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NASCAR Green Initiative?

by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

May 6, 2011 10:17 pm UTC No Comments

A friend of mine just sent a text to me. He asked why NASCAR was wasting all this gasoline. Just give the Nationwide Series race trophy to Kyle Busch every week and save the fuel.

The Shrub got his first NNWS victory ever at The Track Too Tough to Tame tonight. He led the most laps and is now just one race behind Mark Martin for the the all-time most wins in the old Grand National Series. Kyle avoided a big wreck and used a bunch of gas.

Not very green of him.

Photo credit: Round Girl Cindi by BethAnne Heisler – OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Darlington Speedway, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, Nationwide Series

Tagged with: Lady in Black, Royal Purple 200, Track too Tough to Tame

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2011 Showtime Southern 500

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I do weekly Fantasy Pick'Em columns here at OPR, as well as the occasional opinion and analysis piece. I also provide the IZOD IndyCar Series coverage. For more on that, head to my site, OpenWheelAmerica.com. My Twitter handle is @christopherlion.

May 6, 2011 12:08 pm UTC No Comments

What it do, folks? Sorry about the delay on this week’s fantasy blabbering – it’s term paper week at college, you understand. Thankfully, my hard work (cough) will pay off when I get to relax on Saturday night and watch the Showtime Southern 500 at the Lady in Black, Darlington Raceway.

Granted, it stunk when NASCAR ruined a bunch of traditions by getting rid of the Labor Day tradition that was the Southern 500, took away a race from one of the sport’s most famous tracks, and decided to run on Mother’s Day weekend. But the result – this race – has made for a spectacular event since day one.

But enough about that. You want to know who’s going to win. Well, I’ll see what I can do.

Kyle Busch: If it’s about momentum, Rowdy’s got it after that Richmond win. Leading 235 of 400 laps and winning the spring event there three years in a row is a great way to come into Darlington with your head held high. Busch has never won the Darlington race directly after winning Richmond, his lone victory at the track coming in 2008. But unless he gets snakebit (finishes of 37th in 2007 and 34th in 2009), he should run well.

Denny Hamlin: Hamlin’s career average finish at Darlington is a Jimmie Johnson-esque 6.6 in five starts, by far the best of all active drivers. He’s never finished worse than 13th, and won last year. So why am I ranking teammate Kyle Busch (average finish: 18.2) above Hamlin on the board this week? Because Hamlin’s had a rough year. Something with that team hasn’t been right since day one. Maybe it was the engine room explosion at Joe Gibbs Racing in the offseason; maybe it’s a hangover from a tough championship run that fell just short. Either way, I’m not sold… although he could easily prove me wrong.

Brad Keselowski: He’s had finishes of seventh and 12th in two Darlington starts. After last weekend, when Kurt Busch ripped his Penske Racing team a new one, you can expect everybody in that shop to give plenty of extra effort working on both cars to make sure that a weekend like that never happens again. They call Roger Penske “the Captain” for a reason – he simply refuses to accept failure. While Penske himself may be focusing on Indianapolis 500 preparations, you can bet that he’s instilled the fear of god almighty in his two Sprint Cup teams.

Filed under: Brad Kesolowski, Darlington Speedway, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, NASCAR Fantasy Gaming

Tagged with: Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Fantasy Pick'Em, Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch, Penske Racing, Showtime Southern 500

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NASCAR Shark Fin Soup from Darlington

by Charlie Turner

May 10, 2010 10:31 pm UTC No Comments

Yeah yeah – Denny Hamlin’s great. You people act like he has TWO BAD KNEES!

Please note the sarcasm in the first line of this post. Hamlin has been almost unbelievably good since having one of his knees rebuilt. He’s tearing up the Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup. It’s been a phenominal performance that has put merely great weeks, by other drivers, in the shadow of the Joe Gibbs Racing, Fed EX #11.

Kevin Harvick leads the Sprint Cup points, regular season and nobody – NOBODY – predicted that before Speedweeks. Don’t pretend you did.

Jamie McMurray finished second at Darlington. He won the Daytona 500, nearly won at Talladega. Plate tracks like ‘Dega and Daytona can be flukey. Darlington is just tough. McMurray is a Cup contender. I’ll be damned.

And poor, old Jimmie Johnson has had a few, less that Johnson-Knaus-Hendrick-Lowes-48like races. The haters rejoice. But May isn’t Johnson time. Pre-Chase season isn’t 4Time time either. He’ll still win at Charlotte.

And Jeff Gordon continues to not win. But he’s doing it competitively, at least.

