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NASCAR – The Good Guys, The Bad Guys, It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Wrestling

January 30, 2012 by Jay Tomchuk 1 Comment

With the impending approach of the Daytona 500 and the official start to NASCAR’s season I have been watching and reading all the news reports coming out of the different teams/stables/garages, and the more I read, the more it felt like watching the opening act before a wrestling match at Wrestlemania.

I keep seeing the drivers walking down a long entry way, fireworks going off, loud music blaring, and the drivers dancing around like a prize fighters in  firesuits, making their way down to their cars. As they walk by, the NASCAR Sprint Cup girls try and get a few words from them.

Monica Palumbo stands off to the side holding the mic and asks Kyle Busch ” How do you think things are going to go out there today Kyle? Are you driving a real car or just a toy today?” KyBu rips the mic from her hand and shows off his Zorro like cape he is wearing “Well Monica it goes like this, anyone who gets in my way is going into the wall, YOU HEAR THAT HORNADAY!?”

Monica politely responds “Hornaday raced on Friday night in his Truck Kyle, he’s not racing today.”

“I don’t care if he’s not racing, I’ll find him in the garage and PUT HIM IN THE WALL!” he says and stomps off towards his car readying himself for the battles in his head.

Next down the ramp is Kurt Busch, and before he even gets to the mic you can hear his profanity laced rant starting. “Is this gonna take long Monica, you know I f*&^@ng hate to wait. I’d call you a Mother F*%$@er too but we all know that can’t be the case. I had better win today or someone is going to get a f*&$#ng earful when I get back to the garage! So everybody better stay out of my way if they know what’s good for my crew chief’s life this time!!” And off he goes to his #51 Thank a Teacher car way in the back of the field.

Next out is Jimmie Johnson. His smiling good looks and bright blue Kobalt firesuit seem amiss amongst the boos and jeers he gets from the crowd. “And here comes our 5 time champion, Jimmie Johnson” announces Monica. “I don’t know why they boo me” says Jimmie “I am one of the good guys. The referee’s never call me on my questionable actions because I am good for the sport, I win a lot, and I NEVER break the rules…. that’s my crew chief’s job” he says with his trademark smile. ” I guess you can’t make everyone happy, so I’ll just go out and win another race just to make them hate me some more.”

Next out is Tony Stewart. Monica gets an extra special smile as she announces “Here he is, our current and reigning Champion TONY STEWART.”

The crowd gets on their feet, there is a dramatic pause before the music starts, and just when you think no one is coming out, the curtains part, the pyrotechnics go off, and a little guy with a big smile, and a wink comes walking down the ramp.

“So are you ready for another hot season Tony? Do you think you might get a win before the chase this year?” she asks.

“Well it’s like this Monica.  I was the best before Jimmie and now I am the best after Jimmie, I have a new crew chief to blame things on if stuff goes wrong, and I am man enough to take all the credit when I win.  My plan is to go out there and make my opponents tremble with my candid remarks and by telling them that I have an advantage over them, and then never telling anyone what that advantage is, gotta keep them on their toes you see.  That should give me enough of an advantage to win today, I hope I don’t have to fire another crew chief if I win however.”  he says with a final wave to the crowd as he walks off to his race car.

Carl Edwards enters next doing a series of tumbles and back flips down the ramp dancing around like a Lucho Libre and smiling his trademark 1000 watt smile.  Ever the gentleman, he walks over to Monica and puts his arm around her waist as she begins her quick interview.

“So Carl, after being the second runner up twice in your career so far, how do you plan to get your championship this time?”

“Well Monica, as one of the good guys I will try not to break any rules, I will drive faster than everyone else, I’ll even turn left better than everyone else, and I will not let Tony Stewart intimidate me with his confusing talk about advantages.  I will make sure that Brad Kesolowski and I tangle enough to keep the crowd happy, but not so much that his dad tries to beat me up after the race.  Then I will finally get NASCAR to approve a nitrous boost on my car so that I can boost to the front after hanging around the back all day long and win every race from the tail end of the lead pack.”

The crowd goes wild as he finishes and waves his hands in the air, realizing too late that the crowd is cheering for Dale Earnhardt Jr who stands at the top of the ramp waiting for him to finish.  He runs off to his car as Jr makes his way down the ramp to the tune “We Will Rock You” and crowd noise so loud that you can hear, and feel, it reverberating around the track.

Monica can barely be heard as she asks Dale Jr. “Jr it has been 126 races since you have found your way to the winners circle, what’s your plan to end your drought this year?”

Jr. stands quiet for a minute in thoughtful contemplation, “Well Monica, I am coming off a good year with some excellent momentum.  I have a good relationship with my crew chief Stevie Baby, and we’re going to go out there with a new attitude and all the skill I have and we’re going to win us some races this year.  Even if I have to start looking like one of the bad guys and get more aggressive out there, people will know I am coming up behind them, and maybe I’ll rattle a few cages this year like my daddy used to do.  It’s going to be a whole new season for me and I am going to take it one race at a time, and of course I am going to win at Daytona this year.”

The crowd roars and stands on their feet as he walks away toward his car, waving to the crowd and surfing on the sound waves as they get even louder than before.

Monica faces the crowd once more with the brightest smile she can smile “So there you have it folks, our drivers have had their say and now they are preparing their cars to race… there only 2 things left to say “Drivers START YOUR ENGINES!! And lastly ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE?!?!”

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Default ThumbnailNASCAR – Kyle Busch Get His First Win at MIS and First to Lock in For The Chase Default ThumbnailNASCAR – Kenseth Wins Another With Martin Runner Up as Late Race Call Wins The Race Default ThumbnailNASCAR – Busch Got the Ticket, But Brad Kesolowski Gets The Pole, at the Coke 600 Default ThumbnailNASCAR – Gordon Wins at Pocono For His Second of the Season Default ThumbnailNASCAR – Matt Kenseth Sets the Pace in Phoenix, Stewart Keeps Up the Trash Talk, Edwards Keeping Cool

NASCAR – Matt Kenseth Sets the Pace in Phoenix, Stewart Keeps Up the Trash Talk, Edwards Keeping Cool

November 13, 2011 by Jay Tomchuk Leave a Comment

Matt Kenseth - Image courtesy of JDTImages

Marcos Ambrose said the slick track was “pretty sketchy”. A.J. Allmendinger said his lap ”was insane.” Jeff Gordon, who won the last race here in February before the repave, called the surface ”treacherous” after qualifying 23rd.  After watching the Nationwide race followed by the K&N West series race yesterday, it looks like we should be prepared for a wreck fest with a chance of a game changer.

