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A few weeks ago following the Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond, things were beginning to look a little grim for car owner, Jack Roush. Ten races into the season, and only two of his five drivers were sitting inside the top-12 in points, though at the time both Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards were less than 120 points away from a potential slip to 13th in the standings. David Ragan was in 14th, Matt Kenseth in 22nd, and Jamie McMurray a very distant 26th. What’s happened since then? Well, things have gotten better to say the least. Biffle and Edwards have solidified their stance inside the Chase field; Ragan and Kenseth still have a good fighting chance to crack the top-12; and Jamie McMurray has evaded the danger zone of falling outside of the top-35 in owners points, and now sits in 22nd.

Matt Kenseth has seen perhaps the most drastic improvement. After scoring only four top-ten finishes through the first ten races of the season, Kenseth has answered back by firing off three consecutive finishes of 7th or better at Darlington, Charlotte, and most recently, Dover, where he earned his first top-five since Fontana two weeks into the season. While Matt still lags back in 16th in the points standings, he’s closed the points gap significantly and now trails 12th place Kasey Kahne by a mere 95 points.

Trailing the points leaders at this point in the season is by no means new territory for the man affectionately referred to as “Weasel”. In 2005 - two years after winning the Cup Championship - Kenseth sat 22nd in points after the first thirteen races. At that time, the Chase field consisted of only the top-ten drivers, and Matt trailed 10th place by a distant 278 points. He would not be denied, however, as he rattled off 9 top-ten finishes throughout the next 13 races and entered the Chase for the Cup 8th in points. He finished the year in 7th, but many Kenseth fans still tout that season as a victory nonetheless.

Since entering the Cup Series full-time in 2000, Kenseth has finished outside of the top-12 in points only during his first two seasons. Since then, he has finished no worse than 8th in the standings, and won the championship for Roush in 2003 - as well as finishing runner-up for the title to Jimmie Johnson in ‘06.

Up until this year, Kenseth had known only one crew chief - Robby Reiser - who had been with Matt during his entire NASCAR career. Robbie has since been promoted within the Roush organization, and Matt found himself struggling with his new Crew Chief, Chip Bolin. Things appear to be coming together at this point, though, and Kenseth could very well be on his way to keeping his Chase streak alive.

Kenseth has long been known as the type of driver that can turn a bad situation into a good one without anyone ever seeing it coming, and that’s exactly what we could be looking at from the no. 17 team this season. Since 2005, in races number 14 through 26 on the schedule (39 races in all over the past 3 years), Kenseth has tallied 3 wins, 13 top-five’s, and 23 top-ten’s, and has a 12.15 average finish over the course of those races. If he can hold true to form, there should be plenty of time left for Kenseth to “weasel” his way back into Chase contention.

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Utter heartbreak and sheer disappointment. That’s the best way to describe Kurt Busch’s career in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ever since younger brother, Kyle, joined the circuit full-time for Hendrick Motorsports back in 2005 … well, I guess you could throw subtle envy into that equation as well. Since then, it just seems as though the seasons have been getting longer and tougher for the 2004 Cup Series champ.

Okay, so maybe it has less to do with Kyle and more to do with Kurt’s jump from Roush-Fenway Racing over to Penske Racing, but the numbers don’t lie, and the numbers indicate to us that there’s something amiss with the no. 2 Miller Lite Dodge team these days. In his first four full seasons of racing in NASCAR’s premier series, Kurt tallied a total of 11 wins, 34 top-five’s, and 61 top-ten’s and won Jack Roush’s second consecutive Cup for him. Since the beginning of 2005, however, those numbers have taken a severe hit, as he’s put together only 6 more wins, 23 top-five’s, and 45 top-ten’s, with his best points finish in that span coming during his 8th place run last year after having to put together a late-season rally just to make the cut for the Chase field.

To add a little salt to the wound, since Kyle’s emergence onto the Cup scene, he’s beaten big bro in every major statistical category with the exception of pole awards - only due to the 6 poles that Kurt won in his 2006 campaign - and, Kyle appears to be in major contention to win the title this year while Kurt lags back in 21st place in the points standings.

