Matt Kenseth’s spotter honored by National Motorsports Press Association

Chris Osborne, spotter for Matt Kenseth and Daniel Suarez, has been named the recipient of the National Motorsports Press Association’s Pocono Spirit Award for the first quarter.

The award is given quarterly and recognizes character and achievement in the face of adversity, as well as sportsmanship and contribution to motorsports.

Osborne and his family were injured in a Dec. 17 automobile accident when the vehicle Osborne was driving was struck head-on. Police cited the driver of the other car with driving while impaired, along with careless and reckless driving and having an open container in his vehicle.

Osborne suffered a compound fracture of his right leg that required nearly 25 screws. His wife broke nine ribs and also broke her right hip, shoulder and elbow. Osborne’s son suffered a partially collapsed lung, cracked sternum, concussion and broken nose.

Osborne missed the first five races, making his return at Martinsville Speedway.

Osborne received about 80 percent of the votes cast by NMPA members. NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson also received votes.

Kansas Speedway statement on detective killed near track

Kansas Speedway has released a statement on the passing of Kansas City, Kansas, Detective Brad Lancaster.

Detective Lancaster, a nine-year veteran of the KCKPD, was shot multiple times and killed Monday during a shootout near the speedway.

Detective Lancaster, 39, was pronounced dead around 3:30 p.m.

He is survived by his wife and two children. The alleged shooter is in custody.

The shooting took place two days after the end of NASCAR’s race weekend.

Below is the statement from Kansas Speedway President Patrick Warren.

“On behalf of the staff at Kansas Speedway, I want to express my condolences to the family and friends of Kansas City, Kansas Detective Brad Lancaster, and also to the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department (KCKPD). Detective Lancaster was a part of the Kansas Speedway family since 2008, working with us during our race weekends, and we were saddened to learn of his passing as he was protecting the community he served.
“We work closely with the police officers in our area and we appreciate everything they do to keep our community safe, along with the police officers across the country who serve and protect their respective communities. We will keep Detective Lancaster’s family, friends and fellow KCKPD officers in our thoughts and prayers, along with his brothers and sisters in blue across the country.”

This is not the first time a Kansas City, Kansas, police officer has been shot in the vicinity of the track. In 2006, Detective Susan Brown survived being shot during a robbery attempt of the track’s vault.

Johnny Sauter changes his tune on Ben Rhodes’ move at end of Kansas race

Johnny Sauter called Ben Rhodes a “bozo,” and wondered if the 19-year-old was “brain dead or can’t see” Friday night, but Sauter had a different tone Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Sauter led on the last lap of last weekend’s Camping World Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway when Rhodes made contact from behind, sending Sauter into the wall. The incident allowed William Byron, who was running third, to pass both and score his first career series victory.

Sauter, who finished 16th, wasn’t happy after the race and expressed his displeasure in an interview on FS1. Rhodes took the blame after the race, calling his action a “rookie mistake.”

Tuesday, Sauter was contrite.

“Up until I had done that interview, I hadn’t seen any replays,’’ said Sauter, who has a win and is in position to make the Truck Series’ Chase. “I was under the assumption that he just drove straight into the back of me and that wasn’t necessarily the case. I called Ben and told him that all the things that I said I take them back and I hate that I said that.’’

So what happened on the track? Sauter explained:

“I came off Turn 2 and I had a pretty good lead, and I went down the backstretch and I swerved, obviously to try to just break their draft as much as you possibly can. When I did that, the floats in the carburetor or something happened and actually the motor started missing there a little bit a couple of times going down the backstretch. That’s ultimately what enabled him to get close to me.’’

Sauter also went on to say: “I just put us both in precarious positions. My motor was missing. I must have starved it for fuel and it enabled him to close on me. I saw the position it put him in. I saw how fast he had closed on me. He probably didn’t expect it, nor did I. It was just a racing incident. It’s unfortunate. I think it’s obviously something we’re going to address on our end so that it doesn’t happen again.’’

Drivers ‘floating’ ideas on how to better reward champion of regular season

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Could the regular-season champion earn a bye to the second round of the Chase?

Former series champ Brad Keselowski says drivers have discussed ways to reward the points leader more after the 26-race regular season. A bye is one such idea.

The biggest benefit to the points leader after the season’s 26th race is a spot in the Chase — if they don’t have a win and are already locked in. Since the Chase debuted in 2004, the points leader after 26 races has always had at least one victory.

Keselowski, who has two victories this season, admits an early win can give a driver a new perspective on the regular season.

“I think clearly the sport is lacking some motivation once you’ve won a race,’’ Keselowski told reporters Monday at Team Penske’s shop. “I don’t think there’s any question that most of the competitors in the sport feel like that is not advantageous for a product we’re trying to put on and have floated some ideas to level that back out that maybe some people will like and maybe some won’t. We’ll have to see.

“At the end of the day, it’s never a good thing to remove motivation from the field.’’

