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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Irwin Tools Night Race

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by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and pictures,2010 NASCAR schedule,NASCAR 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.

August 18, 2010 5:59 pm CDT No Comments

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If NASCAR had to, for some strange reason, pare down the Sprint Cup season to only five races, this weekend’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway would be almost certain to make the cut.

The rough-and-tumble racing that Bristol is famous for, under the Saturday night lights in the dog days of summer, provides fans with a powder keg that’s ready to explode at any moment – and frequently does, claiming many contenders along the way. Many fans will never forget Dale Earnhardt punting Terry Labonte out of the way to win the 1999 edition, nor the post-race fireworks between Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch a couple years ago.

So who’s got a shot at surviving the event and driving into victory lane this year?

Bristol is one of Busch’s best tracks, and its tendency to produce interesting and exciting on-track action makes it a perfect fit for him. His 10.1 average finish trumps all other active drivers. Besides this spring’s aberration, Busch hadn’t failed to lead in a Bristol race since his 2005 rookie season. He has three wins at the track, and top-two finishes in three of the past four Bristol events. He’s my pick.

My dark horse pick for this weekend is Marcos Ambrose, who had finishes of 10th and 3rd at Bristol last year but a dismal 33rd this past spring. Now that he and JTG Daugherty Racing have both announced plans for 2011 that don’t involve one another, they might just mail it in until the end of the year. On the other hand, they could both step up their game, showing their new partners (Richard Petty Motorsports for Ambrose, Bobby Labonte for JTG) a commitment to a strong year next year.

Three more, because we can:

Greg Biffle, despite having never won at Bristol in a Sprint Cup car, has the second best average finish of active drivers at the track, a solid 11.0. He’s got six top fives and nine top-10s in 15 starts. His Roush Fenway Racing team is also peaking at the right time, finding victory lane and the front of the pack these past few weeks in the wake of owner Jack Roush’s plane crash. Roush cars won this race each year from 2005 to 2008, and there’s no reason to think they can’t again.

Kevin Harvick is the only driver to have a Chase berth right now. Coming off that clinch, his Michigan victory, and a lucrative sponsorship deal with Budweiser for 2011, Happy’s gotta be living up to his nickname right now, and the momentum can certainly carry into Bristol. Harvick can be Superman at Bristol – while the box score for his 2005 victory at the track says he started 13th, he actually started dead last due to unapproved impound work and passed every car in the field for the victory.

Finally, Kurt Busch has the second-best winning percentage at Bristol of active drivers, behind only brother Kyle. And while four of his five wins came in 2004 or earlier, he showed us all a thing or two about how to race at Bristol this spring, leading a race-high 278 laps and finishing third. While Jimmie Johnson may have used that race to get the Bristol monkey off his back, Busch showed the field that he had his old Bristol magic back.

Filed under: Bristol Motor Speedway, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing 

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Showtime Southern 500

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by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and pictures,2010 NASCAR schedule,NASCAR 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, 2010 10:34 am CDT 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, Mark Martin, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, jimmie johnson 

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Jimmie Johnson’s Two Pair beats Smoke’s One

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by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Charlie likes to call me an "idiot". I'm not an "idiot"; I just prefer not to let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

June 2, 2009 6:49 am CDT 2 Comments

Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, called for a four tire change on the last round of pit stops while Darian Grubb opted to put only two on the Smoke-mobile.

Putting the two tires on Tony Stewart’s ride enabled the new Sprint Cup points leader to battle Greg Biffle for the lead.  But that lead didn’t last long as Johnson was able to use his four new tires to run down Stewart and pass him for the lead with two laps to go.

Johnson dominated the race, especially through its middle sections as he led the most laps.  As dominate as the #48 was, the biggest story of the weekend was the replacement of Tony Eury, Jr. as crew chief for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Lance McGrew was slated to take over the helm at Pocono, but when Brad Keselowski fail to qualify at Dover, McGrew started his new assignment a week early.

The combination of McGrew and Earnhardt got off to a decent start as the #88 was able to find its way to a top twenty finish after running as high as fifth early in the race. What remains to be seen is if the combination can stick for the long term.  Earnhardt admitted that the dialogue between himself and his cousin was at times sparse and so far that dialogue with McGrew has been much more prevalent.

This week’s BUZZ ON PIT ROW asks:

How will Lance McGrew be able to turn the Dale Earnhardt, Jr. team around?

Let us know what you think and we may use your comments on this week’s ON PIT ROW radio show.  Or call the show between 5-7pm ET at 800-645-2946 and your call could win a Kevin Harvick bobblehead if you are the Shell Nitrogen Enriched Call of the Day.

photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Brad Kesolowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle, How to fix NASCAR, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Pocono Raceway, Sprint Cup Series, Tony Stewart 

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Leavin’ Faster than Pilgrims at a Porn Theatre

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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

November 28, 2008 3:42 pm CST No Comments

It’s Black Friday and I’m already sick of the traffic I’ve had to fight just getting to work. If only I had my own helicopter like Greg Biffle….oh wait. The Biff sold his in a fit of budget slashing the likes of which hasn’t been seen since, well, last week.

