The Pit Stall

"Does anyone know where I can find a 8' by 11' sheet of Bristol Board?"

If you’re leading a race with 10 to go, is there anyone you’d like to see behind you more than Mark Martin?  He’s probably the one guy on the track that you know will race you clean and not put you into a wall or spin you to get the win.  It was a great race by both Kyle Busch, and Martin, at a time when they really needed it.  Martin moved up to 10th spot, only 60 points clear of the 13th place Busch, who is now only 34 points out of that important 12th position.  Atlanta and New Hampshire should be interesting with so many drivers near the cut off. 

Group 2 – Denny Hamlin (5), Sliced Bread(8), Dale Earnhardt Jr (6), Kurt Busch(4)

My Group B drivers were solid again this week, with 3 of the 4 posting top 10s.  Unfortunately I started the one that didn’t (Logano), and a stellar week was downgraded to good as a result.  After a solid qualifying effort, Logano got rear ended by Dave Blaney (this is what happens when start and parkers stay on the track), and not long after blew a tire, and spent the rest of the night with a damaged race car.  Hamlin was my other start, and he didn’t disappoint, coming from the back to finish 5th.  A couple more short tracks on the schedule guarantee a couple more Hamlin starts.  Earnhardt followed up his 3rd at Michigan with another top 10 (9th), easily his best back to back result all season.  Kurt Busch also scored a top 10, coming across the stripe in 7th position.  I’m liking where I sit with regards to starts down the stretch…and am already starting to plan out who I’m going to run where.

Group 3 – Scott Speed(8), Sam Hornish Jr(5)

Speed followed up his second best qualifying effort of the season, with his second best finish.  The decent result (15th)trimmed the gap Speed needs to make up to get into the top 35 to 115 points.  I definitely think that is doable over the final 12 races, to guarantee the #82 a  spot in the first 5 races of 2010.  The fact he put up a top 15 at a tough track like Bristol should give him a little bit of confidence down the stretch, as he, like Logano will be visiting alot of tracks for the second time.  Hornish was in the top 20 for alot of the race, but got mixed up in a wreck, when some cars ahead of him checked up.  Not long after that, he over-heated and finished 35th.  A big disappointment, as no doubt several people picked him after a few solid runs recently.

Recap

• Points for this race: 289 (Ky Busch, Hamlin, Logano, Speed)
• Most Possible Points: 372 (Martin (Biffle qual), Hamlin, Ku Busch, Ambrose (Speed qual))
• Season Points : 6856
• Current Place : 1st
• Lead over 2nd : 697
• Overall Percentile : 99th (1907 overall) 

Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR

Filed under: Pit Picks, Short Tracks by Site Admin - Monday, August 24th, 2009
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Jimmie Johnson trying to out-flex Miles after winning the 2009 Autism Speaks 400

I was unable to catch any of the qualifying or practice results prior to this race (so my picks were what they were when I set them), nor was I able to watch the race, so I really have no clue what happened.  I really need to get in the routine of PVRing this stuff to watch afterwards.  My baseball playing habit is apparently much worse than my Nascar habit, so I have no insight into anything that went down on track from Friday to Sunday.  I think playing in a tournament with all proceeds going to a children’s charity (more specifically, a Neo-Natal Intensive Care unit at a hospital) gives me a decent excuse for this weekend.

The numbers in parentheses are how many starts I have remaining for each driver for the season.

Group 1 – Carl Edwards(8), Mark Martin(8)

It was a toss up between Edwards and Biffle in this spot but I chose Carl based on his recent performance (not necessarily finishes).  He ended up with a solid 7th place finish and led a few laps to pick up the 10 bonus points.  I was expecting a little better, but it definitely could have been worse.  Martin also knocked off another top 10 finish, working his way up from a 28th starting spot.

Group 2 – Ryan Newman(5), Juan Montoya(6), Denny Hamlin(6), Martin Truex Jr(9)

First the bad news…Ryan Newman’s top 5 streak is over.  The good news…he still had a decent day and finished in the top 10.  Montoya was my second pick in this group, getting the nod over the still yet to earn a start Truex.  He qualified well, starting inside the second row, but finished 30th after blowing a right front tire before the halfway point of the race.  Truex would have been a slightly better option with a 21st place finish, and Hamlin also blew a tire and finished several laps down in 36th after competing for the lead at the midpoint.

Group 3 – Sam Hornish Jr(7), Bobby Labonte(7)

Hornish had been decent lately, and I’d only used him once up until this weekend, so he got the start.  Pretty thrilled with a 12th place qual and 13th place finish out of my final group driver.  Labonte didn’t fare quite so well, finishing 28th.  I thought maybe some of that Roush success would brush off on the little brother Yates team…apparently not.

