Patrick has 'humbling' runs at Dover

Danica Patrick continued her steep learning curve in NASCAR taking a top 10 finish in the Pro Series East race and 35th in the Nationwide Series event at Dover this weekend.

The IndyCar star competed on Friday afternoon in the Pro race, starting 13th, leading the race for a few laps and finishing sixth after contact when she restarted from the front of the field dropped her down the order.

Patrick took the 155-lap race as a warm up for Saturday's Nationwide event, as both series use similar cars, although the Pro is a level down the NASCAR ranks.

She was happy following her first race of the weekend, although conditions inside the car were not ideal as she ran without the proper ventilation that she's used to in her Nationwide car.

"I know I learned a lot for [the Nationwide] race and that was the point," Patrick said after Friday's event. "I learned a lot, especially about restarts. I learned about closing rates.

"I learned how to set people up here and I learned about the timing of everything. I didn't have a back blower and the helmet blower seemed to be blowing hot air. I was pretty star-star-star hot."

In the Nationwide event Patrick didn't fare as well, struggling with a poor qualifying despite running well in practice. From 42nd on the grid she was unable to make much progress while fighting handling issues, dropping a lap down on the leaders as soon as lap 17.

On lap 70 of 200, and while running two laps down already, the right front tyre on her Chevrolet gave up and Patrick hit the wall hard, forcing her to drive to the garage for lengthy repairs. Though she came back on track nearly 100 laps later to finish 35th in her seventh Nationwide race.

Patrick admitted that she still has to learn more lessons on how to set up her car for a race before being able to move up to the next level. She says the fact that her apprenticeship is taking place in the public eye doesn't make things any easier.

"I don't know what I need out of the car to be good in the race," said Patrick. "I know what I need for one lap to feel good, but that doesn't mean it's going to be good for 70 or 80 laps. So, even on that last run out there which was 30 or so laps, we freed [the car] up and went out there and started feeling a little loose, and it kind of settled in and I was pushing by the end.

"How loose does it have to be when you start to have a good end? I don't know if that contributed to the right front blowing out in the first run or not, but it got to the point that there was so much push, it was shattering. I know now from experience that when you have a vibration and when the car doesn't want to turn it's probably losing pressure and you should back it on down.

"Lessons learned, and they're not fun lessons because everybody is watching so it makes it even harder but we'll get this car to the front by the end of the year. We'll figure it out."

Even before her weekend started, Patrick had already admitted how humbling her NASCAR transition has been as she has had to learn to cope with bellow-par results while she figures out the nuances of stock car racing.

"Mostly it's just been emotional because I've had to deal with not having as good results as I would have liked," said Patrick. "IndyCar has been a bit of a tough season. I've had probably some of my best races I've ever had, but I've also had some mediocre ones.

"NASCAR has been a humbling experience itself. For me, it's been more emotional than anything. I enjoy being busy, I like it. I'm lucky to be busy. Not every driver gets to be busy, and it's all for good reason. It's part of what I signed up for and I'm enjoying it."

Patrick will return to the Nationwide Series next month at Fontana, which will be the first venue she has competed at for a second time this year.

NASCAR penalises Bowyer and RCR

Clint Bowyer's title chances have taken a major blow after NASCAR penalised him for irregularities found on his winning car from Sunday's race at Loudon.

The Richard Childress driver has been docked 150 points in the standings, after his #33 Chevrolet failed to pass a detailed inspection at NASCAR's Research and Development facility in Concord, North Carolina, where the car was taken following the initial post-race inspection at the track.

Officials found discrepancies in the "car body location specifications in reference to the certified chassis", citing that these "did not meet NASCAR-approved specifications." The NASCAR rulebook states how the bodywork must be placed in reference to the chassis and in the rear of Bowyer's car measurements were found not to comply.

Last week after the final race of the regular season at Richmond, Bowyer's team had already been warned about issues that arose during inspection of the car he ran at the event where he secured his place in the championship play-off. Officials found the Richmond car, which was selected randomly for inspection at the track, was too close to the mandated tolerances.

"Details regarding the #33 car surround the car from a post-race inspection after the Richmond race," said NASCAR's vice president of competition Robin Pemberton.

"We reinforced the fact that they had come exceedingly close to the measurements that we allow for post-race [inspection]. The #33 car that was raced in New Hampshire was brought back to the R&D centre after the race and that car did not meet specifications, as a result these penalties have been issued."

The points penalty has dropped Bowyer from second place in the Chase down to 12th and last among the title contenders, placing him exactly where he was before taking his first win of the season last Sunday, although with a larger gap to leader Denny Hamlin.

While Richard Childress was also docked 150 points in the owners' standings, crew chief Shane Wilson and car chief Chad Haney have been suspended for the next six races, Wilson additionally being fined $150.000.

There was no word from NASCAR regarding the cars run at Loudon by Bowyer's team-mates Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, which both passed inspection following Sunday's Chase opener.

Scott Miller, current director of competition at RCR and former crew chief for Bowyer's team-mate Burton, is expected to replace Wilson in his role while he serves his suspension.

The team has announced that it will appeal against the penalties.

Ekstrom expects NASCAR return soon

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom expects to return to the NASCAR Sprint Cup series soon after making his oval debut at Richmond last weekend with Red Bull Racing Team.

The Swede had a respectable run on Saturday night at the 0.75-mile Richmond International Raceway, finishing 31st but running close to a top-20 position in the first half of the race, eventually crossing the finish line ahead of series' regulars Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

While others trying the transition from different series into NASCAR have taken a more gradual approach in the past, the Red Bull driver ventured into racing on a short oval track at Cup level for his second stock car outing, but still managed to have a trouble-free run.

The 32-year-old said his experience last Saturday went beyond what he anticipated and made him earn more respect for the series. Although he has returned to Europe to drive again for Audi in the DTM, Ekstrom expects to be back in the Sprint Cup soon.

"I have to say for the first race on an oval, I was expecting it to be long and hard, but didn't expect it to be so action packed," Ekstrom said. "As soon as I started after the first restart, it was wild. That is nothing like what I have even come close to.

"I respect these guys even more who are doing this all the time -- the way you have to drive, stay focused on every single lap, hit your marks all the time, and tune the car up. [Saturday's race] is something to build on. I had a great experience and great support from the team. I am really appreciative of this chance.

"A big thanks to Red Bull and hopefully I will be back in NASCAR again soon."

Reed Sorenson will return behind the wheel of the #83 Red Bull Toyota next weekend at Loudon, but with only four races left in the DTM schedule, which finishes in late November at Shanghai, Ekstrom is expected to drive again for the team this season.

Furious Bowyer insists penalty unjust

Clint Bowyer insists his team did not cheat to claim victory in the Chase opener last week at Loudon as he made a furious statement in front of the media on Friday at Dover International Speedway.

The Richard Childress driver has dropped from second to 12th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series play-off after the car he drove to victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last Sunday was deemed illegal during a detailed inspection done by NASCAR this week.

Speaking for the first time since his penalties were issued, the former Nationwide Series champion claimed he "wouldn't cheat to win a race in this sport," as he lamented his win being tarnished by the controversy.

Although he led 177 of the race's 300 laps at Loudon last Sunday, Bowyer claimed victory by succeeding at stretching his fuel mileage enough following his final pitstop, while others such as Tony Stewart were unable to do so despite running the same fuel strategy.

Bowyer reiterated that his team had been warned before Loudon after the car he raced at Richmond a week earlier was found to be too close to the tolerances of the height of the quarter-panels on the rear end.

After that, he said RCR took notice of NASCAR's warning and made sure the issue was corrected on the car it would race in the Chase opener, which officials advised would be checked in detail at their R&D facility following the event.

"Who in the right mind, knowing that they're going to take that car, wouldn't have made triple sure that that thing was right before it went to the racetrack?" said Bowyer.

"I could've hit the wall doing a burnout and I could've done a lot of things that other drivers and other teams have done in the post-race celebration this year. We didn't want to push that in NASCAR's face.

"We appreciated them warning us on the fact that we tried to fix the situation. They told us about it Wednesday [before Loudon]. Wednesday the car leaves, so we had about two hours to jump on that car and make sure that that thing was right."

Bowyer questioned the process that NASCAR undertook to measure his Loudon winning car this week at its facility. He believes the magnitude of his penalty is being set as an example by the ruling body to rival teams that may be pushing the limits of the technical regulations.

He is adamant that once the rumours started about his car being outside the tolerances, NASCAR was pushed to penalise him.

"How can a car pass pre and post-race inspection and three days latter get such a huge fine?" said Bowyer. "They take the car apart, completely apart, to measure this thing and in my opinion that's not how the car that was raced on the racetrack.

"Once the rumours started it wasn't long before the penalty. I think NASCAR has a lot of problems with a lot of cars on the racetrack being out of the box and I think they needed to set an example with something.

"I think the penalty doesn't fit the crime. 60 thousandths of an inch folks! Grab a quarter out of your pocket and that's 65 thousandths of an inch thick. Less than the thickness of that quarter right there resulted in a 150-point fine. Before or after this, grab that and ask yourselves if that was a performance-enhancing thing right there!"

Bowyer insists that his car being pushed by a service truck following the race may have well caused it to drop outside NASCAR's box. His #33 Chevrolet ran out of fuel after a celebratory burnout and had to be towed to Victory Lane for the post-race celebrations.

