Working On My Redneck ™ » denny hamlin

Kurt Gives KBM Their First NNS Win

Leon — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 03:41:58 +0000

(WOMR file photo)

Kyle Busch had his hands full for the last two laps of the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 at Richmond International Raceway. Notwithstanding the beating and banging that occurred between Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin on the last lap, much like the finish of the race at Darlington years ago with Kurt and Ricky Craven, Busch beat Hamlin to the checkered flag by inches, .062 seconds! The finish of the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 imitated Kurt’s life over the last six months !

The past six months have been, to say the least, a wake up call for Busch Clan. First Kyle showed his immaturity by “stuffing” Ron Hornaday in the fence at Texas Motor Speedway. Then after the season ended, Penske Racing had all that they could take of Kurt’s “radio rants”, verbal abuse of the media, and being a cancer on the team, therefore giving Kurt his “walking papers”!

Additionally, the start to KBM’s venture into the Nationwide Series this year has been extremely rocky. It started out at Daytona, with Kyle behind the wheel finishing 18th, followed by an 11th at Phoenix, a 33rd at their hometown track of Las Vegas, a 17th at Bristol, and an 8th place at California. Then Kurt jumped behind the wheel at Texas Motor Speedway barely hanging on to a 30th place finish.

However, tonight at Richmond, KuBu was able to dominate the last half of the race passing Kevin Harvick, and leading 68 laps on his way to his fourth victory in five attempts, and most importantly Kyle Busch Motorsports initial victory in the Nationwide Series.

“This is cool,” Kyle Busch said, fumbling for words. “This is really cool.”

Also fumbling for words afterward was Hamlin, Kyle Busch’s teammate in the Sprint Cup Series. He said he probably could have moved Kurt Busch out of the way but held back because of his status as Kyle’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Needless to say, this was one of the most exciting races this year in the Nationwide Series.

Check out the unofficial results of the Virginia 539 College Savings 250.

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Hamlin Wins The STP 400

Leon — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 23:02:04 +0000

(WOMR file photo)

Once again it has been proven that the dominate race car does not always end up in Victory Lane. Such was the case Sunday at the Kansas Speedway. Martin Truex, Jr., driving the Michael Waltrip Racing #56 NAPA Toyota, led 173 laps in the STP 400, only to come home without the trophy. The defeat must really sting after such a dominate run. It truly looked as if Truex was going to roll back into Victory Lane, after not parking a car there in 174 races, Dover 2007. However, it was snatched away by Denny Hamlin very late in the race.

Truex said he was “a little bit frustrated” with his second-place finish, but he also said, “I felt like today was the day I said I was back.”

He now has six top-10 finishes in eight races and five in a row.

Taking advantage of the changing weather conditions, the clouds began to part and the Sun heated up the race track, Denny Hamlin passed Martin Truex, Jr. with just 30 laps to go in the race, and bought home the checkered flag for the Joe Gibbs Racing #18 FedEx Toyota. The win for Hamlin was his first at this 1.5 mile track, the second for this season, and his nineteenth win in his career. Additionally, this was the 199th victory for the race cars that have had #11 on the door, breaking a tie with the #43 cars. Richard Petty owns 192 of those 198 victories that the #43 cars have logged in NASCAR.

The two victories in the first eight races of 2012 come a year after he and his #11 FedEx Toyota won just one race, and finished a disappointing ninth in Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship. Some analysts have commented that Hamlin suffered tremendously in 2011 from his near-miss championship challenge of 2010, kind of a year-long hangover!

“It felt a lot like Phoenix,” Hamlin said, “in the sense of we kind of hung around in the top 5 all day, and at the end we just kind of make our charge, make our run, and there were some things that had to happen the last run really for us to work out, and those things happened. We got our car a little bit better and it looked like the #56 struggled a little bit more than what he had previous.”

