Weekend Wrap: Championship 4 set in NASCAR’s Chase; Nico Rosberg strikes back

By Nov 10, 2014, 12:02 PM EST
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source: Getty Images
Kevin Harvick celebrates his biggest win yet at Phoenix. Photo: Getty Images.

And then there were four.

The final combatants for this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title are now set. Kevin Harvick delivered yet again at Phoenix International Raceway to earn the automatic berth into next weekend’s Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, while Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, and Ryan Newman each survived various problems on Sunday to earn the final three spots on points.

Between Harvick, Hamlin, Logano and Newman, we’ll be crowning a first-time Cup champion in South Florida. It’ll be a pure race between the four – no bonus points for leading a lap or the most laps. Whichever driver beats the other three gets the trophy.

On the other side of the cutoff at the end of 500 kilometers in the desert were four-time Cup champ Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, and Carl Edwards. Gordon was set to claim the final Championship Race spot via tiebreaker over Newman, but on the final lap, Newman knocked Kyle Larson into the wall to get 11th place and beat out Gordon by a single point.

Time will tell if this was the final opportunity for the legendary Gordon to earn his fifth crown. In the immediate aftermath, he was regretting his disastrous 29th-place finish one week ago at Texas, which came about following late-race contact with Keselowski (Gordon subsequently lost a tire and spun out).

That incident touched off a post-race fight that lent even more anticipation to Sunday’s Eliminator Round finale in Arizona. But in the end, there was no carry-over save for Gordon’s post-race shot about how he hoped he had “taught somebody” that you didn’t have to wreck people to win a title. You get one guess about whom he was referring to.

Meanwhile, Harvick was, as you’d figure, exultant. It’s been a wacky first year for him at Stewart-Haas Racing filled with incredible speed but many mistakes (some from himself, some from his No. 4 team) that have cost him wins.

None of that matters now. For him, the path is clear: Beat Hamlin, Logano and Newman next Sunday. Considering how fast he’s been all year, it would seem that he is the pre-race favorite.

But maybe, just maybe, this Chase that continues to surprise us has one more in store for us…

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Nico Rosberg did what he had to do in Brazil. Photo: AP.

Needing a win to tighten the Formula One World Championship battle heading into the season finale at Abu Dhabi, Nico Rosberg stayed cool under pressure from Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton and won the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos – his first victory since taking the German Grand Prix in front of his home fans in July.

Rosberg had a superb weekend in Brazil, leading all three practice sessions and winning the pole position before converting it into a critical triumph. He’s cut Hamilton’s lead in the standings to 17 points, and with double points on offer at Abu Dhabi, both Silver Arrows will have everything to play for in a fortnight.

While there are many ways to crunch the numbers, the most obvious way to a first career title for Rosberg is a win at Abu Dhabi and Hamilton finishing third. But if Hamilton wins or finishes second, the Brit will have his second F1 crown.

Meanwhile, the Brazilian faithful on hand in Sao Paulo were rewarded with a podium finish from native son Felipe Massa – his first at his home track since winning in 2008. The Williams man had to recover from several mistakes during the Grand Prix, but in the end, he sent his countrymen home happy.

MORE FROM BRAZIL: Toto Wolff is a happy boss at Mercedes … Mid-race spin for Hamilton proves costly … Suspension failure ends Ricciardo’s points run … Button continues good stretch, but rues lost podium … Quiet day for Ferrari … Seatbelt issues ruin Bottas’ afternoon …

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source: Getty Images
Like father, like son. Photo: Getty Images.

In the NASCAR Nationwide Series, Chase Elliott fulfilled his destiny on Saturday in Phoenix. A late-race push enabled the son of former Cup champ Bill Elliott to finish fifth and clinch the 2014 championship with one race to go.

With that, the Elliotts become the fifth father/son combo to capture NASCAR national series titles and young Chase becomes the, well, youngest NASCAR national series champion ever at just 18 years old.

So, now what? Elliott’s set to stick around in the Nation-er, XFINITY Series next season. But will he also do a bit of part-time work in the top-tier Sprint Cup Series? Earlier this summer, Rick Hendrick indicated that we may see that.

That question will be answered another day. Right now, Elliott, his family, and his JR Motorsports team are enjoying a moment that’s very special considering the team wasn’t even in place a year ago. That’s probably the most incredible aspect in all of this.

Driving for Hendrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. as a rookie – never mind being the son of a champion – means high expectations. But Elliott was nowhere near daunted by them.

He broke through for his first win at Texas, but it was his triumph one week later at Darlington that effectively sealed his fate as a star NASCAR fans could look forward to seeing in the years ahead.

At the time, my colleague, Jerry Bonkowski, wrote of Elliott’s win as him turning The Lady in Black into practically a “blushing schoolgirl.” Charging from sixth to the win in the final two laps reminded me more of robbing a nigh-impenetrable castle of all its riches; rookies simply don’t do what he did at Darlington.

Either way, it was awesome (pun intended). And from that point on, it seemed clear that he would emerge with the NNS crown. JRM teammate Regan Smith kept the pressure on him for a good portion of 2014, but ultimately, Elliott pulled away.

But while Elliott has locked down one NNS championship, another remains up for grabs this coming Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Keselowski, driving the Team Penske No. 22 car, was able to pass Kyle Busch in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 car on the final lap to win the race in Phoenix – giving the No. 22 a 29-point lead over the No. 54 in the NNS’ owner’s championship.

