Dollar General To Sponsor The Dollar General 200 Fueled By Amerigas At PIR!

Phoenix International Raceway President Bryan R. Sperber announced today Dollar General, together with AmeriGas, will be the title sponsor of the March 2, 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series race. The Dollar General 200 Fueled by AmeriGas is the second race of the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series season.

The Dollar General 200 Fueled by AmeriGas will be the feature event for the third day in PIR’s March race weekend. The green flag will drop on the Dollar General 200 Fueled by AmeriGas at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 2.

“We are excited to welcome Dollar General and AmeriGas as title sponsors of the NASCAR Nationwide Series event on March 2,” said Sperber.  “As the second race of the season, this event has always been an exciting stop on the NASCAR schedule and I’m sure fans will appreciate as much as we do the support of Dollar General and AmeriGas helping to make this race possible.”

In addition to the title sponsorship deal with Phoenix International Raceway, Dollar General is the full-season Nationwide Series sponsor for the No. 20 Toyota driven by Brian Vickers and half-season sponsor for Matt Kenseth’s No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry for 17 races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

“Dollar General’s NASCAR participation is a key element in connecting with our customers and we are excited to partner with AmeriGas in Phoenix,” said Rick Dreiling, Dollar General Chairman and CEO.

“AmeriGas is pleased to announce our partnership with NASCAR and Phoenix International Raceway,” said Andy Peyton, Vice President of AmeriGas Cylinder Exchange. “As a NASCAR partner, AmeriGas is committed to the sport and its loyal fans.  NASCAR fans are among the most passionate in all of sports, and they love nothing more than getting together with friends to watch the race while grilling their favorite food.  We are looking forward to kicking off the 2013 grilling season in such a big way, especially with a valued partner like Dollar General.”

The March 1-3 NASCAR event weekend at PIR kicks off Friday, March 1 with the first ever stateside NASCAR Mexico Toyota Series race. The party continues on Saturday, March 2 with the Dollar General 200 Fueled by AmeriGas NASCAR Nationwide Series race, as well as the Talking Stick Resort 50 NASCAR K&N Pro Series- West race.  Sunday, March 3 features the SUBWAY Fresh Fit 500™ NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

Phoenix International Raceway’s corporate partners include: AdvoCare, AmeriGas, Amkus Rescue Systems, Anheuser Busch, Casino Arizona, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Dollar General, FedEx, Ford Motor Company, Gatorade, GEICO, Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau, Goodyear Tires, Lucas Oil, Miller Towing Industries, New Holland, Safety-Kleen, Service Master Clean, Sprint, SUBWAY, Sunoco, Talking Stick Resort, Toyota and UPS.

Tickets for the SUBWAY Fresh Fit 500™ NASCAR Event Weekend at PIR on March 1 -3 are available now and start at just $25. For Phoenix International Raceway tickets and information, call 866-408-RACE (7223) or visit PhoenixRaceway.com

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!

Let The Chase Begin!

The Chase is on! And, I am thirlled!

Kyle Busch is out, as Brian Vickers bumped out the 4-time 09′ race winner with some amazing driving down the stretch. Jeff Gordon is positioned as a solid contender for his 5th crown. Therefore, the only thing that would have made the race at Richmond International Raceway any better would have been if Juan Pablo Montoya had crashed and missed the chase along with KyBusch.

Now, Twenty-six races into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, it comes down to 12 drivers with a chance to win the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Local native Denny Hamlin from Chesapeake finally won a NASCAR Sprint Cup race at his home track after coming “oh, so close” so many times before. He also did it in convincing style, battling door-to-door with Jeff Gordon along the way. It was Hamlin’s second win of the season in his FedEx Toyota. He won earlier this year at Pocono.

Hamlin is one of the 12 Chase participants but his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch didn’t make it. Hamlin had locked in a spot before the race but Kyle needed to finish well ahead of Brian Vickers to make it. Kyle finished fifth but Vickers was seventh and wound up grabbing the 12th spot by eight points over Busch.

Kurt Busch finished second and made the Chase. Jeff Gordon was third and in The Chase.

Everybody’s favorite, Mark Martin, was fourth and secured a Chase spot and there wasn’t a happier man in Virginia on Saturday night when this race ended.

Kyle finished fifth and Clint Bowyer was sixth. Vickers was seventh and former Indianapolis 500 winner Sam Hornish finished eighth. Kevin Harvick was ninth and Ryan Newman 10th, which earned him a slot in the Chase, along with his car owner Tony Stewart, who had a rough night and wound up 17th.

Jimmy Johnson finished 11th and he’s in the Chase, along with 12th-place finisher Kasey Kahne and 13th-place finisher Greg Biffle. Carl Edwards and Juan Pablo Montoya also made the Chase. It will be Montoya’s first Chase as well as the first for team owner Chip Ganassi.

Former series champion Matt Kenseth finished 25th and failed to qualify for the Chase for the first time.

The first race in the Chase begins Sunday, Sept. 20 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Go 24 Go!

