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Chase History: Dover International Speedway

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.

September 28, 2011 1:05 pm CDT No Comments

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Chad Knaus Jimmie Johnson Chandra and daughter on pit road Dover 10 bure

One of the toughest tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule, the concrete Dover International Speedway - “The Monster Mile” - hosts the third round of this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup, the AAA 400, this weekend. Right now, Tony Stewart is the points leader, holding a seven-marker advantage over second-place Kevin Harvick after scoring wins in both Chase races so far.

But when it comes to Dover, Stewart hasn’t won since sweeping the track in 2000. He came close in the spring 2009 race, only to be edged for the lead by Jimmie Johnson with three laps to go. His average finish at Dover in the seven Chase races is a so-so 15.3, but the Chase isn’t about solid points finishes, it’s about winning.

If recent history is to be trusted, in fact, this should be the track at which Johnson breaks out. Johnson, like Stewart, can boast a Dover sweep in the distant past (2002), but unlike Stewart, has tasted victory more recently. He’s won the past two fall Dover races (both from pole) and three of the past five at the track overall. He used last year’s victory to set him up to take the points lead from Denny Hamlin the next weekend at Kansas. The two would continue to swap the lead throughout the Chase, in one of the best battles in the format’s history.

Johnson’s career average finish of 9.6 is second best of all active Cup drivers, with only Carl Edwards‘ 7.6 a superior mark. Edwards only has one career win at Dover, however, which came during the 2007 season. The win, inherited when dominant teammate Matt Kenseth blew an engine, put Edwards within 28 points of leader Jeff Gordon; however, a late-race crash at Kansas put a major dent in his title hopes, and he wouldn’t win again that year.

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Chase for the Cup, Dover International Speedway, Tony Stewart, jimmie johnson

Tagged with: AAA 400, Carl Edwards, Chase for the Cup, Denny Hamlin, Dover International Speedway, Jeff Gordon, jimmie johnson, Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart

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Kurt Busch, Roger Penske and Pennzoil; a Winning NASCAR Combination

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 2, 2011 9:54 am CDT No Comments

Roger Penske and Pennzoil team up again in 2011 with Kurt Busch as the driver of the number 22 Dodge.

It had been twenty-three years since Penske first brought the sponsorship to his Indy car team. Busch has shown great success through the first half of the season with one win, four top five’s and three poles in the first sixteen races of the season. Busch’s win at Infineon Raceway was done in dominating fashion; leading fifty-two laps of the 110 lap event.

Pennzoil first joined forces with Roger Penske in 1983 along with premiere Indy car driver Rick Mears. The combination would go on to capture victory at the Indy 500 just one year later. Over a five year period Pennzoil cars would win the 500 four out of five years. In 1984, Mears in the Pennzoil Z-7 Special would post a record-winning speed of 163.612 mph. Danny Sullivan would win in 1985-the famous spin to win race. Also in 1985 Mears, in the Pennzoil car, sets Indy’s fastest lap ever-204.937mph and Al Unser wins the CART PPG Indy Car World Series Championship.

In 1996 Pennzoil would enter NASCAR’s Winston Cup Series for the first time with Bahari Racing and 1995 Busch Series champion Johnny Benson. He would go on to become the Winston Cup Rookie of the Year and drive the car for two years. Also in 1996, Pennzoil became the official oil of both the Brickyard 400 and the Indy 500.

The Pennzoil sponsorship moved to Dale Earnhardt Incorporated for their inaugural year in the Cup series in 1998 with Steve Park behind the wheel. Park would pilot the Pennzoil Chevys for all or part of five years and pick up his only two Cup Series wins. Park finished in the top ten 35 times and won four poles. Kenny Wallace would be behind the wheel of the ride in 2002 while Park recovered from injuries. Following the 2003 season Pennzoil would diminish their role in NASCAR; becoming a part time sponsor, utilizing several brand names for several teams.

Richard Childress Racing would bring Pennzoil and Shell back to the Sprint Cup Series in 2007. In the season-opening Daytona 500, Kevin Harvick claimed his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in a restrictor plate race with a dramatic final lap pass over Mark Martin by .020 seconds in a green-white-checkered finish. It was the closest margin at the 500 since electronic scoring started in 1993. The race was on the sixth anniversary of the death of his predecessor at Richard Childress Racing, Dale Earnhardt.

