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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2011 Coke Zero 400

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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.

July 1, 2011 8:57 pm UTC No Comments

#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr Michigan International Speedway spr heisler 11

#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr Michigan International Speedway spr heisler 11

Ah, Daytona. The crapshoot of the year in the Sprint Cup Series (apologies, Talladega; that’s just the way it is until your race becomes the equivalent of the Daytona 500 and a 20-year-old wins it). And, thus, a complete and utter Charlie Foxtrot (if you get what I’m saying) for fantasy NASCAR team owners.

Let me put it this way: there is nothing that I can do to help you this weekend.

Chances are, if I make three picks like I usually do, two will be good cars. One, if not both, of them will get caught up in an accident late in the race, possibly running in one of a likely three green-white-checkered finishes. The third will be slow as hell but wind up 20th due to the accidents, and you’ll come out of the weekend wishing you’d have listened to this advice instead of listening to any particular driver that I picked.

That’s precisely the reason why I delayed this column to the day before the race. Sure, you can look at the speed charts in the one practice session from yesterday, or who’s starting where in the field, but it may not do you much help. Mark Martin‘s on the pole, with the aforementioned Trevor Bayne starting alongside him, if that helps any.

But let’s be honest. If the stars align, anyway, and a bunch of bad things don’t happen, there’s only one guy in the field that can win this race anyway.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., of course.

Think about it. The No. 88 team has been so close these past couple of months. There was the disappointment in the Coca-Cola 600 of running out of fuel on the very last lap when they absolutely could have won that race. There have been plenty of strong runs all season. They’re gelling as a team since Steve Letarte and the crew were shifted away from Jeff Gordon in the offseason, and now that they get to work with the dynamic duo (Jimmie Johnson/Chad Knaus) in the Hendrick shops.

Add that to Earnhardt Jr.’s history at Daytona, which need not be explained once again, and you can only come up with a two word statement: It’s time.

It’s time for Junior Nation to get excited. It’s time for them to celebrate a driver who is undergoing a career renaissance with one of the sport’s biggest teams. But most of all, it’s time for them to help their driver celebrate his first win in over three years on Saturday night.

Junior for the win. Calling it right now.

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR Fantasy Gaming 

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2011 Matthew & Daniel Hansen 400

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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.

April 27, 2011 4:10 pm UTC No Comments

Hello, Richmond. One of the most fun tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule, the track will end racing for the month of April with a 400-lap tilt under the bright lights on Saturday night.

Richmond is also the home track of Denny Hamlin, who will host his Short Track Showdown at the track for the first time on Thursday night. After a few years at the since-closed Southside Speedway, Hamlin will bring his own late model charity event to a much bigger stage, even attracting a SPEED Channel broadcast. Maybe it’ll be some good karma for the struggling Hamlin, who currently sits 17th in points after nearly winning it all last year.

I don’t have Hamlin on my short list of fantasy picks this week, though – not as my favorite, my alternate, or my dark horse. So, who am I picking over the guy who’s won two of the last three at Richmond?

Kyle Busch: The two-time race defending champion, of course. Last year, Rowdy dominated by leading 226 of 400 laps, including the first 140, and getting by Jeff Gordon for the final five circuits to cement his first victory of the season. Through two short track races this year, he’s been the top driver as well, scoring a series-best 90 points and leading 304 of 1000 laps. If he’s not your guy, he should be.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: The momentum’s there. The will to win, if it was ever gone, is back. The last time Junior saw a short track (at Martinsville) he led as late as lap 496 of 500 and finished second. The turnaround within the No. 88 shop (or, technically, the consistently high level of performance in the former No. 24 shop) has the sport’s most popular driver contending for wins every weekend now, but he still has to break through. This could be the weekend.

Marcos Ambrose: Don’t ask me why, I just have a hunch. Well, a hunch influenced by a solid average finish of 11.8 in four Richmond starts, including runs of ninth (spring) and fifth (fall) last year. Richard Petty Motorsports has an issue with inconsistency, as it seems Ambrose will only run well when A.J. Allmendinger doesn’t, and vice versa. If you buy into that coincidence as theory, then Allmendinger’s 11th-place run two weeks ago at Talladega, combined with Ambrose’s crash-influenced 32nd-place finish, should mean Ambrose will run well on Saturday.

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch, Marcos Ambrose, NASCAR Fantasy Gaming, Richmond International Raceway 

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2011 Samsung Mobile 500

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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.

April 6, 2011 11:56 am UTC 1 Comment

Another week, another Pick’Em. This time we’re headed to Texas Motor Speedway for the Samsung Mobile 500. Now, I’m a bit torn on how I feel about this pairing – I love Texas (my April Fool’s prank this year was to go around dressed as a cowboy), but I hate Samsung (the Impression is the worst phone in the history of phones, and causes me to lose faith in humanity and technology alike on a daily basis).

