{"id":40346,"date":"2022-09-24T15:38:18","date_gmt":"2022-09-24T20:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=40346"},"modified":"2022-09-24T15:39:59","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T20:39:59","slug":"nascar-saturday-texas-notebook-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2022\/09\/24\/nascar-saturday-texas-notebook-4\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Texas Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Holly Cain<\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Keselowski earns first pole as owner of Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing at Texas<\/b><\/p>\n

FORT WORTH, Texas \u2013 It\u2019s safe to say, it\u2019s been a good week for Brad Keselowski.<\/p>\n

Last weekend at Bristol, Tenn. the team he now has part-ownership in, Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing with driver Chris Buescher earned its first race trophy since he joined the organization this year.<\/p>\n

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Brad Keselowski, driver of the #6 RoushParts.com Ford, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Auto Trader EchoPark Automotive 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on September 24, 2022 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by James Gilbert\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

And now, only a few days later, Keselowski answered that positive momentum with his first pole position in the year since he became an owner on the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly a lot of progress,\u2019\u2019 Keselowski said, adding, \u201cYou do things in this sport and it takes six to eight months to be noticed. It takes months and months of hard work for it all to come together and it\u2019s super painful.<\/p>\n

Keselowski put his No. 6 RFK Ford Mustang on the pole for Sunday\u2019s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a lap of 188.990 mph around the 1.5-mile Texas high banks \u2013 marking his first pole position since the 2019 season; although Keselowski reminded that the series didn\u2019t hold qualifying sessions during the 2020 COVID-19 season.<\/p>\n

This is the 2012 series champion Keselowski\u2019s 18th career pole. He is looking for his first NASCAR Cup Series win at Texas Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

Keselowski\u2019s former Team Penske teammate, Joey Logano will start alongside him on the first row. Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 William Byron and Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Tyler Reddick will start their Chevrolets from the second row.<\/p>\n

Six Playoff cars advanced to Final Qualifying on Saturday morning. In addition to Logano and Byron, current championship leader Chase Elliott was sixth fastest. Denny Hamlin (eighth), Kyle Larson (ninth) and Daniel Suarez (10th) rounded out the Second Round qualifiers. Austin Cindric , who was 11th quickest was the top qualifying rookie.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, very proud to show speed,\u2019\u2019 Keselowski said, noting he has to remember to stop sometimes and reflect on the progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s actually starting to show up. It\u2019s been a painful journey, but a good one.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Richard Childress Racing swept opening practice at Texas. Although just eliminated from Playoff contention, Austin Dillon \u2013 a 2020 Texas winner \u2013 and Reddick were the fastest two cars in practice with Dillon\u2019s No. 3 Chevrolet turning a fast lap of 187.643 mph.  Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Alex Bowman, Logano and Petty GMS Racing\u2019s Erik Jones rounded out the Top-5 in practice.<\/p>\n

CHAMP FAVORITE<\/b><\/p>\n

The result of such a long NASCAR Cup Series winner\u2019s list in 2022 \u2013 which features so many non-championship eligible race winners \u2013 has only increased the suspense and intensity of the Playoff standings, which go into Round 2 now separated by only 34 points from leader Elliott to 12th place Austin Cindric.<\/p>\n

And with the list of \u201cnew\u201d winners amid a contender list of \u201cconsistency\u201d many of the very drivers competing for the big trophy, say they don\u2019t know who the odds-on driver to beat may be just yet.<\/p>\n

Perennial championship favorite Hamlin, who struggled this season to stay among the Top-15 in points despite a pair of victories, seems to be upping his game in time for the Playoffs. The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota had back-to-back runner-up finishes at Darlington, S.C. and Kansas and then a ninth place showing at Bristol last weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that there\u2019s a championship favorite,\u2019\u2019 reigning champion Kyle Larson said. \u201cChase (Elliott) is getting through the first round, it wasn\u2019t a great first round for his standards, his team\u2019s and what they had for points going in. So, I feel like for him, making through the round and resetting – as long as he can get through this round, I think he\u2019s still probably still the favorite.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Obviously as a former champion and the current championship leader Elliott\u2019s name was raised as a favorite, but so was a young driver in only his second Playoff. Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Christopher Bell earned the most points among the championship slate in the opening race and while many Playoff drivers insisted there was no overwhelming favorite, Bell\u2019s name came up a lot.<\/p>\n

