Trouble in Turn2

Come on over and check out my new digs at One Bad Wheel. All of the same content you’re used to with a shiny new home.

A few notes for a hot(100+ in Portland) weekend.

• Is there a such thing as breaking news in sports anymore? With the immediacy of the internet and more extensive coverage at all levels, it’s hard to keep announcements secret. Which is why everyone has already known about Ryan Newman joining Stewart-Haas Racing before the official announcement tomorrow. The consensus is that Newman is the best driver available and will at least manage to qualify for the first five races on speed. Newman is a talented driver that given the right car is capable of winning at any kind of track. Although most of his poles have been won at intermediate tracks, his numbers are actually better at short tracks.

  While Newman enjoyed some impressive seasons with Penske, most notably his 8 win 2003 season, he hasn’t been a consistent front runner for years (one Daytona 500 win does not make a season). Obviously things at Penske got stale and a change was probably in order for Newman and Penske. And while Stewart’s clout will ensure better cars than the current Haas fleet, the expectations for Newman shouldn’t be very high. He may pop up for an occasional top five, but more likely Newman will be found in the low teens in the point standings. It may sound harsh, but compared to the real estate Haas-CNC is used to occupying, a 19th place finish is not that bad.

• The Southern 500 is back! And when I say back, I mean the title of the Darlington spring race will be named the Southern 500 (sponsored by Dodge, Lifelock or Mountain Dew). When I first read that news, I pictured the tens of hundreds of angry fans (who typically frequent forums or David Poole’s blog’s poor comments section) that have beaten the “NA$CAR has sold out!” drum since 2004, pumping their fists at their small victory. On to phase 2 boys, bringing down this confounded Chase conspiracy.

• DEI hired a VP of competition this week, Bobby Hutchens from Richard Childress Racing. The position is new for the organization, which if you’re snarky or cynical might lead you to ask why it took so long for the team to want to be competitive.

• I got an email this week about the Drive Smarter Challenge that was pretty interesting.
  

  NASCAR and the Alliance to Save Energy have teamed up in a number of ways to “drive forward” the Alliance’s Drive $marter Challenge campaign designed to save drivers hundreds of dollars on gasoline and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

  The website has a lot of simple tips that can stretch your gas mileage. Maybe the Cup guys can even incorporate some of them this weekend, like “Curb your Road Rage”, “drive sensibly” and and “decrease your speed”. Alright some won’t apply to a driver trying to go 200mph around an oval.

Adios, Sort Of

A few weeks ago I marked the two-year birthday of Trouble in Turn 2. At the time I said I’d be surprised if the blog lasted another two years. I really didn’t mean anything by it and had every intention of maintaining this site for as long as I could. Then I got an email from my buddy Darren Fauth at One Bad Wheel. I have been writing a weekly article for him this season and we were talking about some different projects and ideas we had. So he proposed what he called “The Tony Stewart” offer, to come and maintain the blog section of his site. Essentially it was a reverse Tony Stewart offer because instead of running 100% of my blog, I would only have to deal with 50% of the site at Darren’s. For all of the things I enjoy about running this site by myself, it can sometimes be very hectic. Writing on a daily basis, managing the nuts and bolts plus trying to find a way to promote my humble creation. So I decided to take Darren’s offer and, beginning Monday, will be moving to One Bad Wheel. It’s really quite logical, since the most common way to find trouble in Turn 2 is when your car has one bad wheel (oh, the rimshots today)

It really doesn’t change anything, because I will still be posting my same statistically infused, snarky nonsense, but at a place where more people might see it. This site will remain up so if you’re ever in the mood for checking out the archives. I really appreciate everyone that has helped make this site into something that I have really enjoyed and hope you will stop by next week and help me grow the site.

One of the first topics to come up when a Cup race at Michigan is mentioned is fuel mileage. That is something that usually sets Michigan apart, but this year has already featured four such finishes including the June Michigan race. What is it about Michigan that lends itself to fuel mileage races? I suspect it has to do with a lack of cautions thanks to a wider racing surface plus the ability to pass without incident. It doesn’t explain everything, but it will be a factor come Sunday.

