SRT Motorsports - Weekend Motorsports Recap - August 5

 
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES (NSCS)
Brad Keselowski scored his fifth consecutive top-10 finish in impressive fashion Sunday afternoon at Pocono Raceway.  He finished fourth in the rain-shortened Pennsylvania 400, rallying from a 31st-place starting position.  It was his seventh top-five and 11th top-10 finish this season.  The driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge moved up to seventh in the series standings, a gain of two positions.  He’s just four points out of fifth.

And, Keselowski had a chance to win the race.  In an effort to gain track position, crew chief Paul Wolfe put Keselowski on a different pit cycle than the majority of the field.  The move worked perfectly, with Keselowski lining up third for what would be the final restart of the race on lap 90 of the scheduled 160 laps.

With an intense thunderstorm looming on the horizon, the race restarted with Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth leading the field to Turn 1.  Johnson and Kenseth made contact and both cars slid up the track toward the outside wall, triggering a five-car pileup.  Keselowski cleared the spinning duo by just a few inches and fortunately lost just one position in the skirmish. 

NASCAR was unable to clear the accident ahead of the fast-approaching rain.  As the cars circled the track under caution, the monsoon came, forcing the race under the red flag on lap 99.  Moments after the cars were brought to a stop on pit road an intense storm hit the area and the event was called.    

“It was a solid run,” Keselowski said.  “I thought we had a shot at it.  That last restart just didn’t get it done but that’s part of the deal.  I think our tires were cooled off and I had a Dodge that was really fast on restarts.  I was looking forward to it.  We just never had a chance for it to play out.  We had such a long yellow that everybody’s tires turned into junk and you know they (Johnson and Kenseth) were the first ones to get to the corner with junk tires.  I think that’s just the way that it played out.  That’s the way it goes.”
 
Sam Hornish Jr. turned in another solid performance in the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge.  Hornish started 25th and steadily gained positions throughout the race.  He was credited with a 19th-place finish.

“I feel like we would have finished better if we had run the rest of the race,” said Hornish.  “We were steadily working our way forward, passing some people, just need to get to the end, that’s all.  Guys made good adjustments on the Shell/Pennzoil Dodge.  We felt like we got better throughout the race.”

Todd Gordon, Hornish’s crew chief, said he took a calculated gamble to pit on lap 87 for four, thinking that they might be able to gain a few more spots before the rain came.

“I thought we’d have 10 minutes to go run 12 or 13 laps,” Gordon said.  “We put tires on and thought we could slug our way up through there but that wreck down in Turn 1 kind of put an end to the day.  Nineteenth is another step and we will continue to build off that.”   

AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES (ALMS)
SRT Motorsports’ Team Viper was candid about its primary objective in Saturday’s American Le Mans Series event at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.  The mission – have both SRT Viper GTS-R race cars running at the finish of the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge in the GT class.  Mission accomplished.

Team Viper was making its return to the ALMS series.  Not only were both cars running at the finish, the performance improved throughout the two-hour, 45-minute timed event.  As an added bonus, one of the Viper GTS-Rs had a top-10 finish.

Kuno Wittmer and Dominik Farnbacher finished 10th in the No. 91 Forza Motorsports SRT Viper GTS-R while Marc Goossens and Tommy Kendall were 12th in the No. 93 Pennzoil Ultra SRT Viper GTS-R.

“Our first goal was to get through the race without any major problems,” said Gary Johnson, Road Racing Manger – SRT Motorsports.  “We accomplished that.  In fact, we were making progress throughout the race.  The cars were getting better.  Today’s race gives us an opportunity to know where the issues are and where we need to focus.”

Even though both teams reached the primary goal of finishing in the debut, everyone agrees there’s plenty of work ahead before the specially-prepared Viper GTS-R race cars, built by Bill Riley and Riley Technologies, take the track at Road America in two weeks.

“It wasn’t pretty but both cars finished,” said Riley.  “We’ve got a lot to build on.  We’re about two seconds off where we need to be and that showed in the race.  Now we need to build on that and go from there.  We were consistent but there are things we have to work on.  There are gains to make with the car.  We’ll keep chipping away on it.  I think we’ll get about half of the gap taken care of pretty quickly.”
 
