DYN Gears Up for Wild Weekend at Daytona

Daytona is by far the most recognizable track on the NASCAR schedule, and they’ve certainly let us know that this week, as there’s been a ton to talk about as we’ve made the transition from Loudon, NH to start gearing up for the Coke Zero 400. Here’s just a few highlights of what we’ve had going on over at www.doyounascar.com, just incase you missed any of it:

Monday – Moss Motorsports Set to Debut #81 Truck at Kentucky – Randy Moss scheduled a Thursday press conference at Daytona to announce his plans to debut Moss Motorsports on July 19th at Kentucky Speedway, with details still to be determined.

Tuesday – Why Mark Martin Could be the Key to the Silly Season Domino Theory – Learning that Mark Martin was out of the #8 car at DEI next season and that he could be making an announcement this weekend at Daytona, DYN covered the bases. We presented multiple paths that Mark could head down for 2009, and also layed out the groundwork for how the rest of Silly Season would play out for each scenario.

Wednesday – Only a Matter of Time Now for Dave Rogers – With all of his recent success this season as Crew Chief of the no. 20 car for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide Series, DYN states why we will see Dave Rogers working in the Sprint Cup Series again no later than 2010.

Thursday - Race Preview for Coke Zero 400 at Daytona – DYN has modified our typical fantasy preview segment to bring you in-depth coverage of this weekend’s favorites – and, not-so-favorites – to win the race. We still offer our fantasy projections for the race and even have video coverage of last year’s finish in the Pepsi 400.

Friday – With Ganassi Folding the #40 Team, What Will Become of Some of the Others? – Our weekly “Loose in Turn 3″ segment revolves around the folding of Chip Ganassi Racing’s #40 car, and focuses in on whether or not it will go onto effect some of the other teams such as Yates Racing or Michael Waltrip Racing.

Once your done checking those stories out, be sure to keep coming back throughout the weekend as we will continue to follow all of the action throughout the racing weekend.

 

Almost an All-Stewart Weekend

Tony Stewart came into this NASCAR weekend with all eyes on him, as rumors continued to circulate throughout the media regarding his status in the no. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing machine next season, despite being under contract until the end of 2009.

He finally gave the writers another context in which to use his name for their headlines on Saturday when he dominated the conclusion of the Camping World RV Sales 200 to earn his fifth Nationwide Series win of the season, despite running in only seven events in the series. The win also continued the stretch of dominance that JGR has had in the Nationwide ranks in 2008, and made Tony the 22nd different winner at New Hampshire in as many races.

On Sunday, things picked right back up where they left off prior to Tony’s Nationwide win when Sirius Radio announced in their pre-race report that Stewart leaving Gibbs at the end of the season was a “done deal.” There have yet to be any solid reports either confirming or denying such statements, but the report seems to have taken much of the focus away from Haas CNC Racing and placed it on Hendrick Motorsports. Apparently, the notion of an all-star cast involving the likes of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Tony Stewart could very well be in the works.

Halfway through Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301, it appeared as though Smoke had every intention of keeping his name well within the headlines. After starting all the way back in 28th, Tony had made his way up into the top-five a little over 100 laps into the race, and took the lead on lap 142. Stewart then led a race-high 135 laps, and appeared to have his first Cup victory of the season well within his grasp until Mother Nature and Mis-Fortune teamed up to rear their ugly heads at Tony just one more time. Instead of getting the win, Stewart was relegated to a 13th place finish, continuing the same string of bad luck that he’s been faced with all season long.

Hopefully the no. 20 team can get their season back on track and turn things around next week at Daytona – site of the first Tony Stewart fence climb!

 

DYN Goes From Cali to New Hampshire – And All the Stops Inbetween

Even though we were once again watching Kyle Busch stand in Victory Lane on Sunday, last weekend’s trip to Sonoma still gave us all a nice little break from the norm. This week the series returns to New Hampshire in a not-so-highly anticipated race, but events throughout the course of the week still gave us plenty to talk about, and we had it all covered over at www.doyounascar.com. Here’s some of the highlights:

Monday – Is Ambrose the Ticket for the Wood Bros.’ Return to Prosperity? – After an outstanding performance in his Sprint Cup debut, DYN analyzes the struggles of the Wood Brothers Racing organization these past few years, and anticipates Ambrose’s Infineon run as a sign of good things to come for the team.

Tuesday – Why Does Silly Season Hinge on Tony Stewart’s Decision? – In the face of all the hype and rumors concerning Tony Stewart’s current contract situation over at Joe Gibbs Racing, DYN raises the flag and points out why it’s all much adieu about nothing.

