In 32 minutes, Durant had 30 points, six rebounds and two assists while hitting 10-of-16 shots from the field and 9-of-10 free throw attempts. It was his second straight preseason game in which he scored exactly 30 points.

Against the Heat, Durant got plenty of help — namely from Jeff Green. The Georgetown product had 25 points and three rebunds in 36 minutes of action. Russell Westbrook chipped in with an impressive all around effort of 12 points, seven assists, six rebounds and three steals.

For Miami, Michael Beasley led the way with 24 points, four rebounds and two assists. Playing without the injured Dwyane Wade, the Heat got double digit scoring performances from Daequan Cook, Quentin Richardson, Mario Chalmers and Jermaine O’Neal.

Will Kevin Durant Turn Into a Superstar this Season? (Image: Zuma Press)

Post from: EveryJoe

Kevin Durant Goes for 30 as Thunder Win

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Indianapolis Motor Speedway (aka: the Brickyard) is home of the Indianapolis 500 and is highly regarded as one of the most prestigious tracks in all of motorsports. After taking a week off, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will now return to the Brickyard for the fifteenth time in a race whose prestige to NASCAR regulars is rivaled only by the season opening Daytona 500. In the previous 14 trips to the track, Indianapolis has produced only three multiple winners in NASCAR, and only two of them will be in the field on Sunday – Jeff Gordon (4 wins) and Tony Stewart (2 wins), with Dale Jarrett being the other. With the garage area finally being able to weed their way through much of the notorious Silly Season and a week of R&R in the rearview, the drivers will hit the track on Sunday more focused than ever as the countdown to the Chase begins to wind down.

Recent Winners:
2007 - Tony Stewart
2006 – Jimmie Johnson
2005 – Tony Stewart

Recent Polesitters:
2007 - Reed Sorenson
2006 – Jeff Burton
2005 – Elliott Sadler

the Usual Suspects:
As previously mentioned, Jeff Gordon has four wins at Indianapolis, which is tops amongst all drivers in NASCAR. Equally impressive, though, is that he also has 7 top-five’s and 10 top-ten’s through 14 races at the track, both of which are also the best in the Sprint Cup garage area. His 16th place run here in 2006 was his worst since he finished 33rd back in 2000, but he was able to rebound with a 3rd place effort last season. Though he is still without a win 19 races into the 2008 campaign, Gordon’s quietly been creeping his way up through the points standings, and the no. 24 team is beginning to show signs of life again – which could mean very bad things for the other 42 cars out on the track.

Tony Stewart seems to be getting back to enjoying life once again, and there are few places he likes to visit better than the Brickyard, as he has proven with wins here in 2005 and 2007. He’s going to need some strong showings to secure his place in the Chase, as I’m sure he’d love nothing more than to give the Coach one more championship before departing at the end of the season.

Indianapolis has yet to be conquered by the driving prowess of Kyle Busch, but then again, there were a lot of places Kyle had never won at prior to this season. He’s gradually improved each year he’s been here, though, going from 10th to 7th, and finally cracking the top-five with a 4th place finish last year ….. Kevin Harvick had his opportunity to kiss the bricks with his win here back in 2003, and another opportunity to do that would really straighten his season out as he continues to recover from his mid-season slump. He’s finished 11th or better in six of his seven races at Indy ….. Matt Kenseth has never won at the Brickyard before, but he’s been very consistent. In 8 races here, he’s cracked the top-five on four occasions, which includes a pair of runner-up finishes, and he’s finished 16th or better in each of his last six Indy races.

the Unusual Suspects:
Juan Pablo Montoya has run very well in a stock car at almost any track that they also race in the open wheel circuits, and Indianapolis was no exception last year as he finished 2nd in that race. With Pocono and Watkins Glen up next on the schedule, JPM could be looking at a pretty good stretch ahead ….. Brian Vickers has finished 21st or better in three of his four Indy races, which includes a 3rd place finish back in 2005. He’s been running much better this season and could be staring at a potential berth in the Chase field. He ran well at Pocono earlier in the season, a track that many feel shares similar characteristics to the Brickyard ….. Reed Sorenson has come to Indy only twice. The first trip resulted in a dismal 30th place finish, but last year’s visit was much brighter as Reed won the pole and then went onto finish 5th in the race itself.

