Sliced Bread???

They have been calling him Sliced bread for the past couple of weeks but, you know what, they (the other drivers in the Nationwide Series) may be on to something. Wondering who I am talking about? Well, it's Joey Logano.

He's the newest phenom from the Joe Gibbs Racing stable and in his first race out of the gate, he came in 6th.

Logano went into the Nationwide Series race at Dover on Saturday thinking that he could win and he wasn't too far off the mark. But the simple fact is that he could have won. Had he not got trapped in the pits behind Kasey Kahne and then have Kahne back over his left front fender, he may have finished even higher. But Logano wasn't phased, he admitted his mistake in the pits and he will move on to next week.

My advice — watch this kid because he may very well be the "greatest thing since Sliced Bread."

Now, here is the post race wrap-up for the Helluva Good 200 Nationwide Series race at Dover International Speedway from Reid Spencer.

By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

 

DOVER, Del. (May 31, 2008) -- Denny Hamlin extended the domination of Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Saturday with a convincing 1.154-second victory over Carl Edwards in the Heluva Good! 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Dover International Speedway.

 

The race, which started three hours late because of rain, wasn't the only victory for Hamlin, who won for the second time this season and the seventh time in his career.

 

Hamlin also won $200 in side bets with Kyle Busch and Michael Waltrip when teammate Joey Logano, 18, finished sixth in his series debut. Hamlin had bet Logano would finish in the top seven, but for a while, the wagers were in jeopardy.

 

Hamlin's win marked the eighth straight time and 10th time in 14 Nationwide events this year that a full-time Sprint Cup driver for Joe Gibbs Racing has won a Nationwide race.

 

David Stremme gained track position with a two-tire pit stop on Lap 155 and held off a determined charge from fourth-place finisher David Reutimann. Greg Biffle passed Logano in the closing laps to run fifth, followed by Logano, Brad Keselowski, Mike Wallace, series points leader Clint Bowyer and Kasey Kahne.

 

"It was fairly uneventful," Hamlin said. "We just bided our time at various times during the race and pulled away at the end. If you can get out there in clean air, your car can really take off. We definitely improved on our car, and I think our car was the strongest it had been all day at the end.

 

Edwards had nothing for the race winner over the final 28-lap green-flag run.

 

"It was all right," Edwards said of the result. "Second's no fun. It's not what we come here for. But my hat's off to Denny. He did a great job. I just wish I could have got up to him."

 

Stremme was pleased with his car's performance, but needed to find a way to get to the front -- hence, the pit strategy on his final stop.

 

"We took two tires at the end, and we felt that was a good choice," said Stremme, whose previous best finish at Dover was 16th. "Our car was strong all day. We just couldn't get track position."

 

Logano was forced to showcase his talent early in the race, after contact with Kahne's Dodge on pit road during the race's first caution necessitated a return trip to the pits. Logano restarted 28th on Lap 26, but by the time caution flew for the second time on Lap 46, he had gained 11 positions.

 

Under the subsequent 52-lap green-flag run, Logano worked his way up to eighth and gradually improved his position during the remainder of the race, until Biffle passed him in the closing laps.

 

"We were a sixth-place car and finished sixth," Logano said. "Overall it was a good day. I was hoping for that top five, but I screwed up in the pits and put myself in a position that I didn't need to. We'll see what happens next."

 

Busch led 68 laps, but a series of mishaps dropped him back in the field and ultimately knocked him out of the race. Busch entered the pits as the leader on Lap 105, but contact between his No. 32 Toyota and Keselowski's No. 88 Chevrolet brought both cars back to pit road under the third caution of the race.

 

Busch worked his way back to eighth, where he was running on Lap 169, when Braun Racing teammate Jason Leffler lost control of his No. 38 Toyota and knocked Busch into the Turn 2 wall. Busch, who finished 28th, held on to second place in the series standings but fell to 121 points behind Bowyer.

