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NASCAR Awakens the Sleeping Bear of Silly Season in Michigan

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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.

June 21, 2011 2:18 pm UTC No Comments

Denny Hamlin finish line burnout Michigan International Speedway spr heisler 11

Twice a year the silence is broken by the noise of race cars and the swelling of a population.

While much activity is present on the race track, the first race of the year at Michigan International Speedway rarely has a lot of silly season activity.

NASCAR’s silly season is highlighted by sponsor, driver and crew chief changes for the next race season; but rarely is the June race at MIS the beginning of that process.

This year however was a different story.  News of Red Bull Racing pulling out of the sport came as a shocker to most.  While RBR has not exactly set the NASCAR world afire, they have been a respectable race team.  Poor cars early on forced RBR to miss races and driver inconsistencies have wreaked havoc with the program.

Now what will be left of RBR will either be sold off or morphed into another race team. What will become of Brian Vickers?  Kasey Kahne was a lend-lease driver from Hendrick Motorsports for 2011 so his future is secure and paints a picture that Red Bull had an idea that 2011 was going to be its last year.

It looks as if Home Depot is loosing its patience with coming in second to its big-box home improvement competition and may push for Joey Logano’s removal as the driver.  Carl Edwards name has been thrown into the mix as a possible replacement brand spokesman.  Edwards could move into a fourth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with Home Depot on the side if another sponsor can be secured for Logano .

JGR also made headlines this week, not only by taking Denny Hamlin to
Victory Lane, but by showing up to tech inspection with illegal oil pans. NASCAR took away the offending units and have fined each crew chief $50,000 and put each on probation, along with their respective car chiefs, until December 31, 2011.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler/ON PIT ROW

Filed under: Michigan International Speedway, Monday Morning Crew Chief, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR Rumors, Red Bull Racing 

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2011 Coca-Cola 600

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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.

May 26, 2011 11:25 am UTC No Comments

Ah, the old World 600. The longest race of the year, and NASCAR’s attempt to steal the spotlight from the Indianapolis 500 on the same day, has seen its share of interesting (i.e. first-time) winners in recent memory. Jeff Gordon took his first career victory in this race back in 1994. Bobby Labonte repeated the feat the very next year. Casey Mears did the same in 2007, while David Reutimann, with the aid of rain, stole a win in 2009 as well.

This is one of the reasons why the 600 is one of the best races in NASCAR – you never know what’s going to happen, or who’s going to win. For that reason – nevermind the first-time winners at Daytona and Darlington this year – don’t expect your typical, run of the mill winner come Sunday night. It’ll either be a first-timer, or somebody who’s had quite the drought.

Joey Logano: Logano’s been the picture of consistency at Charlotte for the past two years. Three top-10s in four starts, including a best finish of fifth, give him the best average finish of any active driver at the track. Logano’s had a rough season, sitting 27th in points, and hasn’t won since taking his maiden victory in a rain-shortened Loudon race in 2009, making him exactly the type of turnaround candidate I’m talking about.

Martin Truex Jr.: I know, Truex has a win in his career too, but it’s been a while. The No. 56 team showed the speed in qualifying for this race third last year, but dropped down the field to finish a disappointing 23rd, second to last on the lead lap. Don’t expect them to let it happen again – these boys are hungry and everyone knows it.

A.J. Allmendinger: So what gives with me doing this write-up about first-time winners, when my first two picks don’t fit that mold? To be honest, I think that A.J. Allmendinger has a shot at this thing. He’s been a consistent top-15 driver all season, and everybody in the garage feels like his first career win isn’t too far out of reach. Same goes for Marcos Ambrose, although Ambrose’s team has been slightly less consistent over the course of the year. Either way, though, it’d be nice to see two-time race winner Richard Petty back in the winner’s circle this weekend as an owner.

Filed under: A J Allmendinger, Joey Logano, Lowes Motor Speedway, Martin Truex Jr., NASCAR Fantasy Gaming 

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2011 FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks

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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.

May 13, 2011 10:46 am UTC No Comments

martin truex jr david reutimann qualifying new hampshire

martin truex jr david reutimann qualifying new hampshire

Ah, Dover. The track known colloquially as the “Monster Mile” is always a fun time, and given how much fun we had last week at Darlington, it won’t be a shock if this weekend’s race, the FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks, will be even more exciting.

Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch are the new power feud in the sport, after last week’s pit road incident. Ryan Newman and Juan Pablo Montoya still hate each other, if it’s been slightly de-emphasized. Dover is the last chance for top drivers without All-Star eligibility – and yes, that includes Dale Earnhardt Jr. – to earn their way into the event without having to either rely on a last-chance victory in the Sprint Showdown or fan vote.

So let’s make this interesting. My lead pick this week is going to be a driver that hasn’t won in a while. Ready?

