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I can’t decide if it would be good to have more events like Tony Stewart’s Prelude to the Dream. If there were too many, it wouldn’t be as special, I guess. But it’s a shame more fans can’t get there to experience it live.

23,000 some fans did make it though. According to the track announcer, people from 46 states ordered tickets to the ‘08 Prelude as did fans from Denmark, Germany and Australia. For a race on dirt in the middle of a bunch of cornfields in western Ohio, that had about a fifty percent chance of getting rained out. Amazing.

OK, not just any dirt race. Darrell Waltrip didn’t drive the water truck this year but he did do a half dozen laps in a dirt late model with a lucky young fan along as passenger.

Eldora veterans - from their younger, pre-superstar days - were there. Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Dave Blaney, Ryan Newman, David Reutimann, Matt Kenseth and Ken Shrader. Others with lots of experience on the dirt raced as well. Clint Bowyer was fast. Kenny Wallace and old-timer Red Farmer made the trip and were quick. Mark Martin, J J Yeley and Aric Almirola wrecked. Bill Elliot had mechanical woes.

Kyle Busch and Jimmy Johnson brought there own late models. Robby Gordon drove a Scott Bloomquist-prepared car to second place. Johnson and Robby G have plenty of time driving in the dirt. Johnson in motocross and Gordon off-road.

During the driver intros, homeboy Tony got the loudest cheers. But Jeff Gordon had plenty of fans too. Even Kyle Busch heard more cheers than boos - until he stoked the booing with his “I can’t hear you” pose. From then on, the only cheers Kyle got were when he either hit or broke something. Both of which happened a lot.

Our seats were in turn three - which was the down-wind corner - so by the time the cars got to us, the twenty mile an hour breeze had brought the dirt kicked up in turn one to us and we got a double dose of dirt track in our faces each lap. I’ve got to get a pair of those yellow plastic goggle/glasses they were selling before next year’s race.

I wouldn’t miss it if I were you.

Photo credit: Split Second Sports and Panther Creek Design & Photo

The ARCA/ReMax Series will head to Long Pond, PA this weekend to team up with the Sprint Cup Series, and with the Trucks in Texas and Nationwide Series in Nashville, this could be the spot in which someone impresses the right person and moves up through the ranks. This race has been dominated by either Cup rookies moving down to get track experience, or a hotshoe from a Cup team gaining experience for a future foray into the series.

Since 2003, Cup drivers or Cup development drivers have won 8 of the 10 races at Pocono. These drivers include Casey Mears twice, Scott Riggs, Ryan Hemphill, Travis Kvapil, Chase Miller, Chad McCumbee, and Michael McDowell. Only the series’ great one, Frank Kimmel, broke the streak, taking the July races in 2005 and 2006. Also competing in these races have been drivers such as Kyle Busch, David Reutimann, and David Ragan. Previous polesitters have included Mears, Riggs, and Kvapil, as well as David Stremme.

As for the 2008 edition, there is no shortage of candidates to win. This season has been an exciting one in the series, as young drivers have come in and performed exceedingly well. Current points leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr., second-place Matt Carter, and sixth-place Scott Speed have all won this year. Speed also won the Truck race at Dover, and will compete in Friday night’s Truck race. Still, there are others who will pose a threat. You can’t discount Kimmel, who still maintains a top points position despite working on a shoestring budget with his own team. He could use a win, and it could come as soon as this very weekend.

One thing is for sure, the ARCA/ReMax Series is entertaining again, and this race fan is more than happy to see the return of its glory days.

Photo credit: AP

Kyle Busch again took it to the rest of the Sprint Cup field.

Rowdy lapped all but five of his competitors on his way to his sixth win of the season. Busch was helped by the narrowness of the Dover straights. Half of the top twelve in points were collected in the sixteenth lap carnage started by Elliott Sadler and David Gilliland. Sadler, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer were the list of Chasers who were involved in the wreck.

Tony Stewart was at his sarcastic best when asked about the multi-car wreck:

“I take 100-percent responsibility,” he said. “It’s my fault for being anywhere close to Elliott (Sadler). If I’m within a half a lap of him, I expect that to happen.”

The narrow straights are not the only quirks to The Monster Mile. There still are only forty-two pit stalls causing two teams to share a pit until someone drops out of the race. It didn’t take long for that to happen this week.

So here is this week’s BUZZ ON PIT ROW:

Should NASCAR force Dover to upgrade its facilities to keep its Cup dates?

Let us know what you think and we could use your comment on this week’s ON PIT ROW radio show. ON PIT ROW is brioadcast live from the Toledo Speedway Bar and Grill–just off turn four at historic Toledo Speedway from 5pm to 8:30pm.