the Unusual Slackers:
In three races at Indianapolis, Martin Truex Jr. has never finished better than 12th and holds an average finish of just 24.3. This is not a good place for Martin to be right now, either, considering that his team was just handed a 150 point penalty by NASCAR, and he’s going to need plenty of good runs if he plans on having any shot at making the Chase this year ….. Hometown crowd or not, Indy has not been kind to Ryan Newman thus far in his career. Seven times Newman has come home to Indiana with high expectations, but 2002 was the only one that resulted in a top-ten finish, when he finished 4th. He has only two top-15’s here since then ….. Despite winning the race here in 2006, Jimmie Johnson has experienced some unusual struggles here. The results haven’t typically been very indicative of how he’s run, but nonetheless, he’s got three finishes outside of the top-35 in only six tries. His other finishes were a win, a 9th, and an 18th ….. Greg Biffle has seen his share of struggles at Indy as well. In five races here, he’s finished in the top-ten only once, and only twice in the top-15. His overall average finish at the track is 19.2.

Best Driver Ratings (from racingone.com):
1. Tony Stewart – 121.4
2. Juan Pablo Montoya – 120.7
3. Kevin Harvick – 108.7
4. Matt Kenseth – 106.1
5. Mark Martin – 102.9

Best Average Finish (from racingone.com):
1. Juan Pablo Montoya – 2.0
2. Kyle Busch – 7.0
3. Tony Stewart – 7.6
4. Jeff Gordon – 7.6
5. Kevin Harvick – 7.7

Indianapolis Facts:
- 3rd is the only starting position to produce more than one winner at Indy. Three drivers have driven to victory from the third spot. The 1st and 2nd starting positions have produced one winner each.
- Four drivers have driven six different car numbers at Indianapolis: Bill Elliott, Joe Nemecheck, Jeff Green, Kenny Wallace.
- Dave Blaney is the only driver to have driven five different car makes at Indy. He has driven Pontiac, Ford, Dodge, and Chevy twice each here, and has also driven a Toyota once.
- Only four drivers have finished in the top-ten in each of the last three years: Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, and Mark Martin.
- Jeff Burton has led more laps at Indianapolis than at any other track that he has not won at.
- The second NASCAR race held here, back in 1995, saw only one caution flag during the race. In 2004, there were 13 cautions.
- Chevrolet has won 9 of the 14 Cup races held at Indy.

Six-Pack Challenge:
Winner – Jeff Gordon
2nd Place – Kyle Busch
3rd Place – Mark Martin
4th Place – Tony Stewart
5th Place – Matt Kenseth
6th Place – Clint Bowyer

Lock of the Week – Tony Stewart
Sleeper Pick – Juan Pablo Montoya
Steer Clear of – Greg Biffle

Video Footage of the 2007 Allstate 400:

Post from: EveryJoe

Race Preview for the Allstate 400 at Indianapolis

Image details: Aaron’s 499 Qualifying served by picapp.com

It’s admittedly WAAAY too early in the season for NASCAR’s silly season to already have gotten as it deep as it has, that’s for sure … but, alas, I must do my small part in life to contribute to this nonsense, because – well, quite frankly it intrigues me.It all started just a few weeks into the ‘08 season when Richard Childress Racing announced the addition of a fourth team to their arsenal next year, and immediately everyone started pointing towards Bobby LaBonte to fill the seat in that ride due to his ties with RCR and Kevin Harvick Inc. in the Nationwide Series. While nothing has come of that since then, RCR has gone ahead and already secured the current #1 sponsor over at Petty Enterprises in General Mills.

RCR got the ball rolling with contract talks, and then a small focus within the media shifted over to Roush-Fenway Racing. Roush will be forced to part ways with one of their team cars after 2009 due to a new rule that will be implemented in NASCAR that will limit to teams limiting no more than four cars. However, two of their five current Cup Series drivers – Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle – have contracts that currently run only through the end of this year. While there’s not really much speculation that Edwards has any plans of leaving the organization – and, may in fact actually nab one of NASCAR’s largest sponsors next season in UPS – Biffle was earlier reported to be about “90% done with his contract renewal.” Talks since then appear to have slowed a bit, and now there’s some minor speculation lingering out there that the Biff may be headed in a new direction. Of course, then you also have the notion that Roush may work out a deal with Yates Racing that would send one of their cars over to that organization in somewhat of a partnership deal, in which case Roush could essentially really wind up not losing anyone after next year.

