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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Food City 500

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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 17, 2010 3:20 pm CDT No Comments

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With four races in the books, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will head to Bristol Motor Speedway for this weekend’s Food City 500. Kurt Busch will attempt to follow up his win at Atlanta two weeks ago by winning this race for the fifth time.

Hope everybody’s all rested up after the off weekend, but it’s high time that we get into the swing of things and kick this season into full gear. This will be the last race that 2009 owner’s points determine the cars locked into the starting field for this season, so expect some backmarkers to try and push towards the front.

My pick for the weekend stays in the Busch family – I’m picking Kyle to win. Easy, I know. But in his last three Bristol starts, he has accumulated an average finish of 1.3 while leading 861 of a possible 1503 laps. That’s over 57% of his past three Bristol starts. Also keep in mind that Rowdy has led a lap in every Bristol race dating back to the spring of 2006, and has led in double digits in five of those eight events.

My dark horse for the week has to be Marcos Ambrose. Still looking for his first top-10 of the season, mired at 28th in points due to DNFs at Daytona and California, Ambrose has finishes of 10th and 3rd at Bristol in Cup cars. Bristol is known as a track of heavy beating and banging, as are the V8 Supercars that Ambrose drove in Australia before coming stateside.

Three more, as per tradition:

Kurt Busch. I’ve discovered over the years that a solid projection of a driver’s skill at any once track is the amount of top-10s he accumulates. If, over a career of decent length, he finishes in the top 10 about half the time, he is usually judged as a star at that given track. That would be Busch at Bristol… oh, and the five career wins there help too.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been decent at Bristol since joining Hendrick Motorsports, though it was mostly his work with Dale Earnhardt Inc. that currently gives him the sixth best average finish at Bristol of all active drivers. He’s also been fast for much of the year, with an average start of 8.5. Qualifying up front at such a small track gives drivers an inherent advantage, not only because leaders can catch lapped traffic quickly, but also because of their better pit selection – though that mattered more when Bristol separated its backstretch pits from its frontstretch ones.

Finally, let’s not forget that Kevin Harvick has a strong Bristol record. While he only has one win, the current series points leader has 11 top-10s in 18 career starts. Happy’s also in the best equipment he’s had in years, and there’s no reason to expect things to drop off now.

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

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Like a broken record…

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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 26, 2010 8:40 pm CST 1 Comment

Dear Bruton Smith,

You have more money than God. Please fix the traffic coming in and out of the track. In fact, could you just fix it in all of Las Vegas? The wait at the airport sucks too. Wayne Newton would do it for his fans, I bet.

Love,

All of us that make you have more money than God.

P.S. Good job with the track. It’s really fast! The traffic may be worth it, if the race is as good as qualifying was. Too bad we missed 10 driver’s attempts, including Kurt Busch beating Jeff Gordon who beat out Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the pole.

But that wasn’t your fault.

Filed under: Bruton Smith, Dale Earnhardt Jr., How to fix NASCAR, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media 

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NASCAR History: Car Number 32 and Ricky Craven

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by James Jones, Special To NASCAR commentary,NASCAR video,NASCAR pictures, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

Sundays of my youth consisted of NASCAR racing and cold bottles of Mountain Dew. Thirty years later not much has changed for me. However, nearly everything has changed in NASCAR.

January 16, 2010 9:56 pm CST No Comments

Over the next several weeks we’ll be featuring car numbers in NASCAR history. We started with #50 and are working our way down the line. With each car number we’ll take a brief look at a couple stats related to the featured car number, NASCAR Driver Ricky Craven car number 32but we’ll primarily spotlight either a driver, sponsor, car owner, manufacturer or other significant subject closely tied to the car number of the day.

One of the best NASCAR Cup series finishes in recent history involved car number 32 at one of my all-time favorite race tracks, Darlington. For that reason, I must confess that I didn’t even give consideration to any other possible sponsor, car owner or past driver of car number 32 than Ricky Craven.

NASCAR Cup Driver Ricky Craven

Stats for all cars running the #32:

  • Number of Races: 641
  • Number of Wins: 2
  • Number of Top 5s: 35
  • Number of Top 10s: 109
  • Number of Poles: 3

Check out current NASCAR race statistics here at On Pit Row!