The RCR driver reminded the press that his car passed the post-race inspection and claimed that while officials did not find anything irregular, Jimmie Johnson's and Denny Hamlin machines needed to go through the height-sticks twice at Loudon before being passed.

"Is it possible that a two-tonne wrecker [truck] can bend the quarter panel 60 thousandths of an inch? You have to ask yourselves that," said Bowyer. "I got hit during the race, turned around a couple of times; racing is tough.

"If this thing was knocked out half of an inch you could see something being made, but if it passed the height sticks [in the post-race inspection], the very height sticks that the #48 [Johnson] and the #11 [Hamlin] did not pass, then miraculously enough when that same crew pushed it back around after 20 it passed. That's pretty amazing.

"My dad owns a towing business, has done since I was born in 1979. I know a little something about wreckers. About 15 years ago they took their front bumpers off for this very reason.

"I remember back when people used to come on a snow storm [and say] 'please push me out of the snowbank'. You pushed them out and two days later they showed up with the bodyshop bill in their hand, wanting you to to pay for the damage you did to the back of their car. This could happen."

Richard Childress Racing is hoping to get the penalties handed to Bowyer and his team overturned through an appeal process, which has deferred the suspensions and fines imposed for now.

Q and A with Mattias Ekstrom

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom is making his oval debut this weekend at Richmond International Raceway in what will be just his second outing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series.

While others before him have taken their first steps in stock car racing at lower levels, including Juan Pablo Montoya, the 32-year-old Swede has taken the bull by the horns and will race Saturday at the 0.75-mile oval in the final race before the Chase for the Cup kicks off.

AUTOSPORT spoke to the two-time winner of the Race of Champions ahead of his second NASCAR race.

Q. Why are you going straight into the Sprint Cup and not trying at a lower level before, like others have done in the past?

Mattias Ekstrom: I think it doesn't really matter wherever you start, if you start in Cup or Nationwide. Sure, if you start lower you have less competition but there's good guys at every level in any NASCAR series. I mean, look at Kyle Busch, he's driving in all of them and besides, Red Bull only has a team in Cup. I had to do this with Red Bull because I've been an athlete for them for many years and that's about how it was.

Q. So you think it's easier to make the transition from DTM to NASCAR than from an open-wheel car?

ME: For me I think it's easier to adapt to NASCAR because I've been used to touring cars. Open-wheel cars have never been my cup of tea and I've never been good at it, so for sure I'm better off trying to do this than maybe going to IndyCars, that's for sure.

Q. What moved you to do this for a second time?

ME: What I like the most is the racing. You have many competitive cars and many competitive teams and DTM is also competitive but you have only 20 cars and then you have to drive with a lot of respect for your team-mates. Here there's 43 cars and you've got to be good because if not, you're going to be way down. The competition is what really attracts me and I really enjoy that.

Q. Are you seriously considering a future in NASCAR? Are more races in the cards this year?

ME: I came here and did the race at Sonoma and said afterwards that I'd like to do an oval. What happens in the future nobody knows, but one thing is for sure, I will try to collect all the experience I can this weekend and I will do the best job I can and then we will see what happens. At the moment I have a contract with Audi which I'm happy for and I really enjoy the DTM and there are some races to go this year, but I decided I wanted to try this.

Q. You've spent some time with Montoya in your NASCAR visits. Is he trying to sell you into making the move full time?

ME: I don't call him Juan, but Sean. I liked his style when he was doing F1 and I've spent some time with him. He's a nice guy and very competitive. He's been giving me all the info, what I should think of, all the pros and cons. I appreciate all the help I got from him because without that I would be struggling a lot more. I also got some help from Jimmie Johnson and you need to have some friends in this world when you come as a rookie in order to survive. I think what is really important is to do this with a lot of passion.

Q. With four races remaining in the DTM and ranking fifth in points, what's your outlook on the rest of the season?

ME: The championship is out of my hands now and I can't win it by my own performance, it would have to be the others doing something bad. I'm going there to enjoy every race, to try to win more races and what happens with the championship I can't really control anyway. We will see.

Ekstrom to make oval debut

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom will make his oval debut in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series next weekend at Richmond, Red Bull Racing Team has announced.

The Swede will pilot the #83 Red Bull Toyota for a second time this year, having made his NASCAR debut in June. Ekstrom drove in the first road course event of the season at Infineon Raceway, where he finished 21st after starting 38th, leading the race for seven laps.

After racing in the DTM last weekend at Brands Hatch, the 32-year-old tested for Red Bull on an oval for the first time on Tuesday at the North Wilkesboro Speedway, a 0.625 oval in North Carolina, where he successfully completed his preparation to compete next Saturday in the final race of the regular season at the 0.75-mile Richmond International Raceway.

"To do a race on an oval is something different - it's a lot of laps and a lot of cars," said Ekstrom. "Racing in Richmond will be one of the biggest tasks of my life so far, but I feel I am ready for the challenge."

Ekstrom replaces Reed Sorenson, who has driven the #83 car for eighth of the past nine races. Brian Vickers started his fourth year at the wheel of the leading Red Bull entry but he has been sidelined from racing since May after being diagnosed with blood clots. Casey Mears, Boris Said and Ekstrom, have also driven the car this year.

"Mattias did a great job in Sonoma, and continues to impress at the oval track testing sessions," said Red Bull Racing Team's Jay Frye. "He has earned this opportunity, showing continued improvement every time he is behind the wheel."

Ekstrom is expected to be back behind the wheel of his DTM Audi A4 next week, when the series competes at Oschersleben. With four events remaining, he ranks fifth in the DTM standings.

Hamlin maintains Chase lead

Denny Hamlin remained in the lead of the Sprint Cup series playoff following a strong second-place finish on Sunday's Chase opener at Loudon.

The 29-year-old, who led the standings for the first time in his career heading into the start of the title battle this weekend, drove a great race of recovery after being turned around more than halfway through the race by title contender Carl Edwards.

The Roush Fenway racer made contact with Hamlin's Toyota, sending him into a spin on lap 213 of 300, but the Joe Gibbs racer managed to avoid hitting the wall, while being lucky of not getting collected by other cars, as he was running in the top-five at the time.

"I was really glad we just didn't get plowed by the entire field," said Hamlin. "Obviously we spun in front the entire field at that point. First thing I asked is how many cars is on the lead lap because I wanted to see how bad our day was going to be

"When we restarted 22nd, I immediately set a goal and said, let's finish top 15 and a few things happen and it was like, crap, let's get a top eight and then top 6, holy cow, we can win this thing. It was one of those days, our car, we just made a heck of a charge at the end."

Hamlin was able to recover from the incident and he quickly made progress while running on a safer fuel strategy than some ahead of him. As the lap-count faded he started to put the pressure on, closing on the leaders who were trying to save enough to make it to the end.

With ten laps remaining he was able to get up to third place, as he continued to shorten the gap to leaders Tony Stewart and Clint Bowyer. In the end, the tank of the Stewart-Haas Chevy of his former Gibbs' teammate ran empty, allowing Bowyer to take the win ahead of Hamlin's #11 Toyota.

"The 33 [Bowyer] had a really good car today, the 1 [McMurray], the 14 [Stewart]," said Bowyer. "Those three cars I felt like were the best cars all day. We never really got to show where our car was at. As soon as we got to the Top 3, is when we got spun.

"We clawed and scratched our way to the front all day to get in position with 80 to go to go for a win. Luckily, it's a double-edged sword, it made us come in [the pits], we had to get fuel and it gave us the fuel for the end. Typically, our Toyota gets really good gas mileage, so I knew we were going to be fine on fuel right there at the end.

"Top 6 was where I wanted to leave this day, and so first mission accomplished."

Following Sunday's race Hamlin edges Sunday's winner Bowyer by 35 points in the Chase standing.

Hamlin: Johnson still the favourite

Chase leader Denny Hamlin believes reigning champion Jimmie Johnson is still the favourite to win this year's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver won the final event heading into the championship play-off, which was his sixth victory of the year, and beat Johnson to the top spot of the standings for the deciding final 10 races.

Last year Hamlin was one of the strongest drivers in the Chase, taking top three finishes - including two wins - in six out of the 10 events. However two engine failures and a crash caused him three non-finishes that ruined his chances of contending for the title in the season finale.

Despite the likes of four-time champion Jeff Gordon picking the 29-year-old as favourite to beat Johnson, Hamlin does not think he is the target rivals will be aiming at from Sunday at Loudon.

"The #48 [Johnson] is definitely the favourite, with the #29 [Kevin Harvick] right behind him, in my eyes," said Hamlin. "One has shown the consistency to win the championship this year and the other has shown that when it comes to game time, he is ready to play. In my eyes, we haven't won one yet. We're 0-for-4, so it's time for us to step up."

However Hamlin does not deny that this season is probably his best chance ever to win his first NASCAR title. Besides Johnson, Hamlin is the only driver who has been in the Chase in every championship he has entered since the format was implemented.

"We set up our team at the beginning of the year to bring out our best race cars in September and late August and we've done that," said Hamlin. "The last three weeks, and including this week, our car has speed, and that goes a long way. It makes the drivers look good. It makes everything look good because you've executed a game plan and I feel like we've done that.

