NascarFanatic

An Opinion by Larry Cottrill
Published at insiderracingnews.com

The future of NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship clearly lies in a shorter format. Be it this year or next, we’ll someday soon see a title clinched by Chase Race #9 ( if not by Race #8 ). This will be the ultimate embarrassment to Brian France, having undermined his machinations to guarantee a cliffhanger finale at Miami each season.

As in the playoff format I first suggested ( www.insiderracingnews.com/LC/072106.html ) back when North Wilkesboro was still on the schedule, the Chase should consist of five races, each at varying types of tracks . . .

  One race at a track of 8/10’s of a mile or less

  One race at a track longer than 8/10’s of a mile up to one & 1/4 mile in length

  One race at a track longer than one & 1/4 mile up to one & 3/4 miles in length

  One unrestricted race at a track longer than one & 3/4 miles in length

  One restricted race at a track longer than one & 3/4 miles in length

The 10-race Chase schedule this season contains no track meeting the “unrestricted track longer than one & 3/4 miles in length” criteria. That being the case, I have chosen the next five consecutive races as those being most representative of the spirit of this format.

The next five races will take place at, in order, Dover, Kansas, Talladega, Lowe’s, and Martinsville.

While it’s true that Kansas and Lowes are both 1.5 miles in length, the maximum banking at the two tracks varies enough ( Kansas - 15 degrees, and Lowe’s - 24 degrees ) to make these five tracks well rounded.

I find no other 5-race stretch of the Chase that offers quite the same balance of challenges to a driver’s versatility. Another thing that this five-race period offers is that it is NOT at the end of the actual 2006 10-race Chase, so no one will be out there just riding around protecting their lead in the points.

With all of this in mind, I will be tracking the point’s standings over the next five weeks as if it’s a 5-race Chase ( beginning with Dover and ending at Martinsville ), and will report the standings as they run each week. I also plan to review the tape of the Martinsville race to figure out just how many times the Chase points leader changes throughout the race.

It’s a shame that the 4,000+ temporary seats being added to Miami for this season’s finale won’t even push the attendance figure over the 85,000 mark. In a sport that has only 36 marquee events in a year, with many of them at facilities which accommodate 150,000 plus spectators, we’re going to see the season end once again at a track which seats less than many NFL stadiums.

Gee, if only NASCAR had a big-name track somewhere down south where the weather would still be welcoming in November that could hold a quarter-million fans?

Then again, if they raced at Daytona, and IT where the 5th and final race of the Chase, it would take all of the computers inside of the Pentagon to keep tabs on the “Points Leader as they run.”

Wait a second , Brian . . . , isn’t that what you were after?

Stay tuned . . .

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Jeff Burton won for the first time in 175 Nextel Cup races, taking the checkered flag in Sunday’s Dover 400 in a sparkling side-by-side battle with Matt Kenseth in the final 30 laps. Burton’s victory also puts him into the unofficial point lead after two of the 10 Chase for the Cup races. Kenseth ran out of fuel in the final laps, handing second place to Carl Edwards and third place to Jeff Gordon. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 8 Budweiser team started 13th for the second week in a row, and like last week, moved forward into the top-five positions early in the race. A flat right front tire knocked the Bud team out of contention, forcing them to make an unscheduled green flag pit stop on lap 282. Their troubles were compounded when a yellow flag came out on lap 298, trapping them two laps behind the leaders. The No. 8 finished the day in the 21st position, three laps down. The finish allows Dale Jr. to maintain his seventh-place position in the Chase for the Cup point standings, but is now 102 points behind the leader Burton with eight races remaining.  Of the eight remaining tracks, Dale Jr. and the Bud team have 10 career victories at five venues (Talladega, the All-Star race at Charlotte, Atlanta, Texas and Phoenix).

Key Moments: Dale Jr., starting 13th – as he did last week at Loudon – also replicated his climb through the field early in the race. Finding speed in the high groove in what has now become somewhat of a Dale Jr. trademark, the Bud car was into the top-10 by lap 60, and then into the top-five by lap 95. He remained in or near the top-five until a pit stop on lap 186 dropped them to mid-pack, but Dale Jr. again climbed as high as sixth place before the flat tire took them out of contention for the race victory on lap 282 (of 400).

