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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400

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by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2011 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.

June 10, 2010 12:55 pm CDT No Comments

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Carl Edwards Pocono Raceway

Carl Edwards Pocono Raceway

The Sprint Cup Series makes its first trip of the season to the Michigan International Speedway this weekend for the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400. Mark Martin won this event last year, while Brian Vickers (get well soon) won the last Cup event at Michigan late last summer.

For the third weekend in a row, the Cup cars face a grueling endurance event. First came the Coca-Cola 600, the longest event of the year. Last week gave us 500 long miles at Pocono. Now, drivers head to one of the fastest tracks on the circuit, where pole speeds frequently flirt with 190 miles per hour.

So who looks good for this weekend’s tilt?

My personal pick is going to be Jeff Gordon. Last week I took Denny Hamlin as my lead driver, and he rewarded me with a victory, so I’m looking for Gordon to continue my streak. He has two wins and 22 top-10s in 34 career Michigan starts, and is one of only two active drivers with an average Michigan start in the single digits. Last year he finished second in both Michigan races.

My dark horse for the weekend will be Bill Elliott. The Wood Brothers only run a limited schedule nowadays with factory Ford backing, but you can bet that they’ll be looking to impress at the home track of the American manufacturers. Elliott’s Michigan record isn’t too shabby, either – seven wins and 29 top-10s in 59 starts. Both are tops among active drivers.

Who else looks good at Michigan?

I hesitate offering up a Carl Edwards pick, because he’s burned me every time I’ve suggested him all year. He’s done very little to suggest that he’s still the same driver who won nine races in 2008. But Edwards has two wins and 10 top-10s in only 11 Michigan starts. His 6.1 average finish at the track is by far the best of any active driver, nearly four spots better than second-best Matt Kenseth.

Of course, this also makes Kenseth a viable Michigan pick, his last win coming at the track in 2006. Michigan is owner Jack Roush’s home track, and he always does his best to take a win at the track each year. Last year was the first since 2001 in which a Roush car didn’t take the checkers in a Michigan Cup event, and you can bet that the Cat in the Hat will do everything he can to change that.

Finally, it’s time for Junior Nation to get on its feet, because Dale Jr. is my final pick of the weekend. Sure, his one win at the track (and only win in the No. 88) came on fuel mileage, but he has led at least one lap in eight of the last nine Michigan events. In that span, he has all four of his career top fives at the track, and has completed 1734 of a possible 1735 laps. Clearly he can take a car to the front and keep it in the hunt.

Filed under: Bill Elliott, Carl Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Michigan International Speedway, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing 

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Gillett, Evernham and Petty–Is Anyone in Charge?

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by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Over ten years on the air and three on the net; see what can happen when I don't let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

January 11, 2009 11:16 pm CST 4 Comments

What in the world is going on at Gillett Evernham/Petty Enterprises?

Sadler’s out–Sadler’s in.  Allmendinger will replace Sadler in the #19–or he’ll run a partial in the #10.  Luckily Dinger hasn’t signed a contract with GEM/P and he is still free to sign to drive someplace that may have a clue.  It certainly doesn’t look like the boys at GEM/P do.  Rumors abound that Sadler kept his job because the sponsors that have signed on to finance the #19 wanted him in the seat.

If that is what happened, why the hat dance in the first place?  Shouldn’t any discussion of who was going to drive that car be so far under wraps that no one outside of George Gillett and Ray Evernham had a clue?

It would see that that is the problem–no one at that organization has a clue.  Evernham seems to be the smartest of the bunch.  He has been setting himself up for an exit for some time.  However it doesn’t seem that Ray has left the company in very good hands.  The decisions coming from the once front liner for Dodge are circumspect at best.

When Evernham was given the reigns to bring Dodge back to NASCAR, I was excited at the prospect.  When Bill Elliott was named as the lead driver; as a Ford fan, I was devastated, but I still rooted for him and the Dodge team.  When Elliott “retired” and Kasey Kahne took over the #9 ride; I still followed with interest the success of that car and the team.    But with the bad decisions over the past three seasons you have to wonder if the decision to bring in a struggling Petty Enterprises is just another bad decision; much like the indecision to let Sadler go and then not.

