Having the right chemistry paying off for Braun Racing's Jason Leffler
Braun Racing's Jason Leffler is third in the NASCAR Nationwide Series standings heading into Saturday's race at Kentucky Speedway. // Gary Shook, NASCAR Scene
If you’re looking for a model of consistency these days, look no further than Nationwide Series driver Jason Leffler.
Leffler, who competes full time for Braun Racing in NASCAR’s No. 2 division, has posted top-10s in each of the last eight races. Aside from a 33rd-place finish in the season-opening race at Daytona, Leffler has come home no worse than 13th all year.
Pretty good considering the Long Beach, Calif., native competes most weekends against a host of Sprint Cup regulars, including Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, both of whom are running the full 2009 Nationwide slate.
In fact, Busch and Edwards are the only drivers that Leffler trails in the standings, despite being tied with them with a series-leading 10 top-10s.
Leffler looks no further than the quality of his equipment this year and the chemistry between him and first-year crew chief Scott Zipadelli as the source of his success – something he hopes to continue in Saturday’s Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway.
“My cars have been real consistent,” Leffler said. “Of course, I'm knocking on wood right now [to] make sure we keep that streak going. But Scott Zipadelli came on over the winter; he's just done a tremendous job. We've had bright points at Braun, the [No.] 38 team, the last few years, but the consistency wasn't there. Scott has really brought that to the team. Between him and Trent Owens [crew chief for the No. 10 Braun team] working really well together, both teams at Braun on the whole are doing really good. Yeah, my team is a lot more consistent. My cars drive more consistent; they've been really mechanically sound.
“And another thing is ..., the guys on pit road have done a great job for us all year long. So all those things coming together. It has showed up on the race track and in our finishes.”
The 33-year-old Leffler has also been encouraged to see non full-time Cup drivers running up front a little more as of late.
Cup part-timers Brad Keselowski (JR Motorsports in Nationwide) and Mike Bliss (Phoenix Racing) found victory lane in the two races before Busch broke that streak last weekend at Nashville. Before Bliss’ breakthrough at Lowe’s Motor Speedway last month, full-time Cup drivers had won each of the season’s first 10 races.
“I think as a whole maybe some of the top Nationwide-only teams are catching the big Cup teams, just for the fact, you know, they're concentrating on the COT car and we're concentrating on our Nationwide car, and they're totally different now,” Leffler said. “Maybe some of the technology, you know, it has spread apart; some of the things don't apply. Some things do, though, too. …
“But I do realistically think a Nationwide-only team can compete on a consistent basis. I mean, we're doing it every week.”
Of course, beating Cup drivers is an altogether different matter than competing with them. Leffler is well aware of this.
“It's tough to win a race in any series,” said Leffler, who has finished a season-best second on two occasions this season. “Everything has to go your way. We've been close this year at winning some races.
“Hopefully, we can win a few through the summer here and validate the Nationwide-only teams, show everybody we're here for real, you know.”
Whether anyone believes Leffler and his team are contenders or not, he still has a shot at the 2009 Nationwide title.
And that’s his main focus going forward.
Entering Kentucky, he is 188 points behind leader Busch and 123 behind second-place Edwards.
“I feel like once we get the first win of the year for our team, we can get a couple more and just keep, you know, chiseling away at a run for the championship,” Leffler said.
