Posted on 04/18/2012 5:14:24 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Kansas .. fast track .. and a lot of possibilities when it comes to a winner. Hopefully, fair weather will prevail.
See Ya here .. and there!
(Excerpt) Read more at nascar.com ...
"The C-group is really hard to pick this year."
Happening every year because the top 20 keep hogging the $$$. And they want to know why attendance is down 27% in two years.
I have been doing chainsaw duty during cautions. Just a while ago I was down by the road cutting up a beetle kill pine tree and a bunch of Ferraris came whizzing past. I thought they were motorcycles by the sound before I saw them. Saw a neat car in Boulder yesterday, a Nissan GT-R. This years model has 545 hp. It is the first one I have seen here in the states. About 10 years ago I saw a Nissan Skyline GT-R in Tokyo.
no, the other one...
Lap 187 — CAUTION FLAG NO. 3: There’s debris reported on the track.
Lap 186 — Martin Truex Jr.’s advantage over Jimmie Johnson is up to 1.1 seconds.
Lap 183 — When all is said and done on the round of green-flag stops, the leaders are Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth.
Lap 182 — Brad Keselowski finally makes his stop.
Lap 181 — Brad Keselowski misses the entrance to pit road. He’ll have to come back around before making his stop.
Lap 180 — Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart are on pit lane.
Lap 179 — Martin Truex Jr. gives up the lead to pit for service. Jimmie Johnson is also in
Lap 178 — Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin are on pit road.
Lap 177 — Kurt Busch and Martin Martin are pitting.
Lap 176 — Martin Truex Jr. is working traffic, and Jimmie Johnson is looking to take advantage.
Lap 171 — Jimmie Johnson’s spotter has told him not to push the issue, saying that leader Martin Truex Jr. “will mess up.”
Lap 168 — Jimmie Johnson is still trying, but there’s nothing for him to do at the moment.
Lap 166 — Jimmie Johnson is looking under Martin Truex Jr. for the lead in Turns 1 and 2, but the move isn’t there.
Lap 163 — Jimmie Johnson is now just three or four car lengths off the bumper of leader Martin Truex Jr.
Lap 161 — Don’t look now, but Jimmie Johnson appears to be reeling in leader Martin Truex Jr.
Lap 160 — Martin Truex Jr. has led 109 laps so far today.
Lap 156 — Jimmie Johnson goes under Denny Hamlin for second place.
Lap 155 — Jimmie Johnson is trying to find a way past Denny Hamlin for second place.
Lap 152 — Jimmie Johnson blasts past Dale Earnhardt Jr. for third place coming off Turn 2.
Lap 150 — Martin Truex Jr.’s lead over Denny Hamlin is about one second.
Lap 147 — Kurt Busch’s team owner, James FInch, has one victory at the Cup level. He might not have won a lot of races, but, as the old saying goes, he’s never lost a party!
Lap 144 — Kurt Busch, driving an unsponsored car here at Kansas, is now running in fourth place.
Lap 142 — GREEN FLAG: Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are the top five when the green flag comes back out. Truex gets a huge jump and is well clear for the lead in Turn 1.
Lap 140 — Clint Bowyer goes to the garage.
Lap 139 — The race was about to go back to green, but Clint Bowyer appears to have blown an engine.
Lap 138 — Cleanup is still taking place on the track.
Lap 134 — The leaders are on pit road. A.J. Allmendinger’s crew goes under the hood of his car.
Lap 132 — CAUTION FLAG NO. 2: The caution is out for debris on the track. Jamie McMurray had just pitted.
Lap 129 — At a full distance of 267 laps, halfway would be ... haflway would be ... dang it. Where’s the calculator? Halfway would be lap 134, right?
Lap 127 — With a lead as big as the one he has right now, there’s no need for Martin Truex Jr. to push his equipment any more than what’s absolutely necessary.
Lap 123 — Matt Kenseth trails Martin Truex Jr. by 7.7 seconds.