Which leads us to this week’s BUZZ ON PIT ROW:

If you were a sponsor of one of the GEM/Petty cars; would you be worried about the companies ability to make proper decisions, given the Elliott Sadler mess?

Let us know what you think and we may use your thoughts on this weeks ON PIT ROW radio show.  Listen live Tuesdays from 5-7pm ET.

Photo Credit:  Icon Sports Media

Filed under: A J Allmendinger, Elliott Sadler, Evernham Motorsports, Gillett Evernham Motorsports, Kasey Kahne, NASCAR, NASCAR Rumors, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio 

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NASCAR Media Guilty of a Short Memory

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by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Over ten years on the air and three on the net; see what can happen when I don't let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

March 22, 2008 9:51 pm CDT 10 Comments

Just because its the off week for most of the Sprint Cup drivers, doesn’t mean there isn’t stuff to complain about.
There are a couple of things about NASCAR and the way some people cover the sport that annoy me. So bare with me as I get one of those nagging things off my chest.

Untitled PostI tuned into today’s coverage of the Nationwide Series race, won by Scott Wimmer, just in time to hear one, maybe more, of the three booth announcers talk about this driver and that driver and how successful they have been in past years in the Nationwide Series. That absolutely toasted my bread. After all nobody has ever had any kind of championship results, good bad or indifferent in the Nationwide Series. Quite simply, the Nationwide Series didn’t exist until after the last Busch Series race was run in 2007.

Carl Edwards has not won a Nationwide Series Championship. Neither has Kevin Harvick or Sam Ard or anyone else. They, and everyone from 1984 until 2007 have been Busch Series Champs.

This hasn’t just been a Nationwide Series phenomenon either. I’ve heard many a reporter refer to past champions as Sprint Cup champs. Why do we feel the need to wrench the past sponsors name from the series? Winston brands helped made NASCAR what it is today. Without their people, support and, of course, money there is no telling where NASCAR and stock car racing would be today. So lets not be so quick to forget who got this ball rolling.

Can we please refer to Darrell Waltrip and Bill Elliott and Alan Kulwicki and Benny Parsons as exactly what they are–Winston Cup Champions. And remember that there have been Nextel Cup champs as well and there will be Sprint Cup champs and probably a whole host of other sponsored Cup champs to come as well. At least in this series champions can be referred to as “Cup” champions.

NASCAR should have revived the old Grand National name and attached it to the Nationwide brand and then the “Grand National” champions could be thrown into the same stew.

If NASCAR or the media wants to be so quick to forget the past and lump everyone into the same generic series names, Craftsman may as well start attaching their names on the trophies with hook and loop fasteners, for a quick change come 2009.

Photo credit - Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Craftsman Truck Series, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR Bidness 

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Elliott seals Wood Brothers Fate

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by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Over ten years on the air and three on the net; see what can happen when I don't let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

March 15, 2008 11:38 am CDT 11 Comments

Bill Elliott’s decision to not drive the #21 Little Debbie Ford this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway will doom the Wood Brothers.

Untitled PostThe once proud race team that has seen wins at the hands of Cale Yarborough, David Pearson and AJ Foyt has sunk to 44th in owner points. Without Elliott in the car for this weekend’s race, they will not race because qualifying has been rained out. The only way the car would have made the race is with Elliott behind the wheel, using his past champions provisional. Without that fall back positionand with Jeff Green slated to fill in for Elliott, the rain out of qualifying keeps the team on the sidelines.

Elliott chose to switch his driving commitment from Bristol, this weekend, to Martinsville, the week after Easter. And by doing so, has signed the death certificate of the Wood Brothers racing team. This was the very reason to bring in Elliott to begin with–to get the team into the show when it needed to. This was a race that they had to be in. Elliott has undermined that effort.

Without being in the race this weekend, the 21 car will need to have a past champs free ride the rest of the season to make races. When Elliott runs out of freebies, who will they turn to next? By then Dale Jarrett will be available. How about Rusty Wallace? Desperate? You bet. And why?

Ask Bill what was more important. The team he was hired to save, he has all but killed.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Filed under: Chase for the Cup, NASCAR Bidness, Sprint Cup Series, The Wood Brothers, Top 35 Rule 

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