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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Kobalt Tools 500

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

If OnPitRow.com was a NASCAR team, I’d be the development driver of the bunch. In the same way that young hotshots like Joey Logano have been driving since they were in grade school, I’ve been following and writing about all forms of motorsports since I was barely old enough to talk.

March 4, 2010 2:05 am CST 2 Comments

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Three races into the season, and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to the Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Kobalt Tools 500. Jimmie Johnson, sponsored by Kobalt Tools in his Cup efforts, will attempt to win his third consecutive race this weekend… and with the old formalities down, let me tell everybody that it’s my midterm week here at school, and combined with reading too many sarcastic IndyCar blogs in preparation for that season, I’m going to be a little more bitingly sarcastic than usual. Strap in, folks.

Speaking of winning, guess who picked the winner last week? That’s right. I called him an easy pick, but sometimes it’s worth it to take the easy money (and the gift win)… especially when the rest of your picks were relative duds. Jeff Burton wound up 11th, Kyle Busch was 15th, and Denny Hamlin finished 19th, while my dark horse, Bobby Labonte, was 51 laps down in 38th.

I would love to pick Johnson again this weekend, but my conscience tells me to be a little more interesting. Fair enough. How about Jeff Gordon? 23 top-fives in 35 Atlanta starts, with four wins, and a dominant car last weekend in Vegas suggest that the DuPont team may be a force both this weekend and beyond.

(For the record, if Johnson wins this week, I will attempt to write some revisionist history by suggesting I picked the 48 this week and the 24 last week, all in the name of sounding smart. This is what happens when you write a fantasy racing column for too long and want to finally sound smart.)

As for a dark horse, how about A.J. Allmendinger? Last weekend was a struggle for sure, but the ‘Dinger heads to the best track on which he has started more than two races. He’s been consistent, if nothing else, with all four of his finishes between 14th and 20th. And while that’s not “race-winning dark horse” material, it does seem like a gimme for a solid, reasonable finish, and I’ll take what I can get. Perhaps we simply have varying definitions of “dark horse.”

Three more for all you skeptics:

Jimmie Johnson. There. I said it. It’s 1 AM and I’m very tired. Next.

In what is sure to raise a cheer from the majority of people who read this column, my next pick is none other than Dale Earnhardt Jr., the second best active driver at Atlanta (behind his superhuman teammate, of course). Yes, he hasn’t been the same driver the past two weekends as he was at Daytona, but come on, the curse of the last Hendrick car can’t apply every weekend. Even Casey Mears won in a fourth Hendrick vehicle, and Casey Mears hasn’t accomplished half of what Dale Jr. has.

For my final pick, I’m going to go with Joey Logano. This has nothing to do with his Atlanta track record in Cup, which is pretty abysmal. It has everything to do, however, with the fact that eighth in points is the highest he’s ever been in Cup. Sliced Bread is finally starting to really get things together with the No. 20 team, and he could do what David Ragan almost did in 2008 by making the Chase in his sophomore year.

Filed under: A J Allmendinger, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Joey Logano, jimmie johnson

Tagged with: A.J. Allmendinger, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, jimmie johnson, Joey Logano, Kobalt Tools 500

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Double J and The Luck of A Golden Horseshoe

by Clance' McClannahan, Special To NASCAR commentary,NASCAR video,NASCAR pictures, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

Clance' McClannahan, famous author behind The Church of The Great Oval and also one of the much appreciated Contributing Authors at Thunder Lounge.

February 27, 2010 12:04 am CST 1 Comment

How much does luck really have to play in NASCAR? Auto Club Speedway was a perfect example of both good luck, bad luck, skill and strategy.

Race Day at ACS started out cloudy, with the threat of rain looming overhead in in the future. Lovely Katharine McPhee, Season 5 American Idol runner-up, performed the National Anthem, after stating “I’ve never watched a NASCAR game before.” Personally, I am really glad she said that prior to the first inning, or it might have been embarrassing for her later.

Andy Garcia was able to give the command. “ Gentlemen, start your engines!” and still be politically correct.

Pole sitter Jamie Mac led the race for about 5 seconds, and then Juan Pablo Montoya politely said “Excuse me?”, and took the lead. If you would reach far back into your memory…(I mean, it’s a stretch for me), you will remember that JPM led 60 laps at ACS in October, and in one truly horrendous moment, lost that race. Juan Pablo Montoya meant serious business and opened up a lead of more than 3 seconds by Lap 12. By Lap 29, Jimmie Johnson’s good luck began to show, and the 42 car’s not so good 30th lap, gave him a brush with the wall. Soon after…it was Good vs. Bad for JPM, Kasey Kahne and a few others. Namely Dale (**NOTE to Jr. Nation: Dale doesn’t want to be called Jr. or June Bug, anymore).

