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Tag: Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup

  • “Bad Brad” Leads the Way in Opening Practice

    “Bad Brad” Leads the Way in Opening Practice

    Brad Keselowski was fastest in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series opening practice on Friday at Kansas Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Team Penske Ford set the fastest lap in first practice with a time of 27.785 and a speed of 194.349 mph. Austin Dillon followed in second in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 27.803 and a speed of 194.224 mph. Matt Kenseth placed his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in third with a time of 27.814 and a speed of 194.147 mph. Ryan Newman timed his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in fourth with a time of 27.879 and a speed of 193.694 mph. Brian Scott rounded out the top-five in his No. 33 Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet with a time of 27.885 and a speed of 193.653 mph.

    Martin Truex Jr. of Furniture Row Racing, Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports, Kurt Busch of Stewart-Haas Racing, Carl Edwards of Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing rounded out the top-10.

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. of Hendrick Motorsports timed in at 11th while teammate Jeff Gordon timed in 13th.

    Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing timed in 14th. Team Penske driver Joey Logano timed in 18th. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick  was the lowest-finishing Chase driver in 27th.

  • Hollywood Casino 400 Preview

    Hollywood Casino 400 Preview

    Sing a song about the heartland because the NASCAR convoy is rolling into Kansas.

    This week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Kansas Speedway for the Hollywood Casino 400. It’s the 31st race of the season, fifth of the Chase and second of the Contender Round. The motto for this weekend is simple: Win this weekend, or race for your life at Talladega.

    Kansas Speedway is a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) intermediate track located in Kansas City, Kan. It’s played host to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series since 2001. I recently re-watched that 2001 race and I forgot that it was a wreck fest. That first race had 13 caution flags for 70 laps (26.2 percent of the race), 19 lead changes among 11 different drivers, lasted three hours, 37 minutes and 19 seconds, an average speed of 110.576 mph and was won by one Jeffrey Michael Gordon – that is his middle name – on his way to his fourth Sprint Cup Series championship. It was also his last win for the next 31 races.

    When NASCAR returned in 2002, it was just as much a wreck fest. There were 11 cautions for 52 laps (19.5 percent of the race), 13 lead changes among 10 different drivers, lasted three hours, 21 minutes and 16 seconds, an average speed of 119.394 mph and was won again by Jeff Gordon. This race stands out for two reasons: Sterling Marlin’s wreck on the backstretch that broke his neck and ended his time as a top level NASCAR driver and Jimmie Johnson became the first ever rookie to lead the Sprint Cup Series points.

    Despite 19 races, Kansas hasn’t had that “marquee” moment that defines it or gives the track a personality. When you think of Daytona, you think speed, packs, carnage and glory. When you think of Bristol, you think small, fast and action-packed. When you think of Darlington, you think tradition, old school and black marks. But Kansas just doesn’t have the defining trait that makes it stand out. It’s basically just another track on the schedule.

    However, I could argue that Kansas is close to being a track for carnage and mayhem. Since the in-season repave in 2012, the number of cautions we see in a race jumped into the double-digit average. In the last six races at Kansas, we’ve had 14, eight, 15, eight, eight and nine cautions for an average of 10.3 cautions per race. Of those 62 cautions, 51 have been for wrecks. The first caution of the race flies on average at lap 28. The earliest the first caution has come out in those six races has been on the second lap in the Chase race in 2013. The latest the first caution has flown has been on lap 72 in last year’s Chase race. The final caution flies on average with 35 laps to go. The furthest from the final lap the last green flag flew was with 64 laps to go in May of 2014. The closest to the final lap the last green flag flew was with six laps to go this past May.

    It’s also worth noting that there’s only been one green-white-checker finish at Kansas Speedway.

    As I mentioned in my piece on why the Contender Round favored Jeff Gordon, his top-10 average is his eighth best of any track and his top-five average is his third best. He finished fourth here back in May and I think Jeff Gordon could battle for the win this Sunday. Being at the bottom of the Chase grid, I could expect to see Matt Kenseth throwing caution to the wind and racing up front. I can’t discount Kevin Harvick. Hell, it would be wise for defending race winner Joey Logano to win this race to force his rivals to race for their lives next week at Talladega.

