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Shelby 427 Winners and Losers

Yesterday's Shelby 427 is in the record books. It appears that attendance was much better yesterday than at California so there is hope for full grandstands for the rest of the season. The racing was pretty good with Kyle Busch coming from the back of the field to take the win. Here are my picks for the biggest Winners and Losers after the Shelby 427:

Winners

Kyle Busch - Makes the list for the second week in the row. He is unbeatable on restarts, runs the car sideways for most of the race and ends up in the right place at the end of the race. Eventually the fans are going to love him. The only real difference between him and Earnhardt, Sr. is where they call home.

Clint Bowyer - Runs near the front and his Crew Chief makes a great call to keep him out front. After all the changes during the off-season, getting shuffled around, Bowyer is carrying the flag at RCR.

Bobby Labonte - For a past champion that wasn't sure where he would be driving three months ago, it was great to see Labonte running up front. '

Losers

Hendrick Motor Sports - Jimmie Johnson leads laps and falls off, pit road mistakes, blown motors, and poor finishes. I think it is time for the Boss to call another meeting.

Engines - It was a bad week to be an engine in the Nextel Cup Series. These teams are pushing the equipment as far as they can. With blown engines from TRD, Hendrick, Rousch/Yates, and Gibbs each team seems to be pushing the motors as far as they will go.

Matt Kenseth - Rain and a great pit crew led to wins for the past two weeks. A blown engine ruined his run for 3 six laps into the race.

Analzying My Picks - Shelby 427

So, I went 1 for 5 this weekend thanks to motors, pit mistakes, and pit cycles. Let's review my picks for yesterday's Shelby 427.

Jimmie Johnson - My #1 pick slides through his pit box, runs over his crew member, and spins out trying to make up the difference on the track. Finished 24th.
Carl Edwards - Mediocre day lands him 17th.
Kyle Busch - Starts dead last, passes all the cars, and finally gets the win at his home track. Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner. How strong are his restarts and how many times did we see him sideways on Sunday?
Mark Martin - Another blown engine ends his day. Finished 40th.
Matt Kenseth - His luck wears off as he only ran six laps and blew up. Finished 43rd.

Picks for the Shelby 427

I feel like this could be a descent race, especially with the progressive banking. I think the action will be great in the middle of the pack. We won't know though because FOX will insist on showing the leader for the majority of the race whenever they aren't showing Digger. Speaking of the leader, they will check out like they always do at the "cookie-cutter" tracks. I suspect there will be a late caution which will give the front runners a shot at the win. Based off of what I saw in practice here are my Top 5 finishers for the Shelby 427. You could also randomly draw these names out of a hat and probably be as close to correct as this guess:

Finishing Order

1. Jimmie Johnson - Could have and should have won at California. Chad Knaus will want to make up for letting that win slip away.
2. Carl Edwards - We haven't heard much from Cousin Carl this year but he should run up front here and possibly win it.
3. Kyle Busch - Another one that could easily win the race, but after his wreck yesterday and watching him limp to the ambulance for that long ride to the in-field care center, I don't know if he will be able to endure. This kid could easily dominate all three series again this year, but how long before his body gets tired?
4. Mark Martin - Martin was really happy with his car during practice and qualifying. If he can get a little bit of luck, he should easily get a Top 5 finish today.
5. Matt Kenseth - This guy is on a roll. If he can stay out of trouble and work his way near the Top 10, his pit crew will get him two or three spots every time he comes to pit road. The only problem here is that you can't consistently start at the back of the pack and expect to contend for the Championship.

Dark Horse

Kurt Bush and Jamie McMurray - Both of these guys seem to be on the way back up and both dearly need to run well to keep that momentum.

Last Place

Max Papis - He was so excited to make the race and it was, in many ways, as good of a story as Scott Riggs and Joe Nemechek at Daytona, but looking at the practice speed charts, this team is pretty off. Factor slow speed and lack of seat time in a Cup car and they may manage to finish the race, but look for them to be many laps down.

Biffle Wins Wreck Filled Sam's Town 300

When most of the top contenders wrecked out of the Sam's Town 300, Greg Biffle did what he needed to: survive. Despite an early penalty for speeding on pit road and running out of gas on lap 147, Biffle edged out his Roush Fenway Racing teamate Carl Edwards. With only ten cars on the lead lap at the end of the race, Denny Hamlin bunched up the field when he cut a tire and collected Mike Bliss who, up until that point, had hit everything but the pace car during the race.

When the green flag waved on lap 207, Biffle wasn't sure if he was going to make it to the end. "I ran out of gas on that restart going into [Turn] 1," said Biffle, who won his first Nationwide race since February 2006. "I kept it down on the bottom and the fuel pressure came back." Once the green flag waved, Edwards made a run for the win but Biffle kept him pinned to the inside lane, which had caused problems for several drivers all afternoon.

There is something about this track and the package the Nationwide Series runs here that makes it nearly impossible to run side by side. The car down on the inside groove runs just on the edge of wrecking. We saw Kyle Busch and several other drivers lose the car while trying to make a pass for the lead or running in the inside groove.

It seems the progressive banking and the aero package makes for scary situations for the drivers. Kyle Busch was noticeably limping as he exited his car following his hard crash on Saturday. I believe NASCAR should take a look at this aero package and see if they can make the racing safer for the drivers before someone gets hurt.