Four days after Harvick won the Daytona 500 in his inaugural race with Shell-Pennzoil as a primary sponsor, Team owner, Richard Childress, was asked by NASCAR to downsize the Shell logo on the car and on Harvick’s fire suit; making the Pennzoil logo more prominent to avoid conflict with official NASCAR fuel sponsor Sunoco.

Harvick would go on to win three more times with Pennzoil and Shell; while capturing thirty-two top-five finishes in four years.

Pennzoil got its start in racing in the early 1930’s at the Indianapolis 500 as a sponsor of the highly successful car of Russell Snowberger. In the next five years, he finishes every Indy race he enters-always in the top 10. Amazingly, 27 other race drivers voluntarily select, and run on Pennzoil as well. Pennzoil had made an impressive beginning, and over the years became the lubrication of choice for drivers in all forms of racing.

With drag racing in its infancy in the 1950’s, Pennzoil representatives furnish oil to up and coming race drivers. The familiar Pennzoil oval is seen on many early dragsters throughout America, most notably on the winning machines of teenage driving prodigy Eddie Hill. In 1958 Pennzoil officially sponsors the fastest rising star on the NHRA circuit, Don “Big Daddy” Garlits.

The 1960’s saw NHRA drag racing grow as fast as quarter mile speeds, a growth to which Pennzoil was a principal contributor. They were the first major oil company to develop a racing oil exclusively for cars running on exotic fuels. Throughout the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s Pennzoil lubricated machines dominate top fuel, funny car and pro-stock categories. Pennzoil has used by many top names in drag racing including Garlits, Connie Kalitta, Bill Jenkins, Jimmy Nix and Don Prudhomme.

Jim Hall and Al Unser blow the crowd away with the revolutionary “ground effects” Chaparral at the brickyard in 1979. Painted bright Pennzoil yellow and with Pennzoil in its veins, it leads the race for 100 laps before retiring with a broken water pump. The next season Johnny Rutherford is behind the wheel of the Pennzoil Chaparral and drives to an impressive win at Indy and goes on to win the national championship and is named “Driver of the Year.”

As the second half the Sprint Cup season gets under way and the quest to make it into The Chase for a Sprint Cup Championship heats up Kurt Busch, Roger Penske and Pennzoil look for more wins and more championships to add to an, already impressive resume.

Photo Credit: Robert Laberge/Getty Images for NASCAR

Filed under: NASCAR Bidness, NASCAR History, NASCAR Trivia, NASCAR business

Tagged with: Al Unser, Bill Jenkins, Connie Kalitta, Danny Siullivan, Don Garlits, Don Prudhomme, Eddie Hill, Jimmy Nix, Johnny Benson, Johnny Rutheford, Kenny Wallace, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Richard Childress Racing, Rick Mears, Roger Penske, Russell Snowberger, Steve Park

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2011 Samsung Mobile 500

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2011 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

April 6, 2011 11:56 am CDT 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

Tagged with: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Fantasy Pick'Em, Jamie McMurray, Kevin Harvick, Samsung Mobile 500, Texas Motor Speedway

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Ford 400

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2011 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

November 18, 2010 4:26 pm CST No Comments

This is it, folks. The last race of the 2010 Sprint Cup Series season. The Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The race for all the marbles in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Three drivers have a shot at the title. Denny Hamlin holds a 15-point lead over four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson. Meanwhile, Kevin Harvick, who would have clinched the title under the old points format last week at Phoenix, sits in third, a mere 46 back.

Any of them could win the championship. In effect, it comes down to a win. Hamlin can clinch outright by winning the race. Johnson can do so by winning the race and leading the most laps. Harvick, on the other hand, needs a little more help – and although Johnson and Hamlin can still be beaten with top-10 finishes, the math gets tricky.

It’s the closest Chase title race since its inaugural season in 2004. So let’s forget the normal fantasy stuff this week, and switch it up a bit. We care about three drivers and three drivers only right now. And one of them will be your Sprint Cup champion come Sunday. But who?