    So who will win and not have to worry about Talladega? Find out this Sunday at 1:30 p.m. on NBC. You can also hear the radio broadcast on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

    Joe Moore, Jeff Striegle and Rusty Wallace will work the booth. Dave Moody will work Turns 1 and 2 from a billboard outside Turn 2. Mike Bagley will work turns 3 and 4 from a billboard outside Turn 3. Alex Hayden, Winston Kelley and Steve Post will work pit road.

    *Lineup is always subject to change.

  • Weekend Schedule for Kansas

    Weekend Schedule for Kansas

    Here’s the weekend lineup for the NASCAR weekend at Kansas Speedway.

    The Sprint Cup Series hits the track first on Friday at 1:00 p.m. on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra. The Sprint Cup practice sessions can also be heard on MRN. I’ve seen some conflicting reports on this with some outlets saying NBCSN and others saying CNBC. The XFINITY Series hits the track at 2:30 p.m. for their first practice session. That can be seen on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra. They’ll be on track again for their final practice session at 4:30 p.m. on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra. Sprint Cup Series qualifying begins at 6:00 p.m. on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra. You can also hear the radio broadcast on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio (subscription required for the latter). Forty-four cars are entered for the race, so one will fail to make the field.

    The Sprint Cup cars hit the track on Saturday for their second practice session at 11:30 a.m. on CNBC and NBC Sports Live Extra. XFINITY Series qualifying starts at 12:30 p.m. on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra. With 41 cars on the entry list, one will fail to make the show. Sprint Cup Series final practice starts at 2:30 p.m. on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra. Countdown to Green for the XFINITY race starts at 3:30 p.m. on NBCSN. The green flag flies for the Kansas Lottery 300 at approximately 4:18 p.m. on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra. You can also hear the radio broadcast on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

    NASCAR Raceday hits the air Sunday at 11:00 a.m. on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports Go. NASCAR America Sunday starts at 1:00 p.m. on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra. Countdown to Green starts at 1:30 p.m. on NBC. Motor Racing Network hits the air at 1:30 p.m. Pre-race ceremonies begin at 2:00 p.m. The green flag for the Hollywood Casino 400 flies at approximately 2:31 p.m. on NBC and NBC Sports Live Extra. You can also hear the radio broadcast on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. The post-race show starts shortly after the conclusion of the race on NBCSN. NASCAR Victory Lap starts at 6:30 p.m. on NBCSN. NASCAR Victory Lane starts at midnight on Fox Sports 1.

  • “The White-Zone” Get Over Your Hatred of the Chase

    “The White-Zone” Get Over Your Hatred of the Chase

    “The white-zone is for immediate loading and unloading…” and it’s time NASCAR fans load up their cars, find the nearest anti-Chase bridge and get over it.

    For some reason, even after 11 years, there’s still a notable section of the NASCAR populace that can’t accept the fact that the Chase is never going away. I understood the distaste for it back in 2004 when it was a whole new idea of determining the champion, but now it’s just gotten to the point of being on par with those who hate dubbed anime with a passion…It makes no sense!

    I’ve heard just about every excuse for being against it. “It’s not tradition.” “It’s artificial entertainment.” “It’s killing the sport.” “It cost the Red Sox Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.” Okay, I made up that last one, but you get my point.

    For those who say it’s “not tradition,” traditions change. Once upon a time, it was a tradition in NASCAR to race back to the caution. What started as the leaders running at a slightly reduced speed to allow any lapped car to get their lap back turned into a fustercluck of leaders speeding back to keep certain cars from getting back.

    On Sept. 14, 2003, Dale Jarrett got turned by Jimmy Spencer and hit the wall driver-side at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. His car came to a stop in the middle of the track. Meanwhile on the backstretch, race leader Bill Elliott, Ryan Newman and Michael Waltrip slowed down to a reduced rate while Bobby Labonte, Kurt Busch and Jimmy Spencer rocketed by trying to get back their lap. That gaggle of cars had taken up most of the track exiting Turn 4 with Jarrett’s No. 88 UPS Ford sitting lifeless in the middle of the track.

    Wally Dallenbach put it best. “Here’s the bad deal. You got a car sitting in the race track right now and these guys are racing back to the yellow. That’s just…ugh I hate that!”

    NASCAR had always maintained that the leader should be the first one back to the line and let him decide who should get his lap back. Now Labonte had made a deal with Elliott to let him back on the lead lap the next caution and Bill slowed down to let him pass. Then Jimmy Spencer, being Jimmy Spencer, decided to fly up to the leader and almost spun Waltrip out to get by.