Matt Kenseth set the fastest lap to win the pole but qualifying was not without Drama.  Since being on the bottom line is so important, qualifying position means more than just who takes the green.  Tony Stewart was sitting in 7th with Edwards behind him in 8th until Kenseth ran his lap.  As Kenseth completed his lap and set the fastest time for the day, Edwards moved back on spot to 9th giving him the inside row on the start of the race with Stewart being moved back to the outside.  It is only for the first start of the race and there is 300 miles of racing between there and the finish line, but every little advantage has to be counted on a track where no one can predict the outcome.

”That was my plan. I thought, `Man, if we can sit on the pole, that will really help him,'” Kenseth laughed.

”I planned that. I am that good,” Kenseth claimed. ”The bottom is probably going to be an advantage to get started, but it is still 300 miles and I think at some point in the race every car is going to be in the top groove for a little bit.”

A.J Allmendinger - Image courtesy of JDTImages.

A.J Allmendinnger had the second fastest time of the day and he was amazed at how much the track conditions had changed from Fridays practice sessions, to Saturday’s qualifying runs.

“It was definitely a huge surprise,” he said. “Obviously, the sun is out and it’s warmer, but for as much grip as the track had [Friday], you would think maybe it would be [just] a little slower. At night last night I think the quick time was like a 25.50 by Carl, so to be almost a second slower was a huge surprise.

“I was in the hauler watching the first 10 or 15 cars run, and you see Jimmie [Johnson] go sailing off and almost get in the wall. Every car seemed to get looser and looser. At that point you have what you have. We tightened it up from [Friday]. Marcos put up a good lap and fed back what the track was like, so I went in there with an expectation, and my first lap was worse than even I expected. It was definitely a lot different than [Friday].”

The 2 drivers that everyone has marked as the “true contenders” for this years chase have been heard tossing comments back and forth.  Stewart’s trash talk has been keeping his face on camera and and reporters guessing about what he is going to say next.  For example, while still in Vistory lane last week in Texas he quipped “It’s theirs to lose now” when asked about his chances and how strongly he feels about them.

Then on Friday he stated in a news conference that being a former championship winner gives him an advantage, but was very vague about his meaning.

Tony Stewart - Image courtesy of JDTImages

“It’s definitely an advantage. But I’m not going to tell you why ’cause that’s what I’m going to take to the next two weeks with me. We win this thing, I’ll tell you what the advantage is and why. But there’s an advantage.”

When asked directly about their rivalry however they each seem to have their focus where it needs to be.  On themselves, their team, and on what it is that THEY can do, and not so much about what the other guy is going to do.

“I guess it’s a friendly rivalry, if you even want to call it a rivalry,” Stewart said at Phoenix International Raceway. “I don’t know what the true definition of rivalry is, but he’s a good guy to be in a point battle with, for sure. I respect him a lot as a driver and as a person.”

“We get along with each other at the race track,” Stewart said. “We’ve got the dirt racing that we’ve done together at Eldora, and stuff that we like. We talk about that stuff a lot.”

“I feel like we are [in control], to be honest. I think we showed that last week,” Stewart said, referring to his victory at Texas, and Edwards second place finish. “We’re not racing worrying about where they’re at and what they’re doing each day. We’re worrying about our car, what we’ve got to do to be fast, what we’ve got to do to win races and I think we’ve responded to that with our actions on the race track and what we’ve done. So I would like to say we are right now. We’ve been able to battle back from a couple of really bad races in this Chase to be where we are at.”

Carl Edwards - Image courtesy ofJDTImages

Edwards seems calm and collected, not bothered by Stewart’s comments and focused on the task at hand, finishing better than Stewart.

“I think Tony is a guy I have looked up to a lot. He has done a lot of the things as a racer that racers all over the country can look up to,” said Edwards, who at 31 is nine years younger than Stewart.

“I’ve learned a lot about Tony over the last couple years, and have come to respect him as a person. I would say we have a good, competitive relationship. For us, it is pretty neat to be holding off a two-time champ having the best Chase he has ever had. It is neat to be battling with him. If we can continue and hold him off and win this thing, if it truly comes down to the end like I believe it will, [and] I truly believe it will come down to the last lap at Homestead, that is going to feel good that it is Tony. It will feel good that it is a guy that has that many achievements in the garage, in racing.”

“I feel that they have obviously had flashes of great speed, and have won four races, and we haven’t. But the job that we have done, I am very proud of. We don’t have trophies lined up, but the recoveries we have made and consistency we have shown and the ability to come back from really tough days, I wouldn’t have been able to do it a year or two years ago. I am pretty proud of that. At the end of the day we are still leading the points. They have to overtake us and beat us.”

Now who does the rest of the garage think is going to be the winner?  Once again the field is divided so it depends on who you ask.  Either way it’s going to be a nail biter in Phoenix today and the unknown element of the track rears it’s head.  Personally I am giving the advantage to Stewart today because of how much we all know he likes a slick race track.  It suits his style of racing, and no on can handle a sideways car like he can.  Edwards is also good on a slick track, but he does not have the years of experience behind him that Stewart does from driving on dirt tracks across the country, and wining races while doing it.

So where to the rest of the chasers chances lie mathematically?

Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman were mathematically eliminated at Texas. This week, it’s Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and even Johnson who find themselves in a situation where they cannot control their destiny.

If Carl Edwards finishes 34th or better — or Tony Stewart winds up 31st or better — Kurt Busch will be eliminated, even if he wins and receives the maximum number of points. If Carl Edwards finishes 28th or better — or Tony Stewart winds up 25st or better — Gordon is out, too.

Edwards can add Earnhardt to the elimination list with a 26th-place finish, or Stewart can do the same by finishing 23rd. And five-time champion Johnson could win Sunday but be eliminated from contention if Edwards winds up second.

The elimination scenarios for Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick are more complicated, and involve multiple variables too complicated to explain here.