What Happened Last Year

Rain happened. A lot of rain that delayed the race for two days. When the track finally dried on Tuesday morning Kurt Busch was the dominant car, leading 92 laps and winning his second race in three weeks. To be honest, it was a rather uneventful race which seems to fit the mold of rain delayed races. Everyone usually wants to get it over with, pack up and go home.

Notes

• Only 44 cars are on the Michigan entry list. Quick quiz: When was the last time a race only had 43 cars entered? Hint: It’s probably more recent than you think. Last year’s Daytona 500 featured a 61 car entry list. Now the number of willing participants has dwindled to 44. Granted Michigan is longer trip from Charlotte, but the bottom rung teams are really struggling to afford cars each week. [2004 at Rockingham was the last Cup race to feature only 43 entrants, while the 2002 Loudon race was the last with a short field].

• Tony Stewart is entered in this weekend’s Nationwide race and he will sport a special paint scheme publicizing the “Give the Kids the Wolrd view-A-Thon”.
  

  the #20 Old Spice Car will have a new look as it races to help special children from around the world. Give Kids The World, the nonprofit organization that provides week-long, cost-free vacations to Central Florida for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families, will be honored with its very own “Give Kids The World Village” design. The brightly colored car was designed by Wish child Emily Marsala and will be driven by Joe Gibbs Racing driver Tony Stewart.

  In celebration of this unique partnership, Give Kids The World is encouraging NASCAR fans everywhere to participate in a View-A-Thon to help us raise $25,000, or $100 for every mile of the race.

  

• Brad Coleman will make his Cup debut on Sunday, when he takes the wheel for Hall of Fame Racing’s #96 car. Coleman is only 20 and is a legitimate prospect. He will need to qualify on time, but given his solid Busch/Nationwide qualifying record (16.7 avg start) he shouldn’t have a problem. It will be interesting to see whether he can improve on JJ Yeley’s numbers for 2008. While Yeley definitely struggled this year, I don’t think it was all his fault. The team could probably use some veteran feedback to set a workable baseline. You know, someone like Mike Skinner. Unfortunately for HoF Racing, Toyota’s official/unofficial consultant is already booked this weekend for Michael Waltrip Racing.

Champs, Chumps and Sleepers

Champ: David Ragan Ragan is inching closer to winning and there won’t be a better chance than at the track that Roush owns (not in the literal sense like Roger Penske formerly did, but in the Jimmie Johnson, My House! sense).

Chump: Kyle Busch Yeah I said it! He wasn’t great at Indy and was decent at Pocono. I think he’s due for a crash this weekend.

Sleeper: Mark Martin Martin is phenomenal at Michigan: 4 wins, 16 top 5’s and 27 top 10’s. He also has an 81.3 driver rating in the past seven events and that includes two cool Batman paint schemes.

Who Will Win?

Matt Kenseth. I don’t need to explain why. He’s due, he’s good at Michigan and Roush cars always win at least once at Michigan. Plus I want to see more robot commercials.

The last seven seasons have seen the advent of a youth movement in NASCAR at the Cup level. Young Guns have taken over in large numbers and many have quickly found success. Since 2000 a rookie has won a race in every season except 2004. Going back to 2002 the recent rookie classes have been pretty impressive. 12 of 19 drivers have won races, nine have made a Chase appearance and one has won two championships. Not bad for a wave of drivers that some fans complained were ruining the sport (Toyota and open wheel drivers have since acquired that “honor”). So which rookie class featured the best rookies? It’s a tough decision. I decided to look at the various classes from 2002-2006. I didn’t rate the 2007 class because drivers deserve at least three seasons for a fair assessment. The only reason I included the 2006 class was because it included so many drivers with immediate success it was an exceptional case. Check out previous reviews: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005.

Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr, Reed Sorenson, JJ Yeley, David Stremme, David Gilliland. Total wins: 6

The rookie class of 2006 was labeled as a special group and almost three years later that still holds true, but maybe not to the degree originally expected. The top three drivers of the class all made the 2007 Chase, won Cup races and appear set to compete at the top level for the next decade. The rest are still finding their way.