In the meantime, a war was beginning to rage. Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson had begun the battle that would continue throughout the race, which culminated in one of the finest moments in NASCAR History.

Lap 97 began to get a little more interesting. Now we will get into the good luck, bad luck, strategy (?) syndrome that happenedthat day.

Martin Truex Jr. loses power. Later, Martin Truex Jr’s engine blows.
JPM begins to battle with Jeff Gordon for 5th position. Harvick and Johnson continue to dance the Flamenco (to impress Juan Pablo Montoya) for 1st and 2nd, not being able to decide who would lead and who would follow.

In one of the most endearing and heart breaking moments of the race, Kasey Kahne, being conscientious of the bleak economy, decided he would help out some poor souls, who needed to make some money to feed their kids, by making sure they had jobs replacing the sod he tore up.
Ryan Newman’s engine blew up. DNF. Again. JPM, looking very competitive, was out of contention once again, after a great 140 laps. It also, was due to another kaboom of a large quantity of moving parts, critical to the car continuing to run..

Kevin Harvick discovered that one of Jamie Mac’s pit crew has a part time job with Cirque du Soleil. Scary.

Then there was Dale Earnhardt Jr. It seems like the last few years, if it’s going to happen to someone it will be Dale Jr. Personally, I don’t think he has any better or worse luck than many driver’s. I think his worst luck is the scrutiny he is constantly under. Much more than other driver’s. Broken Axle. Axle Broken. Race over for the 88.

Jimmie Johnson seemed to be going backwards for a small moment in time. Then… From out of the blue…comes JJ again. Jamie Mac, startled, said “”How can he be leading? “He was on pit road, wasn’t he?!!”
Why yes, he was. Double J won. 48/48.
Luck? Strategy? All of the above?

Kevin Harvick , at the end of the race, summed it all up, in one sentence. Possibly one of the finest quotes in NASCAR History. I am honored to have been able to do small tribute to that little quip at The Church.
“They have a golden horseshoe stuck up their ass.”
…And that, Dear Fans, was the finest finish to a race I have seen since the Daytona 500.

*What wondrous events shall LVMS bring us this weekend? Aw…the suspense is killing me!

Filed under: Auto Club Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, Diversity and NASCAR, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Gordon, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kasey Kahne, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Martin Truex Jr., NASCAR, NASCAR Conspiracies, Ryan Newman, jimmie johnson

Tagged with: American Idol, Andy Garcia, Auto Club Speedway, Cirque du Soleil, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Daytona 500, diversity, Golden Horseshoe stuck up his, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Gordon, jimmie johnson, jimmie Johnson Golden Horseshoe, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kasey Kahne, Katharine McPhee, Kevin Harvick, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Martin Truex Jr., NASCAR, Ryan Newman

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Shelby American

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

February 25, 2010 1:55 am CST 2 Comments

Two races down, 34 to go as the Sprint Cup Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for this year’s Shelby American. Kyle Busch will attempt to defend his 2009 race win after two consecutive 14th place finishes to start the year.

Jimmie Johnson won three consecutive Vegas races from 2005-07, and won last week in California. He was the best of my five suggestions last week. My lead pick, Matt Kenseth, had a seventh-place run, while my dark horse, David Ragan, was 23rd. Of my other picks, Busch was 14th, and polesitter Jamie McMurray wound up 17th. All in all, it was a much better day than Daytona, and everybody was in the top 25, so the day wasn’t a disaster.

I know it’s an easy pick, but can you fault me for taking Johnson this weekend? It somehow feels okay to me because of his off and on nature at Vegas. In eight starts at the track, he has three wins, but only one other top-10. The past two years he hasn’t finished in the top 20, although he led the most laps in last year’s event before a pit road mistake took him off the lead lap.

It’s hard to come up with a true dark horse for Vegas. The top drivers in the series usually do well, and the lesser teams don’t, according to the record books. But Bobby Labonte may be as close as it gets. He was fifth last year for the Hall of Fame Racing team that no longer runs, and he may be able to pull some similar magic for TRG Motorsports this weekend. He’s got a decent Vegas record, with an average finish of 15.7 in 12 starts, two poles, and five top-10s, with four of those finishes fifth or better.

The other three drivers I’m picking, as per tradition:

Jeff Burton has the best average finish of anybody at Vegas, and even the fact that he’s started every race at the track hasn’t weighed that down. He’s the only driver with an average finish in the single digits (9.8), and he won this race in 1999 and 2000. Save a disaster in 2001, he’s never finished worse than 17th.