Spotlight Subject: Driver Ricky Craven

Ricky Craven’s Cup Series career spanned 11 years. He has two Cup wins to his name, and both of those came in car #32 (Martinsville & Darlington); making Ricky the only driver to put the #32 in victory lane. In 278 Cup races, Ricky recorded 6 poles, 17 top fives and 41 top tens. But Ricky also holds the distinction of being part of two great and historic finishes in Cup Series racing.NASCAR Driver Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch dramatic finish at Darlington Raceway

The first historic finish would come in the 1997 Daytona 500. While he didn’t win the race or lead any laps, he would be part of a 1-2-3 finish for owner Rick Hendrick’s multi-car team. Jeff Gordon would win the race with teammates Terry Labonte in second and Ricky Craven in third. That third place finish stands as Ricky’s only top ten finish at Daytona in Cup Series competition.

The second finish is a very special one. For one, it came at one of my favorite tracks “The Lady in Black,” Darlington Raceway. A track with such rich history and deep roots in NASCAR racing, it’s only fitting that the track was the site for what now stands as the closest margin of victory and one of the most exciting finishes ever! Kurt Busch and Ricky Craven battling it out hard the last few laps of the race, nose to tail rubbing, fenders smacking the outside walls, tires sliding and smoking, drivers sawing the steering wheel as they put it all out on the line for the final laps of the race. It all came down to Ricky being scored as the leader for one lap, the final one. Literally nose-by-nose Craven and Busch crossed the line with a margin of victory of .002 seconds in favor of the the #32 Tide car.

The win would be Craven’s last and he hasn’t raced in Cup Series since 2004. However, it sure was a great win to go along with the 1992 Busch Series and 1995 Cup Series Rookie of the Year titles. That victory at Darlington was one of the most exciting finishes making me jump up off the edge of my seat as I watched Craven and Busch battle it out. To then see Kurt Busch visit Ricky in victory lane to congratulate him on the win was just awesome. I guess perhaps the two of them knew then that they just put on an awesome show for the fans, and in the process made a mark in the history books. Either way, it was a great show of sportsmanship by Kurt Busch and his stock went up dramatically in my book that day.

Ricky Craven Battles Kurt Busch at Darlington Raceway

There is no way possible to do this spotlight without also posting the video clip of this record setting finish.

Filed under: Darlington Speedway, James Jones, NASCAR, NASCAR History 

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Kyle Busch a Gallon Short at Texas

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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.

November 8, 2009 10:59 pm CST 2 Comments

In a season that started so promising for Kyle Busch; the thought of saving some face, after not making The Chase was a real possibility if he could pull off the triple at Texas.

Rowdy won the first two races this weekend at The Great American Speedway; dominating both the Camping World Truck race on Friday and the Nationwide race on Saturday.   He set himself up to do something that has never been done before in NASCAR.  It seems almost impossible to think that the feat has never been done, but Kyle had the fans believing that it would happen on this warm November day.

Leading 232 of the 334 laps at times it looked the the days before; Busch would have his way with the rest of the field.  He was toying with the other competitors at times and it seemed that victory was imminent until The Dickies 500 turned into a fuel mileage race and Rowdy wasn’t going to have enough.  “Three laps short” was the call to Rowdy over the radio and for the want of about a gallon of racing fuel went his trip to the record books.

The driver who was there to pick up the win was the other Busch; Kurt who took his Miller Lite Dodge to the win by running the last 120 laps on only two stops for fuel.  He has this to say about racing his brother for the win:

It’s bittersweet to beat Kyle.  He was going for the sweep.  We took it away from him.  I don’t think he could have picked a better driver to lose to tonight.  So it’s fun.  It’s really fun.  We race each other to the bone, but we pat each other on the back at the end of the day.

So Kyle will have to wait to have a shot to take the triple again.  That, and only that could be what turns a season of high hopes and disappointment into something to remember.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler/ON PIT ROW

Filed under: Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Texas Motor Speedway 

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One and Done: AMP Energy 500

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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.

October 29, 2009 12:35 pm CDT 2 Comments

For the first time in its history, Talladega Superspeedway hosts a race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, as NASCAR’s premiere series heads to Alabama this weekend for the AMP Energy 500.

Of the ten tracks in this year’s Chase, Talladega is by far the most unpredictable. Only four drivers boast an average finish better than 10.0 at the track, and they have a combined four starts - all of which occurred in this spring’s race. That event featured a wacky finish in which Brad Keselowski found himself in victory lane, but Carl Edwards found himself airborne.

At a massive track like Talladega, where the cars reach some of their highest speeds and restrictor plates bunch up the field, the “big one,” a massive 20-something car pileup, is looming around every corner, on every straightaway, in every drag race to the finish line. For that reason, picking this race is a crapshoot. Take everything with a full shaker of salt, and go with any hunch you might have.

Seriously. Scott Speed finished 5th here in the spring. Think about that.