 

Notes: The aftermath of the rain that delayed the start of the race brought a couple of unusual problems. First, jet dryers on pit road blew up chunks of asphalt at the seam between the concrete pit stalls and pit road. Second, track workers dumped several bags of Speedy Dry against the inside wall to stem a torrent of water flowing into Keselowski's stall. … In his first race back since breaking an ankle in the Nationwide race at Talladega in late April, Dario Franchitti finished 15th.

Speed is surprise winner at Dover

A special thanks to the guys over at the NASCAR Wire Service from the Sporting News. They provide excellent coverage of the racing action so I decided to post their coverage of the AAA Insurance 200 at Dover International Speedway. If you check out the print version of The Examiner each week you will find the weekly 12-gauge column that is also provided by the Sporting News folks.

By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

 

DOVER, Del. (May 30, 2008) -- Making the most of his sixth start in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series -- and capitalizing on transmission troubles that temporarily sidelined Kyle Busch's dominant Toyota -- former Formula 1 driver Scott Speed ran away from the field after a late restart to win the AAA Insurance 200 on Friday at Dover International Speedway.

 

Speed, whose previous best finish was eighth at Kansas Speedway, is the third straight first-time winner in the series, following Matt Crafton (Lowe's Motor Speedway) and Donny Lia (Mansfield, Ohio) to victory lane.

 

Jack Sprague held off Chevrolet teammate Ron Hornaday for second position, as Sprague crossed the finish line 3.379 seconds behind Speed. Travis Kvapil finished fourth and Crafton fifth. David Starr, Mike Skinner, Colin Braun, Rick Crawford and Johnny Benson completed the top 10.

 

"Today we had a good strategy and an awesome truck, and we got everything we could out of it," Speed said of his No. 22 Bill Davis Racing Toyota. "The learning curve I've had has been amazing. Every time I go out on the track, I feel I come away with a lot of knowledge.

 

"I'm just having an awesome time trying to learn this sport."

 

With a two-tire stop on Lap 133, Speed improved his track position dramatically, restarting third behind Todd Bodine and Shane Sieg on Lap 136. After picking off Sieg, Speed passed Bodine for the lead on Lap 150 and opened a lead of more than 3.5 seconds over Hornaday (who gained three positions to second).

 

Speed's lead disappeared, however, when Bodine's No. 30 Toyota blew a right front tire and slapped the Turn 3 wall on Lap 170.

 

But Speed said his truck was quicker on two tires, and after taking the green flag for a restart on Lap 179, he stretched his advantage to nearly four seconds over Sprague before backing off on the final circuit.

 

"It was time to get a little aggressive," Speed said of the restart.

 

Busch led the first 96 laps of the race, until heavy smoke from his No. 51 Toyota forced him to the garage. Busch lost 19 laps as his crew changed a transmission, a turn of events that opened a window of opportunity for the truck series regulars. He finished 17 laps down in 27th place after making up two laps during the remainder of competition.

 

But veterans Hornaday and Sprague had nothing for the series rookie at the end of the race.

 

Sprague thought he had a chance to win, but the performance of his No. 2 Chevy fell off after the restart with 22 laps to go.

 

"I could barely outrun (Hornaday) with a sour motor," Sprague said. "After the green (on Lap 179), I got tight again. Dammit! I want to win."

 

Hornaday also felt he could catch Speed until his engine lost power late in the race.

 

"I don't know if we broke a header, but we lost a little bit of power," Hornaday said. "I had to pull down and let Jack go."

 

A flashy dresser and a bit of an eccentric (he just had the tips of his toenails painted blue), Speed found a quick way to gain acceptance among the series veterans.

 

"He's a winner in the Craftsman Truck Series now, so he'll fit right in," Hornaday said.

 

One victory, however, won't be enough to satisfy Speed, who was informed in victory lane that there has never been a repeat winner in the truck series at Dover.