After finding some success with the addition of Pat Tryson as his crew chief late in the ‘07 season - a move that many people feel salvaged the year for the team - many people expected a big year from Kurt this season, but that hasn’t been the case by any means. He was able to finish runner-up to teammate, Ryan Newman, at the Daytona 500 and received many kudos from around the racing nation for the big push that he gave Ryan at the end of the race to push him across the finish line and secure the first restrictor plate win for car owner, Roger Penske.

Since then it’s been downhill, though. He went onto score top-15 finishes at Atlanta, Fontana, and Bristol, but finished outside of the top-20 in the five events that followed, as Kurt plummeted down the points standings. They put together a decent run at Darlington, where they finished 12th, and then they got the car out front last weekend in Charlotte and appeared to be the class of the field through the early portions of the race before that heartbreak and disappointment kicked back in.

After leading 64 laps in the race, Kurt was running second behind race leader, Brian Vickers, on lap 161 when a blown right tire sent him flying into the wall and ended his bid for the win. He was able to get his car back out on the track without losing any laps, but the damage was severe enough to halter any progress he attempted to make towards the front, and ultimately settled for a 16th place finish.

Now, with only 14 races remaining before NASCAR sets their Chase field with the top-12 drivers, Kurt finds himself all the way down in 21st - 668 points back from his brother and current points leader, Kyle Busch, and 262 points separating he and 12th place, Kasey Kahne. This is the furthest back in points that Kurt has ever been at this point in the season. The good news for Kurt Busch fans, though, is that his average finish in races 13 through 26 last year was 13.07 and consisted of 2 wins and 7 top-ten finishes.

NASCAR’s Worst Tracks:
5. Pocono Raceway
4. New Hampshire International Raceway
3. Auto Club Speedway
2. Michigan International Speedway
1. Texas Motor Speedway

NASCAR’s Best Tracks:
5. Richmond International Raceway
4. Daytona International Speedway
3. Lowe’s Motor Speedway
2. Chicagoland Speedway
1. Bristol Motor Speedway

Image details: The Dan Lowry 400 served by picapp.com

Sprint Cup Series driver, Ryan Newman, started the 2008 season off in grand fashion by winning the race of all races, the Daytona 500. Things couldn’t be better for Newman at the time. He was leading the Sprint Cup standings for the first time in his career, he’d bolstered the public perception of how well he and teammate, Kurt Busch, could work together after Busch gave him that huge push to win the race, and he’d forever solidified his name in the walls of Penske Racing by giving Roger his first-ever restrictor plate win.

Newman followed up his big win with a 10th place run the following week in Fontana, CA during the Auto Club 500, but things started to turn south real quick after that for the driver that fans once highly regarded as “Flyin” Ryan. Following that race, Newman then embarked on a string of four consecutive races outside the top-ten, including a 33rd place finish at Bristol thanks to mechanical issues.

Things have since started to turn back around for Newman, though. He’s currently pieced together three top-ten finishes in his last four starts, and would probably have four straight if not for another engine failure at Phoenix that caused him to finish dead last. After once looking as though he might slip outside of the top-12 in points, he remains in 11th place with a 56 point cushion between he and 13th place Jeff Gordon, and after ten races, he has been within the Chase field for the entire season now. Looking forward, the immediate future is looking bright for Newman, as he boasts the fourth best driver rating at Darlington according to racingone.com, and has an overall average finish there of 5th place.

It should also be noted that this is a pivotal year in the career of Newman, for both he and Penske Racing. Newman’s contract is up following the 2008 season, and if he fails to resign by the end of the season, he could potentially leave his name out there as the hottest free agent on the market. In the two years prior to ‘08, Newman compiled zero wins and finished outside of the top-12 both years.