Wednesday – NASCAR Rivals: Kevin Harvick vs. Tony Stewart – DYN chooses the incident between Harvick and Stewart late in the race at Sonoma as the topic for this week’s “NASCAR Rivals” segment. We also take you back to Bristol earlier in the season, and also have Stewart’s post-race interview from Sunday.

Thursday – Fantasy Preview: New Hampshire – We bring you our weekly statistical breakdown of Sunday’s Cup race, as well as offer up our predictions for the top-six race finishers.

Friday – Loose in Turn Three: Can the Biff Hold it Together? – In the weekly edition of “Loose in Turn Three,” Tim, Bruce, and Charlie take a look at Greg Biffle’s run of bad luck this season and question whether or not the no. 16 team at Roush-Fenway can keep it together throughout the next 10 races to get the Biff into the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Be sure to check it all out, and don’t forget to check back throughout the weekend as DYN will be sure to bring you all of the racing action!

 

DYN’s Week in Review

Well, aside from talking about the wins this past weekend by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Joey Logano – which can be found at virtually any racing website across the country, Do You NASCAR has had quite a bit of other topics to discuss, as always. For those of you that may have missed some of it, here’s a quick recap:

Monday – For Austin Dillon, There’s No Place Like 1st Place – As promised earlier in the season, DYN continues to follow the career of Austin Dillon and his goal to one day driver the no. 3 car in the Sprint Cup Series for his grandfather, Richard Childress. Austin currently leads the points standings in the Camping World East Series.

Tuesday – Brian France Speaks Out on NASCAR Lawsuit – NASCAR CEO, Brian France, responds to the recent allegations that have shaken up the front offices of NASCAR. He also acknowledges the rumors that two NASCAR officials have been placed on administrative leave.

Wednesday – Road Course Ringers Flood Sonoma – DYN examines all of the road course “ringers” that will attempt to qualify for this weekend’s race at Infineon Raceway, including Chip Ganassi’s decision to replace Reed Sorenson with Scott Pruett, and DEI’s decision to replace Regan Smith with Ron Fellows.

Thursday – NASCAR Rivals: Kenseth, Vickers vs. NASCAR Rulebook – In the weekly segment of NASCAR Rivals, DYN points out the dissatisfaction from top-five Michigan finishers, Matt Kenseth and Brian Vickers, for incidents that occurred on the track at Michigan International Speedway.

Friday – Is Joey Logano Ready for a Jump to the Cup? – The “Loose in Turn 3″ panel analyzes the recent comments made by Joe Gibbs Racing that youngster Joey Logano could see some seat time in a Cup car as early as the end of ‘08. And, of course, I’ve also got to give a shout out to the article posted over at the RaceKitten, where she asks Is it the Car, or the Driver?

Additionally, I have added the Church of the Great Oval and Diary of a Track Bunny to my Blogroll. As you will notice, I have also highlighted all of the NBFT sites in my blogroll (this has actually been done for awhile). I’m not sure if this is something you all might consider doing as well.

There’s a lot more posted over at www.doyounascar.com, but these are just simply the highlights of each day’s work. Go check ‘em out as we await the action for this Sunday’s Cup race, and be sure to keep checking back throughout the weekend as I will bring you the highlights and results for each race!

 

Gauging Interest

Throughout the course of this season, I’ve found myself constantly coming up with various ideas for columns that make me say, “hey, that’d be cool to do every week on my site.” The end result? Well, by the time I take all these “columns” and add in the actual stories I want to write about, I feel like I’m just putting too much up there on my site and making a clust of things, to put it mildly.

So, in an effort to support the long-lived quality over quantity theory, I’ve recently posted my final “DYN Imposes” column and have deleted the category for it. Additionally, I’ve been toying with the idea of trimming down one or two more of these columns, but I wanted to see what you all thought of these sections before I go and make any rash decisions.

On the chopping block are:
- “List of the Week” – (check out the most recent, Top Five Victory Celebrations)
- “NASCAR Rivals” – (last week’s post was Patrick Carpentier vs. Sam Hornish Jr.)

Anywho, if you could all just take a quick second, I’d really be interested to know what you all think about these two particular segments … keep ‘em or chop ‘em?

