A Las Vegas Motor Speedway Memory: Earnhardt Jr.’s Empty Fuel Tank Hands Keselowski the Victory in the 2014 Kobalt 400

Strategy has always been an important aspect of NASCAR racing, most recently with pit road calls. Extended lengths of races, improved tire wear, fuel saving techniques, and the emphasis on winning at all levels of the sport have forced teams to stretch their resources in hopes of earning the best possible finish. Drivers have learned to push fuel windows to their extreme and ask for two tires rather than four to improve their track position. Sometimes, these bold strategy moves work and put drivers in victory lane. However, most of the time, these calls lead to disappointment as a win slips away.

On March 9, 2014, two drivers familiar with each other experienced the highs and lows of strategy racing while battling for the win in the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his team decided to stay on track during the fourth and final caution on lap 221, hoping to run 56 laps on a tank of Sunoco gasoline after his lap 211 green flag pit stop. The #88 already had a win from the season opening Daytona 500, which meant the team could try some unique strategy to grab another victory since they were already locked in NASCAR’s brand-new “win and you’re in” Chase format.

Meanwhile, Brad Keselowski, who drove for Earnhardt Jr. in the NASCAR Nationwide Series from 2008 to 2009, and his team opted to pit during the final caution. Keselowski’s crew put two fresh tires on the #2 Ford Fusion and returned their driver to the race in seventh spot. He had three drivers with little fuel in their racecars in front of him, including the #88, and three drivers with a full tank of gas. His fresher rubber was a distinct advantage for the 42-lap green flag run to conclude the event.

In the end, the battle for the win came down to Earnhardt Jr.’s fuel mileage gamble and Keselowski’s two fresh tires. The two drivers participated in a thrilling battle for the win underneath the Las Vegas sun. However, the victory came down to a last lap slip up for Earnhardt Jr. and Keselowski’s ability to capitalize. One driver was left with a bad LVMS memory and the other experienced a happy moment at the 1.5-mile track.

Brad Keselowski started the 400-mile race in the second position while Dale Earnhardt Jr. started on the outside of Row 7 in the 14th spot. During the first half of the event, the two drivers maintained their spots in the Top 10 as they battled through a 106-lap green flag and three cautions in the first 160 laps of the event. On lap 196, though, Keselowski and Junior’s path towards victory in the race crossed for the first time.

Just four laps prior to lap 200, Keselowski started a round of green flag pit stops as the leader. His team gave him four fresh tires and returned him to the race track as other pit crews prepared for their own stops. As the next few laps passed, drivers like Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, and Paul Menard pitted for four tires to continue the cycle of stops. On lap 206, Earnhardt Jr. grabbed the lead for the second time in the race as his team pondered a potential strategy call much different from the rest of the field.

Due to the green flag character of the race, Steve Letarte, Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief, decided to keep his driver on track longer than the rest of the field during the round of stops. The team’s hope was that Junior could pit around lap 210 and have the race stay green to its conclusion. If that occurred, the reigning Daytona 500 champion would have a possibility of making it on fuel to the finish while his fellow competitors would definitely have to pit again.

The #88 led five laps before he came down pit road for his stop on lap 211. The stop was flawless from his crew and he returned to the track with only two drivers left to pit during the cycle: Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards. They pitted on lap 213, hoping to use the same strategy as Earnhardt Jr. in the late stages. After the cycle of stops, Keselowski returned to the lead knowing he would need to stop again and Junior cycled into the fifth position. However, after making all the strategy plans for green flag racing, the fourth and final caution waved on lap 221. Now, teams would have to work on another strategy decision to end the event.

Three drivers decided to stay on track during the caution while the rest of the field pitted. Earnhardt Jr., Edwards, and Hamlin, the three drivers who had pitted late during the green flag cycle, stayed out with enough fuel in their racecars according to the teams’ calculations to finish the 267-lap event. Behind them, three drivers prepared to restart in the fourth through sixth spots after adding just fuel to their racecars on pit road. In seventh for the restart was Keselowski. His crew chief, Paul Wolfe, had opted to give his driver two fresh tires, which cost the team some track position. Yet, they had fresher tires than everyone else in the race. For the next 42 laps, those pit road decisions would help determine the winner of the race.

On lap 226, the green flag waved for the final time and the mix of strategy calls caused a chaotic restart. As Earnhardt Jr. moved out to a five car length lead, drivers behind him battled two and three wide around LVMS. Keselowski ended up in second position on his two fresh tires at the completion of lap 226, but he was three-fourths of a second behind the leader. On lap 228, the #2 Ford dropped to third while Junior held the lead. The battle between the two drivers was far from over, though.

