Only 13 laps in and Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s day is done at Texas

 

   Just 13 laps into Monday's rescheduled Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Sprint Cup Series points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. saw his race come to an abrupt end after he slid into the frontstretch grass and the slid up into the outside retaining wall. His No. 88 Chevrolet caught fire but Earnhardt was not injured.

   Earnhardt spoke briefly after the incident:

   Q: What happened?
   Earnhardt : "Just didn't see the grass. Didn't know the grass was down there. With the way the A-post is on these cars you can't really see that good to that angle. I just didn't have a good visual of where the apron and the grass was and got down in there pretty good. You can't run through there they way they have these cars on the ground like that. Just a mistake on my part. I just didn't know I was that close to the grass, and made a mistake."

   "I drove the car down there. I didn't know we were that close the grass and was following the No. 43 (Aric Almirola). I thought I was taking a decent line through the dogleg. We were going low around the No. 42 (Kyle Larson) so I was lower than normal and just misjudged it. It tears the car up pretty good when you run through the grass."

   Q: Was wet track a factor?
   Earnhardt: "It was no factor. I just made a mistake."

The start of Sunday's NASCAR race at Texas has been delayed by rain

 

 

   The start of Sunday's Duck Commander 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway has been delayed by persistent rain showers and thunderstorms across the Dallas-Forth Worth area.

   It's the sixth time in seven NASCAR race weekends this season bad weather has affected some part of the race weekend.

   NASCAR will make every effort to get the race in on Sunday and can go into the night with lights, if necessary. In a message posted to his Twitter account, NASCAR executive vice president of race operations, Steve O'Donnell, said track drying procedures would likely need to be underway by 7 p.m. ET for the race to be held Sunday night.

   If the race cannot be started on Sunday, it will likely be postponed until noon ET on Monday.

Goodyear statement on Kurt Busch tire issue in practice

   Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. issued the following statement regarding an incident in Friday's Sprint Cup Series practice involving Kurt Busch's No. 41 Chevrolet, which had a left-rear tire go down and hit the wall:

   "Late in the Sprint Cup practice the No. 41 car lost a left-rear tire after 19 laps of a run. We eventually got the tire back, and while it was heavily damaged, our initial assessment is air loss due to over-deflection in the sidewall area. We've spoken to the team and got some preliminary information, but we need to talk with them further to get more details to help make a final determination." - Greg Stucker, Goodyear's director of race tire sales

A dozen Sprint Cup teams lose practice time on Friday at Texas

 

 

   A dozen Sprint Cup Series teams have been docked 15 minutes of practice time on Friday at Texas Motor Speedway for being late to the qualifying inspection line last weekend at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

   The teams of Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Landon Cassill, Cole Whitt, Michael Annett, Martin Truex Jr., Reed Sorenson, Clint Bowyer, Parker Kligerman and Kyle Larson are lost 15 minutes in Friday's lone practice session.

   Teams being penalized practice time for being late to inspection is nothing new, however the number of teams being late on the same weekend is unusual.

Three NASCAR Truck teams penalized

   NASCAR Press Release

 

   Daytona Beach, Fla. (April 1, 2014) — Three teams that compete in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series have been penalized for rules violations discovered during post-race inspection last Sunday (March 30) at Martinsville Speedway.

 

   All three teams – the No. 31, No. 54, and No. 98 – have been assessed a P3 level penalty for violating Section 20B-12.5 (D) (offset front hubs found in post-race inspection) of the 2014 NASCAR rule book.

 

   As a result, each team’s crew chief – Michael Shelton (No. 31); Jerry Baxter (No. 54); and Gene Wachtel (No. 98) – have been fined $10,000 and placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31.

 

Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch give their take on pit road incident

During the second caution of Sunday's STP 500, Brad Keselowski got hit on pit road by Kurt Busch in an incident that also included Kasey Kahne. After repairs were made to his car, Keselowski returned to the track and rubbed on Busch's car several times. Both talked after the race about the incident:


BRAD KESELOWSKI

WHAT HAPPENED WITH KURT OUT THERE? “The replay shows it. We jumbled up on pit road and he just drove right through me and ruined our day. We probably had a race-winning car and it doesn’t matter. That’s the way it goes.” 

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT HIM WINNING? “That’s just racing. You can’t get caught up in that stuff. It doesn’t make you happy, but it’s just racing.” 

DID YOU TRY TO GO AFTER HIM? “I’m good with that.” 

YOU HAD AN ISSUE AT KENTUCKY WITH HIM WASN’T IT? “Yeah, the same thing. He wrecked me for no reason 15-30 laps in, whatever, early in the race just being overaggressive. Aggressive is good, but lap 50 wrecking somebody, if you’re gonna be aggressive wreck yourself don’t wreck me. I’ll remember that when it’s lap 50 and he needs a break and he’ll find his ass turned around in the wall just like he tore my car up. That stuff will come around. Once or twice when it happens you go, ‘Oh, it happens,’ but when it happens repeatedly then you just realize who the person is that’s at fault and you just have to make sure that you show them you’re not gonna take that, and I’m not gonna take that. I know this 2 team is not gonna take it. We had a race-winning car today, instead we finished thirty-whatever with the whole front end tore off of it. That’s inexcusable and I’m not gonna put up with that.”

YOU HAD A LOT OF RESPECT FOR HIM WHEN YOU WERE TEAMMATES. “I still do. He does awesome things for charity and he’s probably the most talented race car driver, but he’s also one of the dumbest, so put those three together.” 

HE SAID HE WANTED TO REARRANGE YOUR FACE. “Tell him come here. I’m right here. He knows where I’m at. Leave victory lane and we’ll go.”


KURT BUSCH

AS FAR AS WHAT HAPPENED ON PIT ROAD WITH KESELOWSKI, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED AND WERE YOU SURPRISED THAT HE WAS UPSET? "Yeah, I can't believe he overreacted and he's as upset as he is. The 5 car was trying to pull into his box, Brad ran into the back of him, I steered right to go around Brad and then he clobbers our left‑side door, and it's like, okay, accidents happen on pit road. It's congested. It's not a place to race, because of all the pit crew guys down there and I didn't think much of it, and then once we were back out running, he targeted us, he was aiming for us. He tried to flatten all four of my tires. That's a no‑fly zone. That's a punk‑ass move and he will get what he gets back when I decide to give it back."

Martinsville NASCAR Truck race postponed until Sunday

 

   Saturday's NASCAR Truck Series race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway was postponed by persistent rain showers and has been rescheduled for approximately 5:30 p.m. ET Sunday (Fox Sports 1) - to be run immediately after the conclusion of the Sprint Cup Series race.

   Qualifying for the Truck race was also rained out. Darrell Wallace Jr. will start from the pole as he was fastest in practice on Friday.