In Other News:
- Roush Racing is looking more and more like they will be heading into 2009 with the same driver lineup as they entered this season with, despite having two of their biggest contracts expire at the end of the season. Carl Edwards, who currently leads the Cup Series in victories this year, recently inked a deal with Roush that will keep him with the organization for another three years, reported to be worth approximately $6 million a year. Greg Biffle’s contract is also up after this season, but continues to report that he’s 99% confident that a return to Roush-Fenway Racing is eminent, and that he has not yet begun fielding offers from any other race teams.

- It was recently reported widely across the internet that Bobby LaBonte signed a deal over the weekend with his current team, Petty Enterprises, that will lock up the driver of the no. 43 Dodge with the organization for the remainder of his career. The news came after Richard Childress Racing announced the formation of a fourth race team next season and that they had already signed General Mills to be their sponsor in 2009, and speculation immediately ran rampant that LaBonte would later be announced as the team’s driver. In response to the news of him resigning with Petty, LaBonte told the media Saturday in Richmond prior to the race that, “Unless you’ve heard it from me, it’s probably not true.” To that, there is still no official word as to whether or not these rumors hold true.

After a long, wet, and miserable weekend for racing fans at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA, fans filled the seats for 87 laps on Sunday – 27 of which were spent under caution and multiple red flags – only to be told in the early hours of the morning that competition would not resume again until the following afternoon.

The portion of the race that was run on Sunday was clearly dominated by the no. 24 car of Jeff Gordon, as he led the majority of the first 87 laps, despite the fact that his teammate Jimmie Johnson finished the segment at the front of the field. The day was filled with caution after caution, and many drivers felt that the mayhem on the track was to be credited not only to the fact that the drivers ran only 17 laps of practice prior to the race, but also to the notion that water was actually seeping through the track. The frustration was painted clearly on the face of Dale Earnhardt Jr after he was innocently taken out of the race by a spinning Casey Mears. In a post-wreck interview on FOX, Junior stated that NASCAR rushed the start of the race and that the track clearly wasn’t ready. The major concern in that pileup, however, had little to do with NASCAR’s most popular driver, but more so with Mears. After Mears hit Junior, he spun back up the track and was resting on the wall when rookie driver Sam Hornish Jr. blew into him, inverting Mears’ car and leaving it sitting on its roof.

When racing resumed on Monday afternoon, Johnson resumed as the race leader and dominated the majority of the second segment. When the field came out of its eleventh caution of the race on lap 225, it was Johnson still in command with Gordon, Jamie McMurray, and Carl Edwards following behind. McMurray – who had taken only two tires on the stop – was easily passed by Edwards, who then went onto take second from Gordon as well. With only 13 laps remaining on the books, Carl then took the lead from Johnson coming through turns one and two on lap 138. The defending NASCAR champion made a race of it, though, regaining the lead coming out of turn four, but Edwards reconquered the throne on the following lap and never looked back. With a sizeable lead to his advantage, the race ended when Dale Jarrett spun on the final lap of the race to bring out the twelfth and final caution. With the field frozen, Edwards crossed the line to bring home the checkered flag marking his eighth victory in the Sprint Cup Series.

Johnson maintained 2nd place, and Gordon was also able to hang onto 3rd despite blowing his engine on the last lap. Kyle Busch brought home a fourth place finish, which was enough to gain him the points lead for the first time in his career, and the defending race winner Matt Kenseth finished fifth. Ryan Newman lost the points lead despite finishing 10th, while Tony Stewart’s seventh place finish was enough to keep him in third in the standings.  Kurt Busch dropped to fourth in the points after a 13th place finish.

It’s also worth noting that Dale Jarrett led his first laps in the Sprint Cup Series since October of 2006 by staying out on the track while the field was under caution, and rookie Dario Franchitti led the first lap of his career by doing the same.