    This incident, and a string of close calls in the 2003 season, finally made NASCAR realize someone is going to get killed if this keeps going and they banned the practice of racing back to the yellow the next week at Dover.

    With no social media at the time, I don’t know how well received it was with the NASCAR fans, but 12 years later, I don’t hear anyone clambering for the return of racing back to the caution.

    With the “it’s artificial entertainment” argument, someone will have to explain that to me. I don’t understand it. If you’re saying it’s not natural, no sport on Earth is natural entertainment. All sports on Earth are artificial entertainment. Someone didn’t just one day plant a seed into the ground and suddenly, Bristol Motor Speedway popped out of the ground. Until someone shows me a field of Sprint Cup cars growing out of the ground, it’s not natural. Even the traditional method of determining a champion is not natural. A human created an arbitrary points system, thereby making it artificial.

    For the “it’s killing the sport” argument, that holds no weight until you present an academic study proving that the sagging attendance and diminishing ratings correlates with the Chase.

    In conclusion, traditions change, all sports are artificial and there’s no evidence to support the hypothesis that the Chase is killing the sport.

    If you honestly think the old way of determining the champion is better than the Chase, that’s your right to think as such. But after 11 years, the Chase isn’t going away. It’s here to stay. The current incarnation of the Chase is the best and it’ll carry this sport for a number of years.

    My plane is ready to board, so I must wrap this up. Until next time, I’ll leave you with this fact. Heart attacks are more likely to happen on a Monday.

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  • Charlotte In the Rear-View

    Charlotte In the Rear-View

    It’s time to put a nice little bow on everything that happened in NASCAR’s backyard.

    This weekend, the NASCAR traveling carnival made its annual October stop at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Bank of America 500. It was the 30th race of the season, fourth race of the Chase and first of the Contender Round.

    It was supposed to go green just past 7:00 p.m. on Saturday night but unyielding rain showers forced NASCAR to push the race to the following day at 12:30 p.m.

    Under clear blue Carolina skies, Matt Kenseth led the field to the green flag at 12:32 p.m. Eastern time. The field didn’t make it halfway down the backstretch before the first caution of the race flew for debris on the front. It came from the No. 23 BK Racing Toyota of Jeb Burton when the field accordioned back and he rammed the back of the No. 35 Front Row Motorsports Ford of Cole Whitt.

    The race restarted on lap five and it remained under green until the competition caution on lap 26. J.J. Yeley was tagged for his crew being over the wall too soon and restarted the race from the rear of the field. The race restarted on lap 31. Yeley was posted for an unapproved adjustment on his car during his pit stop. He was forced to hit pit road and fix the problem.

    Kasey Kahne made contact with the wall on lap 41, pitted from 12th and rejoined the race in 41st two laps down. It went from bad to worse when he suffered a right-front tire blowout and slammed the wall on lap 61. This brought out the third caution of the race.

    Kahne said that he didn’t “know why either one of those tires went down. Obviously, we were doing something wrong to have two tire failures like that. It’s discouraging, but that’s the way it goes.”

    Greg Biffle was busted for speeding on pit road and restarted the race from the rear of the field.

    The race restarted on lap 66. Four laps later, Carl Edwards tapped the back of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and sent him into the wall. Earnhardt eventually cut down his right-front tire and slammed the wall a few laps later. This brought out the fourth caution of the race.

    He said that Edwards “got a great run on us and drove down into one and got in the back of us a little bit. I don’t know if I cut him off or not. But he drove in there pretty hard and ran over the left rear quarter panel of the car and got in the fence.”

    Joey Logano opted to stay out under the caution and assumed the lead.

    After the race restarted on lap 81, not much really happened. The lead only changed during the lap 120 pit cycle. Debris on the backstretch brought out the fifth caution on lap 167.

    The race restarted on lap 174. Kenseth drifted up in front of Ryan Newman and was hooked into the wall exiting Turn 4.

    Kenseth said that his situation “just kind of snowballed, you know. We were real fast out front. We were kind of tight in traffic and got behind pitting, and then I missed the pit stall trying to come around the 21 and had to back up in the pit, and that put us back there, so just kind of snowballed. But with Ryan, I honestly don’t know. I’ve got to look at it. He went up like I thought he was broke, so I went up through the middle, and I thought I left him plenty of room and then next thing I know, I was pointed at the fence.”

