Clint Bowyer
I predict the battle for the win will be fought between Bowyer, McMurray and perinal chase contender Tony Stewart. In the end, I think that Clint Bowyer will solidify his worthiness in The Chase by winning on Sunday in Loudon.
My underdog pick, first time pole sitter Brad Keselowski.
A special Dale Jr. scheme from the DEI era.
The silly season is here. In April. Kasey Kahne has been given the credit as the first domino to fall, and now it is apparent that Kevin Harvick will be the final piece to the puzzle that will make up the 2011 cast of drivers. I don’t think so. I think that may fall with Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Kevin Harvick
One word. Childress. Richard Childress Racing, and it’s affiliates through the Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engine (ECR) program cover the Quick Picks this week at Martinsville.
Starting from the pole in both the Truck Series and Cup Series races (thanks to a rain out in qualifying), Kevin Harvick is in a prime position to pick up his first Cup win of the year and extend his points lead. Martinsville is a short track, Nascar’s shortest in fact, and track position is key. Furthermore, starting from the pole also affords Harvick the first pick in pit stall selection. I don’t know of any pole sitter not choosing to pit in stall number one, which is where Harvick will pit on Sunday. Track position, season momentum, and strong power plants from ECR make Kevin Harvick my pick of the week for Martinsville.
Jeff Burton
Expect the other RCR drivers to run very strong this week as well. Clint Bowyer is off to a great start this season, running strong in every race. Jeff Burton his building his own momentum. Strong runs early in the season, including posting some of the fastest times in Charlotte durning the spoiler tests earlier this week add up to a great opportunity for Burton to capitalize on his Childress horsepower and pick up a victory at the Virginia short track.
Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray has already proved that the ECR power can win in 2010. Although he hasn’t been as strong since the 500, McMurray has far exceeded his performance from last year with Roush. Fast times in happy hour on Saturday, and a strong start to the year, show that Jamie McMurray and company are a force to be reckoned with this weekend. Look for teammate Juan Montoya to impress as well as he seeks his first oval track win in Nascar. He shares the same power that McMurray, Burton, Bowyer and Harvick carry. His consistency should garner a solid finish as long as he can keep all four fenders on his Target Chevy.
Regan Smith
My underdog pick of the week is Regan Smith. The Furniture Row driver and team is improving every week. With Hendrick chassis and ECR engines, it is only a matter of weeks before we start to see this team in the top 15 on a regular basis.
To recap, for the win on Sunday I am picking Kevin Harvick. For solid runs and impressive performances, I look at the entire ECR stable of Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, Juan Montoya and Regan Smith (Underdog Pick of the Week).
UPDATE: via Twitter: TheSpeedzine @kevinharvick wins the Truck Series race at Martinsville. Teammate Ron Hornaday finishes 2nd. The Tide Ride Wins! #nascar (Both are using ECR Engines)
Kurt Busch Celebrates Kobalt Tools 500 Victory
Normally, I would look at a race like Atlanta as being an opportunity to get in a good nap. Not this week. The Kobalt Tools 500 was a very exciting race, with story lines throughout the field. So many, I can’t begin to cover them all. I will mention the stories that I noticed, and followed.
Let’s start with Hendrick Motorsports. Don’t leave just yet, this isn’t your typical HMS story. Going into the race, Hendrick was riding a two race win streak from four time champion Jimmie Johnson, and an Atlanta pole from Dale Earnhardt Jr. The first story line(s) I looked to follow were if Johnson could bring home three in a row, and if Dale Jr. could capitalize on his pole start.
Earnhardt Jr. failed to lead a lap in the race, his fate all but sealed after a bizzare tire issue mid-way through the race which left him 2 laps down. Neither HMS or Goodyear could figure out what caused his tire issue.
Jimmie Johnson was strong early, and often. He ran in the front third of the field all day, and looked to be a threat for the win. As his race wore on, however, he began to fade, but climbed back up to finish 12th.
Another story line I followed through the course for the race was Kevin Harvick’s run. Coming into the weekend as the series points leader, he has been one of the drivers to watch in this early season. His weekend started off great with a win in the Truck Series on Saturday. Sunday, however, would be a struggle. Harvick raced most of the day in middle of the field, but clawed his way to a very impressive 9th place finish, far better than expected by the way his day looked.