 Grades (on a 100 point scale):
The Race: 73%
The Drama: 84%
Coverage: 81%
Pre-Race Ceremonies: 62%

Overall Grade: 75.7%
*Note – the Race accounts for 50% of score; Coverage & Drama is 20% each; Pre-Race is 10%

 Results (from nascar.com):

#1 – Ryan Newman – Flyin’ Ryan took the racing world by complete surprise by coming from behind to win the Daytona 500 this past Sunday and now sits atop the Sprint Cup Series points standings for the first time in his career. His current status at the top could be short-lived, however, as the Cup Series now heads to Fontana, CA … a place that hasn’t been extremely kind to Newman in the past. After posting three consecutive top-ten finishes from ’04 to ’05, he has failed to collect a top-ten at Fontana since the Spring of ’06.

#2 – Kurt Busch – The oldest of the Busch brothers showed the world just how much he’s maturing as a professional driver when he turned an absolutely dismal speedweeks into a second place finish at the Daytona 500. The series heads to California this week where Kurt had previously fallen off just a hair from where he used to be until he rounded out the ’07 Cali series with two solid top-ten’s. If he can avoid trouble on the track this week and retain his positioning toward the top of the standings, 2008 could get off to an electrifying start for the no. 2 team as they head to Las Vegas for the third race of the season where Kurt has done extremely well.

#3 – Tony Stewart – After losing the Daytona 500 in the final lap this last Sunday, you can bet that Smoke will be looking to bounce back and get Toyota into Victory Lane for the first time in their Sprint Cup history. It will be no easy task, however, as this is one of the few tracks Stewart has never earned a victory, with his best finish being his fourth place runs in 1999 and 2001. His average finish in his last five Fontana races is 15.6, which includes a 43rd place finish in the Spring race of ’06.

#4 – Kyle Busch -   Kyle really started to come into his own last season, and has shown no problems bringing that momentum along with him over to the no. 18 team for Joe Gibbs Racing so far. A second place finish in the Nationwide Series race at Daytona followed by a fourth place finish at the Daytona 500 along with leading the most laps have the younger Busch off to a great start. With five straight top 10’s at Califonia, Busch should be a lock to remain in the top five in points which could mean trouble since they will then visit his hometown of Las Vegas.

#5 – Reed Sorenson – Reed looked absolutely great all week long in the Daytona Speedweeks, so it’s really no huge surprise that he finished well in the 500. However, as good as Daytona has been to him, California has been equally bad. Four career starts for Reed in Fontana have resulted in three 21st place finishes and a 43rd. In other words, it could be a complete waste of time to look for Reed on this list next week.

#6 – Kasey Kahne – The no. 9 Dodge team of Kasey Kahne is usually very fast and in contention as we zoom past the halfway point at Daytona, but what they were able to do this year that they haven’t done so much of in the past is keep the car in one piece by the end of the day. With an average finish of 14.3 and a win in 2006 at Fontana, Kahne is likely to remain in the Chase field as the series heads to Vegas for week 3.

#7 – Elliott Sadler – Sadler joined in on a late-race Dodge charge that saw them grab six of the top eight spots in the Datyona 500, and Sadler now has a place in the Chase standings for the first time since making the move over to Evernham Motorsports. He’s also a past winner at California, but has only one other top-ten finish in his thirteen races there. This weekend should prove as a decent indicator as to whether Elliott’s showing signs of returning to NASCAR’s “A” list, or if last weekend was simply a fluke.

#8 – Dale Earnhardt Jr – After prevailing as the heavy favorite to win the race going into last Sunday’s Daytona 500, Junior completed the five-hundred mile race in 9th place and 8th in the points, very much to his own disappointment. Fontana, CA hasn’t been nearly as nice to Dale as Daytona has in the past, but he does have two top-five finishes in his last three tries at Cali, so he does stand an excellent chance of improving on his current position in the standings.

#9 – Robby Gordon – Undoubtedly the biggest surprise on the list. Robby’s had a history of making strong runs at a number of tracks only to run into trouble on the track or mechanical failures. He managed to steer clear of both this past Sunday and now sits ninth in the standings. In eleven attempts at Fontana he has only one top-ten finish which came in 2004, so his success is likely to be short-lived and soon-forgotten. On the bright side, if his ultimate goal is to remain in the top 35 in owner points, he’s off to a great start.