Despite losing the second spot, Keselowski maintained his momentum and returned to the runner-up position around lap 244 with just 23 laps left in the event. The next 10 laps proved to be crucial in deciding the race winner. While Earnhardt Jr. tried to save fuel at the front of the pack, the #2 Ford started chasing him down for the lead. On lap 253, the advantage moved underneath a second between the two drivers. Five laps later, the gap was only three tenths of a second and it appeared the two tire strategy call of Keselowski would prevail.

However, Earnhardt Jr. and his spotter, T.J. Majors, noticed Keselowski’s charge towards the lead and the #88 changed its racing line on track. For the next few laps, the North Carolina driver extended his lead by a few tenths as the end of the race neared. Finally, after saving fuel throughout the final run and monitoring his gap, Earnhardt Jr. took the white flag with Keselowski half a second behind him. The final lap ended up being very interesting for the two competitors.

Both drivers powered through turns 1 and 2 smoothly with the advantage between them remaining at half a second. On the backstretch, though, Earnhardt Jr. experienced a problem. The low amount of fuel in his racecar caused his engine to miss slightly exiting turn 2. The hiccup caused him to lose power and he moved towards the inside of the track, trying to slosh some fuel in the pickup. Meanwhile, Keselowski destroyed the half second between himself and the lead heading down the backstretch and cleared Junior entering turn 3. The power returned to Earnhardt Jr.’s car in the final turn, but it was too late. 

Keselowski powered away from the #88 and crossed the finish line first while Earnhardt Jr. managed to finish in second spot over a second back. Wolfe’s two-tire decision paid off with a much-needed victory after a tough 2013 season. On the other hand, Letarte’s gamble to keep his driver on track during the final caution resulted in a disappointing second place finish after Junior led at the white flag. Earnhardt Jr. wasn’t discouraged after the race, though, due to his chance to win the race and his win in the Daytona 500 just two weeks prior. 

“We took a gamble and we didn’t win the race, but it still worked in our favor to run second and gave us a chance to win," Earnhardt Jr. said after the race. Still, watching Keselowski celebrate on the frontstretch wasn’t what the #88 team had hoped for when making the late gamble. For the #2 team, the victory lane moment proved to be an early memory to carry throughout the rest of 2014.  

Keselowski ended the 2014 season with six total victories. He captured wins at Kentucky, New Hampshire, Richmond, Chicagoland, and Talladega in addition to his Las Vegas triumph to lead the series in the category. However, a 31st place finish at Martinsville in October derailed his championship hopes and he missed the first Championship 4 battle at Homestead-Miami Speedway by just a couple of points. Over the next three seasons, he won eight total races and finished fourth in the points last year after making the Championship 4 for the first time.

In the two races this season, the 2012 Cup champion has shown speed and been a contender for the race win. A crash in the Daytona 500 left him with a disappointing 32nd place finish, but he returned to the track last week and captured a runner-up finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway. With a win to his credit at Las Vegas, the #2 Ford will be a car to watch for the 400-mile event tomorrow and it could be another excellent season for the Michigan native.

Despite missing out on the Las Vegas win, Earnhardt Jr.’s 2014 season ended as one of the best of his career. He added a season sweep of victories at Pocono and a Martinsville win to his Daytona 500 victory, giving him four total for the season. He ended up finishing eighth in the points after an excellent year compared to his previous seasons. A year later, he added three more victories to his career total including another Talladega win, a Daytona triumph, and a rainy victory at Phoenix. He finished 12th in the overall standings at the end of the year. Unfortunately, his win at Phoenix turned out to be the last of his career.

2016 started off inconsistent for the North Carolina driver and ended early for him. Crashes at Talladega and Michigan caused him to experience concussion-like symptoms, much like he experienced late in the 2012 season. After the Kentucky race in July of 2016, Earnhardt Jr. was forced out the car due to the severity of his medical issues. He missed the remainder of the season trying to heal from his head injuries. The two-time Daytona 500 champion returned for the 2017 Cup season, but he wasn’t in his usual form. He announced in April of last year that 2017 would be his final full-time season in the sport. He ended the disappointing year with only one Top 5 finish. He concluded his Cup career with a 25th at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the season finale.

For 2018, the 15-time Most Popular Driver award winner has stayed busy as he prepares for the future. He spent the week following the 60th Daytona 500 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, working the Winter Olympics for NBC Sports. When NBC begins broadcasting NASCAR races in a few months, he will be a prominent figure on TV talking about the sport. Also, he has plans for a DIY Network home renovation show and he will become a dad for the first time in May. Finally, he will be in the racecar for at least one more time this season. He will be piloting his own #88 at the fall Richmond race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for all his fans to see him back in a racecar.

