Notes from TNT’s Coverage of Sprint Cup Series Racing from Pocono
Countdown to Green
Lindsay Czarniak (host), Kyle Petty (analyst) and Larry McReynolds (analyst)
Petty on the recent success of Kyle and Kurt Busch: “We started the year and it was Jimmie Johnson, Jimmie Johnson, Jimmie Johnson was all we heard. Then we heard all about Denny Hamlin. Now all we hear is the Busch brothers. What I like about it is it adds the Penske organization to the mix. First Hendrick and Gibbs, now we’re talking Penske. If they (Kyle and Kurt Busch) can grind it out then they do have a shot at the championship."
McReynolds on the increased focus of Kyle Busch: “Obviously he and his new crew chief have messed well but I think the biggest difference is a lot of the distractions are behind him. He finally got the Nationwide Championship and got engaged to Samantha and the biggest thing is he decided to stop racing all over the country (in Nationwide) and said my focus is on this Cup car and trying to win the 2010 championship."
Ralph Sheheen sat down with auto racing legend Mario Andretti in nearby Nazareth, PA as part of TNT’s ‘Pride of NASCAR’ series. Andretti was chosen by AP as the Driver of the Century and was voted into 5 different motorsports Hall of Fames.
Andretti on the importance of winning the 1967 Daytona 500: “I’m just looking at my career. Is it more complete with the Daytona win? You’re darn right it is. It’s all about the classics. You look at Daytona, Indianapolis, these are the ones that if you have an opportunity to race in it and you are lucky enough to win, these are the ones that will be on top of your mantle."
Carl Edwards joined the crew on the set during Countdown to Green
Edwards on the struggles of Roush Racing: “It’s a number of things. When we come to the racetrack we try and make this car go around the corner and do what we want to do it to do. It’s just been a little bit of a struggle and Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle and myself, we’re all really good drivers and we’ve just got to keep believing in ourselves and the tide will turn and we’ll get back to 2008 when we were winning every week or at least it felt that way."
‘The Ponytail Express’ returned with Kyle Petty planning to run 6,000 miles on his motorcycle between TNT’s six Summer Series races. Petty’s first stop was the wax museum in Washington.
Petty on his favorite wax museum exhibit: “I did stop by Tiger Woods, I also stopped by JLo (Jennifer Lopez) and she has a wax derriere that is incredible."
Car owner Joe Gibbs sat down with Lindsey Czarniak to discuss his team and the recent on track issues between his drivers Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin
Gibbs on whether his guys can win a championship this season: “The good thing about professional sports is that you can’t talk your way up there, you r not going to con your way up there, you have to race your way up there."
Kyle Busch on his ability to conserve fuel: “On a scale of 1-10, a zero, I’m horrible at saving fuel."
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Racing from Pocono at Pocono Raceway
Announcers: Adam Alexander (play-by-play), Wally Dallenbach (analyst) and Kyle Petty (analyst); Larry McReynolds (analyst) contributes from the in-field with the TNT Offtrack Robotic Car (TORC) with Lindsay Czarniak (host)
Pit reporters: Marty Snider, Ralph Sheheen, Phil Parsons and Matt Yocum
Kurt Busch on his ability to conserve fuel: “I wouldn’t give it an ‘A’, but I haven’t flunked out on it…you always hope the guy running the guy running the calculator helps you."
Carl Edwards on the rain: “I’m noticing the rain isn’t so much coming down, it’s coming sideways."
Joey Logano on whether he likes racing at Pocono: “No. I wish I did, it’s a tough race track, its a tricky triangle."
Matt Kenseth on how his plans to ride his motorcycle from Washington to Pocono with TNT analyst Kyle Petty got derailed: “The main thing I can tell you is I had a real good friend of mine this week, and I was getting ready to ride my motorcycle up here on Thursday, ended up blowing me off and I ended up sitting at home by myself. He’s not answering my texts or anything. Somebody in the booth may know something about that."
Petty: “I had to be in DC to tape something for NASCAR.COM for ‘The Ponytail Express.’ Matt can not pass a Starbucks, so I had to leave his sorry butt at home."
Dallenbach on the long pit road at Pocono: “Fifty-five miles an hour (on pit road) is torture. Its 1800 feet long and it takes forever to get from one end to the other end."
Kyle Busch on his in-car radio to his crew early in the race: “Tight, tight, tight, loose all of a sudden. One lap I can go through a groove, the next lap I’m following all the time. No consistency."
Alexander on Denny Hamlin’s strong finishes at Pocono and strong recent performances: “And these days you’d better stay in front of him because if you have one opportunity where you miss an adjustment on the race car, it may take you out of contention.
Petty: “And especially at a place like this where you have a tendency to make longer runs and you get so spread out. If you are in a place where you are only one or two seconds behind, you can get seven or eight seconds behind fairly fast."
Dallenbach on Jimmie Johnson’s poor pit stop costing him more at Pocono: “Two seconds on pit road is seven seconds at Pocono on the racetrack because they are running 200 miles per hour down on the straightaway."
Alexander on Denny Hamlin’s dominance at Pocono: “You can’t make a mistake at this racetrack with Hamlin behind you or he will pounce."
McReynolds on Clint Bowyer and the Richard Childress Racing team: “I think the biggest thing is when they went from four teams to three teams it actually freed up what I think is one of the smartest crew chiefs over there, Scott Miller, who had actually been over there with Jeff Burton. Scott is like the competition director, he has been tying those three teams together and I think that is something that has been missing at RCR. They’ve (Bowyer’s team) have had some good runs, they’ve had some freak things happen to them…He (Bowyer) knows performance-wise they are Chase material."
McReynolds on his Cutaway Engine: "How do you like my Toyota Cutaway engine made by Cutaway Creations?"
Petty: "That's really cool, when you showed it the other day I thought 'that's the kind of piece you'd like to have in your living room.'"
McReynolds on the back to back cautions with approximately 40 laps to go: “I know what Kyle said, those guys who came down to pit road and topped off took themselves out of the race, but now when you look at all of our leaders we are within the window of pitting and making it to the end, so honestly if these guys come (to get fuel), those guys (who already topped off) at the last caution, they may actually gain some spots."
Petty: “Excellent point Larry, that’s why I was a driver and you were a crew chief; I’m an idiot and you’re not."
Petty on Hamlin coming back from major knee surgery this year: “What better physical therapy can you have than standing in Victory Lane holding that trophy?"
Petty on the collision between Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick with a few laps to go: “That is truly two guys going for the same position and the same patch. Tough break for Joey Logano."
Dallenbach on Logano confronting Harvick after the race: “He needs to do this, he needs to vent. Joey has been taken out so many times from a race, whether it was a Nationwide race or whatever. He should be mad…He has got to man up on some of these guys or you are going to get pushed around in this business."
Logano on the incident with Kevin Harvick: "He let me go in the middle of the straightaway and decided to dump me on the next lap. It's probably not his fault, his wife wears the firesuit in the family, tells him what to do, so it's probably not his fault…I don't know what I ever did to piss him off but he's obviously stupid."
Unofficial Pocono 500 Results:
1. #11 Denny Hamlin
2. #18 Kyle Busch
3. #14 Tony Stewart
4. #29 Kevin Harvick
5. #48 Jimmie Johnson
6. #10 Kurt Busch
7. #31 Jeff Burton
8. #42 Juan Pablo Montoya
9. #33 Clint Bowyer
10. #43 AJ Allmendinger