8 – THE DERRICK. / The News-Herald Wednesday, October 5, 2016

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1. Gibbs angst?Martin Truex Jr. and the No.

78 Furniture Row race team are first cousins to Joe Gibbs Racing and its four entries. Funny thing. Truex has won three of the past five races and has a little something “extra” compared to the Gibbs cars. “We’ve got really fast cars; just missing the boat a little bit on something the No. 78 team has figured out,” said Gibbs driver Kyle Busch, who finished a distant second at Dover.

2. Relief for StewartYes, it was great that Tony

Stewart made the Chase field after missing the first eight races of the season because of injury, but after finishing

13th at Dover and missing the cut for Round 2, there was almost a sense of relief in the driver’s voice. He will retire after this season. “I’m pretty excited about our day,” he said. “Really proud of our team. We kept making it better all day. That is good as we had.”

3. Buescher watchChris Buescher got into

the Chase on a fluke win and exited after finishing six

laps down to the lead pack. What will he do in the final seven races? “Nothing really changes,” he said. “We’ve got the opportunity to test a little bit more, and we still have the opportunity to take chances for the rest of the season, but I’m really proud of the guys for all the work this year. It’s unfortunate this is the end of our Chase.”

— Godwin Kelly, godwin.kelly@news-jrnl.com

1. Statement raceMartin Truex Jr. was asked

if winning Dover was a state-ment race for the No. 78 Toyota team. “We’re not mess-ing around, I guess,” he said. “I don’t know — what else can you say? We are here to get it done, and golly I’m telling you, just the best bunch of guys you could ever ask for.”

2. Christmas presentKyle Larson called Austin

Dillon’s advancement into Chase Round 2 “an early Christmas present” from Ganassi Racing. Dillon, Larson and Jamie McMurray were all near the cut line. When Larson and McMurray went down with problems, Dillon’s day got much easier.

3. Points racingBrad Keselowski made a

textbook advancement into Chase Round 2 thanks to three straight top-five finishes in Round 1. “Consistency is just as important as winning in this format, and I think some-times that gets lost,” said Keselowski, who drives the No. 2 Team Penske Ford.

Feb. 13: Sprint Unlimited at Daytona (Denny Hamlin)Feb. 21: Daytona 500 (Denny Hamlin)Feb. 28: Folds of Honor 500 at Atlanta (Jimmie Johnson)March 6: Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas (Brad Keselowski)March 13: Good Sam 500k at Phoenix (Kevin Harvick)March 20: Auto Club 400 at Fontana (Jimmie Johnson)April 3: STP 500 at Martinsville (Kyle Busch)April 9: Duck Commander 500 at Texas (Kyle Busch)April 17: Food City 500 at Bristol (Carl Edwards)April 24: Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond (Carl Edwards)May 1: Geico 500 at Talladega (Brad Keselowski)May 7: GoBowling.com 400 at Kansas (Kyle Busch)May 15: Dover 400, 1 p.m. (Matt Kenseth)May 21: Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte (Joey Logano)May 29: Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte (Martin Truex Jr.)June 6: Axalta 400 at Pocono (Kurt Busch)

June 12: FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan (Joey Logano)June 26: Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma (Tony Stewart)July 2: Coke Zero 400 at Daytona (Brad Keselowski)July 9: Quaker State 400 at Kentucky (Brad Keselowski)July 17: New Hampshire 301 (Matt Kenseth)July 24: Crown Royal 400 at Indianapolis (Kyle Busch)Aug. 1: Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono (Chris Buescher)Aug. 7: Cheez-It 355 at Watkins Glen (Denny Hamlin)Aug. 20: Night Race at Bristol (Kevin Harvick)Aug. 28: Pure Michigan 400 (Kyle Larson)Sept. 4: Southern 500 at Darlington (Martin Truex Jr.)Sept. 10: Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond (Denny Hamlin)Sept. 18: Chicago 400 (Martin Truex Jr.)Sept. 25: New England 300 (Kevin Harvick)Oct. 2: AAA 400 at Dover (Martin Truex Jr.)

Oct. 8: Bank of America 500 at Charlotte, 7 p.m., NBCOct. 16: Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas, 2:15 p.m., NBCOct. 23: Alabama 500 at Talladega, 2 p.m., NBCSNOct. 30: Goody’s 500 at Martinsville, 1 p.m., NBCSNNov. 6: AAA 500 at Texas, 2 p.m., NBCNov. 13: Can-Am 500k at Phoenix, 2:30 p.m., NBCNov. 20: Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami, 2:30 p.m., NBC

SPEED FREAKS

QUESTIONS & ATTITUDE

FEUD OF THE WEEK

WHAT’S ON TAP?

ONLINE EXTRAS

GODWIN’S PICKS FOR CHARLOTTE

SPRINT CUP POINTS

KEN WILLIS’ TOP 10 NASCAR DRIVER RANKINGS

A couple questions we had to ask — ourselves

Questions? Contact Godwin Kelly at godwin.kelly@news-jrnl.com or Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

Ken Willis has been covering NASCAR for The Daytona Beach News-Journal for 27 years. Reach him at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

Godwin Kelly is the Day-tona Beach News-Journal’s motorsports editor and has covered NASCAR for 30 years.

Reach him at godwin.kelly@ news-jrnl.com

Compelling questions... and maybe a few actual answers

news-journalonline.com/nascar

facebook.com/nascardaytona

@nascardaytona

MARTIN TRUEX JR.

Pretty easy call, huh?