Jimmie Johnson Hitting His Stride Again with Victory at the Brickyard!

Jimmie Johnson might not have had the fastest car at Indianapolis for most of the race. Nonetheless, his car was fastest when it counted the most…the last 25 laps of the Allstate 400 at The Brickyard.

Johnson ran behind race leader Juan Pablo Montoya and Mark Martin until Montoya received a pass-through speeding penalty during a late race pit stop.

That put Montoya back in the pack and another caution a few laps after a restart compounded things for the man who led 118 of the 160-lap distance. Starting from 12th, Montoya improved his position by one spot to finish 11th.

The race was left for Martin, who took the lead shortly after the final restart with 25 laps to go. Johnson, however, had other ideas and zipped past his Hendrick Motorsports teammate a lap later and held Martin off to the end. It made it back to back wins for Johnson and his No. 48 Lowe’s team, a first for this race.

NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader and two-time champion Tony Stewart finished third with Greg Biffle fourth. Brian Vickers was fifth in the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota and Kevin Harvick was sixth. Kasey Kahne was seventh, David Reutimann was eighth, four-time champion Jeff Gordon finished ninth and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top 10. Montoya was 11th and rookie Joey Logano was 12th.

With just six more races to the Chase, Johnson and the rest of the 48 team are doing what they do best – – and that’s putting themselves in position to make yet another run at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.

Jeff Gordon Breaks Winless Streak At Texas!

Finally! The drought is over! It is amazing that I need to feel this way. But to watch my favorite driver go 47 races without a victory was gut wrenching. Some drivers go their entire career without ever tasting the sweetness of driving to Victory Lane. However, for a driver as decorated as Jeff Gordon, 81 career victories, going 47 races without one was somewhat shocking.

Some say he is past his prime. Some say that family vlaues have derailed him from his competitive spirit. Some say the “Drive for 5” isn’t possible. I say, you’re friggin’ nuts! The 24 looks as good, if not better, than he did two years ago when he came up just short to Jimmie Johnson for the title.

The four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion had to hold off the 48 the last 26 laps to win the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

This one, the 82nd win of Gordon’s fabled career, was a dandy. It came on a day when a bunch of hard-charging drivers had the lead at one time or another.

Trailing Gordon and Johnson was Greg Biffle and another former champion Tony Stewart, who continues to impress veterans in the sport with his performance as an owner-driver. Both Stewart and Biffle led the event during the highly-competitive race.

Matt Kenseth, another former champ and another race leader, was fifth with ageless Mark Martin sixth.

Juan Pablo Montoya was seventh and Kurt Busch eighth. Jeff Burton was ninth and Carl Edwards, another of the numerous race leaders, finished 10th.

Fastest qualifier David Reutimann, another race leader, wound up 11th after missing his pit stall and losing a lap about halfway through the race.

Kyle Busch, a frontrunner at one point in the race, wound up 18th after a self-imposed accident cost him valuable laps.

Six caution flags slowed the field during the afternoon for minor incidents.

The first caution of the afternoon came out on Lap 97, a record number of laps run without a caution at the track. Obviously, the caution created a flurry of pit road activity with the Kenseth and Biffle crews getting their drivers back on the track first.

Gordon led the first lap on a wind-blown afternoon that promised plenty of competition over the one-and-a-half-mile tri-oval. Pole winner Reutimann quickly went back to the front and Daytona 500 winner Kenseth passed Gordon for second. Paul Menard, who shows more promise every race, followed suit and moved Gordon, the series point leader, to fourth.

On Lap 156, Elliott Sadler spun off Turn 4 bringing out the second caution of the day. Fortunately, all the leaders had pitted and Biffle was out front. The order didn’t change much after the caution except for Mark Martin, who had jumped into ninth spot after the cycle of pit stops. Reutimann, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch were penalized for pit road violations. Reutimann missed his pit box. Harvick was too fast exiting pit road and Busch was too fast entering pit road.

Johnson and his crew chief Chad Knaus made three stops under this caution to make changes on the defending champion’s Chevy. Johnson had not been much of a contender at this point in the race.

At the halfway point, 167 laps, Biffle led with Kenseth right behind him. Gordon was third and Stewart fourth. Ragan, showing some strength, was fifth ahead of Kurt Busch. Burton was next with Edwards, Montoya and Martin rounding out the top 10. Earnhardt was 11th and Johnson 12th.

Jeff Gordon maintains his point lead following his win at Texas. Jimmie Johnson is second, followed by Kurt Busch in third. Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, David Reutimann, and Jeff Burton round out the top 12.

Great to see Gordo maintaining his consistency and dominating the early part of the season. For this 24 fan, I can only hope that he keeps it up, as we all know by now that peaking at the right time is critical. The Chase isn’t for some time, and you can bet the 48 will have something to say about winning it all. The 3-time defending champion is running incredibly well now too, and will have his own desires in place on a 4-peat!

What a season it is shaping up to be for this 24 fan! The “Drive for 5” is alive and kicking!