Next weekend, Friday night for the Nationwide and Saturday night for the Sprint Cup, NASCAR rolls into the short track that thinks it is a superspeedway – Richmond International Raceway! Like Bristol and Martinsville, drivers need to leave their egos, their feelings, and their tempers at the pit gate! You can bet that when the last race finishes at Richmond Saturday night, there will bruise egos, hard feelings, and crumpled sheet metal lingering around the pit garage.

So get ready for the sparks to fly at RIR, ’cause the boys will let the rough side drag!

Check out the unofficial results of the STP 400.

Here is the Sprint Cup standings after the STP 400 at the Kansas Speedway.

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Hamlin Shines In The Valley Of The Sun

Leon — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:09:45 +0000

(WOMR file photo)

Denny Hamlin has emerged from the ashes of a failed bid for the 2010 Sprint Cup championship. In fact, throughout the 2011 season that miserable, failed attempt haunted Hamlin and crew, and showed their inability to recover from that heartbreak!

It was quite obvious that last season the heartbreak of the 2010 season was still troubling Hamlin. He seemed like he just could not shake the “choke syndrome” that had been haunting him throughout the entire race season!

Couple Hamlin’s 2011 season with the 2011 season that his new crew chief, Darian Grubb, endured, and you have a certain strange, weird, creepy, combination. Remember that Tony Stewart had fired Grubb way before the Chase had started. Thereby making Grubb a “lame duck” crew chief that put together 5 wins in the 10 race Chase! Stewart just wasn’t feeling the love for Grubb anymore!

On Sunday, both Grubb and Hamlin were all smiles and the uncomfortableness that they both had felt throughout the 2011 race season melted away with their victory in the Subway Fresh 500! For the driver and crew chief, those smiles that were flashed in Victory Lane were 100% authentic smiles of joy, not the plastic version that were displayed by, both Hamlin and Grubb, in their respective bad 2011 team situations.

And in Victory Lane, as he celebrated with new driver Denny Hamlin and new boss Joe Gibbs, it was clear that Grubb’s soul was on the mend.

We may never know exactly what caused that bizarre situation at the end of the 2011 season when it was revealed that Grubb had been told in by owner/driver Stewart that he would not return as his crew chief in 2012.

Tough to believe it was a job performance issue. Grubb was a highly respected car guy when he worked for Hendrick Motorsports pre-Stewart-Haas Racing.

He did a near miraculous job in the SHR launch year of 2009. Together, Stewart and Grubb won four races that season. Neither Jack Roush nor Rick Hendrick or even Gibbs won that many races in their first full seasons as owners.

Then came 2011 and magic. The team went winless in the regular season but went crazy in the Chase.

Stewart won the first two races of the playoff. He coughed in the next two races and arrived at Charlotte Motors Speedway for the fifth race of the 10-race Chase searching for answers. He would leave Charlotte searching for a new crew chief – even though he won the pole and finished eighth.

Grubb left Charlotte wondering if there was anything that could change Stewart’s mind. The answer turned out to be; nothing.

Stewart and Grubb logged top-eight finishes after the CMS race, then won at Martinsville, won at Texas, finished third at Phoenix and then won the race and the championship at Homestead in the season-finale.

And there was Grubb all during that run making all the right noises but looking a bit death row-ish. And on awards banquet week, there he was again, sitting next to the governor who would never make that job-saving call.

However, there was a call made, but not from Tony Stewart. It was the call from Joe Gibbs Racing that eventually gave Grubb the opportunity to be paired up with Denny Hamlin for the 2012 season! Now it appears that the Grubb-Hamlin team may just “have something for the entire Sprint Cup competitors”!

This could just be what is needed to re-energize the once competitive Denny Hamlin, and put that team on the road to a championship soon.

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Tis The Season!

Leon — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:38:45 +0000

(WOMR file photo)

The season that I am referring to is “The Chase” season. Two races have already been run and are in the record book. Tony Stewart has come to life from a 26 race “hibernation period”. In just two weeks the Stewart-Haas Racing #14 Office Depot/ Mobil 1/Burger #14 Chevy has risen from the ashes like the phoenix!

