Saturday Kansas Notebook
Notebook Items:
- Kenseth-Logano: Lasting peace or uneasy truce?
- Caution clock adds strategic element to Truck race
- Dave Blaney released from hospital after Eldora wreck
May 7, 2016
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
KENSETH-LOGANO: LASTING PEACE OR UNEASY TRUCE?
KANSAS
CITY, Kan. – In a move that likely speaks more to enlightened
self-interest than to warm and fuzzy feelings for each other, Matt
Kenseth and Joey Logano have tabled
the feud that saw Logano’s 2015 championship hopes end in a hard crash
into the Turn 1 wall at Martinsville and cost Kenseth a two-race
suspension for deliberately wrecking his rival.
If
the differences between the drivers had smoldered for the first nine
races of the 2016 season, last Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega
Superspeedway threw more gasoline on
the fire. Kenseth accused Logano of forcing him below the yellow
“out-of-bounds” line late in the race, dropping Kenseth’s No. 20 Toyota
to mid-pack and into harm’s way.
Sure
enough, a subsequent chain-reaction wreck launched Danica Patrick’s
Chevrolet into Kenseth’s car and sent the No. 20 Camry tumbling toward
the inside wall. Kenseth blamed
Logano for putting him in a vulnerable position.
“I thought we were done with that (rivalry), but maybe we aren’t,” Kenseth said after the Talladega race.
Since
then, however, the drivers have aired their differences and established
a truce that should benefit both. Though Kenseth described the exchange
as a “good talk,” he declined
to share details of the conversation.
“If we wanted that,” said the typically droll Kenseth, “we would have made it a conference call.”
The
cease-fire between the drivers comes at an interesting time -- and
venue. Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1) takes place
at Kansas Speedway, where the
feud erupted in the first place. Logano turned Kenseth for the win in
last October’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the 1.5-mile
track.
With both drivers winless through 10 races this season, it’s probably best they won’t have to worry about each other.
For now.
TICK, TOCK: CAUTION CLOCK ADDS STRATEGIC ELEMENT TO TRUCK RACE
In
four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races this year, NASCAR’s new
20-minute caution clock rule has come into play four times, twice at
Atlanta and twice in Friday night’s
Toyota Tundra 250.
In
the latter event, the first expiration of the clock happened to
coincide with the end of a fuel run, and trucks began running out of gas
as they circled under the yellow
because Jordan Anderson’s truck was blocking the entrance to pit road.
Eventually,
NASCAR opted to open pit road even though trucks were running out of
fuel near the entrance and requiring pushes to get to their respective
stalls.
Race-winning
team owner Kyle Busch applauded that decision and talked favorably
about the strategic nuances of the caution clock in general.
“Certainly,
there were some tense moments with some fuel and with people running
out and stuff like that,” said Busch, whose 18-year-old driver, William
Byron, went to Victory
Lane for the first time in his fifth series start. “I think if it comes
down to that, where the caution clock is right on the fuel number ...
obviously, they kept pit road closed because there were guys stalling on
the apron.
“All
you’re going to do is keep getting the next guy to stall, the next guy
to stall, the next guy to stall ... It was a smart move just to open it
up and get the guys down
pit road. All in all, it’s an interesting strategy for the series. It’s
different, that’s for sure. This is just a thing for the series to have
to work around and make the crew chiefs’ jobs a little more stressful.”
DAVE BLANEY RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL AFTER ELDORA WRECK
Sprint
car superstar Dave Blaney, father of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver
Ryan Blaney, was injured during Friday’s qualifying for a World of
Outlaws event at Eldora Speedway
in Rossburg, Ohio.
Blaney’s
car flipped multiple times, and after he was extracted from the
vehicle, Blaney was transported to a local hospital where CT scans
proved negative. He was released
shortly after 12 midnight ET.
Ryan
Blaney provided an update from the hospital via Twitter. “Dad is
alright, got his bell rung pretty good but is up and being himself,”
Ryan Blaney wrote. “Thanks for all
the support.”
Though
Dave Blaney is best known for a phenomenal career in the open-wheel
ranks, he also has a combined 597 NASCAR national series starts to his
credit, including 473 in Sprint
Cup. His lone national series win came in the fall 2006 XFINITY Series
race at Charlotte.
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