I mean, it’s not the worst pairing in the world – Kimi Raikkonen announced a sponsor partnership with caffeinated beef jerky today – but I digress. We should probably talk about racing instead of badmouthing the companies that keep it going, huh?

OK, same gig as always – I’m going to lead off with my main pick, give you an alternate if you don’t like that, and follow up with my dark horse. Since Texas is the same track (basically) as Atlanta and Charlotte, and the mile-and-a-half cookie-cutters make up most of the schedule, these picks should be relatively straightforward and, well, predictable. Let’s get to it.

Kevin Harvick – Harvick’s got all the momentum in the world right now after winning the past two races. That actually makes it seem more likely that he won’t take a third consecutive win, but hey, if Jimmie Johnson can win five TITLES in a row, Harvick can win another race, right? It helps that he’s also pretty good at Texas – he’s tied with Mark Martin for the fourth-best average finish (a 12.4 despite no wins) and has only one run worse than 11th in his past seven Texas starts.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. – Junior’s been picking it up this year with Steve Letarte on top of the pit box. Martinsville showed that the No. 88 is at least a dark horse once again; a few more races like that, and they’ll be true contenders. Junior hasn’t won at Texas since his first start there way back in 2000, and has been decidedly mediocre there since he left the family team, but this could be the weekend to turn that around. Remember, this is the team that took the victory with Jeff Gordon in this race two years ago (thus explaining an otherwise completely unrelated photo).

Jamie McMurray – Does last week’s pole winner count as a dark horse? Well, judging by his recent Texas track record, yes. Since finishing third in the fall of 2008, Jamie Mac hasn’t had much luck in the Lone Star State – only one lead-lap run and an average finish of 26.0 (to reflect his old car number, perhaps).

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray, Kevin Harvick, NASCAR Fantasy Gaming, Texas Motor Speedway 

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Amp Energy Juice 500

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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.

October 27, 2010 11:32 pm UTC No Comments

Kurt Busch heading out to practice at Indianapolis

Kurt Busch heading out to practice at Indianapolis

Talladega Superspeedway hosts the Amp Energy Juice 500, the seventh race of this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup. Three drivers – Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, and Kyle Busch – enter the race within a weekend’s points haul of leader Jimmie Johnson, with Hamlin the closest at six markers back.

Talladega is widely understood to be the most unpredictable track in the Chase, with its restrictor-plate-engineered pack racing perpetuating the threat of a 20-car accident at any corner. Any driver can encounter bad luck at Talladega. Most have. The points leader coming out of this weekend will not necessarily be the guy to win the race, it will be the guy who survives the big one – if it happens.

With that in mind, recognize that the following picks are a crapshoot.

As far as the luckiest driver at Talladega goes, it’s Kurt Busch, with only three DNFs in 19 career Talladega starts. His resultant 12.8 average finish is the sport’s best. From the end of 2004 through 2007, he had a seven-race streak at the track of single-digit finishes, though he has never actually won at the track.

Looking at a dark horse, Jamie McMurray is your best bet. This race’s defending winner, he’s doubled his career win total this year alone, as the Earnhardt Ganassi team re-establishes itself as a weekly contender. McMurray’s won half of his career races at Daytona and Talladega, the sport’s two biggest tracks and the only two to require the use of restrictor plates.

Three more for the sake of three more:

Hey, remember that time Dale Earnhardt Jr. won four Talladega races in a row? He’s still a track favorite, even if that streak ended in 2003. He’s led in his past nine Talladega starts and in 19 out of 21 career races run, which has to count for something, even as lead changes seem to become more frequent every time Sprint Cup comes to the speedway.

Tony Stewart’s only Talladega win came at this race in 2008, but it was not without controversy. Most fans believed that, despite passing Stewart below the yellow line on the final lap, Regan Smith deserved the win for passing cleanly and not wrecking his competitor. Regardless, it finally validated a solid Talladega record that includes a half-dozen runner-up finishes.

Finally, let’s look out in left field for our final pick, since it more often than not seems like at least somebody in the top ten at Talladega gets there on sheer luck. Scott Speed was that lucky gentleman in the spring of 2009, placing fifth in his debut at the track. He’s only got three starts at the track, one of which ended in a wreck, but the other result, a 15th place run this spring, wasn’t too bad either. I mean, Talladega’s a crapshoot anyway; you could really do worse than to tape a bunch of driver headshots to a dartboard and pick whomever you hit. (Not that I recommend doing that. Not that I did that for this week’s column, either… I swear.)