Strategy gambles sometimes pay off for teams and sometimes they don’t. In 2008, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his first race at Michigan driving for Hendrick Motorsports with just a few drops of fuel left in the tank. His team’s strategy decision had paid off. In 2014, though, their late race fuel mileage gamble didn’t end in a victory at Las Vegas. For Brad Keselowski and his team, the decision to take on two fresh tires allowed them to move up the leaderboard in the last run and steal the victory from Earnhardt Jr. Their late race battle and exciting final lap duel created a memorable Las Vegas Motor Speedway memory, one that will be remembered for years to come.
(More Stats Down Below!)




Cautions: 4 for 18 laps

Lead Changes: 21

Margin of Victory: 1.530 seconds

Top 5 Finishers:
1st: Brad Keselowski
2nd: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
3rd: Paul Menard
4th: Joey Logano
5th: Carl Edwards

Notables Not in Top 5:
6th: Jimmie Johnson
7th: Ryan Newman
8th: Kasey Kahne
9th: Jeff Gordon
10th: Matt Kenseth
11th: Kyle Busch
12th: Denny Hamlin
14th: Martin Truex Jr.
16th: Austin Dillon
17th: Jeff Burton
19th: Kyle Larson
21st: Danica Patrick
26th: Kurt Busch
33rd: Tony Stewart
37th: Alex Bowman
41st: Kevin Harvick




Credits:
-My Own Notes
-Statistics:
racing-reference.info/race/2014_Kobalt_400/W
-Image:
www.cbssports.com/general/story/24475310/keselowski-edges-junior-on-last-lap-in-las-vegas
-Quote:
www.sportingnews.com/nascar/news/las-vegas-results-finish-brad-keselowski-wins-dale-earnhardt-jr-second-out-of-fuel/cb7zkq48ajv61r22e30mi4i87
-Video of Finish:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bxYOEXv5fg&t=67s
-Full Race:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6_l6x26bJs&t=12s

Joey Logano Takes the Pole at Las Vegas as Team Penske Sweeps the Front Row For the Second Straight Week

        With a time of 27.939 seconds (193.278 mph), Joey Logano was able to take his first pole of the season as Team Penske was able to sweep the front row for the second week in a row. Logano was the fastest driver in the second round of the group session, but he would need to be the fastest after the third round. His teammate, Brad Keselowski, went out in the third session and took the provisional pole, but Logano was yet to run. Logano did run and he was able to blister the track record to take the pole position with Keselowski just behind him in second. Last week, Keselowski took his first pole of the season with Logano starting second, but the two flipped for this week. It seems Team Penske has the new group qualifying system figured out already. Like last week, this session was filled with a lot of tension. Unlike last week, this session contained three rounds instead of two. That meant twenty four drivers moved to the second round from the first and twelve drivers moved from the second to the third round. This meant a lot of drivers would be fighting to move on in the rounds and some notable drivers would be left out of each round. In the end, twelve drivers fought for five minutes to decide the pole and Logano stood tall with a brand new track record. It was a very key session for the season considering the schedule is dominated by mile and a half races and it was definitely filled with some of the best action ever in a qualifying session.

        The first round contained all the drivers attempting to qualify with twenty five minutes to decide who would be the twenty four drivers to move onto the second round. Denny Hamlin went out first and he ran a decent lap, but he would quickly be surpassed. Austin Dillon was able to jump to the top of the board early in the session. Dillon held the spot, but the battle was behind him for the final transfer spot. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, and other drivers were battling hard for the twenty fourth spot, but only one would take it. The minutes clicked by with the transfer position continuing to change almost every minute. Pretty soon, only ten minutes remained. With about nine minutes left, Brian Vickers jumped to the top of the board while some drivers were running their second runs to try and make it to the second round of the session. Soon, only five minutes remained. Teams were thrashing hard to get the cars cooled down on track as some cars rode along the apron. The minutes clicked by and only one remained. Tony Stewart was holding the twenty fourth spot, but the drivers behind him were hoping to advance. None seemed fast enough to make it through and Stewart took the final spot. Brian Vickers, Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano, Austin Dillon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and others made it through while Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, and others missed an opportunity to move to the second round. Now, only twenty four drivers remained in contention to fill twelve spots in only ten minutes.