Fast forward a bit, and then you’ve got Tony Stewart reportedly looking into all sorts of offers, though his contract doesn’t officially end at Joe Gibbs Racing until after the 2009 season. The most widely known offer that seems to be on the table right now for Stewart is a deal that would give up as much as 50% ownership at Haas CNC Racing, and would also return Smoke to his long-tenured relationship with General Motors. There’s been a lot of speculation that Tony has been trying to get out of his contract with JGR following this season, but both parties claim that no such talks have taken place. Additionally, Joe Gibbs himself has stated that their organization is pretty much set the way that it is in terms of ownership, but if that’s something that Tony was interested in, something could possibly be worked out that would set Stewart in the right direction for such a venture.

There was some question regarding Martin Truex Jr’s contract at Dale Earhardt, Inc, which only went through the end of this season. With the team struggling early on, there was a bit of doubt whether or not the organization would pick up the option they had on Martin for 2009, but they recently inked that deal earlier this week and our now working on a deal that would keep Truex at DEI beyond 2010.

Staying somewhat out of the public eye in terms of contract negotiations has been Ryan Newman, who has driven for Penske Racing since entering the Sprint Cup Series, but his contract also expires at the end of the year. Newman has stated that he hasn’t been talking to any other teams about potential options, but he also admitted that he has yet to sign a renewal with Penske and that they haven’t really talked about it. It’s also no huge secret that Newman hasn’t been happy with some of the engines that have been handed to him through the Penske garage, so who knows?

There are also some rumors that Casey Mears could be let go from his ride with Hendrick Motorsports, which would not only free up another driver for a potential signing, but would free up another seat for one of these other guys. And, let’s not forget the blowout that occurred within Chip Ganassi Racing not all that long ago. If Chip’s not happy with his race teams, then who knows who might be available for signing by the time we roll into 2009.There’s a lot of circumstantial talk within these rumors, and I’ll admit that this post is probably somewhat premature, but all the same – it looks like we’re going to have plenty to keep talking about as 2008 pushes forward.Current Rides Available:
#12 – Penske Racing (Ryan Newman)
#16 – Roush-Fenway Racing (Greg Biffle)
#21 – Wood Bros. (Bill Elliott / Jon Wood)
#33 – Richard Childress Racing (new team)
#43 – Petty Enterprises (Bobby LaBonte)
#70 – Haas CNC Racing (race-by-race)
#99 – Roush-Fenway Racing (Carl Edwards)

Post from: EveryJoe

Let’s Talk Contracts

What does that mean for us? For the third time this season, Jimmie Johnson will take us to the green flag for the start of the race despite winning only one of those pole positions on actual qualifying time. His teammate at Hendrick Motorsports and good friend Jeff Gordon will start on the outside of the front row. Behind them will be Clint Bowyer and Matt Kenseth based on their finish in the points standings last year. Casey Mears will have an opportunity to turn his season around by starting fifth – a gift handed to him by replacing Kyle Busch in the no. 5 car. In turn, Kyle is forced to start the race all the way back in the 22nd position based on the car owner points that the no. 18 team accrued in 2007.

Past Champions Provisionals were awarded to both Kurt Busch and Dale Jarrett, whom start 36th & 37th. Busch’s team had to rely on the provisional due to the team handing their car owner points over to Sam Hornish at the beginning of the season.  The remaining provisionals were given to Brian Vickers, David Reutimann, Michael Waltrip, Ken Schrader, Joe Nemecheck, and Mike Skinner … the six teams with the most car owner points in 2008 that failed to finish in the top 35 last season.  Of the drivers that were originally found on the entry list for the Sharpie 500, those who failed to make the race were Jeff Green, John Andretti, and Patrick Carpentier.