Finally, there is a very slim chance Edwards could make the season finale a coronation. If he wins and Stewart finishes 43rd — and Keselowski, Kenseth and Harvick are all subsequently mathematically eliminated — Edwards would clinch the championship at Phoenix.

 

 

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NASCAR – Kurt Busch Takes the Third Race in the Chase and the Leader Board Sees Big Changes

October 3, 2011 by Jay Tomchuk Leave a Comment

Kurt Busch - Image courtesy of JDTImages

Kurt Busch did not lead the most laps, but he did lead the most important laps.  Just as we saw last week with Stewart leading only the last 2 laps, Kurt Busch out ran Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards to the checkered flag in the diminishing laps of the AAA 400 at the Monster Mile in Dover Delaware.  After taking the lead on the final restart, Kurt Busch drove away from the field, taking advantage of the battler between Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson behind him, and beating them both to the checkered flag.

“It was just perfect execution today, with pit stops and with making the car better during the race,” Busch said. “I couldn’t be happier right now. To win a Sprint Cup race in the Chase, this is what it’s all about. This is the playoffs.”

“We had everything go wrong for us last week. We had everything go right for us this week. We just need nice smooth races from here.”

Jimmie Johnson - Image courtesy of JDTImages

Johnson, in a rare mistake on the track, spun the tires on the final restart and lost ground that he was never able to regain on Busch.  Johnson wanted everyone to know that he felt the mistake was all his fault, and not on his team.

“I did a really good job, up until those last two [restarts],” Johnson said. “I have to say, when you’re the leader, you have a small advantage, because you go when you want. I blew it by spinning the tires. Kurt got a good launch, and we were door to door going into 1, and he was able to get by on the outside.”

“And then the next one, I was going to try to do that same thing back to him, and I was just trying to time it when he was going to accelerate. And I didn’t time it right. And I had too big of a gap, and fell in behind him going into Turn 1.”

“I put it on me, because the starts I had earlier in the day, regardless of the lane, leading or not, I cleared them typically going into 1 so, it’s on me.”

Carl Edwards - Image courtesy of JDTImages

Carl Edwards, however, made his mistakes earlier in the race during a routine pit stop.  In a section of the pit road where he had specifically spoken to crew chief Bob Osbourne about speeding, he did it anyway and blew through the section and incurred a pass through penalty.  Although he was able to get back on to the lead lap and race his way back to the front of the field, 3rd was as close he could get back to the lead.

“It was a great day, other than that feeling I had when I ruined it there on pit road,” Edwards said. “That’s about as small as you can feel in a race car. We talked about it before the race. We looked at the pit-road speeding lines and that last line. … Bob and I actually discussed the last section. It’s 25 feet, 8 inches long, and we talked about that run and how I was not going to speed through it, and I just blasted right through it.”

“We were very, very fortunate. As frustrated as I am with myself for messing that up, I’m really, really grateful for the gift that was given to us with that caution and the ability to come back up there. And the other thing that was really important to me was my guys sticking behind me, because they had every right to be really, really upset with me. So it ended up being a good finish.”

Tony Stewart - Image Courtesy of JDTImages

Tony Stewart had come into the race as the points leader but mechanical issues with the handling of his race car kept him mired deep in the field and going backwards from the leaders position.  Stewart managed to get up to 15th at one point early in the race, but he and teammate Ryan Newman continued to fall back until they were multiple laps down and simply unable to compete.  Stewart finished in 22nd and in a tie for 3rd in points with Kurt Busch, 9 points behind the tie for first between Kevin Harvick and Edwards.

“When you run 25th and finish two laps down, I don’t think you can assess [your day] as very good. We were terrible,” Stewart said

Asked what his team struggled with the most, Stewart replied: “Just the whole package. Even when we got the balance halfway decent, the car didn’t have speed. So we just missed it.”

His teammate Ryan Newman agreed completely.

“We just didn’t have it right all weekend,” said Newman, who remained 11th in the Chase standings and dropped 41 points behind the leaders. “We didn’t have any grip, which caused us to have poor track position all day. We tried a number of adjustments and pit strategies, but nothing seemed to work in our favor.”

“We’re a much better team than where we finished [Sunday]. We have to put this weekend behind us and move on.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr - Image courtesy of JDTImages

Dale Earnhardt Jr suffered possibly the most frustrating day on track since the chase began.  Unloading a reasonable car, then not really finding speed during practice.  The mechanical issues with the front right sway bar really held him back in the early stages of the race.  Managing to get the sway bar fixed and then getting a lucky dog to regain the lead lap was a big relief for both Jr and his Jr Nation fans.  The final nail in the coffin however was late in the race when, after getting tires on a pit stop, one lug nut was loose and causing a big vibration in the wheel.  After stopping to fix the vibration, Jr had fallen back to 27th and down 2 laps, running with Stewart and Newman and fighting to be the last car down a lap, on a caution that never came.

“That’s racing — that’s all I can say,” Earnhardt said after the race. “I’ve had a lot of stuff happen to me over the years, good and bad, and you just have to roll with the punches. I don’t think I’m BS-ing myself when I think that we brought a good car to the track. … There were a couple of promising things today, but we didn’t finish like we wanted to.

“We had a pretty good car and ran well, and we didn’t do anything stupid. We just kind of got snake-bit there a little bit today, so we can’t be too upset with ourselves.”

Here’s how the leader board looks after Dover:

Pos. +/_  Driver                      Points     Position

1    +1     Kevin Harvick           2122        Leader
2    +2    Carl Edwards             2122        Leader
3    -2     Tony Stewart            2113         -9
4    +5    Kurt Busch                 2113         -9
5    +5    Jimmie Johnson        2109        -13
6    -3      Brad Keselowski      2108        -14
7    –      Matt Kenseth            2108        -14
8    -2      Kyle Busch                2107        -15
9    -4      Jeff Gordon               2103        -19
10 -2      Dale Earnhardt Jr.    2088        -34
11    –     Ryan Newman          2081        -41
12    –     Denny Hamlin          2054        -68

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NASCAR – Kyle Busch Get His First Win at MIS and First to Lock in For The Chase

August 21, 2011 by Jay Tomchuk 1 Comment

Kyle Busch climbs from his car in Victory Lane at MIS - Image courtesy of JDTImages

On a day where the weather threatened surprises, Kyle Busch was building a surprise of his own.  With a car that was nowhere to be seen for the first half of the race, Busch more than made up for it in the second half.  When Johnson took the lead on lap 168 ,after fortune smiled on him during a routine pit stop, allowing him to come out ahead of the pace car and stay out while everyone else came in to pit, Kyle Busch did what he does best, out drove everyone near him to the finish line.