Hamlin, of course, controls his own destiny. As we’ve said, if he wins the race, the title is his, no matter what. And Hamlin has won at this track before – last year, in fact, making him the only title contender with a Homestead win. At the beginning of the Chase, he talked about simply making it to the end, because the last few races are when the No. 11 team heats up, and it’s shown in their performance. They’re the best team at the track right now.

But being good and being lucky are two different things, and Hamlin was not lucky last week at Phoenix. Having to pit for fuel very late in the race bounced him back to 12th. While it didn’t slaughter his points lead entirely, it did weaken it severely, and the pressure is on him.

Meanwhile, Johnson must be somewhat refreshed by his new position as the pressuring driver. With Hamlin thrown off by last week’s setback, he and Chad Knaus can try to mess with their key championship rivals on track. After all, they’ve done this before. Four times, to be precise. In a row. What’s a fifth?

Well, none of those previous four were come-from-behind wins. In fact, nobody’s ever come from behind in the Chase to win without holding the points lead with two races to go. It hasn’t been done in Cup since 1992, when Alan Kulwicki did it. And Johnson, with his 12.7 average finish, is actually the worst of the three title contenders at Homestead. While he usually finishes solidly at the track, he’s never capped off any of his title runs there with a win.

So, given all that, I’m going to take the road less traveled and pick Harvick to win the title.

Yup.

If you’ve followed my column all Chase, you’d know that I pick a “lead” driver every week, and I’ve been saving Harvick for this very weekend anyway. With four top-fives in nine starts, he has the best average finish of the title contenders at the track, an 8.4. He’s finished second and third the past two years at Homestead, so he knows what he’s doing.

And I’m going to put my faith in karma – that the driver who dominated the regular season, who should have a 200-plus points lead and his first Cup championship right now, will find a way to get it done – and get a little lucky this weekend.

Game on, gentlemen. It should be a fun show.

Filed under: Homestead-Miami Speedway, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing

Tagged with: Denny Hamlin, Ford 400, Homestead-Miami Speedway, jimmie johnson, Kevin Harvick, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 AAA Texas 500

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2011 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

November 4, 2010 4:16 pm CDT No Comments

Tony Stewart practicing at Pocono

The Sprint Cup Series comes down to the final three races of the 2010 season with this weekend’s visit to Texas Motor Speedway. The AAA Texas 500 will mark the final race on a cookie-cutter 1.5-mile tri-oval this year, as the final two races take place at Phoenix and Homestead, respectively.

After everybody with a legitimate title shot managed to survive Talladega, the top three in points are now separated by under 40 points. Jimmie Johnson maintains the lead over second-place Denny Hamlin and third-place Kevin Harvick, but the margins are slim enough that anything can happen. Any of the three could come into the final two races of the year with the points lead.

Of course, they’re, by extension, the best three fantasy bets this weekend. But where’s the fun in that? Let’s make some interesting picks. I’m going to cut down from five to three this week, seeing as I just eliminated the three best available choices anyway.

My personal pick for the weekend is Tony Stewart, who somehow I have managed to avoid thus far during the Chase. Perhaps that’s been a good call – he’s had terrible luck in the Chase ever since the final two laps of the Loudon event. He has little momentum to build off of from the past few races as he lingers in the bottom half of Chase points.

But Smoke’s Texas results tell a decidedly different story. Though his peak years at the track came in 2005 and 2006, as he led double-digit laps in every event and won the fall 2006 race, he showed some muscle this spring by leading 74 laps from the pole before a late race crash eliminated any hopes of victory.

If Smoke’s bad luck is a turn-off, though, don’t forget about Mark Martin, whose 12.8 average Texas finish is fourth best of active drivers. That’s especially remarkable considering that in two of the first three Texas events ever held, Martin finished 34th or worse; however, he did win the other one, the 1998 event.

One of four drivers to run in all 19 Texas events held thus far, Martin has 10 other top-10 runs to back up that 1998 victory. Five of them have come in the past seven Texas events. And while Martin has only led three laps at the track since the spring of 2006, he’s shown the ability to keep the car out of trouble and close enough to the front to score plenty of points.