"The wins in the first part of the season, to me, were almost flukey in the sense that we didn't expect it and circumstances worked out and we won a bunch of races. But, we didn't have our best stuff at the race track.

"This is the point where we see where we stack up with our competition over the next few weeks and from what I've seen over the last couple of weeks, it looks like our stuff is going to be pretty competitive."

Hamlin, who was affected by an injured knee due to a torn ligament at the beginning of the year, has shown great speed at all kinds of tracks this season, taking wins on both short and intermediate ovals.

Two of his six wins this year came at Martinsville and Fontana, tracks that he will visit once again during the Chase. He also dominated at Atlanta two weeks ago until an engine failure put him out of the race.

"I think the biggest thing is we're competitive everywhere, competitive as in we can win races anywhere," Hamlin said. "We've shown we can win races and that means we've been up front a lot during the course of this season.

"For as many wins as we've had, we've had second and third-place finishes as well. That means we've been up front a lot during the season and that's what it's going to take to win the championship - a low average finish and making sure you have everything in line and prepared in case something does happen.

"Even if you have a bad race or two, if you consistently run in the top two to three positions every week and put yourself out there to possibly win a lot of races, I think you'll be a contender."

Hamlin's best finish in the Sprint Cup came in his rookie season, when he was third in the final standings.

Martin sent to rear of field

Mark Martin will drop to the rear of the field for Sunday's Sprint Cup series race at Dover after issues were found with a rear shock absorber on his car during post-qualifying inspection.

The NASCAR veteran had qualified third on Friday afternoon but officials found the gas pressure on the right rear damper of his #5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy exceeded the maximum allowed by the rules.

As a consequence, the starting order changes, Martin Truex Jr moving into third, with everyone behind Truex also moving up one spot except 43rd-placed Michael McDowell, while Martin will see the green flag wave from 42nd on the starting grid.

After being the runner-up in the championship last year, Martin missed this year's playoff and is currently 17th in the drivers' standings.

No additional penalties will be handed to Martin and his team for the rules infringement.

Stewart laments losing Loudon win

Tony Stewart lamented losing a likely win in the Chase opener at Loudon this weekend as he ran out of fuel right before taking the white flag.

The two-time Sprint Cup series champion took the lead early into Sunday's race and despite dropping in the order following his first pitstop, he was able to get back to the front and eventually lead the race again in the deciding stages.

After staying on the track when many pitted during the sixth of eight caution periods, Stewart briefly lost the lead to Earnhardt Ganassi's Jamie McMurray, re-passing him with 52 laps remaining, then pulling away while try to save enough fuel to make it to the finish.

But despite being on the same pit sequence as eventual winner Clint Bowyer, his car ran out of fuel on the penultimate lap at the exit of turn four, just a few seconds after Bowyer's RCR teammate Jeff Burton, also on the same strategy, suffered a similar blow.

"I'm not happy, that's for sure, but we went down swinging," said Stewart. "It's hard to lose one that way but at the same time it was fun racing Clint like that. He was definitely the fastest car and congratulations to those guys.

"It's a tough way to start the Chase but I'm proud of my guys. Darian [Grubb, crew chief] kept swinging at it all day and finally on that last set of tires we got it halfway decent."

Stewart said that had he known he was so marginal on his fuel mileage he would have accepted finishing second behind Bowyer, but unfortunately the numbers didn't meet the targets on his team's calculations, ending around a mile short of scoring his second win of the year.

"I would have settled for second," accepted Stewart. "If you knew exactly how much gas you have it would be different, but you never know. It's part of the sport, always has been. It's what makes it exciting when you never know until the last lap what's going to happen

"...[Clint Bowyer] had a great car all day. He did a good job of saving fuel and I didn't do a good job."

A victory on Sunday would have placed Stewart up in second place in the Chase standings, but his 24th place finish meant he dropped five places in the playoff down to eleventh, only ahead of Roush Fenway's Matt Kenseth.

But despite a 124-point deficit to leader Denny Hamlin, Stewart says it's still too early in the playoff to give up on his title hopes.

"There is so much that can happen in nine races," said Stewart. "I promise you this: This team is not going to give up. We'll do the best we can and give it our best shot."

Sunday's result has been Stewart's worst for a Chase opener since he missed the playoff in 2006.

Hamlin maintains Chase lead

Denny Hamlin remained in the lead of the Sprint Cup series playoff following a strong second-place finish on Sunday's Chase opener at Loudon.

The 29-year-old, who led the standings for the first time in his career heading into the start of the title battle this weekend, drove a great race of recovery after being turned around more than halfway through the race by title contender Carl Edwards.

The Roush Fenway racer made contact with Hamlin's Toyota, sending him into a spin on lap 213 of 300, but the Joe Gibbs racer managed to avoid hitting the wall, while being lucky of not getting collected by other cars, as he was running in the top-five at the time.

"I was really glad we just didn't get plowed by the entire field," said Hamlin. "Obviously we spun in front the entire field at that point. First thing I asked is how many cars is on the lead lap because I wanted to see how bad our day was going to be

"When we restarted 22nd, I immediately set a goal and said, let's finish top 15 and a few things happen and it was like, crap, let's get a top eight and then top 6, holy cow, we can win this thing. It was one of those days, our car, we just made a heck of a charge at the end."

Hamlin was able to recover from the incident and he quickly made progress while running on a safer fuel strategy than some ahead of him. As the lap-count faded he started to put the pressure on, closing on the leaders who were trying to save enough to make it to the end.

With ten laps remaining he was able to get up to third place, as he continued to shorten the gap to leaders Tony Stewart and Clint Bowyer. In the end, the tank of the Stewart-Haas Chevy of his former Gibbs' teammate ran empty, allowing Bowyer to take the win ahead of Hamlin's #11 Toyota.

"The 33 [Bowyer] had a really good car today, the 1 [McMurray], the 14 [Stewart]," said Bowyer. "Those three cars I felt like were the best cars all day. We never really got to show where our car was at. As soon as we got to the Top 3, is when we got spun.

"We clawed and scratched our way to the front all day to get in position with 80 to go to go for a win. Luckily, it's a double-edged sword, it made us come in [the pits], we had to get fuel and it gave us the fuel for the end. Typically, our Toyota gets really good gas mileage, so I knew we were going to be fine on fuel right there at the end.

"Top 6 was where I wanted to leave this day, and so first mission accomplished."

Following Sunday's race Hamlin edges Sunday's winner Bowyer by 35 points in the Chase standing.

Hamlin unflustered by Harvick feud

Denny Hamlin says he is not letting Kevin Harvick play mind games with him following their clash on Saturday during NASCAR Cup practice at Dover.

Hamlin and Harvick clashed on track then confronted each other in the garage on Friday, but Hamlin says the altercation was unnecessary for both as they ended up losing nearly half of the second practice session of the weekend while repairs were made to their cars.

He believes Harvick was reacting to what he said on Friday about the penalties given to his team-mate Clint Bowyer, but does not regret speaking his mind.

"I think it was a lot of frustrated team members and that's going to be part of it," said Hamlin "Of course it's unnecessary because it didn't help either one of the race teams - us having to work on race cars or anything like that.

"I spoke my mind yesterday and I felt like I said a lot of truth. A lot of times that's not popular with the teams that are involved. It's something that I've always done, to speak my mind, and it's not always in my best interest to do that.

"The thing is now that we just move on. We get our car fixed. We're getting some of our speed back and now the goal is to move on."

Hamlin said that before the practice session started he was warned by Harvick's crew, one member of the #29 team wishing him 'good luck' before he rolled out of the garage. But he didn't elaborate on what was said between Harvick, him and their teams' crew members.

"There was a lot of cursing," said Hamlin. "That's all that there really was being said. There was nothing really logical being said inside with the two teams. Nothing's ever going to come of it.

"I had a hint. Their crew guys, they stare and make a couple comments right before. He [Kevin Harvick] got into me on pit road even before we left the track so I knew we were going to have to deal with some issues.

"It's unnecessary that the team guys have to get involved in it, but we're just going to keep focused on winning a championship."

Hamlin was defiant ahead of Sunday's race, where he believes he has more speed that his Richard Childress Racing rivals. During the final practice session of the weekend, Hamlin was seventh fastest, with Harvick 15th, Bowyer second and their RCR team-mate Jeff Burton third.

Hamlin claims what happened on Saturday won't distract either him or his team from their focus on winning this year's Cup title, as he believes Harvick is simply trying to dent him mentally.

"Our job is still to win the championship and we look pretty good on speed, especially compared to those guys," said Hamlin. "I think we're going to be okay.

"We have to just stay focused. That's the biggest thing to me, those guys play those games and they've been in the sport a long time and they know how to play these games and get into someone's head that's beating you right now. I think that was just a small effort on their part."

While Hamlin will see the green flag wave from fourth on the grid on Sunday, Harvick will start the second race of the championship playoff back in 34th.

Q and A with Mattias Ekstrom

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom is making his oval debut this weekend at Richmond International Raceway in what will be just his second outing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series.

While others before him have taken their first steps in stock car racing at lower levels, including Juan Pablo Montoya, the 32-year-old Swede has taken the bull by the horns and will race Saturday at the 0.75-mile oval in the final race before the Chase for the Cup kicks off.

AUTOSPORT spoke to the two-time winner of the Race of Champions ahead of his second NASCAR race.

Q. Why are you going straight into the Sprint Cup and not trying at a lower level before, like others have done in the past?

Mattias Ekstrom: I think it doesn't really matter wherever you start, if you start in Cup or Nationwide. Sure, if you start lower you have less competition but there's good guys at every level in any NASCAR series. I mean, look at Kyle Busch, he's driving in all of them and besides, Red Bull only has a team in Cup. I had to do this with Red Bull because I've been an athlete for them for many years and that's about how it was.

Q. So you think it's easier to make the transition from DTM to NASCAR than from an open-wheel car?

ME: For me I think it's easier to adapt to NASCAR because I've been used to touring cars. Open-wheel cars have never been my cup of tea and I've never been good at it, so for sure I'm better off trying to do this than maybe going to IndyCars, that's for sure.

Q. What moved you to do this for a second time?

ME: What I like the most is the racing. You have many competitive cars and many competitive teams and DTM is also competitive but you have only 20 cars and then you have to drive with a lot of respect for your team-mates. Here there's 43 cars and you've got to be good because if not, you're going to be way down. The competition is what really attracts me and I really enjoy that.

Q. Are you seriously considering a future in NASCAR? Are more races in the cards this year?

ME: I came here and did the race at Sonoma and said afterwards that I'd like to do an oval. What happens in the future nobody knows, but one thing is for sure, I will try to collect all the experience I can this weekend and I will do the best job I can and then we will see what happens. At the moment I have a contract with Audi which I'm happy for and I really enjoy the DTM and there are some races to go this year, but I decided I wanted to try this.

Q. You've spent some time with Montoya in your NASCAR visits. Is he trying to sell you into making the move full time?

ME: I don't call him Juan, but Sean. I liked his style when he was doing F1 and I've spent some time with him. He's a nice guy and very competitive. He's been giving me all the info, what I should think of, all the pros and cons. I appreciate all the help I got from him because without that I would be struggling a lot more. I also got some help from Jimmie Johnson and you need to have some friends in this world when you come as a rookie in order to survive. I think what is really important is to do this with a lot of passion.

Q. With four races remaining in the DTM and ranking fifth in points, what's your outlook on the rest of the season?

ME: The championship is out of my hands now and I can't win it by my own performance, it would have to be the others doing something bad. I'm going there to enjoy every race, to try to win more races and what happens with the championship I can't really control anyway. We will see.

Hamlin disputes Bowyer's defence

Denny Hamlin has hit out at Clint Bowyer and his team, slamming the Richard Childress driver's suggestions for why his Loudon winning car failed a NASCAR technical inspection.

While speaking to the media on Friday morning, Bowyer not only defended his team's case, but also hinted at issues with both Jimmie Johnson's and Hamlin's cars during the post-race inspection at Loudon, saying the Joe Gibbs driver's #11 Toyota had to be checked twice for height measurements before being given the okay by officials.

Hamlin, who finished second behind Bowyer in the event, said it was a "pretty standard" practice to allow a second check of the car's height after finishing the race and claimed his car was not found to be outside NASCAR's specifications, unlike Bowyer's winning Chevrolet.

"Our cars did have to go through twice and I'm just not sure whether it was [to inspect] the front or the back so I can't be 100 per cent correct," said Hamlin.

"Those cars get extremely, extremely hot and when they do they either settle down or they settle high. That's what that grace period is for and they let you go back through again to make sure because that is something that is an issue when the cars get hot.

"Our car came back and it was correct, but it wasn't built incorrect and that's one thing that their car was: built incorrectly."

Hamlin called Bowyer's argument that the magnitude of the rules violation on his car was not enhancing performance a "crock" and believes that his rival was simply caught after being warned by officials at Richmond, were Bowyer's car came too close to the tolerances set by the rules.

"You can talk about how small the thing was off and you can really try to say that 60 thousandths didn't help [Bowyer] perform any better - that is a crock," said Hamlin. "Let me tell you something, that helps a lot. I know when we gain five points of downforce our car runs a tonne better.

"NASCAR has been very, very lenient I feel like on this car and they've given those guys chances. It's not Richmond.

"I think that they should just be happy that they're in the Chase at this point. They were warned and they were warned before Richmond. Everyone in the garage knows that. They're the ones who wanted to press the issue and get all they could to make sure they got in the Chase.

"They got in it and then they were busted. They kept going with it."

The Chase leader said last Sunday at Richmond his team had "the fastest legal car" at Loudon but supported NASCAR's consistency on not taking the win away from Bowyer. However he expects all the unfolding controversy to have an impact not only on the #33 team but also on Bowyer's Richard Childress Racing team-mates Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, both also title contenders in the play-off this year.

"The more they reel the other teams in, the better off our team's going to be," said Hamlin. "It's going to affect the #29 [Harvick], the #31 [Burton] and the #33 [Bowyer]. I think the only difference is the #33 won the race so he went to the tech centre.

"It's just one of those things where I think our team is very strong and we do it, I feel like, the right way. Sometimes that makes to where our performance is behind at times, but you know what, we're going to be 'green' [legal] all the time."

Hamlin also disputed RCR's claim about the tow truck causing damage to Bowyer's car and causing it to fail NASCAR's inspection this week. He said that a few weeks ago at Atlanta after his car suffered an engine failure it was towed back to the pits and although the trunk was "destroyed" according to Hamlin, the car was still within tolerances on inspection.

He says that even if Bowyer's car was outside the box by 60 thousandths of an inch, NASCAR had to draw the line at some point.

"There has to be a point where it's black and white. It's no longer grey," said Hamlin. "If [NASCAR] let them get away with this 60 thousandths of an inch then when do you stop, when do you break it and say, 'now we have to penalise'? There has to be a point in which they say, 'this is it, this is the tolerance, if you go past it, you're in trouble.'

"If they let him go, then they're just going to open up the whole field to let them do whatever they want.

"That's why some teams choose to get closer to that line than others - because there are things that happen out on the race track. There are variables that happen during the race that could make you be wrong, but you're taking that risk.

"If you're going to go out on the race track and take the risk of 'I can't afford to get one bump or my car's going to be illegal', that's a risk that ain't worth taking. That's why we don't do it with our organisation."

Following his words in front of the media, Hamlin posted on his Twitter page that he has no hard feelings against Bowyer despite his comments.

"FYI I have nothing against Bowyer. I like him as a driver and person. He didn't build the cars so I feel bad for him," Hamlin wrote.

Ekstrom's NASCAR future unclear

Audi is not keen on Mattias Ekstrom competing in any more NASCAR races this year, this week's AUTOSPORT magazine reveals, despite Red Bull's desire to give the Swede more oval outings.

Ekstrom impressed the Red Bull team on his oval racing debut at Richmond earlier this month, when he finished 31st.

Both team and driver stated their desire to link up again in the future after the race, but Audi has played down the possibility of Ekstrom returning to America.

"For me, this issue is finished," head of Audi Sport Wolfgang Ullrich told AUTOSPORT.

"Mattias did not ask me for another [NASCAR] race - we never talked about it. I think he gave a clear statement that for him the NASCAR experience is done.

"If he does ask to go back, then we will see what it is and what it means."

AUTOSPORT understands that Red Bull has targeted recruiting Ekstrom for multiple races between now and the end of the season.

For more on Ekstrom's NASCAR position, read this week's AUTOSPORT magazine, available in digital form here.

Johnson has tough Chase start

Jimmie Johnson had one of his worst starts to a Sprint Cup series playoff, after finishing just 25th on Sunday in the Chase opener at Loudon.

The reigning champion had an eventful race right from the first few laps as rivals made it tough for him to move up in the order from his 25th starting spot. Despite that, he eventually managed to break into the the top five before completing the first third of the scheduled distance, looking set for a strong start to his title bid.

However, the Hendrick Motorsports driver, who celebrated his 35th birthday this week, was in for a troubled second half of the race as he was unable to keep making similar progress, instead struggling to remain in the top ten and narrowly avoiding a couple of incidents on restarts.

On lap 221, Johnson spun when he made contact with Kyle Busch after trying not to hit Kurt Busch and Jeff Burton, who came together ahead of him. He dropped down to 24th in the order after stopping for repairs, tyres and fuel, despite escaping major damage to his car.

But as he seemed to start recovering from his spin, Johnson suddenly returned to the pits a few laps later due to a suspected loose wheel, the unscheduled stop putting him a lap down on the leaders and completely out of contention for a solid finish.

"We were kind of in the eye of the storm on those restarts," Johnson said. "Our car's strong suit was not on the first three or four laps and it made me a little vulnerable. Definitely not the way we wanted things to start, for sure.

"There are still nine races left, we did everything we could and we'll show up next week and do all we can then and hopefully we'll rebound and gain some points on those guys."

Following Sunday's race, the reigning champion is down from second to seventh in the standings, 92 points behind leader Denny Hamlin.

Only in 2006 he kicked off the Chase with a worse result, finishing 39th and emerging ninth from Loudon in the playoff standing, 139 points behind the leader. However, he went on to recover over the following nine races to claim his maiden Sprint Cup title in the season finale.

Hamlin maintains Chase lead

Denny Hamlin remained in the lead of the Sprint Cup series playoff following a strong second-place finish on Sunday's Chase opener at Loudon.

The 29-year-old, who led the standings for the first time in his career heading into the start of the title battle this weekend, drove a great race of recovery after being turned around more than halfway through the race by title contender Carl Edwards.

The Roush Fenway racer made contact with Hamlin's Toyota, sending him into a spin on lap 213 of 300, but the Joe Gibbs racer managed to avoid hitting the wall, while being lucky of not getting collected by other cars, as he was running in the top-five at the time.

"I was really glad we just didn't get plowed by the entire field," said Hamlin. "Obviously we spun in front the entire field at that point. First thing I asked is how many cars is on the lead lap because I wanted to see how bad our day was going to be

"When we restarted 22nd, I immediately set a goal and said, let's finish top 15 and a few things happen and it was like, crap, let's get a top eight and then top 6, holy cow, we can win this thing. It was one of those days, our car, we just made a heck of a charge at the end."

Hamlin was able to recover from the incident and he quickly made progress while running on a safer fuel strategy than some ahead of him. As the lap-count faded he started to put the pressure on, closing on the leaders who were trying to save enough to make it to the end.

With ten laps remaining he was able to get up to third place, as he continued to shorten the gap to leaders Tony Stewart and Clint Bowyer. In the end, the tank of the Stewart-Haas Chevy of his former Gibbs' teammate ran empty, allowing Bowyer to take the win ahead of Hamlin's #11 Toyota.

"The 33 [Bowyer] had a really good car today, the 1 [McMurray], the 14 [Stewart]," said Bowyer. "Those three cars I felt like were the best cars all day. We never really got to show where our car was at. As soon as we got to the Top 3, is when we got spun.

"We clawed and scratched our way to the front all day to get in position with 80 to go to go for a win. Luckily, it's a double-edged sword, it made us come in [the pits], we had to get fuel and it gave us the fuel for the end. Typically, our Toyota gets really good gas mileage, so I knew we were going to be fine on fuel right there at the end.

"Top 6 was where I wanted to leave this day, and so first mission accomplished."

Following Sunday's race Hamlin edges Sunday's winner Bowyer by 35 points in the Chase standing.

Hamlin maintains Chase leadForlan eyes Prem return

Childress disputes NASCAR's ruling

Richard Childress says his team will appeal against NASCAR's ruling on the legality of Clint Bowyer's car, claiming it was built to the rules specification.

Bowyer and his team were heavily penalised with points deductions, suspensions and a fine after officials deemed that their winning car from Loudon was not within the tolerances set by the NASCAR rulebook regarding the position of the bodywork in reference to the chassis on the rear end.

The Richard Childress driver took victory in the Chase opener after leading the most laps, but he gambled on fuel strategy in the closing stages and eventually saved enough fuel to make it to the end, while rivals Tony Stewart and Jeff Burton failed to do so despite running on the same sequence.

Bowyer actually ran out of fuel following a celebratory burnout and had to be towed to Victory Lane by a service truck that pushed the #33 Chevrolet from the rear bumper. According to Childress, this and the car being hit by others on the cool down lap, may be the reason for it ending up failing a detailed inspection undertaken by NASCAR this week at its Research and Development facility.

Childress says his team will go the final instances if needed in order to prove that it did not build the car outside NASCAR's box, following a warning received the previous week regarding the machine Bowyer raced at Richmond. This Chevy was found to be close to being outside the mandated tolerances on the same area where the Loudon car was ruled illegal.

"RCR has a long-standing reputation of integrity on and off the race track," said Childress in a statement. "We pride ourselves on working within the rules established by the sanctioning body.

"NASCAR informed us after the Richmond race that we were very close to their maximum tolerances. They also told us they were going to take our New Hampshire car to the NASCAR Technical Centre after that race.

"It doesn't make any sense at all that we would send a car to New Hampshire that wasn't within NASCAR's tolerances. I am confident we fixed the area of concern and the New Hampshire car left the race shop well within the tolerances required by NASCAR.

"We feel certain that the cause of the car being out of tolerance by sixty thousandths of an inch, less than 1/16 of an inch, happened as a result of the wrecker hitting the rear bumper when it pushed the car into winner's circle.

"The rear bumper was also hit on the cool down lap by other drivers congratulating Clint on his victory. That's the only logical way that the left-rear of the car was found to be high at the tech centre. We will appeal NASCAR's ruling and take it all the way to the NASCAR commissioner for a final ruling, if need be."

Childress' appeal would mean six-race suspensions handed to Bowyer's crew chief Shane Wilson and car chief Chad Haney could be deferred for now as well as a $150.000 fine issued to Wilson. However NASCAR has clarified that the points penalty remains in place.

Guardiola fined for ref rantBowyer confident of Chase spot

Hamlin maintains Chase lead

Denny Hamlin remained in the lead of the Sprint Cup series playoff following a strong second-place finish on Sunday's Chase opener at Loudon.

The 29-year-old, who led the standings for the first time in his career heading into the start of the title battle this weekend, drove a great race of recovery after being turned around more than halfway through the race by title contender Carl Edwards.

The Roush Fenway racer made contact with Hamlin's Toyota, sending him into a spin on lap 213 of 300, but the Joe Gibbs racer managed to avoid hitting the wall, while being lucky of not getting collected by other cars, as he was running in the top-five at the time.

"I was really glad we just didn't get plowed by the entire field," said Hamlin. "Obviously we spun in front the entire field at that point. First thing I asked is how many cars is on the lead lap because I wanted to see how bad our day was going to be

"When we restarted 22nd, I immediately set a goal and said, let's finish top 15 and a few things happen and it was like, crap, let's get a top eight and then top 6, holy cow, we can win this thing. It was one of those days, our car, we just made a heck of a charge at the end."

Hamlin was able to recover from the incident and he quickly made progress while running on a safer fuel strategy than some ahead of him. As the lap-count faded he started to put the pressure on, closing on the leaders who were trying to save enough to make it to the end.

With ten laps remaining he was able to get up to third place, as he continued to shorten the gap to leaders Tony Stewart and Clint Bowyer. In the end, the tank of the Stewart-Haas Chevy of his former Gibbs' teammate ran empty, allowing Bowyer to take the win ahead of Hamlin's #11 Toyota.

"The 33 [Bowyer] had a really good car today, the 1 [McMurray], the 14 [Stewart]," said Bowyer. "Those three cars I felt like were the best cars all day. We never really got to show where our car was at. As soon as we got to the Top 3, is when we got spun.

"We clawed and scratched our way to the front all day to get in position with 80 to go to go for a win. Luckily, it's a double-edged sword, it made us come in [the pits], we had to get fuel and it gave us the fuel for the end. Typically, our Toyota gets really good gas mileage, so I knew we were going to be fine on fuel right there at the end.

"Top 6 was where I wanted to leave this day, and so first mission accomplished."

Following Sunday's race Hamlin edges Sunday's winner Bowyer by 35 points in the Chase standing.

Forlan eyes Prem returnStewart laments losing Loudon win

Hamlin: Johnson still the favourite

Chase leader Denny Hamlin believes reigning champion Jimmie Johnson is still the favourite to win this year's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver won the final event heading into the championship play-off, which was his sixth victory of the year, and beat Johnson to the top spot of the standings for the deciding final 10 races.

Last year Hamlin was one of the strongest drivers in the Chase, taking top three finishes - including two wins - in six out of the 10 events. However two engine failures and a crash caused him three non-finishes that ruined his chances of contending for the title in the season finale.

Despite the likes of four-time champion Jeff Gordon picking the 29-year-old as favourite to beat Johnson, Hamlin does not think he is the target rivals will be aiming at from Sunday at Loudon.

"The #48 [Johnson] is definitely the favourite, with the #29 [Kevin Harvick] right behind him, in my eyes," said Hamlin. "One has shown the consistency to win the championship this year and the other has shown that when it comes to game time, he is ready to play. In my eyes, we haven't won one yet. We're 0-for-4, so it's time for us to step up."

However Hamlin does not deny that this season is probably his best chance ever to win his first NASCAR title. Besides Johnson, Hamlin is the only driver who has been in the Chase in every championship he has entered since the format was implemented.

"We set up our team at the beginning of the year to bring out our best race cars in September and late August and we've done that," said Hamlin. "The last three weeks, and including this week, our car has speed, and that goes a long way. It makes the drivers look good. It makes everything look good because you've executed a game plan and I feel like we've done that.

"The wins in the first part of the season, to me, were almost flukey in the sense that we didn't expect it and circumstances worked out and we won a bunch of races. But, we didn't have our best stuff at the race track.

"This is the point where we see where we stack up with our competition over the next few weeks and from what I've seen over the last couple of weeks, it looks like our stuff is going to be pretty competitive."

Hamlin, who was affected by an injured knee due to a torn ligament at the beginning of the year, has shown great speed at all kinds of tracks this season, taking wins on both short and intermediate ovals.

Two of his six wins this year came at Martinsville and Fontana, tracks that he will visit once again during the Chase. He also dominated at Atlanta two weeks ago until an engine failure put him out of the race.

"I think the biggest thing is we're competitive everywhere, competitive as in we can win races anywhere," Hamlin said. "We've shown we can win races and that means we've been up front a lot during the course of this season.

"For as many wins as we've had, we've had second and third-place finishes as well. That means we've been up front a lot during the season and that's what it's going to take to win the championship - a low average finish and making sure you have everything in line and prepared in case something does happen.

"Even if you have a bad race or two, if you consistently run in the top two to three positions every week and put yourself out there to possibly win a lot of races, I think you'll be a contender."

Hamlin's best finish in the Sprint Cup came in his rookie season, when he was third in the final standings.

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Stewart laments losing Loudon win

Tony Stewart lamented losing a likely win in the Chase opener at Loudon this weekend as he ran out of fuel right before taking the white flag.

The two-time Sprint Cup series champion took the lead early into Sunday's race and despite dropping in the order following his first pitstop, he was able to get back to the front and eventually lead the race again in the deciding stages.

After staying on the track when many pitted during the sixth of eight caution periods, Stewart briefly lost the lead to Earnhardt Ganassi's Jamie McMurray, re-passing him with 52 laps remaining, then pulling away while try to save enough fuel to make it to the finish.

But despite being on the same pit sequence as eventual winner Clint Bowyer, his car ran out of fuel on the penultimate lap at the exit of turn four, just a few seconds after Bowyer's RCR teammate Jeff Burton, also on the same strategy, suffered a similar blow.

"I'm not happy, that's for sure, but we went down swinging," said Stewart. "It's hard to lose one that way but at the same time it was fun racing Clint like that. He was definitely the fastest car and congratulations to those guys.

"It's a tough way to start the Chase but I'm proud of my guys. Darian [Grubb, crew chief] kept swinging at it all day and finally on that last set of tires we got it halfway decent."

Stewart said that had he known he was so marginal on his fuel mileage he would have accepted finishing second behind Bowyer, but unfortunately the numbers didn't meet the targets on his team's calculations, ending around a mile short of scoring his second win of the year.

"I would have settled for second," accepted Stewart. "If you knew exactly how much gas you have it would be different, but you never know. It's part of the sport, always has been. It's what makes it exciting when you never know until the last lap what's going to happen

"...[Clint Bowyer] had a great car all day. He did a good job of saving fuel and I didn't do a good job."

A victory on Sunday would have placed Stewart up in second place in the Chase standings, but his 24th place finish meant he dropped five places in the playoff down to eleventh, only ahead of Roush Fenway's Matt Kenseth.

But despite a 124-point deficit to leader Denny Hamlin, Stewart says it's still too early in the playoff to give up on his title hopes.

"There is so much that can happen in nine races," said Stewart. "I promise you this: This team is not going to give up. We'll do the best we can and give it our best shot."

Sunday's result has been Stewart's worst for a Chase opener since he missed the playoff in 2006.

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Ekstrom to make oval debut

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom will make his oval debut in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series next weekend at Richmond, Red Bull Racing Team has announced.

The Swede will pilot the #83 Red Bull Toyota for a second time this year, having made his NASCAR debut in June. Ekstrom drove in the first road course event of the season at Infineon Raceway, where he finished 21st after starting 38th, leading the race for seven laps.

After racing in the DTM last weekend at Brands Hatch, the 32-year-old tested for Red Bull on an oval for the first time on Tuesday at the North Wilkesboro Speedway, a 0.625 oval in North Carolina, where he successfully completed his preparation to compete next Saturday in the final race of the regular season at the 0.75-mile Richmond International Raceway.

"To do a race on an oval is something different - it's a lot of laps and a lot of cars," said Ekstrom. "Racing in Richmond will be one of the biggest tasks of my life so far, but I feel I am ready for the challenge."

Ekstrom replaces Reed Sorenson, who has driven the #83 car for eighth of the past nine races. Brian Vickers started his fourth year at the wheel of the leading Red Bull entry but he has been sidelined from racing since May after being diagnosed with blood clots. Casey Mears, Boris Said and Ekstrom, have also driven the car this year.

"Mattias did a great job in Sonoma, and continues to impress at the oval track testing sessions," said Red Bull Racing Team's Jay Frye. "He has earned this opportunity, showing continued improvement every time he is behind the wheel."

Ekstrom is expected to be back behind the wheel of his DTM Audi A4 next week, when the series competes at Oschersleben. With four events remaining, he ranks fifth in the DTM standings.

Henrique returns to RacingEkstrom to make oval debut

Hamlin: Johnson still the favourite

Chase leader Denny Hamlin believes reigning champion Jimmie Johnson is still the favourite to win this year's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver won the final event heading into the championship play-off, which was his sixth victory of the year, and beat Johnson to the top spot of the standings for the deciding final 10 races.

Last year Hamlin was one of the strongest drivers in the Chase, taking top three finishes - including two wins - in six out of the 10 events. However two engine failures and a crash caused him three non-finishes that ruined his chances of contending for the title in the season finale.

Despite the likes of four-time champion Jeff Gordon picking the 29-year-old as favourite to beat Johnson, Hamlin does not think he is the target rivals will be aiming at from Sunday at Loudon.

"The #48 [Johnson] is definitely the favourite, with the #29 [Kevin Harvick] right behind him, in my eyes," said Hamlin. "One has shown the consistency to win the championship this year and the other has shown that when it comes to game time, he is ready to play. In my eyes, we haven't won one yet. We're 0-for-4, so it's time for us to step up."

However Hamlin does not deny that this season is probably his best chance ever to win his first NASCAR title. Besides Johnson, Hamlin is the only driver who has been in the Chase in every championship he has entered since the format was implemented.

"We set up our team at the beginning of the year to bring out our best race cars in September and late August and we've done that," said Hamlin. "The last three weeks, and including this week, our car has speed, and that goes a long way. It makes the drivers look good. It makes everything look good because you've executed a game plan and I feel like we've done that.

"The wins in the first part of the season, to me, were almost flukey in the sense that we didn't expect it and circumstances worked out and we won a bunch of races. But, we didn't have our best stuff at the race track.

"This is the point where we see where we stack up with our competition over the next few weeks and from what I've seen over the last couple of weeks, it looks like our stuff is going to be pretty competitive."

Hamlin, who was affected by an injured knee due to a torn ligament at the beginning of the year, has shown great speed at all kinds of tracks this season, taking wins on both short and intermediate ovals.

Two of his six wins this year came at Martinsville and Fontana, tracks that he will visit once again during the Chase. He also dominated at Atlanta two weeks ago until an engine failure put him out of the race.

"I think the biggest thing is we're competitive everywhere, competitive as in we can win races anywhere," Hamlin said. "We've shown we can win races and that means we've been up front a lot during the course of this season.

"For as many wins as we've had, we've had second and third-place finishes as well. That means we've been up front a lot during the season and that's what it's going to take to win the championship - a low average finish and making sure you have everything in line and prepared in case something does happen.

"Even if you have a bad race or two, if you consistently run in the top two to three positions every week and put yourself out there to possibly win a lot of races, I think you'll be a contender."

Hamlin's best finish in the Sprint Cup came in his rookie season, when he was third in the final standings.

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Harvick keen to take form into Chase

Kevin Harvick plans to keep the same approach that earned him the points lead during the regular season as he heads into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship play-off.

The Richard Childress Racing driver accumulated the most points during the first 26 races of the season, taking three wins that gave him third in the standings as the points were reset for the start of the Chase this weekend.

Harvick's consistency this season has been underlined by his 17 top 10 and 11 top five finishes thus far, more than any other title contender. Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson and Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin only beat him in number of victories, but failed to match him for overall performance consistency.

The Californian believes that if he manages to translate his performance from the regular season into the next 10 weeks, he should have a good shot at winning this year's title.

"For us, I think we just have to keep doing the things that we did up until this point," said Harvick. "We won a few races, had a lot of top fives and top 10 finishes.

"On the days where we really struggled, I felt like we, for the most part, made something out of those days. It was good enough to lead the points in the first 26 [races] so there is really no reason for us to change our strategy.

"I feel like the guys have done a great job of getting the cars prepared. They have built four or five new cars. We'll see what happens. Whether we win or lose, I think everybody has done everything we can control. We'll just go race now."

Harvick has finished in fourth place in the standings twice, and back in 2006 he also won three times before the Chase, then took two victories in the play-off. However, he believes this year to be his best shot ever at winning NASCAR's top title, his team being the only one having all its drivers in contention for the championship.

"I think we have the best chance to win just because of the mindset that we've been able to put ourselves in going into it first off; and that came from running well in the first 26 weeks and running through almost three Chases leading up until this point," said Harvick.

"Until you beat the guy that's won four times is one thing, but I think our shot at being able to win and have a chance to win the championship is there.

"It's just a matter of how it all unfolds in 10 weeks. All 12 teams are capable of getting on a hot streak at any time.

"We've all been here before. We've all won championships in some sort of racing division at some time. So it's just a matter of who puts these 10 weeks together and who gets on that hot streak."

Although not a good qualifier, that being his main weakness, Harvick has the best average of positions earned from start to finish during races this season among Chase contenders.

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Ekstrom to make oval debut

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom will make his oval debut in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series next weekend at Richmond, Red Bull Racing Team has announced.

The Swede will pilot the #83 Red Bull Toyota for a second time this year, having made his NASCAR debut in June. Ekstrom drove in the first road course event of the season at Infineon Raceway, where he finished 21st after starting 38th, leading the race for seven laps.

After racing in the DTM last weekend at Brands Hatch, the 32-year-old tested for Red Bull on an oval for the first time on Tuesday at the North Wilkesboro Speedway, a 0.625 oval in North Carolina, where he successfully completed his preparation to compete next Saturday in the final race of the regular season at the 0.75-mile Richmond International Raceway.

"To do a race on an oval is something different - it's a lot of laps and a lot of cars," said Ekstrom. "Racing in Richmond will be one of the biggest tasks of my life so far, but I feel I am ready for the challenge."

Ekstrom replaces Reed Sorenson, who has driven the #83 car for eighth of the past nine races. Brian Vickers started his fourth year at the wheel of the leading Red Bull entry but he has been sidelined from racing since May after being diagnosed with blood clots. Casey Mears, Boris Said and Ekstrom, have also driven the car this year.

"Mattias did a great job in Sonoma, and continues to impress at the oval track testing sessions," said Red Bull Racing Team's Jay Frye. "He has earned this opportunity, showing continued improvement every time he is behind the wheel."

Ekstrom is expected to be back behind the wheel of his DTM Audi A4 next week, when the series competes at Oschersleben. With four events remaining, he ranks fifth in the DTM standings.

Henrique returns to RacingEkstrom to make oval debut

Ekstrom to make oval debut

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom will make his oval debut in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series next weekend at Richmond, Red Bull Racing Team has announced.

The Swede will pilot the #83 Red Bull Toyota for a second time this year, having made his NASCAR debut in June. Ekstrom drove in the first road course event of the season at Infineon Raceway, where he finished 21st after starting 38th, leading the race for seven laps.

After racing in the DTM last weekend at Brands Hatch, the 32-year-old tested for Red Bull on an oval for the first time on Tuesday at the North Wilkesboro Speedway, a 0.625 oval in North Carolina, where he successfully completed his preparation to compete next Saturday in the final race of the regular season at the 0.75-mile Richmond International Raceway.

"To do a race on an oval is something different - it's a lot of laps and a lot of cars," said Ekstrom. "Racing in Richmond will be one of the biggest tasks of my life so far, but I feel I am ready for the challenge."

Ekstrom replaces Reed Sorenson, who has driven the #83 car for eighth of the past nine races. Brian Vickers started his fourth year at the wheel of the leading Red Bull entry but he has been sidelined from racing since May after being diagnosed with blood clots. Casey Mears, Boris Said and Ekstrom, have also driven the car this year.

"Mattias did a great job in Sonoma, and continues to impress at the oval track testing sessions," said Red Bull Racing Team's Jay Frye. "He has earned this opportunity, showing continued improvement every time he is behind the wheel."

Ekstrom is expected to be back behind the wheel of his DTM Audi A4 next week, when the series competes at Oschersleben. With four events remaining, he ranks fifth in the DTM standings.

Henrique returns to RacingEkstrom to make oval debut

Ekstrom expects NASCAR return soon

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom expects to return to the NASCAR Sprint Cup series soon after making his oval debut at Richmond last weekend with Red Bull Racing Team.

The Swede had a respectable run on Saturday night at the 0.75-mile Richmond International Raceway, finishing 31st but running close to a top-20 position in the first half of the race, eventually crossing the finish line ahead of series' regulars Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

While others trying the transition from different series into NASCAR have taken a more gradual approach in the past, the Red Bull driver ventured into racing on a short oval track at Cup level for his second stock car outing, but still managed to have a trouble-free run.

The 32-year-old said his experience last Saturday went beyond what he anticipated and made him earn more respect for the series. Although he has returned to Europe to drive again for Audi in the DTM, Ekstrom expects to be back in the Sprint Cup soon.

"I have to say for the first race on an oval, I was expecting it to be long and hard, but didn't expect it to be so action packed," Ekstrom said. "As soon as I started after the first restart, it was wild. That is nothing like what I have even come close to.

"I respect these guys even more who are doing this all the time -- the way you have to drive, stay focused on every single lap, hit your marks all the time, and tune the car up. [Saturday's race] is something to build on. I had a great experience and great support from the team. I am really appreciative of this chance.

"A big thanks to Red Bull and hopefully I will be back in NASCAR again soon."

Reed Sorenson will return behind the wheel of the #83 Red Bull Toyota next weekend at Loudon, but with only four races left in the DTM schedule, which finishes in late November at Shanghai, Ekstrom is expected to drive again for the team this season.

Messi expects Cesc arrivalEkstrom expects NASCAR return soon

Q and A with Mattias Ekstrom

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom is making his oval debut this weekend at Richmond International Raceway in what will be just his second outing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series.

While others before him have taken their first steps in stock car racing at lower levels, including Juan Pablo Montoya, the 32-year-old Swede has taken the bull by the horns and will race Saturday at the 0.75-mile oval in the final race before the Chase for the Cup kicks off.

AUTOSPORT spoke to the two-time winner of the Race of Champions ahead of his second NASCAR race.

Q. Why are you going straight into the Sprint Cup and not trying at a lower level before, like others have done in the past?

Mattias Ekstrom: I think it doesn't really matter wherever you start, if you start in Cup or Nationwide. Sure, if you start lower you have less competition but there's good guys at every level in any NASCAR series. I mean, look at Kyle Busch, he's driving in all of them and besides, Red Bull only has a team in Cup. I had to do this with Red Bull because I've been an athlete for them for many years and that's about how it was.

Q. So you think it's easier to make the transition from DTM to NASCAR than from an open-wheel car?

ME: For me I think it's easier to adapt to NASCAR because I've been used to touring cars. Open-wheel cars have never been my cup of tea and I've never been good at it, so for sure I'm better off trying to do this than maybe going to IndyCars, that's for sure.

Q. What moved you to do this for a second time?

ME: What I like the most is the racing. You have many competitive cars and many competitive teams and DTM is also competitive but you have only 20 cars and then you have to drive with a lot of respect for your team-mates. Here there's 43 cars and you've got to be good because if not, you're going to be way down. The competition is what really attracts me and I really enjoy that.

Q. Are you seriously considering a future in NASCAR? Are more races in the cards this year?

ME: I came here and did the race at Sonoma and said afterwards that I'd like to do an oval. What happens in the future nobody knows, but one thing is for sure, I will try to collect all the experience I can this weekend and I will do the best job I can and then we will see what happens. At the moment I have a contract with Audi which I'm happy for and I really enjoy the DTM and there are some races to go this year, but I decided I wanted to try this.

Q. You've spent some time with Montoya in your NASCAR visits. Is he trying to sell you into making the move full time?

ME: I don't call him Juan, but Sean. I liked his style when he was doing F1 and I've spent some time with him. He's a nice guy and very competitive. He's been giving me all the info, what I should think of, all the pros and cons. I appreciate all the help I got from him because without that I would be struggling a lot more. I also got some help from Jimmie Johnson and you need to have some friends in this world when you come as a rookie in order to survive. I think what is really important is to do this with a lot of passion.

Q. With four races remaining in the DTM and ranking fifth in points, what's your outlook on the rest of the season?

ME: The championship is out of my hands now and I can't win it by my own performance, it would have to be the others doing something bad. I'm going there to enjoy every race, to try to win more races and what happens with the championship I can't really control anyway. We will see.

Pep accepts Gunners decisionQ and A with Mattias Ekstrom

Ekstrom expects NASCAR return soon

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom expects to return to the NASCAR Sprint Cup series soon after making his oval debut at Richmond last weekend with Red Bull Racing Team.

The Swede had a respectable run on Saturday night at the 0.75-mile Richmond International Raceway, finishing 31st but running close to a top-20 position in the first half of the race, eventually crossing the finish line ahead of series' regulars Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

While others trying the transition from different series into NASCAR have taken a more gradual approach in the past, the Red Bull driver ventured into racing on a short oval track at Cup level for his second stock car outing, but still managed to have a trouble-free run.

The 32-year-old said his experience last Saturday went beyond what he anticipated and made him earn more respect for the series. Although he has returned to Europe to drive again for Audi in the DTM, Ekstrom expects to be back in the Sprint Cup soon.

"I have to say for the first race on an oval, I was expecting it to be long and hard, but didn't expect it to be so action packed," Ekstrom said. "As soon as I started after the first restart, it was wild. That is nothing like what I have even come close to.

"I respect these guys even more who are doing this all the time -- the way you have to drive, stay focused on every single lap, hit your marks all the time, and tune the car up. [Saturday's race] is something to build on. I had a great experience and great support from the team. I am really appreciative of this chance.

"A big thanks to Red Bull and hopefully I will be back in NASCAR again soon."

Reed Sorenson will return behind the wheel of the #83 Red Bull Toyota next weekend at Loudon, but with only four races left in the DTM schedule, which finishes in late November at Shanghai, Ekstrom is expected to drive again for the team this season.

Messi expects Cesc arrivalEkstrom to make oval debut

Ekstrom to make oval debut

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom will make his oval debut in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series next weekend at Richmond, Red Bull Racing Team has announced.

The Swede will pilot the #83 Red Bull Toyota for a second time this year, having made his NASCAR debut in June. Ekstrom drove in the first road course event of the season at Infineon Raceway, where he finished 21st after starting 38th, leading the race for seven laps.

