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From the hills of California wine country to the highlands of New Hampshire is a bit over 3000 Mapquest miles.  NASCAR must own a travel agency or something.  How much sense does that make with diesel selling for $5 a gallon?

I wonder if there is any truth to the rumor that Brian France will announce a brand new program designed to save all of his minion’s teams even more money than the Car of Tomorrow - or CoT (or Cash outlay’s Till-we-get-it-right) has saved them?

The next rumored innovation is the - are you ready? - Hauler of Tomorrow!  That’s right - the HoT!

No details were available at posting time, but we can surmise some things from past experience.

1. Spoilers and splitters will be involved
2. Most everybody will think the HoT’s are ugly
3. Cash savings will be disguised as additional investment in R&D
4. They won’t handle worth spit
5. Only the big teams with the big sponsors will be able to afford them, but that won’t matter to NASCAR. Everybody saves!
6. Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards will be fast in them
7. Next year’s All Star week will feature a “jack-knifing” contest
8. NASCAR will buy Mapquest and doctor the figures

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Kyle Busch won the Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway and with his first Cup Series road course win has answered perhaps every question but one.

Rowdy….I really hate that nickname. Rowdy was Clint Eastwood’s character on the old Rawhide TV show. Kyle Busch is no Clint Eastwood. But, as my friend the Dude would say, I digress. Rowdy is now, in my opinion, a five tool racer.

The “five tool player” moniker is a baseball term. Five tool ballplayers are said to have it all. Wikipedia says this about them…

In baseball, a five-tool player is one who excels at hitting for average, hitting for power, baserunning skills and speed, throwing ability, and fielding abilities.

The road course win was the missing “tool” for the Shrub. In my version the five tools are really five track types that make up the Sprint Cup schedule. Kyle had already won on NASCAR’s prolific intermediate tracks. He has a short track victory at Bristol. This year brought a plate race triumph at Talladega. On one mile tracks, of every sort - flat Phoenix, concrete Dover and tough Loudon - he’s Jack the Bear.

Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick are five toolers. So is Mark Martin. Earnhardt Sr was one, but Junior isn’t. The list is short.

You can win a championship in the Cup Series and not be a five tool driver. Jimmy Johnson has won two straight Cups and he’s a good enough road racer that a win at the Glen or Infineon will probably come, but hasn’t yet. The un-answered question for Kyle Busch is - can he close the whole deal and win a Cup championship?

The evidence for Busch - 9 Cup wins, 15 Nationwide and 8 Truck Series victories - points to a yes answer to the question. Mark Martin fans would tell you not to count your chickens too soon.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler - OnPitRow.com

Kasey Kahne had the field covered at Pocono on Sunday.

Kahne beat Brian Vickers and perennial Pocono winner Denny Hamlin to the finish line for his second win in three weeks. After a race that found many of NASCAR’s elite complaining about everything at Pocono except trees, Kahne looked refreshed when he stepped out of his Budweiser Dodge.

Kahne had to battle back from 36th place after a botched pit stop forced him to return to pit lane to complete a four tire stop. Originally crew chief Kenny Francis called off a four tire stop to just take two, but not everyone got the message and lugnuts had already been removed from the drivers side of the race car when Kahne sped away. Francis explained it this way:

I got us in a pretty big hole there at the beginning of the race, just tried to take two tires, called off a four tire stop and called a two tire stop, and I thought I saw the tire changer out of the corner of my eye and didn’t realize he had hit some lugnuts already in the front, and got us all the way in the back, 36 or something. And Kasey did a great job driving it back up through the field.

Numerous drivers took pot shots at the racetrack over the week, complaining about the quality of the racing surface, the length of the race itself and the heat. Which leads us to this week’s BUZZ ON PIT ROW:

What should NASCAR do about the races at Pocono?

Let us know what you think about the buzz and we may use your reply on this week’s show. Check out ON PIT ROW at www.onpitrow.com tuesday at 5pm ET, followed by INSIDE ARCA.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

I chose David Ragan to win the Coca Cola 600 during our picks weekly segment ON PIT ROW this week. What was I thinking? Admittedly that segment of the show is pretty “off the wall”. It isn’t meant to be serious fantasy racing analysis. It’s more about who can “out stupid” whom. Looking at NASCAR’s Loop Data this week makes me think maybe I have a lock on that for the 600. Ragan isn’t even on the sheet!