For those of you who are not up all your mythology, I will give a brief background on the phoenix bird.

A phoenix is a mythical bird with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends). It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self. In some stories, the new phoenix embalms the ashes of its old self in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (literally “sun-city” in Greek). It is said that the bird’s cry is that of a beautiful song. The Phoenix’s ability to be reborn from its own ashes implies that it is immortal, though in some stories the new Phoenix is merely the offspring of the older one. In very few stories they are able to change into people.

So now that we are all current on our mythology, the story will continue!

Tony Stewart’s 2011 season has resembled the phoenix, in that, his results were steadily declining and taking the team straight to ashes. It looked as though his season was destined for disappointment and mediocrity. Then like the resurrection of the phoenix from flames and ashes, he dominates the first two races of The Chase! With those two performances, Stewart now is emerging as a very strong favorite to win this year’s Chase.

However, on opposite end of the spectrum there are a three race teams that are faltering. The most glaring disappointment of the 2011 Chase is the Joe Gibbs Racing #11 FedEx Toyota driven by Denny Hamlin. Last season Hamlin narrowly missed snaring the 2010 Sprint Cup championship from the grasp of “ol Five-Time”, Jimmie Johnson. Fast forward one year, after two races of “the post-season”, Hamlin is, for all intense and purposes, already eliminated from any possibility of winning the 2011 Chase for The Cup. Hamlin currently is in 12th place, 66 points out of first place. The max points that a driver can score in a race is 48 points. Therefore, one can see that he is a full 1 1/2 race worth of points down from the leader, a very daunting and steep uphill battle to overcome!

The two remaining drivers that WOMR have questions about are the Busch brothers. I believe that both brothers are feeling the pressure of the Chase. Kurt started off the Chase by scoring a 6th place finish in the first race at Chicagoland. However, following that race he was involved in a couple of skirmishes with the media that was well documented involving the Kurt Busch-Jimmie Johnson “love-affair” in the preceding weeks.

Following “the flare-up” with the media, the Penske Racing #22 Pennzoil Dodge had some problems in pre-race tech inspection last Sunday at Louden. The prevailing feeling in the garage area has it that, because the race team has had some tech issues in the preceding weeks, and because of the apparent infraction that occurred in pre-race inspection at Louden, NASCAR made the decision to hold the #22 Pennzoil Dodge in the inspection area until 10 minutes prior to the start of the race as NASCAR’s message to the race team! The end results was that the race team could only rally to finish 22nd last Sunday. Therefore, for the first two races of the Chase Kurt Busch has only averaged a 14th place finish, that will not cut it in the Chase with the extremely fierce level of competition!

The other Busch brother, ol Kylie, seems to be very inconsistent as well. In the first Chase race, Chicagoland, the Joe Gibbs #18 M&M’s Toyota was wheeled by Kyle Busch to a very disappointing 22nd place finish. That plummeted him down to 9th in the standings after the first race. Last Sunday at Louden, Kyle only improved his finishing position slightly better at the end of the second race. The JGR #18 Toyota escaped, very luckily, with an 11th place finish, moving the team up three positions to 6th in the standings. Nevertheless, ol Kylie has only averaged a 15.5 place finish for the first two races in the 2011 Chase. Once again, read the last half of the sentence in the previous paragraph, it is appropriate to describe the #18 race team’s predicament!

Tis the season, fall, and we know this because the leaves are starting to fall off the two Busch’s!

Check out the Chase standings at the culmination the first two races.

What are your views of the remaining eight, the race teams chances, and your views on who will likely be the 2011 Sprint Cup champion?

Twelve drivers, now eight races, one champion, who will be the last man standing?

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Where Were The SAFER Barriers At The Glen?