When Denny Hamlin was given a tryout in the #11 car at the end of 2005, it looked like nothing more than a placeholder while Joe Gibbs Racing could find another driver. Then Hamlin scored three top tens and won a pole in seven races. He smoothly slid into the #11 car on a fulltime basis for 2006 and immediately took off. While some drivers and analysts could see his talent, no one expected him to adjust to the Cup level so smoothly.

Right out of the gate, he won the Bud Shootout holding off teammate Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr, both shrewd plate racers. At this time he hadn’t even won a Busch race prior to his promotion to Cup. He went on to win both Pocono races. On the strength of 4 top 5’s and 13 top 10’s he made the Chase field as a rookie. During the Chase he scored 4 more top 5’s to stay in contention until the latter stages of the Chase. His final numbers were impressive. He finished 3rd in the final standings, had 2 wins, 8 top 5’s, 20 top 10’s and easily won Rookie of the Year.

He followed up in 2007 with another win and a Chase berth. He spent the majority of the first 26 races in 2nd place in the standings and had numerous chances to win races. A disappointing Chase took some of the luster out of the season, but it was still an impressive sophomore season.

So far in 2008 Hamlin has won a race at Martinsville, scored 6 top 5’s and led more laps(696) through 21 races than all of 2005. A Chase spot appears sewn up and thanks to the fact that Joe Gibbs Racing builds the cars Hamlin drives he has a chance to win a Cup title in the coming years.

After winning back to back Busch championships in 2004 and 2005, Martin Truex Jr was more than ready for the Cup circuit. He was widely picked as the favorite for Rookie of the Year and quick success was assumed by almost everyone. So it was a little surprising when Truex struggled to an 19th place finish and failed to compete for wins. He had a few nice results scattered amongst a lot of crashes and poor finishes. His final numbers, 2 top 5’s and 5 top 10’s fell well short of expectations but by the end of the year he and rookie crew chief Kevin Manion were showing signs of figuring out the Cup game.

In 2007 Truex finally broke through. After he spent the first quarter of the season alternating between top 10 finishes and tough luck crashes, he finally caught a break and won the Nextel Open exhibition race. Two weeks later he cruised to his first Cup win at Dover. That win was one bookend of a hot summer that propelled him to a spot in the Chase. He finished with 1 win, 7 top 5’s and 14 top 10’s. While Truex hasn’t vaulted to stardom his DEI equipment also tends to be subpar. Truex is a solid all around driver and could be a big lure on the free agency market in 2009.

Clint Bowyer didn’t have the hype of Martin Truex Jr or Reed Sorenson or the overnight success of Denny Hamlin, but he did prove his toughness as a Cup rookie. Bowyer jumped out of the gates with a surprising 6th place finish in the Daytona 500. He hung inside the top 20 in points all season and registered a respectable 4 top 5’s and 11 top 10’s. He also hinted at his strength with strong runs at flat, short tracks like Phoenix and Loudon.

In 2007 Bowyer continued his ascent and locked down a spot in the Chase. He also won his first career Cup race at Loudon, in dominant fashion. Bowyer finisheda surprising third in the Chase standings and scored a total of 1 win, 5 top 5’s and 17 top 10’s. 2008 began well with a win at Richmond and is again in the hunt for a Chase spot. Another trait that has developed in Bowyer’s style is his ability to avoid DNF’s. Aside from 4 his rookie season, Bowyer has finished 100% of the races in the last two seasons. It helps offset his lack of laps at the front of the pack.

As a 19 year old Reed Sorenson was already running a full Busch Series schedule and winning 2 races. After a fourth place points finish, he was quickly promoted to the Cup Series to drive Chip Ganassi’s #41 car for the 2006 season. As expected for a 20 year old rookie, Sorenson’s season was filled with inconsistency. One week would see him crash early and finish in the 40’s and then follow it up with a top ten run. Despite only 1 top 5 and 5 top 10’s, it was clear that the young driver had talent.