Now I will admit to being influenced by the Sprint Showdown - the qualifier for the Sprint All Star Race. David finished a strong third, just out of the last transfer spot. Then Sunday I got to watch him - in person - start from the back of a 35 car field and work to the front for third place finish in the ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Toledo Speedway. Plus I talked to him in the infield at Toledo. He’s a nice guy. But 200 laps at the Glass City half mile isn’t even close to 400 at Lowes. I may have over-bought.

If not Ragan, who?

Once again, Jimmy Johnson is the overwhelming leader of the Loop Data stats. If Dave Ragan is a stretch - and he is - then Johnson is a steal if you get to pick him. But J J has looked the part at many other races in 2008 too, only to disappoint. His Driver Rating of 120.2 - nearly 26 points better than second place Kyle Busch - is a big number. He has Series best stats in nine other Box Score categories including Ave Finish of 5.0, Ave Position 7.5, 246 Fastest Laps and 1956 Laps in the Top 15 for 88.6% of the last six Lowes races. Johnson’s 990 Ave Points Gained is 100 pts better than the next highest total - the 899 for Carl Edwards.

The Loop stats for Lowes are a bit strange though. As stated, Kyle Busch has the second best Driver Rating, but his Ave Points Gained per race is only 596 - almost 400 less than Johnson’s total. The Shrub will start from the pole and he has been one of the best this season but the Loop stats don’t point to consistency at Charlotte. His Ave Finish is only 23.5.

Carl Edwards’ Driver Rating, despite the second most Ave Points Gained per race, is even lower than Busch the Younger’s at 88.6. Carl has been strong on the intermediate tracks this year and I expect he’ll do well at Lowes too. Five top tens in his six starts are a good indication.

Veteran Mark Martin has the number three DR at 93.2 and he’s a four time winner at the N Carolina track. There hasn’t been much talk about Martin in 2008. He could make some noise this week though.

Kasey Kahne, winner of the Sprint All Star race and two time Lowes winner has a Driver Rating of 92.9 and has led the most Loop Laps with 338 to Johnson’s 298. If the Thursday ruling on suspension settings by NASCAR doesn’t throw the #9 teams setups off too much, Kahne could be the pick this week.

You can throw a Loop blanket over the next dozen contenders. The only stat of the bunch that jumps out at me is Bobby Labonte’s Ave Points Gained - 812 from the 13th overall DR ranking position.

I haven’t seen enough from the #9 to pick Kahne for a 600 mile race. To me it’s between Johnson and Edwards. I’ll go with Jimmy, the big stat advantage and the five wins. Carl could get his first Lowes win, but I have to see it first.

Dark horse pick - Kurt Busch.

Yes it’s NASCAR’s All Star weekend. Speed TV has begun a 48 hour marathon of All Star coverage, beginning with the Pit Crew Challenge and ending some time long after the race winner has been feted. I’m not a huge fan and luckily for me, the ARCA RE/MAX Series is in town and that will keep me busy and distracted. I’ll have to TIVO most of the All Star coverage. That is a plus for me.

The race itself will probably be pretty good. And yes, even All Stars get Loose in Turn 3. The captains of the blogs, Bruce’s NASCAR Bits and Pieces and Tim’s Do You NASCAR? join me again to carve up three different NASCAR issues in this week’s Loose in Turn 3 triple play.

My question this time is a scenario and it goes like this….

NASCAR world has been turned upside-down. All of the drivers are free agents - the ultimate silly season has been declared. You are a team owner and you have three seats to fill with five year contracts. What manufacturer and which three drivers do you stick yourself with?

Charlie: Toyota is my car choice. I believe that Jack Roush is right - Toyota will take over NASCAR. Jimmy Johnson heads my team. He’s a two time champion with at least ten years left in him. Kasey Kahne is my number two. All he needs is equipment. Kyle Busch has to be in because it seems that he doesn’t even need that!

Bruce: That’s loaded. Does you having picked mean I can’t pick those now? I’m sticking with Ford.. Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and I like Kasey Kahne also. Clint is quietly consistent and I’ll take that any day of the year… heck, I won and online league by being in the top 5 every race with only one win. Jr: He’s pretty consistent this year and he’s showing what he can do with good equipment, so I have faith in him. Kahne: The only thing that held him up last year was a poorly programmed computer program that caused the team to make incorrect adjustments… once they got back on track, they’ll be good to go, or more to the point, Kahne will be good to go on my Ford powered team. (Yea, Yea, the guys will all have to break their manufacturer contracts to be on my team, what of it? That’s what silly season is all about!!)

