ThatsRacin.com: New Hampshire International Speedway

In new post, Charlotte track alum Jerry Gappens already working to get presidential race on track

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:16 EST

Former Lowe’s Motor Speedway vice president Jerry Gappens is wasting no time in warming up the hype machine now that he’s on the job at his new post as general manager of New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Gappens said the track will invite the top vote-getter in Tuesday’s Democratic and Republican presidential primaries to each serve as honorary pace car drivers at one of the track’s two Sprint Cup race this year – on June 29 and Sept. 14.

Gappens headed for New Hampshire

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 07:46 EST

Jerry Gappens, senior vice president of events and marketing for Lowe's Motor Speedway, was named executive vice president and general manager of New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Tuesday.

Gappens, 46, will take over in Loudon, N.H., once Speedway Motorsports Inc. completes its $340 million purchase.

Gappens, a native of Windfall, Ind., came to LMS in 1993.

Knaus loves `staying power'

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 07:54 EST

Chad Knaus loves his job.

"I do," said Knaus, crew chief for Jimmie Johnson in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. "I love every aspect of it."

What's not to love when you've won the past four races and go into Sunday's Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway leading second-place Jeff Gordon by 86 points?

"When everything's going right," Knaus said, "and your driver is switched on, and your team's switched on, and the engine's going right and all that stuff is jelling the way it's supposed to, things like this can happen."

Being in the title hunt is nothing new for Knaus and the team he's assembled. This is the fifth consecutive season Johnson has gone into the final race first or second in the standings.

"The thing I'm proudest of is if you look over our history as a team, we've been able to battle for the championship every year," Knaus said. This is Johnson's sixth season and he's never finished outside of the top five in points.

"The thing that is the coolest about that is we haven't battled the same team," Knaus said. "We've battled (Matt Kenseth), (Kurt Busch), (Gordon). Everybody's had their turn out there, and we've been the team that's been the most consistent. I love that. I love that we've got staying power."

As good as the Johnson-Knaus pairing has been, until last year they had not been able to clear that final hurdle to the championship. That applied stress, to the point that late in '05 season team owner Rick Hendrick had to make them realize what they were heading toward losing.

"Rick was afraid we were going to kill each other at one point," Johnson said. "When you want something so bad, and it slips through your fingers. ... We were watching (Tony Stewart) just outperforming us, and it was just driving us nuts."

"We wanted it so bad we were blinded," Knaus said.

Knaus said one thing he learned from that crisis was the team can't always be run with the accelerator wide open.

"We used to be the team that went out there and tried to be the fastest for the whole race," Knaus said. "... But we really didn't get we wanted to from that kind of effort.

"So, beginning at the end of last year and this year, we adopted a new mentality to just kind of ride and find a position to be in so at the end of the race the car is in good shape, that Jimmie is not worn out."

Johnson's car has been right and Knaus has made the right calls late in victories at Martinsville, Va., Atlanta, Texas and Phoenix. If the No. 48 wins Sunday, it would be the first time anyone won five straight since Richard Petty in 1971.

All Johnson needs is a finish of 18th or better if Gordon wins and leads the most laps. Johnson has finished worse than 14th once is his past 15 starts.

"When I was younger, I did want to be a championship-winning crew chief," Knaus said. "I can remember thinking about it and dreaming of it. It's something that I've always wanted."

Sunday, he could double up on that dream -- loving every minute of it.

Johnson's got some company in his rear-view mirror

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:07 EDT

That’s Racin’s David Poole ranks the top 40 teams in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series following the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, N.H. (Rankings based on team performance and potential. Each team’s previous week’s ranking in parentheses:)

1. (1) Jimmie Johnson – car No. 48 Atop points and these rankings by thinnest of margins. Top three are interchangeable.

2. (3) Jeff Gordon – car No. 24 Best in non-Clint Bowyer division at Loudon. Sort of feels like this team needs a win.

3. (2) Tony Stewart – car No. 20 Finished 11th or better in hist first 12 Dover races, but no better than 15th in past five.

4. (5) Carl Edwards – car No. 99 He creeps up one spot because he salvaged 12th in his backup car at New Hampshire.

5. (6) Denny Hamlin – car No. 11 Figures to be solid at Dover, where he’s finished 11th, ninth and fourth in three tries.