Lap 118 — Jimmie Johnson takes fourth place from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Lap 116 — Matt Kenseth has caught Denny Hamlin for second place, and takes the spot coming off Turn 4.
Lap 114 — Martin Truex Jr. may be taking it easy up front. His lead over Denny Hamlin is now down to a little more than 7.9 seconds.
Lap 110 — Martin Truex Jr.’s cushion over Denny Hamlin is remaining fairly consistent.
Lap 107 — Matt Kenseth has moved around Dale Earnhardt Jr. for third place.
Lap 103 — On the clock, Martin Truex Jr.’s lead is nine seconds. On the track, when Truex flashes under the starter’s stand, second-place Denny Hamlin is in the middle of Turns 3 and 4.
Lap 100 — After their stops, Martin Truex Jr. now leads Denny Hamlin by a whopping nine seconds. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is third, Matt Kenseth fourth and Brad Keselowski fifth.
Lap 98 — Jimmie Johnson’s crew dropped a lug nut, dropping him to seventh place after the cycle of stops.
Lap 97 — Juan Montoya drops onto pit lane.
Lap 96 — Tony Stewart is pitting.
Lap 95 — Greg Biffle is in. Matt Kenseth smokes the tires on his car slowing down for his entrance to pit road.
Lap 94 — Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon are getting their cars serviced.
Lap 93 — Leader Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin and Kasey Kahne (finally) are in their stalls.
Lap 92 — Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are pitting. Kasey Kahne has run out of gas, and is slow on the backstretch.
Lap 91 — A.J. Allmendinger, Sam Hornish Jr. and Mark Martin are on pit road.
Lap 90 — Brad Keselowski pits.
Lap 89 — Kevin Harvick has dropped to the apron to make another green-flag pit stop.
Lap 87 — Kevin Harvick is off the pace. He’s evidently out of gas.
Lap 85 — Hendrick Motorsports has three cars in the top six right now — third-place Kasey Kahne, fourth-place Jimmie Johnson and sixth-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. A fourth entry, Jeff Gordon, is currently running 12th.
Lap 82 — Martin Truex Jr. is very happy happy with his Toyota. He should be!
Lap 78 — Jimmie Johnson has fallen off the pace being set by second-place Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne, running third. He’s now about two seconds behind Kahne.
Lap 76 — A.J. Allmendinger, who led early, has reportedly developed an engine problem under the hood of his Penske Racing Dodge.
Lap 74 — Martin Truex Jr. has opened up a lead of 2.4 seconds over Kevin Harvick, who is still dealing with Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson on his rear bumper.
Lap 71 — NASCAR inspectors are reporting smoke coming from the right front of Clint Bowyer’s car.
Lap 69 — Jimmie Johnson has joined Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne in their battle for second place.
Lap 66 — Kevin Harvick goes back around Kasey Kahne for second place.
Lap 65 — Kasey Kahne grabs second place from Kevin Harvick in Turns 3 and 4, but Harvick comes right back after him for the spot.
Lap 64 — Kasey Kahne is following right in the tire tracks of Kevin Harvick.
Lap 61 — With the battles behind him, Martin Truex Jr. has been able to open up a lead of about 1.4 seconds over Kevin Harvick.
Lap 58 — Kyle Busch makes contact with the rear quarter panel of Greg Biffle’s car in traffic, but again, they’re able to keep up the charge.
Lap 57 — GREEN FLAG: Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin are the leaders on the restart. Hamlin dives three wide going into Turn 1, and all heck breaks loose behind the battle. Somehow, they manage to keep going.
Lap 54 — Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle and a few others pit under the caution. Clint Bowyer has taken his car to the garage.
Lap 52 — YELLOW FLAG NO. 1: Clint Bowyer spins coming off Turn 4.
Lap 50 — Former leader A.J. Allmendinger had to check up getting into his stall to let Greg Biffle exit his, and then he appeared to wait for a full supply of fuel. He’s now running in seventh place.
Lap 48 — After the cycle of stops, the top five are Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin.