    Justin Allgaier laid oil on the track when his engine expired on lap 182, bringing out the race’s seventh caution. On the ensuing restart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., riding the high line, drove through the uncleaned oil and made contact with the wall. Earnhardt spoke on the incident after the race.

    “We all hit the wall. I hit the wall, Brad hit the wall. Then we went another lap and I pitted and a bunch of other guys hit the wall. There was oil down there. It wasn’t Speedi Dri,” he explained. “I’ve raced this for 20 years. I know what oil and Speedi Dri is. We hit fluid and flew into the freaking wall hard. That’s not Speedi Dri. It was oil up there. There were some shadows cast by them billboards across the track and that may have made it difficult for them to see. Justin blew a hose. He didn’t knock a hole in the bottom of the engine that would just leave a track of oil. He blew a hose or something that is going to spray oil and throw oil all about the race track and up the race track. Maybe it was two-and-a-half car lengths wide how much oil was on the track. You can put it where the car went. You got to get out there maybe and feel around, get your hands on the track.”

    After the race, Managing Director for the Sprint Cup Series Richard Buck said that they (NASCAR) “looked everywhere, including putting people on the ground and walking the area where they said the oil was and there was no oil. I don’t know that you say that anybody misread anything. We all did our jobs. We actually had a human being, protected by the trucks, walking that area to make sure. We do everything we can to bring the surface back to a raceable condition. I think we’ve got an excellent record with that. Sometimes with these lubricants and things that they use, there is some staining to the track, and we’ll go back and do a double-check on that … to make sure that we have got all the fluids. We did that today and we feel absolutely confident that there was no oil on that very top groove or down below or anywhere else.’’

    Now I’m not going to sit here, play armchair-spotter and say there was oil. Depending on what brand these teams use, it can be any color. Some brands of motor oil are black and some are a bit clearer. I have no reason to doubt “June Bug”. He’s been racing in the Sprint Cup Series since 2000. I also have no reason to doubt Richard Buck. But I will say that given some teams – especially teams one or more laps down – have a propensity to “call out” debris to get a timely caution, it wouldn’t shock me if NASCAR views those drivers as the boy who cried ‘wolf.’

    But I digress.

    Another thing that happened under this caution period was the two Kyle’s (Busch and Larson) making contact and Larson getting spun out on pit road. It looked like to me that Larson made the last second decision to hit pit road and Busch made the last second decision to stay out. Both were tagged for commitment line violations as both ran into the orange commitment cone and restarted the race from the rear of the field.

    After the lap 201 restart, the race proceeded more orderly until the next cycle of green flag stops on lap 231. During these stops, Sam Hornish Jr. took the lead for the first time this season. The ninth and final caution of the race flew with 95 laps to go when Kenseth suffered a right-front tire blowout and slammed the wall in Turn 3. Hornish pitted under the caution and the lead cycled back to Joey Logano.

    The race restarted with 88 laps to go. Jimmie Johnson was running third when his engine blew up on the backstretch. He would go on to finish 39th.

    Martin Truex Jr. kicked off the final round of stops with 52 laps to go. Sam Hornish Jr. took the lead with 50 to go and led until he pitted with 34 to go. He finished the race in 19th and his 22 laps led were the most laps he’s ever led in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

    Logano regained the lead and drove away from Kevin Harvick to score his 12th career victory.

    If the NASCAR community were playing a drinking game where we took a shot every time someone said Talladega in the last seven days, we’d all be dead from alcohol poisoning. Logano said after the race that this makes Talladega easier.

    Logano left Charlotte with a six-point lead over Kevin Harvick in the points standings.

    Chevrolet left with a 47-point lead over Toyota in the manufacturer standings. With 23 cars in the field representing the bow ties, Chevrolet really has a race and a half lead over Toyota. If it had been a Toyota car that won and scored max points (48), the lowest the highest finishing Chevy could’ve possibly finished would’ve been 23rd and gained 21-points. To put this in simpler terms: If Toyota doesn’t close the gap to within 22-points by Phoenix, Chevrolet will clinch their 13th consecutive manufacturers title simply when the green flag flies.

    So that should just about wrap up everything that happened in Charlotte.