Dale Jr. Quotes: “It’s another frustrating day, but what can you do? A flat tire… then the yellow flag locked us two laps behind… The car was good early on in the high line. I could really get a run on a lot of guys running up top, but we were never worth a damn in the low groove. The nose would push, push, push all day and it got worse and worse as the race went on. We took two tires (on a lap 208 pit stop) to try and get some track position, and we were hanging on to the top-10 but then the (right front) tire started going down and we dropped back. After that, it was a case of trying to pick off whatever cars were on our lap. It’s not a good day, but it could certainly have been a lot worse if we would have crashed when the tire went down.”

Best Radio Chatter:

With tire trouble taking the Bud team out of contention, most of the (printable) chatter took place early in the going…

Dale Jr: (foreshadowing the afternoon on lap 12): “It’s really plowin’ on the bottom. It just ain’t cuttin’ it down there so it might be time to go to the top. I might not make a lot of time for awhile, but it’ll pay off later.”

Tony Eury Jr. (crew chief): “10-4.”

Dale Jr. (twenty laps later): “It’s good up top. A little tightness in the middle, but I’m pretty good in and off the corners. It’s still not working well on the bottom. (speaking to his spotter, Steve Hmiel) Steve, when I’m running the high groove, you don’t have to clear me everytime a car is in the low lane. I know they pull even in the middle, but by the time I’m off the corner, they’re gone.”

Steve Hmiel: “Yeah. As soon as I said it, I knew I was saying too much. But I didn’t want to say anything about it because then I’d be talking more about something I knew I was already talking too much about.”

 —-

Today’s Stats

Started:     13th

Finished:   21st (-3 laps)

Points: 7th place  (no change, -102 pts to leader)

Best Pit Stop:  Stop 5 of 9  / lap 186 / 12.41 seconds / 4 tires and fuel

 —–

Chase for the Cup — Unofficial Points

(race two of 10)

1.) Jeff Burton   5351

2.) Jeff Gordon  -6

3.) Denny Hamlin    -13

4.) Matt Kenseth    -18

5.) Kevin Harvick  -54

6.) Mark Martin   -75

7.) Dale Earnhardt Jr.  -102

8.) Jimmie Johnson   -136

9.) Kasey Kahne  -182

10.) Kyle Busch  -224

Source: Speedway Media

Tags: Busch Series, Chase Points, NASCAR by betagnome
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Get all the information you need.

From the official Nascar.com site

Tags: Busch Series, Chase Points, NASCAR by betagnome
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Jeff Burton nipped at leader Matt Kenseth’s bumper in the waning laps, ducked beneath him, pulled side-by-side and still fell behind.

It wasn’t until six laps were left that Burton finally scooted by with the critical pass. Not he even needed it: Kenseth ran out of gas, anyway.

Burton finally found his way back to Victory Lane at Dover International Speedway after the thrilling late battle, ending his 175-race winless streak and parking himself in the lead of NASCAR’s Chase for the championship.

“We’ve got eight to go, this still isn’t over,” said Burton, who took a slim, six-point lead over Jeff Gordon, the polesitter, who finished third.

Kenseth, who was going for a clean sweep at Dover International Speedway this season and led the most laps, made the pass moot when he ran out of fuel with two laps left, losing a gamble that he could drive the final 100 laps without a pit stop.

Burton and his Richard Childress racing teammate Kevin Harvick spent this weekend denying a Speed TV report that claimed their teams manipulated wheels to gain a performance advantage in New Hampshire. Both drivers insisted it wouldn’t be a distraction, and Burton came out with something to prove at the Dover 400.

“I finally snuck by him and I think he can out of fuel,” Burton said.

There was a devastating blow down the stretch for Kevin Harvick, who lost his overall points lead and was knocked out of the race with a blown engine. Harvick, who won the last two races, plummeted to fifth.

Burton came in with a whopping 637 laps led this season, but no victories. He hadn’t won a Cup race since Oct. 28, 2001.

Carl Edwards finished second. Gordon moved up two spots in the Chase with his second-place finish.

“The effort was unbelievable, the fight was unbelievable, we didn’t have the best car,” Gordon said.

Kenseth stayed in third in the points standings.

Source: AP Release

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When I think of a favorite for Sunday’s Nextel Cup race at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, I think of Kasey Kahne.

At Dover there is a high groove to run, and Kahne has never met a high groove he doesn’t like so he’s my favorite in the second race of the Chase for the Nextel Cup championship.

Working in Kahne’s favor
Besides having a chance to race and win in the high groove, Kahne — who is eighth in the Chase standings — will be motivated by the fact that to win a Cup championship he needs to get going and produce better finishes than his 16th-place result last week in New Hampshire.