Kyle Busch runs at a torrid pace at his home track. His average start of 7.7 is only second to brother Kurt, at least for drivers with multiple Vegas starts, but Rowdy is significantly better than his big brother in average finish, by more than nine places. As I’ve already mentioned, he won this race last year. Since joining Sprint Cup full-time, his worst Vegas finish is 11th. Talk about stepping up for the home crowd.

Finally, Denny Hamlin completes my horrible cop-out of picking the drivers with the top four average finishes at Vegas. I know, I know. But Hamlin is outside the top 20 in points – I feel like I should get some leeway there. He also hasn’t led any laps at Vegas in his career, which would make a victory somewhat of an upset, right? He qualifies mid-pack (average start 23.5), but has an average finish of 11.0, the biggest positive difference for any active driver, meaning if he wins, he’ll have earned it by passing a lot of cars and maintaining the lead.

Filed under: Bobby Labonte, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, jimmie johnson

Tagged with: Bobby Labonte, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Burton, jimmie johnson, Kyle Busch, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Shelby American

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Auto Club 500

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

February 18, 2010 12:27 am CST No Comments

One race down, 35 to go, as the Sprint Cup Series heads to Auto Club Speedway for the Auto Club 500. Jamie McMurray will look to repeat Matt Kenseth’s 2009 feat of sweeping the first two races of the season, at a track where he has an average finish of 16.4. California is McMurray’s fifth best track of those on the current schedule.

My pick for Daytona, Tony Stewart, finished 22nd, leaving me with 97 points on the weekend. My dark horse, John Andretti, slapped the wall and ended up 38th. As for my other three suggestions, only Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a strong run, finishing second; Mark Martin faltered to finish 12th and Marcos Ambrose blew a motor after 79 laps to wind up 41st. Not a great start to my year, but that’s Daytona.

If you’re looking for a sure bet at California, don’t just go by who won the 500; since Fontana assumed the second race of the season in 2005, only Kenseth has done the double. Jimmie Johnson finished second at the track in 2006, but in none of the other cases has the Daytona winner finished better than double digits. Daytona winners’ average finish at California over the past five years is an even 12, mostly brought up by those two.

The winners at California usually come from the middle of the pack at Daytona. Ignoring Kenseth’s win last year, the average finish of California winners at Daytona between 2005 and 2008 was 21.5.

Regardless of all that, my pick for California is Matt Kenseth. This one seems like an easy call. Roush Fenway Racing Fords have won the past five spring races at California, as well as 10 of 19 races at the track overall. Kenseth won this race in 2006, 2007, and last year. His average finish of 9.2 is third best among active drivers. A victory could propel Kenseth into the points lead.

As for a dark horse, I’m picking David Ragan. We can call him a dark horse, right? He still hasn’t won a Sprint Cup race, and he had a generally horrible season in 2009. But his seventh place in the fall California race was his second best finish of 2009. He’s also never failed to finish below 17th at the track, which is either a really good omen for Sunday or a hint that he’s overdue for a bad finish.

Per tradition, three other suggestions:

Jimmie Johnson’s an easy pick. You don’t just stumble into a 5.8 average finish in the Sprint Cup Series at any given track – you’ve gotta be good. Johnson’s obviously good, as his four Sprint Cups attest to. He’s even better at California, with no finishes worse than 16th, no DNFs, zero finishes off of the lead lap, and at least 31 laps led in the past six races at his home track. I only pick against him because none of his four wins at the track came in February.

Kyle Busch is a solid, yet interesting, choice if you’re looking to spice things up. He’s not as easy of a pick as the Roush or Hendrick drivers, but he did have a streak of eight California top-10s before last fall’s 24th-place finish, and not even Jimmie Johnson (six and counting) can say that.

I’m going to give Jamie McMurray the benefit of the doubt and my final pick. The past four years have been pretty abysmal for the Daytona 500 winner, especially at California, where a sixth place finish in his second race with Roush was the lone high point; since then, he’s never been better than 16th at the track. But McMurray was never worse than 15th when he drove for Chip Ganassi, his current owner, with an average finish of 7.2 in five starts between 2003 and 2005.

Filed under: Auto Club Speedway, David Ragan, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, jimmie johnson

Tagged with: Auto Club 500, Auto Club Speedway, David Ragan, Fantasy Pick'Em, Jamie McMurray, jimmie johnson, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth

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Can McMurray, Ganassi Sustain Daytona Success?