Wittmer says there were more positives than just having both cars running at the finish.  “We learned so much today as far as driver comfort, car handling, chassis, and motor, everything in the package,” he said.  “This was a great test.  We have to keep working at it but a top 10 is not a bad start.”

Farnbacher was pleased he and Wittmer didn’t make an on-track mistake.  “We didn’t make a mistake,” he said.  “We didn’t go off the track.  It’s a good start for both teams, something to build on for the next race.” 

Kendall and Goossens had two minor incidents – slight contact with another car early in the race and a trek off course in one of the turns in the final minutes – but the No. 93 continued it consistent pace to the checkered flag.

Kendall said having both cars finish was positive for the day.  “Our goal was to run as many laps as we could and finish both cars,” he said.  “It’s a tribute to this group, all the guys on these two cars.  We’ve got plenty to work on.  I’m encouraged.  I thought our race pace was decent.  There’s certainly some good take-aways.”

Goossens was pleased with the consistency.  “We showed we can be consistent,” he said.  “We had a good solid race, both cars.  There’s still a lot of work to do.  That’s normal after your first race.”

NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES (NNS)
Sam Hornish Jr. remained one of the most consistent drivers in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.  He finished third in Saturday night’s race at Iowa Speedway, his third top five in the last four races.

Hornish’s effort also earned him the $100,000 ‘Dash 4 Cash’ bonus from series sponsor Nationwide as the highest-finishing, full-time driver in the series.  Hornish outdueled Michael Annett (fourth), Ricky Stenhouse (fifth) and Austin Dillon (15th) – the four qualified to compete for the cash at Iowa based on their finish at Indianapolis.  NASCAR fan Tammy Altieri also collected $100,000 as part of the promotion.   

Hornish qualified seventh.  He used patience and a fast Dodge to race in the top 10 throughout the 250-lap race and in the top five over the final 150 laps.

“I felt like we had a pretty good car in qualifying but after race practice, I wasn’t exactly sure how we were going to race,” said Hornish.  “Just real happy the guys put a good car under me and we did exactly we needed to do.  We’re out here trying to get points and we lost a little bit to the leader today but we’re going to have our days too.  We just need to smart about what we’re doing and continue to finish these races.  I’m just real happy we got the Würth Dodge a top-three finish.”

Crew chief Chad Walter was a magician, balancing limited practice time with his well-traveled driver (he was pulling double duty, also driving the No. 22 at Pocono), a new right-side Goodyear tire and a green track after an early-day shower.
 
“I can’t say enough about how awesome Penske Racing handled this Pocono-Iowa logistics to put us in position to race like we did tonight,” Walter said.  “There was so much effort put into giving Sam a car that was better than the way we ended practice yesterday.  There were a few pizzas and dreary eyes this morning trying to get something worked out to give us a little bit better balance on the Würth Dodge.”

Ryan Blaney (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger) didn’t waste any time taking advantage of his debut with Penske Racing, scoring an impressive 10th-place finish.  

The 18-year old rookie showed tremendous patience in the first of three scheduled races behind the wheel of the No. 22 Challenger.  He started 13th but was mired in traffic for most of the night.  Blaney jumped inside of the top 10 after a two-tire stop during the race’s second caution but couldn’t build off the track position on the short run.  He ran most of the race see-sawing between 11th and 15th but broke into the top 10 with three laps remaining. 

“It was and up-and-down night for this Discount Tire Dodge tonight,” Blaney said.  “We just really couldn’t get going.  After pit stops, it took us a while to get going and get with everyone else.  Once we did get going our car was fast towards the end of the runs.  Our last run was great.  We were running down guys and were really fast.  A few tough breaks there at the end kept us from bringing home a top-seven or better.”

Elliott Sadler scored the victory with Justin Allgaier second.

NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES (NCWTS)
Parker Kligerman rallied from a mid-pack start to score a seventh-place finish Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway, his seventh top-10 finish in 11 races this season.  He gained 14 points in the season standings and now trails leader Timothy Peters by 35 points.

Kligerman started 17th in the 36-truck starting field.  “You’ve got to take days like this and make the most of it,” said Kligerman.  “Everyone on this Cooper Standard Ram team did that and I’m proud of all these guys. They don’t give up.”
Joey Coulter scored the victory, his first in 36 Camping World Series starts. James Buescher finished second.

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