The first half of the 2014 Sprint Cup season was very eventful, to say the least. The craziness started during the preseason events of Speedweeks at Daytona. It ended with the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona on Sunday, which in itself was a very wild race. It made other races like the Daytona 500 earlier this year look like nothing.
I did a summary of the first eight races of the season on my other blog when NASCAR was off for Easter. So now here's one of races 9 through 18, plus the All-Star Race.
Richmond, April 26: Kyle Larson gets the pole as a result of qualifying being rained out, but he gets spun by Clint Bowyer at the very beginning of the race. Later, many drivers like Bowyer and Reed Sorenson have fires during a caution, with Bowyer ending up finishing dead last and Sorenson having to escape from his car. After a late-race caution, favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets shuffled back on a restart. The last few laps are a battle between Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, and Penske teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski. Logano gets the win and Keselowski and Kenseth exchange heated words on pit road. Meanwhile, Marcos Ambrose punches Casey Mears in a fight by the garage, and they get slapped with fines.
Talladega, May 4: Brian Scott, a Nationwide Series driver, surprises fans by winning the pole in the first ever knockout qualifying session at a restrictor plate track. Danica Patrick also qualifies seventh. Early in the race, Brad Keselowski gets into Patrick and spins, going several laps down during repairs. Later, a big crash strikes when Keselowski spins in front of Trevor Bayne, also taking out other drivers like Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon. Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano, Carl Edwards and others get into later wrecks. Denny Hamlin ends up winning, his first points win in a plate race. The race was also notable for Josh Wise's "Dogecoin" paint scheme which was popular among fans.
Kansas, May 10: The first night race at the 13-year-old track has a slightly delayed start due to lightning in the area. Around the middle of the race, the lights go out on the backstretch, but the race continues, and the lights eventually come back on. Later, A.J. Allmendinger triggers a crash involving hard hits by David Gilliland and Justin Allgaier; they were okay but their cars were not. With less than ten laps to go, Jeff Gordon passes Kevin Harvick and holds him off to score his 89th Cup Series win, close to the 20th anniversary of his first one at Charlotte in 1994.
All-Star Weekend at Charlotte, May 16-17: Clint Bowyer wins the Sprint Showdown, the first to be held the day before the All-Star Race, with A.J. Allmendinger transferring in with his runner-up finish and Josh Wise being voted in by NASCAR fans on Reddit who set up his Dogecoin paint job. The next evening, there is plenty of action on the track with drivers like Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Joey Logano getting into crashes. Kevin Harvick dominates early, but soon Carl Edwards has the best car. During the final ten-lap segment, Jamie McMurray passes Edwards for the lead and takes the checkered flag to win one million dollars.
Charlotte, May 25: The big story before the race is Kurt Busch, who finished sixth in the Indianapolis 500 earlier in the day in his IndyCar debut, and then flew to Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR's longest race. Also, Danica Patrick qualifies third. The first half of the race is pretty clean. On lap 235, a crash takes out Patrick along with others like Marcos Ambrose and Landon Cassill. On lap 274, Kurt Busch, Patrick's teammate, blows his engine, denying him the completion of all 1,100 miles of racing he attempted. After a late caution, Jimmie Johnson passes Matt Kenseth to pick up his first win of the season as the defending series champion.
Dover, June 1: The last race of the season on Fox has a lot of action. Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch collide on lap 125, and then a crash involving Roush teammates Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth, and other drivers puts out the red flag. The race is stopped again a little later when Jamie McMurray opens up a pothole on the track. A four-lap dash to the finish ends with Jimmie Johnson winning again.
Pocono, June 8: This was the first race of TNT's last "Summer Series" of the current television contract. Danica Patrick has problems throughout the race, which is dominated once again by Brad Keselowski. Late in the race, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards get into a wreck. With a few laps remaining, Keselowski decides to stay behind Patrick, allowing Dale Earnhardt Jr. to get by him and take the win, his second of the season.
Michigan, June 15: Brian Vickers and Travis Kvapil crash on the first lap. Kasey Kahne then continues his bad luck by crashing a few laps later with Kyle Larson. Just past halfway, Alex Bowman wrecks himself yet again. The last caution is a debris one with 50 laps to go. Then come the last green-flag pit stops, with rookies Larson and Austin Dillon leading a couple of laps. The race ends with Jimmie Johnson getting his third win in four races, after going winless in the first 11.
Sonoma, June 22: The first of the two annual road course races see the Chip Ganassi and Michael Waltrip cars, as well as A.J. Allmendinger and eventually the Hendrick cars driving up front. On a restart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets into Matt Kenseth, causing Kenseth to spin and hit a barrier hard. A few laps later, dominant drivers Clint Bowyer and Jamie McMurray get into a wreck with Kevin Harvick. Then Bowyer's teammate Brian Vickers tangles with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. In the end, Carl Edwards takes his first road course win, with Hendrick drivers Jeff Gordon and Earnhardt right behind him.
Kentucky, June 28: This was the first Cup race with less than 43 cars in it since the 2001 season finale, as J.J. Yeley's withdrawal reduced the field to 42 drivers. Just before a competition caution due to earlier rain, Denny Hamlin hits the wall, ending his race. The next driver to crash is Kyle Larson, followed by Larson's teammate Jamie McMurray along with Kasey Kahne, Alex Bowman, and Aric Almirola, who later crashes again. The Penske cars of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano dominate, with a number of long green flag runs, and Keselowski takes his second win of the year. He later cuts his hand on a champagne bottle while celebrating, and goes to the infield care center for stitches.
Daytona, July 6: David Gilliland, Reed Sorenson, Landon Cassill and Bobby Labonte make up the first two starting rows as a result of rain-shortened qualifying. The race is then rained out from Saturday night to Sunday late morning/early afternoon, making it the first daytime summer race at Daytona since 1997. After a short stoppage for rain, a 16-car crash involving drivers such as Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and others takes place on the frontstretch. After a couple of debris cautions, another huge crash, this time with 26 cars involved, occurs along the backstretch when Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne get into each other. At the end of the crash, Cole Whitt gets into Kyle Busch causing Busch to go upside down, but he was not injured. Other drivers in the second crash are Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, Jamie McMurray and David Ragan. There were only a handful of drivers not involved in crashes during the race. Soon, more rain comes, and NASCAR calls it official with Aric Almirola leading. Almirola gets his first Cup Series win at his home track, and puts Richard Petty's famous #43 car in victory lane for the first time since 1999, and the death of Dale Earnhardt. The win also came just after the 30th anniversay of Petty's last win at Daytona.
So those are my summaries of the rest of the first half of the 2014 Cup season. It took me a while and I know it's pretty long and boring but I think you get my point. I can only wonder what the second half of the season has in store, especially with the upcoming debut of the new 16-driver, four-round Chase format, and a shakeup in the points standings and Chase grid after the last couple of races. With that, the second half kicks off at New Hampshire on Sunday.
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