On the surface, Danica Patrick had a fairly nondescript 21st-place finish in this past Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen International.
Patrick potentially would have finished higher had she not been caught up in a late-race wreck on Lap 83 of the 90-lap race.
Even with her mid-pack finish, Patrick still came away from the race with a pleasant surprise.
Thanks to a strategy call by crew chief Billy Scott that put her at the front of the pack, Patrick led 11 laps (Laps 34 to 45), breaking the previous NASCAR record of seven laps led in a race by a female driver that she set at Talladega in 2014.
That latter mark surpassed the previous single-race record of five laps led by a female set by Janet Guthrie in the 1977 season finale at the now-defunct Ontario Motor Speedway.
Patrick has now led a career-high 21 laps in the first 22 races of 2016 – breaking her own NASCAR single-season record for laps led by a female driver (15) set in 2014. And with 14 races remaining, she has a chance to add to that amount.
“The race didn’t go as well as we’d hoped, but we led some laps and were able to rally back at the end to get a decent finish, considering all of the damage,” Patrick said after the race.
Everybody has their name misspelled or botched in a public forum at least once. Even NASCAR drivers.
That’s what Denny Hamlin discovered Monday when he opened USA Today to find someone else had won Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen International.
Will Denny Hamilton please stand up?
While someone might have had the Lin-Manuel Miranda Broadway musical on their mind at an unfortunate time, it was fixed for a later edition of the national paper.
But the hits kept on coming for Hamlin on Tuesday.
The winner of this year’s Daytona 500 has finally received his version of The Harley J. Earl Trophy that’s given out each year to the victor of the “Great American Race.”
However, the trophy was mislabelled to identify Hamlin as the winner of the 2015 Daytona 500.
That race was won by Joey Logano.
At this rate it will be a very long off-week for Hamlin, who returns to the track with the rest of the Sprint Cup Series on Aug. 20 for the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
MORE: Back pain doesn’t keep Denny Hamlin from victory lane
With his win in the Cheez-It 355 at Watkins Glen International, Denny Hamlin became the sixth Sprint Cup driver to win multiple races in 2015. He jumped six spots on the latest Chase grid to fourth.
Losing spots were Jimmie Johnson and Austin Dillon, who each dropped two spots after being involved in a multi-car wreck Sunday that led to Johnson finishing last.
Luckily, Johnson is already locked into the Chase. Dillon is 14th on the grid and has yet to win this season.
Chris Buescher, who won last week at Pocono Raceway, is still not on the grid. After finishing 33rd due to being in a late wreck and being forced to go to the garage, Buescher is still three points out the top 30 in points. A driver must have a win and be in the top 30 to automatically qualify for the Chase.
AJ Allmendinger re-entered the top 20 after finishing fourth Sunday. He is now 34 points behind the cutoff spot of 16th. In 16th is Kyle Larson. Larson is teetering on the edge of the top 16, only eight points up on 17th, after Allmendinger wrecked him on the final lap of Sunday’s race, sending Larson to a 29th-place finish instead of a top five.
Four cars were caught up in a wreck on Turn 5 of Lap 52 in the Cheez-It 355 at The Glen on Sunday, which brought out the red flag at Watkins Glen International.
The No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun and careened across the track to start the incident.
Stenhouse's car impacted with the interior wall, and then made contact with the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson, the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Austin Dillon and the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Greg Biffle.
"The car kind of bounced and got loose," Stenhouse Jr. said.
Johnson added: "Cars started checking up in front of me, and they all moved out of way, and suddenly the 17 was in front of me."
The six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion was marked officially out of the race with significant damage to his Chevrolet.
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Chris Buescher has seemingly embraced the spoiler role of his upset victory last weekend at Pocono Raceway, saying he's "throwing a wrench at a lot of people's brackets" in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs.
In the five remaining races that will determine the 16-driver postseason field, though, the 23-year-old rookie has work to do -- namely making up the six-point deficit to reach the required top-30 threshold in the series standings. Before Friday's on-track activity at Watkins Glen International, Buescher said he was confident that he and his Front Row Motorsports No. 34 Ford team could cross the points portion off the checklist.
