NASCAR Cup & Nationwide at Charlotte

The Chase reaches its halfway point at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. A wild turn of events at Kansas has left some of this year's stars such as Brad Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Jimmie Johnson in serious danger of elimination. However, they are all plenty capable of pulling out a W this weekend.

The Nationwide Series championship is almost in the hands of Chase Elliott, but just one error or problem can swing the championship back into the direction of his closest competitors Regan Smith and Ty Dillon.

Joey Logano has the best average here. Best finish is 3rd. Avg of 10.5. I say he brings his first win here Saturday night. And creates the wacky Dega finish...

Also, I know this is kinda of off topic for Racing, but HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY DALE JRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

>Trevor Bayne DNQ'd
>Didn't even know he was attempting

So are Wood Brothers done for the year, because they usually this race?

Wood Bros wasn't scheduled to be at Charlotte per Jayski.

I was there last night when they did they had pole qualifying going on. I never even knew Trevor Bayne was supposed to race either until I saw his #6 cup car parked behind the pit wall before qualifying started. The fact that Trevor Bayne couldn't qualify into the top 36 to make the race with Roush Fenway equipment is rather sad.

RealRacer4 wrote:I was there last night when they did they had pole qualifying going on. I never even knew Trevor Bayne was supposed to race either until I saw his #6 cup car parked behind the pit wall before qualifying started. The fact that Trevor Bayne couldn't qualify into the top 36 to make the race with Roush Fenway equipment is rather sad.

Only missed out by less than a tenth too. Wonder why Roush didn't just buy Wood Brothers' owners points.

Because the Wood Brothers aren't done for the season. They've got three races left IIRC.

And the backmarkers wreck 100 feet from the start XD

RyanB06 wrote:Because the Wood Brothers aren't done for the season. They've got three races left IIRC.

And Wood Brothers are going to start using Penske's equipment next year.

Wow. That didn't take long for those guys to start wrecking.

Bigger Wreck..... Under Red Flag, (Must be the full moon)

GG Dillon u noob

Meanwhile in other news heading into this race, Toyota have just unveiled their 2015 Sprint Cup car:

BWardboy88 wrote:Meanwhile in other news heading into this race, Toyota have just unveiled their 2015 Sprint Cup car:

Honestly like this more than the car they have now. Front end looks more rounded.

Thank God ESPN leaves after this year. Disgrace....

Leave it to Comcast to screw up and be covering the football game on both ESPN3 and ABC

Yeah... ABC doesn't give two shits now. It is like the last 4 weeks of High School for a senior.

Cup race has been okay so far, but we might be under threat of rain. Forecast says scattered thunderstorms in the area.

Bowyer blows up, this has not been his year.

Menard isn't going to be saving any money at Menard's after losing that engine.

More bad luck for Jr.....

Hey look it wasn't even Danica's fault this time.

Ryan Newman....SAFE!

Danica.... getting turned by Joey.... wtf....

Oh dear, who is thinking Big One?

WERE FIGHTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got ourselves a five minute major going on here.

Wait, this isn't hockey.

Man, how bad did it have to be if Matt Kenseth threw a punch at ya! D:

I've never seen Kenseth jump someone like that before!!! Even when he got wrecked by Gordon in 2006

Bad Brad seemed to have started that, so it will be interesting to see if any actions are taken as a result of this brawl.

Harvick wins, and free Bloomin' Onions for everyone.

Wish every Charlotte race was like this. For once, some good racing. Gotta give Kyle Larson credit though, passed eleven cars on that GWC.

Heard people are going after Keselowski for that restart. Seriously, Kenseth? In a fight? Since when? Given he's got a good reason to be mad, but Kenseth of all people jumping another driver is unheard of.

friend said this to me.

it speaks volumes about Brad when Matt charges after him and attacks him

Really, Tony? After everything that's gone on?

Stewart also intend backed into Kes.. THIS POST RACE

I wanna see what Kenseth did to Keselowski on the waive-around? That peaks my curiosity

Someone must have installed an anger program in the Kenseth-bot

Good thing that fight happened cause i how no reason to remember this race other than that. Man while entertaining there was a lot of stupid shit on everyone's part...

Keselowski playing crash em and smash em to about 6 cars, Same with Hamlin (Ragan got slammed in that smash-up thanks to him) and the worst we will probably hear out of him is a twitter tangent, Kenseth rather than face him straight up jumped him in thin alley like a thug and hilariously his headlock got broken up in about 5 seconds by Kez , and Tony Stewart post-Ward playing crash em up on pit road...that's a good way to make yourself look good after a real controversial incident over the summer.

Hope everyone can wait a week for goofy paybacks cause next week's Dega and that will seriously hurt someone if they try it there.

I think everyone who is bashing on Stewart for backing into Brad are thinking too much. I think Brad really deserved it.

