Kevin Harvick Wins In Wild Finish At PIR – Gordon & Bowyer Brawl!

What might have been a dominating victory by Kyle Busch in the AdvoCare 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race turned into a wild finish when Kevin Harvick raced his no. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet to the win in the closing 15 laps on the strength of a fierce restart and another on a green-white-checkered finish.

The race was thrown into overtime when a caution period occurred a split second before the white flag was to wave.  Instead of freezing the field and ending the race with Harvick as the winner in the regulation 312 laps, a red flag was displayed for 14 minutes and 58 seconds to clean a wreck that included four cars.  It also extended the event to 319 laps.

The fireworks started with seven laps left, when Clint Bowyer made contact with Jeff Gordon, sending him into the wall. Gordon’s No. 24 car was black-flagged, but he didn’t leave the track, instead waiting for Bowyer for his chance at redemption.

He got it, slowing down until Bowyer came back around, then sliding down the track when Bowyer tried to get around him on the apron between turns 1 and 2. Both cars, along with Joey Logano’s No. 20, wrecked and were done for the day.

”Things just escalated over the year and I’d just had it,” Gordon said. ”Clint has run into me numerous times, wrecked me and he got into me on the back straightaway and pretty much ruined our day. I’ve had it, fed up with it and got him back.”

Gordon took out Bowyer, the third place championship runner still clinging to faint title hopes, Joey Logano, and Aric Almirola split seconds before new leader Harvick reached the start-finish line.  That angered Bowyer’s crew which took after Gordon’s team in a heated skirmish in the garage.

It also threw the sellout Phoenix International Raceway crowd into a frenzy.  Emotions grew wilder moments later when multiple cars wrecked as they took the checkered flag that came seven laps after the scheduled 312 circuits.

With the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship in its closing stages, all eyes at the day’s beginning were on upstart Brad Keselowski who started seven points behind five-time champion Jimmie Johnson in the season’s penultimate race.  When Johnson cut his right front tire on lap 235 his Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet suffered suspension damage when it hit the turn 1 wall.  He finished 32nd, 38 laps down, and fell 20 points behind Keselowski in the championship hunt.  One race remains next week, and Keselowski needs only to finish 15th, regardless of Johnson’s performance, to clinch his first title.

Most of the sunny afternoon was spent focusing on the taillights of Busch, who led by far the most laps with 237.  “It (his pole-sitting no. 18 M&M’s Toyota) was an awesome piece, and I gave the race away,” he said forlornly.  “I guess I didn’t know how to win it.”

Keselowski barely made it past the Gordon-Bowyer wreck on his way to a sixth place finish, saying, “I thought I was going to wreck, so I just hoped I could bounce off the walls and make it back to the start-finish line.”  While the new points leader was bitterly angry over what he considered late-race retaliation by some drivers, he joked about the good luck he received when Johnson hit the wall: “I’m sure maybe five years from now, if I end up winning this thing (the title), there will be somebody saying ‘Remember Phoenix, when such-and-such laid down thumbtacks and blew out Jimmie’s tire?'”

Race winner Harvick, who claimed his first checkered flag this season and third in 20 races at PIR, also offered a light touch when commenting on the fisticuffs between the Bowyer and Gordon teams: “Fights?  This sport was made on fights.  We ought to have more fights.”

The next exciting race weekend at PIR will take place in the second week of the 2013 NASCAR season when the Subway Fresh 500 headlines the March 1-3 weekend.

Fox Sports Arizona & PIR Announce New Partnership!

FOX Sports Arizona and Phoenix International Raceway have agreed to a new partnership that allows the regional sports network the ability to showcase Arizona’s premiere motorsports venue.

The historic track hosts the Southwest’s biggest racing events and has become one of NASCAR’s fastest and most exciting stops in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Beginning this Wednesday (Oct. 10), racing fans will be able to relive some of PIR’s best races in recent memory when FOX Sports Arizona debuts its new “Phoenix International Raceway Classics” series.

Produced to highlight past races at the venue won by NASCAR legends and get fans ready for this year’s Advocare 500 Weekend at PIR (Nov. 11-13), the first show will take viewers back to the 2003 Checker Auto Parts 500 that was won by Dale Earnhardt Jr. The series will offer four different one-hour episodes hosted by Valley resident Chris Neville, who is part of NASCAR’s coverage on TNT and SPEED TV.

Other races that will air in the series include the 2006 Subway Fresh 500 won by Kevin Harvick, the 2007 Subway Fresh Fit 500 won by Jeff Gordon and the 2009 Subway Fresh Fit 500 won by Mark Martin. Here is the complete schedule:

Oct. 10 @ 7:00 pm        2003 Checker Auto Parts 500
Oct. 15 @ 7:00 pm        2006 Subway Fresh 500
Oct. 24 @ 7:00 pm        2007 Subway Fresh Fit 500
Oct. 30 @ 7:00 pm        2009 Subway Fresh Fit 500

With the victory in 2007, Gordon tied Dale Earnhardt with his 76th all-time win and he recently said this about the moment, “What stands out to me is winning that race, tying Dale Earnhardt and carrying the No. 3 flag. That was a big deal. I looked up to Dale so much, admired him, respected him, to accomplish anything that he did in this sport was huge, so we wanted to honor him.”

When also asked a few weeks ago about his 2009 victory in Phoenix, Mark Martin said “That race was real special because it certainly looked like I wouldn’t win another race in my career at that time and it had been a few years since I’d won.”

This new agreement will also have FOX Sports Arizona produce a half-hour program in the Spring that highlights all the happenings from the 2013 Subway Fresh Fit 500. Phoenix International Raceway is one of just 12 tracks to host two Sprint Cup Races in one season and this program will bring to light everything that happens on not only the 1.0-mile oval, but off the track and outside PIR during race week. The air date and time for the show will be announced at a later date.

“Our new partnership with Phoenix International Raceway expands FOX Sports Arizona’s coverage of the local sports scene even further and strengthens our reputation as the network Arizona sports fans turn to first for comprehensive local sports programming,” said Brian Hogan, FOX Sports Arizona Sr. Vice President & General Manager.

“We’re tremendously excited to work with FOX Sports Arizona on a project that showcases many of the dramatic victories that have occurred at PIR over the years,” said Phoenix International Raceway President Bryan R. Sperber.  “It will be a real treat for fans to watch some of these historical accomplishments as we draw closer to our 2012 semi-final race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup – the AdvoCare 500.”

In addition to the Sprint Cup Races, PIR is also home to the Nationwide Series, Camping World Truck Series, K&N Pro Series West and the first NASCAR Mexico Series race to ever be held in the United States on March 1, 2013.

FOX Sports Arizona televises the most regional sports action in the state and is the exclusive cable television home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Phoenix Suns, Phoenix Coyotes, Arizona Cardinals, Northern Arizona University and Phoenix Mercury. FOX Sports Arizona is currently seen in 2.5 million households in Arizona & New Mexico and can also be seen across the country via home satellite services. And for even more coverage of the local sports scene, log onto www.foxsportsarizona.com, www.twitter.com/foxsportsaz and www.facebook.com/foxsportsarizona.

Matt Kenseth holds off Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the Daytona 500!

Matt Kenseth is under the radar no longer.

His second Daytona 500 victory, a straight-up, I’m-faster-than-you performance in arguably the most unique of the race’s 54 editions, confirms the popular Wisconsin veteran’s status among the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series elite competitors in the current era – and arguably in any era.

We should have known it all along – although Kenseth, like many racers from his home state, has always raced hard but with humility.  His post-race reaction?  Typical: “I wasn’t expecting to win when I woke up this morning,” said Kenseth.  That said, Kenseth has won a championship (2003), two Daytona 500s and 22 times overall. Those victories have come in 10 different seasons beginning in 2000 – his first full campaign with the Roush Fenway organization, his “home” for all but one of Kenseth’s 437 starts.  The two Daytona 500 victories alone move the Cambridge, Wis., driver into legendary territory.

He becomes one of only nine drivers to win the race multiple times. Three of the other eight – Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison – are members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, a possible destination for the 39-year-old Kenseth.  Kenseth is the first repeat Daytona 500 winner since Jeff Gordon in 2005.

