 By: Tom Luttermoser Posted 11:15am 6/17/2022
Clint Bowyer was noticeably absent from this past weekend's Fox broadcast of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 and all we were told was that he was tending to a personal matter. Per local Fox4KC.com in Missouri, Fox Broadcaster and Former Cup winner Clint Bowyer was involved in a fatal car accident around 9pm on June 5th near Osage Beach, Missouri. 47-year-old woman who has been identified as Mary Jane Simmons from Camdenton, Missouri died in the crash. NASCAR personality Clint Bowyer was heading westbound on U.S. 54 and Missouri Highway, Simmons was walking on the ramp as Bowyers vehicle sustained heavy frontal damage with heavy damage to the windshield in front of the driver according to the report. Bowyer was not under the influence of drugs and blew .000 however when Simmons property was located they did find a crystalline substance and is believed to be methamphetamines'. According to the crash report, she was believed to be under the influence. In a statement to FOX 4, Clint Bowyer Racing stated “Anyone that knows me, knows that family is everything to me. My thoughts and prayers are with the family and loved ones of Ms. Simmons. This is a very difficult time for my family and I, please respect our privacy as we move forward.” Clint has long been known to be a family man at and away from the track, most notably with his son Cash being present and growing on air friendships with fellow NASCAR stars Kyle Larson's son. As a huge Clint Bower fan from 2012 through his retirement in 2020, I attended his final victory at Michigan International Speedway, my thoughts rest with Clint and his family as well as Simmons loved ones. I hope he takes as much time as is needed to heal from this traumatic experience.
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 By: Thomas Luttermoser Image Via Lionel Racing Twitter
2022's Rookie season started of on the highest of high notes. (I would know, I was there) Rookie drivers Todd Gilliland in Front Row Motorsports 38 Ford Mustang, Harrison Burton in the legendary Wood Brothers #21 Mustang and 2020 Xfinity Series Champion (I was there as well) Austin Cindric in the also legendary Team Penske #2 Mustang all made their Cup Series debut this February. It was a fairly eventful race for the rookie class starting early with a backstretch flip for Burton in the 21 Mustang on lap 62. Todd Gilliland finished Stage 1 in 3rd, scoring 8 points and 1 stage point in Stage 2 finishing 10th before being collected in a Lap 190 wreck. That left just 1 rookie remaining for any hope of a decent finish. No Rookie of the Year competitor had ever won the Daytona 500 before. The closest thing was young Trevor Bayne winning the 57th running of the Great American Race in his part time season for a part time Wood Brothers Racing in only his second ever career start in the NASCAR Cup Series way back in 2011. "Happy Birthday Trevor Bayne 20 years old!" still rings in my head as Darrell Waltrip called that finish. This passed February Austin Cindric came off of THE closest Xfinity Series Title fight since the implementation of the playoff system. Dead heat tied, last lap fight for the Regular season championship at Bristol with a door slamming finish across the line with AJ Allmendinger, he fell just a couple feet short of AJ after diving out of Turn 4. In Phoenix, coming to the fish line Daniel Hemric made a desperate last second maneuver to get the lead and, in-turn... the title, from Cindric... and he did. Austin Cindric then came to the hallowed ground at Daytona, scored 5 stage points in Stage 1, led 21 laps.. and became the first rookie in NASCAR history to win the Daytona 500. Now that we are 10 races away from the Playoffs heading into a rare off weekend, Austin Cindric still mightily commands the lead for Rookie of the Year with his win locking him into the Playoffs. Austin is 18th in the points and the 14th seed Playoff driver as of Sonoma. 10 positions and 121 points behind him rests Harrison Burton in 28th and just one spot & 2 points back is Gilliland in 29th. Gilliland scored 9 Stage points in the Daytona 500 only to score 5 additional points in the following races adding up to 14 total. Harrison Burton has scored 18 stage points all season and are both near the bottom of he list of stage points collectors. They both have 3 DNFs and 0 stage wins while Cindric has 1 Stage win, 5 total Playoff Points and 36 Stage points. Standings for ROTY
This run for ROTY is not a close one, but we are still having fun! Are you?  By Tom Luttermoser Images Via NASCAR Twitter
Winners Daniel Suarez - 154 Races... 5 1/2 full time season with 2 powerhouse teams, a backmarker & a brand new team.. 40 Top-Tens.. Several races ruined not of his doing and finally at Sonoma's picturesque road course... Daniel Suarez becomes only the 5th Foreign born driver to win at NASCAR's highest level. He locks himself into the Playoffs with his teammate Ross Chastain completing entry for the TrackHouse organization. TrackHouse Racing - TrackHouse is in it's second season in NASCAR, last season they took the headlines purchasing Chip Ganassi's NASCAR program and scored 4 Top-10's and a single Top-5 with Daniel Suarez. It was announced that Ross Chastain would move from the Ganassi 42 to take over the 1 car marking his 3rd full-time Cup season. This year the Duo have scored 3 victories, 15 Top-10's & 10 Top-5's leading a combined 629 Laps. Chris Buescher - Fresh off a Covid case at Gateway, Chris finished 2nd at Sonoma. That marks his best career finish outside of his Rookie season, fog shortened win at Pocono. Chris led 7 laps and scored 8 stage points in the run for second, he even held his own for many laps following restarts against leaders Chase Elliott or eventual winner Daniel Suarez. Hendrick Motorsports - 100,000 miles led in the NASCAR Cup Series. Hendrick becomes the first organization to hit that milestone in NASCAR history. Hendrick also led a combined 52 Laps between Larson and Elliott leading 26 each with Larson winning Stage 1. Losers Chase Elliott - Although Elliott led 26 laps and is very well know as the sports current road course Ace, he faced a tough time on pit road resulting in having to correct a loose wheel and then penalized for pitting outside the box. Chase went from 5th on a restart to 36th, slowly working his way through the field eventually working his way back up to 20th for the final restart eventually racing his way to 8th after some cars in front of him pit late. He scored no stage points for the first time in a while but still maintained his points lead of 16 points. 