After a Friday evening full of rain, the Nationwide Series was able to sneak in some practice early Saturday morning, but the rain clouds eventually moved back in, and NASCAR was forced to postpone the Nationwide race itself. The latest word is that they will try and get the race underway sometime around 4:00 pm est, but it’s still uncertain at this point if the weather is going to cooperate. On the bright side, there’s no rain in the forecast for Sunday. It’s projected to be a sunny day with high winds and a high of somewhere around 55 degrees.

Post from: EveryJoe

Bristol Qualifying / Weather Report

Haas CNC Racing is yet another in a long line of underachieving race teams in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. So much so, in fact, that the typical casual race fan probably isn’t even quite sure who the heck I’m talking about when I say “Haas CNC”. Well, to sum them up, historically they’ve been an underfunded team lacking key sponsors, a competent development program, and capable drivers. At the beginning of 2007, their two cars were fielded by Johnny Sauter – who had his best Cup season of his career by finishing 30th in points – and, Jeff Green – a driver that was fired with four races left in the season in favor of a driver that to that point had failed to qualify for 15 of the 32 Cup races that year.

To put it mildly, 2007 was a very poor season for this program – just as their prior seasons had been.  While 2008 doesn’t look to be the year that this team makes “the Chase” by any means, things are definitely looking brighter in the sense that they’ve at least got two drivers on board that have at least demonstrated the ability to succeed on some level at some point in their careers. Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Riggs probably aren’t going to become the new restrictor plate duo that scares the crap out of the other 41 drivers on the track, but I don’t think that’s exactly the team’s immediate goal. What Mayfield and Riggs bring to the table for this team is the hopes that Haas CNC might head into 2009 with two cars solidly in the top 35 in owner points. Depending on what the Toyota cars and the new “open wheel flood” drivers are able to do this season, I don’t think it’s so unreasonable to think that they might actually accomplish this feat, either.

Cup Series Roster:

66: Jeremy Mayfield – This guy may have one of the most up-and-down careers in the Cup Series in the past 20 years, because every time it looks like he’s got things on track and he might soon join NASCAR’s elite class of drivers, everything around him suddenly seems to take a quick and serious turn for the worse. While racing for Penske Racing, Jeremy finished a career-high 9th in points back in 1998, but the next three years had gotten so bad that he was later released from the team in 2001. After finally rebuilding his career with Evernham Motorsports driving the no. 19 Dodge, he again finished in the top ten in points in 2004 and 2005 with a win in each of those seasons. He dropped so far the following year, though, that Evernham released him after 22 races. He finished 39th in points and failed to crack the top ten on a single occasion. In 2007 he joined Bill Davis Racing for the new launch of the Toyota Camri into the Cup Series, and that was an absolute nightmare. He failed to qualify in 15 events and was released from the team with four races to go in the season. He was picked up by CNC Haas that same week and finished the season out driving the no. 66 Chevy. Though his best finish in those four races was only a dismal 22nd, perhaps he can find solace in the fact that he did qualify for all four events under the CNC banner. While it’s not likely that he’ll find any of his past success immediately this year, Jeremy knows that the important thing is to just stay consistent. He needs consistent top 20 or top 25 finishes with the occasional top 10 and to just focus on keeping is car inside the top 35 in owner points and in the race each and every week. If he doesn’t, he could quickly find himself petitioning for a Nationwide Series ride.

70: Scott Riggs – He’s never won a Cup Series race, and his best Cup Series points finish to date is only 20th. Riggs qualified for only 27 of the 36 Cup races last season, finishing 36th in points behind the wheel of the no. 10 Valvoline Dodge for Evernham Motorsports. If you look at 2006, however, you’ll see that Riggs has proven that he does have the ability to compete in this series. That year he amassed a total of 8 top ten finishes, including a top five and finished 20th overall in the points. The year before he had two top five’s and four top ten’s, though he finished only 34th. This year he takes over behind the wheel of the no. 70 Yellow Transportation Chevy that was driven last year by Johnny Sauter. Sauter did manage to keep the car inside the top 35 in owner points, which should take some of the pressure off of Riggs heading into the Daytona 500.

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

Post from: EveryJoe

Season Preview: Haas CNC Racing