Monthly Archives: March 2012

Domination For Keselowski, Hope For Others At Bristol

Posted on March 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

Bristol Motor Speedway is famous for short tempers and rough racing. Sunday at The World’s Fastest Half-Mile, however, there wasn’t much excitement; the stands were only filled halfway, and the race felt drawn-out. Some of the highlights were Denny Hamlin’s Dougie when he was introduced, a wreck that took out six cars that were winning-material, and the addition to extra timing lines on pit road. Nevertheless, we got stories from the Food City 500, and here they are:

Brad Keselowski looked at Bristol with confidence; he won the August race at the short track. Throughout practice, his car showed much promise, and he tweeted, “This is the best car I’ve had.” If you’re going to be bold, you have to back it up, and Keselowski did just that. He ran a good race, not getting into trouble or falling back. After two close restarts with Daytona 500 champ Matt Kenseth, Brad soared to victory after leading 232 laps. By backing up the Fall victory, I see Keselowski as a serious contender this year. He had a remarkable resurgence in 2011, coming back from a serious wreck at Road Atlanta that fractured his ankle, winning twice afterwards. He has the focus and talent of a champion, and I’m anticipating great things from the driver of the #2. Watch out, folks: Bad Brad is ready to make another run at the title.

This season has gotten off to a great start for Greg Biffle, who collected three Top Five finishes in the first three races of the season. Capturing the pole for Bristol was icing on the cake. The Biff is the most confident I have seen this year, and it’s refreshing. As soon as the green flag dropped, he got the lead. His car ran great all day, but it dropped off near the end. Even if he ended up in thirteenth, Biffle should have a smile on his face; he is leading the points, and he will continue to improve if he keeps his confidence level up. Many wonder if showing signs of success this early will prove to diminish championship hopes, yet I see it differently; this is a head start. Honestly, Greg deserves this attention. While Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth made noise in The Chase, and David Ragan lost his ride in the #6, Biffle was left in the shadows. He used that time to work with his team and fix what was wrong. I applaud Greg hitting the ground running, but consistency doesn’t get you far. He needs to win races to secure himself in The Chase, which I see him doing without a problem.

At the end of last year, Red Bull Racing was in its final races as a team, shutting down after the season due to money troubles. Brian Vickers, then the driver of the #83, had no ride, and wrecking Matt Kenseth at Martinsville in October didn’t help his chances. As the feud carried over to Phoenix between the two, it was silently known among people that Vickers wasn’t going to be picked up by a race team. Fast forward to earlier this month, when Michael Waltrip Racing announced that Mark Martin seat in the #55 would open for six races. Soon, Vickers was chosen to fill the spot. Not only did it bring attention to the driver, it gave him a second chance to prove himself. Filling his last weeks at RBR with damaged cars and a flaring temper didn’t help his case, but he redeemed himself this weekend; Vickers brought the car home in fifth, after leading 125 laps Sunday. NASCAR is a sport where, if you fall out of the top rank, you will most likely not return. MWR might have saved Brian Vickers from being out of NASCAR permanently. Seeing him run very well caught a few team owners’ eyes, I’m sure.

The drivers and teams head to California for the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway, a two-mile long track with fourteen degrees in the turns, eleven degrees on the frontstretch, and three degrees on the backstretch. The Nationwide Series runs first this Saturday, and I chose Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to take the checkered flag. On the Sprint Cup side, Kevin Harvick is the returning race winner, and I see him repeating on Sunday.

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Junior: Full-Throttle For Victory

Posted on March 13, 2012 | 5 Comments

There are those drivers that you look at and wonder, ‘Why haven’t they won a race yet?’ Then, you analyze everything and try to figure out where the problem lies. There are some winless streaks in NASCAR that are puzzling, yet one always makes its way into conversation; Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver, has failed to make it to Victory Lane since 2008. A negative streak that is 142 races long, many of Junior’s dedicated fans are predicting that it will break very soon. Given, nobody says their driver is going to lose, but I have to agree with them on this one; Dale Jr. will win a race this year.

At the end of last year, he ranked seventh in The 2011 Chase, and he racked up four Top Fives, twelve Top Tens, and twenty-nine Top Twenty finishes. It was his first season with Steve Letarte on his pit box, and the two seem to be a great match. With two Top Tens and a fourteenth place finish under his belt, Junior is shaping up to be a contender every week, which he needs to be when the competition is this fierce. For the first time in a while, there is a noticeable fire in his eyes, one that is burning brighter and hotter than anyone expected. He is hungry for a win that is four years overdue. After the race at Las Vegas, where he got into Mark Martin’s rear bumper, he stated, “Don’t knock a half a second off my lap time by being a jerk about it.” It’s refreshing to see Junior focused and passionate about how he runs this early in the season. If he keeps it up, he will capture a win or two this season.

