Race Preview for the Lifelock.com 400 at Chicago

Image details: USG Sheetrock 400 served by picapp.com

NASCAR will return to Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL this weekend. Saturday night’s race will mark the eighth trip to Chicagoland for the Sprint Cup Series, and the first NASCAR event there run under the lights. The 1.5 mile tri-oval track has produced only two repeat winner to-date (Kevin Harvick & Tony Stewart), and no driver has ever won the pole here twice. With the points shakeup that occurred as a result of the mele’ at Daytona last week, all eyes are certain to be focused on the Midwest this week with only 8 races remaining until the official cutoff for the Chase for the Sprint Cup begins.

Recent Winners:
2007 – Tony Stewart
2006 – Jeff Gordon
2005 – Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Recent Polesitters:
2007 – Casey Mears
2006 – Jeff Burton
2005 – Jimmie Johnson

the Usual Suspects:
You can’t visit Chicago without Kevin Harvick ranking amongst your favorites to win the race. Despite some lackluster performances as of late, the no. 29 team showed some positive signs of life at the last three weeks at Infineon, New Hampshire, and Daytona, but consistently managed to find themselves the victim of poor circumstances. Now, Harvick will be looking to get back into Chase contention, and Chicago’s certainly a place he can do it. He’s one of only two 2-time winners here in the Cup Series, and his 8.0 average finish at Chicago ranks best amongst all active drivers.

Tony Stewart’s wins at Chicago in 2007 and 2004 qualify him as the only other repeat winner at Chicago, he’s got the third best driver rating here, and his 5 top-five finishes at the track are tops in the Sprint Cup Series. He’s experienced some extremely bizarre luck this year and has yet to record a victory in 2008 despite being amongst the frontrunners on several occassions, but many people feel that with Smoke finally putting an end to all of the contract speculation, a clear head might be able to finally translate into some marks in the “W” column for the no. 20 team.

Jimmie Johnson recorded five consecutive finishes of 6th or better before finishing 37th here last season, which included a 2nd place finish back in 2004. Johnson’s average finish of 9.2 is second best in the series ….. Matt Kenseth holds the best driver rating at Chicago over the past 3 races, and has been one of the hottest drivers in NASCAR over the past two months as he’s worked himself all the way up to 9th in the points standings. Matt has not yet recorded a win here, but he does have a pair of runner-up finishes in 2005 and 2007 ….. Kurt Busch has never recorded a top-five finish at Chicago, but he does have 5 top-ten’s and holds the best average Chicago finish over the past three races, recording finishes of 8th, 8th, and 6th in that span ….. Jeff Gordon won the 2006 race held here, and has also recorded a total of 4 top-five’s and 5 top-ten’s at Chicago.

the Unusual Suspects:
Running only one race a year here can make it tough to use history as a reference when looking for your sleeper picks this week, but Reed Sorenson should be considered a leading candidate for this position. He’s finished 7th and 12th in his only two visits to the track, and ranks 8th in the series for average driver ratings ….. Sorenson’s teammate at Chip Ganassi Racing, Juan Pablo Montoya, has typically been able to improve – or, at least match – his finishes from his rookie season in 2007. Last year he finished 15th at Chicago, so all indicators are that he should be a solid pick this weekend ….. On the heels of the huge announcement that Tony Stewart will join Haas CNC Racing next year, Scott Riggs has two things in mind: 1) Get his team back inside the top-35 in owner points, and 2) Petition for a ride next season. He finished 15th the last time he raced at Chicago, back in 2006.

the Unusual Slackers:
Kasey Kahne has been one of the better drivers in the series since the middle of May, but Chicagoland Speedway has not had a history of playing nice with the no. 9 team. Kahne has never recorded a top-20 finish at the track, and his average finish of 33.0 is the worst amongst all active drivers with four or more starts at Chicago ….. Martin Truex Jr. is in desparate need of a good finish after a 150 point penalty following Daytona has turned a disappointing season into an even worse one, but he’ll have his work cut out for him as he’s finished 16th and 39th in his only two starts here and will be driving without crew chief Kevin Manion in his corner ….. Denny Hamlin has had some disappointing finishes at some of his better tracks over the last month or so, but this weekend he’ll need to reverse that luck with a good finish at Chicago, where his only two starts have resulted in 14th and 17th place finishes.

Best Driver Ratings (from racingone.com):
1. Matt Kenseth – 126.2
2. Kevin Harvick – 114.6
3. Tony Stewart – 112.2
4. Jimmie Johnson – 107.2
5. Kyle Busch – 105.0

Best Average Finish (from racingone.com):
1. Kevin Harvick – 8.0
2. Jimmie Johnson – 9.2
3. Reed Sorenson – 9.5
4. Clint Bowyer - 9.5
5. Kyle Busch – 10.0

Chicago Facts:
- Kevin Harvick has the slowest race record to-date at 121.200 mph in the inaugural race back in 2001. He also holds the race speed record, clocked the following year, at 136.832 mph.
- No driver has ever won the pole award at Chicago more than once.
- All seven Chicagoland races have recorded between 7 to 10 cautions during the race.
- Chevrolet has won 6 of the 7 Sprint Cup races at Chicago.
- No driver has ever won the race from a top-five starting position, and only two have won from the top-ten.
- 17 drivers in the field have competed in all seven Cup races at Chicago.
- Three drivers have finished runner-up at Chicago that have not won at the track: Jeff Burton, Jimmie Johnson, and Matt Kenseth.

Storylines for the Weekend:
- Tony Stewart has announced his departure from Joe Gibbs Racing at the completion of 2008, as he will move to Haas CNC Racing as a driver and a 50% owner. The new company will be renamed Stewart Haas Racing, and the team will continue to receive their engines and chassis from Hendrick Motorsports.
- Martin Truex Jr. was docked 150 points for his car failing to meet NASCAR’s roof template prior to last weekend’s race at Daytona. The penalty drops Truex from 14th all the way down to 18th in the standings, and crew chief, Kevin Manion, has been suspended for six races.

Six-Pack Challenge:
Winner – Matt Kenseth
2nd Place – Jimmie Johnson
3rd Place – Kyle Busch
4th Place - Kevin Harvick
5th Place – Tony Stewart
6th Place – Kurt Busch

Lock of the Week – Tony Stewart
Sleeper Pick – Travis Kvapil
Steer Clear of – Martin Truex Jr.

Video footage of Tony Stewart’s win at the 2007 USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway: