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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.

Please FOX Keep Digger in the Hole

So I was browsing the Race and Commercial Breakdown of the Auto Club 500 on cawsnjaws.com and out of all the stats on the page, one in particular jumped out at me:

Number of animated Digger sightings: 18
Number of non-animated Digger sightings: 28
Number of Total Digger sightings: 46

Now look at this:

Start time to record race/commercial periods: 6:00 PM
End time to record race/commercial periods: 10:02 PM
Total minutes: 242
Minutes of race broadcast: 60
Minutes of commercials: 182

60 minutes of actually racing on your screen. 46 Digger sightings. Get out your calculators and for every 1.3 minutes of actual racing we had a Digger sighting. Not to mention, we saw three times as many minutes of commericals than we did action on the track. Now there were several cautions for rain, which is used as NASCAR on FOX's time to pay the bills, but 3x as many commericals as actual racing?

The numbers on Digger are plain absurd as well. This view does have a purpose, but not once every 1.3 minutes. I like the view, especially at Daytona because you get the appearance of speed that the cars carry through the corners. Times when we do not need to see Digger include the pre-race, every time someone drives over it, or every time there is a wreck. Showing Digger during a wreck is one of the absolute worst perspectives you can give the fans to show what actually happens. Show the rear in-car camera, show the front in-car camera, show the driver, show any other shot of the accident other than the Digger-cam. It is a gimick that has ran the course. Please FOX, keep Digger in his hole.

Thanks to cawsnjaws.com for the stats.

Do We All Have A Little Redneck In Us?

This post is for anyone who has ever told me NASCAR Racing was a sport for rednecks.

On Sunday the honorary starter for the Auto Club 500 was none other than actress and model Angie Harmon. Ok, so I started out saying to myself so what? An actress who happens to be married to Jason Sehorn, who is a used-to-be in the ranks of retired NFL players, fits into the Hollywood glamour that NASCAR insists on trying to parlay each trip to the Auto Club Speedway despite the fact that the best they can do on their VIP list is fill it with B grade actors and actresses and what used to be famous sports players.

Then the fun began. After waving the green flag, Ms. Harmon began celebrating in a fashion I have witnessed numerous times in the cheap seats of Charlotte, Martinsville, and Bristol. Waving, jumping up and down, throwing up the horns, screaming, and yelling for every lap the cars screamed by until they waved the caution for rain. Behaving exactly in the same manner that each and every one us would have acted in if we got the chance to wave the green flag.

It did my heart good to know that the red on Ms. Harmon's neck on Sunday wasn't just from the California sun. It seems the beautiful model and actress from Highland Park, Texas just might have a little redneck in her. The sad part is, this just might be the most excitement we see from an honorary anything this whole season.

Auto Club 500 Ratings Down

The Auto Club 500 ratings are in and FOX has good and bad news. The bad news, Fox averaged a 5.3/8 for the Auto Club 500 down 13% from last year's 6.1/10. The good news is that it was FOX's best night against the Oscars in some time. The 2009 Academy Awards averaged a 23.5/36 which is up 7% from last year. Still though, why FOX would run that race against the Oscars and the threat of rain is beyond me.

Points to Ponder - Auto Club 500

After tuning it to the entirely too long pre-race coverage and the "follow the leader" race that was the Auto Club 500 I must have seen at least 50 shots of the Digger cam, watched 5 of the 43 drivers on the track for over 3/4 of the broadcast, miss the victory lap and spin through the infield and watched FOX prempt the Victory Lane celebration while they caught up on commercials, I wam left with a few points to ponder about the weekend that was.