So where will this dry spell finally get rained on? My bet is Martinsville Speedway. The site of one of two runner-up finishes last year, Dale Jr. can run very well there. The Paperclip is flat, with 12-degree banking in the turns and none when it comes to the straightaways, and it calls for an aggressive driving style. We know he has that in his blood. Number-wise, he has a decent track record; in the past fifteen races at Martinsville, Junior has four Top Fives and four Top Tens, and he qualifies well with a 15.6 average. After being so close this year there, it might be time for Fate to smile down on Junior.

NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver hasn’t won since 2008 at Michigan, and Junior Nation is impatiently waiting for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to score a win and break the winless streak. With a renewed desire to compete, he will be in Victory Lane sooner than later.

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Competition Tough At Las Vegas

Posted on March 12, 2012 | 9 Comments

We stayed in the Mountain Time Zone this week, moving from Phoenix to Las Vegas, from dry to glitzy glam. From practice and qualifying results, it was evident that Chevy would play a factor in the way the race would end. As the start of the race came closer, the drivers began to realize the track would get more slick as the day went on. Sure enough, they battled with loose cars throughout the day, and only one could prevail. Here’s your rundown of the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:

Tony Stewart’s 2011 season had a disappointing finish at Las Vegas; after dominating the race, a miscue in the pits cost him the win. Being one of the three tracks he hadn’t won at, this one-and-a-half mile venue was in his sights. He wanted a win to soften the blow of a 22nd finish at Phoenix, induced by an EFI issue, too. As soon as he got into clean air, he was gone, the car shot out of a cannon. The only one who could hang with the #14 was Jimmie Johnson, and it was a battle. Yet, Stewart prevailed and crossed LVMS off his Bucket List. A sweet victory for him and new crew chief Steve Addington, it looks like Tony is ready to get a head start on winning that championship again. We will see how Addington and Smoke fair in the long run.

When Kasey Kahne won the pole, many saw it as a sign that he found his place at Hendrick Motorsports. He had decent runs going at Daytona and Phoenix, but good finishes failed to come together. Kahne lost the lead as soon as the green flag dropped, and his performance was up and down throughout the whole race. Kenny Francis, however, got him to the front for the final restart. He put himself in position for at least a top three by riding the high line. In front of him, however, were the three Roush cars, and they wanted a shot at the win. Carl Edwards dove onto the apron, forcing Greg Biffle to give him more room, and made it three-wide with The Biff and Matt Kenseth. In the corner, Edwards came back up, and Kenseth had to pull out. Unfortunately, he got loose and drifted to the wall, hitting Kasey’s left rear quarter panel in the process. The injured #5 car slid back and came home in 19th place. The question isn’t if Kahne will get back on his feet, though: it is when he will. With stable ground underneath him for the first time since 2006, he must get use to having a contending car every week. Trust me, he will be fine with Hendrick, but it’s definitely not the beginning he, and a lot of people, expected.

One thing I noticed Sunday, and we saw it at Daytona and Phoenix, too, is that the competition is close already. The teams are all in, and it is barely a month into the season. The way last year’s Chase shook out sent a message to all the drivers: winning matters. Having multiple wins in your corner gives you the upper hand when those final ten races roll around, which is what NASCAR wanted to achieve with the new points system. Consistency may lock you into one of those Wild Card spots, but, as we saw with Carl Edwards, nobody assures that it will be enough. With some of the most exciting tracks coming up, like Bristol, Texas, and Talladega, we have a lot of good racing to look forward to in the next month or two.

Bristol Motor Speedway is the next stop on the schedule, a concrete soup bowl that measures half a mile. Nicknamed ‘Thunder Valley,’ Bristol is known to make sheet metal scream and shout, and it also causes tempers to flare. For the Nationwide race, I think Elliot Sadler and Justin Allgaier will post strong runs, Sadler most likely taking the win. On the Cup side of things, watch out for the man who won there in August, Brad Keselowski.