Photo Credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images

Martin Truex Jr grabbed his first and, so far only, Cup Series win at Dover Downs in 2007.  By my count, he was one of three drivers to accomplish that feat last year - Casey Mears and Clint Bowyer were the others.

I’m looking at the line up for this week’s tilt at the Monster Mile and wondering who will be the next first timer.  The answer is not obvious.  David Ragan would seem the best bet.  He drives for one of the major teams, as did all of 2007’s first time winners.  Ragan has lately been running up front and looked like a contender at Charlotte.  But who else.  Is there anybody else?

Before his injury, Dario Franchitti would have been my pick if only because of the two road courses where he should be one of the contenders.  His lost seat-time may not hurt his chances at Sonoma and the Glen, but it steepens the learning curve elsewhere.

Fellow Dodger Reed Sorenson looked strong coming out of Daytona.  Since then though, his team has been a big part of Ganassi’s funk.  The stirring of that pot by Chip doesn’t bode well for the Target car.

Dave Blaney is the only non winner in a Toyota who seems a candidate.  A J Allmendinger didn’t convince me at Lowes.  David Reutimann looks like a journeyman.

Who do you like in a Chevy?  All of 2007’s virgin winners were Bowtie Boys.  But who’s left?  Regan Smith?  Too soon and not enough chances.  Same for Aric Almirola.  The Haas CNC teams probably killed their chances by losing crew and car chiefs for six races.

No, the next winner looks to be a Ford man.  If not Ragan then maybe one of the Yates guys.  Travis Kvapil looks primed.

With fifty laps to go in the Coca Cola 600 I was mentally writing a headline about the start of summer finally arriving with Tony Stewart’s big win. Not to be. Instead Kasey Kahne won NASCAR’s longest race. And Dale Earnhardt Jr became the poster boy for Looseness in Turn Three.

This week, TZ from Do You NASCAR and Bruce of NASCAR Bits and Pieces and the guys at Bench Racing will thrash on three racing related topics. Here’s mine.

Why can’t Junior finish?

Charlie: When is Tony Eury Jr going to have a come to Jesus meeting with his driver
and tell him to quit running every lap two inches from the turn four wall?
Earnhardt is the only driver who runs every track and every lap of every race, in
the highest line there is. It works for him, I know. He’s been fast everywhere
this season. But he has hit the wall in more races than not. It seems to me that
his crew chief should be talking him down off that wall later in the race. It
probably wouldn’t work. Listening to Junior on the radio does not give me the
feeling that he listens to much of anything. He tells - commands. It might be time
for a change in tactics.

TZ: I think you have to start with Dale Junior’s relationship with Tony Eury Jr.
More often than not, I, too, find Earnhardt to be a bit overly demanding - and, not
very understanding - over his team radio, but I think that most people probably tend
to be a little more short-tempered when dealing with family at times. I think that
Junior probably doesn’t do the best job of translating what’s going on with the car
in the manner so that Eury can understand it, and as a result, they tend to let the
track start getting away from them near the ends of the races. And, yes … there
are times when he’d probably be a bit better off finding different grooves in the
track.

Bruce: The team is not used to finishing.. Not used to getting out there up front
now that they seem to have more consistent, improved equipment. I get the high
groove and yes, they should try different lines, but if it works it works.. the
high groove will give you more gear coming out of the corners and saves tires a bit
in the long run, but I’m not sure it’s worth it all the time like he does.. At least
he’s closer to the wall when a tire blows and then again, maybe he’s got some
lingering issues from past hits and he has a reason? Bet we won’t see the high
groove at Dover! And you’re right guys, he snaps / commands the crew when he needs
to be listening too… at least it seems that way.

That’s what we think. What do you think?

You should check out Tim’s post and discussion…

Should the no. 20 team have called for two right-side tires on Tony Stewart’s
next-to-last stop at the Coca Cola 600? 

And Bruce’s question this week…

My question is whether drivers should get over the idea of people moving over for them because they think they’re faster than they are?

There’s good stuff there.  We welcome your input.

Jamie McMurray started the day only four points short of the thirty fifth spot in Sprint Cup owners’ points. So close that climbing back into the warm and fuzzy side of NASCAR’s goofy qualifying bed was in easy reach, if only he could make this race on his own speed.  He did.

If he had not, the best case result for him would have been going into qualifying next week, 37 points out of 35th place.  It could have been a bunch worse.

Four drivers failed to make the field for the 2008 Goody’s Cool Orange 500.  John Andretti, Joe Nemechek, Tony Raines and Kyle Petty are out.  Petty, the highest placed of the go-homers, will be at least 93 points out of the top thirty five when he gets to Texas.

