The Biggest NASCAR Storylines to Watch Ahead of Sprint Cup Series at Phoenix
So far it’s been a fairly quiet week in the run up to the CampingWorld.com 500 in Phoenix.
Storylines aren’t exactly boiling over the pot, but there are some simmering the stock, as it were.
Nobody is happier than Kevin Harvick. He won the past race in Las Vegas, hasn’t finished worse than second in six races and has won four of the fast races at Phoenix. As if the circuit as a whole needed that thrown in its face.
"When they do win and make it look easy, you kind of scratch your head, well, 'How can they do that?'" Gene Haas said on NASCAR.com of Harvick after the Kobalt 400.
Thing have appeared easy, but like any venture or great work of art, there’s a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes making the product look effortless, even preordained.
So we head to Arizona for the fourth race and bringing the first month of the season to a close. Read on for the latest buzz around the track this week.
Kurt Busch Reinstated
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Kurt Busch will be back manning the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevy, this after missing the first three races while serving a suspension for allegedly “committing an act of domestic violence.”
NASCAR reinstated Busch because the Delaware Attorney General’s office didn’t file criminal charges over his alleged domestic abuse.
Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive VP and chief racing development officer said on NASCAR.com:
"We therefore have decided to move him to indefinite probation and waive the Chase requirement. He has fully complied with our reinstatement program during his suspension and the health care expert who conducted his evaluation recommended his immediate return.
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Reinstating Busch is fine. He deserves to make a living, but granting him Chase eligibility sends the wrong message. In order to drive in the Chase—should a driver qualify—the driver must compete in every race. Enough happened behind closed to doors to merit his three-race suspension, and that should carry over to a postseason ban for this year.
People may not think that is fair, but in the climate of abuse we’ve seen lately with this alleged incident and in the NFL, fairness is the least of concerns.
NASCAR had a chance to come down hard on Busch, and it failed.
What's Going on with Tony Stewart?
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It’s kind of a SHR week. You’ve got Busch being reinstated. You’ve got Harvick driving with the power of all four of the SHR drivers combined. And now you’ve got Tony Stewart, the "S" in SHR, struggling to keep up with the pace car.
In three races this year, Stewart hasn’t finished better than 30th. For a three-time Cup champ, that’s unacceptable. It could be that his career has to transition into a sort of Michael Waltrip role where he drives only in the Daytona 500 and lets somebody else man the No. 14.
That’s getting too far ahead. Stewart’s injury-shortened 2013 was followed by a winless 2014 campaign. But as Thomas Paine once wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
"Dealing with those kind of things is just part of what it takes to be in this business. Racing is an interesting business because you never know what's going to happen. You never know if you're going to win until the race is over and I guess running a race shop is very similar to that.
It's a challenge and when things are thrown at us we just basically deal with it and try not to complain about it and do your best to get out of it.
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Would anyone count out Stewart entirely? No, not yet, but it’s getting close since he’s had trouble in even running near the front.
You never know. All it takes is one win and a driver is Chase-bound. It’s too early to put Smoke up in the clouds.
No Wins, No Problem So Far for Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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With Harvick's recent dominance, Joey Logano's three top-10 finishes and teammate Jimmie Johnson winning at Atlanta, it’s easy to forget that Dale Earnhardt Jr. may be the driver to beat Harvick.
Earnhardt has a new crew chief in Greg Ives, and his team has had one of the faster cars through the first three weekends with three top fives.
"It's been a lot of damn hard work," Ives said on NASCAR.com. "We work hard. Everybody on the team does. Dale, me, the guys at the shop, the engineers, all those guys. They make it seem easy, but it's not."
Earnhardt and the No. 88 team have been fearless in their approach. A year ago, fuel strategy cost them the race at Las Vegas. This year, taking two tires instead of four in a late-race pit stop sacrificed any chance at fending off Harvick, who was fourth at the time.
"We didn't put lefts (tires) on it; made it a gamble," Ives said on NASCAR.com. "I like to gamble. I liked the call. I love being aggressive. We weren't going to drive up there and pass that No. 4. So, we had to take a chance. Second, fifth, fourth, whatever; it really don't matter if you don't win."
It’s only a matter of time. Once he locks up a spot in the Chase, he promises to be one of the most dangerous cars on the circuit and maybe the best car in the Hendrick garage.
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Kasey Kahne Makes 400th Career Start
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If you were asked which Hendrick Motorsports driver was not in the Chase Grid three races into the season, your default answer would likely be Kasey Kahne. It’s actually Jeff Gordon, not Kahne, who stands outside the walls of the Chase fortress.
And it’s Kahne who makes his 400th career start this Sunday and currently sits in seventh place in the Chase Grid. Even after wrecking last week in the Kobalt 400 when Carl Edwards got up into his left rear quarter panel.
Kahne, who finished a one-lap-down 17th, told FoxSports.com:
"We had a really good … Chevy and felt like on the last 20 laps of a race run, we were the best car. Before that, Harvick definitely had us covered. It would have been a lot of fun to at least try to race him there at the end. See if we could catch him. It would have been interesting.
He was really, really good and won today. But I feel like we had the second best car and we were really close.
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Kahne, a 17-time winner, makes that 400th start at a track where he’s had some success. In 21 starts, he has won once at Phoenix.
Can Martin Truex Jr. Stay Hot Early On?
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The feel-good story of the year is already Martin Truex Jr. In the first three races, he has three top 10s. Juxtapose that to his start in the first three races from 2014 (43rd, 22nd, 14th), and this season is already a success through three weeks.
"We had fundamental issues last year that we needed to correct in the wintertime. Obviously out of the box it's been a lot better, and you know, I don't attribute our success to the rules changes, I attribute it to knowing what we were doing wrong last year and fixing it over the wintertime and coming out of the box kind of understanding what we're doing.
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He heads to Phoenix, where he has never won, but has six top 10s and one top five from 18 starts. Truex appears to be that surprise driver this year. He has just two career wins: one at Dover and one at Sonoma.
He’s fifth in the Chase standings right now, but he’s driving like he’ll be able to get a win at some point this year.
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