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Subway Fresh Fit 500 Was A Race Of Redemption

Posted on March 6, 2012 | 2 Comments

The dry heat of Phoenix was the polar opposite of what drivers experienced last weekend at Daytona, proving to everyone that this weekend would be different from the season opener. That it was, as we settled in to watch the Subway Fresh Fit 500. The racing went quickly and . . . Not all that exciting. New NASCAR fans from Monday’s broadcast were expecting explosions and two-hour long red flags. That didn’t happen; we had debris cautions and cut tires instead. Yet, the race was exciting for some, including the winner, the pole sitter, and a driver with a decent season so far:

Denny Hamlin went into 2011 with all eyes on him, pegged to be the man to have a breakout year. When that failed, many wondered what would come from the driver this season. After an off-season move to Arizona and tweets claiming ‘#Redemption2012,’ we were ready to see what Hamlin could deliver, and he certainly did deliver this Sunday. His win proved that his pairing with new crew chief Darian Grubb is a good combination. We know Denny is a talented driver; he won eight times back in 2010 with a torn ACL and contended for a championship. Ironically, he essentially lost the title at Phoenix, so this start to his 2012 Redemption Tour is going well. Congrats to Denny Hamlin, Darian Grubb, and the entire 11 team for winning 50% of the races this season.

When the #55 took the pole for the Cup race, most people were excited, especially Mark Martin himself. It was a good start to his first season with Michael Waltrip Racing, showing everyone that he isn’t ready to slow down. As the race went on, the track got more slick, and Martin fell back. His car came back after a few adjustments, and he racked up and top ten. Seeing Mark doing well makes me optimistic that he has confidence in his cars and his ability. At 53-years-young, he keeps going and going. If you see him in victory lane by the end of this season, don’t be surprised; this new start has given him a whole new outlook.

Some picked Greg Biffle to win Sunday’s race, and I can see why; after a strong third-place run at Daytona, it’s obvious Greg has some power underneath he hood. Many speculated that he touched the brakes on the last lap in the 500. However, on the last lap of this race, there was no second thought if Biffle ran the car to its full potential. Saving fuel was his main focus, which made him fade away from Hamlin and second-place Kevin Harvick as the laps diminished. Suddenly, Harvick’s car slowed from lack of fuel, and crew chief Matt Puccia shouted at his driver to go for it. Unfortunately, The Biff was too far back to pull it off, but he definitely had a car win-worthy. I posted in the off-season about how Greg was between a rock and a hard place, missing The Chase for the first time since 2007 and not racking up the good finishes like he usually does back in 2011. He’s hit the ground running, and it’s making him seem like an early Chase favorite.

We head on to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a one-and-a-half mile, asphalt track with twenty-degree banking. Carl Edwards won last year, his only win all season, and, in 2010, Jimmie Johnson took the checkered flag. Both the Nationwide Series and the Sprint Cup Series are running, and my pick for both events is Kyle Busch. Busch won this event back in 2009, but he is always a contender. Look for him to sweep both races in Sin City.

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NASCAR Penalizes Knaus, Hendrick To Fight Back

Posted on March 1, 2012 | 1 Comment

NASCAR announced yesterday that Chad Knaus, crew chief of the #48 car for Hendrick Motorsports, is suspended for six races and owes $100,000 in fines in response to an infraction found on the car prior to Shootout practice almost two weeks ago. The driver of the #48, Jimmie Johnson, was docked 25 points, and the co-owner of the car, teammate Jeff Gordon, was penalized 25 owner’s points.

If you don’t know the story, which I covered back in February, Johnson’s Daytona 500 car was in line for inspection when NASCAR officials noticed his C-Post didn’t fit the certified template. Hendrick had to fly down an extra part, yet it already had people talking. As many of you know, Knaus has a history of ‘pushing the envelope.’ From rear windshields to backs that needed cracking, the crew chief has tried to exceed the limits too much. Given, everyone attempts it, but Chad gets caught more than anyone else. That’s most likely because the #48 team and Jimmie Johnson are five time consecutive Sprint Cup Champions, and the spotlight is shown on them more than the other teams.

However, that doesn’t act as an excuse for Knaus’ actions. He needs to realize cheating will hinder the organization more than help it. How can you run your race team efficiently when you’re getting suspended all the time? As I have said, all this negative publicity is wearing Jimmie down. He is a driver concerned with his image; he doesn’t want to be known as vanilla or a cheat. If Chad could understand that, things would be much better for that relationship. Rick Hendrick isn’t helping the situation, either. Time and time again, he’s pardoned Knaus’ actions and fought for him, which he is doing this time around. Why would Chad stop when his boss is always there to back him up? At least slap him on the wrist and say, ‘No! Bad Chad!’

There’s a line that ends up getting crossed by the #48 team, and it’s disappointing. When learning about the C-Post incident, I found myself wondering, ‘What about those five championships? Did they win those fair and square?’ I must thank NASCAR for stepping up and slapping Knaus with a punishment that was a good fit for the situation. With the way this is going, my prediction of Knaus being out of the Hendrick stable by 2014 seems more plausible. It will be the end of an era if Mr. Hendrick realizes what all this negative exposure is doing to the credibility of his team. All we can hope is that this doesn’t derail Johnson’s efforts for a sixth championship.

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