"They are hustling and working extremely hard to make sure we make this Chase," Buescher said about his team's efforts to make the tight turn from weather-delayed Pocono to Watkins Glen ahead of Sunday's Cheez-It 355 at the Glen (2:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). "We are going to get there. I have a ton of confidence in these guys. I love where our program was heading previous to Pocono. We have been on the right path and we will make up those points."
Buescher, last year's XFINITY Series champion, said he hasn't had much chance to celebrate last Monday's surprise win in the Pennsylvania 400, saying that the short week between Pocono and Watkins Glen was consumed by road-racing practice in Utah on Tuesday and making the media rounds with a full schedule of phone interviews the last two days.
"It is a really good problem to have," Buescher said. "I killed my phone battery twice in one day, which is a new record for me. It has been wild how everything has played out and I haven't had time for it to settle in and feel like we won a race. It has been so crazy."
Though Buescher's performance has lagged behind fellow first-year drivers Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney this season, his Pocono breakthrough has given him a feather in his cap that his fellow rookies can't claim on their portfolios. His first victory came in his 27th Sprint Cup start, making him the first rookie winner since Joey Logano converted the feat in 2009.
Buescher's first full season in NASCAR's premier series coincides with the first year of a technical alliance between Roush Fenway Racing and the Bob Jenkins-owned Front Row organization, a partnership that he hopes pays dividends in the push to the playoffs. In the meantime, the momentum from a maiden trip to Victory Lane can't hurt.
"It is just a matter of getting the team jacked up and everybody on the same idea going forward that this is for real, a big moment," Buescher said. "This win with the Chase being the way it is and the point system different from last year in XFINITY, a win basically turns our whole season around. It changes everything. It is no longer one win and you move up a spot or two in points. It is one win and you potentially have a spot in the playoffs of our sport.
"We are not there yet because we have to get into that top 30, but with that win it gets everybody excited to get to that point."
Brad Keselowski‘s car suffered extensive damage in a crash during testing Tuesday afternoon at Watkins Glen International.
Keselowski was evaluated and released, according to a team representative. The incident took place going into Turn 1 on the road course. Keselowski tweeted that he lost his brakes entering the corner off the long frontstretch.
Keselowski tweeted a picture of the crash exiting the car.
Keselowski was among 16 drivers testing on the repaved track before the Aug. 7 race on the road course.
The incident comes nearly five years to the day Keselowski suffered a broken left ankle in a crash testing at Road Atlanta on Aug. 3, 2011. Four days later, he won at Pocono Raceway.
As part of the Gatorade Beat the Heat program, Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson gives a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into a race weekend for him and the Hendrick Motorsports 48 pit crew team on-site at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in Watkins Glen, New York. The sport of NASCAR has evolved over the years; now, drivers and the crew members make fitness, nutrition and hydration a big part of their preparation and routine to gain an edge on their competition.
Since Kyle Busch swept the road course races at Sonoma and Watkins Glen in 2008, parity has reigned among the winners of those NASCAR Sprint Cup events.
There have been 12 different winners in the last 14 races at those tracks. The only repeat winners are Marcos Ambrose (Watkins Glen in 2011 and ’12) and Busch (Watkins Glen in 2013 and Sonoma in 2015).
Will there be a another different winner this weekend when the series races at Sonoma Raceway or will a driver who has won a road course event since 2009 win again?
Here’s a list of the winners in the last 14 races at those tracks:
Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards and Trevor Bayne are taking part in a Goodyear tire test today and Wednesday at Watkins Glen International
The road course was repaved since the Cup series raced there last August.
Goodyear has two other tests in the coming weeks.
Richard Childress Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports and Furniture Row Racing each will have a team at Michigan International Speedway on May 17.
Hendrick Motorsports, Richard Petty Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing each will have a team test May 31-June 1 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
