Tony Stewart, driver of the #14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet, looks on during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 28, 2012 Photo – Tyler Barrick/Getty Images
Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion and Indiana native Tony Stewart will come to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in late July with one purpose in mind — joining the exclusive company of three-time winners at the Racing Capital of the World.
“That would be huge,” Stewart said during a promotional visit to IMS. “You look at the history of this track and you look at whose won races here and how many times they’ve won, and I was honored to win one of them, and the second was even that much better. “When you realize how much thinner it gets when you start adding one more victory, you get into some pretty elite company, and it’s some company you’d definitely like having your name associated with, so it would be a big honor. It doesn’t matter if you’ve won one or 20, when I’m at Indy I am only here to win, especially since it is my home track.” Continue reading →
Jeff Burton, driver of the #31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, waits on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 12, 2013 Photo – Jerry Markland/Getty Images
After two disappointing seasons and a slow start to the 2013 Sprint Cup season, veteran driver Jeff Burton is showing he can still compete at a high level. In a weekend that started out with news that Burton will compete for Richard Childress Racing once again in 2014 in the Sprint Cup Series, ending speculation that he’d be replaced, the 31 team put together easily its best performance of the season at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The Luke Lambert led team spent the majority of the race inside the top-ten with, at many times, the fastest car on track, and worked their way into the top-five where Burton would remain to score a third place finish. The finish was big because it was the first top-three finish at a non-restrictor plate event since 2010. However, the performance shouldn’t come as a huge surprise as the Burton-Lambert pairing has been successful in the past.
Going back to 2011, RCR opted to replace veteran crew chief Todd Berrier with the young engineer Lambert for the seasons’ last 17 races, a span that included five top-tens. Of those top-tens, Burton scored four of them in the seasons’ final five races and the team was able to work their way to 20th place in the final season standings. Despite the strong end to what had been a disappointing 2011 season, it was decided, that given the limited experience as a crew chief, Lambert would spend 2012 working as a Nationwide Series crew chief. In that move, Lambert worked with veteran Elliot Sadler on RCR’s No. 2 Nationwide team. The pair went on to win several races enroute to a runner-up finish in the point standings, and giving Lambert valuable experience working as a crew chief. Things were different for Burton. Continue reading →
My magical weekend at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway had way more than I thought it would. For example, Sunday at the track was drastically better than I was expecting when one tweet changed my day that morning. That was the tweet that gave me some unprecedented access to the garage area during the pre-race hours. When the Michael Waltrip Racing girls “MWR Girls” had a morning contest for some garage tour passes, I jumped right on for the experience of a lifetime. Continue reading →