Recap

• Points for this race: 275 (Edwards, Newman, Montoya, Hornish)
• Most Possible Points: 372 (Johnson, Stewart, Ku. Busch (Reutimann, Kahne qual), Hornish (Sorenson qual))
• Season Points : 3764
• Current Place : 1st
• Lead over 2nd : 386
• Overall Percentile : 99th (1318 overall) 

Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR

Filed under: Pit Picks, Short Tracks by Site Admin - Monday, June 1st, 2009
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I was finally able to sit down and watch a race from pretty much start to finish on Saturday night.  Our ball team was playing in a tournament, so we’d played 3 games, out in the sun all day, and a beverage or two…so it was pretty sweet to plop down on the couch and watch a race in it’s entirety.  I’m glad the rain held off and they were able to get the race in.  I’m even happier that I had a solid week (best of the season so far), and expanded my lead in the pool.

Kyle Busch celebrates his birthday in style - winning the Russ Friedman 400 at Richmond

Pretty much all eight drivers I picked this week were running in or around the top 10 at various points of the race, including Denny Hamlin, who had a dominant car for most of the race and looked like he’d get the Richmond monkey off his back, until a lousy stop got him back in traffic and the car went away from him.  When all was said and done, 7 of the 8 had top 14 finishes.

Group 1 – Kyle Busch(7) & Jeff Gordon(5)

Two Kyle Busch starts, two Kyle Busch victories…you have to like that kind of consistancy.  After winning on his home track at Vegas, Kyle has now also added a win on his birthday, Saturday night at Richmond.  Gordon also had a top 10 finish, coming across in 8th position and regaining his lead in the series standings.  He led quite a few laps early and qualified second, making it a good overall scoring weekend for those who picked Jeffy.

Group 2 – Denny Hamlin(6), Tony Stewart(6), Ryan Newman(8), David Reutimann(8)

For most of the race, Hamlin had the car to beat, and led over a third of the laps.  Unfortunately a shot at victory was lost in the pits, thanks to what has become a real trouble spot for alot of teams…lugnut problems.  Hamlin lost several positions on the stop and the car, which was good on long runs, went away from him after a multitude of cautions in the final 100 laps.  Tony Stewart continued his solid first season as an owner/driver, with a second place finish to former teammate Busch.  I don’t think it will be long before we see one of those Stewart-Haas cars in Victory Lane.  Speaking of which, Stewart’s teammate, Ryan Newman dropped another top 5 run down, following up last weekends third at Talladega.  Reutimann dropped out of the top 12 in the standings with a 28th place finish, thanks to a late-race spin following some contact with the #83 Toyota.

Group 3 – Marcos Ambrose (6), Sam Hornish Jr(8)

Both of the bottom group drivers I tabbed this week had awesome finishes.  Hornish picked up his second career top 10 this weekend.  Unfortunately, I left him on the bench in favour of Ambrose, who was no slouch either, with an 11th place.  Definitely thrilled with the production out of this group this weekend.  It looks like I’ll be able to ride out these 2, with what’s left of AJ and spot start some road-course ringers, and an occasional Labonte or Sorenson for the remainder of the season.

Recap

• Points for this race: 350 (Busch (Gordon qual), Stewart, Hamlin, Ambrose)
• Most Possible Points: 390 (Busch (Gordon qual), Stewart, Newman (Vickers, Hamlin qual), Hornish)
• Season Points : 2896
• Current Place : 1st
• Lead over 2nd : 259
• Overall Percentile : 99th (1493 overall) 

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Steve Helber

Filed under: Pit Picks, Short Tracks by Site Admin - Monday, May 4th, 2009
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Anyway, we’re back to short track racing for the 4th time in the last 6 races (I consider anything a mile and under a short track).  The strongest teams on the shorties so far this season have been Hendrick and Hendrick Lite (Stewart-Haas), so loading up on those guys isn’t a bad idea.  I’ve also went with a couple guys who have run well here the past couple seasons, but just haven’t been able to seal the deal for one reason or another.

 **The numbers beside the drivers names are how many races I have them available for (9 starts per driver)

Group 1 – Kyle Busch(8) & Jeff Gordon(5)

Where doesn’t Kyle Busch run well?  You could pencil him in every week and be pretty confident he’ll be in the mix.  His average finish at Richmond is just outside the top 5, but he doesn’t have a win at Richmond…yet.  He was in contention for one last year until he mixed it up with the #88.  I’m expecting a top 5 out of ‘Shrub’ on Saturday night.  Jeff Gordon has fallen off a bit since a torrid start, but should get back on top of the heap this weekend.  He’s won at RIR twice, and has a handful of pole awards.  Even if I don’t start him this weekend, those qualifying bonus points add up.  The other Hendrick cars aren’t a bad start in this spot either…I’ll just keep hanging on to Jimmie for the stretch run.