Now on to Phoenix, where Kenseth won in 2002.  He followed his 2009 Daytona 500 victory by winning his next start at Auto Club Speedway.

With the win at Daytona, Jack Roush and Roush Fenway finally posted NASCAR national series victory No. 300. The number is unprecedented and extends the record for wins in NASCAR Sprint Cup, NASCAR Nationwide and NASCAR Camping World Truck series. “This is a special night,” said Roush, who won for the first time in 1989 with Mark Martin at the wheel.  Roush has won championships in all three national series.

Old school, new school – it doesn’t matter to the No. 17 crew chief Jimmy Fennig. The victory was the 34th for the 58-year-old pit road master, who guided Allison to his second Daytona 500 victory in 1988. Fennig has won with four different drivers from 1987 through the present: Kenseth, Allison, Kurt Busch and Mark Martin. He was Busch’s championship crew chief in 2004.

You can say Doug Yates has NASCAR’s new Electronic Fuel Injection system figured out. His engines powered the winner, third-place Greg Biffle and eighth-place Carl Edwards. They won the Coors Light Pole and a Gatorade Duel qualifying event. Ford won the Daytona 500 for the third time in four years.

It is also safe to say that Matt Kenseth is an elite performer, in any era!  Congrats to the 17 team for a great win!

Why Jimmie Johnson is Going to Win his 5th Straight Championship this Sunday!

By Patrick Blackburn, NASCAR Senior Staff Writer

After the shocking turn of events in the final 15 laps in Phoenix on Sunday, Jimmie Johnson is in the driver’s seat to win his 5th straight championship next Sunday at Homestead in Miami.

Denny Hamlin will start the race as the Cup leader, 15 points over Johnson and 46 points to the good on Kevin Harvick. When the Chase started, had anyone told Hamlin that he would leave Phoenix with a 15 point lead over the reigning champion, he would have been ecstatic and confident. Nobody, however, could have predicted how the last 15 laps were going to shake out. Of the three contenders, Hamlin dominated the race. It took him no time to drive from his starting position, 17th, to the front, and he remained there throughout most of the race. With 12 laps to go, Hamlin came in for his final pit stop to get enough fuel into his tank to take him to the finish. Everyone knew Harvick was going to stay out, having about ten laps fewer on his tank. The big question was whether the 48 would play it safe and pit or risk his entire championship and stay out. Chad Knaus, being the champion crew chief that he is, prepared for this scenario all the way back to lap 89, when Jimmie made his final pit stop. Knowing that the Phoenix race has come down to fuel many times before, Knaus told Jimmie to start saving fuel. Remember, Johnson won his first Phoenix race in 2008 with superior fuel strategy.

Gordon Captures Goodyear Gatorback Award In Las Vegas!

Despite two disappointing finishes in the first two events of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, Jeff Gordon rebounded in this past Sunday’s Shelby American 400-mile race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, finishing third overall and flashing the competitive form that led him to four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series titles.

Gordon captured a Las Vegas track record for most laps led, and also posted the fastest lap time while leading (180.971 mph, Lap 236) the event securing the “Goodyear Gatorback Belts Fastest Lap” of the race award.

The award is part of the NASCAR Prize Money and Decal Program, also referred to as the contingency program, which provide teams prize money and weekly awards based on performance in several categories.

Established in 2003, the “Goodyear Gatorback Belts Fastest Lap” weekly contingency award recognizes the driver who turns the fastest lap time while leading each NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Goodyear Gatorback belts have been used by NASCAR teams since 1981 and have been an exclusive NASCAR Performance automotive partner since 1997.

Gordon dominated the race, leading 219 of the 267 laps while searching for his first victory of the year.

“Obviously it was a great day for us, dominating performance,” said Jeff Gordon during his Sunday post race interview at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “I’m disappointed [not getting the win], but at the same time, you know, we haven’t dominated like this in a very, very long time. Today we showed what we’re capable of. It gives us a lot of momentum to go to Atlanta.”

Gordon, 39, is in his nineteenth year as a driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. During his renowned career, Gordon has turned 167,642 laps, leading 20,970 of them, in 584 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.

Thank you to NASCAR media for this content.