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Can Kurt and Kyle Busch become NASCAR’s winningest Brothers

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.

March 30, 2011 7:38 am CDT No Comments

Kurt Busch Loudon New Hampshire in car bure 10

Don’t expect the most prolific NASCAR brother combo of our time to challange for the most Cup wins ever by siblings.

Kurt and Kyle Busch currently sit in sixth place all-time with a combined forty-two wins in the Sprint Cup Series; Kurt with twenty-two and Kyle twenty. But there is a formidable task ahead as sitting atop the brothers win list are Bobby and Donnie Allison with ninety-four Cup wins.

While Kurt and Kyle have one thing on their side in a quest to move to the top of this category–time; their ability to win Cup races at a fast enough rate isn’t looking plausible. Even if the brothers could average winning a combined five races per year it would take them into the 2021 season to even tie the Allisons. Averaging those five wins per year would be based on Kurt and Kyle continuining to win a combined 15 percent of the races they enter. Currently Kyle is winning at just shy of nine percent of the Cup races he enters and Kurt is at six percent.

With 369 Cup starts Kurt has been starting races at NASCAr’s highest level for ten years and one would wonder if he has ten more in him. Last night Kurt talked ON PIT ROW about his career, racing in his home town of Las Vegas and his new found love for drag racing. You can watch the entire interview with Kurt here. Is Kurt’s foray into the drag racing world a preview of things to come as a veteran looks toward his future?

Younger brother Kyle has only 227 Cup starts under his belt and would seem to be better suited to carry the brothers torch toward knocking off the Allisons. Kyle not only has a better winning percentage than Kurt but most likely has more years left in him winning at that higher percentage.

Most of the brother acts ahead of the Busch brothers show lopsided win totals. The Waltrips have a combined win total of 88; Darrell with 84 and Michael with four. The Flock brothers with 62 wins; Tim with 39 while Fonty has 19 and Bob only four. Donald Thomas has one win to combine with brother Herb’s forty-eight.

Only the next tandem above the Busch’s of Terry and Bobby Labonte show an equal number of wins, with twenty-two and twenty-one respectively.

If Kurt and Kyle are to have any chance of rising to the top in this NASCAR catagory it looks as if brother Kyle needs to concentrate on winning in the Cup series at a much more prodigious rate.

photo credit: Glenn Bure/ON PIT ROW

Filed under: Darrell Waltrip, Joe Gibbs Racing, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Michael Waltrip, NASCAR, NASCAR History, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Terry Labonte, The Waltrips

Tagged with: Bobby Allison, Bobby Labonte, Darrell Waltrip, Donnie Allison, Fonty Flock, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Michael Waltrip, NASCAR Brothers, Terry Labonte, Tim Flock

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Aaron’s 499

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.

April 21, 2010 1:47 pm CDT No Comments

The Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway will mark the ninth race of this year’s Sprint Cup Series season, and one of the most difficult to predict in fantasy racing. Anybody who’s ever seen a superspeedway race knows that the “big one” is lurking around every corner, and can knock out many good cars in less time than it takes to change four tires and refuel.

Last year, Brad Keselowski turned Carl Edwards in the tri-oval on the final lap to secure his first career victory. It was a scary moment for Edwards, as his car wound up touching the catchfence in mid-air, injuring eight fans, and he hasn’t won since. Despite the safety improvements made to the cars, these sorts of wrecks are always possible, and are more common at the big tracks than anywhere else.

In other words, this weekend is a fantasy crapshoot. To that end, let’s have some fun.

Joey Logano is my pick for this weekend’s race. Keep in mind that we had a surprise winner in Keselowski last year, a definition that Logano would certainly fit. He led laps in both Talladega races last year, finishing 9th in the spring and 3rd in the fall. His team has also gotten it together this year, and they’re legitimate Chase contenders. Hey, it’s worth a shot.

My dark horse pick for the weekend is none other than Michael Waltrip. Competing in only his second race of the season, this will mark the first time in months that Prism Motorsports looks to actually complete the full race with one of its cars, the No. 55 Aaron’s Toyota. Waltrip drives for the race sponsor and has won at the track before. Again, it’s worth a shot, isn’t it?

Three more, all of whom will probably fall victim to bad luck because I picked them:

Hey, remember when Dale Earnhardt Jr. won four Talladega races in a row? He’s led laps in 18 of his 20 career Talladega starts, too. He was pretty strong at Daytona at the beginning of the year, and he’s pretty overdue for a win. His Talladega luck is also pretty good – of his five DNFs at the track, three were due to engine failures, and those were DEI powerplants, not the Hendrick ones he currently receives.

Picking at Talladega is all about luck. Jeff Burton seems to have some of that at Talladega. He’s led at least one lap in six of the past seven Talladega events, including in each of the past four, a span in which he has finished no worse than 12th. Burton has the patience to let the race come to him and the luck to avoid wrecks; only two of his five DNFs were due to accidents, and they came in 2005 and his 1994 track debut.