Wait... Matt Kenseth shown emotion? MATT KENSETH SHOWN EMOTION??? I think Hetzel is right, it does speak volumes about Brad when Matt Kenseth went after him.

Brad's shown his true colours this year. I remember this interview after he got wrecked at Atlanta in 2010.

Spoiler:

The part I'm highlighting there is "It's uncool to wreck people at 195mph" and he pretty much contradicted himself today. Quite honestly, both Brad and Denny should be ashamed, but we already knew what Denny was like. This year has shown what Brad is really like, and he's making it really easy to compare himself to Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards around the time of his interview I linked.

As for Kenseth jumping Brad, it's surprising, but it speaks for itself when Jeff Gordon and Kyle Larson were apparently supporting Kenseth for doing it, and not giving opinions on Brad when asked to maintain professionalism. It appears even the drivers dislike Brad at this point.

Personally, I think it's a shame Brad, Jimmie and Jr are all in a situation where it looks like only one of them will make it into the next round, but I personally don't think Brad deserves to move onto the next round of the chase, even with his good performance all year. I'd like to see a penalty go his and Denny's way, but that won't happen.

Oh, and reminder that Ryan Newman is 4th in points.

The drivers hated brad because he *raced* Jimmie like a boss in 2012... Remember, Kes called em out at phoenix, for that same reason. So I wouldn't be surprised if they still hated brad since.



Will there be a penalty. Not Likely, Harvick said in his post-race, Hell no, They (NASCAR) enjoy this. I see why Brad and Kenseth were pissed after each other, but Hamlin? Everyone was going crazy on that last restart and Hamlin blames the 2...... :/ Aw Well..

Crazy ending. Talladega will be intense! And Martinsville is right after

What NASCAR should do about everything that went on last night is beyond me. Most of these guys are Chase drivers, and mind you, Talladega is next week as well. Penalties shouldn't be too dramatic as to park someone for a race, even though whatever comes for Keselowski in particular might as well be.

Stewart's still in hot water after the accident with Kevin Ward, Jr., not necessarily with NASCAR, but moreover the media. I'll bet the first headlines springing up immediately after this happened were pinning Stewart. It's a shame, too. PRN was talking about how for the first time in weeks Stewart was smiling before a race.

Ok. Here's my 2 cents on this mess:

First off, atta boy, Matt Kenseth for trying to take Brad K. down. While I don't blame him for being upset, it was so surprising to see Matt react the way he did since he's never shown any kind of emotion in those type of situations. As far as Denny Hamlin, I don't think Brad did anything wrong on the last restart to Denny. Though, the way Brad was on the cool down lap was really uncalled for. As for Tony Stewart, he was nothing more than an innocent by-stander, as I would've done the same thing if I got ran into while minding my own business.

While I think NASCAR should say something about this whole mess, docking points on the drivers involved would create a bigger cluster-you-know-what than what it is already. Also, if I knew it was going to be like this after the race, I would've stayed at the track a little longer . Of course, I would've liked to see Jeff Gordon get the win, but Harvick has just been in a league of his own all season long.

So, Kenseth tackled Kez from behind in the hauler lot and tried to take a swing at him.

Now, I understand that Kenseth would be mad about what happened, and Kez's actions were outrageous to say the least, but tackling someone from behind? IMO, that's bush league shit. I think Kenseth was just as out of line as Kez was.

Ok, after seeing the video clips...

- Keselowski needs suspended, not only for his actions, but at least for everyone's safety as well, as I have a bad feeling someone will do something stupid at Keselowski at Talladega.

- Kenesth is a pussy. I know he's pissed, but fight someone straight up, not jumping someone from behind, even if he deserves to get his ass kicked.

- Stewart needs looked at the very least. Backing up on pit road while people are coming in after the cool down lap?!? Stupid as hell not unless something broke or what not..

Joey Logano has 2.8 average finish during the chase.... That's consistency!!

NASCAR PENALTIES
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2014/10/14/nascar-penalties-brad-keselowski-tony-stewart-charlotte.html

-Brad gets 50K fine, along with 4 race probation.
-Stewart gets 25K fine, along with 4 race probation.

Penalty reports are out.

Keselowski got what's coming to him the way he's been this season. I can only imagine Stewart was booked because NASCAR wants to protect their image what with everything that happened with Kevin Ward, Jr..

Kenseth and Hamlin got away clean from that, though, probably because they're still in the Chase. With that in mind, there's also the fact that Stewart isn't. These penalties are fair then, I suppose.

Lucstar88 wrote:Joey Logano has 2.8 average finish during the chase.... That's consistency!!

He's the only Chase driver with top 10 finishes in all the Chase races. That's one of the reasons why he was championship pick in the grid challenge.

I do think all 4 should get penalties. But whatevs i guess.