        The second round began with Clint Bowyer heading on track first. Bowyer moved to the top of the board quickly as the rest of the drivers began to battle for the final transfer spot. The minutes clicked by and Joey Logano took the position at the top of the board with only five minutes left. The transfer spot switched around and Kasey Kahne was holding it as the minutes clicked by. Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, and others stood on the outside looking in, but time was still left. Carl Edwards was able to power his way into the top twelve with only a minute left. Others went back out looking for the spot along with Kahne, but they didn't look to have a chance. Kurt Busch and A.J. Allmendinger were the last two drivers running at speed. Allmendinger blocked Busch unintentionally and Busch was forced to stop his run. Busch was none too happy and voiced his displeasure with Allmendinger on the cool down lap for the two. The two pulled down pit road and the session ended calmly. Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Jamie McMurray, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon, Aric Almirola, Carl Edwards, Brian Vickers, Ryan Newman, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. moved onto the third and final round while Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and others barely missed the cut line. The final session would not be about making the cut line, but grabbing the pole for the Las Vegas race.

        This round would be different than the others. Instead of having two runs to grab the fastest lap, bad tire wear and track conditions would force the drivers to run one lap to decide the pole winner. Clint Bowyer was once again the first driver on track to start the third round. Bowyer jumped to the top of the board early on in the round. Only three drivers had been on track in the first two minutes, but that quickly changed. Brad Keselowski jumped to the top of the board two and a half minutes into the round with a track record lap. Just seconds later, Joey Logano blistered Keselowski's track record speed to take the provisional pole. All twelve drivers made it out on track, but only one minute remained to beat Joey Logano for the pole. The seconds clicked by and all the drivers finished their laps as the round ended. Logano was still on pole and he officially took the pole for the annual Spring race at Las Vegas. Logano will look to take this pole to a win on Sunday and he looks good so far.

        The Ford drivers have been extremely fast in qualifying this year. Brad Keselowski took the pole last week with Joey Logano qualifying second. Logano qualified first this week and Keselowski will start second. Along with that, these two have raced well thus far this year. It looks like Ford is back and these two could be championship contenders when it is all said and done. Austin Dillon continued to qualify well. After starting on the pole at Daytona for the 500, Dillon came into Las Vegas for the third race of the season to take the fourth place starting spot. Jimmie Johnson also will start fifth, which is expected of the six time champion. Others were not as lucky to start up near the front. Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth, two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, missed the cut for the second round and will start twenty seventh and twenty ninth, respectively. It will be an uphill battle for these two, but Kenseth won this race one season ago. Tony Stewart, Danica Patrick, Kurt Busch, and Kevin Harvick all struggled for Stewart-Haas Racing in the session. All four made it to the second round, but none of the teammates made it to the third round. It will be another battle for these drivers, but Harvick won the race at Phoenix one week ago from outside the top twelve. Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Jeff Gordon, teammates at Hendrick Motorsports, missed the third round, but they all qualified within a few positions of the top twelve. It looks like the field is evenly dispersed from back to front as the series gets ready to race in Las Vegas. The Kobalt 400 on Sunday should be a good show. Will Matt Kenseth win two in a row, will Kasey Kahne redeem himself after a close second place finish last year in Vegas, will Joey Logano take the pole and win, or will another driver take the victory? We will have to wait until Sunday to find out.
(More Stats Down Below!)




Top 5 Qualifiers (With Times):
1st: Joey Logano     27.939 (193.278 mph)
2nd: Brad Keselowski     27.965 (193.099 mph)
3rd: Clint Bowyer     28.021 (192.713 mph)
4th: Austin Dillon     28.026 (192.678 mph)
5th: Jimmie Johnson      28.038 (192.596 mph)

Notables Not in Top 5 (With Times):
10th: Ryan Newman     28.134 (191.939 mph)
11th: Carl Edwards      28.185 (191.591 mph)
13th: Kasey Kahne     28.175 (191.659 mph)*
14th: Dale Earnhardt Jr.     28.181 (191.618 mph)*
15th: Jeff Gordon     28.181 (191.618 mph)*
16th: Kevin Harvick     28.184 (191.598 mph)*
20th: Kyle Busch     28.216 (191.381 mph)
22nd: Danica Patrick      28.340 (190.543 mph)
24th: Tony Stewart      28.494 (189.514 mph)
27th: Denny Hamlin     28.456 (189.767 mph)*
29th: Matt Kenseth      28.522 (189.328 mph)

DNQs (With Times):
44th: Blake Koch     28.926 (186.683 mph)
45th: Landon Cassill     29.000 (186.207 mph)
46th: Dave Blaney      29.010 (186.143 mph)
47th: Joe Nemechek     29.537 (182.822 mph)
48th: J.J. Yeley      29.827 (181.044 mph)
(*: All these drivers had faster times than drivers qualified ahead of them, but in each case the drivers didn't make it in the top twenty four or top twelve after each round.)



Credits:
-My Own Notes
-Statistics:
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/sprint-cup-series/leaderboard/leaderboard-qualification.html
http://racing-reference.info/getqualify/2014-03/W
-Image:
https://twitter.com/NASCAR/status/442108955662102528/photo/1