Finally, Jamie McMurray is currently one of the best restrictor-plate drivers on the circuit, winning the past two races under the format. Jamie Mac has led in six of his past nine Talladega starts. He does, however, have some poor luck at the track, crashing out in three of the past eight events. Choose wisely.

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray, Jeff Burton, Joey Logano, Michael Waltrip, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, Talladega Superspeedway

Tagged with: Aaron's 499, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray, Jeff Burton, Joey Logano, Michael Waltrip, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, Talladega Superspeedway

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Can McMurray, Ganassi Sustain Daytona Success?

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2011 NASCAR schedule, video, 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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Reutimann’s NASCAR Memorial Day Parade Rained On–YES

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.

May 26, 2009 9:54 am CDT 5 Comments

Some of the media were referring to the Coca-Cola 600 as the 24 Hours of Charlotte because the holiday weekend dodged rain storm after rain storm.

Mike Bliss won a rain shortened Nationwide Series race on Saturday night, but the 600 couldn’t roll off the starting line on Sunday because of persistent rain. By the time Memorial Day Monday rolled around, the teams, drivers and media had had enough of trying to kill time. But it didn’t take long for the first of several rain delays to stop the action at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

It looked early on as if the scheduled 400 laps would never be seen and a race to halfway was going to be the order of the day. Michael Waltrip Racing’s David Reutimann got the teams first Sprint Cup win by staying on the racetrack when the final rain delay hit the speedway.

I think we sat on pit road eight hours today is what it felt like. We just kept waiting. Rodney and I talked. I was like, I’ve been in situations like this before, obviously not in a Cup race, but different situations. This deal never goes my way, so I don’t see why it should now. We talked about what we were going to change on the car when we came down pit road. Rodney told me, I’m either going to get us a win or lose us 10 spots, one or the other. It’s a gamble. I said, I’ll stay out. That’s what he told me to do. That’s what I do. When I’m told to do something, I generally do something.

NASCAR waited about two and a half hours before finally calling the race over and done. By that time there weren’t many fans left in the grandstands to celebrate. MWR, had seen its share of adversity throughout its first two-plus years of competition. From the jet fuel incident it first year, to not making races times have been tough. Reutimann made all those heartaches and mis-steps seem long removed when he was able to paddle his #00 into the winners circle.

This week’s BUZZ ON PIT ROW ponders:

How does Reutimann’s win stack up as far as first wins go?

Let us know what you think and we could us your comments to this weeks ON PIT ROW radio show. Listen live every Tuesday from 5-7pm ET at onpitrow.com. Call the show at 1-800-645-2946 and you could win a Kevin Harvick bobblehead if your call is the Shell Nitrogen Enriched Call of the Day.

Filed under: David Reutimann, Lowes Motor Speedway, Michael Waltrip, Michael Waltrip Racing, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio

Tagged with: David Reutimann, Lowes Motor Speedway, Michael Waltrip, NASCAR

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Auto Club 500: Line ‘em Up as they Qualified…Almost

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.

February 22, 2009 8:29 am CST 1 Comment

NASCAR fans almost got what they have been asking for–no Top 35 rule–at Fontana.

Fans have been less than enthusiastic about the Top 35 rule since its inception. While many of those same fans will acknowledge that there should be some concession for top teams, many think the number should be smaller or non existent. Qualifying at Auto Club Speedway almost gave the fans who think, “They should line ‘em up by how they qualify–period” what they asked for.

When the field rolls off for the start of the Auto Club 500 the 42 fastest cars and Michael Waltrip will make up the field. Waltrip had valve train problems and couldn’t make a qualifying lap for the race. He will start forty-second on the field due to his owner points from 2008. If not for the Top 35 rule, Waltrip would be having a 2007 deja-vu moment. Instead Todd Bodine will pack up his unsponsored, Larry Gunselman owned Toyota and head east to Las Vegas.

Bodine joins Tony Raines, David Starr, Sterling Marlin and Mike Garvey as non-qualifiers.

AJ Almendinger again looked strong, pulling down an eighth place starting spot in his part time ride in the #44 of Richard Petty Motorsports. The lone past champion not in the Top 35, Tony Stewart, took his #14 to an eleventh quickest time ensuring that there was no need for that provisional to be used.

As harsh as it is for Bodine’s team not to make this race, it would be an even bigger injustice to send Waltrip packing. Waltrip has struggled making races; especially in 2007, and it is time for him to reap the benefits of his hard work, and NAPA’s money from 2008.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc

Filed under: A J Allmendinger, Auto Club Speedway, Michael Waltrip Racing, NASCAR, NASCAR Bidness, Top 35 Rule

Tagged with: AJ Almendinger, larry Gunselman, Michael Waltrip, todd bodine, Tony Raines, Tony Stewart

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Hall of Shame: That’s No Way to Treat Sliced Bread

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

October 2, 2008 1:05 pm CDT 3 Comments

Mindy didn’t think much of Hall of Fame - or Shame - Racing’s decision to dump Joey - Sliced Bread - Logano from the No. 96 seat. She liked Carl Edwards big move at Kansas and apparently, she approves of the Aric Almirola in a fire suit.