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

February 15, 2010 1:48 pm CST No Comments

Almost nobody expected Jamie McMurray to win the 2010 Daytona 500. It was his first race with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing after four lackluster years as the fifth driver at Roush Fenway Racing, and nobody knew whether or not the combination would work out.

Chip Ganassi was the first owner to give McMurray a shot in Cup, promoting him in 2002 when Sterling Marlin was injured, and McMurray rewarded him by winning in his second career start. But it took McMurray almost five years to win again.

He’s never made a Chase (despite coming close for Ganassi twice in the mid-2000s), and plenty of folks thought his career was dead in the water after the four years of middling performance at Roush.

The combination of Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing before last season was also a huge question mark, although Juan Montoya’s consistent performance throughout the regular season and early part of last year’s Chase answered his side of the equation. Martin Truex Jr., on the other hand, struggled desperately to perform, and left the team for Michael Waltrip Racing at the end of the year.

This opened the door for Ganassi to bring back McMurray, and he rewarded the racing magnate’s judgment by winning the biggest race of the year.

Now, the biggest question is what kind of team McMurray’s will be for the next 35 races of the season.

Glory at Daytona can be used to propel a driver into the championship hunt. Ernie Irvan and Davey Allison used their 1991 and 1992 victories, respectively, to assert themselves as legitimate championship contenders. Irvan in 1991, Allison in 1992, and Sterling Marlin in 1995 (the year of his second consecutive 500 win) had their best career finishes in points coming off of Daytona victory.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a great season in 2004 after winning the Great American Race for the first time. His six wins that year were a career high, and although he slipped two positions in the final standings from his career-best third in 2003, he was a legitimate title contender the whole year.

Jimmie Johnson’s 2006 victory in the race led to his first career Cup title, despite regular crew chief Chad Knaus being suspended for the race. Jeff Gordon and Dale Jarrett each won the first race of the season the year after winning championships, in 1999 and 2000 respectively.

But plenty of drivers have seen their triumph at Daytona lead to a long dry spell.

Let’s start with last year. Sure, Matt Kenseth also won the next week’s race at California, but he missed the Chase for the first time in his career as well. Neither Ryan Newman (2008) nor Kevin Harvick (2007) have won points-paying Sprint Cup races since their respective Daytona 500 triumphs.

Michael Waltrip wasn’t able to turn either of his Daytona 500 triumphs, in 2001 and 2003, into season-long success, falling to 24th and 15th in points those two years, respectively. His win in fall 2003 at Talladega remains his final Cup win to date.

The worst season by a Daytona 500 winner in recent memory, however, belongs to Ward Burton, who finished 25th in points after his triumph in 2002. Burton started the season by leading at least one lap in the first five races, but 15 finishes outside the top 10 in the first 19 races of the year killed any hopes he had of championship contention. By the end of the next season, he was no longer employed at Bill Davis Racing.

The big question, then, is this: Will Jamie McMurray have a Sterling Marlin type of season after winning the Daytona 500, or a Ward Burton year?

We know that Chip Ganassi’s equipment is stellar in every racing series he enters. His IZOD IndyCar Series teams have won the past two championships, his Rolex Sports Car Series team is always contending for the title, and Montoya elevated the Sprint Cup team to a new level last year. The equipment and resources are certainly available.

McMurray’s also got a fire inside after the past four years at Roush. He needs to prove that he’s still “got it,” or perhaps that he ever “had it” at all; three of his four wins in Sprint Cup came on restrictor plate tracks, where anything can happen. This currently puts him in a category with Waltrip, as both were marketable mid-pack drivers who collected all of their mid-career victories in plate races.

McMurray needs to return to the form that nearly propelled him into the first Chase in 2004, and the Ganassi equipment has to stay as strong as it was last year. But if one or both of those things doesn’t happen, we could see yet another fluke Daytona 500 victory.

Filed under: Daytona 500, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Jamie McMurray

Tagged with: Dale Jarrett, Davey Allison, Daytona 500, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Ernie Irvan, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Gordon, jimmie johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Michael Waltrip, Ryan Newman, Sterling Marlin, Ward Burton

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An Open Letter To President Johnson

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

November 27, 2009 12:25 am CST No Comments

Dear “President” Jimmie Johnson,

First of all, is it all right to call you “Mr. President”? I mean, you have been the defending Sprint Cup champion of four years now - the length of one United States presidential term, something that nobody else has ever done, including your teammate Jeff Gordon, Richard Petty, and Dale Earnhardt.