6. (7) Matt Kenseth – car No. 17 Crashed in ‘05 and ran out of gas in ’06 Dover fall race. Needs better luck this time.

7. (4) Kurt Busch – car No. 2 Fell to 12th after Chase opener, but team’s effort kept bad situation from being worse.

8. (8) Martin Truex Jr. – car No. 1 Eyes will be on this team after its dominant victory at Dover in the spring race there.

9. (9) Kyle Busch – car No. 5 Strategy, hard work led to top five at Loudon. More of that and they’ll move up fast.

10. (12) Clint Bowyer – car No. 07 Brilliant in first win at Loudon. Nine more good weeks and they’ll shock the world.

11. (10) Kevin Harvick – car No. 29
12. (11) Jeff Burton – car No. 31
13. (13) Dale Earnhardt Jr. – car No. 8
14. (15) Ryan Newman – car No. 12
15. (16) Casey Mears – car No. 25
16. (14) Bobby Labonte – car No. 43
17. (17) Greg Biffle – car No. 16
18. (19) Kasey Kahne – car No. 9
19. (21) Jamie McMurray – car No. 26
20. (18) Juan Pablo Montoya – car No. 42
21. (20) Mark Martin/Regan Smith – car No. 01
22. (22) Reed Sorenson – car No. 41
23. (24) J.J. Yeley – car No. 18
24. (23) David Ragan – car No. 6
25. (25) Robby Gordon – car No. 7
26. (28) Jeff Green – car No. 66
27. (32) Tony Raines – car No. 96
28. (31) Johnny Sauter – car No. 70
29. (26) David Stremme – car No. 40
30. (29) Dave Blaney – car No. 22
31. (27) David Gilliland – car No. 38
32. (33) Ken Schrader – car No. 21
33. (30) Brian Vickers – car No. 83
34. (35) David Reutimann – car No. 00
35. (36) Paul Menard – car No. 15
36. (34) Elliott Sadler – car No. 19
37. (37) Kenny Wallace – car No. 88
38. (39) Scott Riggs – car No. 10
39. (38) Kyle Petty – car No. 45
40. (40) Ward Burton – car No. 4

| Sunday's race in New Hampshire

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:02 EDT

LAP 1

Clint Bowyer said after his dominating victory he knew after going through the first turn of the first lap that his No. 07 Chevrolet was going to be very good. Boy, was he right.

LAP 122

Kurt Busch begins losing ground as his No. 2 Dodge develops a problem. At first it was believed to be a dropped cylinder, but the team later traced the trouble to the carburetor.

LAP 169

Kevin Harvick barely avoids Reed Sorenson's spinning No. 41 Dodge. Although Harvick wound up 17th, if he'd crashed there, he might have finished last.

LAP 239

Bowyer comes to pit road for his final stop -- under green. With a car as strong as his was, the only way he was going to lose was for him or his team to make some kind of mistake. Nobody did.

LAP 252

Bowyer reassumes the lead when Dale Earnhardt Jr. pits to conclude the final round of stops. Bowyer had remained patient until things cycled back his way.

| All the weekend action from NHIS

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:40 EDT

| Have far up is Bowyer going?

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:36 EDT

Riding the racing elevator, New Hampshire edition:

UP – Clint Bowyer

In addition to his first Nextel Cup victory, the Kansas native picked up eight spots in the standings and a whole lot of confidence in the Chase.

DOWN – Kurt Busch

Carburetor woes bring this team its worst finish since the last race here in on July 1.

SIDEWAYS – Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart

They’re still the top-three in the standings and the road to the championship still goes through them.

| David Poole's point of view

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:34 EDT

Some observations on Sunday's race at New Hampshire from David Poole of The Charlotte Observer and ThatsRacin.com: '

It’s a shame fans didn’t get to hear the entire postrace interviews with Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Clint Bowyer. There was some funny stuff. Gordon and Stewart joked about being so far behind when the race finished that Gordon had to drive hard to catch up and offer congratulations to the winner. Stewart didn’t even bother. “I just walked to victory lane,” he said. “I never could catch up to him all day when he was moving.”

Bowyer had some of good lines of his own this week. He talked about how he felt he gave a win away at Richmond last weekend by spinning in a car that was, in his mind, as good as the one he had here. “Sometimes when you go for broke, you come up broke,” Bowyer said.