#10 – Greg Biffle – After a strong run late in the race at Daytona, Biffle is showing early signs of possibly returning to his former success in the Cup Series. He also has the benefit of being a former winner at Fontana back in the Spring of ’05 and followed that up with a second place finish in the Fall race. His best finish since then has been only 15th, which came in the Spring of last year, so the Biff will be looking to bring some of last week’s momentum back to the track with him this Sunday.

#11 – Bobby LaBonte – If I’m not mistaken, this would officially mark the first time that a Petty Enterprise team has been inside the Chase field since the playoff format was created in 2004. LaBonte has been impressive at times since joining the Petty team, but a variety of issues seem to continually keep them from well-deserved good finishes. They managed to leave Daytona with an 11th place finish and now head to a track that Bobby has finished second at on two occasions, though he has failed to earn a top-ten in his last seven visits to California.

#12 – Jeff Burton – After going virtually unnoticed all day on Sunday, Burton managed to sneak himself in for a 13th place finish, and since he had led laps as well, currently sits 12th in points. Next week’s visit to Fontana could be a nice reprieve for Jeff, as he finished fourth there in both races last year and fifth in the Spring of ’06.

2/17 – Ryan Newman kicked off the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season by winning his first race in 81 races by bringing home the checkers at the Daytona 500.  Read More.

2/17 – Former NBA star John Salley has stated that he is in the early stages of negotiations of purchasing or starting a team in the Sprint Cup Series.  Read More.

2/18 – The Martin Truex Jr Foundation has announced the official launch of their “Tag! You’re It” campaign to benefit the Dove House Children’s Advocacy Center.  Read More.

2/18 – NASCAR has reported an entry list of 51 drivers for California in this weekend’s Sprint Cup race, 43 entries in the Nationwide Series, and 35 entries in the Craftsman Truck Series race.

2/19 – The International Race of Champions (IROC) Series has officially announced the termination of the series and will liquidate all assets in a 2-day public auction on March 7th & 8th.  Read More.

2/19 – The IndySeries is expected to purchase the Champ Car Series in a deal that could happen as early as this afternoon, though details have not yet been confirmed.  Read More.

2/19 – This weekend at Fontana, CA, Mark Martin will become only the 13th driver in history to make his 700th career start in a Cup Series points race.  Read More.

2/19 – Rusty Wallace Inc. has announced that Dale Ferguson will serve as the interim Crew Chief for their no. 64 Nationwide Series team driven by David Stremme, Max Papis, & Chase Austin.  Read More.

2/19 – Roush-Fenway Racing has announced that Travis Kvapil will drive the no. 09 Zaxby’s Ford F-150 in the Craftsman Truck Series race this weekend at California. Read More.

After experiencing some success in the open-wheel market, Team Red Bull decided to purge into NASCAR late in the 2006 season. Except, it wasn’t exactly a “purge”, as they failed to qualify in the three races they attempted. Shaking off the disappointment from their trial runs in ’06, the team looked ahead towards the 2007 season after purchasing the old Penske race shop in Mooresville, NC and aligning with the Toyota brand as they, too, made their debut in the NASCAR [then] Nextel  Cup Series.

With Brian Vickers driving the #83 car and Cup Series rookie AJ Allmendinger behind the wheel of the #84, the 2007 campaign got off to a horrid start as both failed to qualify for the transfer spots for the Daytona 500. The following week, however, Vickers did successfully qualify at California and finished the race in 10th. It wasn’t until the fifth race of the season that Allmendinger finally qualified.

Between Red Bull’s two race teams, they successfully qualified for only 40 of their possible 72 combined points races, which netted TRB only one top five and five top ten finishes – all via the efforts of Vickers. Neither of the cars finished in the top 35 in owner points, either, meaning that 2008 will start off much like ’07 with both cars having to qualify for every race based on time. Much like their fellow Toyota teams in Michael Waltrip Racing and Bill Davis Racing, though, they will receive a much-needed boost in their efforts with addition of Joe Gibbs’ team to the mix. If the engine packages and the cars hold up the way I think they will, I believe Vickers is a solid enough driver to get his car somewhere in the top 25 in points and take a little bit of the pressure off of this race team.