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OTHER COOL STUFF

Joni Wiman finished second this past Wednesday in Las Vegas to win the 2014 Red Bull Global Rallycross championship by five points over race winner Ken Block. Wiman, a GRC Supercar rookie, did not earn a single race win this year but ended with four consecutive podium finishes to take the title…Erik Jones delivered a brilliant performance in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Phoenix and was handed the win when a second power outage at the track cut the race short after 126 of the scheduled 150 laps. Matt Crafton finished runner-up and now only needs a finish of 21st or better in Friday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway to clinch his second consecutive Truck Series title.

Roger Penske vows new downtown Detroit GP will be bigger than the Super Bowl for city

By Jun 1, 2023, 2:00 PM EDT
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DETROIT – He helped spearhead bringing the town a Super Bowl 17 years ago, but Roger Penske believes the reimagined Chevrolet Detroit GP is his greatest gift to the Motor City.

“It’s bigger than the Super Bowl from an impact within the city,” Penske told NBC Sports. “Maybe not with the sponsors and TV, but for the city of Detroit, it’s bigger than the Super Bowl.

“We’ve got to give back individually and collectively, and I think we as a company in Michigan and in Detroit, it’s something we know how to do. It shows we’re committed. Someone needs to take that flag and run it down through town. And that’s what we’re trying to do as a company. We’re trying to give back to the city.”

After 30 years of being run on Belle Isle, the race course has been moved to a new nine-turn, 1.7-mile downtown layout that will be the centerpiece of an event weekend that is designed to promote a festival and community atmosphere.

There will be concerts in the adjacent Hart Plaza. Local businesses from Detroit’s seven districts have been invited to hawk their wares to new clientele. Boys and Girls Clubs from the city have designed murals that will line the track’s walls with images of diversity, inclusion and what Detroit means through the eyes of youth.

And in the biggest show of altruism, more than half the circuit will be open for free admission. The track is building 4-foot viewing platforms that can hold 150 people for watching the long Jefferson Avenue straightaway and other sections of the track.

Detroit GP chairman Bud Denker, a longtime key lieutenant across Penske’s various companies, has overseen more than $20 million invested in infrastructure.

The race is essentially Penske’s love letter to the city where he made much of his fame as one of Detroit’s most famous automotive icons, both as a captain of industry with a global dealership network and as a racing magnate (who just won his record 19th Indy 500 with Josef Newgarden breaking through for his first victory on the Brickyard oval).

During six decades in racing, Penske, 86, also has run many racetracks (most notably Indianapolis Motor Speedway but also speedways in Michigan, California and Pennsylvania), and much of that expertise has been applied in Detroit.

“And then the ability for us to reach out to our sponsor base, and then the business community, which Bud is tied in with the key executives in the city of Detroit, bringing them all together,” Penske said. “It makes a big difference.

“The Super Bowl is really about the people that fly in for the Super Bowl. It’s a big corporate event, and the tickets are expensive. And the TV is obviously the best in the world. What we’ve done is taken that same playbook but made it important to everyone in Detroit. Anyone that wants to can come to the race for free, can stand on a platform or they can buy a ticket and sit in the grandstands or be in a suite. It’s really multiple choice, but it is giving it to the city of Detroit. I think it’s important when you think of these big cities across the country today that are having a lot of these issues.”

Denker said the Detroit Grand Prix is hoping for “an amazingly attended event” but is unsure of crowd estimates with much of the track offering free viewing. The race easily could handle a crowd of at least 50,000 daily (which is what the Movement Music Festival draws in Hart Plaza) and probably tens of thousands more in a sprawling track footprint along the city’s riverwalk.

Penske is hoping for a larger crowd than Belle Isle, which was limited to about 30,000 fans daily because of off-site parking and restricted fan access at a track that was located in a public park.

The downtown course will have some unique features, including a “split” pit lane on an all-new concrete (part of $15 million spent on resurfaced roads, new barriers and catchfencing … as well as 252 manhole covers that were welded down).

A $5 million, 80,000-square-foot hospitality chalet will be located adjacent to the paddock and pit area. The two-story structure, which was imported from the 16th hole of the Waste Management Open in Phoenix, will offer 70 chalets (up from 23 suites at Belle Isle last year). It was built by InProduction, the same company that installed the popular HyVee-branded grandstands and suites at Iowa Speedway last year.

Penske said the state, city, county and General Motors each owned parts of the track, and their cooperation was needed to move streetlights and in changing apexes of corners. Denker has spent the past 18 months meeting with city council members who represent Detroit’s seven districts, along with Mayor Mike Duggan. Penske said the local support could include an appearance by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Witmer.

Denker and Detroit GP  president Michael Montri were inspired to move the Detroit course downtown after attending the inaugural Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, Tennessee.

“We saw what an impact it made on that city in August of 2021 and we came back from there and said boy could it ever work to bring it downtown in Detroit again,” Denker said. “We’ve really involved the whole community of Detroit, and the idea of bringing our city together is what the mayor and city council and our governor are so excited about. The dream we have is now coming to fruition.

“When you see the infrastructure downtown and the bridges over the roads we’ve built and the graphics, and everything is centered around the Renaissance Center as your backdrop, it’s just amazing.”