Filed under: One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, Talladega Superspeedway 

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 LifeLock.com 400

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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.

July 8, 2010 11:24 am UTC No Comments

Chicagoland Speedway provides this weekend’s setting for the Sprint Cup Series, as the LifeLock.com 400 marks the beginning of the second half of the season. We’re inching ever closer to the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and all of the fanfare that comes with the final ten races of the season.

Chicago provides a good test of who should be there in the Chase, as it shares many characteristics with the cookie-cutter tracks that make up its foundation. Combine that with its Saturday night time slot, and the action at Chicago is perhaps some of the best that TNT shows during its brief run of NASCAR broadcasts.

As for those behind the wheel, who has the best chance at claiming victory in Chicago?

Most signs point to Kevin Harvick as the way to go this weekend. The points leader has won twice this season, although both victories came on superspeedways. But his Chicagoland record is stout – two wins (his first two attempts) and five top-five finishes in nine starts. Happy’s only failed to complete a single lap at the track, back in 2003, and has led an impressive 282 of them. It’s safe to say that he owns this track, if anybody does.

A solid dark horse pick for the weekend is A.J. Allmendinger, who has finished 13th in both of his Chicagoland starts. This isn’t so much a history pick as a current circumstances pick. After some rough words at Daytona with legendary owner Richard Petty, Allmendinger certainly feels like he has something to prove behind the wheel, and his team needs to give him some better equipment if they have any chance at retaining his services for 2011 and beyond.

Three others:

Okay, so Jimmie Johnson is a bit of a “duh” pick everywhere, especially with seven top-10s in eight starts and the track’s best average finish, an 8.1. But did you know that Four-Time has never won a Chicagoland event? True story. He’s been sixth or better in every Chicagoland race except for 2001, when he did not compete, and 2007, when he crashed out. He’s also led laps in every race at the track but 2001 (again, because he was not yet a Cup driver) and 2006. But he’s somehow never eked out a win. Food for thought.

Tony Stewart finished fifth or better in every Chicago event but those in 2001 and 2006, when he had two finishes in the 30s. He’s also led at least one lap in every Chicagoland race but those in 2001 and 2005. His 9.6 average finish is not quite Johnson’s, but he does have two wins at the track (in 2004 and 2007) under his belt, unlike his former home improvement warehouse-toting rival.

Finally, don’t forget Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose solid Daytona runs have put him on everybody’s mind as a driver once again. His Chicagoland finishes have been decidedly mediocre, with a 15.2 average finish, but he did manage to pull out the victory in 2005. And riding a wave of momentum, both from his Nationwide win in a throwback Wrangler car and from positioning himself back in the Chase after a fourth-place finish in the Cup event, he could certainly stand to duplicate.

Filed under: Chicagoland Speedway, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing 

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Dale Earnhardt Jr Drives Out from Under His Demons

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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.

July 4, 2010 8:58 am UTC No Comments

Kevin Harvick wins the big one on Saturday while all the buzz around Daytona centers around a part time sponsor and a “retired” car number.

Races at Daytona International Speedway include a couple of variables; how big is the Big One, will there be long green flag runs and this year will the patch hold up.  The hole in turn two that caused so much anguish in February was of some concern early in the weekend as track crews were seen working on it after practices on Thursday.  The race track held together without incident throughout the weekend.

There were the usual early green flag runs that saw some early strategy play out but once the big one hit with less than twenty laps to go causing a red flag to clean up the carnage, it was Kevin Harvick to the win.  A win which solidifies his points lead.

The story of the weekend however was Dale Earnhardt Jr. driving his daddy’s number and Wrangler paint scheme.  Fans were all over this car on Friday night.  Junior usually has a huge group of fans that follow his every move while at the race track but whenever he was seen in the Wrangler colors; whether it was during practice or before the Nationwide Race he was being showered with adulation.

Adulation that may have been more centered around his late father than specifically directed to him.  Even the pre-race public address announcers were treating this race and this car as more a tribute to Senior than just Junior doing something cool.  Juniors whole demeanor while in the Nationwide garage and on the grid before the race was one of a person finally getting past something that had been haunting him for a long time.

During driver introductions and while awaiting the start of the nationwide race, Junior was as happy and demonstrative as  he had been in a decade.  Driving the Wrangler sponsored number three looked to be Juniors way of finally throwing a two-ton gorilla off his back.

Winning the race, in that car was a way for him to move past whatever demons have been haunting him.  He was adamant in the post race saying this was a “One and Done” for him.  There is no reason for him to do it again and I believe this actually paves the way for the car number to be put back into circulation.

Congratulations Junior on a nice time had by all.

photo credit: On Pit Row/JAB

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Daytona International Speedway, Kevin Harvick 

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