Finally, if you’re looking for a potential surprise pick, consider Martin Truex Jr. and his solid 13.9 average finish at Texas. Only two times in 10 starts has he failed to finish in the top 15, and in one of those events he led laps before his engine gave out. No, it’s not the most orthodox pick, but with only three races left in the season, who expects anything to play out predictably?

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

Tagged with: AAA Texas 500, Denny Hamlin, jimmie johnson, Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Martin Truex Jr., One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, Texas Motor Speedway, Tony Stewart

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Emory Healthcare 500 (Redux)

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2011 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

September 1, 2010 10:38 pm CDT No Comments

So last week, I screwed up.

I figured, “Hey, with college about to start and all, maybe I should write my Atlanta fantasy post right now, save it for a week, and then just take ten minutes to post it when people actually need it.” Seemed like a good idea at the time, right?

Well, it was, until I forgot what week of the year it was (blame it on me being awake at four in the morning) and posted it anyway. Oops. If you’re looking for this week’s fantasy picks, click here; otherwise, this column is going to be a general fantasy overview for the rest of the year.

We’re now two-thirds of the way through this Sprint Cup season, with only two regular-season races and the Chase for the Sprint Cup to go. The remaining schedule is dominated by four cookie-cutters (Atlanta, Kansas, Charlotte, Texas), but contains just about every type of track on the schedule besides a road course.

Of course, this is about the time where Jimmie Johnson kicks into gear. His charges to the championship have been well documented, as no driver has ever benefitted more from the Chase. Currently ninth in points and about a three-race deficit behind Kevin Harvick, Johnson’s top four tracks as judged by average finish – Phoenix, Martinsville, Fontana, and Loudon – all appear on the remaining schedule. Of the remaining tracks at which Sprint Cup will run this year, Johnson only has mediocre records at Richmond (which isn’t in the Chase anyway) and Talladega (which is a crapshoot anyway).

As for Harvick, his team has been the class of the field all year, but most of his best tracks are behind him on the schedule. Homestead is statistically his best track, but five of his six worst active tracks – Dover, Fontana, Martinsville, Atlanta, and Charlotte – come up in the following twelve weeks of racing.

But this year, things have been looking up for Happy on those tracks, and he may not have a reason to worry. Fontana yielded a second place finish, he ran a strong ninth at Atlanta, led 57 laps from the pole at Martinsville, placed seventh at Dover, and came home a respectable 11th at Charlotte. While those types of races alone won’t knock the defending champion off his pedestal, they will more than suffice for a driver at some of his worst tracks.

In effect, this brings us down to the question of present versus past. Which key factor – history or momentum – should be influencing your fantasy picks from here on out? Should you be focusing on only one over the other, and if so, which?

Here’s the thing: we all know that the 48 team has shown signs of, well, humanity this year. Add to that the intense pressure stemming from the fact that nobody has won five consecutive championships at NASCAR’s highest level, and you may be able to say that the goose is cooked on the drive for five.

Meanwhile, Harvick’s team has done everything right for the majority of the year, won a respectable one in eight races, and has even performed at the tracks on which he’s struggled in the past. (See above.)

In the end, it all depends on which fantasy game you’re playing, and who’s available to you on any given week. (Duh. A little more elaboration, please?)

For single driver, pick-‘em-once-and-they’re-done games like One and Done at OnPitRow.com, your best bet is undoubtedly to go for history. A driver like Harvick is probably not the best choice for a track at which he struggles, unless you’re picking last-minute and he qualifies really well. Johnson becomes your golden ticket to victory lane, so use him wisely. As for the rest, try and limit your picks to Chase drivers – they’re the only ones who really matter in the final ten events.

For games that give you a fleet of drivers every week, make sure to always pick one of the top five active drivers at any given track. (This is one of my Fantasy Pick’Em rules of thumb.) But in these games, you have a greater ability to go for momentum drivers. Sure, it can crash and burn on you if they perform as history suggested they would, but getting a little lucky with an interesting, out of left field pick could be the difference between first and second in your fantasy racing league.

Photo Credit: Glenn Bure, OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Kevin Harvick, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, jimmie johnson

Tagged with: Chase for the Cup, jimmie johnson, Kevin Harvick, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, Sprint Cup Series

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