Kyle the Good wasn’t whining - Scene Daily story:

“We missed this race at Daytona when we had fuel-pressure problems. We missed this race at California when we had brake issues. We missed this race at Atlanta and Las Vegas when we don’t understand bump stops and they kicked our butts six ways to Sunday and we had two of them fail.

“And that was our fault. You don’t just show up at a race and miss it. You put yourself in a position months ahead of time to be in this
position and this is where you’re at.”

There has been speculation that Petty Enterprises would swap the points of Bobby Labonte’s #43 with Kyle in a move that would put the #45 solidly back in the top 35.  But today NASCAR denied a request by Michael Waltrip Racing  to swap the owner’s points of it’s #44 and #00 teams - a move that would have eased the pressure on the UPS sponsorship by taking that team from 34th to 30th.  NASCAR has ruled that point swaps may only happen during the off season and must be due to fundamental changes in a team.

So Kyle and the #45 will face a year of fighting to make races and then struggling to make up a big points deficit to the top thirty fivers.  Too bad.

When you watch Sunday’s race ask yourself why four or five more cars on that track would be a bad thing.

Picture credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

The image that you may need to carry with you this week is the one of Carl Edwards #99 Roush-Fenway Ford Fusion relentlessly running down first Jeff Gordon and then race leader Jimmy Johnson for a convincing win at Auto Club Speedway of California.  Or maybe that’s the vision that you want your competitors to lock on. It may convince them that Jimmy Johnson can be beat in Vegas.

The victory by Edwards convinced me that Jack Roush and his Ford Factory team has recovered from being snookered in 2007 , mostly by Hendrick Motorsports, in the testing and development of the, former, Car of Tomorrow. The new Fusion race car was dominant with Edwards at the wheel, but Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Jamie McMurray all looked strong in California. The Fords are back, I’m convinced.

But I’m not convinced that it will make any difference at the next track where Jimmy Johnson has won the last three races and has a NASCAR Loop Data Driver Rating of 133.7. In fact of the sixteen categories that make up the pre-race Loop Box Score, Johnson has category best ratings in ten. Five of the six items that he doesn’t lead are Passing stats - things like Passes Under Green, Quality Passes, Pass Differential. The thing is, he trails in the passing stats because he spent 93.2 % of all of his Laps in the Top Fifteen and has led 24.5% of all laps over the last three years. He didn’t have very many cars to pass, did he?

Couple the #48’s past Las Vegas success with the fact that Jimmy led more laps than anyone at California (76) and finished a strong second place means picking anyone but Johnson this week is probably a mistake.

Making your pick from the best of the rest

By comparison, Carl Edwards has a Loop Driver Rating of 78.3 and leads only the Green Passes category with 220. The Vegas track has been good for other Roush Ford drivers and Carl is the highest rated driver at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the track most similar to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But if you pick Carl, you’re basing it on last Monday at Cali. That’s not much to go by.

Jeff Gordon has the second best Driver Rating at 114.1. Gordon led 68 laps and finished third at California. For much of the race it was a two car affair between the #24 and the #48. Gordon has won at Las Vegas, but only once and he’s never won at the similar Homestead. He could win this week because Jeff Gordon can win any week.

Hometown hot-shoe Kyle Busch has a DR of 108.7. He’s been as hot as you can be without winning a Cup race. He leads the Sprint Cup points - and Craftsman Truck Series points as well - and seems to be able to drive this new car anywhere he wants to on the track. Don’t look to Homestead for support though if you are leaning to the Shrub. His average finish down there is 33 rd.

Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle have DR’s of 104.5, 100.9 and 95.5 but only Kenseth has ever won at Vegas - at least on the track. Matt has two wins and has led a Loop second best 147 laps - 18.3% the last three races here. He finished a solid fifth at California after a strong run in the  Daytona 500. Matt may be the better Ford choice than Carl Edwards for this week.

If I have to pick someone besides Jimmy Johnson to win this race, my choice would be between Jeff Burton and Mark Martin. Burton has been solid so far in 2008 sitting tenth in points. Jeff is another two time winner at Vegas and has a DR of 93.6. He has run 80.1 % of his laps in the top 15. Hanging around, giving himself a shot at the win in the end has worked well for Jeff in the Nationwide Series.

Martin is a past winner at Vegas. His Driver Rating is sixth best at 97.0. Nothing really jumps out and says,”pick me, I’m gonna win” but Martin has been very good at mile and a half tracks over the years.

When all is said and read though, how can you not take Jimmy Johnson this week? For a longshot pick any of these three Toyotas could be very good. Between Dave Blaney, Brian Vickers and David Reutimann, I like Blaney to finish this one in one piece and in the top ten.

Photo credit - Icon Sports Media, Inc.

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