NASCAR: Gas Sipping Strategies Send Keselowski and Allgaier to Checkers

For the second weekend in a row, NASCAR race results were dictated by fuel mileage strategies. Saturday’s Nationwide race at Chicagoland was decided by who could coast faster as Justin Allgaier and Carl Edwards both ran out of gas in sight of the checkers with Allgaier coming out the winner.

Sunday’s hot weather in Kansas saw Brad Keselowski have just enough go-juice to edge Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the Sprint Cup stripe.

The Cup race began with a rapid Kurt Busch out front and would lead most of the laps, but a late race pit stop dropped the Penske driver from first to ninth at the end.

During the 400-mile race, Edwards was strong enough to lead nearly two dozen laps, but as the track changed, his crew was not able to change the car in time to his liking for a better finish than fifth.

Others taking turns out front included Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Juan Montoya. Each of whom had either fuel issues or handling problems leading to mixed results.

Dale Jr. leading the race gave Junior Nation something to cheer about late in the race despite a solo spin earlier in the go, trying to get all he could out of the car. He and Hamlin were rolling the dice on when to pit for gas, and their game plan basically worked out to claim second, certainly better than where they ran for most of the day.

The overall race was fairly ho-hum as it is fast and wide, with very little rubbing and bumping, and while leaders were out front, they led by quite a distance at times.

Keselowski’s Penske team instructed the young driver to save fuel over the final segment, and he did so by pushing in the clutch during the long turns along with a few other tricks, good enough to beat Dale Jr. to the line to claim his second career Cup trophy.

Capping the top five was Earnhardt Jr., Hamlin, Jeff Gordon and Edwards.

The final results finds Edwards with a bigger lead atop the points, but second place is now held by Dale Jr., just 40 markers back. He’s still looking for that next win to break the 105 race void.

Nationwide

Carl Edwards and Elliott Sadler led the most laps at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday afternoon, but once again gas concerns took center stage. Sadler had to pit late for a flat tire. Edwards, among others, rolled the dice on gas plans and Allgaier was coming to the front over the final 10 laps like a jet plane to a target.

He was catching Edwards by nearly a half a second a lap. As he approached Edwards off the final turn, Edwards Ford sputtered. Allgaier yanked the steering wheel to the left to miss hitting Edwards and no sooner did he pass him, his car stalled for fuel.

The two coasted to the line with Allgaier getting the win just barely over the first car with enough fuel to go the distance, Trevor Bayne.

Others in the top five were Aric Almirola and Jason Leffler.

Danica Patrick started 17^th and finished one lap down in 10^th, her second career top 10 finish.

Reed Sorenson’s sixth place run elevates him to points leader, but just two points over Sadler.

Pick ‘em Ups

Clint Bowyer gave the rest of the field an education on how to win a Truck race in convincing fashion. Despite the best efforts from Johnny Sauter and Todd Bodine, Bowyer’s Chevy was just too strong to overcome.

The real action was coming from the fifth place battle where Kyle Busch was doing all he could to hold off rookie Childress driver Joey Coultar. The young man finally got under Busch off the final turn, much to the displeasure of bad boy Busch. He exhibited his displeasure on the cool down lap when he ran into the side of Coultar’s Chevy.

Within an hour afterwards, team owner Richard Childress found Busch exiting his hauler. He approached him with a verbal exchange, which from reports led to the 65-year-old owner putting Busch in a headlock and proceeded to pound him in the face three times.

Things were broken up and NASCAR met with all parties the next day, stating Busch did nothing wrong to violate his probation, yet Childress was restricted in his movements on race day and will more than likely face some kind of monetary fine and probation.

Most race fans applaud Childress’ actions, commenting the old school actions should have come sooner than later. Busch has brought all of these kinds of reactions upon himself almost week after week.

What’s your opinion of this incident? Drop us a line.

From Rumorville

- Danica Patrick has been the topic of conversation, more so than ever. It appears she is headed to Nationwide in a full-time role, leaving Indy cars except for the annual Indy 500 run. Nothing etched in bronze, but numerous reports from sponsors, the media, etc. all point that way.

That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will review the results from Pocono for the Cupsters, while the trucks and Indy cars compete in Texas along with more racing news from around the globe.

Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at [e-mail]