Maybe the most surprising thing about Sorenson’s rookie season was that it was his best year to date. 2007 was expected to build on his rookie effort, but that improvement didn’t come. While his peripheral numbers (3 top 5’s, 6 top 10’s) were slightly better, his average finish, DNF’s and laps led were all worse. 2008 has been an even greater struggle. Through 22 races Sorenson sits in 30th place in the points and has mustered only two top 10’s and has ten sub-30 finishes. Despite the struggles, and they are not all Sorenson’s fault, he is still only 22 and talent doesn’t evaporate. Looking back on the class in 5-10 years may still portray a different story for Sorenson.

JJ Yeley had an impressive resume in sprint cars, winning the USAC triple crown. He moved to the Busch Series and then landed a Cup ride with Joe Gibbs Racing thanks in part to a personal recommendation from Tony Stewart. The general scouting report on Yeley was that he was talented but raw. He displayed some of his talent (1 top 5, 6 top 10’s, 1 pole) and a lot of the rawness (28 sub-30’s, 11 DNF’s) in his first two years with Gibbs. When Gibbs had the chance to sign Kyle Busch, Yeley was the obvious cut.

He was still considered a good prospect at the Cup level and signed with Hall of Fame Racing for 2008. Unfortunately Yeley could only manage 1 top 5 in 17 starts, lost his spot in the top 35 and failed to qualify for 4 races. That led to his firing from the #96 car after 22 races.

After several seasons of mild success in the Busch Series, David Stremme got his big break in 2006. Chip Ganassi promoted him to the #40 seat to replace Sterling Marlin. After five races Stremme was sitting on the outside of the top 35. This forced the team to switch to survival mode and simply qualify for races and essentially washed away Stremme’s season. He did manage to return to the top 35, but didn’t score a top ten and finished a disappointing 33rd in the final standings.

2007 brought a fresh start for Stremme and the #40 team. Stremme finished in the top 20 in five of the first six races and included his first Cup top ten. The summer wasn’t as kind and Stremme could only manage three top tens in total and suffered 14 sub 30 finishes. He was released after the season to make way for the incoming Dario Franchitti.

After a chain of events in August of 2006, the Robert Yates #38 car was suddenly vacant. Enter David Gilliland, who was a complete unknown only months earlier. After winning the Kentucky Busch race in an underfunded car Gilliland was suddenly a star in the making. While his truncated rookie season was a series of wrecks and backup cars, Gilliland did have a handful of promising runs. He won the pole at Talladega and finished 15th and then had two other nice runs at Atlanta and Phoenix.

He then won the pole for the Daytona 500 the following spring and scored his first top ten in the process. While Gilliland went on to show some improvement in 2007, it was sometimes hard to tell whether he was struggling as a driver or Yates no longer had the cars to keep up.

In 2008 Gilliland has displayed more progress. He has cut down on the wrecks and has scored ten top 20’s in 22 starts. While it’s doubtful he will become a superstar at the Cup level he looks set to be a solid driver capable of the occasional top 5 or win.

Verdict: Hamlin is already a star while Bowyer and Truex have the potential to challenge for wins and Chase berths. Sorenson’s potential is still there if he can put an ugly 2008 behind him. Yeley, Gilliland and Stremme will probably never be drivers that teams are built around but can certainly make a living shuttling between the Cup and Nationwide series.

[Note: Blogging is a great thing. It allows for freedom and flexibility. These things only apply with the help of a computer, which in my case went AWOL Sunday night. My apologies.]

All right people, move along. Kyle Busch won another Cup race. Nothing to see here.

After Dale Earnhardt Jr passed Busch on the second lap of the race it looked like Busch would be relegated to a middling finish. Instead Busch got off sequence with most of the leaders, pitted earlier and suddenly grabbed the lead and his sequence won out. Given the fact that Busch was joined by his Gibbs Racing teammates, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin, on the early pit stop makes you wonder if it was all planned to sandbag the first 15-20 laps.