After racing in the DTM last weekend at Brands Hatch, the 32-year-old tested for Red Bull on an oval for the first time on Tuesday at the North Wilkesboro Speedway, a 0.625 oval in North Carolina, where he successfully completed his preparation to compete next Saturday in the final race of the regular season at the 0.75-mile Richmond International Raceway.

"To do a race on an oval is something different - it's a lot of laps and a lot of cars," said Ekstrom. "Racing in Richmond will be one of the biggest tasks of my life so far, but I feel I am ready for the challenge."

Ekstrom replaces Reed Sorenson, who has driven the #83 car for eighth of the past nine races. Brian Vickers started his fourth year at the wheel of the leading Red Bull entry but he has been sidelined from racing since May after being diagnosed with blood clots. Casey Mears, Boris Said and Ekstrom, have also driven the car this year.

"Mattias did a great job in Sonoma, and continues to impress at the oval track testing sessions," said Red Bull Racing Team's Jay Frye. "He has earned this opportunity, showing continued improvement every time he is behind the wheel."

Ekstrom is expected to be back behind the wheel of his DTM Audi A4 next week, when the series competes at Oschersleben. With four events remaining, he ranks fifth in the DTM standings.

Henrique returns to RacingEkstrom to make oval debut

Ekstrom open to NASCAR future

Mattias Ekstrom is not closing the door on doing further NASCAR outings this year, and also on considering a future in the Sprint Cup series.

The Swede will compete for a second time this year at NASCAR's top level this weekend, driving the #83 Red Bull Toyota at Richmond after first driving for the team last June at Sears Point, where he finished 21st after leading the race.

The 32-year-old has followed NASCAR for the past few years and had already pursued the idea of racing on an oval for some time, with circumstances playing into his hands this season to enable him to do so.

Red Bull's regular driver Brian Vickers was sidelined from racing after being diagnosed with blood clots last May, opening the chance for a number of drivers to fill in at the wheel of the #83 Toyota Camry for the rest of the season.

Although Reed Sorenson, who has driven in most races since then, is expected to return to the car next weekend at Loudon, Red Bull officials did not close the door on the possibility of Ekstrom driving for the team again this season.

The two-time DTM champion has a contract with Audi which links him to the manufacturer for now, but beyond that he remains open about his future.

"I came here and did the race at Sonoma and said afterwards that I'd like to do an oval," Ekstrom told AUTOSPORT. "What happens in the future nobody knows, but one thing is for sure, I will try to collect all the experience I can this weekend and I will do the best job I can and then we will see what happens.

"At the moment I have a contract with Audi which I'm happy for and I really enjoy the DTM and there are some races to go this year, but I decided I wanted to try this."

Ekstrom is fond of the close competition of NASCAR, which is what attracted him to compete in the Sprint Cup when given the chance. While the DTM also remains a very competitive championship, he enjoys having the chance to compete in a bigger field and with fewer team-mates.

"What I like the most is the racing," Ekstrom said. "You have many competitive cars and many competitive teams and DTM is also competitive but you have only 20 cars and then you have to drive with a lot of respect for your team-mates.

"Here there's 43 cars and you've got to be good because if not, you're going to be way down. The competition is what really attracts me and I really enjoy that."

NASCAR convert Juan Pablo Montoya has been in close contact with Ekstrom on his NASCAR visits and has given him advise on his transition to the heavy but powerful Cup cars and the series itself.

The Red Bull racer appreciates Montoya's input, while he has also looked for advice from other top drivers in the series.

"I liked [Montoya's] style when he was doing F1 and I've spent some time with him," said Ekstrom. "He's a nice guy and very competitive. He's been giving me all the info, what I should think of, all the pros and cons. I appreciate all the help I got from him because without that I would be struggling a lot more.

"I also got some help from Jimmie Johnson and I mean, you need to have some friends in this world when you come as a rookie in order to survive. I think what is really important is to do this with a lot of passion."

Ekstrom showed good consistency and quick progress during Friday's practice sessions at the 0.75-mile Richmond International Raceway, but struggled in qualifying and will start from 42nd on the grid on his oval debut on Saturday.

Following the race he is expected to return to Europe to compete in the next round of the DTM at Oschersleben.

Henrique returns to RacingQ and A with Mattias Ekstrom

Bowyer confident of Chase spot

Clint Bowyer remains confident he will secure his place in this year's NASCAR Sprint Cup championship play-off on Saturday night at Richmond.

The Richard Childress Racing driver is the only one inside the top 12 in the standings whose place in the Chase is not set yet despite a reasonable gap to Ryan Newman, who ranks 13th in the points.

The top 10 are already locked in, while 11th-placed Greg Biffle just needs to finish 42nd or lead a lap in order to mathematically secure his place in the play-off.

Bowyer needs to finish 28th or better this weekend to grab the final spot in the Chase, without having to rely on the results of Newman and Earnhardt Ganassi's Jamie McMurray, who still has a mathematical, yet slim chance of beating his RCR rival to 12th place.

"With a 117 point lead, whatever it is, that is a pretty good pad," said Bowyer. "We've just got to go out, with any luck at all, we'll be in this thing. If we're not, I'd say it was not meant to be. This is an important race track for us. It is one of my best race tracks."

For his part Newman refused to get caught up in the maths of the points and said he will regard Saturday's race the same as any other. His only real chance to grab a last-minute Chase opportunity would come if Bowyer hit trouble but Newman would still need to get a top finish in order to profit from it.

"I don't know what has to happen but I know that I'm just going to do my best, try my hardest and where we end up is where we end up," Newman said. "Just like I said last week, I can't expect to make it up in two races, I can't expect to make it up in one race, I try my best and if the math works and success happens so be it."

If Bowyer makes the Chase, Richard Childress Racing would be the only outfit with all its drivers in the championship play-off. Last year none of the RCR drivers were in contention for the title and Bowyer is confident that this year his squad has a legitimate shot at bringing Jimmie Johnson's title streak to an end.

He reckons however that he needs to get more solid finishes in order to match his team-mate Kevin Harvick, who leads the standings heading into the final race of the regular season.

"You look at our performance all year long at RCR, it has been very good," said Bowyer. "These race tracks, if you look at just the #33 car, within these last 10 races, we've run well at the first time around at most of them. Actually ran in the top five.

"What we've got to get better at is getting the finish like my team-mate Kevin Harvick has. He's done a great job at showing the potential of RCR cars all season long. If Jeff [Burton] and I can match his success early in these last 10 races and put it together for 10 races, we're going to have a shot at winning the championship at RCR."

Bowyer has been in the Chase twice, finishing third in the championship in 2007 after claiming his first Sprint Cup win in the first race of the play-off.

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Q and A with Mattias Ekstrom

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom is making his oval debut this weekend at Richmond International Raceway in what will be just his second outing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series.

While others before him have taken their first steps in stock car racing at lower levels, including Juan Pablo Montoya, the 32-year-old Swede has taken the bull by the horns and will race Saturday at the 0.75-mile oval in the final race before the Chase for the Cup kicks off.

AUTOSPORT spoke to the two-time winner of the Race of Champions ahead of his second NASCAR race.

Q. Why are you going straight into the Sprint Cup and not trying at a lower level before, like others have done in the past?

Mattias Ekstrom: I think it doesn't really matter wherever you start, if you start in Cup or Nationwide. Sure, if you start lower you have less competition but there's good guys at every level in any NASCAR series. I mean, look at Kyle Busch, he's driving in all of them and besides, Red Bull only has a team in Cup. I had to do this with Red Bull because I've been an athlete for them for many years and that's about how it was.

Q. So you think it's easier to make the transition from DTM to NASCAR than from an open-wheel car?

ME: For me I think it's easier to adapt to NASCAR because I've been used to touring cars. Open-wheel cars have never been my cup of tea and I've never been good at it, so for sure I'm better off trying to do this than maybe going to IndyCars, that's for sure.

Q. What moved you to do this for a second time?

ME: What I like the most is the racing. You have many competitive cars and many competitive teams and DTM is also competitive but you have only 20 cars and then you have to drive with a lot of respect for your team-mates. Here there's 43 cars and you've got to be good because if not, you're going to be way down. The competition is what really attracts me and I really enjoy that.

Q. Are you seriously considering a future in NASCAR? Are more races in the cards this year?

ME: I came here and did the race at Sonoma and said afterwards that I'd like to do an oval. What happens in the future nobody knows, but one thing is for sure, I will try to collect all the experience I can this weekend and I will do the best job I can and then we will see what happens. At the moment I have a contract with Audi which I'm happy for and I really enjoy the DTM and there are some races to go this year, but I decided I wanted to try this.

Q. You've spent some time with Montoya in your NASCAR visits. Is he trying to sell you into making the move full time?

ME: I don't call him Juan, but Sean. I liked his style when he was doing F1 and I've spent some time with him. He's a nice guy and very competitive. He's been giving me all the info, what I should think of, all the pros and cons. I appreciate all the help I got from him because without that I would be struggling a lot more. I also got some help from Jimmie Johnson and you need to have some friends in this world when you come as a rookie in order to survive. I think what is really important is to do this with a lot of passion.

Q. With four races remaining in the DTM and ranking fifth in points, what's your outlook on the rest of the season?

ME: The championship is out of my hands now and I can't win it by my own performance, it would have to be the others doing something bad. I'm going there to enjoy every race, to try to win more races and what happens with the championship I can't really control anyway. We will see.

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