He’ll need to do better at Dover than his brief history at this track suggests he will. In five Cup starts at this one-mile oval, the Ray Evernham racer has three DNF’s, and only one top-10 finish — that being his seventh-place result in June.

Delivering under pressure and when it counts the most is nothing new to Kahne this season. To qualify for the Chase he made up a 90-point deficit in the two races before the cutoff for getting into the 10-race playoff.

He did that with a win at California, and a third-place finish at Richmond. And I just think that the stars are aligned for Kahne to run well at Dover — even though one-mile tracks are not his specialty.

Read the rest of Benny Parsons commentary on MSNBC.COM

Tags: Chase Points, NASCAR by nascarfan
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I don’t know what Richard Childress Racing’s teams did or didn’t do with their tires, or if they did anything. But I do know this: If releasing hot air is suddenly verboten, there goes every post-race interview.

I don’t know Bob Dillner, or who told him what and when. But I do know this: Every time I see him, he’s sunburned. I think it’s because he’s like 6-foot-9 and is that much closer to the sun. He should carry a stepladder so drivers don’t look so shrimpy next to him.

Read the rest of his comments at SportingNews.com

Tags: Chase Points, NASCAR by nascarfan
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Kansas will lead into Month of May, while Watkins Glen celebrates the 4th

IndyCar Series races at Kansas Speedway and Watkins Glen International will switch dates in 2007, series officials announced.

The IndyCar Series’ stop at Kansas moves to April 29, while the Watkins Glen event will move to the July 8 date previously occupied by Kansas. A 100-mile Indy Pro Series race will be held in conjunction with the IndyCar Series event at Watkins Glen International.

Click it: Kansas Speedway event info | Watkins Glen event info

“Moving these two races will maximize the potential of the 2007 schedule,” said Brian Barnhart, president and chief operating officer of the Indy Racing League, the sanctioning body of the IndyCar Series “We’d like to thank Jeff Boerger, Craig Rust and everyone at ISC for their flexibility and their assistance in building our 2007 schedule.”

The IndyCar Series has raced at the 1.5-mile oval at Kansas Speedway since 2001, and it is the site of three of the closest finishes in series history. Officials with Kansas Speedway requested the date change because of high temperatures and humidity at recent events.

“Our race fans come first,” said Boerger, president of Kansas Speedway. “They’ve really stuck with us over the past six years because that’s how exciting IndyCar Series racing is. But moving this race weekend to the springtime will make the weekend even more spectacular. It will be cooler for fans, the drivers, the media and the staff.”

The shift of the 300-mile event at Kansas Speedway gives the IndyCar Series an extra event before the Indianapolis 500 for the first time since 2002. The 91^st 500-Mile Race is May 27.

“We’re excited to make this date change announcement in conjunction with Kansas Speedway and pleased to assist Jeff and his staff respond to their fan base’s desire for a race date offering cooler temperatures,” Barnhart said. “Putting Kansas Speedway on the schedule right before the Indianapolis 500 allows an already successful event to grow even more in stature while offering the IndyCar Series a great platform heading in to the Month of May.”

With Kansas’ shift, the historic 3.37-mile road course at Watkins Glen International will have its third date in as many years. Despite the change, track officials hope to make the IndyCar Series event weekend a mid-summer institution.

“The 4^th of July weekend has always been one of our preferred choices for the IndyCar Series weekend,” said Rust, president of Watkins Glen International. “We are thrilled to have worked with Kansas Speedway and the Indy Racing League on this date change and hope that it will become a tradition that our fans can enjoy with their families each year surrounding the holiday weekend.” 

Watkins Glen is already planning several fan activities throughout the new July weekend, including a large fireworks display to celebrate Independence Day.

“We are pleased to give Craig Rust and his staff at Watkins Glen International a date they have long preferred and thank him for his flexibility the past couple of years,” Barnhart said. “In just two years, The Glen has quickly become an anticipated race on the IndyCar Series schedule, and we look forward to building on not only the track but the region’s open-wheel racing legacy.”

Source: indycar.com

Tags: Indy Racing League by nascarfan
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR and team owner Richard Childress on Monday dismissed as “sheer fantasy” a television report that said race winner Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton had a performance advantage at New Hampshire International Speedway.