No matter. Mindy has some stuff on the musical crew chief situation, Joe Nemechek’s financial planning and touching goodbyes, Home Depot style.

It’s all there in the latest Monday Morning Crew Chief and you can watch it here.

Filed under: Bench Racing TV, Elliott Sadler, Gillett Evernham Motorsports, Greg Biffle, Joe Nemechek, Michael Waltrip Racing, Monday Morning Crew Chief, NASCAR Bidness, NASCAR Rumors, Red Bull Racing, Tony Stewart 

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Good Effort by Carl Edwards isn’t Good Enough

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by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Charlie likes to call me an "idiot". I'm not an "idiot"; I just prefer not to let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

October 27, 2008 8:34 pm CDT No Comments

Carl Edwards did all he can do at Atlanta Motor Speedway and it wasn’t close to being enough.

Edward’s Roush-Fenway owned Office Depot Ford Fusion won at NASCAR’s fastest track; but unfortunately for him, Chad Knaus and Jimmy Johnson were pulling off a miracle finish.  The smartest crew chief in NASCAR never let his driver panic and used a late pit stop for fresh  tires to pull off a second place finish.  Johnson restarted in eleventh place with the new Goodyears and quickly passed all in front except for Edwards.

Johnson had gone a lap down to the leaders early on when he was caught for speeding on pit road.  He and Knaus systematically moved back to a position to where they could make the late run.  Edwards was surprised to find out that Johnson had come all the way back to second:

Yeah, I looked up there on the scoreboard, saw he was running seventh, eighth, ninth, somewhere in there most of the second half of the race.  When Dave said, What do you think about Jimmie finishing second, I thought he was joking.  I truly didn’t know until I looked at the scoreboard that Jimmie had made that back up.  I got to see some video.  They put on some tires and went for it.  That’s pretty amazing.

Johnson’s second place finish increased his lead over Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton and Edwards.  The party is truly over.  There is no way that any of the three can overcome their defecit to knock off Johnson.  And that leads us to this weeks BUZZ ON PIT ROW:

Now that Johnson has all but wrapped up the title with three races to go; should NASCAR look at changing the Chase format to keep more drivers involved longer?

Let us know what you think and we could use your comment on this week’s ON PIT ROW.  Listen live from 5-7pm ET at www.onpitrow.com or at www.arcaracing.com.  give us a call at 877-502-8255 and we could select your call as the Shell Gunk Free Call of the Day and you could win a Kevin Harvick bobblehead.

photo credit:  Rusty Burroughs/Getty Images/NASCAR

Filed under: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Brian France, Car of Tomorrow, Carl Edwards, Chase for the Cup 

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Talladega Lives Up to Its Wild Card Status

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by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Charlie likes to call me an "idiot". I'm not an "idiot"; I just prefer not to let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

October 7, 2008 6:30 am CDT 1 Comment

A wild finish that ended with NASCAR and drivers playing a classic version of “he said–she said”.

The Chase took its annual stop at the series’ longest and most unpredictable race track and race fans got their monies worth.  A record number of race leaders and four wide racing had fans on their feet for much of the five-hundred mile race.

Unfortunately there the race was marred by two “big ones” that saw many of the Chase contenders either see early exits or be relegated to also ran status.  Carl Edwards, who was bump drafting with his teammate, Greg Biffle, caused one of the big wrecks that ruined the day for both drivers and third teammate Matt Kenseth.

The real fireworks came at the end of the race when DEI driver Ragan Smith drove past race leader Tony Stewart for what he thought was the win on the final lap.  But NASCAR ruled that Smith passed Stewart below the out of bounds line and therefore was relegated to eighteenth place.  Smith and other drivers thought that NASCAR had exempted the last lap of the race from the out of bounds rule.  NASCAR, at least in this instance, disagreed.

NASCAR’s Jim Hunter had this to say:

You cannot improve your position anytime you go below the yellow line. In our judgment, he (Regan Smith) improved his position and the penalty for that is a pass thru, so he was moved back to the tail end of the longest line…

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

Who should have been the winner at Talladega?

Give us your opinion and we may use your comments on this week’s ON PIT ROW.  Listen live from 5-7pm ET at onpitrow.com then listen to INSIDE ARCA from 7-8:30pm ET at arcaracing.com

photo credit: Icon sports Media

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Chase for the Cup, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, NASCAR, NASCAR officials, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Talladega Superspeedway 

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