After being fired from Tony Stewart's No. 14 team with only a few races left in the year last season, crew chief Darian Grubb never wavered in his commitment to Stewart-Haas Racing and led Smoke to his third Cup Series title.
Grubb was quickly scooped up by Joe Gibbs Racing to replace Mike Ford atop Denny Hamlin's pit box. And it didn't take long for this decision to start paying dividends.
Hamlin appeared to have a car to race for the win in Daytona one week ago and he led the final 58 laps of Sunday's Subway Fresh Fit 500 en route to his first victory of the young 2012 season.
When the race began, Mark Martin led the field to the green flag before surrendering the lead to Tony Stewart on lap 2.
Clint Bowyer brought out the first two cautions when he blew out two consecutive right front tires on his 5 Hour Energy Camry, but after that the race went green for a while.
Kasey Kahne appeared to have the car to beat early on. He won the fall race at PIR last season for Red Bull Racing, so with Hendrick Motorsports equipment that is far superior to Red Bull's he was a lock to be a serious contender. That is, until he got loose off turn four, overcorrected and stuffed the right front of his Farmers Insurance Chevy in the wall. Kahen later said the wreck was 100% his fault and said that he was just excited about winning his first race for his new Hendrick team and that he just needed to calm down.
There were several engine failures throughout the day. Jamie McMurray, Jeff Burton and David Reutimann (having a great run for his scrappy, underfunded Tommy Baldwin team) all lost their ECR powerplants at different points in the race. Marcos Ambrose also lost his FR9 engine at the end of the race.
Another key to this race was fuel mileage. Races at Phoenix almost always come down to who can save the most gas to make it to lap 312. But drivers have never had to save fuel with electronic fuel injection before, so when Stewart (one of the best at saving fuel in a car with a four-barrel carburetor) shut his Chevy off to save gas, it wouldn't refire.
Speculation is that because this new EFI technology controls how much fuel goes into which cylinder electronically, it would be harder to refire. With a carburetor, there is always a continuous flow of raw fuel being sprayed into the cylinders, making the car easier to refire.
In the closing laps, Hamlin led Kevin Harvick by a few carlengths. Harvick, who had been one of the best cars all day, got to where he could move Hamlin up the track and make things interesting, but he ran out of fuel off turn two with just two laps to go. He still managed to beat Greg Biffle for second, but Hamlin was home free.
So now the traveling circus heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Carl Edwards will be looking to defend his lone win from last season and stop the No. 11 team, which is now on a role and could prove dangerous later in the season.
Grubb was quickly scooped up by Joe Gibbs Racing to replace Mike Ford atop Denny Hamlin's pit box. And it didn't take long for this decision to start paying dividends.
Hamlin appeared to have a car to race for the win in Daytona one week ago and he led the final 58 laps of Sunday's Subway Fresh Fit 500 en route to his first victory of the young 2012 season.
When the race began, Mark Martin led the field to the green flag before surrendering the lead to Tony Stewart on lap 2.
Clint Bowyer brought out the first two cautions when he blew out two consecutive right front tires on his 5 Hour Energy Camry, but after that the race went green for a while.
Kasey Kahne appeared to have the car to beat early on. He won the fall race at PIR last season for Red Bull Racing, so with Hendrick Motorsports equipment that is far superior to Red Bull's he was a lock to be a serious contender. That is, until he got loose off turn four, overcorrected and stuffed the right front of his Farmers Insurance Chevy in the wall. Kahen later said the wreck was 100% his fault and said that he was just excited about winning his first race for his new Hendrick team and that he just needed to calm down.
There were several engine failures throughout the day. Jamie McMurray, Jeff Burton and David Reutimann (having a great run for his scrappy, underfunded Tommy Baldwin team) all lost their ECR powerplants at different points in the race. Marcos Ambrose also lost his FR9 engine at the end of the race.
Another key to this race was fuel mileage. Races at Phoenix almost always come down to who can save the most gas to make it to lap 312. But drivers have never had to save fuel with electronic fuel injection before, so when Stewart (one of the best at saving fuel in a car with a four-barrel carburetor) shut his Chevy off to save gas, it wouldn't refire.
Speculation is that because this new EFI technology controls how much fuel goes into which cylinder electronically, it would be harder to refire. With a carburetor, there is always a continuous flow of raw fuel being sprayed into the cylinders, making the car easier to refire.
In the closing laps, Hamlin led Kevin Harvick by a few carlengths. Harvick, who had been one of the best cars all day, got to where he could move Hamlin up the track and make things interesting, but he ran out of fuel off turn two with just two laps to go. He still managed to beat Greg Biffle for second, but Hamlin was home free.
So now the traveling circus heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Carl Edwards will be looking to defend his lone win from last season and stop the No. 11 team, which is now on a role and could prove dangerous later in the season.
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