While some are noting that Busch is closing in on the #1 seed in the Chase, he has already clinched it. Carl Edwards could match his 8 wins, but because of the penalty at Las Vegas he can’t match Busch’s 80 bonus points. The other thing to take away from Watkins Glen is that aside from Busch’s 10 bonus points, the race has zero bearing on what will transpire during the Chase. There are no road races during the Chase, so teams can’t really apply anything they learned on Sunday. Plus the concept of momentum is as effective as the rabbit’s foot on Bobby Labonte’s keychain (seriously, I can’t name a driver that gets caught up in more bad wrecks than Labonte).

While the race won’t have a bearing on the Chase, it did highlight how off Jeff Gordon and Steve Letarte have been at times this year. They’ve struggled at other tracks this year, most notably at certain intermediate speedways, but Gordon is one of the elite road course racers. To struggle at Watkins Glen, especially when teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jimmie Johnson ran well, was shocking. While Letarte won’t have to set up another road car, the fact that they missed a fundamental chance for a good day is noteworthy in the Chase.

Not so Dyno-Mite! JJ Yeley was told by Hall of Fame Racing you don’t have to go home, but you can’t drive here. It’s interesting that both Yeley and HoF Racing have taken similar paths since debuting in the Cup series in 2006.

Yeley had an impressive resume in sprint cars, winning the USAC triple crown. He moved to the Busch Series and then landed a Cup ride with Joe Gibbs Racing thanks in part to a personal recommendation from Tony Stewart. The general scouting report on Yeley was that he was talented but raw. He displayed some of his talent and a lot of the rawness in his first two years with Gibbs. He only had one top five in two plus seasons in the #18 car. When Gibbs had the chance to sign Kyle Busch, Yeley was the obvious cut. He was still a good prospect at the Cup level and signed with Hall of Fame Racing for 2008.

Meanwhile Hall of Fame Racing began as a satellite team of Gibbs in 2006. Tony Raines and Terry Labonte drove for the team owned by Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman and Bill Saunders. After a solid debut, the team looked like it was establishing itself for the long haul. Unfortunately the team didn’t improve much in 2007. They only scored one top ten and finished 25th in owner points. It was still solid, but the progress was stalled. Things took another In the fall of 2007 Aikman and Staubach sold most of their interests to Geoffrey Moorad and Tom Garfinkel of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

After switching to Toyota the season has been a disaster. The team fell out of the top 35 and Yeley has failed to qualify for four races this year. Aside from one top five thanks to a gamble on pit strategy, Yeley has not finished better than 24th all season.

This week he was let go in favor of promising youngster Brad Coleman. Obviously the team has switched to preparing for 2009 and with Coleman they can get a head start. Don’t be fooled by Coleman’s mediocre Nationwide numbers. He is driving for an underfunded Curb Racing team. Coleman is a talent that simply couldn’t get a regular ride in the crowded Gibbs Racing stable. While Coleman may struggle to do much better than Yeley, it’s better to take some lumps now and have more seat time before the 2009 Daytona 500. As for Yeley he seems destined to take the David Stremme path of Nationwide/Cup test driver with the occasional fill-in start while rebuilding his resume.

Hello, my name is Glen. I’m from upstate New York. I throw a party once a year and invite all of my friends to come and hang out for the weekend. My political views are pretty balanced, sometimes I go to the left, other times I lean to the right. Not everyone is used to this balanced path and sometimes it can be frustrating for my friends with less experience at my parties. Alright, I admit it used to be fun playing tricks on these people and watching them spin and get caught in the quicksand, but I’ve matured in recent years. No more sand traps or food poisoning (sorry Tony), only good times and clean fun. Remember 2006? Both the Busch and Cup races featured fierce battles for the lead in the closing laps. So you’re all invited to join the party and hang out this weekend.

What Happened Last Year

Jeff Gordon had the dominant car and with 2 laps left he was apparently already dreaming of his Victory Lane kiss from Ingrid when he went wide on a turn allowing Tony Stewart to squeeze by for the win. Gordon wound up 9th. Of course no one cared about that on Monday morning because Kevin Harvick and Juan Pablo Montoya rubbed each other’s faces after a wreck. Harvick was mad at Montoya for starting a wreck. Montoya was mad because it wasn’t his fault. So they both decided to engage in some quasi-fisticuffs.