Leon — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:57:07 +0000

(photo courtesy racintoday.com)

Watkins Glen International took a physical toll on several drivers Monday, when a rain-postponed Sprint Cup event on the famous road course produced a series of tooth-rattling crashes that left competitors sore in more ways than one. Thankfully, everyone walked away, but some walked extremely tentatively after too-close encounters with tire barriers and/or the Glen’s famous blue guardrails.

“You’re obviously traveling fast. This is obviously the fastest road course,” said David Ragan, involved in a spectacular four-car accident that marred the race’s final lap. “It’s crazy, though, in this day and age to not have SAFER barriers and a little better design. That guardrail and all has probably been here since the 1900s when this race track was built. It’s kind of absurd. There are dirt tracks that have better SAFER barriers and wall systems.”

On Monday, there were three separate and distinctive incidents that left everyone holding their breath. On Lap 49, the Penske Racing #22 Shell/Penzoil Dodge driven by Kurt Busch experienced some kind of brake problem and barreled hard into the tire barrier in Turn 5. Seventeen laps later, Denny Hamlin suffered a mechanical issue, he either cut a tire that severed the brake line, or cut the brake line some other way, he surmised, and lost control of his JGR #11 FedEx Toyota, which overran Turn 1 and slammed into the tire barrier hard enough to buckle the guardrail behind it. It was a crash reminiscent of Jimmie Johnson’s frightening slam into a foam-covered wall in a now-Nationwide race here in 2000.

“This was just terrifying,” Hamlin said, “because you know there’s nothing you can do, and you’re heading straight for the fence. It’s the [most scared] I’ve been, by far.”

It was that kind of day, given the combination of the tight, fast conditions that always exist at Watkins Glen, the level of aggression seen in Sprint Cup road races recently,a rain-delayed race, and a green-white-checkered finish that greatly dialed the intensity level up to full volume. All of that came to a head on the final lap, when Boris Said, Ragan, David Reutimann and Ron Fellows found themselves in a place too narrow for all of them. Replays indicate that contact from Said knocked Ragan into the outside guardrail, which he bounced off before sliding back across the track and into Reutimann. The #00 car then bounced off the inside guardrail, went airborne and flipped before impacting the fence on the other side.

Said was later involved in a post-race dust-up with Greg Biffle in the garage area. Everyone else limped, some literally, in and out of the care center. “[I'm] a little sore — my chest, my back, my feet got tangled up in the pedals some,” Ragan said. “That was the hardest hit I’ve ever had in a race car. It’s tough seeing that thing — barrier, concrete wall, guardrail. Guardrails don’t move too much. I’d much rather see a SAFER barrier coming.”

All three drivers echoed the same refrain. They all agreed that their confrontations with the crash wall at The Glen were some of the hardest hits that they have taken in their racing career. Additionally, Ruetimann echoed the refrain heard throughout the racing facility after the checkerd flag. That common sentiment was the criticism of Watkins Glen International’s lack of Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) system that is designed to absorb impact energy.

“That’s just a bad spot,” Ragan said of the Turn 2 area where his accident unfolded. “It seems like every year something happens in the esses down there.”

One of those times was two years ago, when Jeff Gordon walked away from a frightening airborne accident in a similarly tight area of the race track that also involved Sam Hornish Jr. Gordon didn’t get caught up in a crash Monday, but could relate to those who did.

“You can’t have walls like that,” he said after finishing 13th. “You’re going to find those places eventually, so they’ve got to fix them. And unfortunately, this one has been found before. And we’ve seen what can happen, and we’re very fortunate we don’t have any injuries coming from that, because obviously it could have been much worse. But anytime you’re in a race car and you’re trying to go fast, accidents are going to happen. And when they do, you have to make sure they have a clear path for cars to exit the race track. In this situation, they’ve got a wall that [produces] not only a big impact, but puts it right back out into traffic.”

Considering all the much needed safety improvements that have been made in the race cars since the death of Dale Earnhardt,Sr., as well as the other associated racing equipment, there is one glaring question to be asked.