It also seems to have impacted fans. In a conference call with industry analysts last month, an International Speedway Corp., executive said the focus on the Chase may be playing a role in fans purchasing tickets for those events instead of races earlier in the season.

Keselowski said that “most every driver, I think, would agree with some kind of regular-season bonus of real value. Right now you get three points for a win, which is something, don’t get me wrong, but it only counts for the first round.’’

Those bonus points proved pivotal for series champion Kyle Busch last year. He won four races in the regular season, giving him 12 bonus points entering the first round of the Chase. He wouldn’t have advanced to the second round, though, if he had two fewer points.

What would be a good reward for the regular-season champion?

“I think a bye is a good word for it,’’ Keselowski said. “As we’re trying to emulate other sports and major playoffs, I think it makes sense as it does for them.’’

If so, what would be the motivation for the driver who has a bye into the second round?

“I guess that comes down to the question would you rather see a dozen guys or so demotivated for 30-some races or 20-some races, or would you rather see one driver demotivated for three races?’’ Keselowski said. “It kind of seems like a trade-off to me that maybe values the regular season more, which is of course a higher quantity of races, and devalues the first round of the playoffs. It’s just a tradeoff. The value proposition I think is worth it.’’

Five Sprint Cup drivers taking part in tire test at Watkins Glen

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.

Denny Hamlin on team working through growing pains: ‘I’d be nervous’ without Daytona 500 win

A Daytona 500 victory brought career significance to Denny Hamlin, who scored the biggest win of his life in a record closest finish of NASCAR’s signature event.

But it also has brought an unexpectedly necessary measure of championship security, too.

With only four top 10s in 11 races, Hamlin ranks 13th in the points standings but is virtually guaranteed to make the playoffs via the Daytona victory that clinched a provisional berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Of the 16-driver field for the 10-race playoffs, only six spots have been secured through wins through the first 11 of 26 regular season races.

“I’d be nervous (without the win),” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said last week. “I think in the long run, essentially so many cars are in the Chase now, you have to just be mediocre and not terrible to make the Chase. I feel pretty confident that we can get there no matter what, but it is comforting knowing we got the win.

“I thought it would be more seamless. I came off Daytona, ran top five a few times with a chance to win and thought, ‘Oh this is going to be cake. We’re going to be a home run.’ ”

After Daytona, Hamlin led 10 laps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and finished third at Phoenix International Raceway and Auto Club Speedway. But he has only one top 10 (sixth at Richmond International Raceway) in the past six races.

“I think we’re starting to see some communication lapses,” he said. “We’re working on it, though. I think every week is getting better, but we’re still seeing these unknown situations pop up where we’re like, ‘What do we do?’ It’s just part of it.”

A 37th place finish in Saturday’s Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway was a microcosm of the turbulent start to Hamlin’s first season with crew chief Mike “Wheels” Wheeler, who moved into NASCAR’s premier series after four wins in the Xfinity Series last year.

Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota was clocked as too fast twice in the pits (bringing his series-high total to six speeding penalties in 2016). The Joe Gibbs Racing driver had rebounded to contend for a top five before crashing on an aggressive pass with 26 laps remaining.

He at least exhibited speed on the 1.5-mile oval, where he also qualified third Friday. His Camry hadn’t been keeping pace as well lately with teammates Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth.

“We definitely haven’t run as good” since Daytona, Hamlin said May 2 during an event for team sponsor Hisense. “We’re having growing pains right now for sure. I think a lot of it is Wheels’ new role (and) communicating with (spotter) Chris Lambert and myself.”

During a 31st at Talladega Superspeedway, Hamlin took the blame for “a communication glitch” that led to a pit miscue.

“I didn’t process the information I was getting from them,” he said. “I think it’s just new, and I’ve had a lot of issues on pit road this year.”

Hamlin also was caught for speeding entering the pits at Martinsville Speedway, and he finished 39th after “wheel-hopping” his car and crashing while pushing to regain spots.

“I’ve made some mistakes on races like Martinsville where I definitely feel like I could have won,” he said. “We’ve had some decent runs, but we haven’t been as strong as some of our teammates, but I think it’s coming. I feel like it’s just taking me and Wheels some time to get on the same page on some things. I’m confident.”
Hamlin, 35, has proclaimed Wheeler, a longtime engineer on his No. 11, as the last crew chief of his NASCAR career, and he reaffirmed his faith in the pairing while mulling his season on the trip home from Talladega.

“I was thinking, ‘This is just part of our process,’ and we’re going to look back on this probably a year from now and say, ‘Man, we weren’t very good at all (in) early ’16, but we got it together,’ ” he said. “So I’m pretty sure we’ll get it all figured out.

“The cool thing for us is we won the Daytona 500, and we have the entire summer to work out these kinks.”

100K cams 2015 NSCS - TALLADEGA GEICO 500

Get ready for the latest installment of 100K Cameras, this time from the 2015. Taladega Superspeedway Tune in to FS1 Saturday, May 3rd at 6:30pm EST.