 

"I haven't been back," Speed said.

 

Note: Crawford took over the series points lead, with Crafton 20 points down in second.

Gordon, Hendrick, DuPont resign contract/Haas penalties announced

NASCAR ramped up its penalties for tampering with the new COT car by Haas CNC Racing this week by slamming the company with a 150-point deduction in both driver's and owner's points, suspending the crew chief and the car chief and implementing a $100,000 fine for the team owners and the crew chiefs of the No. 66 and No. 70 teams.

It was the first time that NASCAR had gone above the 100-point mark for tampering with the cars and the first time the sanctioning body had suspended a car chief.

And, according to a NASCAR spokesperson, future rule infractions will cost teams even more.

Also, Tony Eury Sr. and two JR Motorsports employees were fined and placed on probation after a pit road altercation last Saturday during the Nationwide Series race between the No. 88 team and the No. 20 teams. Eury was find $1,000 for not keeping his team in line and the two crew members were each fined $1,500 for not obeying a NASCAR official.

And finally, Hendrick Motorsports has released a statement that it has reached an agreement with DuPont to remain on the No. 24 car through 2010. The deal extends the ongoing contract to 18-years, which is the longest the continuously running sponsor contract in the garage.

The contract extension was announced by Gordon and David G. Bills, DuPont chief marketing and sales officer, on DuPont NASCAR Day, an employee appreciation event held annually at the company's headquarters here. DuPont has a long tradition of excellence in the automotive world and we're proud to be a part of it," Gordon said. "The fact that we're now in our 16th year together speaks volumes about the success of this partnership."

DuPont launched its NASCAR involvement in 1992, when it decided to sponsor Gordon, then a rookie 21-year-old driver from California, who had just been hired by Rick Hendrick, founder and CEO of Hendrick Motorsports. Gordon, now 36, is a four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.

"This sponsorship is a perfect match for DuPont -- a company known for its science and innovation and longstanding commitment to the automotive industry," Bills said. "NASCAR's overall fan base and communications reach are impressive, but the DuPont brand enjoys even higher visibility because Jeff and the #24 DuPont Chevrolet figure so prominently in so many races."

"The relationship Hendrick Motorsports and Jeff Gordon have enjoyed with DuPont is not just one of the great success stories in NASCAR, but across all forms of sponsorship," Hendrick said. "We feel fortunate to have such a terrific, long-term partner, and our entire company looks forward to an exciting future with the #24 DuPont team."

Kasey Kahne steals win from Tony Stewart in Coca-Cola 600

After Dale Earnhardt Jr. got into the wall with 100-or-so laps to go, the Coca-Cola 600 looked like it would belong to Tony Stewart and the No. 20 Home Depot team. But, that wasn't to be as Stewart would suffer the leader's jinx and cut down a right front tire with three laps to go, leaving the door open for Kasey Kahne to bring the No. 9 Budweiser Dodge to Victory Lane.

It was called the leader's jinx because throughout the evening nearly every driver that got out in front of the pack suffered some sort of problem. It happened to Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brian Vickers.

"I saw him up high and when I came off two he was slow, low and slow and I thought he ran out of gas," Kahne said. "He had a problem and we were in position and the luck was on our side.

Greg Biffle, who finished in second, said he getting a good finish wasn't easy and that his car wasn't right throughout the evening.

"This was a hard-fought effort," Biffle said. "Man, we were hitting the race track. We had some issues going on there with the bump stops, or tires, or something else. The car was just a handful to drive one way or the other. We couldn't ever hit it. We know they are temperamental but jeez. We couldn't do anything to hit it. What a long night. Just came up a little bit short. Just wish we had another 50 laps."

Kahne said his successful evening has changed his opinion of Lowe's Motor Speedway and now, he has a new favorite track.

"I enjoy this track now," Kahne said. "It was Atlanta but after last week and this week it is my favorite now."

Photos from the CarQuest 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway