Racetrack Insider - News and Views of the Motorsports Industry from Insiders Drew Patey and Buddy Judy

Jimmie Johnson One Step Closer

Jimmie Johnson bounced back from his misfortune of finishing 38th last week in Texas to dominate the race this weekend in Phoenix and moved one step closer to his fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. When you lead 238 of 312 laps, you demoralize the competition and put an exclamation point on a great season. The win on Sunday was the 7th of the season and 4th in the last 9 races of The Chase and 47th career win - what a year. Now Johnson has a 108 point lead over second place Mark Martin with one race to go at Homestead next Sunday. The challenges this weekend came from the Safety-Kleen sponsored Richard Childress Racing team with Jeff Burton being the standout finishing second. Denny Hamlin was also strong, but lacked the horsepower to run with Johnson's Chevy and had to settle for third with Jeff Gordon in fourth. Polesitter and Safety-Kleen driver Martin Truex Jr. finished fifth, his first top five of the year in his next-to-last race for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. Truex will drive Michael Waltrip Racing's No. 56 Toyota next year and Safety-Kleen will be on his Toyota for the 2010 season. Thanks to Les Bell for a fine job this weekend with the services for the teams and the coordination of the pit tours on Sunday. Don't miss Homestead next Sunday afternoon. Tune in on ABC and watch history in the making. Johnson should sew up his fourth championship and the Hendrick Motorsports teams will finish one, two and three in the championship.

Edwards Wins - Busch To Wait Another Week

Carl Edwards took his Ford to victory lane for the fifth time this season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Phoenix on Saturday while Kyle Busch could not muster enough points to clinch the championship. Busch finished in the top 10, but after having a 25 point penalty assessed earlier in the week by NASCAR for a technical violation in Texas, the championship will now be determined in Homestead next Saturday. All Busch has to do is show up and the 2009 Nationwide trophy goes home with him. Edwards did everything needed to keep any hope of the championship within sight. He led the most laps and won the race, but Busch has been consistent all year and deserves the championship. Safety-Kleen's Kevin Harvick finished second, coming close to scoring back to back wins after taking victory on Friday night in the Truck Series race, while Reed Sorenson had another good race finishing third for the Safety-Kleen backed Braun Racing. Another Safety-Kleen driver Clint Bowyer recovered from an early incident with Busch at the beginning of the race to finish fourth. Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five after having another run-in with Denny Hamlin. The two seem to always find each other on the track and tangle. Homestead will be interesting as Hamlin stated after the race that he will handle Brad in his own way next Saturday. One race to go - Busch will clinch the title and Edwards and Keselowski will battle for second. Tune in next week to see the results.

Safety-Kleen Trucks Wins in Phoenix

Kevin Harvick held off Kyle Busch to take the checkered flag in the Camping World Truck Series race on Friday night at Phoenix International Raceway. The boss won the race and his driver in the Truck Series, Ron Hornaday won the title giving two wins to Safety-Kleen in Phoenix. Harvick won the race despite bringing out the first caution on lap 6, with a spin off Turn 4 when he contacted Aric Almirola. Hornaday also had his "hiccups" and overcame an early penalty for improper fueling on the first pit stop. But that didn't stop him form claiming the series title by finishing ahead of Safety-Kleen's Matt Crafton in the year long battle. In a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the race one lap past its scheduled distance of 150 laps, Harvick won the race under caution after Tayler Malsam wrecked on the final lap. Almirola had a great race, bouncing back from the early race incident with Harvick, then leading the event at one point and finishing third, followed by Hornaday and polesitter Johnny Sauter. Crafton was only able to come to the checkered flag in eighth. The last race of the season is in Homestead next Friday, but with the championship and second place decided, the field is racing for third. Safety-Kleen finishes one and two in the NASCAR Truck Series this year - not bad results.

Hight Gives Safety-Kleen Funny Car Championship

Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army team won their sixth straight and seventh overall NHRA Full Throttle Series championship on Sunday by two points over Safety-Kleen's Larry Dixon, in the narrowest margin in NHRA history. The season went south for Dixon when he smoked the tires in the semifinals and lost to Spencer Massey, giving Schumacher's team the two point advantage and the big trophy. The other two championships were decided Saturday as Robert Hight and the Safety-Kleen John Force Racing Ford Mustang Funny Car team qualified for the race and thus scored enough points to outdistance his teammate Ashley Force Hook. In Pro Stock, Mike Edwards' team clinched their titles in qualifying over Safety-Kleen's Greg Anderson. The races in Pomona were won by Antron Brown running a 3.801 at 316.90 mph, winning for the sixth time this season over Massey, who fouled out in the Top Fuel final. In Funny car, Safety-Kleen's Mike Neff pedaled the Ford Drive One Mustang to a 5.131 at 285.05 to defeat teammate Ashley Force Hood, who was DQ'd for touching the wall. It was Neff's first career win for his John Force Racing team. In Pro Stock, Greg Anderson ran a 6.564 at 210.70 mph to defeat Kurt Johnson in the final, giving the Safety-Kleen driver his 3rd win of the season and securing his 4th straight second place finish in the points standings. Next up for the NHRA teams is some welcomed time off before returning to Pomona next February for the 50th running of the Winter Nationals.

Busch Wins - Johnson Wrecks - Martin Back In Championship Hunt

One of the Busch brothers led the most laps on Sunday, but didn't have enough gas to take the victory at the Sprint Cup race in Texas. Yes, you guessed. It was Kyle Busch out in front all afternoon, but with three laps to go his tank ran dry and brother Kurt went on the take the win. But that wasn't the story of the day for the 100,000 plus fans that packed the Texas Motor Speedway. On lap three, David Reutimann got loose in turn two and bumped Sam Hornish up the track into Series Points leader Jimmie Johnson, sending the champ into the inside retaining wall and then to the garage area. After 115 laps, Johnson came back to the race with a rebuilt race car, but over half of his points lead was gone. Johnson's bad luck gave Mark Martin a chance to make up ground and at the checkered flag, the margin was cut to just 73 points with two races to go in The Chase. What a race. This was definitely not a follow the leader race that we saw in Talladega last weekend. Texas is always an exciting battle and it looked like the excitement was going to peak with Kyle Busch heading for his third victory lane in three days. Busch had won the Truck Series race on Friday and the Nationwide event on Saturday. But fate was not on his side this weekend as he finished 11th and handed the win to the Safety-Kleen sponsored Dodge driven by Kurt. Denny Hamlin turned in another great performance this weekend and took advantage of the gas shortages and came home second with Matt Kenseth taking third. Mark Martin finished fourth, followed by Safety-Kleen's Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart. Great job this weekend by Jerry Harris and the crew from the Ft Worth branch. Phoenix is next and with only two races to go, The Chase is on. Can Mark Martin make up 73 points? Can Jeff Gordon come from third to first by the end of Homestead race? Or will Jimmie Johnson dig in and hold on to win the Championship? Tune into ABC TV next Sunday afternoon to see.

Kyle Busch Wins Another Nationwide Race

Kyle Busch won his fourth consecutive Nationwide Series race at Texas on Saturday and he did it in style. It was another race where he showed the entire field he was the best of the best. Busch took the lead from polesitter Matt Kenseth on the 11th lap and went on to lead 179 laps of the 200 lap event. This was Busch's 8th win of the year in the Nationwide Series as he extended his points lead to 272. Second place Carl Edwards was able to finish 9th after starting in the rear of the pack after work was done on his car after qualifying for the impound race on Saturday. Now if Kyle finishes 15th or better at Phoenix, he takes the Championship trophy home. The Safety-Kleen backed Chevy driven by Casey Mears, who was subbing for Jeff Burton, drove a good race and finished second but never challenged the horsepower of the Busch Toyota. Safety-Kleen driver Jason Leffler again showed he is the best Nationwide drive in the field as he finished third, followed by Kenseth in fourth and Safety-Kleen's Brad Keselowski in fifth. Can someone please call the engravers and put the name of Kyle Busch on the Championship trophy? By the way, you can put up a banner in his pit area at the Phoenix race next Saturday afternoon where he should clinch the title.

Broken Record - Busch Wins

Kyle Busch started his weekend off with a bang as he led the final 50 laps of Friday night's NASCAR Camping World Series Truck race at the Texas Motor Speedway and won his fifth straight Truck race. This is starting to sound like a "broken record". The victory was Busch's 7th in 13 starts this season and the 16th of his career - but his first at Texas. Safety-Kleen's Matt Crafton ran strong all day and finished in second as the series points leader and Safety-Kleen sponsored driver Ron Hornaday came home third. Hornaday now has a 197 point lead over Crafton in the series standings. Hornaday can wrap up the championship with finishes of 22nd or better in the final two events. The Truck teams travel west to Phoenix for a race next Friday night. You can also engrave Hornaday's name on the 2009 Championship trophy. With only Phoenix and Homestead left to run, both tracks have been good to Hornaday in the past. Speed has the coverage of the race next Friday night.

IZOD New IndyCar Series Sponsor

Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation announced this week a multi-year agreement with the Indy Racing League, the sanctioning body for the IndyCar Series, for the IZOD brand to become the title sponsor of the newly renamed IZOD IndyCar Series. IZOD will become the first title sponsorship since 2001. A new logo for the series will be followed by additional activation, promotional plans and marketing initiatives to be announced prior to the start of the 2010 season. Under the new arrangement, IZOD will also retain its designation as the official apparel partner of the Indy Racing League, which began in 2008. This relationship will provide stability to the IndyCar Series and increase the overall exposure value for Safety-Kleen and the other sponsors involved in the series. Safety-Kleen is the Official Environmental Services sponsor for the IndyCar Series providing fluid recycling services at all the events in North America and Japan. Safety-Kleen welcomes IZOD as the new series sponsor.

McMurray Wins at the Talladega Superspeedway

The NASCAR Sprint Cup teams ran at the 2.66 mile Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday in the seventh race of The Chase and Talladega lived up to it's reputation - what a wild race. The NASCAR Cup cars ran Talladega this weekend with a smaller restrictor plate that slowed the cars down but at the end of the race there were two big wrecks that determined to outcome. Jamie McMurray came out on top and claimed his first victory in more then two years while Jimmie Johnson further extended his points lead in the standings to close on his fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title. How do you win on a Superspeedway, well the key is to be out in front of the "big one" when it comes. The big one is the big wreck and it didn't come until the closing laps of the 188 lap contest. McMurray happened to be the lucky one as he dodged both big wrecks. The first one happened when Ryan Newman went flying in the air after being tagged by Marcus Ambrose. The race was red flagged for the clean up and set up a green white checkered finish. And yes, you can't send these Cup drivers back out onto the track and expect them to stay in line for two laps. When the green flag flew it was a dash for the cash and again cars began to spin when Safety-Kleen's Brad Keselowski got hit from behind by Kurt Busch and took out 13 cars including many of the cars in The Chase. Mark Martin's car flipped over, while Jeff Gordon, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kurt Busch all ended up on the hook being dragged back to the garage. As the checkered flag came out it was McMurray followed by Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano and Greg Biffle. Safety-Kleen's Jeff Burton rounded out the top-five. Jimmie Johnson finished sixth and now has a 184-point lead over Mark Martin as the teams head to Texas next week. Todd Williamson and the crew from the Birmingham branch did a fantastic job of setting up the track and servicing the NASCAR teams this week. Three to go, Texas - Phoenix and Homestead, call the engraver and start putting Jimmie Johnson's name on the trophy - for the fourth time.

Almirola Helps Busch Win Truck Race

Coming off the last corner of the NASCAR Truck Series race at Talladega all Kyle Busch needed was a push from teammate Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch to stay ahead of Safety-Kleen's Todd Bodine and win. The two Ballew Racing Toyotas came across the line together and Busch scored his 6th win of the year and 15th career Truck Series victory. The race at Talladega was full of excitement with lead changes on every lap as all 36 trucks ran nose to tail all afternoon. The finish came down to a green-white-checkered flag finish after a wreck took out 11 trucks on Lap 91 of the scheduled 94 lap distance. The wreck damaged series leader Ron Hornaday's Safety-Kleen sponsored truck, as he lost two laps and finished 17th. Matt Crafton, second in the standings, came home 10th and cut Hornaday's lead to 202 points. Terry Cook finished fourth, followed by David Starr and Mario Gosselin, Stacy Compton, Dennis Setzer, Justin Hobgood and Crafton completed the top 10. Toyota swept the top five places and clinched the series manufacturers championship for 2009. Next on the schedule is Texas next Friday afternoon.