Why did NASCAR neglect to put SAFER barriers at the road courses, in particular Watkins Glen International?

What are your thoughts?

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Hamlin Doubles Up With A Nationwide Victory At Richmond

Leon — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:28:11 +0000

(photo courtesy Erik J. Perel)

Little did anyone know that after watching Denny Hamlin win his own charity race Thursday night at Richmond International Raceway, that it was a omen to what would transpire at that race track Friday night!

Denny Hamlin won the Bubba Burgers 250 Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway on Friday night when his closest pursuers began running out of fuel with less than 10 laps to go.

Hamlin, who led 199 of 251 laps, had the victory sealed for him when, a lap after a restart with two laps to go, a caution came out just as he took the white flag.

The victory was the second at RIR for Hamlin, a native of Chesterfield, Va., as he won the spring Nationwide race there in 2008. Hamlin also has won three Sprint Cup races at RIR, including last fall’s.

But, the start to the 2011 season has been frustrating for Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing teams. On the Cup side, he has yet to win a race, has just one top-10 finish and is 17th in points heading into Saturday night’s race at RIR.

Hamlin, who finished second in points in Cup last year, said he was grateful for Friday’s win and hopes it is the start of a turnaround.

“Any small victory goes a long way,” he said. “Maybe I won last night (in a charity event at RIR) because I had a record round of golf on Wednesday, I don’t know. It’s just one big snowball that’s just rolling and rolling and hopefully it goes on and continues on.

“For me, this is a particularly special win because I started my career with the 20 car and basically built, I felt like, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Nationwide program to what it is now. It’s good to see these guys back in victory lane. We were able to get Kevin Kidd (No. 11 crew chief) his first win last year and obviously Adam (Stevens, crew chief) this year. JGR is so deep within their personnel they are able to just put guys in positions and they’re able to succeed because of the people around them and what they’ve learned. Adam is just another, I guess you could say chip off the old block as far as the crew chiefs at JGR continuing to be successful.”

As a side note to ol Denny’s comment that he basically built the Joe Gibbs Racing Nationwide program to what it is now, that might be quite a bit of self grandiose embellishment! The last time I checked out the spelling of team, there was not a single “I” in the word! Not to take away anything from Hamlin’s driving ability, but NASCAR is a team sport. It takes effort from many individuals to make a championship caliber operate effectively.

Could Hamlin sweep the Richmond weekend? What is your thoughts?

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

It’s A Hamlin Weekend In Richmond, So Far

Leon — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:06:19 +0000

(workingonmyredneck file photo)

The NASCAR nationwide and Sprint Cup drivers are at Richmond International Raceway this weekend. As a precursor to those races, Denny Hamlin scheduled his charity race event Thursday evening at RIR. His charity race, “The Denny Hamlin Late Model Showdown”, was housed at Southside Raceway in the past, but due to weather and other issues that racing facility is not scheduled to open until mid May.

After a thunderstorm kept the crowd down for Denny Hamlin‘s charity race, the host put a move on Kyle Busch on the final lap and finally won his own event.

“The way the wrecks happened and the restarts, we were just in the right line at the right time and we were able to pull it out,” Hamlin said Thursday night, calling the win a confidence boost.

He will enter the Sprint Cup race Saturday night 17th in points with just one top-10 finish after eight races, and that’s 15 spots behind where he finished last season.

Busch had dominated all night, but when the race went back to green after a caution with three laps to go, Hamlin surged from fourth to second right away, stalked his teammate with Joe Gibbs Racing and passed him on the backstretch when Busch ran out of fuel.

“I’m glad he ran out of fuel because it might have got ugly,” Hamlin said. “Trust me, if Kyle wouldn’t have run out of gas, I would have done everything possible to get around him.”

Hamlin, who said last week that the race raised over $100,000 last year, said he will wait to see how much money was raised this year, then give 10 percent to help tornado victims. Where that money will go specifically will be determined by where there is the most need, he said.