 

Dominance Seems to Be the Factor at Pocono

I don’t know what it is about Pocono, but for a track that’s otherwise not all that entertaining, they seem to keep a level of drama in tact nearly everytime the series visits the Pocono Mountains. I think it’s in large part due to the fact that there always seems to be one – MAYBE two – dominant cars out there on the track, and for whatever reason, that car(s) always seems to run into trouble along the way.

The most notable in recent memory was no doubt Denny Hamlin spinning through the infield back in 2006, and then coming back to win the race, but the incident involving Kasey Kahne this weekend at the Pocono 500 was very reminiscent. Had the misfortunes not befallen Kahne earlier on pit road, then he likely would have gotten his car out front in the race early, and probably would have kept it there, resulting in what would have been a pretty boring race for us watching at home.

All in all, it probably wasn’t the greatest race to watch, but truth be told, at least it was far more entertaining than what I came into the weekend expecting … which NASCAR needed after a sub-par race at Dover last weekend – a race that I had very much been looking forward to. So, kudos to NASCAR for getting the job done this weekend!

For all of the action from this weekend, be sure to check out www.doyounascar.com for all of the following:
- Kahne Wins Second Pocono Pole (Cup Series Qualifying)
- Hornaday Edges Busch on Restart to Get the Win (Craftsman Truck Series Race)
- Keselowski Wins First NASCAR Race at Nashville (Nationwide Series Race)
- Kyle Busch Wrecks, Relegated to Backup Car (Cup Series Practice w/ Video)
- Juan Montoya Gets Wrecked, Then Catches on Fire (Video from Cup Race)
- Rating the Race: Pocono (Sprint Cup Series Race)

And, of course, be sure to keep checking back through the week as I’ve got loads more coming your way, to include my weekly segments of DYN Imposes, NASCAR Rivals, Fantasy Preview, and Loose in Turn Three.

 

From Charlotte to Dover

Tony Stewart looked like he had the race well-in-hand last weekend during the Coca Cola 600, but as we know, a blown tire kept him out of Victory Lane for the first time in the Sprint Cup Series this season, which will be the highlight of our weekly “Loose in Turn Three” discussion over at www.doyounascar.com on Friday morning.

As we all know, this is just one more thing to add to the laundry list of headlines revolving around Smoke so far in 2008, the majority of which have been in regards to Tony’s current contract situation over at Joe Gibbs Racing. With the highly anticipated debut of 18-year old Joey Logano in the Nationwide Series this weekend at Dover, I thought it appropriate to make the Stewart/Logano situation the subject of my DYN Imposes post this week … Gibbs Says Logano Not Replacing Stewart At JGR.

Of course, last weekend’s Coca Cola 600 provided plenty of other storylines as well, including the continuing woes of both Brian Vickers and Kurt Busch, both of which were covered as well over at Do You NASCAR (access by clicking the links). NASCAR has also handed out their largest penalties to-date as a result of infractions incurred by Haas CNC Racing over the course of the weekend at Charlotte.

Oh, and incase some of you had forgotten, the Coca Cola 600 wasn’t the only racing that took place last weekend. In addition to the Ohio 250 at Mansfield and the Carquest Auto Parts 300, the IndyCar Series put on a spectacle of their own with the 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500. But, we all know how that turned out as Danica threw off the gloves and was ready to rumble.

Hope you enjoyed the crash course on the week’s events. Be sure to reference my Fantasy Preview for this weekend prior to setting your team lineups for the weekend, and of course, don’t forget to read this week’s “Loose in Turn Three” tomorrow morning. Other than that, I’ll be looking forward to bringing you more racing results and breakdowns throughout the NASCAR weekend!

 

This Week at DYN

Hey, guys … I feel pretty good about what we’ve got going on over at Do You NASCAR this week, so I just wanted to give you all a quick head’s up on what to look for these next few days.

We’ve already started off the week in grand fashion with a few posts about … who else? … Kyle Busch. On Sunday I posted about Kyle’s plans for testing a Formula One car at Japan later in the year, and I followed that up Monday morning with highlights of his ten best crashes to-date. Be sure to head over to the site to see the footage and relive some of our more thrilling moments!

All in one swift motion, I switched gears and quit talking about NASCAR’s most hated star in the making to talk a little about racing’s favorite son, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and his plans for potentially bringing JR Motorsports to the Sprint Cup Series as early as 2009.