“It’s awesome,” Busch said. “That’s what we wanted. We wanted to make sure that we could come out here and win races and have the opportunity to go for broke.”

“Yesterday we practiced, we struggled a bit, and I kind of got down on things, and Dave was right there to help me out and pick it up,” Busch said. “We went over things last night and talked a lot about what we could do to the car to make it better, thought smartly about our changes for today, and we came out here strong.”

Jimmie Johnson - Image courtesy of JDTImages

Johnson fought building an almost 1 full second lead before Busch began to over take him.  It did not take long for Busch to take the lead and hold it until the final caution flew at Lap 193 setting the stage for a Green White Checkered finish.  Johnson, who also has not yet won at MIS tried everything he could but not hold off the hard charging Busch.

“[The car] was just really loose at the start of the race, and I drove up through the field, and Chad [Knaus] made a great call to get me to pit road before that caution came out,” Johnson said. “It gave us the shot at the win, but once I was up front in the clean air the balance of the car was a bit too loose.”

“I got away from Kyle but I was loose, and I knew he was going to come at some point and he showed up. Disappointed that I didn’t win, but a very good effort for the Lowe’s team especially when you look at where we started the race [19th] and where we finished.”

The win also clinched Kyle Busch’s spot in the chase by manor of wins.  With 4 wins under his belt this season, he could in theory, not show up for the next 3 races and still make the chase via the wins and a wild card spot.  He is currently in first place in points however and shows no sign of wanted to lay back and let someone else go for the win.

Carl Edwards day went about as bad as his worst nightmares.  Finishing ahead of only the start and park teams in 36th position and 29 laps down, Edwards lost 2 spots in the standings moving from a tie for first back to fourth.  After losing a cylinder and losing valuable time in the garage trying to diagnose the problem, Edwards finally returned to the track 23 laps down and off the pace, losing ground right until the checkered flag.

Greg Biffle on the track at MIS - Image courtesy of JDTImages

Greg Biffle dominated the first half of the race, taking off like a rocket when the green flag flew and leading the most laps all day, when the caution came out on lap 107.  Biffle’s team opted for a 4 tire change while other teams only took 2.  Biffle then had to fight something he hadn’t seen all day.  Traffic and dirty air.  He did his best and fought his way back up to 10th but faded after that and fell back to a final finishing position of 20th place.

“I don’t know what happened,” Biffle said. “I am not sure. I have a feeling we kind of got a bum set of tires and then we got off on our adjustments.

“It was really, really tight and we adjusted on it. And then I think I was too loose the rest of the day. But I really don’t know what happened to be honest with you. I really don’t know right now.”

Dale Jr and Tony Stewart managed to hold on to their positions for chase contention.  Dale Jr ran well in the beginning and was looking like a shoe in for a top 10 finish, but with Jr complaining about the tires from the pit stop before it was decided he would come in for a new set of 4 and fuel after Kurt Busch slammed the wall on lap 197, which dropped him back to 15th on the track.  He managed to race back one position in the Green, White Checkered finish and ended up in 14th.  He also remains in 9th place in Chase contention as well as padding his position over the 11th spot, held by Clint Bowyer now, up to 30 points.

Tony Stewart held on to a top 10 finish, landing himself in 9th, which was good enough to hold on to 10th a to gain 5 points on Dale Jr ending up 105 out of first in Chase contention.

 

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NASCAR – Marcos Ambrose Takes the Win at The Glen, Avoids the Massive Wreck Fest Behind him

August 15, 2011 by Jay Tomchuk 1 Comment

Marcose Ambrose giving the tumbs up earlier this year - Image courtesy of JDTImages

Wow what a finish!  With a bunch of wrecks tearing up the fields behind him, Marcos Ambrose stayed composed and passed both Brad Kesolowski and Kyle Busch in the same corner and drove off with a smile on his face so big you could see it through the in car camera.  Ambrose, a 4 time Aussie V8 champion, finally scores his first win after 4 seasons in NASCAR racing a full schedule in the Sprint Cup series.  This makes Marcos Ambrose the 5th first time winner this season, and the 15th different winner this season.

Marcos was a very happy man in victory lane.

“Man I’ve sacrificed so much to get here and finally win on in the Cup series is a dream come true.  I flew my kids home yesterday, the little one’s first day at school and I really wanted to be there, but this certainly makes up for it.  I’ve just gotta thank the Richard Petty Motorsports team,  Stanley,  Dewalt and everybody involved.  Mrs petty isn’t doing so well at home we wish her the best, so this win’s for her and the whole Petty family.  To Ricard and everyone else who gave me the chance, just thank you very much.  But winning in the cup series for Stanley is an incredible feeling and I ‘m very,very proud.”

Having qualified now for the Million Dollar win in Atlanta, Ambrose sounded as excited as the fan that will win the $Million.

“I’ll win a Million Bucks for anyone, I don’t care.  I just want to be in victory lane again, it’s a dream come true.  The fans out there that supported the Richard Petty and his whole team through all the turmoil last year.  Got it back to victory lane and it’s just gonna go onwards and upwards from here.  Just a proud day.  No one realizes how much work goes into getting to victory lane and when it actually happens it’s almost a surreal moment.”

Brad Kesolowski finished in 2nd followed by Kyle Busch for the top 3.  Martin Truex Jr and Joey Logano rounded out the top 5.

While the race for first was happening out front, wrecks were in the mix behind the field on the white flag lap.

The first involved the 51 of Boris Said, the 6 of Ragan, and the 00 of David Reutimann.  Said was trying not to get passed by Ragan as the race wound down and managed to squeak ahead of him, but in doing so forced the nose of Ragan out of shape, putting him hard into the wall.  The resulting “bounce” put Ragan square into Reutimann who barrel rolled once landing back on his wheels.