Champs, Chumps and Sleepers

Champs: Ryan Newman Newman has three top tens in six tries. He is still a very good road course racer and won the 2005 Busch race. It might be a small stretch for a Champ pick, but this week’s options are limited.

Chumps: Clint Bowyer It’s not that Bowyer is a bad road racer, he has a 15.0 average finish at The Glen. It’s just that nearly every other top 12 driver is capable of a lot more.

Sleepers: Marcos Ambrose Kangaroo Meat is fast on road courses. The next step is showing he can avoid the ire of other top drivers and can finish the race in one piece.

Who Will Win?

Jeff Gordon is going to finish the job this year. His record on road courses one of the best in Cup history. And he won’t slip up at the end of the race this time.

One of the biggest complaints from fans is that drivers are too vanilla in interviews. With so many sponsors to appease, the days of drivers telling it like it is are mostly gone. If you believed everything that a driver said that would mean no one was ever switching teams, there would be 43 “top five cars” every week and there would be zero animosity between drivers regarding crashes. Everyone that’s watched at least one NASCAR race knows that’s not true.

Fortunately there is a way to cut through the PR-speak and understand what a driver is really saying. It’s also a helpful guide to help new fans know when to use common phrases.[Note: It’s unlikely to see any Robby Gordon, Juan Pablo Montoya or Tony Stewart quotes listed below.]

(driver immediately after a crash)“Just one of them racing deals.”

Translation: “Yeah he wrecked me. And if my car was still drivable, I would show you all another racing deal.”

(said immediately after an engine failure)”I gotta thank the guys in the engine shop”

I especially want to thank Paulie back in the shop for using the carburetter as a spitoon.”

(post race report) ”We had a top five car, but could never get out and show it.”

“It’s a good thing we never got out front where people could see us, because our car was junk.”

(driver addressing Silly Season rumors)”We’re working hard on our 2009 plans.”

Crap! What rides are still available?

(owner addressing Silly Season rumors) “Of course we’re aren’t signing X He has a contract through 2015. Besides we have complete faith in our Driver Z.”

“Of course we are replacing Driver Z with Driver X, but at least let us hold a press conference.

(driver after qualifying 39th)“Our car is good in race trim”

“Our car is not very good in any trim.”

(crew chief of the dominant car) “This race is anyone’s right now.”

”We are going to turn this into a laugher unless I screw up a call.”

”We’re not worrying about the Chase. We’ll just take it one lap and one race at a time.”

”We’ve got some big guns ready for the Chase, August is just a formality.”

”Pocono is a challenging track and coming here twice a year is a great idea.”

”I actually drove with my knees on the straightaways so I could shave.”

”It’s nobody’s fault. It is what it is.”

”Bleeping Goodyear! I won’t get over this one until at least Thursday.”

“I hate it for those guys”

“OK, that grants me immunity from getting jumped by their pit crew, right?”

”I’m a racer.”

“I don’t care if everyone else is pissed off at me.”

Feel free to add your own entries to the NASCAR translation guide.

If you missed Sunday’s race at Pocono here is a quick recap in a segment I like to call, “Pocono in a nutshell”: Carl Edwards won(again) the race on fuel mileage, Mark Martin was undone by no fault of his own (again), Jimmie Johnson looked strong(again) and the Deathstar(Kyle Busch) appears to be penetrable(slightly). Meanwhile my kitchen remodel is coming along nicely.

Pocono ended i a fuel mileage race which is becoming a trend this year. I have a theory why. The CoT is so hard to drive that teams are willing to take more risks with strategy because it’s so difficult to pass under green. The fact that there are fewer cautions late with the car also means longer green flag runs at long speedways like Pocono and Michigan which also contributes.