• They should ban full-time Cup drivers from the Truck and Nationwide Series.
• Junior's interview with DW might have been the best thing that aired all weekend.
• Drew Blickensderfer (say that three times real fast) or "Blick" (much easier) is the new "sliced bread".
• Joey Logano is going to have a very long year.
• The fact that Darlington lost it's date to the Auto Club Speedway amazes me more and more every time they race there.
• Mark Martin will need to improve his luck to have any chance of making the Chase.
• MWR has made big gains since last year.
• Due to the ban on testing, 2009 is going to look a lot like 2008.
• FOX spends 2 hours doing pre-race and ten minutes doing post-race. It should be mandatory that they interview all the drivers in the Top 5 and, if they haven't ran passed their alotted time, get the Top 10 in there, too.
• The Digger cartoon should be killed immediately.
• Larry Mac needs a dictionary.
• Evidently, when right front tires blow out now they also shoot flames and oil out of the back of the car, just for special effect.

Auto Club 500 Winners and Losers

So the freight train that was the Auto Club 500 is over and done. For a race track located in one of the driest areas of the country, it's the second time in three races the Cup Series has fought rain at the track.

I guess NASCAR does have to be worried about the economy after all. The grandstands reminded me of ghost town with the top 1/3 of the seats basically empty all the way around the track on Sunday. The Nationwide and Truck races had about 1500 people there and that was it. Pathetic really once you realize that one ticket got you in to see the Truck and Nationwide races as well as final practice for the Cup Series.

The action up front was more than lacking. Each leader basically checked out from the field with the exception of the final run which had Gordon keeping Kenseth in sight but never really threatening. The action mid-pack was better but since the FOX cameras seem to want to focus up front, we didn't get to see much of it. How this track continues to have two dates is beyond me.

Winners

Matt Kenseth - Although he still isn't fast on Friday his pit crew more than makes up for it on Sunday. They got him out front and he ran a mistake free race to stay there. Always the pessimist, his radio chatter would make you believe he was just waiting to get passed by Gordon for the win. Here's hoping two wins in a row turns him into a glass half full kinda guy.

Kyle Busch - This kid dominates the Truck and Nationwide races on Saturday and then finishes third on Sunday. Looks like another year of domination for Shrubby.

Michael Waltrip Racing - After what many would call a lackluster season last year, both Michael and Reutimann finished quietly in the Top 15 yesterday and find themselves in the in the Top 15 in the points as well. Reutimann is my dark horse to win a race this year.

Jeff Hammond - After Mike Joy, DW, and Larry Mac made incorrect calls on Greg Biffle's pit stop and Kevin Harvick's obvious blown engine that was called a blown tire Hammond jumped into the broadcast and quickly corrected the booth on both calls. Mr. Hammond I salute you. There are times when watching FOX's coverage that I wonder if they are watching the same race I am.

Losers

Jimmie Johnson - Dominates both practice sessions, sits on the front row in qualifying, then dominates the first third of the race. Their inability to keep up with the changing conditions and faster pace of the race negates them to a 9th place finish. This season is looking like a mirror to 2008 where the 48 team finished 27th at Daytona, 2nd and California, and 29th at Las Vegas and were sitting 14th in the points after 3 races.

Digger - The camera angle is great. We get it. But the cartoon must go. Even my eight year-old thinks it's ridiculous. My guess is that this concept was drawn up for the children watching the race. When they don't enjoy it, it's time to give it up.

Greg Biffle - Quite possibly the car to beat on Sunday but lost all hopes by sliding through his pit box. Look for him to steal some of Cousin Carl's thunder this year.

NASCAR Fans - A mostly boring race with once caution on the track for an actual accident, low attendance, Gavin Rossdale, and TV coverage that missed at least three calls. The day FOX realizes that the fans want more coverage like the interview Dale Jr. gave to DW and less Digger is the day ratings will fix themselves.

Next Up:

Camping World Series

• Off weekend, next race is March 7th at Atlanta. Coverage begins at 1:30 PM Eastern on SPEED.

Nationwide Series

• Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas Motorspeedway. Coverage begins at 4:00 PM Eastern on ESPN2.

Sprint Cup Series

• Shelby 427 at Las Vegas Motorspeedway. Coverage begins at 3:30 PM Eastern on FOX.