Group 2 - Tony Stewart(7), Denny Hamlin(7), Ryan Newman(8), David Reutimann(8)

Was just looking through some stats after locking in my picks to back up what my gut told me…and Hamlin has the best average finish in the past 3 seasons at the short tracks, as well as the best average running position at Richmond for the past 4.  You can’t ignore that, especially for a driver outside of the top group.  Stewart and Newman fall into the Hendrick Lite group, and both excelled here prior to joining the organization.  Both have wins at Richmond, and Newman does have a pole award from the track as well.  Dale Jr is a popular pick in this spot, but I’m not entirely sold on him this season.  He lacks the consistancy he needs to be trusted week to week.  He’ll run well and then some mental error by him or his team puts him out of contention.  I’m gonna go with ‘The Franchise’, David Reutimann instead.  He could contend for some qualifying bonuses and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him around the top 10 on lap 400.

Group 3 – Marcos Ambrose(7), Sam Hornish Jr(8)

Marcos Ambrose has been easily the class of this group over the past 5 races with Reed Sorenson the only one that is even close.  In the short tracks so far this season, he’s run 10th, 14th and 14th.  That kind of consistency Group 3 gold!  Hornish has been improving greatly this season, and could be this year’s Reutimann with a strong second half if he can keep it up.  If not for rubbing the wall trying to avoid the 2nd big wreck last week, he’d have a nice little string of decent finishes going.

Good luck with your picks and enjoy some Saturday night racing!

Filed under: Pit Picks, Short Tracks by Site Admin - Friday, May 1st, 2009
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Well it finally happened…I muffed a top group pick and in turn had a relatively bad week.  My streak of 270+ points ends at 7 races.  At least it wasn’t a disaster, as I managed to pick up 250 points and only dropped 12 points to second place.

It looks like Mark Martin may be a contender this season, after a slow start he’s ripped off four straight finishes of 7th or better, including this weekend’s victory, his first win since 2005.  In those 4 races he has gone from being in danger of having to qualify on time, to being only 9 points out of a Chase spot.  Maybe he can get that championship that has eluded him throughout his entire career. 

Group 1 – Jeff Gordon(5) & Jimmie Johnson(8)

I stayed with Jeff Gordon, who has been ridiculously good this year, and for the first time it didn’t pay off.  It was a hard luck race for Gordon, who suffered from a bad green flag stop, which was not only long but also resulted in a penalty which put him down a lap.   He had been running in the top 10 at the time.  I guess I can’t complain though with the results I’ve had to this point out of this group…something like this was bound to happen at some point, and I’m just happy it wasn’t a 35th+ finish.  Jimmie on the other hand followed up 3 straight Phoenix wins with a 4th place finish.

Group 2 – Kurt Busch(6), Juan Montoya(7), Ryan Newman(8), Denny Hamlin(7)

I took Busch and Montoya out of this group, which was both good and bad.  Busch had another solid finish, coming in 3rd behind Martin and Tony Stewart.  Montoya on the other hand finished a lap down in 24th.  Hamlin had a good run and finished 6th while Newman came across in 16th.

Group 3 – Marcos Ambrose(7), AJ Allmendinger(5)

Marcos Ambrose continues to impress me with his improvement this season.  He put down another top 15 finish with a 14th place, and is actually tied with Allmendinger in points (on Yahoo anyways) for the season.  Allmendinger finished 35th, down 3 laps, his second consecutive finish in the mid 30′s.  Someone to take a look at in future races out of this group besides these 2 and Labonte is Hornish Jr.  He’s coming around, with his first ever top 10 and back to back weeks as the top Group 3 finisher.

Recap

• Points for this race: 250 (Gordon, Ku. Busch, Montoya, Ambrose)
• Most Possible Points: 396 (Martin (Ky. Busch qual), Stewart, Ku. Busch, Hornish Jr.)
• Season Points : 2313
• Current Place : 1st
• Lead over 2nd : 164
• Overall Percentile : 98th (4016 overall) 

Up this week is the crapshoot in Alabama…

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Paul Connors

Filed under: Pit Picks, Short Tracks by Site Admin - Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
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I hope everyone enjoyed the week off from the Sprint Cup series and found time for the family and a good meal.  At least there was a good reason for a weekend off this time.  Anyway, the series is off to Arizona for the spring race at Phoenix International Raceway, a relatively flat, 1 mile, tri-oval unlike any other track on the circuit.  This should be a good weekend to be one of the Hendrick drivers, or a road racer.  All four Hendrick drivers have a win at the track, the team has won the last four, and Martin and Gordon share the record for most top 10s.  I think they have this place figured out.