• Nice run for Chad McCumbee in the #45 Petty Enterprises car. He finished a career high 17th on Sunday. It was only the 3rd top 20 of the season for the team as they scramble to crack the top 35. They still sit in 40th place and Kyle Petty will return to the seat next week at Watkins Glen. Last year when Petty drove at the Glen he got in a wreck, finished last and injured himself after slamming his hand in frustration. In an unrelated story Petty Enterprises is ordering extra steering wheel padding.

• One of the silliest graphics during a broadcast is the “estimated fuel gauge”. Whenever there is a fuel mileage race, the networks pull that one out. It’s inaccurate, doesn’t really show the viewer anything they didn’t already know and usually all the drivers listed on the graphic are all low on fuel. Thanks for the info, TV.

• Speaking of no fuel, did anyone else think it was funny when Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jeff Gordon drag raced to the finish line as both ran out of fuel? It was like a photo finish in speedwalking.

• Kevin Harvick regained his spot in the top 12 with a 4th place finish. He spun on the first lap, but incredibly didn’t hit anything. Despite the 4th place result, he didn’t gain many points on his closest competition because David Ragan finished 5th, Clint Bowyer 6th and Matt Kenseth led a lap and finished 11th. Only 19 points separate the four drivers with only five races left. While everyone from TV, news and nerdy, stats-based bloggers will talk about the Chase and how close the points battle is, Harvick will take a different approach, “You just go out and race as fast as you can. That’s about all you can do.” And Harvick is exactly right. Everything else is out of his control. According to Sports Club Stats, Harvick has a 69.2% chance of making the Chase while Ragan in 14th has a less than 50% chance. It’s going to stay crazy until Richmond.

For more NASCAR mumbo jumbo, check out Racing Nation.

How to Piss off a Cup Driver: Part I

Last week Rusty Wallace claimed Ryan Newman was fired by Penske instead of a mutual parting. Newman didn’t appreciate his former teammate/bicker buddy sticking his nose into Newman’s business. Wallace went on to say that Roger Penske didn’t appreciate Newman’s criticisms of the company and the team’s performance.

Let me take this moment to remind Rusty that Penske has been a second tier team for years (prior to Wallace’s retirement) and Newman hasn’t been a front runner since 2004. Whether Newman used the proper platform for his criticisms is one thing, but it’s hard to say the criticisms are misplaced. Tune in next week when Newman will reveal the real reason why Wallace was removed from the ESPN booth.

How to Piss off a Cup Driver: Part II

To the likely bemusement of the Diecast Dude, ESPN.com’s NASCAR crew made someone mad again. This time it was Martin Truex Jr when David Newton tried to report that Truex had signed a new contract with DEI. Truex’s frank, “That’s bullsh*t” response left little room for interpretation that the report was false. Truex added that the two sides were still negotiating. A word of advice to Newton (beyond reporting facts), when Truex gets pissed off, he can be quite literal.

Jimmie and Randy: Homies

As a Vikings fan I was fortunate to see Randy Moss’ greatest seasons so despite his occasional pouting and one bizarre traffic incident, I still have a certain fondness for Moss. He is not a bad guy and can be pretty funny. Take the time he scored the infamous Mooning Touchdown at Green Bay (which has it’s own partially-justified story behind it). He was fined $10,000 by the NFL and when a reporter asked how he paid his fine, Moss simply said, “Straight cash homey.” I still use that line all the time.

Now that Moss is involved with NASCAR I picture him paying all of the team’s bills with straight cash, homey. And that is exactly how I think he convinced Jimmie Johnson to drive Moss’ truck at Bristol.

Off the Beaten Path

On the personal side of this blog, things have been pretty busy. The second Pocono roughly marks the 2 year birthday of Trouble in Turn2. If it lasts another 2 years, I’ll be amazed.

If you are looking for something fresh for your iPod, try Eddie Vedder’s soundtrack for Into the Wild. Most of the songs are only 1 or 2 minutes, but they are really good. If you haven’t seen the movie, that too is excellent. It makes you want to go camping…for a year.

Have a good weekend. I will again be rating the Pocono race versus undesirable home improvement projects. This week it’s installing a dishwasher!