Thursday, November 14, 2013

Homestead-Miami Driver Chassis Selections: 2013 Ford EcoBoost 400

Ryan Newman using winning Brickyard chassis this week at Homestead
#2-Brad Keselowski: Primary Chassis for Homestead is PRS-866, which last raced at Dover finishing 37th. The backup chassis is PRS-854 which was a backup at several races but not raced.

#9-Marcos Ambrose: The #9 DeWalt team will bring chassis No. 840 to the season finale this weekend. The team ran this chassis at four races this season. Ambrose brought home the chassis best finish of ninth at Kansas in October. Ambrose has five Cup starts at the South Florida track with a best finish of 13th which he tallied last season. He also has two Nationwide starts at the track and brought home a 10th-place finish in 2007.

#10-Danica Patrick: will pilot Chassis No. 10-828 which is a new car that has not been used previously.

#14-Mark Martin: Chassis No. 14-827: This car debuted two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth with driver Mark Martin. The AAA Texas 500 was the first time this car turned wheels on the racetrack, although it had been tested in the wind tunnel numerous times. Chassis No. 14-827 qualified 33rd and rallied to a solid 11th-place finish. It was quickly turned around for its second career start this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

#15-Clint Bowyer: Primary chassis No. 738 finished 27th at Las Vegas, 11th at Darlington and third at Kentucky. Backup chassis No. 733 raced at Phoenix in March and raced at Pocono.

#16-Greg Biffle: and the Matt Puccia led #16 3M Fan Appreciation Ford Fusion team will bring primary chassis RK-862, which first hit the track at the second Pocono race and more recently has raced at Chicago and then at Charlott in October, finishing 16th. The backup chassis is RK-859 which last ran at Indy and finished 24th. Biffle won at Homestead three years in row, starting in 2004. In addition to his three wins, Biffle has four top-five and five top-10 finishes at the 1.5-mile track.

#17-Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: and the #17 Ford EcoBoost team will be using primary chassis RK-820 which last ran at Kansas and finished 30th. The backup chassis RK- 811 which raced numerous times in 2012 as the #99.

#22-Joey Logano: Primary Chassis is PRS-865 for Homestead, which last ran at Dover and finished 3rd. The Backup Chassis is PRS-842 which last raced at Bristol finishing 5th.

#27-Paul Menard will pilot chassis No. 428 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This #27 Menards / Moen Chevy was raced previously this season at Indianapolis, Michigan, Chicago and Charlotte. Menard has seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Homestead-Miami Speedway. His best start of 16th came in 2010 and best finish of 11th came in last year's season-ending event. The Wisconsin native has completed 1,864 of 1,870 laps attempted (99.7 percent) at the Florida track.

#29-Kevin Harvick: will pilot chassis No. 438 from the RCR stable at Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend. This is a new car that will make its first laps on track this weekend. In 12 starts at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Harvick has earned five top fives and 10 top 10s. He has completed 100 percent of the laps run in NSCS competition (3,208 of 3,209) and has an average start of 14.7 and average finish of 7.9. Sunday s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway will mark the end of a chapter in Harvick s racing career his final race for Richard Childress Racing. In his 13 years in the NSCS, Harvick has earned 23 wins, 100 top fives and 208 top 10s. In addition, he s also earned two NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) titles and 35 NNS wins for the team during his career.

#31-Jeff Burton will race chassis No. 426 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable this weekend at Homestead. This #31 Caterpillar Chevy was utilized earlier this season at Michigan in June, Indianapolis in July, Chicago in September and Charlotte in October. Sunday's event marks Burton's 15th start at the 1.5-mile oval and 691st-career Sprint Cup Series entry. He has amassed four top-five and six top-10 finishes and led 29 laps at the Homestead, Fla.-based race track.

#39-Ryan Newman will pilot Chassis No. 39-733 at Homestaed, a workhorse of the No. 39 fleet, chassis No. 39-733 debuted at Indianapolis in July 2012, when Newman recorded a seventh-place finish. The crew turned the car around in just a couple of days and took it to Pocono, where it finished sixth. Two weeks later, the chassis was back on track at Michigan, where it finished eighth. The chassis earned its first top-five finish at Chicago. The chassis next raced three weeks later at Dover. The chassis made its last start of 2012 at Kansas in October, when Newman was involved in an incident that forced him to retire from the event prematurely. Chassis No. 39-733 was outfitted with a new front clip and a Chevrolet SS body over the offseason and saw its first laps of 2013 at Kansas in April, when Newman finished 14th. He then raced this Chevrolet SS to a 10th-place finish at Darlington in May. Newman again raced Chassis 39-733 at Pocono in June, when he recorded a fifth-place finish. He was in contention to score another top-10 with Chassis 39-733 at Kentucky in June, but a late-race restart saw him shuffled to 14th when the checkered flag waved. Then, Newman qualified the car on the pole and led 45 laps en-route to earning his first win of the 2013 season in July s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. A week later, Newman overcame a series of slow stops on pit road at Pocono to record a fourth-place finish. The #39 team then utilized Chassis 39-733 at Michigan in August, when Newman fought through an ill-handling condition to finish 13th. Most recently, Chassis 39-733 was raced at Chicago, where Newman was able to kick off the 2013 Chase for the Sprint Cup with a 10th-place finish.

#43-Aric Almirola:: The #43 Smithfield team will bring chassis No. 864 to the season finale. The #43 team raced this chassis at Chicago in September and Charlotte in October with a best finish of 13th at Chicago. Almirola has three starts at the mile-and-a-half track in the Sprint Cup Series. He scored his best finish when filling in for Kasey Kahne at Richard Petty Motorsports in 2010 when he crossed the finishline in fourth. Last season, he started fifth but ran out of gas on the last lap and finished seventh. He also has six total starts in the Nationwide and truck series where he scored one top-five and two top-10s.

#47-A.J. Allmendinger Crew chief Brian Burns will bring Chassis 708 to Homestead: "The car we will have at Homestead is 708," crew chief Brian Burns said. "AJ raced it at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway. It is only the third race so it is still a fairly new car. He is familiar with it and we should unload well. We have made some gains on intermediate tracks and should have a pretty good baseline package after learning some things at Texas Motor Speedway."

#48-Jimmie Johnson: will drive chassis No. 797 at Homestead, which last ran and won at Texas in November. And also won at Dover in Sept. Chassis No. 824 serves as the backup.

#55-Elliott Sadler: Primary 792 which has not raced but tested at Homestead on Oct 29-30. In 12 races at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Sadler owns a top-10 finish and has led 18 laps. In 433 Sprint Cup starts he s won three races, eight poles and led 1,244 laps. In 229 Nationwide starts he s won nine races, 15 poles and led 1,422 laps. Sunday marks his fourth race in the No. 55 this season.

#88-Dale Earnhardt Jr.: crew chief Steve Letarte and the #88 team will unload Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 88-822. Earnhardt first raced this chassis to an eighth-place finish at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway in October. Earnhardt tested this chassis at Homestead in October. In 13 Sprint Cup starts at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Earnhardt has led 93 laps and recorded one top-10 finish and four top-15 results. He scored his best finish -- 10th -- at Homestead in the 2012 season finale.

#99-Carl Edwards.:RK- 854 last ran at Charlotte. RK 831 last ran at Kansas.

- compiled by Jayski.com

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