Lap 47 — Carl Edwards makes his stop.
Lap 46 — Kevin Harvick, A.J. Allmendinger,Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and others are on pit road.
Lap 45 — Martin Truex Jr. is on pit road for his green-flag stop.
Lap 43 — Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski and Jeff Burton are on pit road.
Lap 41 — On MRN’s broadcast of the race, one of the turn announcers said that Martin Truex Jr. was on A.J. Allmendinger for the lead like “a rottweiler on a rump roast.” Great line.
Lap 39 — Now that he’s got second, Martin Truex Jr. isn’t stopping there. He’s going right after A.J. Allmendinger for the lead.
Lap 37 — After giving it a couple of tries in the last few laps, Martin Truex Jr. finally gets around Kevin Harvick for second place.
Lap 35 — It’s the same story up front. A.J. Allmendinger is the leader, Kevin Harvick second and Martin Truex Jr. third., with a few car lengths between each.
This year many of the C-group are only running a limited number of races so it is hard to know if the pick will even show up.
Lap 189 — Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman and a few others are pitting. The top eight drivers — Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard — stay on the track.
TrueX is strong.. Busch has run well too..
either Jr or Mark Martin burns rubber imo
Lap 196 — Ryan Newman brings his Chevrolet to pit road.
Lap 195 — There’s no messing with Martin Truex Jr. today! He’s already hitting the afterburners following the restart.
Lap 192 — GREEN FLAG: Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch are the top five on the restart. Truex gets another great start and clears for the lead between Turns 1 and 2.
could be.. HaPPy was my guess but Mark Martin is still kicking too..
Smoke noodged the wall..
The last pit stop should be good.
do not drop a lugnut. and they need full cans of gas .. oh boy..
Lap 215 — Tony Stewart has brushed the wall, but he’s staying on the race track.
Lap 213 — It’s amazing how steady the gap between leader Martin Truex Jr. and second-place Denny Hamlin has remained. It’s about 1.3, 1.4 seconds every lap.
Lap 210 — Greg Biffle slides under Dale Earnhardt Jr. for fifth place, and at almost the same time, Jimmie Johnson goes past Matt Kenseth for third.
Lap 207 — Martin Truex Jr. finished 20th here last spring and 36th in the fall. That was then ... this is now.
Lap 201 — As good as he has been in this race, Martin Truex Jr. has never finished better than 11th here at Kansas — and that came in his first Cup start here, back in October 2006.
Does anyone know anything about the racing gloves Dale wears? He always wears that skeleton style. There is also a “symbol” on them that may be the manufactures logo.
I was just curious because he never changes. I thought there may be something “special” about them to him.
not sure, he’s been wearing them a long time..
Lap 233 — Sam Hornish Jr. finally makes his stop, handing the lead over to Martin Truex Jr. Denny Hamlin is holding tight to Truex’s rear bumper for the top spot.
Lap 231 — Sam Hornish Jr. is still on the track.
Lap 228 — Sam Hornish Jr. is staying on the track. Martin Truex Jr. is second, followed by Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth in the top five.
Lap 227 — Sam Hornish Jr. has not stopped yet, and is shown as the leader.
Lap 225 — Martin Truex Jr. is trying to hold Denny Hamlin off for fourth place. When everybody cycles through their stops, this would be for the lead.
Flash lost a cylinder.. Kurt Busch may be losing a cylinder too..
Lap 238 — The engine in Jeff Gordon’s car is evidently going sour.
Lap 237 — Denny Hamlin wrestles the lead away from Martin Truex Jr. on the backstretch.
Lap 246 — Jeff Gordon is going to be black flagged for failing to maintain a safe speed on the race track.
Lap 244 — Oil is being reported by one of the drivers, but a nearby NASCAR official reports that the track is clear.
Lap 241 — The heavy cloud cover that has hung over the race track for most of the race is breaking up, and that could be hurtin the handling on Martin Truex Jr.’s car. He’s now about a second behind leader Denny Hamlin.
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