His usual charities — the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, St. Jude Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital in Richmond — will receive the other 90 percent of money raised.

The victory was the first for Hamlin in his fourth Short Track Showdown, and came after he qualified on the pole, then opted to start at the back of the 36-car field.

Is this a precursor to what may unfold this weekend in Richmond?

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Jimmie Johnson Wins The 2010 Chase!

Leon — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 02:14:12 +0000

(photo courtesy Jason Smith/Getty Images)

As it turned out Sunday, the Hendrick Motorsports #48 Lowe’s Chevy made the fewest mistakes of the final three contenders during the race. By finishing second Sunday in the Ford 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, Johnson secured his unprecedented fifth consecutive Sprint Cup championship!

Johnson, who started the day second in points – 15 behind Denny Hamlin – won by 39 points over Hamlin, who finished 14th.

Forty-one points back was third-place Kevin Harvick, who also finished third in the race.

“Can’t say enough about Jimmie,” Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, said.

“Finally, finally,” Johnson will get the respect he deserves, Knaus said.

Edwards, who led a race-best 189 laps, won his second straight race. The margin of victory over Johnson was 1.6 seconds.

“I’m so proud to be in this position,” Johnson said. “I think we showed this year what this team is made of.”

Hamlin said no way what happened to him and his hopes on Sunday were indicative of the quality of his team.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed,” Hamlin said. “Just circumstances.”

Hamlin, who started the race 36th on the starting grid, ran into those circumstances early. On lap 24, he slid up the track and into Greg Biffle and was forced into the infield grass on the back stretch. Hamlin kept his car off the wall but suffered a damaged front splitter. He also lost track position and appeared to be in serious Chase trouble.

He said his car never ran the same after the Biffle incident.

So it is that Jimmie Johnson defied all odds to capture his fifth consecutive Sprint Cup championship. He is now firmly in the company of greatness. There are only two drivers that have won more Sprint Cup championships than Johnson, Richard petty and Dale Earnhardt, Sr. with seven championships each!

For the last ten weeks WOMR has been asking the one question that has been resounding over and over each week throughout NASCAR:

“Who will be the last man standing?”

We now know the answer, it is Jimmie Johnson!

What is your view on the 2010 Chase?

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Hamlin Comes Out Of Texas With Guns A-Blazin!

Leon — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 21:34:36 +0000

(photo courtesy John Harrelson/Getty Images)

Denny Hamlin came out of “the wild west show” at Ft. Worth Sunday with his six shooters a smokin’ and shot right into the Sprint Cup points lead with just two races left in “The Chase”. Denny Hamlin held off Matt Kenseth in a three lap shootout at the Texas Motor Speedway for the victory in the AAA Texas 500 and his eighth win of the year, all the while leap frogging over the current four- time champion and points leader, Jimmie Johnson.

Johnson, who began the day 14 points ahead of Hamlin, exited Texas 33 points behind his rival after a ninth place finish featuring the controversial on-the-fly swap of his pit crew with that of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon.

Meanwhile, remaining Chase contender Kevin Harvick managed a sixth-place finish to hold onto third in the championship, 59 points behind Hamlin. Harvick began the race 38 points behind Johnson in a three-for-all that will continue next Sunday at the 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway.

“You know, for me I’m going to race Phoenix as if I’m 33 behind, to be honest with you,” said Hamlin, who completed only the second two-race Cup sweep on TMS’ high-banked, 1.5-mile quad-oval. “There’s no comfortable margin going into Homestead because anything can happen. I need to just 100 percent stay focused, is all I can do.”

“Like I say, I’m not going to be conservative having the lead,” said Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry. “I’m going to want to stretch that out before we get to Homestead. So that’s pretty much my mindset.”

Hamlin took the lead from Mark Martin for the final time on Lap 306 on a restart following the day’s eighth caution period. But a restart on Lap 332, after the race’s ninth and final caution, proved pivotal as Hamlin paired-off against Matt Kenseth.