Seconds after that wreck Tony Stewart got involved in another wreck  at the inner loop (bus stop) as he got into the turn too fast and slid through the grass.  He managed to miss everyone on his slide through, but others needed to check up to avoid him, allowing cars further behind to make passes at a crucial moment.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was one of the drivers who managed to capitalize on the spin and moved from 19th to 15th on the track.  This has put him in a much better spot going into the final 4 races before the start of the chase as he has managed to gain a spot to 9th over Tony Stewart in the standings.

The top of the standings also had a shuffle as Kyle Busch leaves The Glen in 1st place overall by one point over Carl Edwards.  Gaining 2 positions from 3rd to 1st knocking both Edwards (now in 2nd) and Jimmie Johnson (now in 3rd) back a position each.  Kurt Busch’s ended up costing him 2 points in the standings as both Harvick and Kenseth move up a position ahead of the now 6th place Busch.

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NASCAR – Toyota Sits 1,2,3 With Logano on The Pole

August 6, 2011 by Jay Tomchuk Leave a Comment

Joey Logano posing with a fan during the driver's intro parade at Texas Motorspeedway in April - Image courtesy of JDTImages.ca

Joey Logano is sitting pretty to start the race in Pocono tomorrow for the Good Sam RV Insurance 500.  Taking the lead mid way through the knock out qualifying round, Logano’s time of   52.309 seconds at a speed of 172.055 mph was good enough to hold off the rest of the 20 qualifiers who ran after he did.  This is Joey’s second pole of the season and the third of his career in Sprint Cup, all of that time with Joe Gibbs Racing.  With all the speculation this week around where Carl Edwards was going, I’m sure that Joey is glad to know he is secure now at JGR in the #20 car as Edwards re-signed with Roush, ending speculation that he would be leaving in favor of an offer from JGR and Toyota to run the #20 car in the 2012 season.

Kasey Kahne will once again start from the second spot on the grid in his #4 Red Bull Toyota followed by Martin Truex Jr. in the #56 Michael Waltrip Racing NAPA car lining Toyota up for a 1,2,3 start for tomorrow’s race.  Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch round out the rest of the top 5.

Carl Edwards - Image courtesy of JDTImages.ca

Speculation around Carl Edwards finally ended this week with the announcement that Carl will be staying with Roush Racing in the #99 Ford for the foreseeable future.

“I sincerely appreciate the amazing opportunity that Jack Roush has given me in this sport and am honored to race for him,” Edwards said. “As an organization, Roush Fenway provides the resources I need to win, and as a driver, that’s the most important thing. We’re having a fun season on the race track as we’re leading the points and in great position for the Chase. That’s the result of a lot of hard work from the men and women at Roush Fenway, Ford Motor Company and Roush Yates Engines. I really enjoy competing with this group and looking forward to continuing that relationship into the future.”

Jack Roush, owner of Roush Racing,  was equally excited in his announcement about Edwards remaining with his racing team.

“Carl Edwards has achieved a level of success on and off track that would put him at the top of the list for any race team,” said Roush. “Carl and the No. 99 team are having a terrific season again this year, and we’re thrilled that our relationship will continue for many more.”

“We saw great potential in Carl a decade ago, and it’s been a thrill to watch him grow into one of the sports’ premier drivers behind the wheel of the No. 99,” added Roush. “We didn’t take our past success for granted when we sat down with Carl to talk about his future. As an organization, we approach each week with an intense focus on being successful in the race to come. Carl’s position atop the points is a testament to that diligence.”

The other drama in the garage this weekend was all about Brad Kesolowski and his crash during testing at  Road Atlanta.  He was awake and alert and tweeting away shortly after the crash and had this to say in one of his tweets.

“Looks like I’ll be OK to race this weekend,” he tweeted. “Blue deuce, not so much. I’ll keep u posted.”

In a short meeting with the media Brad was able to expand on how he is feeling and what challenges he will face during the race at Pocono.

“Both feet are tore up pretty good,” Keselowski said. “But certainly I’m still able to do what I want to do. I’m not gonna get out (of the car) on Sunday — I don’t care how much it hurts me.”

“(The brace) makes my foot move as one with my leg, which makes it a lot easier,” Keselowski said. “But then again you can’t really use the ball of your foot to modulate the brake pedal, and getting through Turns 2 and 3 here really requires a lot of finesse with the brake pedal, so (the brace)  makes it a little more complicated.”

“You come to Pocono and Turn 1 is pretty fast,” Keselowski said. “I ran over something and cut down a left rear tire. Glad to bring the Blue Deuce, at least in one piece on the race track. Other than the tires, we’ve got no damage.”

“Drivers have been calling about getting into my car,” Keselowski said. “But I’m not getting out. This is our life. This is what I do. I drive race cars for a living. And the second someone else gets in there, you just got replaced.

“And you fight so hard to find your seat, your spot and your way in this sport, that you’re not going to let somebody else replace you.”

Brad Kesolowski sits 21st in points right now, only 12 points behind Juan Pablo Montoya, and is close enough to make a wild card spot in the chase if he can get himself back into the top 20.

Dale Earnhardt Jr qualified 19th behind Teammate Jimmie Johnson who sits in 18th.  Tony Stewart had a terrible qualifying run landing himself in 28th on the grid, 3 positions ahead of Jeff Gordon, the winner from the spring race this year at Pocono,  who also had a bad run landing himself in 31st.

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NASCAR – Stewart Haas Take the Front Row With Newman on the Pole

July 16, 2011 by Jay Tomchuk Leave a Comment

Ryan Newman ripping it up in Texas earlier this year - Image courtesy of JDTImages.ca

For the first time this season we find the Rocket Man Ryan Newman in a familiar place as in years past, on the pole for the Lennox Industrial Tools 301.  With a track-record run at 135.232 mph (28.165 seconds) Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Newman claimed his first Coors Light Pole Award of the season, his fifth at New Hampshire and the 47th of his career.  Although he has placed well so far this season with 5 tops 5’s and 8 top ten’s Newman has struggled with being there at the front for the checkered flag. Newman edged out his teammate and team owner Tony Stewart who completed his lap around the 1.058-mile distance in 28.200 seconds (135.064 mph), and led the  12 drivers who broke the track record of 133.572 mph (28.515 seconds) set last year by Brad Kesolowski.