A Speed TV report Sunday said NASCAR inspectors had discovered that RCR teams had manipulated the rims on their Chevrolets to act as “bleeder valves” that slowly released air pressure in tires after the race. The practice is not technically illegal, and falls into a gray area of the rulebook that teams are supposed to respect….

Read the rest of the story at SI.COM

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What:                 Race 28 of 36 on Nextel Cup circuit
Where:               Dover International Speedway, Dover, DE
When:                September 24, 2006
Laps:                 400
Track Length:     1. miles
Race Length:      400.00 miles

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By MIKE HARRIS, AP Motorsports Writer 

   LOUDON, N.H. (AP) — One race down and nine to go in the Chase and the only thing for sure about NASCAR’s championship battle is that Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Busch are already in trouble.

Johnson and Busch crashed during Sunday’s Sylvania 300 — the opening race in NASCAR’s 10-man Chase for the Nextel Cup championship. Johnson finished 39th and Busch 38th, dropping the pair from second and fourth in the standings to ninth and 10th, respectively.

If ever there was an argument for giving the drivers in the Chase a separate scoring system, it’s the plight of Johnson, one of the pre-Chase favorites, and the 21-year-old Busch, in his first Chase.

Both are going to have to make sensational comebacks to even have a shot.

Johnson has had to come back from Chase adversity before.

In the inaugural Chase in 2004, after starting off with finishes of 11th and 10th at New Hampshire and Dover, Johnson had finishes of 37th and 32nd at Talladega and Kansas. That left him ninth in the standings, 247 points behind leader Kurt Busch.

But Johnson staged a furious rally, winning four of the final six races and coming up just eight points short of champion Busch — the closest championship in NASCAR history.

That same year, Tony Stewart crashed and finished 39th in the Chase opener at New Hampshire and never climbed out of the hole. He finished sixth in the points that year.

Stewart, who came back to win the title — his second — last year, believes that one bad race should not penalize Chase drivers as much as it does now.

“I think if you’ve got 10 guys that are racing with each other, they should have their own deal,” said Stewart, who fell 16 points short of making the Chase field this year and got little but personal satisfaction for finishing second to new Chase leader Kevin Harvick on Sunday.

Late in the race, Stewart charged past Chase contenders Danny Hamlin, Jeff Burton and, finally, Gordon to gain the runner-up spot.

“There should be a second points format, in my opinion,” Stewart said. “That’s the frustrating part. It’s just like me getting between Kevin and Jeff. Jeff was the second Chase guy and he should get second points.

“You’re racing guys all year and you work with each other and you’re friends with a lot of these guys and you know you’re out there costing them points. The 33 guys that didn’t make the Chase shouldn’t have to feel that way if they have a good day and are able to pass guys.”

Stewart says he even has a solution to the problem for NASCAR.

“If I had my way and I could change NASCAR today, I would have had the guys that didn’t make the race this week and (the guys) from 11th on back run a 200-mile race with no-holds-barred on that,” he explained. “Then the top 10 guys run a 200-mile race against each other after that.

“That way at least you don’t have the teams that did make the playoffs playing against the teams that didn’t make the playoffs. Right now, it’s kind of a weird situation. The Chase is exciting, there’s nothing wrong with it. But it puts some of us drivers in some awkward positions.”

Gordon, a four-time champion and another teammate of Johnson and Busch, agreed with Stewart that a different points structure would make sense.

“You have a 10-race shootout and yet you have a points system that is all about consistency,” said Gordon, who failed to make the Chase last year. “You have one bad day and that much takes you out of it.

“I think if they had a structure of points just for the top 10, where if you’re the last guy in the top 10 you took a hit but not such a big one, that would be good.”

Even under the current system, though, Gordon still has hope for protege Johnson and Busch, who trail Harvick by 139 and 146 points heading to Dover for next Sunday’s race.

“I think they do better when they’re angry and get behind,” Gordon said. “I look for those guys to be on quite a tear in the next five or six races and try to get themselves back into it.”

Still, he acknowledges it’s likely to be a futile effort.

“I’m not saying you can’t come back,” Gordon said. “Jimmie certainly can. We’ve seen him do it before. But, if there’s anybody out there who stays consistent for all 10 races, there’s no way he can come back.”

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By Bob Margolis, Yahoo! Sports

LOUDON, N.H. – Thoughts, observations and a few questions following the opening round of the Chase at New Hampshire International Speedway:The dictionary definition of momentum is: “The tendency of an object to continue movement in a single direction.”