TZ: Like Bruce said… definitely a loaded question. I’ve gotta go with Charlie on the manufacturer for my team, though. Forget about tradition and what got this sport where it is now. If I’m a team owner, I’ve got dollar signs in my eyes, and I’m going with the new wave, which has to be Toyota. As for my team itself, from a business perspective, I start with Jimmy Johnson for immediate on-track success and a bid at the Cup, and I actually build my team around him. Back-to-back titles, how can you argue with that? Then, I back him up with Carl Edwards. The cat’s only 28 years old, he wins, he does great with the media and I see him as a solid partner for Johnson. I finish up with the youngster to protect the future on my company, and for that I look no further than the 22 year old David Ragan.

OK, that’s what we think. What do you think?

Tim’s post query is…. There’s been a lot of talk about the “changing of the guard” in NASCAR this year. Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards have been running hot. Are they the future of our sport?

Bruce’s post starts with this…. Seasoned drivers and when is it their turn?

Enjoy the discussion and the All-Star extravaganza this weekend.

Photo Credit: Harold Hinson/HHP Images

Kyle Busch again made the rest of the Sprint Cup drivers look out classed.

Amid a chorus of boos when introduced and a general lack of fan support The Shrub once again proved to be the class of the field at the newly repaved Darlington Speedway. “The Track Too Tough to Tame” handed out more Darlington Stripes than I can remember in recent history. Drivers seemed to have problems negotiating the 200 mph back straight speeds once they hit turn 3.

The race which saw 40 cars beat the 12 year old track qualifying record was slowed by 8 caution flags. But cautions nor a pit penalty, for a loose lug nut, could slow down Rowdy as he led 169 laps and beat Carl Edwards by more than three seconds. Busch commented on the fan’s less than kind greeting:

“I’m here to race, If I win it just makes them more upset and crying on their way home.”

Busch seemed to revel in the fan’s disgust for his actions the week before. Fans were still blaming him for wrecking fan favorite Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at Richmond on his way to a possible victory. Upon exiting his car in victory lane, he bowed to the mostly jeering crowd in disdain.

Which leads to this weeks BUZZ ON PIT ROW:

Will fan’s dislike for Kyle Busch keep increasing with each win and is it good for the sport?

Give us your comments and we may use them on this weeks ON PIT ROW. Listen to the live stream on Tuesday from 5 to 7pm ET, then stay tuned to INSIDE ARCA from 7 to 8:30pm ET.

photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Kevin Harvick was - by all statistical evidence - the right pick for last weeks Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway. It didn’t work out.  Picking winners in NASCAR racing often doesn’t. You can begin to doubt the viability of the stats.

But the drivers who rated right behind Harvick for RIR were two of the most dominant and - as it turned out - controversial guys in the event.

Denny Hamlin led 381 of the 400 race laps but finished 24th - due to a tire going down under green and his attempt to draw a caution. The controversial part came of that try for a yellow flag.

Kyle Busch finished second. He got there by - some say - driving through Dale Earnhardt Jr while going for the win. There has been plenty of hash and re-hash on that subject.

Harvick had a dominant position in the NASCAR Loop stats for RIR. The spread between drivers at Darlington Raceway is tighter and there are only three races in the Loop database for the Lady in Black.

Fantasy Picks for the Track too Tough to Tame

Some weeks ago, Steve and I interviewed several of the NASCAR internet community’s most knowledgeable writers for our first 7 Post Podcast.  We asked each of our guests who their pick would be for Darlington in May.  Most chose Greg Biffle.  Goodyear had just completed the spring tire test at the South Carolina track.  The news that Biffle had topped 200 mph on the back stretch was big.  Maybe that was an influence on the picks.  Or perhaps those blogger folks are pretty smart too.

Gregg Biffle has the top Driver Rating of 126.1. He is the top dog in Fastest Laps with 141 and Laps Led at 346 or 31.3% of the last three races at Darlington. Greg has the second most Laps in the Top Fifteen the third best Ave Running Position of 5.2. Top those numbers with three top tens and two wins and The Biff looks good this week.

Jimmy Johnson looks good every week, doesn’t he? Second best Driver Rating, Fastest Laps, Laps Led and the top Ave Finish of 2.3 make it so again. JJ has two top fives and eight top tens.