 **The numbers beside the drivers names are how many races I have them available for (9 starts per driver)

Group 1 – Jeff Gordon(6) & Jimmie Johnson(8)

Jeff Gordon has been on fire this season, especially over the past 5 races, posting an incredible 3.4 average finish.  He’s also the only driver with an average finish under 10 for the season.  I’m thinking he should post another top 5, and possibly start a different type of streak this weekend by winning his second straight race.  Johnson has been money at Phoenix, winning both events last season as well as the fall event in ’07.  Johnson is also second to Gordon in average finish over the most recent 5 races.  I can’t say I’d be overly surprised to see a Hendrick 1-2 finish on Saturday night.

Group 2 - Kurt Busch(7), Denny Hamlin(7), Ryan Newman(8), Juan Montoya(8)

Kurt Busch has been getting out front and leading laps, and coming through with decent finishes for the most part.  You can’t overlook those 10 bonus points for your drivers.  Newman has come around after a slow start, and you can’t ignore his qualifying prowess, even though he’s not quite back to his Rocketman status of a few seasons past.  Plus he’s part of Hendrick Lite (Stewart-Haas Racing).  Gotta go with Montoya here, as the guys with alot of road course experience run well on the flatter tracks.  Denny Hamlin is a short track guy.  Always has been, always will be.  I will be a little surprised if he’s not hovering around the top 5 throughout the race, and could be a bit of a ‘darkhorse’ to pull off a win.

Group 3 – Marcos Ambrose(8), AJ Allmendinger(5)

If you want to know why I picked these two, you can pretty much look to the Martinsville Picks and Recap.  A similar style of track, that suits both of these guys well.  Dinger is still the class of this group, but has secured funding to get through the first 26 races, and will be pretty much assured of getting a sponsor for the final 10 if he keeps himself in the top 10-20 in points.  This might be time for me to hold him back and save some starts.  Ambrose will be the guy here unless he has some sort of disaster in quals.

Don’t forget this week’s race is on Saturday night!  Good luck with your picks and have a great weekend!

Filed under: Pit Picks, Short Tracks by Site Admin - Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
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Johnson (48) nudges Hamlin (11) on the way to victory

Another Martinsville race, another Jimmie Johnson victory.  The pilot of the #48 Lowe’s Chevy has now won 5 of the last 6 races at the track.  They might as well rename the joint Jimmieville (Johnsonville reminds me too much of sausage…and not the hot dogs that the track is famous for).  Denny Hamlin put in a solid performance, and held on for a second consecutive second place finish.

The big story this week would have to be the dominance of the Henrick and Hendrick Lite (Stewart-Haas) cars.  Of the 6 cars they put on the track, all 6 finished in the top 8.  Martin and Newman put together solid finishes for the second straight week, after digging themselves a big hole in the first 4 races.  It will be interesting to see if they have put their troubles in the rear view and can get back to being Chase contenders, as was the expectation to start the year (at least for Martin).

Group 1 – Jeff Gordon(7) & Kyle Busch(8)

Since qualifying was rained out and Gordon would be leading the field to the green and more importantly getting that all important first pit selection, he was a must start here.  He was great for the first third of the race and led quite a few laps before falling off, and eventually rolling across in 4th.  Busch didn’t fare quite as well, having a couple tires go on him, putting him laps down that he would never recover from.  He managed a 24th place finish, which would have been a huge disappointment for a top group driver.

Group 2 – Denny Hamlin(7), Juan Montoya(8), Ryan Newman(9), Kurt Busch(7)

Hamlin was the class of the field for the majority of the race, and held the lead in the closing laps, before being nudged out of the way by Johnson.  Still a great performance, and the most points of anyone in the field.  Montoya was never really a factor in the race, but still managed a 12th place finish when all was said and done.  Newman put together his second straight top 10 with a 6th place finish, and looks to be headed in the right direction as the series heads to Texas.  Kurt Busch rounded out a somewhat disappointing day for the Busch clan with a 18th place finish, near the tail end of the lead lap cars.

Group 3 – Marcos Ambrose(8), AJ Allmendinger(5)

Both of these drivers had great runs this weekend.  Allmendinger was the better of the 2 finishing 5 spots ahead of Ambrose in 9th.  I went with Ambrose, and was happy with his 14th place finish, as it was an excellent finish for this group, and saved an Allmendinger start, since he will be running a handful more races than originally expected.   

Recap

• Points for this race: 334 (Gordon, Hamlin, Montoya, Ambrose)
• Most Possible Points: 368 (Johnson, Hamlin, Stewart, Allmendinger)
• Season Points : 1784
• Current Place : 1st
• Lead over 2nd : 151
• Overall Percentile : 99th (1644 overall) 

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Steve Sheppard

Filed under: Pit Picks, Short Tracks by Site Admin - Monday, March 30th, 2009
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