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Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Martinsville losers; Kahne blows up, Fords struggle


Kasey Kahne went to Hendrick with a lot of promise, and has been fast every week, but he has proceeded to wreck in every race so far this year. Until Martinsville, where he didn’t wreck, but his car crapped out on him.

His bad luck returned, and he is now cellar-dwelling in the points once again after a terrible run once again.

“We had a great Hendrickcars.com Chevy. Really fast and the best I had ever been here. Engine was running great and we were just battling a little loose. We needed another pit stop to get that right and we could battle with Jeff (Gordon). It was fun driving and we had a small engine problem that turned into a big one on the backstretch and just shut off and I had oil on my tires when I hit pit road,” Kahne said after falling out of the race. “I just didn’t want to oil the whole surface for all the guys out there so I just shot to the pits and it went spinning and it wasn’t a big deal because I didn’t hit anything luckily.”

“It is disappointing and it isn’t. I am upset that we haven’t run great this year, but we are great on Friday and Saturday, we were fast again today, and we have the speed so when it’s our time we will be ready to take advantage of it. “

Test time at Michigan, Pocono
With new surfaces at Michigan and Pocono, NASCAR will allow drivers to get some extra seat time -- 1 day at Michigan (thursday, june 14) and two days at Pocono (June 6,7).

Vickers getting more and more seat time
Brian Vickers, who is running splendidly for Michael Waltrip Racing as of late, has a couple more dates to add to his calendar. The road course dates, which hadn’t been assigned to anyone in the 55 car, will be driven by Vickers. If he keeps running like he is now, you can bet Waltrip or someone else will get him a full-time gig for next year.
Brian did such an amazing job at Bristol that we wanted to reward him with more races," said Michael Waltrip. "It has as much to do with how he interacted with (crew chief) Rodney Childers and the crew as what he did on the race track. They really enjoyed his input and his professional approach, and he was a great teammate to Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer. Those guys were really impressed with how he engaged with them and managed his race car. Brian is a great young driver who is hungry to show what he can do. In my mind, he earned these extra races with his approach and attitude, and I'm so happy we were able to offer them. Brian's contribution to the team has continued the momentum Rodney and Mark Martin created."

Fords not so hot at Martinsville
It was a rough go for the Fords at Martinsville, with the Chevy drivers dominating.
Matt Kenseth finished 4th, and Aric Almirola had a great day in 8th, but everyone else was left disappointed. 11th – Carl Edwards; 13th – Greg Biffle; 15th – Marcos Ambrose; 24th – David Ragan, etc.

Biffle retained the points lead, though.
“It feels good to go on vacation being the point leader. Leaving here on top feels good because this is a tough place for us and we came here and ran respectable.”

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