You and your “cabinet” - Secretary of State Rick Hendrick, Secretary of Defense Earl Barban, and most importantly, your right-hand man, Vice President Chad Knaus - are one of the most successful administrations in NASCAR history. Over the past four years, you have won 29 races, almost a full season, and have not scored fewer than 22 top-10 finishes in any given year. That’s a remarkable performance.

But, Mr. President, the State of the Union is not as strong as it once was. Attendance at the events has gone down, as is to be expected in a recession, but television ratings have gone down too. That signifies a lack of interest. It’s not like people can’t watch - at least 99 percent of American homes have televisions, and 56-plus pay for cable TV. 24 of the 36 points-paying races are on broadcast - the first third of the season with FOX, and the final 11 with ABC.

And, Mr. President, one of the reasons why they’re not watching is you.

Now, don’t get me wrong, people love an administration that can turn down all challengers. Adversity sticks to you like teflon; challengers come and go, but when all is said and done, we all know that you’re going to come through and remain on top.

You got there by being just a little better than Matt Kenseth in 2006. In 2007, you took down Jeff Gordon, whose season was statistically better, by virtue of a couple more wins and a stronger performance at the end of the season. Last year, the Chase format gave you the win when Carl Edwards was marginally better. This year, you took advantage of the fact that Mark Martin flip-flopped too often between good and bad finishes, and even an incident at Texas couldn’t drag you down too far.

Under the Chase format, Mr. President, you can’t be beat. But take away this safety net, and you’re more vulnerable. History wouldn’t have been made this Sunday, because you wouldn’t have won in 2007, or 2008; even your 2006 championship would have been far less certain. I mean, come on, the margin of victory under the old format would have been four points.

Perhaps, Mr. President, you’re human after all.

Perhaps your administration is just the most adept at adapting to a new style of racing, under a format that, despite all of NASCAR’s claims, actually robs the fans of better (or at least fairer) championship battles. Look it up.

But there’s a way for you to prove your invincibility once and for all. Let me explain.

But first, I must say that I was slightly disappointed in hearing about your recent contract extension through 2015. Six more years is a long time. At this rate, you’ll be approaching Franklin Delano Roosevelt status before you even hit 40. I think it’s time for another challenge, don’t you? And I have perhaps the greatest conceivable challenge in all of motorsports for you.

Mr. President, Americans - or American-trained drivers - are suffering in international motorsport affairs. Our last Formula One driver, Scott Speed, was a failure. (Perhaps you recognize him; you lap him every week in the stock cars now.) Champ Car’s four-time champion, Sebastien Bourdais, made for a terrible F1 driver as well. Our best IndyCar driver, Danica Patrick, is by far the most overrated race car driver of this decade in any discipline, and the other American drivers in that series - Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal, et. al. - seem more concerned with the fanfare and their own stardom than actually winning races.

So, Mr. President, the only person I could think of to approach in hope of solving the problem is you.

Starting next year, there will be an Formula 1 team headquartered in Charlotte, run by former Speed Channel reporter Peter Windsor and backed by Youtube founder Chad Hurley. They already have one driver signed, a Spanish mid-pack GP2 racer who brings some sponsorship on board.

That’s not what you want the United States’ only F1 team to be, is it? A pay-driver team? They need a champion, a driver who can win races, has dominated those in his home country, a consummate professional such as yourself who isn’t going to alienate the media.

My point is, we need you in F1, Mr. President.

We need you to prove to the rest of the world that America is still a relevant motorsports country. We need you to prove that these drivers in NASCAR and IndyCar are just as talented as the F1 boys, that we, too, can turn right and left, that even though F1’s rejects have populated the open-wheel ranks for years and the bulky stock cars generally turn left, our drivers can hold their own in the pinnacle of motorsport.

Think of it. How many drivers can say that they’ve won races at Daytona, Indianapolis, and Monaco? Plenty of drivers can lay claim to two of the three; Mario Andretti, Juan Pablo Montoya, Michael Schumacher, and Graham Hill (who also won Le Mans) are among them. You could be the first to win all three. That’s a class all your own in the history of motorsport, Mr. President.

Sometimes, you need to know when to move on to the next challenge. I would say that “when” is now. There is very little left for you to accomplish in American stock car racing, except for maybe Nationwide and Camping World titles, and what fun is stepping backwards?

I hope you’ll consider what I’ve suggested to you, Mr. President. Take a long, hard look at F1. Then talk to Secretary of State Hendrick and Mr. Windsor, and let’s make it happen.

Some other drivers would like to win championships before they retire too, anyway.

Filed under: Formula One, Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR, jimmie johnson

Tagged with: Formula One, Hendrick Motorsports, jimmie johnson

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