Toytoa Engine Troubles Continue at Las Vegas

Lee White, Senior Vice President of Toyota Racing Development, Inc., (TRD), spoke with SPEED yesterday about the continued issues with engines coming out of the TRD camp. "It's embarrassing. Whatever conditions we've created ourselves, stupidly, we suspect it's a wear issue between the cam shaft and lubricant. It's either a lack of lubrication, too much lubrication, not enough coating, whatever." After Waltrip and Vickers had to change engines at California last weekend, TRD felt they had the issue resolved but it continued this weekend. #99-Reutimann, #47-Ambrose, #83-Vickers, #82-Speed all had to change engines and will be moving to the back. All of these motors came from the TRD camp. #18-Busch will also move to the rear but his engine is built in house at JGR.

The issue is focused around the coating on the valves and lifters burning off and causing a failure. White stated they tweaked their motor during the off-season to get more horsepower and all dyno tests showed positive results but with the lack of testing during the off-season they never got to put the motor on the track except for one race last year. I was confident in my people, but I guess I'm willing to say now we went the wrong direction," said White. "We're using a little heavier lubrication to not try to squeeze every last horsepower out of them in the race. The adjustments we've made are four or five horsepower, but that's not insignificant. No driver would give that up willingly. Our goal right now is to give them the best shot to get to the end."

Starting Order Set for Shelby 427

Qualifying for the Shelby 427 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is over and the results are listed below:

POS CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR SPEED TIME BEHIND
1 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M's 185.995 29.033 Leader
2 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 185.707 29.078 -0.045
3 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe's / Kobalt Tools 185.688 29.081 -0.048
4 00 David Reutimann Toyota Aaron's Dream Machine 185.624 29.091 -0.058
5 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota Kingsford / Clorox / Little Debbie 185.459 29.117 -0.084
6 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet Haas Automation 185.395 29.127 -0.094
7 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Budweiser 185.382 29.129 -0.096
8 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet Pop-Tarts / Carquest 185.312 29.140 -0.107
9 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 185.281 29.145 -0.112
10 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Old Spice / Office Depot 185.217 29.155 -0.122
11 12 David Stremme Dodge Penske Racing 185.077 29.177 -0.144
12 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge Mobil 1 184.988 29.191 -0.158
13 25 Brad Keselowski Chevrolet GoDaddy.com 184.786 29.223 -0.190
14 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Caterpillar 184.565 29.258 -0.225
15 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA 184.540 29.262 -0.229
16 99 Carl Edwards Ford Aflac 184.495 29.269 -0.236
17 96 Bobby Labonte Ford Ask.com 184.432 29.279 -0.246
18 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet Furniture Row Companies 184.432 29.279 -0.246
19 44 A.J. Allmendinger Dodge Harrah's 184.395 29.285 -0.252
20 20 Joey Logano* Toyota The Home Depot 184.388 29.286 -0.253
21 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 184.168 29.321 -0.288
22 187 Joe Nemechek Toyota NEMCO Motorsports 184.162 29.322 -0.289
23 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet Energizer 184.118 29.329 -0.296
24 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M 184.005 29.347 -0.314
25 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 183.999 29.348 -0.315
26 113 Max Papis Toyota GEICO 183.974 29.352 -0.319
27 8 Aric Almirola Chevrolet TomTom 183.936 29.358 -0.325
28 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 183.798 29.380 -0.347
29 34 John Andretti Chevrolet WindowWorld.com 183.786 29.382 -0.349
30 171 David Gilliland Chevrolet Capital Window 183.749 29.388 -0.355
31 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet National Guard / Amp Energy 183.742 29.389 -0.356
32 7 Robby Gordon Toyota Jim Beam 183.486 29.430 -0.397
33 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Stanley 183.461 29.434 -0.401
34 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Office 183.293 29.461 -0.428
35 6 David Ragan Ford UPS 183.144 29.485 -0.452
36 98 Paul Menard Ford Johns Manville / Menards 182.921 29.521 -0.488
37 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Cheerios / Hamburger Helper 182.772 29.545 -0.512
38 26 Jamie McMurray Ford Irwin Industrial Tools 182.574 29.577 -0.544
39 43 Reed Sorenson Dodge Valvoline 182.469 29.594 -0.561
40 17 Matt Kenseth+ Ford USG Sheetrock 182.143 29.647 -0.614
41 07 Casey Mears+ Chevrolet Jack Daniel's 181.928 29.682 -0.649
42 82 Scott Speed+* Toyota Red Bull 181.257 29.792 -0.759
43 64 Todd Bodine Toyota Gunselman Motorsports 183.231 29.471 -0.438

Did Not Qualify
44 28 Travis Kvapil Ford Yates Racing 183.181 29.479 -0.446
45 66 Dave Blaney Toyota Hyde Park Storage Suites 182.673 29.561 -0.528
46 73 Mike Garvey Dodge Quality Concrete / Jani-King 182.457 29.596 -0.563
47 41 Jeremy Mayfield Toyota All Sport 182.389 29.607 -0.574
48 09 Sterling Marlin Dodge Phoenix Racing 181.543 29.745 -0.712
49 36 Scott Riggs Toyota Red Bank Outfitters 180.820 29.864 -0.831
50 37 Tony Raines Dodge Long John Silver's 180.331 29.945 -0.912
51 51 Dexter Bean Dodge LiveWire Energy 174.154 31.007 -1.974

Moving to the back are the following cars:

#18-Busch, #99-Reutimann, #47-Ambrose, #83-Vickers, #82-Speed because of engine troubles.