This race will also be the first time that the Stewart Haas teammates start together on the front row.

Ryan Newman - Image courtesy of JDTImages.ca

“Reutimann clipped off a lap that I didn’t think could be beat,” Newman said. “But I’m just proud of the U.S. Army team and everybody at Stewart-Haas to get our first front row together, first of all, but for us to be the winning car and have a good start for the entire weekend.

“The car felt good in practice. The lap itself was nice and smooth. I wouldn’t say it was perfect, but it was good enough, and if we can make that a little bit better for Sunday, we’ll be in really good shape.”

When asked if frustrations are getting to the Stewart Haas team Newman’s answer was straight to the point.

“Ultimately, we want to be first or second [in the races] in either order, so yeah, I’m sure he’s frustrated,” Newman said. “This is crunch time and this has usually been his time, but it hasn’t been this year. … That’s going to happen from time to time. Everything does cycle, but you don’t want to see that part of the cycle when it’s your teammate.”

Stewart, starting second, credited the tires that Goodyear brought to Loudon New Hampshire for the speeds that just kept on

Tony Stewart - Image courtesy of JDTImages.ca

coming as the track record just kept being broken throughout qualifying.

“It’s just a grippier tire,” Stewart said. “What we’ve fought here in the past is a tire that normally would chatter for two or three laps until it got some temperature in it and [got] some bite. This tire just seemed to take off better.

“Obviously, for qualifying, when you’ve only got two laps to do it, it’s faster because it takes off right away.”

Stewart’s thoughts on the frustrations his team has felt this year were a little more colorful and a lot less restrained.

“I am frustrated because I keep having to answer the question. … Are you happy when things aren’t going the way you like it to go? Makes you frustrated, doesn’t it? So yes, we’re frustrated.”

“Same as we did last week and the week before. We’re not where we want to be yet, but we’re working on it.”

“It’s just business as usual for us,” Stewart said. “Try to get as many points as we can and hope we can get in on our merit of points, and not have to rely on the wild card.”

Tony did make it clear that he is still loving what he is doing, both as a driver and as an owner, but that he is looking forward to breaking his own winless season.

“I like what I’m doing. I enjoy it still,” Stewart said. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I’m still just as happy doing it as I was two years ago when I started doing this as a car owner and a driver.

“Nothing has changed from that side. Every week is a challenge. Every week is a different obstacle. You work hard to try to accomplish the goal each week. It hasn’t changed.”

David Reutimann (134.763 mph) had been holding his own out front until Newman’s run, is fresh of a second place finish last week in Kentucky, but still thinks it is a bit early for people to be saying that his 00 team is gaining momentum.

“We’re certainly, finally running like we’re supposed to, but I don’t know if you’d call it a roll,” Reutimann said. “But it’s certainly better than it has been. Just because you qualify up front doesn’t mean that you’re going to stay there, but it certainly does get your weekend off to a good start.”

Kurt Busch (134.340 mph) and Penske Racing teammate Keselowski (134.150 mph) round out the top 5.

 

 

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NASCAR – Kurt Busch Avoids the Brawl and Comes Out on Top With His First Road Course Win

June 27, 2011 by Jay Tomchuk 2 Comments

The gladiators went out to battle and took no prisoners.  The carnage on the field was devastating and warriors were left hanging from the walls, literally.  While it may sound over dramatic, it was how the race played out yesterday with Kurt Busch staying ahead of the fray behind him, leading for 76 laps and taking the checkered flag with barely a scratch on his fenders.  In his first victory in 21 road course starts, Busch showed that the poles he has taken in the past few weeks were not just accidental, and that his team is making the changes he needed to get him to victory lane.

“It’s a great sense of satisfaction,” Busch said. “All the hard work from the guys back at the race shop where it starts. The times that we’ve tested. The execution here at the racetrack this weekend. You see it all come together. You know when you have a shot at victory you have to block those moments out and get that car to the victory line. To get the checkered flag, do some doughnuts, to drive in reverse around this road course, I got choked up.

“It was a great feeling to know that I’ve won on a road course.”

The win moves Kurt Busch into 4th place, up 3 from last week.

Jeff Gordon on the track - Image Courtesy of JDTImages.ca

Jeff Gordon, who was one of the favourites entering the race, made some great moves toward the end of the race which landed him squarely in 2nd place.  Passing points leader Carl Edwards with only a handful of laps remaining, Gordon managed to stay out of the battles and was in a much better frame of mind after this race than he was last year.  By staying out of the trouble behind the leaders Gordon managed to move up from 12th to 9th in points and move himself inside the coveted top 10 positions for the chase, and putting him in a position to remain there and not having to contend with the wild card placement.

“There were times today where we didn’t have the car and I gave up the spots,” Gordon said. “I wasn’t going to try to push the issue. I guess that’s good and bad. I didn’t have a car that could even try to pass anybody or block anybody down in Turn 11 for most of the race. So I had to give up a lot of those spots and bite my tongue and hope that we could get it fixed or get track position, which it worked out.

“I certainly didn’t want to make as many enemies as I did last year, because I made a lot of ’em coming out of here. So it’s nice to come out of here and that not happen. I don’t think I really touched anybody today. So that feels good.”

Carl Edwards signing autographs for the fans before the Nationwide race in Michigan - Image Courtesy of JDTImages.ca

Carl Edwards remains the points leader and extended his points lead over Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson (2nd and 3rd inpoints respectively) and also made some excellent moves on the track in the dwindling laps of the race.  Having run outside of the top 10 in the earlier part of the race, Edwards managed to make up ground and earn a 3rd place finish on the track when the checkered flag flew.

“I think this is a huge weekend for us,” Edwards said. “We started out terrible. We changed plans right at the end of practice on Friday. We all got together and talked about it. . . . That was the call of the weekend. Ended up giving us two hours of practice. We got to really work on the car, and that’s what made this a good day for us.”

But the talk of the race will still be Tony Stewart finding himself hung up on the tire wall after Brian Vickers retaliated for an earlier incident between himself and Stewart, which also resulted in the ending of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s day when his Radiator was punctured leading to engine failure a few laps later.  Earnhardt finished 41st with a blown engine.  Stewart had spun Vickers early in the race for what he perceived as blocking being thrown by Vickers in tight racing conditions heading into turn 11.  Vickers howeve maintains that it was too early in the race to be throwing a block, and that he was simply dealing with the other drivers around him at the time.

“You know, he wrecked me — and I wrecked him back.”

“I wasn’t blocking him. That may have been his perception from where he was sitting, but the 18  went off the race track in front of me,” Vickers said. “He was going off in the dirt and then coming back in front of me on the race track, and I was trying to avoid him. The cars in front of me were slow. I was inside of the guy in front of me.

Brian Vickers on the track - Image Courtesy of JDTImages.ca

“It’s pretty early in the race to worry about blocking someone, or wrecking someone. I think when he sees the replay and he realizes why I went low — if he looks at it out of my front windshield — he’ll realize it had nothing to do with him. It had to do with the 18 almost wrecking me, and a couple of other guys running slow up top.”

“It’s unfortunate.  He made his bed at that moment, and he had to sleep in it.  He wrecked me, and I dealt with it,” Vickers said.

Stewart was just as open about his on track actions once he was back in the infield after safety crews had to extricate his car from atop the tire barriers on the outside wall of turn 11.

I’ve been complaining about the way guys have been racing all year,” Stewart said. “I like Brian. I’m not holding it against him at all. I don’t care if it was Ryan Newman, I would have dumped him, too. If they want to block, that’s what is going to happen to them every time for the rest of my career.”

“I dumped him earlier for blocking and he got me back later on,” Stewart said. “If they block, they are going to get dumped. It is real simple. I mean, I don’t blame him. I don’t blame him for dumping us back.

Tony Stewart being nterviewed by Speed TV - Image Courtesy of JDTImages.ca

“But I don’t race guys that way. I never have. If guys want to block. then they are going to wrecked every time. Until NASCAR makes a rule against it, I am going to dump them every time for it. He did what he had to do and I don’t blame him. There is nothing wrong with it.”

“I don’t know if it’s lack of respect or guys just pushing the envelope and not working with each other,” said Stewart. “There wasn’t any reason at the point of the race where he started blocking in the first place. It didn’t make sense to do it and I’m not going to tolerate it. I don’t race guys that way and I’m not going to let anybody race me that way. So if they block, they get dumped. Plain and simple.”

Vickers seemed seemed to be on the same page and acknoledged that although he and Stewart have tangled in the past that this will not affect their relationship with each other on or off the track.

We were joking and laughing last week and had a great race,” Vickers said. “We haven’t had any problems in a long time. Actually, I think the last problem we had was in Turn 11 here in 2004. That was the last time we got together.”

“I’m not angry. I’d rather have been racing for the win and worrying about something like that. … Granted, I wish it hadn’t happened. I hate it for the Red Bull guys. Those guys worked really hard on the car,” Vickers said.

“We were trying some new stuff. We made some changes at the beginning of the race with the air pressure. We were horrible at the start of the race … absolutely horrible. Once we fixed that, we were pretty quick.”

“It’s just racing. It’s just human nature. It’s how people do things, how they address things,” he said. “If they don’t, they just keep happening. He made his move and I addressed it. That’s the end of the discussion.

“It’s a competitive environment and we all want to win. I don’t know why he wrecked me. That was his decision to make. But I’m good. … The way I see it, we’re all good. We’re all square.”

Stewart drops from 9th to 12th int the points standings and Vickers dropped 2 spots to 26th.  Dale Jr who was caught up in the original incident between Stewart and Vickers, dropped 4 spots from 2rd to 7th in the standings after his early exit and resulting DNF.

 

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NASCAR – Logano Scores Second Career Pole at the First Road Course Race of the Season in Sonoma

June 25, 2011 by Jay Tomchuk Leave a Comment

Joey Logano does not see himself as a road course racer.   So imagine his surprise when he set the pace at 93.256 mph with a lap time of 76.821 Seconds and none of the drivers who followed him were able to better his speed for the Toyota/Save Mart 350.  This run makes Joey the youngest driver in Cup History to score a pole on a road course.  In his typical understated fashion Joey told the media just how surprised he really was.

Image Courtesy of JDTImages.ca

”I was very surprised,” he said. ”We were sitting in the trailer watching the last three guys to go and it was Kasey (Khane), who got the pole here last year, Denny (Hamlin), who is really good here and our teammate, and then Kurt (Busch), who has got the last three poles in a row. We didn’t think we were going to be good enough to get the pole, but made some good adjustments and got some speed in the car.

”This is the last place I expected to get a pole. I never considered myself a road course racer.”

“After practice, I felt like we needed a lot more forward drive, a lot more side bite in the car, and they (his crew) made it happen.”

“I was surprised. I felt like my lap was OK. I didn’t feel like it was stellar — by no means. And it held up.”

“I didn’t really think it was going to hold up, and I don’t think any of my guys thought it was going to hold up, but we’re really pumped up right now. We needed a good momentum change for our Home Depot team right now. We’ve been going through a little bit of a drought, and this is definitely going to help us a lot.”

Now he’s have to get his armor ready for the brawl that is about to follow.  Sonoma in recent years has become a track the requires skill and patience, and yet has more beating and banging that the shorts tracks that NASCAR fans are used to watching.  Just look at the results from the race here last year.  11 laps in, four cars stacked up. Just past halfway, the event had to be stopped for 20 minutes to clean up a five-car accident. In nearly every passing zone, drivers in the middle of the pack beat and banged on one another as if they were on a short track. Many were inadvertently caught in the crossfire and spun out.  Although the race is most remembered for Marcos Ambrose losing the lead when his car failed to restart on an uphill grade while he tried to conserve fuel, the conversations and appologies after the race were all about or from Jeff Gordon. Clint Bowyer,Martin Truex Jr.,Kurt Busch, and Elliot Sadler were among those demanding answers from Gordon afterward.

”

Image Courtesy of JDTImages.ca

There’s preferred lines, and there’s basically being off line,” Gordon said. “If you happen to get put in a position where you’re off line, then you’re going to scratch, claw, with everything you possibly can, especially in the closing laps. There’s no doubt that in the closing laps … it’s as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than a short track.”