Cup Series Roster:

83: Brian Vickers – The 24-year-old native of North Carolina got off to a bit of a slower start in the Cup Series than most people had expected recording only four top ten’s and no top five’s in his first full season in the Cup in ‘04. He finally broke out in 2005, though, while racing for Hendrick Motorsports in a season that brought him five top-five’s and ten top-ten’s resulting in a 17th place points finish. The following year he maintained his momentum with another five top-five’s and recording his first Cup victory at Talladega when he took teammate Jimmie Johnson out of the race in the closing laps to secure his victory. He also moved up another two spots in the standings that year as well. Following 2006, though, Vickers made the curious decision to leave Hendrick Motorsports and join Team Red Bull and the Toyota venture as they both made their break into the Cup Series. The transition was a bit rough, as Vickers qualified for only 23 of the 36 races last season and recorded only five top-ten finishes – only one more than in his rookie season. The main goal for Vickers this season will be to get his car qualified for the first five races of the season and then getting his ride inside the top 35 in points to secure future starts, regardless of qualifying. Once he does that, much of the burden should be lifted from his shoulders and we could possibly see Vickers become rather racey once again. Look for him to finish in the top 25 in points this year.

84: AJ Allmendinger – The former Champ Car Series driver didn’t make the transition to NASCAR until last year – his rookie season – and, it was a rather miserable transition at that. He qualified in only 17 of the 36 races, not garnering his first start until five races into the season. He also failed to make the best out of those starts by not only not recording a single top ten finish, but accumulating an overall average finish of just over 31 and finishing the year 43rd in points. His success in the Champ Car Series was a little up and down, and he really hasn’t proven that he’s ready for NASCAR’s highest level. My honest pre-season prediction for Allmendinger is that he will be released by TRB before the end of the season, replacing him with either someone running a full-time Nationwide schedule or one of these mediocre vets still in search of a ride.

Driver Roster: C-
Off-Season: D
2008 Outlook: D+

1/30 – Dale Earnhardt Jr. has now reported that the comments he made in regards to DEI removing his memorabilia from their headquarters were mischaracterized and that there are no ill feelings over the situation.  Read More.

1/30 – Richard Petty will waive the green flag at this year’s Daytona 500, a race that “the King” has won himself on seven different occasions.  Read More.

1/30 – Hershey’s is honoring racing legend Dale Earnhardt by releasing four limited edition collector chocolate bars this month depicting different images of “the Intimidator”.  Read More.

1/30 – Richard Childress is among eight inductees this year into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.  Read More.

1/31 – Billboards at Texas Motor Speedway promoting the Sprint Cup Series’ visit to the track with the wording “Reason # 88: Step-Mom” are being replaced at the request of Kelly Earnhardt, Dale’s sister.  The billboard will now read “Reason # 88: New Car Smell”.  Read More.

1/31 – Johnny Benson ran the fastest lap in the four testing sessions for the Nationwide Series held this week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He turned in a lap of 29.552 in his no. 20 Toyota.  Read More.

1/31 – Cunningham Motorsports has announced that they will expand to the Craftsman Truck Series this year. CHM is already a top competitor in the ARCA Series and is now seeking drivers and sponsors for 2008 to run the trucks.  Read More.

2/1 – Robby Gordon Motorsports has signed a new partnership to align the race team with that of Gillette-Evernham Motorsports. Per the terms of the deal, Gordon’s single car operation will field Dodge’s on the track in 2008, and in return will receive the financial and sponsorship assistance he’s lacked in recent years.  Read More.

2/1 – Due to new state laws in Tennessee banning smoking in most public facilities, smoking at Bristol will now be restricted to the concourse areas.  Read More.

2/1 – Denny Hamlin led the pre-season Sprint Cup testing at California by turning a lap of 39.447 seconds in his no. 11 Joe Gibbs Toyota in the Thursday morning session.  Read More.