On to Dover, the Monster Mile.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc

Filed under: Darlington Speedway, Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Gordon, jimmie johnson, Kevin Harvick, NASCAR

Tagged with: The Monster Mile

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I Forgot How Much I Love the Lady In Black

by Charlie Turner

May 7, 2010 10:59 pm UTC No Comments

Drivers don’t like Darlington Raceway very much.

Watching the Nationwide Series race tonight, and listening to the various comments from competitors reminded me of that.

I don’t care.

One after another, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and others made their distaste for the venerable track known

So what.

Commentators Rusty Wallace and Alan Bestwick seemed to enjoy hearing the guys on the track bitch and moan.

I did too.

I’ve sort of always liked it best when the elite athletes I was watching were tortured. My favorite football games are the ones on the frozen tundra. When it’s really frozen.

The best golf tournaments are the Open Championships, where the rough is a foot high and the bunkers are WWII bomb craters.

I like my F1 races in the rain. At Spa Francorchamps or the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

And I like my NASCAR at the Track Too Tough To Tame.

Photo credit: Round girl Jen by BethAnne Heisler for OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Darlington Speedway, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, NASCAR, Nationwide Series

Tagged with: F1, Nurburgring, Round girl Jen, Spa

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Showtime Southern 500

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

May 6, 2010 10:34 am UTC 1 Comment

The Showtime Southern 500 is one of the most popular races on the Sprint Cup Series schedule. The 11th race on the schedule, it marks Darlington Raceway’s lone stop on the tour, and a win here marks a highlight of most drivers’ careers.

Richmond winner Kyle Busch may have a win at Darlington in five starts, but other than that has had some pretty rotten luck with the Lady in Black. He has three finishes of 23rd or worse, including two finishes in the bottom 10 of the field. It’s safe to say that he hasn’t quite figured out the Track Too Tough to Tame just yet.

One driver who has, though, is Jimmie Johnson. Shocker, right? Yes, Johnson is good just about everywhere, but at only three tracks does he have a better average finish than the 6.9 he’s put up in 11 Darlington starts. Two wins and nine top-10s show remarkable consistency, even for an all-world talent like Four-Time. He’s my pick for the weekend, meaning Jeff Gordon is going to put him in the wall or something. Oh well.

As for a dark horse, I’m going with Brad Keselowski on a hunch. He’s won his past two Nationwide races, and it’s about time that things work out on the Cup side. Consistent top-15 and top-20 finishes in five of the six races since his Atlanta joyride suggest that he’s getting a grasp of what it takes to succeed. He finished 7th in the Southern 500 last year, in his only Cup start at Darlington.

Three more for the show:

Jeff Gordon has seven Darlington wins, tied with Martinsville for the most he has at any track. Gordon’s average finish of 11.3 is fifth-best of active drivers with multiple Darlington starts. It’s more of a testament to how strong he is universally, but that only ranks the track as only his 11th best. Seven wins and 20 top-10s in 29 starts, and only his 11th best track. Food for thought for the Hall of Fame committee in a couple years.

Defending race champion Mark Martin has two wins at Darlington, the other coming in the fall of 1993, the fourth race he had won in a row that year. Martin’s 26 top-10s rank behind only Bill Elliott in quantity, and his average finish of 12.0 puts him eighth of active drivers with multiple Darlington starts.

Finally, when Greg Biffle is on at Darlington, he’s on. Da Biff has an average start of 8.2, ranking behind only Gordon in drivers with multiple starts. He won this race in 2005 and 2006, has led laps in seven of his nine Darlington starts (five times leading 70 or more), and won the pole in 2008. Unfortunately, his engine let go that year and relegated him to last place, hurting his average finish of 14.0. Biffle’s 117 laps led were the most of anybody last year, and his driver rating of 128.3 was tops among the field.

Filed under: Brad Kesolowski, Darlington Speedway, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, jimmie johnson, Mark Martin, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing

Tagged with: Brad Keselowski, Darlington Raceway, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, jimmie johnson, Mark Martin, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, Showtime Southern 500

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NASCAR Fantasy Racing Chat: Southern 500 from Darlington

by Charlie Turner

May 5, 2010 10:22 pm UTC No Comments

OnPitRow.com will host Ryan Rantz and Eric McClung as they take you fantasy racing questions about this weeks Showtime Southern 500 from Darlington Raceway. Join us. We’ll send you a reminder if you fill in the box below.

Filed under: Darlington Speedway, Live blogs, NASCAR, NASCAR Fantasy Gaming

Tagged with: fantasy racing live chat, Southern 500

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