So, that’s what we’ve already covered, but there’s still so much more to come, including:
- Racing results from this past weekend’s ARCA race (Tuesday)
- An R&D report from this past weekend’s All-Star Race (Tuesday)
- Rumors concerning one of NASCAR’s hottest stars (Wednesday)
- A look at what teams have had the most success with the Car of Tomorrow (Wednesday)
- The weekly DYN race preview & predictions for this weekend’s Coca Cola 600 (Thursday)
- Loose in Turn 3, as always, with myself, Bruce, and Charlie (Friday)

And, of course, I”m sure there will be plenty more going-on’s throughout the week that peak my interest, so be sure to check back regularly!

*Editor’s Note – Yes, this was a cheap plug to pimp my site. This is what you get for giving me the power to post on this site!!!

 

All-Star Weekend Comes to a Close

By Do You NASCAR?

Well, it was a big weekend for NASCAR out at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, but alas, it has finally come to a close.

The action started on Friday when Kyle Busch cruised his way to the pole position during Sprint Cup Series qualifying for the All-Star Race, and then Brian Vickers’ pit crew dominated the Pit Crew Challenge. Hats off to the #83 bunch for a superb job in that contest, and for getting their few minutes in the spotlight.

Following that was an historic night in the Craftsman Truck Series, as Matt Crafton won the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 in his 178th start in the series, which now stands as a record in the series. He had to beat Ron Hornaday to the line to secure the win, whom ironically enough, has the most victories in Craftsman Truck Series history.

Saturday night kicked off in grand fashion as the Sprint Cup Series once again took the stage. Greg Biffle won the Burnout Contest by running the course in only 25.406 seconds, but it was Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick that really got the crowd going as they broke a few of the rules in an effort to satisfy the crowd. Go to www.doyounascar.com now to see the video of Biffle’s victory.

AJ Allmendinger won the first event of his career at the Cup Series level as he brought home the checkers for Team Red Bull in the All-Star Showdown, the qualifying event for cars not already locked into the All-Star Race. Although no points awarded, nor cash earned, the win was a cherished victory nonetheless for Allmendinger and crew after the dismal run they’ve had together so far in the Cup Series.

Kasey Kahne won the popular vote from the fans to get his no. 9 Budweiser car into the show, and he made the most of it to outlast the rest of the field en route to winning the All-Star Race itself. The win was another historic first … not only the first All-Star win for Kahne, and his first NASCAR win of any kind since 2006, but it also marked the first time that a driver had ever won the fan vote and then gone onto win the All-Star Race itself.

Go to www.doyounascar.com now for all the coverage.

 

Darlington in the Books

Well, another pretty exciting weekend to say the least. Did we get all of the drama and controversy that found its way to our doorsteps following Richmond? No, not by any stretch … but, still, Darlington continued to produce some good, hard racing for us as it always does, and overall I’d have to say that I’m pretty satisfied with the show that NASCAR gave us this weekend.

Over at www.doyounascar.com, I started the weekend off with our routine Fantasy Preview that I deliver every Thursday afternoon prior to any practice or qualifying sessions. Overall my picks didn’t seem to be too bad this week, but every now and again, my premature forecasts for a race winner can tend to nip me in the but, and this was one of those weeks as I predicted Ryan Newman to visit Victory Lane for the second time this season. This obviously did not happen, and it’s cases like this that allow me to understand if you need to get your fantasy advice from Frank over at the Fantasy Sports Outlook, or Mike over at Trouble in Turn 2, both of whom seemed to be a little more on point than me this week.

The action itself kicked off on Friday evening for Sprint Cup qualifying, in which Greg Biffle not only took the pole, but shattered the old Darlington track record in the process. From there, Joe Gibbs Racing continued their domination of the Nationwide Series as Tony Stewart won his fourth race of the season, and picked up his first career win at Darlington by taking the checkers in the Diamond Hill Plywood 200. For more on this, please visit DYN to read One More Down for Stewart.

From there, the action turned to Saturday night’s Dodge Challenger 500. The race was a little short on drama for those of us who were expecting a bit of fallout from last weekend’s racing, but all in all, they managed to keep the racing itself intact. Of course, I can’t imagine there’s a ton of happy campers out there seeing as Kyle Busch of all people won the race, but hey, what would this sport be if the catalysts didn’t get to rule the roost every now and again, right? For a full recap on the race, read Rating the Race: Darlington – Dodge Challenger 500, and as always, feel free to leave your two cents behind while you’re there.

Other than that, be sure to keep checking out DYN regularly. Already on tap for this week is a list of the top-ten drivers not currently locked into the All-Star race, the latest on Greg Biffle and his status with Roush-Fenway Racing, and results from Saturday night’s ARCA Re/Maxx Series race.