    Next up, NASCAR heads to America’s heartland to race at Kansas Speedway. Coverage of the Hollywood Casino 400 begins at 2:00 p.m. on NBC. The Motor Racing Network will be on the air at 1:00 p.m.

    Until then, I’ll leave you with this fact. There is a persistent storm at Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. Lightning storms occur for about 10 hours a night, 140 to 160 nights a year, for a total of about 1.2 million lightning discharges per year.

  • ‘Sliced Bread’ Tames the Beast of the Southeast

    ‘Sliced Bread’ Tames the Beast of the Southeast

    In two weeks, Joey Logano will go into Talladega breathing a sigh of relief after taking the checkered flag at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford led 227 of the 334 laps on his way to victory in the Bank of America 500. It was his 12th career win, fourth of the season, first at Charlotte and third at the track for Team Penske.

    Logano said that the team “had a great car.” He continued, saying, “Todd Gordon and this Shell/Pennzoil team, all of Team Penske, you always want to win it. Charlotte is everybody’s home turf and you want to make it happen here.” Logano also added that the win “makes Talladega way easier. I know that’s on everyone’s mind when this round starts and last year we won Kansas when it was the first race of this round and now we were able to get it this time at Charlotte. We’ll get lots of sleep here the next couple of weeks.”

    Kevin Harvick brought his Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) Chevrolet to his 11th runner-up finish this season (an average of 36.7 percent). Martin Truex Jr. of Furniture Row Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin and SHR’s Kurt Busch rounded out the top-five.

    Carl Edwards, Austin Dillon, Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski and Aric Almirola rounded out the top-10.

    Ryan Newman lumbered his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to a 15th-place finish.

    Following contact on pit road under the eighth caution of the race, Kyle Busch finished 20th one lap down.

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. made contact with the wall on lap 70, fell back through the race and finished 28th, four laps down.

    “I lost count of how many time we hit it (the wall) today,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t know. We had a pretty decent car. Carl (Edwards) got a great run on me down the front straightaway and just drove in there and the left rear quarter-panel, I have to look at that to see whether that was a racing deal or whatever.”

    Pole-sitter Matt Kenseth led 72 laps before falling back in the field and slamming the wall multiple times which relegated him to a 42nd-place finish. He was the lowest-finishing Chase driver.

    Notable finishes include Greg Biffle, who started fourth, finishing 24th, Jimmie Johnson finishing 39th after blowing an engine with 77 laps remaining and Kasey Kahne who slammed the wall early in the race and finished dead last.

    Logano leaves NASCAR’s backyard with a six-point lead over Harvick. Truex Jr. follows seven back. Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards leave tied for fifth at nine points back. Jeff Gordon leaves in seventh place, 11-points back. Brad Keselowski leaves 13-points back.

    Ryan Newman is six points behind the eighth-place cutoff. Kyle Busch is 10-points back. Earnhardt Jr. is 19 back and Kenseth is 32 back.

    Next week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rolls into America’s heartland for the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

  • The White-Zone: Why the Contender Round Favors Jeff Gordon

    The White-Zone: Why the Contender Round Favors Jeff Gordon

    “The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading,” and I must unload about why the Contender Round will put the ball in Jeff Gordon’s court.

    The motto for the 24 team in the Challenger Round struck me as simply “survive and advance.” While he had a dominant car at Chicagoland, he was a 10th-place car at best in Loudon and Dover. Now that Gordon has moved on to the Contender Round, he’ll find the track lineup of Charlotte, Kansas and Talladega to his advantage.

    First is the “Beast of the Southeast.”

    Jeff Gordon has a love/hate history with Charlotte Motor Speedway. This was the track where he scored the first of his 92 career wins on May 29, 1994. He’s visited victory lane here five times and has 17 top-fives, 24 top-10s, and nine poles. Gordon has led 787 laps with an average start of 10.7, an average finish of 15.4 and he has completed 93.3 percent of the combined laps in 45 career starts.

    Now with that said, Charlotte is the ultimate hit or miss track for the driver of the No. 24 car. His 10 DNF’s here are his most at any track on the NASCAR schedule. From 2005 to 2007, he suffered five straight DNF’s. In the last five races, those five being the races with the Gen-6 car, he’s finished 35th, seventh, seventh, second and 15th. This gives him an average finish of 13.2, which is higher than his career average of 15.4 at the track. Gordon might have a better run this time around since the Chase race doesn’t require as much chasing the changes as the Coca-Cola 600, but I would say it’s wishful thinking to expect anything but a 10th-place finish.

