{"id":13856,"date":"2017-11-10T22:08:49","date_gmt":"2017-11-11T04:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=13856"},"modified":"2017-11-10T22:57:52","modified_gmt":"2017-11-11T04:57:52","slug":"nascar-friday-phoenix-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/10\/nascar-friday-phoenix-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Friday Phoenix Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Jimmie Johnson needs another miracle in final Round of 8 race<\/b><\/p>\n

AVONDALE, Ariz. \u2013 Last year at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Jimmie Johnson won his seventh Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship with a serendipitous victory in the Championship 4 race.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Chase Elliott, driver of the #24 Hooters Chevrolet, and Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, talk during practice for the Monster Engergy NASCAR Cup Series Can-Am 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on November 10, 2017 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

This year, Johnson will need more than serendipity. He\u2019ll need what amounts to a miracle just to earn a shot at a record eighth title.<\/p>\n

Johnson comes to Phoenix Raceway eighth in the series standings, last among the drivers trying to survive the Playoff\u2019s Round of 8. With one berth available in the Championship 4, the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is 51 points behind fourth-place Brad Keselowski with no realistic chance to qualify for the finale on points.<\/p>\n

Complicating Johnson\u2019s problem are a year-long search for speed. During a season that has produced a career-low four top-five finishes, Johnson\u2019s current winless streak has reached 21 races. That said, it\u2019s hardly surprising that Johnson isn\u2019t brimming with optimism about his chances at the one-mile flat track in the Sonoran Desert.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a must-win-situation,\u201d Johnson said on Friday morning before opening practice at Phoenix. \u201cWe wish we were in a better points scenario, but that\u2019s not the case. This team thrives on pressure and adversity, and we\u2019re certainly in the position right now. When we look at the last two or three races here, we\u2019ve had very competitive cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe effort was made this week to make sure we brought the best bullet\u2014second to none\u2014and I\u2019m really proud of my team and the way that all of Hendrick Motorsports is working together to make sure that the No. 24 car (of teammate Chase Elliott) and the No. 48 car have their best chances to win here and move on and stay alive for the championship. We\u2019ll find out Sunday afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson has a formidable streak on the line in this year\u2019s Playoff. Since NASCAR adopted a postseason format in 2004, Johnson has won at least one race in the final 10 each year. He has two races left to keep the string going.<\/p>\n

Jimmie Johnson – <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THERE ARE CERTAIN MOMENTS DALE EARNHARDT JR. WOULD RATHER FORGET<\/b><\/p>\n

In a long career that has produced its share of notable memories, there are certain moments Dale Earnhardt Jr. would just as soon forget\u2014particularly when it comes to crashing other drivers.<\/p>\n

Earnhardt was especially chagrined during the first superspeedway test of the new Gen-6 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series car on Jan. 11, 2013. Attempting to bump-draft with Marcos Ambrose on the backstretch, Earnhardt triggered a huge wreck that sent at least 10 teams home with mangled chassis in their haulers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re testing, and it\u2019s January and everybody\u2019s cars are brand new,\u201d Earnhardt said on Friday at Phoenix Raceway. \u201cEverybody is testing their brand-new speedway car, and I started a crash on the back straightaway and I\u2019m like \u2018Oops, my bad.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cYou go in the garage and you are like, \u2018Man, I just want to go hide in the trailer.\u2019 Everybody\u2019s torn up cars are coming in and all the crews are all pissed off\u2026 those are some of the worst moments as a driver, some of the most embarrassing moments.  So anytime you do anything like that, you hope people have short memories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dale Earnhardt Jr. – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/PR_MENCS_DaleJR_111017.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

WIDE-OPEN XFINITY PLAYOFF ROUND OF 8 MAKES FOR MORE STRATEGIC CHOICES<\/b><\/p>\n

With three berths in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 race already spoken for, Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney have limited options if they hope to arrive at Homestead with a chance to win the series title.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Matt Tifft, driver of the #19 Surface Sunscreen\/Fanatics Toyota, drives during practice for the NASCAR XFINITY series Ticket Galaxy 200 at Phoenix International Raceway on November 10, 2017 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

In fact, they have only one realistic option if they hope to advance from the Round of 8: win Sunday\u2019s Can-Am 500 at Phoenix Raceway (on NBC at 2:30 p.m. ET).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the case in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, where 57 points separate first-place Elliott Sadler from eighth-place Ryan Reed. No XFINITY driver comes to Phoenix with a guaranteed spot in Championship 4 event.<\/p>\n

Sadler, William Byron, Justin Allgaier and Brennan Poole currently are above the cut line, but Matt Tifft, Cole Custer and Daniel Hemric are five, 13 and 18 points, respectively, behind Poole in fourth\u2014deficits that could be erased in the first two stages of Saturday\u2019s Ticket Galaxy 200 (on NBC at 3:30 p.m. ET).<\/p>\n

That makes the approach to the race a bit more complicated than the one facing the Cup drivers on Sunday. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to say take the race on the fly, but that\u2019s kind of how you\u2019ve got to approach it first,\u201d said Hemric, who drives the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. \u201cWhen we get on the track here, how our speed is will translate into the approach and the plan for the rest of the weekend. Depending on where you are on that side of it, that determines how aggressive you can be with your strategies and your tires and how many tires and all that stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing that there are four spots\u2014at any second, a flat tire, somebody spins and gets into the fence, anything that can happen\u2026 the next thing you know, it can bring a little more life to somebody else\u2019s day, and it\u2019s like \u2018Oh, gosh, we\u2019ve got hope,\u2019 and that hope brings intensity and brings aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole Custer, Matt Tifft and Daniel Hemric – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/PR_NXS_Hemric_Custer_Tifft_111017.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Jimmie Johnson needs another miracle in final Round of 8 race AVONDALE, Ariz. \u2013 Last year at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Jimmie Johnson won his seventh Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship with a serendipitous victory in the Championship 4 race. This year, Johnson will need more than serendipity. He\u2019ll need what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,395],"class_list":["post-13856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-phoenix-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/PR_MENCS_Elliott_Johnson_111017.jpg?fit=5184%2C3456&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-3Bu","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13856"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13866,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13856\/revisions\/13866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}