Hamlin has only raced twice in Loop races at the Lady. He has the third best DR of 119.2 in those two and two top fives and four top tens all together. Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Busch has only one top ten ever and a Driver Rating of 85.7 which is 13th.

Darlington has been good to Ryan Newman. Ryan is fourth in DR with 116.4 and number one in Ave Running Position of 4.951. Five top fives and six top tens show his consistency at this track.

Jeff Gordon has gained more total Loop Points per Darlington race than anyone else - 540 compared to Biffle’s 498 - and has the best Ave Finish - 1.7 - and Laps in the Top Fifteen - 1091 for 98.8%. Gordon is also a seven time winner here. Yikes!

Earnhardt Jr, Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne all have similar DR’s - 99.6, 98.8 and 97.8 respectively. None of the three has ever won at Darlington. The only Loop stat that jumps out is that Junior has zero Laps Led.

I’m going with Jeff Gordon as my fantasy pick. That Ave Finish stat of 1.7 and his top Ave Points Gained combined with his history at the track and the fact that he is, well, Jeff Freakin’ Gordon finish the self-argument for me.

If you want a driver outside the Loop stat top ten, take Jeff Burton.Steady Jeff has two wins, eight top fives and fourteen top tens at Darlington to support his 2008 success.

My dark-horse pick is Bobby Labonte - hopefully in that Speed Racer-painted #43 again.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Is Tony Stewart going to leave Joe Gibbs Racing and if he is, what does that mean for the rest of 2008?  Those are the big questions that the NASCAR community is dealing with this week.  What seemed like just another rumor ON PIT ROW a week ago has grown to ominous status since Talladega.  The latest evidence seems to have Stewart heading for a different - likely Chevy powered - organization. Mike Mulhern has a good read on that and the other dominoes ready to fall in the 2008 silly season.

Stewart has the fourth best Richmond Loop Data Driver Rating going into the weekend in Virginia.  His 102.2 trails his red-hot teammates Kyle Busch at 109.00 and Denny Hamlin with 111.3.  Stewart is a three time winner at Richmond while the others are win-less.  Get this - Stewart’s career Ave Finish at RIR is a very good 11.3.  But Busch and Hamlin have averaged 6.2 and 6.5 respectively.  The scenario bodes well for Joe Gibbs Racing but be honest.  Do you pick Tony over the two youngsters?

Kurt Busch has the fifth best Driver Rating at 100.8 and has a win and six top tens.  But Kurt’s 2008 looks like a write-off year for the Blue Deuce.  I pass.

Dale Earnhardt Jr captured his last Cup Series win at Richmond two years ago and he has three wins total here.  Junior sits tenth in the Loop with a DR of 89.9 - do you sense a quicker drop off than most weeks?  Earnhardt trails four big names who have had, more or less undistinguished first nine races this year.  Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne are Richmond winners.  Greg Biffle is not. The best Ave Finish of the bunch is Newman’s 10.0.  The most impressive Loop stat of the group is Kasey Kahne’s 249 laps led in the last six races.

Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Burton and Carl Edwards are all well back in the Loop pack, although Gordon and Johnson have led 305 and 213 Loop laps respectively.  Johnson swept the races last year and Gordon (2) and Burton are RIR winners.  This has not been a good track for Cousin Carl.

Any one of those drivers could win this race.  So could Martin Truex Jr,  Mark Martin or Clint Bowyer.  I just can’t pick  those guys if I base my choice on Loop stats.

The stud this week  is Kevin Harvick.  Happy leads the Loop Driver Rating at 121.2 - ten points better than second place.  In fact he tops out in more than half of the Loop Box Score categories.  His Ave Position is 5.6 and Ave Finish 5.5. Harvick had 259 Fastest Laps, 2267 (94.5%) Laps in the Top Fifteen and 599 Laps Led - 25% of all of the laps run the last six races. No driver is even close.

Kevin Harvick has been very steady this year.  This looks like the week to break through with a win.  For a dark horse I’ll take Virginia native Elliott Sadler.  Those GEM cars are looking better lately and home cookin’ can’t hurt.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

 Every time someone wins a Sprint Cup race, it’s an upset.  That was - and still is - my contention when one of our Fast Lap questions this week asked what was more surprising at Talladega Super Speedway - Joe Nemechek’s pole or Kyle Busch’s victory.

Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards may make winning Cup races look easy.  Edwards has three this year and Kyle the Younger two, among his seven 2008 NASCAR wins overall.

But the Sprint Cup Series is so tough - so competitive - that there never is an odds-on favorite to win in a given week.  If there was, I wouldn’t suck so bad at NASCAR fantasy picks. 

This weekend at the Dan Lowry Crown Royal 400 at Richmond International Raceway will mark two years since Dale Earnhardt Jr’s last Cup win.  He’s been close a lot.  Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart are zero for ‘08.  Same forKasey Kahne, Kurt Busch and the whole DEI and GEM bunch.

The Shrub and Flipper both look good for this week but no matter who wins, he will have started as an under-dog to the field.  My guess is it will be much easier to pick the fastest qualifier.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc

Jimmy Johnson says that Talladega Super Speedway is the perfect race track for NASCAR’s new car. JJ claims that the new pavement and the wide open spaces of Talladega will make for exciting four-wide racing, with more drivers taking chances in the relatively early championship season. The fall race - the first CoT restrictor plate experiment - was notably boring. Jimmy blamed that on a tight, late season, Chase for the Cup which forced drivers to be protective of their point standings and eschew risking involvement in Talladega’s famous “big one” wreck.

Johnson went on to say that the #48 team’s win at Phoenix International Raceway in the Cup Series’ most recent race was a confidence booster but maybe as important was the team’s second place finish the week before at Texas Motor Speedway. Success on the intermediate Super Speedways has lagged behind Hendrick Motorsports’ prowess on short tracks, road courses and plate tracks.

All of that adds up to a confident defending Cup Series Champion. But Johnson doesn’t have the best NASCAR Loop stats at Talladega. He is in fact tied for sixth best Driver Rating with Denny Hamlin. Neither driver leads any of the significant Loop stat categories. Johnson has led only 38 laps in the last six races at the Alabama track while Hamlin had 90 in only four races. Johnson’s results are more impressive with one win, four top fives and five top tens. Hamlin has one top five finish.

The Once and Future King of Talladega

The current king of Talladega is Johnson’s teammate Jeff Gordon. His top Driver rating of 98.5 is supported by Loop leading Ave. Mid Race Position of 8.3 and significantly, 300 laps led - 26.3% of all Loop laps - by far the most of any driver. Add in six career wins, 13 top fives and 16 top tens. Gordon would be the easy pick this week.

Kurt Busch has the second best Driver Rating at 95.0 and has the best Ave Finish and Position - 5.8 and 11.3. His 890 laps in the top 15 - 78.1% - and 1794 Quality Passes are series best as well. Busch has six top fives and 11 top tens at Talladega but has never won a restrictor plate race. The Blue Deuce has had a poor 2008 so far. There hasn’t been much evidence to make me think this will be the turn-a-round week.

Tony Stewart is third in Driver Rating at 93.1. Smoke has eight top fives, 11 top tens and zero ‘Dega wins. It’s hard to believe he can be kept out of victory lane much longer - this season or at this track.

The other drivers in the Talladega top five are Jamie McMurray and Brian Vickers. There’s nothing fluky about it either as they both have solid stats. First, they’ve both won restrictor plate races - McMurray at Daytona last July and Vickers at Talladega in 2006. Their Loop Driver Ratings are 92.6 and 91.5. Jamie has three top fives and four top tens while Vickers owns two top fives and three top tens at TSS.

Dale Earnhardt Jr is always a tempting choice at a plate race. He is a five time winner with seven top fives and nine top tens to temper his 11th best Driver Rating of 81.2. Junior was the top finishing Hendrick Motorsport driver at Daytona and he has been running up front all 2008 long. It would be hard to pick a more likely place for Jr to break his winless streak than at Talladega.

Who else? Points leader Jeff Burton is right behind Earnhardt with the 12th best DR of 79.3. Two top fives and ten top tens are pretty stout, but five DNF’s indicate plenty of involvement in Dega’s big ones.

Kevin Harvick has been a rock so far in 2008. His Driver Rating is 13th at 76.3 for Talladega and he has three top fives and seven top tens. Harvick is winless at Talladega - as are all of the other top twelve in Cup Series points besides Johnson and Jr. But Harvick won at Daytona and knows how to stay out of trouble with no DNF’s in 14 Talladega races.

This one looks like a Hendrick Motorsports win to me. I’m thinking Junior gets his win. Dark horse pick - McMurray.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

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