If there’s any weekend where staying within the confines of Chase drivers isn’t necessary, it would be this one, because of the likelihood that an incident will wipe out half the field. Whoever survives the wreck, if it happens, probably won’t have the best car in the field, just the best luck, and luck doesn’t discriminate based on the points standings. But week in and week out, the Chase drivers give fantasy players the best chance of scoring a lot of points, so we might as well stick with the established system, no?

The five Chase drivers with the best records at Talladega:

Kurt Busch (avg. fn. 12.1): The older Busch brother has quietly assembled a solid Talladega record, with 12 top-10s in 17 starts. He has also led at least one lap in 13 of his 17 Talladega starts. Only two of his last 10 Talladega starts have been worse than eighth. While he’s never won a Cup race at the track, the first thing you look to do at Talladega is survive, and he’s only crashed out twice.

Tony Stewart (avg. fn. 13.8): Smoke “won” this race in controversial fashion last year (and as far as I’m concerned, that still should have been Regan Smith’s win). He’s led laps in 10 of the past 11 Talladega races, with the lone exception being this spring’s race. Smoke’s crashed out in four of his 21 starts, a slightly worse percentage than Busch, but he’s also been able to do something that Busch can’t say: finish better than third (one win and six second place finishes).

Mark Martin (avg. fn. 16.1): Martin only has five crashes at Talladega in 43 starts, a slightly better percentage than Busch, and both of his wins came after his horrendous 1994 incident, proving that bad crashes don’t negatively affect everybody. But the last of those wins came in 1997, and Martin only has six laps at Talladega under race conditions in the new car: he skipped the track altogether in 2007 and 2008, and his spring race was cut short by an early incident.

Jeff Gordon (avg. fn. 16.4): The spring race didn’t go well for Gordon, as he finished 60 laps off the pace in 37th. But he swept the track in 2007, and generally finds himself up front: he’s led laps in 12 of the last 14 Talladega races (including six of the last eight). A statistic that should bring pause, however: In 11 starts since 2004, Gordon has won four, but has not finished better than 15th in the other seven.

Ryan Newman (avg. fn. 18.5): Well, Newman ran well and led laps in the wacky spring race… He also hasn’t wrecked out of a Talladega race since 2005, as he kept the car going during the Edwards wreck and scored his career best finish at the track (third). Here’s a question for you: If taking another stock car off the hood meant improving by another couple of spots, think he would take it?

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

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NASCAR’s Crumpled Fenders and Bruised Egos

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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.

July 14, 2009 5:54 am CDT No Comments

There seems to be some dissension in the ranks as drivers aren’t liking the double file restarts as much as initially claimed.

Veteran  Jeff Burton was not thrilled at all with the consequences of the new restart program.  He went so far as to allude to not wanting to participate any more if the new program continues,

“I know it’s exciting for fans. But I’m tired of it. I’m about done with it.”

Would Burton really be done with double file restarts?  What are his options?  He could go to a series that doesn’t use the rule–the Camping World Truck Series hasn’t adopted the rule –yet.  He could move to the ARCA Re/Max Series where they still do single file restarts with less than ten laps remaining.  Neither option is likely to happen.  The fact is that the fans love the new restarts and NASCAR would be committing public relations suicide to change back.

The fact is that NASCAR fans have something to look forward to at the end of a long race–some excitement.  While I can enjoy a fuel mileage finish as much as the next guy; a couple of side by side restarts with less than thirty laps to go is what will bring fans back to the sport.  Good tight racing for a win is what fans want to see and if there happens to be some bumping and grinding along the way, then so much the better.

Without double file restarts the on track incident between Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson would never have occurred.  Regardless of who was at fault, it led to not only exciting racing but great post race fodder.  Busch’s comments questioning a three time champion’s abilities on the race track are priceless.  NASCAR can’t afford not to let that type of controversy and calling out of fellow drivers continue.

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

Who was to blame for the Busch/Johnson incident and will the feud continue?

Let us know what you think and we could use your answer on this week’s ON PIT ROW radio show.  Listen live, every Tuesday from 5-7pm ET at www.onpitrow.com.  Call us during the show at 1-800-645-2946 and you could win a Kevin Harvick bobblehead courtesy of Shell Gasolines if you are The Shell Nitrogen Enriched Call of the Day.

photo credit:  Icon Sports Media, Inc

Filed under: Chicagoland Speedway, How to fix NASCAR, Jeff Burton, Jimmy Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, NASCAR, NASCAR Bidness, NASCAR officials, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, jimmie johnson 

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