His Richard Childress Racing (RCR) teammates would would also struggle throughout the race. 33-Clint Bowyer was as low as 42nd at one point after a tire failure, and 31-Jeff Burton raced mid-pack. Bowyer and Burton did find themselves at the front of the field on occasion, but would wind up finishing in the twenties.
One of the biggest stories I followed this race was that of the Underdogs. The earliest race of the day wasn’t up front, instead it was between the Prism Motorsports teammates of 66-Dave Blanney and 55-Michael McDowell. NASCAR recently announced that they would tear down the motor of the first team to fall out of a race that was not part of a clear wreck or obvious failure. This means that the “start and park” teams cannot simply pull off track, unless they want to be torn down in inspection. McDowell raced a total of 37 laps and finished in 42nd place. I challenged wether or not the 55 team was trying to come back on track late to avoid the NASCAR tear down.
In a response tweet McDowell posted, “We are working on the car. Trying to get back out before the end. Making big adjustments.”
Whether or not this was in an effort to avoid the tear down is unclear, but it looks as though they could be that team (that gets torn down).
As the end of the race drew near, the clear favorites were 2-Kurt Busch and 42- Juan Montoya. Montoya came with mere car lengths of Busch with a hand full of laps remaining when all hell broke loose.
99- Carl Edwards got into the rear quarter panel of 12-Brad Keselowski, sending him around, and over in much the same fashion as last year at Talledega. Keselowski’s car flipped into the catchfence, destroying his car and ending his day. This was clear pay back for an earlier incident involving the two drivers that sent Edwards behind the wall. Keselowski recovered from the early accident and was poised for a top five finish before the Edwards pay back. Keselowski emerged from his mangled car a little dazed, very mad, but okay. Edwards admitted to the pay back, but said that he was expecting his (Keselowski) car to flip. After the wreck, Edwards was parked for the balance of the race and sent to the NASCAR hauler.
After that dramatic turn of events, the race was set up for Overdrive. The first Green, White, Checkered attempt. I say first because before the field finished the green flag lap, half the cars had spun, wreck, or slid through a mess started by Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray.
A little clean up later, the race restarted with the second Overdrive attempt. Kurt Busch held off a charging Juan Montoya to claim the victory, his 21st career Cup Series win.
What a race! No way this could be considered a snoozer! What did you think of the Kobalt Tools 500? Post your comments bellow.
By: Mike Finnegan from SpeedwayMedia.com
from MSNBC.com
Kevin Harvick enjoys his second Bud Shootout in a row after a two wide race to the finish at Daytona International Speedway.
The night’s event topped off what is normally seen at the Super Speedways of Daytona and Talladega, lots of side by side action mixed in with big time loose cars and sprinkle in a few multi car wrecks.
Harvick started his day off on the outside front row. This race was a pretty good race compared to the previous three or four Shootouts run here. Most of the race we did not see a break away single file lead pack. If there was a lead pack, it did not last long.
The race saw 13 lead changes among 8 leaders. Harvick led 21 of the 75 laps in the winner takes all event. The night’s event looked like Carl Edwards was going to be the favorite as he led 42 laps tonight.
Many of the drivers as well as Edwards had some extra power given to them after NASCAR changed the engines to larger restrictor plates to give the fans and teams the excitement where the teams could actually race each other.
This proved to be true as many of the laps we saw challenges for the lead. Harvick, along with Tony Stewart, Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne, Edwards would move to the high line, move to the low line to see who could get in front.
With the action on the track, we saw five cautions for fifteen laps. The big one of the night did not hit the drivers until the end of the race where we were in a green white checkered finish restart was underway.
Up to the last laps of the event, the biggest wreck was Kurt Busch after getting tapped from Mark Martin in the tri-oval. Busch would find himself into the outside wall on the opposite end of the tri-oval with his hood blown up into his windshield, preventing Busch from seeing the outside wall coming up fast.
Harvick, who was suffering from an earlier illness in the week came into the race as the defending winner from 2009. At times Harvick would be shuffled back in the field, but in the closing laps and at the last caution of the race Harvick would come into pit road for fresh tires.
Harvick restarted the last two laps on the outside line. He quickly made his move into the front line passing then leader Greg Biffle and dropping in front of second place Kasey Kahne to take the lead.
After passing Biffle, Biffle was tangled up with teammates Edwards and Kenseth to take out all three Roush Racing cars. This collects a few other drivers which froze the field where Harvick took his back to back Shootout win.