NASCAR said Sunday’s race was the first time since 43-car fields were mandated at all tracks that all 43 of them were running at the finish. Ladies and gentlemen, the car of tomorrow – you can’t hurt it and you can’t pass it.

| This is a better start

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:31 EDT

Jimmie Johnson just missed a top-five finish, and crew chief Chad Knaus wasn’t particularly happy about that.

“We set goals to finish in the top five,” Knaus said. Johnson had done exactly that in five of his previous six races.

“We’re a little disappointed to finish sixth. But the guys did a good job and Jimmie did a good job. I just didn’t do a very good job of adjusting the car.”

Johnson knew he had nothing for race winner Clint Bowyer.

“Today was a race for second,” said Johnson, who has the same number of points as Jeff Gordon but remains the leader with six wins to four for Gordon this year.

“But we finished 39th in this race last year, so we’re off to a much better start.”

| Happy with the day

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:29 EDT

Jeff Gordon said that since it was abundantly clear that Clint Bowyer had the best car all day, finishing second in what wasn’t the best car was a pretty good alternative.

“I know my car is absolutely worn out,” he said.

“We drove the brakes, the tires and just about everything off it. My congratulations to Clint, he was the class of the field today. ...If you’re going to win your first one, this is the time to do it.

“I am just happy with the day we had.”

| No calculator required

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:26 EDT

Tony Stewart said it shouldn’t be hard to understand why the top seven drivers in Sunday’s finishing order were all drivers in this year’s Chase.

“That’s why they got in the Chase,” Stewart said.

“It doesn’t take much rocket science to figure out why they’re all there.”

Stewart said he settled into for his third-place finish in the final run after seeing Jeff Gordon get away for second.

“I got by Kyle (Busch) and we closed in on Jeff a few times. But we can’t be disappointed by a third-place run here today.”

| Ah, the memories

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:24 EDT

Clint Bowyer said he vividly remembers his first win in another racing series – in street stocks at a short track in Junction City, Kansas.

“It was awesome,” Bowyer said. “There was a huge fight.”

Bowyer said he was 16 and, he recalled, small for his age. He was driving a 1978 Camaro and another driver ran into him under caution, cutting a tire down on Bowyer’s car.

“They black-flagged him and let me go change my tire and put me back out front,” he said.

“We went back out and won the race and the old boy wasn’t too happy. He went out and got in a flight with the flag man – the flag man was hiding in the concession stand.

“I pulled on the scales with that car and this guy, a big old burly guy, was coming up to me. I was looking for a place to hide, too.”

Bowyer was asked if he remembered the driver’s name.

“No, I don’t,” he said. “Crazy?”

| Pit strategy proves a plus

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:21 EDT

Kyle Busch has never been the biggest fan of the car of tomorrow, and early in Sunday’s race he lost ground to the leaders.

But pit strategy helped turn things around for the No. 5 Chevrolet and he wound up with a fourth-place finish.

“I guess it just doesn’t fit my driving style or whatever,” Busch said of the new car.

“But I’m trying to get accustomed to it and we’re trying to get it accustomed to me.”

Busch stayed on the track during a caution that came out when Dave Blaney hit the wall on Lap 164 and made only one more pit stop on Lap 226 the rest of the way.

| Doing what needs doing

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:18 EDT

Martin Truex Jr. said all week he wanted to get off to a good start in his first Chase and he did that, finishing fifth.

“I wish the race was longer,” Truex said.

“I usually don’t say that. But we had a good car at the end of the race. It just took us a while.

"We started the race real, real tight and it took us pretty much all day to get the car working where we needed it to.

“...We did what we needed to do. We didn’t have the best car today and we got a great finish.”

| Passing a puzzle

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:10 EDT

LOUDON, N.H. - Matt Kenseth said he had speed but just couldn’t pass to make up enough ground.

He still managed to make his way to seventh after starting 30th. Kenseth is 14 points behind sixth place and 54 behind the leaders.

“We need to run better than that, obviously, to contend for a championship, but we ran pretty good. Our speed was pretty good, it’s just that these cars compared to the old conventional cars are just so much harder to pass,” he said.

“You can run a tenth (of a second) or two better than the guy in front of you, but you can’t really go anywhere and then once you get to him, it’s just so hard to pass with them.”

Kenseth he was not surprised most of the Chase drivers finished in the top-10. “They’re the top 12 in points and probably got there for running good,” he said.