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Denny to Joey: #seeyasoon!

Denny to Joey: #seeyasoon!

A nice crowd, maybe 60,000 at 82,000-seat Kansas Speedway, on a warm, sunny Sunday (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

 

  (Updated, with new NASCAR road racing qualifying rules)


   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net


   KANSAS CITY
   The zinger of the day:
    Delivered by Denny Hamlin, Twittered from the sidelines at Kansas Speedway...just moments after a savage crash took out Joey Logano, his former teammate, in a wreck triggered by Hamlin's current teammate Kyle Busch -- "I know Joey felt bad but he doesn't have to keep falling in the points on my count :) #seeyasoon"
   Hamlin, who injured his back in a crash with Logano while battling for the win at California last month, says he hopes to get his doctor's okay to return to action next weekend at Richmond.
    
   Hamlin's newest teammate Matt Kenseth carried the flag for Joe Gibbs, with the win.
   But Kenseth said he was worried about the fast-closing Kasey Kahne: "With about 15 laps to go my car turned loose, especially into turn three. Almost lost it two or three times, and gave up probably a second a lap to him.
   "I was afraid he was going to get me. One more lap and he probably would have."
   Kenseth led well over half the race, 163 laps of the 267. But during one exchange of green flag pit stops he wound up back in fifth and struggle for a while.
   "Once we got back behind about fifth, it was hard for us to go forward," Kenseth said.  Our car was really fast in clean air, and it was reasonable in dirty air but not quite good enough to catch all them guys and pass them.  
    "Thankfully we had a couple really crazy-good restarts and made up some ground, and that got us back in position."
    
    It's been a dream ride so far for Kenseth, now driving for Toyota's Gibbs after 14 years with Ford's Jack Roush.
    "It is kind of cliché, but I really feel like I'm living a dream," Kenseth said. "Every single track -- well, we were a little off at California--  but other than that we've had cars I thought that if all the stars would have aligned we could have won the race.
    "We've been incredibly fast, and I'm just so thankful to be wheeling them... and glad we could hold on."

    Jimmie Johnson rallied to finish third and padded his Sprint Cup points lead.
   "Friday and Saturday weren't fun," Johnson said. "There weren't a lot of smiles around our group.
    "But everybody worked real hard to get the cars right, and we had a great race car today.  At times I felt I had a shot to win. We just didn't have enough for Matt and Kasey
    "We had a vibration at the start of the race and had to come in, and put four tires on... and we lost time. We didn't have the best starting spot to begin with, but we lost more time.
    "But from there on I drove right up through the field and got to the front. The last two runs we were a little too tight, but other than that we had a really strong performance with a car that drove through traffic -- which is hard to do in today's world of racing."
 
   One of the big stories of the day was Ford's Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who qualified third and challenged for the win, until a late caution threw him off.
   "It was fun --  We started up front, ran up front, lost our track position and then got it back, and were able to lead some laps," Stenhouse said.
    "We pitted (late in the race) under green, and it really got us when the caution came out. But we can take a lot of positives from this weekend: We were fast in practice, fast in qualifying, and made the car better through the race -- and that's what it's all about, making your car better throughout the race.
    "We were the one to beat there at the end, but we didn't have the track position to finish it off."

    Teammate Carl Edwards was likewise jammed by that untimely yellow. "That's very disappointing for our whole team because we had such a fast car.
     "And when the sun came out (halfway through the race), we were not in good shape.  The handling went away big-time."
    Edwards and Stenhouse battled hard near the front late in the race, and Edwards may have ruffled Stenhouse's feathers with some moves.
   "I've got to thank Ricky Stenhouse --  I was holding him off and I slid up in front of him, and he could have wrecked me, but he didn't," Edwards said.
     "I was in denial about my car at that point --  I thought we were fast.
    "And then we had our strategy set up to rely on the caution not coming out, but the caution came out, and I think that pretty much ruined it for all the Roush Fenway cars. 
    "The cool thing is we had fast race cars... and there were points in the race where I think we had the fastest cars."

    In other news, NASCAR officials Monday announced new qualifying rules for the Sonoma, Calif., and Watkins Glen, N.Y., Sprint Cup events, a 'group-based' session, rather than the traditional best-of-two-laps single-car runs.

    NASCAR qualifying usually draws few if any fans; for Friday's Kansas 400 pole runs, the 82,000-seat grandstands were virtually empty. And NASCAR's traditional single-car runs have long been decried as too boring, with little spectator appeal.

   The new road course qualifying rules, nothing new in other major racing series, send small packs of cars out together for a set period of time, and each driver's best lap during that session will be his official qualifying lap. The number of cars and the time periods weren't announced.

   The new qualifying procedures will likely provide a bit of controversy, of course, which -- considering how boring current qualifying sessions are -- can't be a bad thing. Strategy should be involved....and of course there is the possibility of blocking, to keep a rival from getting a good lap.

   These qualifying rules naturally could also be used on any of the other 21 NASCAR tracks too.

  Sonoma -- the 'new' Martinsville, as rough as these guys play. Wonder how NASCAR's new 'pack' qualifying sessions might play out in this summer's California tour stop? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)




 

Brokeback Comeback

You would think that Denny would have learned his lesson with intentionally wrecking Logano after Logano roughed him up at California in semi-retaliation. I say semi, because Denny wrecked himself trying to turn back into Logano moreso than Logano actually wrecked him. Either way, Denny wrecked him, Joey drove him rough back. Instead of ending it, he wants to stir it up again. Just remember what it got you last time, Denny. Since he's out of the points race I guess Hamlin has got vendetta on his mind. Just remember that Joey can drive that way, too.

Looks like Ol Denny doesn't know when to leave

Looks like Ol Denny doesn't know when to leave well enough alone......

denny and joey

Well denny so far you tried and did take out joey at bristol then ended up bad yourself.Both of you get into a flapping gum contest on the web then you get moved by joey on the last lap and when you see he's going to beat you you try and turn him in the wall head first but end up taking yourself out.Buddy joey didn't put you in the position you are now you did.

What was that Ricky Rudd said about harvick[ yapping dog syndrome].You keep it up and someone will dot that eye for you.I can't believe someone hasn't squashed harvick the new jaws yet.

What is this crying crap by danica.She looked like she was crying after her interview fri then sounded like it over the radio sunday.This is the big leagues.You chose to put yourself among the elite in racing when you should be in trucks with your lack of experience and its only gonna get worse.To dw this is the big time no she doesn't just need more experience.She has yrs of experience leading up to this.If she can't drive the car and tell the crew whats wrong she needs to take a couple steps back win some truck race then on to nationwide.

Well this confirms my thoughts about Miss Hamlin.

Well this confirms my thoughts about Hamlin. He truly is a jerk. He cannot leave well enough alone; it was a racing incident; however his mouth at Daytona and his actions at Bristol were not. He, I am totally convinced, isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. He really should shut his mouth; it's pathetic. Whine on Denny, whine on; you are showing that you are dumber than you look. Sounds like you are keeping your dues up in the Bully club, with Harvick, Newman, and Stewart. I am starting not to like watching racing if this stuff is routinely going to happen week in and week out. Sigh. JD Gibbs and Fedex needs to tell this tool to shut-up, he is becoming an joke. Knew as soon as his already weak back got worse in the crash we would never hear the end of it. Man up!

Hamlin

I'm beginning to see why Denny went to see a psychiatrist after he lost out the 2010 title.....

Miss Hamlin isn' too smart. Always thought

Hamlin isn't too smart. Always thought that...shut-up Dennis.

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