    Where the odds truly begin to go up for Jeff Gordon is when we make our way out to the heartland and race at Kansas Speedway.

    This has been one of his more friendly tracks. He’s won three times with 11 top-fives and 13 top-10s, led 218 laps with an average start of 13.1, an average finish of 9.9 and has completed 99.2 percent of the combined laps in 19 career starts.

    His top-10 average of 68.4 percent is his eighth best behind Pocono, Phoenix, Homestead, Indianapolis, Sonoma, Martinsville and Kentucky. Gordon’s top-five average of 57.9 percent is his third best behind Sonoma and Martinsville. In his last five races at Kansas, he’s finished 13th, third, first, 14th and fourth. This gives him an average finish of 7, higher than his career average of 9.9 at the track. In May, he ran top-10 most of the race and came home fourth. I think it will be another top-five run for Big Daddy in the heartland.

    While I expect Jeff Gordon to run well at Charlotte and Kansas, what really gives me confidence in his Contender Round run is the Alabama roulette wheel (I really hope that starts catching on) of Talladega Superspeedway.

    Before I go into detail, I’m aware that after Daytona, Gordon said he was glad he only had to do this plate stuff one final time. I’m also not going to say for certain if he’ll just run in the back trying to survive and advance. I do know that, next to Dale Earnhardt Jr., Big Daddy has been the best plate racer this season. He won the pole and dominated the Daytona 500, leading 87 laps before getting caught up in the last-lap wreck on the backstretch. He also won the pole and led 47 laps here back in May where he most likely had the race won until he was busted for speeding when he locked up the brakes getting onto pit road under the sixth caution and restarted the race from the rear of the field. He was unable to work his way back to the front when the field decided to run single-file until two laps remaining. Gordon, again, was caught up in the last-lap wreck and finished 31st. While he didn’t make as much noise in July at Daytona, he did bring the car home to a sixth-place finish before getting caught in the tri-oval melee.

    You also can’t overlook the fact that Gordon has more restrictor-plate points wins than any other driver in the history of NASCAR. Before anyone goes to Wikipedia to try and tell me it’s actually Dale Earnhardt, the Intimidator only had 11 points wins in plate races – two of his Talladega wins came before the plates – while Jeff Gordon has 12. I’m not saying that Earnhardt wasn’t the best plate racer in NASCAR history, I’m just saying that Gordon is no slouch when it comes to Daytona and Talladega.

    Granted, he hasn’t won a plate race since sweeping Talladega in 2007. But it’s not a stretch to say he could get one last restrictor plate win. Regardless, it’ll be a thrill to be there in person to see Big Daddy make his final start in the hallmark style of racing in NASCAR. I also think when all is said and done, Jeff Gordon will stand victorious at the Alabama roulette wheel.

    Do you agree with my case? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. Until next time, I’ll leave you with this fact. A syzygy occurs when three astronomical bodies line up.

  • Bank of America 500 Preview

    Bank of America 500 Preview

    To quote a famous Oscar-winning film, “There’s no place like home.”

    This Saturday, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Bank of America 500, the 30th race of the season, the fourth of the Chase and first of the Contender Round. I consider this to be the more interesting round with the track lineup of Charlotte, Kansas Speedway and the Alabama roulette wheel, Talladega Superspeedway.

    Charlotte Motor Speedway is a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) intermediate quad-oval located in Concord, North Carolina. It’s the centerpiece of the soon to be NASCAR Hall of Fame member Bruton Smith’s Speedway Motorsports, Inc. empire, and by extension, the Performance Racing Network.

    Being in the Metrolina area, it’s the home track for just about every NASCAR team. For Hendrick Motorsports, the hauler drive from the shop to the track is a long, grueling, oh so difficult five-minute drive. I don’t know if it’s exactly five minutes, but it’s close enough that you can see the shop from the track.

    I don’t know if there’s a track out there more temperature sensitive than Charlotte. One moment, the ambient temperature could be 75 degrees and your car is driving loose. Then the temperature could drop one degree and the car becomes tight as hell.

    There are several keys to winning at Charlotte. First is keeping up with the changes. This is a long race at 501 miles. Second is taking care of the car. While 500-mile races aren’t as grueling on cars as they were in the past, it still must endure everything thrown at it around the Beast of The Southeast. Finally, there’s fuel management. Back in May, it was Carl Edwards who played the fuel game correctly to win the Coca-Cola 600.