23XI - Lap 9, the 9th lap Bubba Wallace's engine let go causing the first Caution of the day and the only caution for cause for majority of the race. Bubba has now DNF'd at Sonoma, Charlotte & Darlington making it 3 of the last 5 races. Kyle Busch - Kyle Busch along with majority of the Toyota Drivers in the field this weekend were not much more than a no show all afternoon. Rowdy ran his way to the final restart well into the Top-10 to unfortunately spin in Turn 7 on lap 87 resulting in a 30th place finish only gaining 2 more spots after the spin. No contact was made in the corner, Kyle spun from 7th which could have resulted in him closing the gap on points leader Chase Elliott. Kyle Larson - Larson led a teammate matched 26 laps and won Stage 1 only to pit for the stage. He never really managed to run through the field and get that spot back or anywhere near it. He raced his way back to 5th position when he lost a wheel causing the final caution of the race. Due to the spin, Kyle finished a respectable 15th but Crew Chief Cliff Daniels will now have a mandatory 2 week vacation from the track when Cup racing resumes in 2 weeks at Nashville.  Image Via Sonoma Raceway Facebook
For the First time since 1998, NASCAR's Truck Series returns to wine country or Sears Point Raceway as it was known in the day. In 1998, The year Boris Said snagged his only series win at the picturesque road course just north of the Bay. The year Ron Hornaday won the title and the last time the trucks ran Walt Disney World Speedway. I was 6 years old.... Back in the day the Truck Series was funded by good ol' title sponsor, Craftsman. Today it is the Camping World Truck Series. With that being said, we have nothing to go off for what to expect for today's DoorDash 250. 5 Cup Series regulars will be running the race including, Alex Bowman who led at the end of the COTA race and finished 3rd, Kyle Busch who has been winless so far this season in trucks but finished 1 spot ahead of Alex at COTA. They will be joined on track by Ross Chastain, Harrison Burton and Austin Dillon. This season so far has seen only 1 repeat full time winner with the now 2x Title runner-up Zane Smith with 3 victories. Part time Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Corey Heim is the only other repeat winner with 2 including last weekend at Gateway. The Camping World Truck Series starts today at 7:30pm ET on FS1 Followed by the  By: Tom Luttermoser Photos Via AP/ Jeff Roberson & Kurt Busch Twitter Winners Ford - Ford placed 3/5 of the Top-5 finishers yesterday at the inaugural Gateway 300 mile race, topping it all off with Joey Logano's 2nd race victory of the Season. Austin Cindric scored his first stage win of the season and the Fords scored a combined 38 Stage points (not the most.. That's Toyota with 43, but still a decent number). Most impressive was Ford's strength throughout the race. They led 1 more lap than the Toyota's... But, still the most in the field. Better than the 4 laps led by Chevrolet. Michael McDowell led a career high 34 laps on older tires was probably one of the more impressive runs of the race. Kurt Busch - 23XI has shown speed in both the 23 & 45 cars this season scoring 8 Top-10 finishes, 5 Top-5s, 1 victory & 170 laps led and 3 Stage wins. Kurt Busch owns most of those stats with 2 Stage wins, 139 Laps led, 4 Top-5s & 6 Top-10s. Kurt continued that with his 3rd place finish and 2nd stage win of the season at Gateway. Although the 45 has speed, the team could be a true contender with some consistency. Team Penske - Winner Joey Logano scored only 4 stage points but obviously snagged the win after passing Kyle Busch late in the race. Austin Cindric scored his first stage win of the season and Ryan Blaney snagged 10 stage points as well for a combined 24 points for the trio. Michael McDowell - Michael led a career high 34 laps on older tires at Gateway, it was probably one of the more impressive runs of the race. Though he finished P18, He had a very impressive run spending majority of the race in or near the Top-10  Losers
Chase Elliott - Chase Elliott entered this race with an already shrinking points lead after the last 2 races. Finishing 21st after starting 16th... Running himself up to the Top-10 he was the odd man out on the outside of a 3-wide situation with Ross Chastain resulting in a spin and some lighter damage. This compounded over a car that was clearly not that good in the first place, Chase fell into the 30+ positions for most of the remaining laps to rebound a bit on some late race restarts. Chevrolet - Chevrolet had arguably their worst race of the season with only 3 Top-10's and leading only 4 laps via Erik jones in his 43 machine. Toyota and Ford shared the domination of laps led with 120 & 121 respectively. They really didn't show up in the stages either collecting only 29 stage points between 6 drivers, all of whom only scored points in a single stage each. Ross Chastain clearly had the fastest Chevrolet but due to the clear elephant in the room was hindered very heavily. Erik Jones was the highest finishing Chevrolet in 7th. Denny Hamlin - Denny ran in the Top-10 for the first 47 laps until contact with Ross Chastain caused the 11 car into the wall and broke the right rear toe link. His day went to crap as he fell back into the top 35 finishing 11 laps down in 34th. He did however give us plenty of entertainment as he, for several laps, held Chastain behind him almost forcing him into the DVP. Denny also retaliated against Ricky Stenhouse Jr after Ricky dumped Denny's 23XI owned 23 car of Bubba Wallace. |