“It was exciting,” said Hamlin, who had qualified a disappointing 30th on Friday. “I figured I had been pretty good on the top on restarts once we got our car tightened-up enough that I was pretty confident I would be OK. But restarts have been my Achilles Heel all Chase long, all year long. I just can’t seem to get it together.

“So I was able to side-draft the #17 (of Kenseth) enough on the front straightaway to keep beside him to where he couldn’t clear me off (Turn 2) and that was going to be very important. But when he cleared me in the middle of (Turns) 1 and 2, he did it by gassing up really aggressive and early, and I knew it was gong to be a hard time for him to exit the corner that way. He obviously ran out of racetrack and it opened up the door for us to cross over.

“For me, it was great to win a race that way. I love racing for a win like that. Any driver will tell you if there’s one guy you’re going to trust underneath you, it’s going to be Matt. For me, it was very gratifying to win a race that way.”

With just two races left on the schedule, NASCAR moves further out west to the Phoenix International Raceway this coming weekend. There will not be the luxury of “points racing” for the remaining races. The three remaining drivers in the hunt will have to race hard, and race for the win at all costs, if either of them want to become the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion. The questions that has been asked all season will be answered in just two short weeks at the Ford Championship weekend at the Homestead-Miami race track.

Who will be the new sheriff in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series?

There were twelve drivers, now two races remaining, and still just one championship. Who will be the last man standing?

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Halloween, Survival, And Talladega

Leon — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:45:43 +0000

(photo courtesy John Harrelson/Getty Images)

It is “wild card weekend” for NASCAR this week. The series travels to the longest track on the circuit, the Talladega Superspeedway. This the home to “the big one”, the one track where you are truly at the mercy of the drivers that surrounds you at any given point during the race! It reminds me of the old Steeler’s Wheel song, Stuck In The Middle With You, “clowns to left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you!”

The contrast from last week’s race at the circuits shortest and slowest race track, this week NASCAR rolls into Talladega Superspeedway the longest and most unpredictable race track couldn’t be more dramatic! The “aftermath” of this Sunday’s race will be equally as dramatic! At sunset on Halloween, the race results will give us a more precise picture of who will be the 2010 Sprint cup champion.

Last week all three of “the contenders”, Jimmie Johnson, Danny Hamlin, and Kevin Harvick were talking about being successful at Martinsville, Hamlin even pulled off an old Mohammad Ali prediction of a win at Martinsville! Fortunately, Hamlin was able to back up his prediction, just as Ali of old would do!

However, this week comes the Talladega Superspeedway and “the three contenders” are now talking of just surviving. None of the trio has a particularly sterling record at this track. However Harvick did win there earlier this year, but that is his first Talladega win in 19 Cup starts. He has accumulated only four top-fives and eight top-10s. Harvick’s average starting positions is 22.2, while his average finishing position at the Alabama oval is 15.5

Hamlin has only raced at Talladega nine times. He has three top fives and no wins. His starting average if 16.0, while his finishing average is 19.3.

And this is a track where Johnson, who seems to have an advantage at almost every track in the Chase, has often come up short. In 17 starts, the four-time defending Cup champion has one win, four top-fives and seven top-10s. He average start is 9.9, but his average finish is 17.8.

It seems Harvick may have the biggest advantage at Talladega, based on the fact that he has been running at the finish of all of his 19 starts. JJ has finished just 10 of 17 and Hamlin seven of nine.

The key at Talladega is to somehow avoid the inevitable big wreck that usually takes out or badly damaged anywhere from 10 to 20 cars sometime during the race.

This year’s AMP Energy 500 is running on Halloween. The drivers might find out that this Sunday they might have to dive into their bag of tricks in order to receive a treat!

Twelve drivers, four races, one championship, who will be the last man standing?

See you at Talladega!

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

This video could be the Talladega theme song this weekend, enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMAIsqvTh7g