    With as dominant as the No. 4 car has been as of late, it should come as no surprise that defending race winner Kevin Harvick is a 7/2 favorite to win Saturday night according to Vegas Insider. Kyle Busch, who finished 11th in the Coca-Cola 600 in his first race back from a broken leg, is 6/1. Personally, my money is on either of them to win.

    Don’t miss the Bank of America 500 Saturday beginning at 6:30 p.m. on NBC. You can hear the radio broadcast for the race at 6:00 p.m. on PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice, Mark Garrow and Wendy Venturini will be in the booth. Rob Albright and Pat Patterson will be working the turns. Brad Gillie, Brett McMillan, Jim Noble and Steve Richards will work pit road.

    I’ll leave you with this fact. Avocados are poisonous to birds.

  • Dover in the Rear View

    Dover in the Rear View

    It’s time to put a nice little bow on everything that went down at the Monster Mile.

    The Challenger Round came to a conclusion Sunday at Dover International Speedway and it was defending series champion Kevin Harvick who conquered Miles the Monster to punch his ticket to the Contender Round. You couldn’t get any more dominant than “Happy Harvick” with leading 355 of 400 laps and a 149.7 driver rating. If qualifying hadn’t been rained out on Friday, I truly believe he would have led all 400 laps. Harvick wasn’t even passed for the lead on the track under green. The only time he lost the lead was on pit road because his pit stall was behind the start/finish line.

    The finishing bridesmaid was Kyle Busch, who led 19 laps. Afterward, Busch said, “it was a really good day for us. I can’t say enough about this entire Interstate Batteries team. They did a great job today. Adam Stevens gave me a great piece and when you look at the amount of practice time we had, it was pretty hard to figure out what you had. We had a second–place car and we finished second with it; nothing to hang our heads about.”

    Focus on the phrase, “we finished second with it; nothing to hand out head about.” I find it amazing that these words came from the same Busch that not long ago would have responded to a second–place finish with something like, “yeah, but we didn’t finish first.” If you weren’t convinced that “Rowdy” had become a new man after his wreck at Daytona, this should do the trick.

    The biggest shock of the week hands down went to the master of Dover, Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (and yes, his middle name is Kenneth). All he had to do was finish 25th or better and he would  have been racing in the Contender Round. At a track where he has an average finish of 9.1, that should have been easy. Unfortunately, the racing gods were not with him Sunday as he went behind the garage after making an unscheduled stop on lap 103. He would go on to finish 41st and get bounced out of the Challenger Round.

    After making a gutsy outside pass on Jamie McMurray in the closing laps, Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the podium in third place. If he hadn’t won either Daytona or Talladega in the regular season, “June Bug” would’ve been bounced along with Johnson and McMurray would’ve moved on.

    I was also impressed with the silent fifth place performance put on by Aric Almirola.

    After being sent to the rear of the field for an unapproved adjustment, Martin Truex Jr. drove to an 11th place finish. I don’t have much to say on that other than a solid day at a track where passing is at a premium.

    Now that “Big Daddy” Jeff Gordon survived the Challenger Round with a 12th place finish, I believe the Contender Round puts the ball in Gordon’s court. He has historically run great at Kansas Speedway and finished fourth back in May plus he is the all-time points-paying restrictor plate race winner in NASCAR history at the Alabama roulette wheel known as Talladega Superspeedway.

    Overall, this race was a “meh” for me. It was far from the worst race I’ve seen at Dover, but not one of the best.

    Here are some tidbits to nibble on. Matt Kenseth ran the fastest lap on the ninth circuit with a lap of 22.471 and a speed of 160.206 mph, Matt DiBenedetto was the Sunoco Rookie of the Race and Harvick was the Mobil 1 Drive of the Race with a 149.7 driver rating.

    This Saturday, NASCAR races in their backyard at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Coverage of the Bank of America 500 starts at 6:30 p.m. on NBC (if the Navy vs. Notre Dame game doesn’t go into overtime) and the radio broadcast can be heard at 6:00 p.m. on the Performance Racing Network and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

    I hope you enjoyed reading this piece. It’s my first for Speedway Media and I hope it’s the first of many. Until then, I’ll leave you with this fact. An ounce of platinum can be stretched 10,000 feet.