Race Weekend Central

Running Their Mouth: 2011 5-hour Energy 500 at Pocono

Best Quote

“Man, I am just so excited to be a part of this sport. I mean, I am going to be 40 this year. To have Ella [daughter] here and say hi to Leo [son] at home and my wife Ingrid here, this is just an amazing experience to share this with my family. I haven’t had a chance to do that even when I won at Phoenix, the kids were missing so this is awesome.” – Jeff Gordon, race winner, on how it felt to have his family present for the victory

The theme of 2011 for Gordon should be titled “How Jeff Got His Groove Back.” Such pep and enthusiasm hasn’t been seen in Gordon in recent years, but the former perennial villain-turned-fan-favorite has had a bit of a career resurgence in 2011. After wins at Phoenix and Pocono, coupled with a strong run at Kansas, it looks like Gordon just might have punched his wildcard ticket to the Chase for the Cup, with two wins now on the season.

However, at the rate Gordon is going, a wildcard berth may not be necessary; he now sits 11th in the standings, just a scant seven points behind Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart to crack the top 10.

Worst Quote

“I’m not really sure to be honest with you. I was running my own race. It was another car I had to pass. Seemed like he (Kevin Harvick) was trying to make it awfully difficult on me. There’s a couple times where I just had to back off and wait, got back to him and tried to pass him again. Maybe [it] kind of shows his character and who he is, how he feels he needs to race on the racetrack. But, it’s not my fight. He’s trying to turn it into one.” – Kyle Busch, third, on the issue between he and Harvick at the start of the race

Post-race, Busch again couldn’t resist taking a subtle jab at a Richard Childress Racing’s most tenured driver. With comments and incidents such as these, the “New Kyle Busch” is dying as painful of a death as “New Coke.” To chide Harvick after the race was an absolutely petulant thing to do on Busch’s part. Of course, Harvick wasn’t totally innocent either, as he seemed to be goading Kyle into a confrontation. But for Kyle to attack Harvick’s character post-race was completely uncalled for. One has to wonder how the RCR/Kyle Busch feud will manifest going into Michigan next week.

Most Controversial Quote

“I want to thank NASCAR for having us shift gears 700 times today. I really appreciate that.” – Tony Stewart, 21st, on losing his transmission

The word of the day at Pocono was shifting. NASCAR made an optional change to the gear ratio teams had been running at Pocono, allowing them to shift more often. Some drivers didn’t quite get the hang of it, with Marcos Ambrose, Dave Blaney, Newman, Jamie McMurray and Stewart all getting bitten with transmission problems of some sort. Stewart, in particular, took out his frustration with NASCAR over the scanner. While some drivers didn’t mind the continuous shifting, drivers like Stewart among others found it to be particularly irksome, costing them potentially good finishes.

Crew Chief Quote of the Week

“I have to catch my breath! I am really happy for DuPont first of all. They have stuck with us. We have had some terrible runs in their car, so it feels good to win one for them. They have always supported the No. 24 car. I’m real happy for them. Have to thank everybody at HMS for sticking behind us. We’ve had a terrible start to this season and a lot of work coming back.

“These in the No. 5/No. 24 shop have done an awesome job getting us here. I have to thank Mark Whitten in the chassis shop first and foremost. This is the clip of the week and it won a race so I have to give him a hard time.” – Alan Gustafson, race-winning crew chief

For a crew chief who had been in a bit of a swoon last year, 2011 has to be sweet vindication for Alan Gustafson. Its hard to say who benefited the most from the crew swap, whether it was Steve Letarte or Gustafson, but right now Gustafson has a couple of things that Letarte, despite how close he has come in recent weeks, does not have; two victories scarcely a third of the way into the 2011 season.

Not only that, he has helped Gordon all but punch his wildcard ticket for the 2011 Chase. Gordon had a top-three car all day and when the chips were down, Gustafson guided him to the win. The question now; does Gustafson rely on the wildcard to make the Chase? Or does he try to elbow his driver’s way in via points?

Best of the Rest

“It was a great run. The old boy Jeff Gordon had it in him today. We ran him strong, we ran him hard. I’m real proud of our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge today, our team, our teamwork. We were in a back-up car, so we didn’t know what to expect, but we ran it as hard as we could. I shifted every lap. I overworked it, but it made it through the 500 miles. This Dodge was great for us today.” – Kurt Busch, runner-up

“Today, some guys that were behind me finished in front of me. But I’ve got to go home and look at NASCAR.com and see what the finishes look like. But, I’m really happy to be running well and being up front. It’s surely a difference from the last couple of years, so I feel fortunate and feel lucky to be able to compete.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr., finished sixth

“A top-10 finish is OK. I guess that is what you want to do on your bad days. We had about a top-10 car really. We didn’t break anything and had decent pit stops and a good strategy and got a decent finish out of it.” – Matt Kenseth, finished eighth

“As long as there were long green-flag runs and I was by myself, I may have gotten bored, but the shifting kept me entertained and it was fun. I enjoyed it — I wish we did that everywhere.” – Joey Logano, finished 11th, on how it felt shifting during the race

“We might have been a little better than 15th, but overall that’s pretty much what our Furniture Row Chevrolet had today. We lost some track position early, but thanks to our pit crew late in the race, we managed to make a pretty good gain. We’re just OK with top 15s and really want those top 10s and top fives. We’ve been a little inconsistent lately and hopefully today’s result will trigger a streak of solid finishes.” – Regan Smith, finished 15th

“We were just coasting there at the beginning and just nothing really went right. We struggled a little bit on pit road. We gave up about ten seconds for the first green flag stop to the [No.] 42 (Juan Pablo Montoya) and he short pitted so that made it look even worse. We were just a little bit off on sequence. Those guys would gain a lot while we were out there on older tires. Through the day, our car got a little bit tighter — we were still in contention.

“I felt like the front bump rubbers just gave up on us a little bit there at the end, possibly. But then when we left pit road and had a flat tire — that is just not your day. When it did that, it sheared the tire and wrapped it around the housing and broke the brakes lines so I had no brakes — it was just a slew of problems there at the end.” – Denny Hamlin, finished 19th

“The car was hard to drive, but it wasn’t too bad I guess. We were able to move it up through the field, but then I got too loose coming off of [turn] 4 and it got away from me and it spun. Unfortunately, NASCAR didn’t throw a caution there and that is what killed us there.” – Greg Biffle, finished 27th

“I had a vibration in third gear for about 25 laps and we tried to save it, but we lost third gear and then trying to leave the pits in fourth gear, we lost the clutch too. It is just a bad day.” – Marcos Ambrose, finished 33rd

“Obviously that’s not how we wanted our day to go. The car was loose, but we were working on trying to get it better when the oil line went. So, obviously we lost a bunch of time in the garage getting that repaired. It’s disappointing, of course. But, it was good to be back in a Cup car this weekend and hopefully I’ll be back again soon.” – Sam Hornish Jr., finished 35th

About the author

The Frontstretch Staff is made up of a group of talented men and women spread out all over the United States and Canada. Residing in 15 states throughout the country, plus Ontario, and widely ranging in age, the staff showcases a wide variety of diverse opinions that will keep you coming back for more week in and week out.

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