1

BRAD KESELOWSKIGood every

week, it seems

2

KYLE BUSCHSee

Keselowski

3

MATT KENSETHSteady Eddie,

cont…

4

JOEY LOGANOWay overdue

for a win

5

KEVIN HARVICKMr. All or Nothing

nowadays

6

CHASE ELLIOTTKinda hangin’

out

7

JIMMIE JOHNSON

No. 7 seems like a long

shot

8

DENNY HAMLINFourteen top-10s in

22 Charlotte starts

9

KURT BUSCHNeeds more

speed, or luck

102016 SPRINT CUP SCHEDULE AND RESULTS

DID YOU KNOW?

3 THINGS WE LEARNED FROM DOVER

3 THINGS TO WATCH

— Godwin Kelly,  godwin.kelly@news-jrnl.com

The “other” race in Charlotte, like the marquee 600-miler in May, also dates back to 1960. Its first winner was a North Carolinian named Alfred Bruce Thompson, who got the final two of his 20 career wins in 1960. Twenty wins and you don’t recognize the name? Maybe because he was “formally” known as Speedy Thompson.

WINNER: Brad KeselowskiREST OF TOP 5: Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, Martin Truex Jr., Joey LoganoFIRST ONE OUT: Brian Scott

DARK HORSE: Kasey KahneDON’T BE SURPRISED IF: Keselowski fires a warning shot by winning Charlotte to open Chase Round 2.

SPRINT CUP: Bank of America 500SITE: Charlotte Motor Speedway (1.5-mile quad-oval)TV SCHEDULE: Thursday, practice (NBC Sports Network, 1:30 p.m.), qualifying (NBCSN, 7:20 p.m.). Friday, practice (NBCSN, 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.). Satur-day, race (NBC, coverage begins at 6:30 p.m., green flag at 7 p.m.) XFINITY: Drive for the Cure 300SITE: Charlotte Motor SpeedwayTV SCHEDULE: Thursday, practice (NBCSN, 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.). Friday, qualifying (NBCSN, 4:45 p.m.), race (NBCSN, 8 p.m.)

Why not bigger surprise regarding Martin Truex Jr.?

Two reasons come to mind. First, though he’s never entered any season as a championship favorite, he’s been a well-known commodity for a decade or so. Also, he had his best-ever Cup season last year, so there was some recent performance pointing to this possibility. Still, if you consider NASCAR history, he’s taken quite a leap in 2016.

You did research?Sure did, and regarding past Cup

champs who didn’t exactly bring a championship pedigree to the table beforehand, there’s a short “modern era” list. It starts with Benny Parsons in 1973, who was in his fourth full-time season and had just one career victory before that year. In ’92, Alan Kulwicki was in his sixth full year and had just three career wins. Jeff Gordon (1995, his third year), Matt Kenseth (2003, fourth year) and Kurt Busch (2004, fourth year) weren’t overly seasoned Cup vets, but had enough recent success to make their title runs less surprising.

Um … overlooking something?

Oh, yeah, that’s right. There are six races and two more eliminations before we should really start talking about Truex’s potential place in history. But boy, oh, boy, as they say, he’s really haulin’ the mail right now.

JAMIE MCMURRAY VS. KYLE LARSON: This is not a feud, but a misery-loves-company deal. With one 400-lap race, both Ganassi Racing Chase entries were wiped from the playoffs.GODWIN KELLY’S TAKE: No one thought both these drivers would miss Round 2, but each had issues. “Very unfortunate,” McMurray said. “It is just the way it goes.”

LarsonMcMurray

1. Martin Truex Jr. 30001. Kevin Harvick 30001. Kyle Busch 30001. Matt Kenseth 30001. Joey Logano 30001. Chase Elliott 30001. Brad Keselowski 30001. Kurt Busch 30001. Denny Hamlin 30001. Carl Edwards 30001. Jimmie Johnson 30001. Austin Dillon 300013. Tony Stewart 207414. Kyle Larson 207315. Jamie McMurray 205316. Chris Buescher 204517. Kasey Kahne 72818. Ryan Newman 70019. AJ Allmendinger 64920. Ryan Blaney 64521. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 63722. Trevor Bayne 62823. Danica Patrick 54724. Greg Biffle 54225. Paul Menard 53526. Aric Almirola 51327. Clint Bowyer 50128. Casey Mears 46629. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 46130. Landon Cassill 409

Any chance Tony Stewart quietly plays out the string?GODSPEAK: There has to be at least one more eruption. Just one more before he goes.KEN’S CALL: Tony will go qui-etly. His evil twin “Anthony,” however, is always a differ-ent story. Put a percentage on Truex’s chances of winning the Cup.GODSPEAK: I started out saying Martin Truex Jr. is the guy to beat and I’m sticking with it, so 80 percent.KEN’S CALL: I’ll say 40 percent chance. A lot can go wrong, of course, but 40 is higher than I’d give anyone else right now. Does Austin Dillon take advan-tage of squeaking through the elimination?GODSPEAK: Maybe he took a lot of notes when teammate Ryan Newman got to the NASCAR final four in 2014.KEN’S CALL: Sure, but only for four more weeks. I don’t see him making another cut.

Martin Truex Jr. is enjoying the ride, and this time the view included a scene from Dover’s Victory Lane. DOVER SPEEDWAY/NIGEL KINRADE

Not even his high-level connections could help Kyle Busch keep up with “teammate” Martin Truex Jr. at Dover. GETTY

IMAGES/

MARK WILSON