Martin Truex Jr.: With Regan Smith taking the surprise victory at Darlington, I might as well go out on a limb and say that lightning can indeed strike twice. Dover is kind of a home track for the New Jersey native, and the site of his lone Sprint Cup win, back in 2007 when Dale Earnhardt Inc. was still a power player in the garage. He’s somewhat struggled at the track since, at least in the finishing order, but starts of first and third last year prove that he’s fast.

Carl Edwards: I could just as easily pick Jimmie Johnson as my alternate, with his six wins at Dover (three of the past four, too) to Edwards’ one. In fact, I probably should. But I won’t. Why? Simple – consistency. When you’re faced with two drivers who perform so well at this track, you might as well go with the guy with the slight edge in consistency, and that’s Edwards. Since 2006, Edwards has only finished outside of the top 10 two times, to Johnson’s four. He just edges Johnson in points scored at the track, 1561 to 1539, in that time frame. You can pick either, but I’m going with Edwards.

Joey Logano: Oh hi, dark horse. Logano has underperformed this year, never cracking the top 20 in points or a single-digit finishing position, but maybe Dover will help him turn it around. Last year he scored finishes of 10th and third in the two Dover races, spending 724 out of 800 laps in the top 10. He also won both Nationwide poles and finished second both times that series took on the Monster Mile in 2010. Even if he hasn’t won at the track yet in either series, he clearly knows how to run up front here.

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Dover International Speedway, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., NASCAR Fantasy Gaming 

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2011 Goody’s Fast Relief 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.

March 30, 2011 1:46 pm UTC No Comments

That’s right – Fantasy Pick’Em is back.

After getting my butt thoroughly kicked by school for the past six weeks – you know, to perfectly coincide with racing season – I’m feeling a bit like Rocky at the end of every Rocky movie – brains turned to mush, black eyes, bruises everywhere, generally in pain. But I like to think I’ve fought through the worst, and after making some savvy picks early in the season (and yes, I did call Trevor Bayne to win the Daytona 500), I’m back to ruin my reputation and good luck for the rest of the year.

So, three picks at Martinsville – but who?

Jeff Gordon: I saw Bob Pockrass make this pick on Twitter earlier today, saying he liked the combination of Gordon and Alan Gustafson at Martinsville. I can’t say I disagree. You only need look at the statistics to realize that Gordon was ripping off wins at Martinsville before Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin started taking over at the track. Martinsville is a track where both driver and crew chief need to effectively manage the car, and I think Gustafson is as trustworthy as any crew chief in that department.

Denny Hamlin: After the engine woes at Joe Gibbs Racing over the past few weeks, you’d think this would be a counter-intuitive pick. I mean, the problem hasn’t been solved yet, and it won’t be considered as much until we stop seeing engine failures across the board. But Hamlin is a Virginia native and a Martinsville standout, and the folks at JGR are too good to stay down for long. This could very easily be the weekend where they begin to solve the problem.

Joey Logano: Wait, two Gibbs cars? Am I crazy? Maybe a little. (Remember. College. No sleep. Bad dieting. So on and so forth.) But consider the following – of active drivers at Martinsville, Logano has the fourth-best average finish, a 13.0, and a driver rating of 81.0, better than the ratings of four of the current top 12 drivers in points. And at 31st in owners points, the No. 20 team can’t afford to spend much more time in the back of the pack.

Filed under: Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Joey Logano, Martinsville Speedway, NASCAR Fantasy Gaming 

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Bank of America 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 13, 2010 1:43 pm UTC No Comments

Jimmie Johnson #48 on track Fontana

Jimmie Johnson #48 on track Fontana

The Sprint Cup Series heads home this weekend, taking the traveling show to the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Bank of America 500. Held annually since 1960, the list of former race winners reads like a who’s who of the sport, ranging from Weatherly, Lorenzen, and Johnson in its early stages to Gordon, Martin, and another Johnson in recent years.

Last week’s California event was a debacle for a handful of Chasers, including the brothers Busch and the entire Roush Fenway Racing brigade. Of course, three of my five fantasy picks from last week were included in that group of six people, and Jamie McMurray was no fantasy stud either. Way to break up my run, folks – for my lead picks, the ones that really count, I had Denny Hamlin (2nd) at Loudon, Carl Edwards (5th) at Dover, and Greg Biffle (1st) at Kansas. Were I a Chase driver, I’d have gone from up 17 points on Johnson to 90 points out of the lead.

Then again, I purposely avoided Jimmie Johnson as a fantasy pick last week. I figured that such a prediction would be too easy to make. In a way, I was right. While Johnson didn’t win, nobody gained any substantial ground on him, and many of the stronger Chase competitors lost anywhere from 20 to 100 points on him.

Since I’ve been trying to pick each Chase driver once during the Chase, I’m going to pick Johnson this weekend. No, it’s not JUST because I’m disappointed with last week’s failures, it’s because I had this budgeted out before the season. While you can pick Johnson at just about any track and get away with it, his numbers are absurd compared to the competition at Charlotte. Six wins in 18 starts with 13 top-10s is huge. The only reason his average finish flutters into the double digits is because of a few DNFs, but hey, we’ve all been there.