“It was an off day for Jeff,”  said Kurt Busch on Friday. “He apologized to a handful of guys afterward, and for some reason … excluded apologizing to me. I thought that was interesting. He drove straight through our right rear, gave us a flat, and we finished 32nd. You have your bad days. You have your moments of beating and banging. It’s one of those things where the lines keep getting further and further towards the aggressive side here at Sonoma.”

Kevin Harvick offered some idea of why the aggression factor is so high on a road course like Sonoma.

“I think there are very limited places to pass, and so when you see somebody that’s vulnerable, you have to take advantage of it. And when you get taken advantage of, you obviously want to minimize it as much as you can,”said Harvick. “As long as the fenders aren’t rubbing the tires here, you can usually still make good lap times. Road courses have become very physical races, and the cars look more like they should have been at Martinsville than probably anywhere else. It’s a fun race, and it has become very physical over the last three or four years. I think that’s more of a tribute to this particular car, because you can be more aggressive with it and not get yourself in trouble with fenders dragging tires and things.”

Jimmie Johnson agrees.

“When you’re in the center of the pack, it’s just an energy that exists when somebody makes a questionable move on you, and your excitement level goes up. And now you make a move on a guy, and it just kind of breeds this style of racing, and we’re going to see it,” he said. “Anymore, the passing zones, drivers are so aggressive in defending the passing zones and braking zones that you have to find a different way by, or just bomb it in there and the eight-tires-are-better-than four mentality and hope that you make it. I think there’s a very good chance of a lot of action taking place.”

Photo Courtesy of JDTImages.ca

Even a driver like Tony Stewart, who is definitely one of the best active NASCAR road course racers out there is looking for action to happen on the track.

“I can promise you, there will be a lot of guys that will just crash each other just because they think they can,” said Stewart. “I’ll bet anything I’ve got in my pocket that in the last two or

three laps, somebody dumps somebody just doing something stupid. So there’s no doubt in my mind that’ll happen.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke about the post race meetings on the helicopter pad where the drivers let their feeling be known to each other about the days race.

“Yeah, this place gets interesting, especially up there on the helicopter pad afterward,” said Jr. “I don’t fly to the race tracks on helicopters no more, but it’s pretty interesting after the race. Everybody just sort of gets what’s on their mind out, and they talk it out, or whatever. Or they don’t talk, and it’s just kind of awkward.”

So even after his round of apologies, what doe Jeff Gordon expect from the other drivers?

“I’m sure if they’re in a position to kind of get back for what happened, I’m sure they will,” he said. “My goal this weekend is not to allow myself to get in that position.”

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NASCAR – Kurt Busch Takes His Third Pole In A Row at Michigan

June 18, 2011 by Jay Tomchuk Leave a Comment

Kurt Busch talks to his crew after his qualifying run in Michigan - Image courtesy of JDTImages.ca

Kurt Busch is on a roll and he’s definitely liking the way it is leading him with a average speed of 188.699 mph on his first lap in a time of 38.156 seconds.  For the third week in a row Kurt has landed himself on the pole and will be leading the field to the green flag and he’s very busy handing out compliments to the team behind him, for giving him the equipment that has landed him there week after week.

”To be on the pole three weeks, what it does – there are so many benefits behind the scenes,” Busch said. ”Picking your pit selection first, having track position right away in the race. … You could have a slow pit crew, and you have that first pit box, that’s going to help you get out in front of guys throughout the day.”

Kurt Busch on the track during his qualifying run at MIS - Image Courtesy of JDTImages.ca

”I’m thankful that everybody was able to pull together and understand that we should just try something different,” he said. ”It’s great to be able to see the results pop up so soon. I had no idea that we were right around the corner.”

Having spun himself out during practice the last 2 times he qualified on the pole, he managed to keep it facing forward this week in a more “conventional” qualifying run.

“This is the first time we’ve had a pole without spinning or wrecking our primary car,” Busch said. “This was a conventional weekend, so to speak.”

This is the 15th time that Kurt Busch has received the pole award in his career and is the 4th in a row for Penske after Brad Kesolowski took the award at Charlotte Motorspeedway in May.  This pole however was by one of the closest margins in recent history being only .003 of a second faster than David Reutimann whos average speed was 188.684 mph.

Rounding out the top 5 were Matt Kenseth (188.620 mph) in third, followed by Brian Vickers (188.157 mph) and Regan Smith (187.607 mph).  Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne, Paul Menard and Denny Hamlin fill in the top 10 respectively.

This was a busy week for NASCAR fans, with Tony Stewart swapping cars with Lewis Hamilton at Watkins Glen on Tuesday, and with JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) being in the news for using un approved oil pans on all 3 of the cars entered in tomorrow’s Helluva Good Sour Creme Dips 400.  Jeff Burton and David Ragan got into each other during practice which resulted in a lot of repair work needing to be completed in a very short time frame.  Both cars returned to the track before the end of practice.

“I wasn’t expecting for him to slow down that much,” said Ragan. “There were two or three car-lengths between us and before I knew it, I was right on him. I was so glad that Jeff held onto it and it didn’t tear up anything.”

After the oil pans for Logano and his JGR teammates, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, were confiscated during opening day inspection by NASCAR officials, after it was determined the

Joey Logano rips it around during qualifying today at MIS - Image Courtesy of JDTImages.ca

oil pans had not been submitted for prior approval, things went from bad to worse for the No. 20 team.  Joey will start from the back of the field in 43rd for tomorrow’s race.

Three laps into final practice, Logano’s No. 20 Toyota began showing smoke, forcing him to slow on the track and head for the garage with a possible engine bearing issue, forcing the crew to change the engine for the second time in one day, this time to replace the Toyota powerplant.  No word has come down yet on whether or not penaltied will be issued but in their usual fashion NASCAR will most likely announce what, if any punishment, will be dealt out on Tuesday after the race.

Dale Earnhardt Jr will be making his 107 consecutive win less start tomorrow, but after looking really fast during practice and being at the track where his last win was awarded, Jr. has to be feeling pretty confident about his chances.  Dale Jr. qualified in 15th but showed excellent speed in practice running 5th in average speeds overall and looking really comfortable on the track. After an excellent string of top 10 and top 5 finishes in the weeks past Earnhardt Jr. is definitely looking good and is my pick to win this weekend in Michigan.

 

 

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