, # 3 Austin Dillon, # 2 Elliott Sadler, # 33 Ty Dillon, # 30 James Buescher, and # 51 Jeremy Clements.

The next race will be in two weeks at Michigan International Speedway.

NOTE- In the Dover Truck race the night prior, the race ended early due to rain. # 11 Todd Bodine won the race.


FED EX 400 BENEFITING AUTISM SPEAKS

DOVER, DELAWARE - June 3, 2012 The Sprint Cup Series raced the Monster Mile. During the pre-race ceremonies, 70 year old Dick Berggren was being celebrated for his many years as a pit reporter as this would be his final race in the pits. He is retiring after the race comes to an end. A F-16 did the fly over, and Gov. Jack Markell was the grand marshall for the race. Dover is not only known as the capital of our first state, but also the fastest one mile track on the circuit. The Pole Sitter was # 55 Mark Martin, with # 48 Jimmie Johnson starting second.

The first caution came out on lap nine, when thirteen cars piled up after # 83 Landon Cassill checked up a bit, and # 14 Tony Stewart and # 78 Regan Smith both tagged each other in the rear corner panels. This set off a chain reaction and when all was said and done, # 79 Scott Speed, # 42 Jaun Montoya, # 38 David Gilliland, # 33 Scott Leight, # 36 Dave Blaney, # 13 Casey Mears, # 32 Reed Sorenson, # 87 Joe Nemecheck, # 98 McDowell, and # 93 Travis Kvapil were all collected in a pile. There was a eighteen minute red flag to clean up all the wrecked cars. This was the largest wreck of the season so far. It was noted after the race went back to green that Jimmie Johnson had led over 2000 laps in just 21 starts at this track. During a round of green flag pit stops at lap 69, # 51 Kurt Busch was caught speeding. The second caution came out on lap 111, when # 10 David Reutimann blew an engine. # 22 A.J. Allmendinger was the Lucky Dog. # 39 Ryan Newman received a penalty for having a tire leave his pit box. Lap 165 brought out the third caution when # 99 Carl Edwards hit the wall hard. The Lucky Dog was # 9 Marcus Ambrose. During the pit stops, # 18 Kyle Busch would have troubles. He left his pit box without all the lug nuts being tight. He would have to re-start at the back of the field. It was only a handful of laps later on lap 203, when Busch’s engine would go up in smoke.

Lap 226 brought out a caution for debris on the track. The Lucky Dog was # 27 Paul Menard. During the pit stops, # 29 Kevin Harvick had a miscue when he missed his pit box. He would end up having a 24 second pit stop, dropping him to the last car on the lead lap in eighteenth position. The next caution would also be for debris on lap 340. The Lucky Dog was # 1 Jamie McMurray. On lap 345 # 51 Kurt Busch had an engine failure, while he was already multiple laps down. # 39 Ryan Newman was the Lucky Dog. The Final caution came out for yet another engine failure on the # 31 Jeff Burton car, as he was running in the ninth spot. # 11 Denny Hamlin was given the Lucky Dog.

The race then went green to lap 400, when # 48 Jimmie Johnson won the race after leading a total of 289 of 400 laps. He also had the fastest lap of 152.27 mph. It was also noted that # 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. has finished every race on the lead lap, and has had ten top tens in thirteen races. Earnhardt is the only driver to have completed every lap so far this season. The rest of the top ten were: # 29 Kevin Harvick, # 17 Matt Kenseth, # 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr., # 15 Clint Bowyer, # 43 Aric Almirola, # 56 Martin Truex Jr., # 5 Kasey Kahne, # 20 Joey Lagono, and # 9 Marcus Ambrose.

# 16 Greg Biffle remains the points leader by one point over his teammate # 17 Matt Kenseth and ten points over # 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hamlin, Johnson, Truex, Harvick, Stewart, Kyle Busch, and Bowyer are the rest of the top ten in points after thirteen races.

The next race is next weekend. The Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono is on Sunday.


BELLE ISLE PARK

DETROIT, MICHIGAN - June 3, 2012 The IZOD Series raced on a street course. The first forty-five laps were run green with only one leader. # 9 Scott Dixon led every lap. Then after two cars crashed in separate accidents on the same lap, due to track conditions falling apart, a Red Flag was brought out for nearly two hours. The track is mostly concrete with many areas being filled with asphalt, due to cracks in the roadway. These areas starting to blister, then pull apart. There were three main areas that became unable to be driven over. One of these areas caused the car driven by Hitchcliffe to hydroplane up and into a barrier wall. After tearing out all the asphalt from the problem areas, and replacing it with a concrete filler, they restarted the race when it was cured.

The race would be shortened to only 60 laps, instead of the original 90 laps scheduled. During the final fifteen laps, the cars ran around the track under caution for two laps, so the drivers could see exactly were these repairs were located on the track. With only thirteen laps remaining, # 9 Scott Dixon started and stayed out front for the remainder of the race. This was the second race in a row that team Target Ganassi would finish one-two, when # 10 Dario Franchitti finished in second position.

The rest of the top ten were: #77 Simon Pegenaud, # 13 Will Power, # 22 Servia, # 11 Tony Kanaan, # 28 Ryan Hunter-Raey, # 83 Charlie Kimball, # 14 Mike Conway and # 98 Alex Tagliani. Female driver De Silvestro finished in the 14th position.