Bell, the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota had the best first round among the original 16 Playoff drivers. He was the only one to earn all Top-5 finishes in the opening round \u2013 fifth place at Darlington, S.C., third place at Kansas before leading a season-high 143 laps for a fourth place at Bristol, Tenn. in last week\u2019s first-round elimination race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Bell has shown so far in the Playoffs that he\u2019s really strong,\u2019\u2019 Larson said, adding, \u201cBut I don\u2019t think you can pick a favorite until you get through this round because whoever the favorite is right now, could easily not make it into the next round just because how wild this round is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think three weeks from now, you\u2019ll be able to pick a better [championship] favorite. But right now, there\u2019s so many unknowns, as far as craziness that\u2019s going to happen.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Larson\u2019s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a couple of guys that have been really consistent through the Playoffs, but other than that I don\u2019t think there is (an odd-on favorite),\u2019\u2019 Bowman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone can make it happen still and hopefully it\u2019s us at the end of the year, but it\u2019s cool. I think this car has created a lot of parity right now. Different teams have different strengths right now, which is pretty cool to see.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

BLANEY APPEAL EXPLAINED<\/b><\/p>\n

The No. 12 Penske Racing team with driver Ryan Blaney was issued a strong penalty after an uncontrolled tire last weekend at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway \u2013 the loss of his crew chief Jonathan Hassler for four weeks as well as a pair of key crew members.<\/p>\n

So the team has appealed the penalty and until NASCAR hears the Penske team\u2019s argument and makes a final decision, Blaney will have all his regular teammates working in the pits this weekend at Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important to keep those guys for this week, we all know how important pit stops are here and how hard it is to pass, and strategy will come into play,\u2019\u2019 Blaney said, \u201cIt\u2019s good to have Jonathan on the box and good to have those guys in the pits. It was good to keep those guys here for this week and we\u2019ll see how the rest of that goes.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Blaney will start his No. 12 Ford from the 14th position on the grid. He won at Texas earlier this year in the NASCAR All-Star Race.<\/p>\n

CREW SWAP<\/b><\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin spoke about the news he will be swapping pit crews with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch \u2013 a move made by the team in advance of Sunday\u2019s race. Hamlin said two of the \u201cnew\u201d pit crew members were on his team last year, so there is a bit of familiarity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t enter the box that differently, when you think about what could be the variation between me and Kyle the way we enter the box is pretty similar so I think it should be pretty seamless for everyone,\u2019\u2019 Hamlin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly tough for those guys (the pit crew he started the season with),\u2019\u2019 he continued. \u201cI hate it because I love their attitude, swagger all that about my 11 -team. Certainly, they are as important to this championship run as anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we had to do something different.  \u2026 this was kind of a JGR decision and they felt like this was the best avenue to getting the quickest results in the shortest amount of time, just replacing an entire team rather than one person or another.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

LARSON\u2019S  MOMENT<\/b><\/p>\n

Larson has celebrated wins in every form of racing he\u2019s competed in and even hoisted the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship trophy. But the 30-year-old Californian\u2019s face lit up when talking about the special call he received from one of his racing heroes, three-time Indy 500 winner and longtime Fort Worth resident, Johnny Rutherford.<\/p>\n

Rutherford called Larson this week in hopes of meeting up while the NASCAR Cup Series competed at Texas Motor Speedway. Larson, who has been competing in Christopher Bell\u2019s \u201dC Bell\u2019s Micro Mania\u201d micro sprint event all week, said he got Rutherford\u2019s voicemail and looks forward to seeing him in person this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe left me a voicemail and the first thing I did was I copied the voicemail and sent it to my dad and [public relations representative] Jon Edwards,\u2019\u2019 Larson said, smiling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was super cool that Johnny Rutherford had gotten my number and wanted my autograph. So that was pretty neat and I look forward to meeting up with him here this weekend and getting another photo op.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain NASCAR Wire Service Keselowski earns first pole as owner of Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing at Texas FORT WORTH, Texas \u2013 It\u2019s safe to say, it\u2019s been a good week for Brad Keselowski. Last weekend at Bristol, Tenn. the team he now has part-ownership in, Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing with driver Chris Buescher earned its first race […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":40348,"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":[16,21],"class_list":["post-40346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-texas-motor-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/GettyImages-1426934903-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-auK","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40346","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\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40346"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40353,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40346\/revisions\/40353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}