As for a dark horse, although I struggle to label him as such because his limited Charlotte stats have a stronger average than Johnson’s, Joey Logano is a solid pick. He has an average finish of 9.0 in three Charlotte starts, with a top five finish in this race last year. Although he hasn’t won at the track in Sprint Cup or Nationwide, he’s never finished outside of the top 15 in a race in either. He’ll score a lot of points either way.

Three more, as a part of fantasy racing’s biggest safety net:

I’m going to go with three-time Charlotte winner Kasey Kahne in this slot for two weekends in a row. Perhaps I’m indebted to Kahne for being the only driver I picked to post a finish worth anything last week at California, but his Charlotte record speaks for itself. In fact, his only Charlotte DNF came in a race he dominated, the fall event in 2004. In seven of his 13 Charlotte starts he’s led laps in the double digits, and he’s led more than 100 laps in a Charlotte event three times.

Tony Stewart is on quite the high after the way the past week or so has went. First, he wins the California event and propels himself back into Chase contention; then, he confirms the long-whispered rumor that Mobil 1 will join Stewart-Haas Racing next year to complete the sponsorship of Stewart’s own car. Nevermind a 13.4 average finish and eight consecutive top-20s at Charlotte – he’s got the momentum on his side, and that can only help.

Finally, coming from left field, David Reutimann is an interesting Charlotte pick. Yes, his Coca-Cola 600 win last year was a product of a clever pit strategy during a rainy spell, but his finishes at the track have improved greatly since that confidence builder. His past two races there have seen finishes of 15th and fifth, and he managed to lead laps, if only briefly, during the 600 this time around.

Photo credit: Jordan Tabak, OnPitRow.com

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

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Coca-Cola 600

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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.

May 27, 2010 11:27 am UTC No Comments

Kurt Busch in the Miller Lite Dodge at TMS practice

Kurt Busch in the Miller Lite Dodge at TMS practice

The weekend immediately following the Sprint All-Star Race, the Coca-Cola 600 is one of the crown jewels of NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. Designed to compete with the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend, it joins the Daytona 500, Southern 500, and Brickyard 400 as one of the series’ most important and prestigious races.

Last year’s rain-shortened event was taken on a dreary Monday by David Reutimann. He added his name to a long list of first-time winners at the track, including all-time greats David Pearson and Jeff Gordon, by opting not to pit during the final caution of the event while many other cars did. The 600 often produces a surprise winner, as many of the big races do, but to suggest it happens every time would be to ignore many drivers who have won it during the peak of their careers, from Gordon to Dale Earnhardt to Jimmie Johnson.

So I’m going to go out on a limb (except not at all) and make Johnson my lead pick. Without the Lowe’s sponsorship, Johnson doesn’t have that extra sort of motivation to dominate at the track, but I see no reason why he can’t keep up a torrid pace of 6 wins and 13 top-10s in 17 starts. The only race in which he has failed to lead a lap was his track debut. His average finish of 8.6 is by far the best of drivers with at least five starts at the track. This is a gimme if you can take it.

Kurt Busch qualifies as a bit of a dark horse at Charlotte, despite the fact that he won last weekend’s All-Star Race. Busch only has three top-5s and a dismal 20.9 average finish in 19 career points-paying starts. If he can win the 600, however, he’d be the seventh driver in 25 years of Charlotte-based all-star events that a driver won both races; Kasey Kahne was the last to do it in 2008.

Some other drivers of merit in the longest race of the NASCAR season:

Joey Logano has only four starts at Charlotte, counting his All-Star travails, but has never disappointed. He converted last year’s Fan Vote into an eighth place run, and finished ninth and fifth in the two races that counted last year. This year, he wound up third in the all-star event. Remember that Jeff Gordon also won the 600 in his sophomore year of NASCAR competition – we could very well see shades of the last great young driver on Sunday night.

Kasey Kahne has also been on a torrid pace at Charlotte over the past two years. In four points-paying starts, he has three podium finishes and a worst placing of seventh. His 11.6 career Charlotte average finish is one of the best on the circuit, and it appears that his worst years at the track are long behind him. Kahne has scored the most points in the last three Charlotte races, and in every amount up through the last nine. usually goes big or goes home – he has three wins and five top-5s, but four finishes of 23rd or worse.

Finally, Jeff Burton has been a highly consistent driver at Charlotte as of late. For his career, he has 32 starts with three wins and 15 top-10s, as well as a win in the 2002 all-star shootout. Burton has scored the third most points at Charlotte over the past five years, second only to Johnson and Kahne; these ten races have been buoyed by a win in October 2008, five top-10s, and only three finishes outside the top 20.

Filed under: Jeff Burton, jimmie johnson, Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch, Lowes Motor Speedway, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing 

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